Catherine Delannoy

Day Three – Arm Workout

Biceps for show, triceps for go.

Adam Peaty

According to a study from Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, women naturally have 80-90% of the lower body strength that men do, but just 50-60% of the upper body strength.

So what does that translate to? More pain for me during arm workouts! More seriously though, I don’t tend to look forward to arm workouts. However, this one, for whatever reason, felt different. I enjoyed today’s workout, although that may be down to something as simple as enjoying being in a new routine.

Today, I used 8fit’s workout for stronger, toned arms, and I did both their bodyweight and free weight exercises. They say to do the program 3-4 times so, as a minimalist, I did 3. However, the sets for each exercise varied, like so:

  • Inchworms – 5 reps
  • Plank to push-ups – 10 total reps, 5 each side
  • Tricep dips – 10 reps
  • Incline push-ups – 8 reps
  • Bicep curls – 12 reps
  • Overhead tricep extensions – 12 reps
  • Lateral raises – 8 reps
  • Bent over rows – 10 reps
  • Standing tricep kickbacks – 10 reps

The image for the standing tricep kickbacks was wrong, so I referred to the instructions, and did a quick Google image search before starting the kickbacks, to make sure I was doing the exercise correctly.

Today, I decided to do each three sets in a row for each exercise, so I wouldn’t have to go back to exercises I enjoy least (i.e. inchworms and plank to push-ups). The only exception was for the bicep curls and overhead tricep extensions, where I did a set of bicep curls, followed by a set of overhead tricep extensions and repeated the process three times.

I was really careful to take my time with the exercises, taking a break if my form started to suffer. I’ve learnt from experience that exercising with bad form isn’t worth the injuries it can cause.

If you care about the weights I used, feel free to read this part, otherwise feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph. For the bicep curls, I used both of my dumbells, which each had 2.5 kg worth of weights, along with the metal bars from the dumbells (which weigh about 2.3 kg), and I used just one of the dumbells for the overhead tricep extensions. For the lateral raises, I used just the metal bars, and for the bent over rows and standing tricep kickbacks I used the metal bars with just one 1.25 kg weight on each.

Despite my arms still being tense (and a little shaky) post-workout, today was really good, and I think this was my best workout so far. I noticed myself taking much shorter breaks between exercises, which I think was more due to having built some mental resilience than anything else.

So, how are my muscles feeling after my first three days of working out? Sore mainly. I must have been fairly out of shape, as my leg muscles still haven’t recovered from their workout two days ago, and my ab muscles tense every time I move position! I can only imagine my arm muscles are going to follow suit tomorrow. Good thing it’s my legs being worked tomorrow!

Weight today: 68.7 kg – 13.7 kilos left to goal weight!

Catherine Delannoy

Day Two – Abs Workout

My abs are like my boyfriend… In that I don’t have a boyfriend.

Anonymous

I woke up today, and felt a twinge in my legs. That feeling only intensified as I stood up and began to walk around – apparently I really need to workout my legs more often! I’m hoping that as I workout more regularly my muscles aches will gradually ease.

After walking around a bit, trying to ease the ache in my legs, I headed to the bathroom to weigh myself – not exactly my favourite task. There it was – the weight stared back at me – 68.9kg. Meaning I need to lose 13.9 kilos to get to my goal. As a 164 cm woman, it’s very doable, but will still be a big challenge.

Today’s ab workout comes courtesy of Hugo Rivera of Bodybuilding.com. This screenshot doesn’t show it, but you do 3 sets of 15-20 reps for each of these exercises. As a beginner, I decided to just do 15 reps for each set, and I gave myself up to a minute between each set to recover.

Now, let’s be clear… I HATE abs exercises. However, I think it’s probably cause I have such poor ab muscles. If I can keep this routine up, I might have a chance of beginning to enjoy ab exercises.

I really struggled with the jackknife sit-ups, and ended up going to google to get some further instruction. Howcast had a great video, and I used their modified (i.e. simpler) version of the jackknife, as it was more suitable for my weak abs!

In contrast, the flat bench leg pull-ins were the simplest exercises for me, and offered a welcome respite.

As a fun little extra, I started to get a migraine halfway through my workout. I started getting them after my concussion, and they tend to come on when I get too tired, or get too dehydrated. Lately, it’s been really hot and humid, so if I don’t drink enough I quickly get painful head pain.

Regardless, I decided to power through, so as to keep on track with my challenge! For the 2nd and third sets of each exercise, I decided to follow yesterday’s example, and do two sets in a row for each exercise. For some reason, it just helps me to keep motivated.

So… review of today’s workout? This one was a real challenge. My ab muscles haven’t been worked this hard in a looooong time, and I can only imagine that I’m going to have some aches in my belly tomorrow.

Hope to catch up with you tomorrow – hopefully my predictions are all wrong!

Catherine Delannoy

Welcome to Fitness Found Online!

Welcome to my blog – here I will documenting my path to health and fitness through the workouts I find online.

Hi – My name is Catherine, and I’m tired of feeling unfit and flabby. I have had this vague dream of getting fit and getting to my goal weight of 55kg in my 20s, but I’m now in my late 20s, and this still hasn’t happened.

So what does this blog have to do with it?

  • Every day I will try a new at-home workout I have found online – starting at page 1 of Google’s search results, and moving further in.
  • I’ll also use this blog to track my weightloss progress and to discuss my fitness journey.

I’d love to connect with other people with dreams of better health and fitness! Hopefully, if I’ve blogged successfully, by this time next year I’ll have a brand new body to show for it!