Thursday, February 4, 2010

Ab and Shoulder Routine

Not since training my last competition did I have such a structured routine, and that was by far when I was seeing the best results - when I had a consistent training schedule that was all written out ahead of me, and one that I could progressively increase my weights each workout to the point where I was able to keep my body fat level low enough and still work on strength and conditioning. This was pretty much my approach to training for and winning the WBFF World Finals last September - by having a clearly laid out plan, from which I knew exactly what I was doing on every day, and could chart my progress to ensure I was on target to get to where I wanted to be. I knew that if I could step on stage at 178lbs at around 4% body fat, I would be a force to be reckoned with.

I've started to get back into a more regular routine after having at least a month away from any structured sort of training, and have just been playing around with a few different workouts to see what type of results I get. 

My training is determined by my goal, whether that be for competing, modeling, or just for the sheer joy of training. 

My focus now is to build a balanced physique that I can only best describe as one of those old-style action man, or GI Joe dolls. In the coming months, I have several underwear shoots, as well as building on my portfolio outside of fitness, at least until the summer when I start to prep for the world finals again in September (again, I will track my progress with video's again). My training is now geared towards remaining lean and being defined without looking too muscular (not the best look for mainstream modeling), and so I'm doing higher intensity with less weights.

Here's an overview of my workout tonight.

I started with Abs so that I could work them hard at the beginning of the workout, instead of working them at the end of the workout when I'm usually too tired to put in the required effort to work them optimally.

I performed these in a circuit for a total of 3:

Decline Bench Leg Raises 20 reps (2 second pause at top)
Bosu Ball Crunches
Side Crunches on Swiss Ball
2 minutes jumping rope

I performed 3 sets of each exercise, allowing no more than 1 minute's rest between sets. My weights and reps remained pretty constant throughout. I just changed the tempo of each set so that I failed by the end of 15 reps.

Behind the neck military press on smith machine (only to the top of the ears). 
Clean and Press with Olympic Bar
Seated rear-delt cable flys.
Standing forward dumbell raise (alt. arms).
Seated (leaning forwards) side lateral raises.

Even though I was definitely lifting less weight than I was able to, I certainly felt like I put in a good effort and left feeling pretty pumped.

I'll be posting further workouts including all body parts, cardio and ab routines, plus some healthy meal ideas over the following weeks.

For further workout plans, training tips, plus video's and more photo's, join www.robrichesfitess.com for free. Also check out www.robrichesstore.com for workout DVD's, and to find out more about personalized workout and nutrition plans.