Healthy Life Part 2 - Ready for Exercise?

It has been a while since the first Healthy Life post. My personal trainer went on holidays for 2 weeks and, well, I have been a bit slack in her absence. She's back now and I'm back on track, so it's time to continue the series.

If you're looking to get into exercising, I think my session on Monday is a good start. It is a full-body workout and the exercises are pretty easy to follow. I used 2 x 5kg dumbbells for the exercises with weights.

(Talking about dumbbells, I ordered these gems when they were on 1-day.com.au the other day. 20kg dumbbell set for $40 when something similar costs $100 at Rebel Sports so it's a good bargain.

Now I have no excuse to skip resistance training in the weekend!

I'm waiting for them to be delievered now. I feel sorry for the delivery man ...)

Besides showing you the exercises, I'll share my impressions (which ones do I hate?) and some tips.

If you haven't exercised for a while and want to give this a try, you may want to start without weights and cut down the reps. Remember to engage your abs in all resistance exercises!

Are you ready? Let's go :-D

Set 1

1. Jog 150m

2. Dumbbell back squat to overhead press x 15

All exercise photos in this post are from Women's Health Australia

Straighten your legs and push the weights up into the air and in a powerful movement. Control the movement down into squat position. When squatting try to stick your bottoms out, the knees should not be too far in front of your toes.

3. Lateral lift x 15

This exercise was tough! Lifting 5kg each side was hard work.

I find the movement a bit easier when I focus on generating power from my shoulders. Again the movement should be smooth and controlled both ways.

4. Lunge forward (alternating leg) x10 each leg

Instead of having the weights by my side like the picture above, I lifted the weights up just above my shoulders throughout the exercise. I assume that was harder!

Repeat set 3 time (4 sets in total).

It was meant to be without rest between sets but I rested often to catch my breath. I lost so much of my fitness by not exercising for 2 weeks ;-P

Set 2

12 good old pushups

I was on my toes but I did "baby" pushups - only very small movement up and down. Hopefully I'll get better at this when I become stronger. My PT told me to concentrate on bending my elbows and avoid moving my hips.

Squat jump x 15

My exercise was similar to the one above but with my hands in front, touching the ground at each squat. I had to focus on keeping a straight back and not hunching too much when squatting. Keeping my head up and gazing forward helped me maintain the right posture.

I was buggered by this point and the jumps were painfully slow.

Repeat set 3 time (4 sets in total).

With all the breaks I took the session took around 45 minutes.

I was energised by the workout and I was so much more productive when I went home on Monday night. Instead of lying on the sofa I managed to declutter part of my wardrobe!

Are you gonna give this a go?