Felicia's Figure Model Workout

Hello, all! How was everyone's weekend? Anybody do anything new and exciting??? My weekend was nice and relaxing. My new job allows me to have all my nights and weekends off, and I am absolutely  L-O-V-I-N-G that!!
I got back into the gym today after having my off days, and started a brand new workout cycle. I'm really excited about it. I'm calling this new workout "Felicia's Figure Model Workout" ! It's sort of catchy, right?

Speaking of this new routine, my challenge for last night was to think about and write up the new workout, and my challenge for today was to execute it. I'm not going to put the entire workout on here straight away, after all, you guys need something to look forward to, don't you?!

My new workout split is as follows:

Day 1: Chest and shoulders and cardio

Day 2: Back and triceps and abs 

Day 3: Lower Body and cardio 

Day 4: Traps and triceps 

Day 5: Cardio and abs 

Day 1:  Chest, Shoulders and Cardio

-warm up- (10-12 minutes of the cardio of your choice)

Resistance band front raises - 3 sets - 15-25 reps

-superset with-

Barbell bench press - 3 sets - 15-25 reps 

Stability ball dumbbell flies - 3 sets - 15-20 reps 

-superset with- 

Leaning dumbbell lateral raises - 3 sets - 15-20 reps 

Incline dumbbell chest press - 3 sets - 15-20 reps 

drop set last set 

Arnold Press - 3 sets - 15-20 reps 

drop set last set 

Complete workout with 25-30 minutes of the cardio of your choice

*I did my cardio earlier in the day before my workout, if you don't want to do the cardio at the end of the workout, just make sure you get some type of cardio in at some point during your day*

Terms used with this workout that you may be unfamiliar with:

Superset: A superset is when you do two different exercises as one set. Right after completing the first exercise, immediately move into the next exercise. That is one set. 

Drop set: A drop set is when you use a lighter weight right after your last rep of the exercise. Keep pumping out more reps until you can't go any longer

If you guys want pictures for any of these exercises, just let me know :) 

I really liked my workout today, my chest and shoulders are already exhausted. They're kind of shaking as I type this, actually (ha ha).  

Keep track of your reps and weight of each exercise as you go through your workout so that you can track your progress as you get further along.

Because the rep range is quite high for this workout, make sure to use lighter weights so you can complete the required reps. Working with lighter weights is definitely something I, myself need to work on. I always get into the mind frame that if I'm working with lighter weights, I'm not working hard enough. Even though you're using lighter weights, your rep range is high so you're burning more fat and toning! - just remember that (I need to, too). 

Try this workout out, and let me know how you feel afterwards and how you liked it. Recommendations for any changes?? I'm going to keep at this workout for 3 weeks and keep track of my progress every day and then switch my workout up again. 

Now.... get off the computer and go exercise!! :) 

XXOO 

Fitness Felicia 

P.S. I got another inquiry today about personal training! EXCITING! :) 

Helllooo everyone! it's been a while! How'd everyone's weekend go? Mine was busy, busy, busy with work, work, work.
So, let's recap. Let's see, I have two days (plus today) to fill you guys in on, right? I suppose it makes sens to begin with Friday.

Friday was my day off at the gym, so I had to find something else that was new to me that I could work on. 

I decided to make personal training flyers. After I graduate, one of the big things I plan on doing is having my own personal training business. I'm obviously not ready to start my own business right now, but I did want to get a little kick start and get my name out there, so I decided to make my own flyers and put them around town to start getting my name out there, and do some training on the side.

I'm still considering that fitness/health related, because I'm doing something to better myself, so that was my challenge of the day! Here's my flyer, what does everyone think? Any changes you think I should make? 

I had off from the gym again on Saturday, so I had to come up with another outside-the-gym challenge. I've been thinking about doing this for awhile, and seeing as I needed something new to try, I decided Saturday would be the day! I starting my own food log. I've always been a bit skeptical about food logs, but the more I thought about it, I do believe it is very important to track what you eat in a day's time, especially if you are trying to lose weight.

In my case, however, I am currently trying to gain some weight (muscle weight), so I really need to increase my food intake. 

Even though it's only been a little more than 24 hours since I've started my personal food log, I have made some important observations. I have noticed that I'm not eating nearly as much as I think I've been, and that I need to increase my caloric intake quite a bit if I want to achieve that goal. 

If you are trying to lose/gain weight, I recommend starting your own food log if you haven't already. Keep your log around at all times so you can track exactly what you're eating instead of forgetting to write it down later on. You'd be surprised by how much more (or less) you are eating than you think you are. I'm glad I decided to try the food log, and will definitely keep up with it. I was thinking about putting it on here for you guys to see, but I'm pretty sure that would bore everyone to death, so I decided against it. If you do want to see it, let me know and I will be happy to type it up. 

Now, for today's challenge! I was back in the gym today, working on my lower body. My challenge of the day was the 10,000 pound workout. Yup, 10,000 pounds! 

The original 10,000 pound workout is meant to be done with just one exercise. With that exercise, you take the weight that you are working with, multiply that weight by 10,000 and that answer is how many repetitions of that one exercise you do. 

For example, you are doing deadlifts at 150 lbs 

10,000 / 150 = 66.6 (round to 67) to get to 10,000 pounds. 

I switched my 10,000 lb workout up a bit. Instead of doing one exercise, I decided to incorporate a bunch of different exercises until I reached 10,000 lbs, so that I wasn't just doing 1 exercise the entire time. Here's how my workout went: 

Romanian (Stiff Leg) Deadlifts:

Set 1: 10 reps at 65 lbs = 650 lbs

Set 2: 8 reps at 75 lbs = 600 lbs

Set 3: 8 reps at 75 lbs = 600 lbs

Total: 1850 lbs

Sumo Deadlift:

(make sure you keep those toes pointed outwards to really engage those glute muscles!) 

