Fitness Routine Reboot

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All you loyal readers already know, I'm sure, that I recently wrapped up a 30 day yoga challenge over on Yoga With Adriene's YouTube channel. Prior to doing that, the holidays were in full swing, so exercise consisted mainly of walking from the family room to the kitchen to get more sweets. Needless to say, it's been awhile since I've actually stepped foot in a gym. But February's here and what a better time to focus on a month of renewed fitness planning than the shortest month of the year!

Over the years I've found that I always do better at my fitness goals when I have a plan. Maybe that's just a bit of my Type A personality coming out to play, but I really think it helps keep me focused when I'm in the gym and prevents me from not trying as hard as I really should. However, if I get too monotonous and keep doing the same routine over and over I just get really bored. This month I'm going to try to balance having a set routine, with a focus on different muscle groups each day, but switching up the exercises every week.

I've divided up my exercises into four groups: upper body push muscles (shoulders, triceps, chest), upper body pull muscles (biceps, back), lower body push muscles (quads, glutes) and lower body pull muscles (hamstrings, abs and some extra glutes just for fun). I'll exercise each one of the muscle groups once a week, and fill in the other 3 days with yoga and light cardio (aka long walks with the pupper). I'll start every gym workout with a 2 min cardio machine warm up, followed by 5 minutes of 30 second on, 30 second rest HIIT sprints. If I'm doing a leg workout I'll also do a little glute activation sequence á la Zanna van Dijk using a resistance loop band which consists of side steps in a high lunge position, body weight squats, side kicks and glute bridges. For each exercise I'll be doing 3 sets of 10-12 reps unless otherwise noted.

Here's this month's plan!

Week 1

Monday - Upper body push muscles 1 Commandos - 3 sets of 24 2 Seated overhead barbell press - wide grip 3 Seated overhead single dumbbell press 4 Arnold press 5 Cable tricep pull down 6 Pushups	Tuesday - Lower body push muscles 1 Hip thrusts 2 Skater lunges 3 Kettlebell swings - 3 sets of 24 4 Sumo kettlebell squats 5 Walking lunges 6 Cable squats
Wednesday - Upper body pull muscles 1 Chin ups - 3 sets to failure 2 90 degree chin hold - 3 sets to failure 3 Alternating bicep curls 4 Single arm high cable row 5 Lat pull down 6 Supermans - 3 sets of 20	Thursday - Lower body pull muscles 1 Balance ball hamstring curls 2 Sumo deadlift 3 Single leg getups - 3 sets of 24 4 Bosu ball toe taps 5 Leg raises - 3 sets of 24 6 Plank - 3 sets of 1 min

Week 2

Monday - Upper body push muscles 1 Tricep pushups 2 Front and side lateral raises 3 Bench press 4 Seated overhead barbell press - narrow grip 5 Tricep kickbacks 6 Tricep bench dips	Tuesday - Lower body push muscles 1 Jump squats 2 Split squats 3 Reverse weighted lunges 4 Donkey kicks 5 Cable pull through 6 Cable pistol squats
Wednesday - Upper body pull muscles 1 Chin ups - 3 sets to failure 2 Eccentric chin up - 3 times 3 Rear delt raises 4 Hammer fist bicep dumbbell curls 5 Back extensions/good mornings 6 Lying back extensions	Thursday - Lower body pull muscles 1 Hamstring curl (machine) 2 Romanian deadlift 3 Single leg hip thrusts 4 Eccentric situps - 3 sets of 24 5 Cable anti-rotary holds/twists 6 Plank - 3 sets of 1 min

Week 3

Monday - Upper body push muscles 1 Incline dumbbell bench press 2 Incline dumbbell front raise 3 Incline dumbbell chest fly 4 Arnold press 5 Decline pushups 6 Pushups	Tuesday - Lower body push muscles 1 Box jumps 2 Goblet squats 3 Squats 4 Step ups 5 Kneeling squats 6 Straight leg lift
Wednesday - Upper body pull muscles 1 Chin ups 2 Hanging pull up (smith machine) 3 Face pulls 4 Cable bicep curls 5 Bent over row 6 Supermans - 3 sets of 20	Thursday - Lower body pull muscles 1 Lying hamstring curl 2 Cable deadlift 3 Kettlebell swings - 3 sets of 24 4 Mountain climbers - 3 sets of 24 5 Russian twists - 3 sets of 24 6 Plank - 3 sets of 1 min

Week 4

Monday - Upper body push muscles 1 Crab toe taps 2 Lying tricep pullover 3 Front and side lateral raises 4 Standing overhead press 5 Dumbbell chest press 6 Lying chest fly	Tuesday - Lower body push muscles 1 Banded kickbacks 2 Banded bridge holds 3 Leg press 4 Leg extension 5 Lunges 6 Balance ball hamstring curl
Wednesday - Upper body pull muscles 1 Chin ups - 3 sets to failure 2 Cable rows 3 Dumbbell bicep curls 4 Renegade rows 5 Back extensions/good mornings 6 Lying back extensions	Thursday - Lower body pull muscles 1 Hip bridges 2 Single leg kettlebell deadlift 3 Banded crab walks 4 Deadbugs - 3 sets of 24 5 Plank pull-throughs 6 Plank - 3 sets of 1 min