This has been a very different month for me and exercise. I spent two weeks visiting friends and family back in the U.S. and had to adapt my exercise schedule around my travels. Overall I was able to stay fairly active and still spend plenty of time with all the people I wanted to. I have limited access to weights at my home in the states. I own a small barbell with 50 and 25 pound plates and 30 and 15 pound dumbbells. There is also a chin up bar and some reasonably spaced kitchen counters for doing dips. I opted to do full body workouts to save time and limit the negative impact from not having different weights to chose from.
I wanted to do as many workouts as possible outside but overall the weather was wet and cold and the ground was muddy. Because of this I was only able to workout once outside which you can read about here. There isn't adequate space inside my home to workout with the barbell and I didn't want to scuff the wooden floors by picking up and putting down the barbell. My inside fully body workouts generally consisted of five sets of push and pull exercises for my upper body and five sets of leg work with some additional calf and hamstring sets.
My push sets consisted of body weight dips on the kitchen counter and shoulder work with the dumbbells. I would alternate between two and three sets of dips on different days doing as many reps as possible. I would fill in the rest of my push work with dumbbells doing overhead press, arnold press, upright rows, and lateral raises. I sometimes would do super sets consisting of maximum reps presses with the 30 pound dumbbells followed by alternating reps of upright rows and lateral raises with the 15 pound dumbbells. I enjoyed doing the dips because I don't have anywhere in my apartment in Germany to do them but, overall it wasn't a great workout.
The pull sets were divided between pull ups and rows. I would switch between doing three and two sets each workout for the exercises. I've definitely been enjoying pulls ups recently but I've also noticed that my progress hasn't increased much. I'm hoping that the dumbbell rows will help to break through my plateau. I would vary my grip on the rows and go for maximum reps because the 30 pound dumbbells aren't heavy enough for me. Much like the push sets I felt that my pull work was alright but lacking because of my limited selection of weights.
My leg sets were done with step back lunges, squats, goblet squats, stiff leg deadlifts, and calf raises. I quickly found that the two 30 pound dumbbells weren't enough weight for squats so I phased those out of my workout. I could have used more weight for the goblet squats also but I just went slow and made sure to get as low as possible in hopes of hitting some of weaker muscles that can be worked with deep squats. I was actually surprised that the step back lunges were so challenging with two dumbbells. I've never enjoyed doing lunges but they are an effective exercise. I also did stiff leg deadlifts to hit the hamstrings. Every workout I would also include one or two sets of calf raises depending on how I felt and the time I had available. I felt I got a better leg work in then my upper body work but it was also hindered by my limited selection of weights.
I'm glad I was able to consistently exercise while home but I definitely felt limited in what I was able to accomplish. I wanted to do as few body weight exercises as possible while home to change up my routine a little because I have been mainly focusing on body weight resistance while in Germany. I figured with only two weeks time it would be good to try something different and keep my workouts interesting. The wet and muddy weather kept me from doing any cardio while home besides just walking in the woods. If it was a bit drier I may have went for a run but I generally don't enjoy running and wanted to spend my time doing other things.
I'm taking a week off of exercise to give my body a rest during the last week of March before I start back in April. I'm currently planning on doing full body workouts three times a week using various body weight exercises. I'll also do one or two days of Insanity for cardio and one or two days of yoga. I'm looking forward to picking up where I left off before my travels.
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