Gym Sorted

Went to the gym today and my trainer has found another gym for us to train in. Went to look today and it seems to be better than the one we were at. There is much more equipment although I didn't see a squat rack but will see.

Weighed myself this morning and found I put on over half a kg yesterday which is kind of strange as I walked over 3 kms yesterday!

At the weigh in this morning I was 97.3kgs and 30.3% bodyfat!

Didn't do too much in the gym today as it took 30 minutes to visit the new gym. I did 30 minutes on the recumbent bike (10 minutes on level 1 and 20 minutes on level 10) did 7.48kms and burned 278cals. Also did 10 minutes on the vibrating platform on level 5.

Haven't done Pilates this week and I am full of aches today not sure it is the sore throat or lack of Pilates but I think that I will carry on doing Pilates twice a week for now and do one session of Plyometrics on Saturday mornings for now.

I am planning to take the dog for a walk for 30 minutes up to the top of the hill and back as warm up then do 10 minutes of skipping followed by the following Plyometrics exercises:

3 x 20 - squat jumps

3 x 10 - rim tips (9 ft rim)

3 x 20 - dynamic step-ups

3 x 10 - depth jump rim tip (9 ft rim)

3 x 10 - depth jump dunks (8 1/2 ft rim)

3 x 10 - depth jumps onto box

For cool down I will do another 10 minutes skipping followed by 30 minutes on the exercise bike followed by 30 minutes stretching.

Ill Again!

Woke up this morning feeling really bad. Sore throat  and body completely aching. Didn´t go to Pilates again this morning.

Weighed the same as yesterday with the same fat percentage (96.7kgs 29.7% bodyfat).

Going to have a rest day except for walking everywhere today. Tomorrow is the last day at my gym so I am going to the new gym today to see if I can start on monday.

Gym done

Feeling a bit better this morning after playing basketball last night but really aching and tired as I couldn´t sleep until aroung 1am and was up at 5:30am to go to the gym.

My weigh in this morning was good I am under down to 96.7 kgs and 29.7% body fat this morning.

Added a new exercise to my routing this  morning the Straight legged dead lift. Also did 30 minutes on the recumbent bike (10 minutes on level 1 and 20 minutes on level 10). Did 7.67km and burned 279 cals.

Found out this morning the my trainer has sold his gym as he has been offered a job as sports co-coordinator at the Club so he sold all his equipment and will be closing on friday!

In a way it is good as I have been looking into crossfit for the last month and like the idea of it as I get really bored of weight training. There is a gym in town that does crossfit personal training so I am going to have a look today.

Also my plyometric boxes arrived yesterday afternoon so I am going to stop Pilates for a couple of months and do plyometrics on tuesday and thursday mornings instead.

Here is a foto of them:

As usual my son has found another use for them and set them up as a free running gym which to be honest I was quit happy about as at least he was running and jumping instead of playing video games. I was quite impressed as he was jumping up onto the 24" side with a running start. Not bad for a 7 year old.

I bought these boxes as you can use the same box for 2 different heights 30", 24" and 20" just by rotating the box. They seem really sturdy and well made as they took my 97KGs jumping on them without any problems.

Have been walking everywhere this afternoon as my car had a flat tyre, I think I walked about 6kms in total today so another good workout.

Going to do the same tomorrow and measure the distances walked on strada to see exactly how far I walked today.

Sick Again

Woke up this morning feeling really bad. Haven´t gone to Pilates this morning.

Weighed in at 97.1 kgs and 30.6%.

Going to rest today and see if I am up to play basketball this evening.

Week 2 day 1

Managed to get out of bed this morning and go to the gym. Did my usual weights routine except we added 2 more sets of leg press. Also did 30 minutes on the recumbant bike (10 minutes level 1 and 20 minutes level 10) did 7.34km and burned 265 cals. Feeling rough still as I have tonsillitis again I think.
Weighed in this morning I was 97.5kgs and had 30% body fat.

Rest day

Going to have a rest day today as I woke up with a sore throat this morning. Did my morning weigh in and I am 70kgs exactly but strangely my fat percentage id 30.3% again!

Going to play basketball this afternoon but not going to train this morning as I had planned to do. Also my left forearm is really hurting for some reason! Think I must have slept on it funnily last night.

Full week completed

Just finished the last session o the gym for the week. Really pleased with myself as I have completed all of my training days this week and I am feeling much better for it.

This morning I weighed in at 97.3 kgs and 29.8% body fat which is a good drop from yesterday where I was 97.8 kgs and 30.3% body fat.

As well as weights today I did 30 minutes on the recumbent bike with 10 minutes on level 1 and 20 minutes on level 10. I did 7.20 km and burned 264 cals.

In addition to the upper body weights I did Leg press again today.

