Take Your Bets

Conventional wisdom vs. my own slackjaw hick ideas....

Conventional wisdom decrees that when exercising one should focus their efforts on an alternating basis each day between your upper body and your lower body. This gives each set of muscles 48 hours to heal after you rip them open. I considered this while designing a new and wicked weight program for myself, but have decided to try something different. Instead of alternating muscle groups, I will work all muscle groups each day, just to a lesser degree... 3 or 4 different sets of 12 reps instead of 8.

My reasoning for this departure is twofold:

A - My body has always had a rapid response to weight training and I do not believe I am at risk of overdoing it. I will be attentive to this possible eventuality anyway.

B - I am only getting started, so for now I am not aiming to maximize the ultimate muscle growth experience which would be the alternating schedule. I like my clothing and being able to wear it and if I went nuts I would need new shirts by July.

The overall schedule is thus:
-Half hour on the bike every morning when I wake up. Do it half the week already, just need to get into it every day.

-Weight program after work at 4:30 which ought to run to approximately 5:30 since I sometimes take more than a 1 minute break between sets.

-Laps around the neighborhood. Walking at first, I'd like to build up to being able to put out a full two laps (one in each direction) while jogging/running.

-Full stretch before bed. I'll be doing this with the weights, also. But before bed I will be adding the shoulder stretches which I need to maintain so my right arm doesn't get sore. I anticipate the shoulder feeling much better with the careful weight training, and the stretches will keep it all happy.

So I have the full program worked out now... even slapped together a handy Excel spreadsheet! I'm sure there will be some alterations as to order of exercises and/or which exercises to group together on which day, but it looks pretty solid for the moment.

I've already adjusted my general eating habits in regards to types, quantities and schedule. The only thing I have left to do is lay out a meal plan and get crackin'.

Just in changing the eating habits I've already shed about 3 pounds and a few fractions of a percent of BFI.

Woo!