Total Physique Online

This is workout three of this week. I was plenty sore for the last 3 days, and as it turns out I needed them all to recover. The extra rest was good, but last night was rough and I did not get to sleep until 7:30AM! I had some severe breathing problems that were the result of some reaction to something I ate. The truth is I am exhausted, but I am pressing forward.

Today will be both cardio and combat training. I resume traditional strength in one week. Still waiting on my Quick-Lock Dumbbells.

The next few days will be cardio and cables and combat training style, just to get muscles and lungs increasingly use to stress again.

I have started using a line of supplements I will tell you more about in a separate post, but it will be interesting to see just how good they are.

• Heavy Rope Work 200r, 100rtx8 (wind was excellent. Last night I was sicker n’ hell, and I expected my lungs to give me trouble…and they did. Not in terms of endurance, but just congestion.) Oddly enough, my wind actually improved since 3 days ago. More rope work tomorrow.
• Parallel Chins BW 12, 8, 7
• Reverse Gravity Rows (off bench) BW 8, 8, 10
• Pushups 35, 20, 10, 10, 10 (stamina good, strength better)
• High Step-ups off bench (per leg) 20, 20

Less rest between sets, more reps. Good. Still had plenty left over, and all things considered I am pleased.

That is progress.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Building The Home Gym – a three-part series:

1. About Exercise and COPD Part 1
2. About Exercise and COPD Part 2- Considering a home gym?
3. Building The Home Gym – another three-part series:
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3a – Building The Home Gym
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3b – Building The Home Gym
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3c – Building The Home Gym [You are here]

In my last installment in this series on building a home gym, I talked about some strategies you can use to outfit your own home with some professional grade strength tools that can help you reach you fitness goals. We discussed calesthenics, bands and cables, Ironmaster etc.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

This is my first workout since taking a layoff 5 weeks ago. As it turns out, my shoulder has something wrong with it that may be somewhat significant. The extra rest was necessary to allow for recover. It is not perfect even now. An MRI in one week will reveal more.

Today was just cardio. I resume traditional strength in one week. The next week will be cardio and cables, just to get muscles and lungs use to stress again.

I have started using a line of supplements I will tell you more about in a separate post, but it will be interesting to see just how good they are.

• Parallel Chins BW 10, 8, 8, 7
• Reverse Gravity Rows (off bench) BW 8, 7, 8, 8, 8
• Pushups 30, 20 (not going for 100 here – no need. Save that for tomorrow or day after.)
• High Step-ups off bench (per leg) 15, 15, 15

Plenty of energy. Obviously a bit more taxing than yesterday without going overboard. The idea was to do a slight crossover workout as a means of getting the feel for stress again. So, today was good. Not crazy, but challenging.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Building The Home Gym – a three-part series:

1. About Exercise and COPD Part 1
2. About Exercise and COPD Part 2- Considering a home gym?
3. Building The Home Gym – another three-part series:
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3a – Building The Home Gym
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3b – Building The Home Gym [You are here]
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3c – Building The Home Gym

OK, so where were we? Oh yes. That’s right. In part 3a we came to the realization that you have the money and the space for a gym that offers just about everything you need for the total strength training experience. You have a fitness level that is challenged by COPD (or maybe you don’t), but nevertheless you are fit enough that you can wrap your mind around the notion of traditional strength training as a vehicle to a healthier you. So, what do you buy? OK, I’ll answer that. But first, a story.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13% [?]

Building The Home Gym – a three-part series:

1. About Exercise and COPD Part 1
2. About Exercise and COPD Part 2- Considering a home gym?
3. Building The Home Gym – another three-part series:
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3a – Building The Home Gym [You are here]
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3b – Building The Home Gym
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3c – Building The Home Gym

In my first two columns on COPD, Part 1 and Part 2, my objective was to help you understand that the challenge of exercise is overwhelming for most people, and that for this reason most healthy people choose not to workout. This challenge is made all the more difficult when you add the conundrum of COPD to the mix.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

This is my first workout since taking a layoff 5 weeks ago. As it turns out, my shoulder has something wrong with it that may be somewhat significant. The extra rest was necessary to allow for recover. It is not perfect even now. An MRI in one week will reveal more.

Today was just cardio. I resume traditional strength in one week. The next week will be cardio and cables, just to get muscles and lungs use to stress again.

I have started using a line of supplements I will tell you more about in a separate post, but it will be interesting to see just how good they are.

• Rope Work 170, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100 (60 seconds or less between sessions) Not bad at all. Did not get winded. Endurance good, all things considered I am very pleased.

Very nice, felt very natural. I am surprised that the lack of activity for 5-6 weeks has gone so unnoticed by my respiratory endurance. Naturally, my muscle mass have suffered quite a bit. But that will return in short order.

Popularity: 2% [?]

About Exercise and COPD – a three-part series:

1. About Exercise and COPD Part 1
2. About Exercise and COPD Part 2- Considering a home gym? [You are here]
3. Building The Home Gym – another three-part series:
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3a – Building The Home Gym
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3b – Building The Home Gym
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3c – Building The Home Gym

In my previous column entitled http://totalphysiqueonline.com/2007/01/11/about-exercise-and-copd-part-1/, I wrote a terribly lengthy and somewhat rambling (my apologies) piece on some of the obstacles preventing many people from starting fitness programs. I then expounded a bit further by extrapolating the argument in order to apply it to people who have medical challenges. The point of that column was that if it is hard for basically healthy people to get motivated to exercise, how much harder then is it for people who are not healthy? In this column, I intend to develop the idea a bit further, with the ultimate objective of offering a strategy for overcoming the obstacles that prevent us from achieving the active, healthy and vibrant lifestyle we all aspire to have.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

About Exercise and COPD – a three-part series:

1. About Exercise and COPD Part 1 [You are here]
2. About Exercise and COPD Part 2- Considering a home gym?
3. Building The Home Gym – another three-part series:
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3a – Building The Home Gym
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3b – Building The Home Gym
   • About Exercise and COPD Part 3c – Building The Home Gym

In the coming weeks I intend to add more columns on my personal experience in dealing with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). For now, I thought I would break ground by leading off with some thoughts about fitness in general, and exercise and COPD in particular.

No one can argue that exercise is beneficial to most everyone. Granted, there are some extenuating circumstances were exercise might be counter productive to someone’s health, but my pulmonologist believes that in most cases just about everyone can benefit from regular exercise. He feels exercise is of particular importance for people managing illnesses like Asthma, Cystic Fibrosis, Chronic Bronchitis, etc. I could not agree more.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10% [?]