Today, my wife and I went to the gym for the first time in a few months.

I'm starting a new routine and will be tracking it through our online training software. I'll share the details behind how I develop and follow routines, along with nutrition tips and other advice.

Most people at this stage would write off starting anything new because Christmas is next week. I know that waiting would just be another excuse and that if I'm not ready to make a decision now, then I'm not going to be just because suddenly it is New Years and time to make a resolution. It has to be more powerful than that.

So what did I do the first day back to the gym? I know that the important part is to take it easy. Just because I could squat, dead-lift, and bench press a certain weight in the past doesn't mean that I'm ready for it now. I've had an unusually long layoff from weights, so it will take some getting back to.

Since my schedule has changed, I no longer will be doing the long morning runs that I enjoyed. Instead, I'm doing a shorter, more intense form of exercise: high intensity interval cardio. This is something I've been doing for years, so I have a really good idea of what to expect.

Today, I did 1-minute cycles of 5mph, 6mph, 7mph, and 8mph with one cycle at 9mph. Basically, I run a minute at one speed, increase the speed and run there for a minute, etc, then drop back down to the slowest speed and start all over. A 2-minute warm-up, 4 cycles, 1 cycle at extra speed and then a 1 - 2 minute cool down makes for a 20 minute workout. I ended up running just over 2 miles in 20 minutes and burned around 230 calories (according to the machine — see the Maximum Cardio guidelines to understand more about this).

Logging this in the system is a snap.

I click on "New Log Entry" and have a screen. For the entry name, I put "introductory run." I noted that it felt great. I choose Cardio, 1 set, type "Run" and click the ADD EXERCISE button. In the next screen, I can put that I ran 2.07 miles, that it took 20 minutes, and that I burned 230 calories. I could add more exercise but that is all I'm logging for now, so I save it.

I can then look at a chart of my progress and see a dot where I specified the cardio. It doesn't mean much now, but after a few weeks I'll share the graph in this blog so you can see the progress.

For cardio, I'm going to use wave loading. I am going to be aggressive about improving the intensity and performance on the treadmill, so each session I'll add 0.2 mph. A week will look like this:

Workout 1 - 5.0mph, etc
Workout 2 - 5.2mph
Workout 3 - 5.4mph

Then, wave-loading means I fall back on purpose to keep from over-extending myself, and repeat a slower speed. So week two will look like this:

Workout 1 - 5.2mph
Workout 2 - 5.4mph
Workout 3 - 5.6mph

So you can see I repeat the speeds I did the previous week, but end the week going 0.2 mph faster. At this rate, it will only take me 6 weeks to work up to runnig 6mph, 7mph, 8mph, 9mph with a high speed of 10mph. My goal? At the end of twelve weeks to be running from 7mph to 12mph. It will be fun!

For resistance training, I want to do some advanced things but because I haven't been lifting weights, I'm going to start slow and easy. For me, easy is the routine introduced in the book Body-for-LIFE. It involves doing a pyramid (you change the repetitions each set). I will use dumbbells. I'll do this for about four weeks and then move onto something more advanced.

I have a slight injury to my right shoulder, so I'll be very conscious of that. I won't be doing heavy military presses with my shoulders just yet. Instead, I'm going to isolate more with side raises and front raises. I'll also do my shoulders first in the routine so that my shoulder joint is adequately warmed up when I bench press. Bench press is the leading exercise that leads to shoulder injury when not done correctly.

The exercises go from 12, 10, 8, 6, back to 12 reps per set. My heaviest set is the 6-rep set. So, today, I just practiced lifting sets of 6 to feel what weight I can handle. For example, I was able to work my way up to 75 pounds on the bench press (using dumbbells). That means I can work backgrounds from 75 pounds to construct my workout. I'll do something like this:

12 reps @ 45 pounds
10 reps @ 55 pounds
8 reps @ 65 pounds
6 reps @ 75 pounds
12 reps @ 55 pounds
Superset of flyes (not sure the weight, I'll start with 40 pounds)

I could do 55 pounds with the one-armed row. I've worked up to almost 100 pounds on this, but with sloppy form. This time I decided to focus on the heaviest weight I could use with proper form. The shoulder joint is a stabilizer for this exercise, so I also had to be cautious and not aggravate my right shoulder.

Putting the workout in our online workout planner was also a snap. This is available in the FREE (BASIC) plan, so if you don't have a way of tracking your workouts, take advantage of this!

[Edit: As a reader was kind enough to point out, the link below is to a site that mainly targets adult males and may contain explicit language and other references. I am including it here because the routine is phenomenal and I do not have permission to copy it. I'm only linking for the merit of the routine, not the commentary or other material there.]

For my wife, I'm doing something a little more advanced. We want to focus on her guns. While I could develop a routine for her, my mentor Ian King already has one that I feel is one of the best routines for arms available. You can read about it by clicking here. I'll just take the routine, modify it based on what I know about my wife, and load it into her account!

I don't believe spot reduction is possible, and the routine we developed for Doreen doesn't promise to "spot reduce." To be fair, a few people believe that spot reduction is possible. By targeting the arms, however, our goal is not to reduce anything, but instead, enhance it. Her definition will grow through a combination of two factors: the first, by reducing body fat through exercise and nutrition, and the second, by increasing the size of the muscle through our specialized routine. It's not spot-reduction, but would probably be better described as "spot-enhancement."

Now, before you get excited and thing, "Well, I'm going to spot-enhance my abs" be sure you understand what abdominal training should involve. Read about Core and Abdominal Training.

That's it for today. Keep your eyes on our articles and podcast, as I will be doing both an article and audio as a general guide to weight loss in the near future!

Blessed be,