erinsimmonsfitness

I get asked for examples of workouts so I’m going to try to post my favorite workout each week. And soon I should have an example of a weekly workout plan as well. But the other day I did a great workout that I thought I would share with you!

This was an arms, back, and abs circuit, so basically a total upper body workout. I like to superset my ab workouts between my lifts or other exercises. So for my weights, I started at 10 reps and decreased while I started at 10 reps for my ab workouts and increased. I did 3 sets of this, so it looked like this:

Set 1

• Lifts: 10 reps
• Abs: 10 reps

Set 2

• Lifts: 8 reps
• Abs: 12 reps

Set 3

• Lifts: 6 reps
• Abs: 15 reps

After each lift, I did an ab exercise and did this like a circuit. You may not be able to do this in your gym so you can do one at a time if you have to. But here is what I did:

1. Declined Pushups
2. Cross Legged Sit-Ups
3. Triceps –> Tricep pull-downs + Overhead tricep extension
4. Oblique Sit-Ups on stability or Basu ball
5. Bicep Curls
6. V-Up Crunch
7. Bench Press
8. Hanging Knee Raises
9. Shoulder Flies –> side and front
10. Hanging Pikes
11. Lat Pull Downs
12. Sit-Up and Twist (elbows to ankles)

So that’s one set. Then you repeat three times as I explained above (i.e., Exercise/Abs: Set 1: 10/10, Set 2: 8/12, Set 3: 6/15).

If you try it, let me know how you like it! And let  me know if you have any questions about any of the exercises and I’ll try to explain them.

Good luck!

For those of you who don’t know, I am currently a laboratory technician in the Physiology Lab at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City. Some of my recent research has involved looking at the effects and timeline of detrainment, and I came across some interesting literature that thought I would share. Detrainment is defined as the partial or complete loss of training-induced anatomical, physiological, and performance adaptations as a result of reduction or cessation of training (Mujika and Padilla 2000).

Translation: detrainment is the process of “getting out of shape”, also known as “if you don’t use it, you lose it” syndrome.

Obviously, we want to combat detrainment because we don’t want to backslide. But as we all know, sometimes life gets in the way of us working out. So naturally, we have the following questions:

1)    How fast will I detrain?

2)    How can I keep this from happening?

There’s no easy answer to question #1. Studies have used a detrainment period ranging from two to sixteen weeks and begin reporting changes at seven to fifteen days.  This seems to tell us that detrainment does not typically occur in less than two weeks, but unfortunately there are no known studies that have specifically researched the minimum time to detrainment.

Scienc-y stuff:

–       In a study using rats, physical capacity and myocardial performance reverted to pre-trained conditions after only two weeks of detraining (Bocalini et al 2010). 

–       A study involving young basketball players showed no significant difference in explosive strength indicators after four, eight, twelve, or sixteen weeks of detrainment following a ten-week plyometric training program (Santos and Janeira 2011). 

–       The Dallas Bedrest and Training Study of 1966 (Saltin et al 1968) found that detrainment caused a significant decrease in the maximum O₂ uptake (VO₂max), cardiac output, heart rate, and stroke volume during exercise.

–       A decrease in aerobic capacity in adults was seen after 15 days of bed rest (Stuart et al 2007). 

–       Greenleaf et al (1997) found that peak oxygen uptake decreased by day seven of the study.

Now, on to question #2. Obviously, daily exercise is going to keep detrainment from happening (Lee et al 2009, Lee et al 2007). But one study actually found that stretching also combats detrainment (Kasahara et al 2010)! So if you can’t get a workout in for a few days at a time, try doing some stretches to keep from losing all that hard work you put in at the gym! Try yoga at home or check out these stretch-at-your-desk videos from Mayo clinic to help maintain your level of fitness even when you can’t actively work out.