One of the simplest ways to maximise your workout is to make sure you are working the muscles on both the contraction and relaxation phases of the exercise. For example on a bicep curl, bring the weight up to a count of 2, but lower down to a count of 4. This ensures that you are working the muscle to lower the weight, not just letting gravity do the work for you.

Went to Letchworth gym again today to do the same routine I’ve done for the last few months including chin-ups and tricep dips. Progress is definately being made as the 4 sets of chin-ups were 10,10,10,7, once I get to 4 sets of 10 I will start trying to go lower on each rep, I am only going halfway at present.
Having recently upped the weights on the chest press and single arm row to 12kg I upped the kneeling, single arm cable row to 15kg from 12.5kg and just …

Had friends over all weekend so made Saturday a well earned rest day but Sunday whilst waiting to go to lunch put in a session at home. Legs and upper body.
Barbell squats – 10 reps, 35,30,30kg
Single leg hamstring curls on swiss ball, 3 sets of 10
Single leg step ups onto bench – 30 each leg
Calf raises 35kg 2 sets of 10.
Inclined bench press – 10 x 35kg, 30kg, 30kg interspersed with 10 chin ups.
Finally a few crunches with the resistance tubes adding tricep pushes as well.

Letchworth gym today for the usual chin-up routine. I managed 10,10,7,6 today, which again, is my best result so improvements each week at the present. All the other exercises I did with the 12kg weights, and finally managed 4 sets of 10 full tricep dips.

Gym at Letchworth again for an arms and ab session. Added the ab curl with tricep extension to the routine today for a bit of variety, a really good compound exercise that one.

Session at Letchworth gym. Same routine as the other day but this time I finally made it to the 10 chin ups on the first set. 10/8/7/6 in all, compared to 4/3/2/1 back in October. Also all the tricep dips were done and 12kg lifted on all dumbbell exercises. This was a very tough session as to fit it all in the time there is little or no rest period in between sets.

Following yesterday’s exam success I was full of motivation and drive today so up at 5am for a 5 mile run up to Letchworth and back which, whilst it felt harder than I expected for a low intensity run, felt fantastic to be out again in the mornings on a weekday.
5.15 miles in 46:59. Average pace 9:07 and average HR was 146 or 68%, perfect fat burning run.
Went to Letchworth gym at 9:30am and I did feel the lack of energy from the run, but the porridge I …

Back in Letchworth Gym today after the half-term break, and it was time to up the weights. I’ve been using 10kg for a while now and I was getting to the end of this particular Super-set routine more easily, so moved up to 12kg.
4 sets of..
Incline Dumbell Press – 10 reps, 12kg, 30s rest – followed by
Chin Ups – managed 8,7,6,6 (1 min rest)
4 sets of..
Flat Dumbell chest press – 10 reps, 12kg, 30s rest – followed by
Single Arm row – 10 reps, 12kg, 30s rest
4 sets of..
Inclined dumbell flies …