Punchbag Work

Normally I would use my punchbag for warming up before my weights session, but from this morning I'm turning into a form of cardio straight after the session.

To get in the sort of time I would when running, I'm trying out 30 x 45 seconds on the punchbag with 15 seconds rest in between each set.

Needless to say, I didn't manage to get through the 30 sets today, but hopefully it'll be a different story by the end of the week.

Either was still totally shattered after, so should be on the right track.

The brilliance of peanut butter

Peanut butter is a great thing to eat when you're looking for a quick snack. If you've got a few hours until your next meal and you feel a bit peckish, have a little spoon full of the stuff or spread it on some wholemeal bread. It's high in protein so gives you a little protein hit.

Beware though, it can be a little fatty so opt for wholemeal or low fat varieties. Tesco do a 25% less fat version and Sainsbury have a 33% less fat one.

New Arms Programme

Started a new weights programme that focuses on the arms yesterday. I'll be doing it three times a week and it's based on two exercises for triceps, two for biceps and six full body exercises, including squats, pull ups etc. To incorporate variety, the number of sets and types of bicep/tricep exercises change every two weeks.

It's an eight week programme and since I started it yesterday, I should have my last session on Christmas Eve (right before the massive Christmas blow out!!!).

I'm still a beginner to weights, so I won't be adding a huge amount of muscle to my arm, but eight weeks should be sufficient to get more strength and to make a slight difference visually.

I managed to get through the whole workout pretty easy yesterday, but that's because I think I set my weights too low. The next session is tomorrow so I'll up the weights to put more stress on myself. As I'm doing the session three times a week, I should be seeing an increase in the weight I'm using regularly too.