I am planning to go to the club in a little bit and shoot hoops again.

Week 1 Pilates done

Manged to get up this morning and get to Pilates on time although it was a struggle and I didnt get up at 5:30 to do the exercise bike and skipping as I planned to do.

My weigh-in was a bit strange today as my bodyweigh is still 97.8kgs but my % bodyfat is up to 30.1%!!!!

Played basketball for and hour and a half this afternoon. Did a mixture of freethrows and game pace shooting from the left hand side of the court. Made 30 freethrows, followed by 10 made fake 3 pointer, fake drive one dribble to the right and shoots (here after called shooting sequence). followed by 10 made 3 pointers. I then made 30 free throws followed by 10 made 3 pointers followed by 10 made shooting sequences and then made 20 freethows to finish. Was really tired after this. I am going to the same on the right hand side of the court tomorrow.

Wednesday Gym Done

Just got back from the gym. Did my Wednesday weights routine and added leg press today as well.

Also did 30 minutes on the recumbent bike. Did 10 minutes on level 1, 15 minutes on level 10 and 5 minutes on level 5. Did 7.38km and burned 328 Cals.

Weighed myself before the gym and today I was 97.8kgs and 30% body fat. This means that I was 0.7kgs heavier today compared to yesterday but it looks like it is muscle as my bodyfat has dropped.

Going to go to the club after work and shoot hoops for an hour or so to make the most of the extra day light of summertime.

Tuesday Pilates done

Just got back from Pilates. Went well although my elbow was hurting a lot which makes a lot of the exercises difficult.

The good news is that I can Plank for 30 seconds easily now.

Weighed myself before Pilates and I am the same weight but my bodyfat % has gone back down to 30%.

Will see how it is after basketball tonight.

First training done

Revised the training a bit more. For the first 2 weeks I am not going to do leg weights and after 2 weeks the leg exercises will be added.

I also wasn't able to wake up to do my warm ups before the gym as the clocks went forwards yesterday and my body clock wouldn´t allow me to wake up properly.

Today I did the following exercises:

Bench Press = 4 x 15
Push Press = 4 x 15
Lat Pulldowns = 4 x 15
Bicepts Curls = 3 x 12
Tricepts Extensions = 3 x 12

I also did 30 minutes on the exercise bike (18 minutes on level 1 and 12 minutes on level 5) I did 7.27 kms and burned 325 cals.

Weighed myself after the gym and I am still 97.1kgs but my body fat is 30.03%.

Will weigh myself every morning before the gym/pilates to keep a record of my weight fulctuations however last week I lost 0.1kgs so pretty pleased especially since I only played basketball once.

I am making an online google calc doc to keep a track of my weight and bodyfat percentage.

The Graph for my weight loss and body fat loss is published on the following link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f-64Sv552RgVPBNHweR0OnAzSBte2g9sEZM8rqtra2w/pubchart?oid=1093322084&format=image

This evening I am going to do another 30 minutes on the exercise bike at home and also do 10 minutes of skipping and 30 minutes of stretching.

Scales arrived

My new scales arrived today I am 97.1kgs with 30% body fat! Not very happy with the result as I have around double the recommended body fat if not a bit more! Still at least I know that things are bad and this will increase my motivation and will help with goal setting.

I am Thinking that I will set a goal of getting my weight down to 80kgs which will be a body fat percentage of 12,5%. This will mean that I need to loose 17KGs or 17.5% of my current bodyfat.

I am giving myself a goal of doing this in 9 months so by 18/07/15 I want to be 80KGs and have 12.5% bodyfat.

I order to do this I am setting myself the goal of loosing 0.5kgs a week or 2kgs a month for the next 9 months.

My first short-term goal is to loose 2kgs by 18/11/14 so I will weigh 95kgs. This will mean loosing more or less 2% body fat so I will be 28% body fat.

Just got back from 2 hours of playing basketball. Played 3 v 3 for about 30 minutes then the rest of the time we played full court.

Gym all sorted

Went through the workouts that I will start at the gym next week with my trainer and today I did some test sets to get an idea of the weights that I will use next week. I left him with the book and a copy of the workouts for him to look at over the weekend.

My arms are aching a bit at the moment as I haven't lifted weights for a over a year.

The workout is as follows:

Monday and Wednesdays:

1. Hang Clean
2. Squats
2. Hamstring Curl
3. Step up
3. Streight Leg Deadlift
4. Side Lunge
4. Standing Calf Raise
5. Bench Press
5. Lat Pulldown
6. Push Press
7. Tricepts Press-Down
7. Dumbell Biceps Curl
8. Core-Abs
8. Core-lower back

Wednesdays:

1. Dumbell Bench Press
1. Pull-Up
2. Dumbell Incline Bench Press
2. Dumbell Lat Row
3. Dumbell Lateral Raise
3. Bar Dip
3. Bar Biceps Curl
4. Hang Pull
5. Lunge
5. Hamstring Curl
6. Standing Calf Raise
6. Back Extension
7. Core - Abs
7. Core Lower Back

We have decided that I will warm up before going to the gym and also as I am doing Pilates I am not going to do the core abs and back exercises to save time.

