day 1; legs, back, abs

So I'll start by walking you through my approach to gym work if I had hypothetically not been able to train for some time. These are the basic, my basics, and as I progress I'll add on variations that up the degree of difficulty for these excercises. So if your goal is to be a fitness model or just look like one follow along.

I've streamlined my workouts into 2 days, I used to do 3 and could still do so if I choose to or see the need, but not at the moment. Day 1 starts with legs continues on to back, and by back I don't mean lats I mean erectors and rhomboids, then I finish with abdominals. A lot of the new age fitness talk refers to one's "core" and I don't neglect my core. I would like to add that the lower back, lower erectors, are the forgotten part of the core and I have a little something for them too.

DAY 1 Part 1

Legs;
After a little bit of stretching I do a squat/lunge combo set.
Squat Set; Hold a smallish dumbell with both hads verticlly at the upper chest below the chin. I start with 10 or 15lbs and with feet together and back straight I squat at a moderate speed all the way until my butt touches my heels. Important to this excercise is to keep your whole weight focused and balanced over the balls of the feet and the toes trying to center each foot over the base knuckle to the 2nd toe. If you get 15 to 20 reps in keeping your balance you're doing well.

If, like me, you've had issues with the I.T. bands stay aware of the inner head of the quadracep, the one positioned above and inside of the knee cap. Activating this takes pressure off the outer thigh. Although there is no silver bullet to only work this part of the muscle a little awareness can go a long way. Keep that in mind when doing the lunge sets.

Lunge Sets.
1st lunge. Again with the same smallish dumbell vertical at the upper chest the and the body straight take one step about 1 foot length straight forward. Lunge all the way down, body still straight to the maximum flex of the back leg's knee. Go as far as what is comfortable and come back up. Alternate legs 1 rep at a time. If you get to 15 or 20 reps again you're doing okay.

2nd lunge. No weight. I put my hands on my head and keep my back straight and step forward far enough that the back foot goes all the way over so that the instep is on the floor and is actually supporting wieght. Gauge the limit of your flexation as to what's comfortable. Because the ankle is not flexed, you might be able to get all the way down seat to heel. Use that back leg on the way up as you should have used it controlling your descent (the negative). Alternate legs 1 rep at a time again and since these are a little harder 10 to 15 reps per set are fine. You're using balance and a little coordination and that should satisfy any of those new age core afficionados.

Repeat these sets one after the other at least twice through. I spent several years not wanting to build up my legs thinking that whatever work they were getting in ballet class was sufficient, and it was okay for quite some time. I don't worry how my legs will look in tights anymore but with my aerial aspirations, lower body mass is a liability, so I keep the weight light and I only go through the series above twice. I based these excercises on the vocabulary of Ukrainian folk dance. Have you ever seen these guys? They're badass. Also, as a side note, supporting wieght on the top of the foot the instep, is similar to moves in Georgian folk dance-not Jimmy Carter's Georgia. I've watched the Moiseyev dance troup a lot. I came up with this leg workout several years ago when I saw there was a revival of Fiddler coming to B'way and had plenty of time to work up to these Ukrainian tricks I had performed in my youth. It worked, I got the tricks back but it didn't work because I got cut at the audition before I could show 'em off.... sigh but I found that I liked having the added lower body strength, as a consolation.

I finish legs with calf raises on the padded calf raise machine. I set the weight close to my body weight at 150lbs and do a set of 20 reps with as much range of motion that I can muster. then, without rest I do 5 to 8 more reps one legged on each foot. The latter part of this set was given to me b a Physio Therapist when I was getting treated for achilles tendon pain. Do the set 3 times with about a minute rest between.

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