Day 1 again

I promised to tweak Day 1 for you, so here goes.
Legs;
I'll still start with a lunge set but I'll up the ante. When stepping front in the lunge put a foam pad (about 2 1/2" thick) to where your foot will fall in the front. If one is not available at your particular gym you could substitue a "core board" or one of those half balls that are part fitness ball part flat surface. Idealy I use the foam pad and I control my step out so that just the ball of my foot and toes are on it. As you lunge forward you have to engage all those little stablizers in the foot and ankle as well as your core and if you use a weight (I usually grab a 15lb dumbell and hold it at my upper chest below the chin just like I described in an earlier blog entry) you might not want to have people around to see it. It's going to feel like something the Highway Patrol would make you do and you might not convice him of your sobriety... Fight for control and do a set of about 10 to 15 reps.
If I use a core board I aim for the center as I do with the half ball.

Alternate this with a squat set. The squat set I choose for today's blog entry I'll call snatch squats. You've seen the event called the snatch in competitive weight lifting? The position at the end of the actual "snatch", a deep squat with a barbell held overhead arms straight in a wide grip, is the bottom of the movement. One could actually do a nice superset combining the snatch and the squat, but I'm only squatting. You don't have to use that much wieght either. I use a 25 or 30lb barbell and grip it wider than my shoulders, the wider the better. First control the wieght overhead and realize that the shoulders will open front as the wieght is actually slightly behind your head at the bottom of the movement. The plumb line from the barbell to the floor is your actual center and in placing an equal 50% of your entire weight ( your body and the barbell) in front and back of that imaginary plumb line you'll be balanced and able to safely execute the squats. Try to get in sets of 20.
Alternate these 2 in a superset 3 or 4 times for a total of 6 to 8 sets.

Follw this with the same calf raise I wrote about earlier.


next up; back raises