Pumping up

I'm currently on my second longest period of a sustained workout routine, with the somewhat conflicting goals of weight loss and building muscle mass. Based on my workout approach, it's actually more or a maintain weight, gain muscle, not that either are all that noticeable. I could probably do a little more on the weight side, but I don't quite have the discipline to go on a solid cutting routine.

General routine is: Back on Mondays, Chest/Shoulders Wednesdays, Legs Fridays, with cardio in between.

Two things I've added to my workouts recently (in addition to finally doing regular squats and deadlifts): the Arnold Press, the best shoulder exercise I've ever done, and, for cardio, gaining an appreciation for proper rowing form and understanding the use of the damper.

Re the Press, it was invented/popularized by Schwarzenegger, hence the name. It's supposed to hit more of the shoulder muscles than other shoulder exercises while using a less weight. I find it easier to maintain proper posture as well (less back arch). I've noticed more good soreness from doing it the past couple of weeks than I had from other should exercises. It also works well as a compound exercise with bicep curls, as the top of the curl is the starting position for the press.

For the rowing, I concede to getting sucked into yanking away as fast as I could and wanting to set the damper as high as possible. But that's not the way rowing efficiently works. The importance is power on the pull and rest on the return. In the two occasions I've done the slower stroke/more power style, I've maintained the same pace (2:07/500m) while going from 32-33 strokes per minute to 22-24. The first time, in fact, i needed to take a break during the middle of the 4000 meters because the power output was gone.

Re the damper, it's not really a resistance setting per se, it's an adjustment to how much the wheel slows down on the return, which affects the amount of force you apply to generate power. The link above does a much better job explaining that I will.

The next thing I'm going to try is a change up in my reps/sets. I generally do 2 or 3 sets of 8-12 reps, but I'm going to try more low rep high set workous (5x5) and see how that goes as I've plateaued on weight a bit.

And maybe sometime day I'll find a routine that actually facilitates better movement on the ultimate field. The elliptical (when I don't row) doesn't seem to cut it. I fear the only thing that actually helps there is more running, which just won't work...