I have just done another 30 minutes on the exercise bike did 10 minutes on level 1 followed by 10 minutes on level 2 and another 10 minutes on level 1. Did 14.47 km and burned 329 Cals. Did the extra workout on the bike as I was feeling guilty as I drank 2 cans of coke this afternoon.

Have been looking into ways to increase the calories burned in a quicker time and I think that I am going to start doing skipping as part of my warm up as it warms up the whole body and 10 minutes of skipping is equivalent to 30 minutes of cycling this means that I can cut 10 minutes off of my morning warm up before the gym and Pilates. I am also going to do some skipping in the evenings as well to burn some extra calories ready to start Plyometrics next month.

I am also going to play basketball tomorrow afternoon for a couple of hours and I have a 3 vs 3 tournament on Sunday if my ankle is strong enough.

No Training this morning

Wasnt able to do Pilates today as I started work at 5am and still couldnt finish by 7am. I will do an hour on the exercise bike followed by stretching tonight to make up for the missed Pilates.

Last night I bought 2 plyometrics boxes that can be 20", 24" and 30 inch high. They should be here next week sometime.

I AM planning to take onde of them appart to see how they are built and then make 2 myself that are 36", 42" and 48".

Changing up Program

Had a chat with my trainer today about the NBA Conditioning program and he agreed that I would be better starting off with the weight lifting and stretching first, then after about a month of building a strength base to start doing plyometrics then after another month add conditioning then after another month add agility and speed training.

I am going to start the weight training program next Monday (20/10/14).

While I was at the gym today I weighed myself and as I suspected I have put on all of the weight that I lost last month! This morning I was 98.1 kgs!

For my training today I did 15 minutes on the vibrating platform on level 7 followed by 60 minutes on the recumbent bike. I did 10 minutes on level 9 followed by 40 minutes on level 11 followed by 10 minutes on level 5. I did 14.70 km and burned 538 Cals.

I am looking online at the moment to find plyometrics boxes and medicine balls as well for when I start plyometrics at the end of next month.

For the next month I will be doing Weights and Stretching on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 5:30-8:00 and on Tuesdays and Thursday Mornings  I will be doing Pilates and stretching from 6:00-8:00.

Forgot to mention that I twisted my ankle again at lunch time while I was filling the tyres with air! I have just got back from picking up my son from school and it is hurting a bit. I am going to ice my ankle now and keep it elevated all evening ans see how it is in the morning.

First day done

This morning I did an hour of Pilates but was unable to do the hour on the exercise bike as I was called into work. However tonight I have just finished 60 minutes on the exercise bike playing GTA5 on the playstation.

I Did 28.95 kms and burned 659 cals. Did 10 minutes on level 1 followed by 40 minutes on level 2 followed by 10 minutes on level 1 again.

It was really hot today and is about 40 degrees in my gym so I have sweated off a few kgs.

The scales  that I bought yesterday were posted at lunchtime today so should be here by the weekend.

Preview

The purpose of this blog is to chart my progress during the 12 weeks doing the Complete Conditioning for Basketball Program from Human Kenetics (ISBN-13:978-0-7360-5784-4).

This program has been designed by the NBCCA (National Basketball Conditioning Coaches Association) and is a 12 week off season program.

First of all a little about myself. I am a 41 year old 5ft 7 inch ex national league player who has over the past 10 years has increase my weight from 65-70 kgs to my current weight of 96 kgs. Over the past 4 years I have had a string of ankle and knee injuries mainly due to the stress of the extra weight. I my prime I had a vertical jump of 33 inches and could grab the rim from standing. I could also dunk the basketball now and again off of 1 foot.

For the last 2 month I have been getting a base level of fitness back doing Pilates twice a week and 3 days a week at the gym doing mostly aerobic exercises and also playing basketball twice a week.

I now feel that my body is ready to cope with the training program from the NBCCA to get back into basketball shape and hopefully get my weight down to around 80  kgs and get my vertical back to around the 30 inch mark.

This week I am going to a lot of cycling to get as much weight off as I can before the training starts. I am also going to sit down with my personal trainer to go over the weight training side of the program to get everything ready to start on Monday morning.

To help with the recording of my progress I have just bought some scales that measure body composition as well as weight. These will help show if the training is working or not a lot more accurately than just weight as it will show if my % body fat is dropping or not.