Set 1: 12 reps at 25 lbs = 300 lbs

Set 2: 12 reps at 30 lbs = 360 lbs

Set 3: 12 reps at 35 lbs = 420 lbs

Total: 2930

Dumbbell Sumo Squat:

(sorry, not very flattering photos - and keep those toes out to engage those glute muscles again!)

Set 1: 15 reps at 40 lbs = 600 lbs
Set 2: 12 reps at 45 lbs = 540 lbs
Set 3: 10 reps at 50 lbs = 500 lbs 
Total: 4570


Cable Kickbacks (my favorite exercise!):

Set 1: 15 reps at 30 lbs (each leg) = 900 lbs
Set 2: 20 reps at 25 lbs (each leg) = 1000 lbs
Set 3: 20 reps at 25 lbs (each leg) = 1000 lbs
Total: 7470


Leg Press ( I didn't take a picture of this one)
Set 1: 14 reps at 180 lbs = 2520 lbs
Total: 9990 (10 more lbs to go!!)


Seated Leg Curls (no picture)
Set 1: 10 reps at 70 lbs = 700 lbs (going over the 10,000 lb mark!)
Set 2: 10 reps at 70 lbs = 700 lbs
Total: 11,390 


Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises 

Set 1: 20 reps at 35 lbs = 700 lbs
Set 2: 20 reps at 40 lbs = 800 lbs


GRAND TOTAL: 12,890 lbs!

So, I went a little bit over that 10,000 lb mark (that's the gym rat in me), but I really wanted to get a full lower body workout, and the 10,000 mark was just the goal. It's never a bad thing to go further than your goal! This was a good workout concept, but it wasn't really that different than my usual workout. I figure I am usually doing around this rep and weight range, so it wasn't all that different. Next time, I will try it with just one exercise to get a really good burn. I was tired and my legs were def. exhausted after this workout, but I'm happy I did it! Try this one out, guys! Let me know how it goes! Stop being so shy! Let me know what you guys are thinking once in awhile!

Until next time,

Fitness Felicia 

It's Been 1 Week..!

Well hello everyone! I've reached my 1 week mark for my 365 day challenge. I'd like to reflect upon the last week for a quick minute. This first week of my challenge has certainly been interesting. I've really enjoyed blogging about my daily challenges, it gives me something to look forward to everyday.

  What do you guys think so far? I still haven't recieved any challenges from you guys! Challenge me to push myself, I DARE YOU! 

Regardless if people are enjoying my blog or not (I don't really know because I HAVENT REALLY RECEIVED MUCH FEED BACK...hint hint!), I AM enjoying what I am doing, and am glad that I'm writing about everything so that I can look back on my progress and the things I've achieved. A year is a really long time, and by the end of the year, heck, by the end of 1 month even, I will have learned and tried so many new things, and that really excites me.

Anyways..onto today's events...
I made up my own little fitness challenge today. My workout today was for back and biceps, so I wanted to incorporate a little fitness challenge incorporating both back and bicep exercises.

The challenge is this: 

3 exercises, 60 seconds on (20 sec each exercise), 30 seconds off, repeat 3 times - see how many reps for each exercise you can get for each round. 

I did this challenge at the end of my workout, so my back and bi's were already pretty fatigued. Obviously I would have gotten up to more reps if I had done this at the beginning of my workout. I purposely did this challenge at the end of my workout so I wouldn't fatigue my muscles before I even started the bulk of my workout. The video below is of my first set of this challenge. I only taped one set of it, I didn't want to bore everyone with a whole 4 minute long video. (see? I'm always keeping my readers in mind!!) 

The exercises for this challenge are:

Alternating Dumbbell Bicep Curls (20 sec)

One-Legged Bent Over Dumbbell Row (20 sec)

Hammer Dumbbell Curls (20 sec) 

Total time: 4 1/2 minutes 

I did give myself 3 seconds to switch weights, I didn't factor that into the whole 4/12 minutes

My Results:

1st Set:

7 reps of alternating bicep curls (both arms) (15 lbs)

10 reps of one-legged dumbbell rows (10 lbs)

11 reps of hammer curls (3 15 lbs, finished with 10 lbs)

2nd Set:

8 reps alt. bicep curls (15 lbs)

9 reps one-legged dumbbell rows (15 lbs)

8 reps hammer curls (10 lbs)

3rd Set:

15 reps alt bicep curls (10 lbs)

10 reps one-legged dumbbell rows (10 lbs)

10 reps hammer curls (10 lbs)

You should all definitely try this challenge out, it gets your heart rate up and is a great way to pump out a few more reps of exercises before finishing up your workout!

Don't be discouraged if you are not using much weight for this challenge. It is a fast-paced challenge, so your muscles will become fatigued quicker, your heart rate will be higher than when doing your regular sets. Keep all of that in mind, and try starting out with a lower weight that you usually would do. For example, when I am doing dumbbell curls, I usually use 20-25 lb dumbbells depending on what I am doing (based on my rep range - sometimes more, sometimes less). Because for most workouts I use 20-25 lbs, I dropped my weight down to 15 lb dumbbells for this challenge..catch my drift?!

I am challenging you to challenge yourself. Let me know how you did! Did you beat my scores?!
If you are a beginner to workout out, change up this challenge a bit. You could add more time to your rest period and less time to exercise. GIVE IT A TRY!

I did promise you guys a "Big Booty" Workout today, so I will post that later tonight, so check back!!!

Good luck, challenge yourself!!!!

Love,
Fitness Felicia <3