My take on my new workout split (plus a week of workouts yaaay)

Firstly, I want to say that this post has been long anticipated but then I got sick for a week (meaning I could obviously not go to the gym) and then I had a hectic week with some tests so my workouts were super inconsistent. Luckily, although this past week of workouts haven't been my absolute best, I finally had a week of consistent workouts again.

I'd like to start off by saying that my workout split has changed significantly - mostly because my fitness goals have changed and because I get quite bored when I'm stuck in the same routine for too long. Although I'm not doing anything nearly serious enough to be considered a "cut", I am trying to lean out and lose a bit of fat, which does unfortunately translate to doing more cardio (and perhaps saying bye to a teeny bit of booty, but I'm okay with that for now because GOALS ARE EVER-CHANGING). My new workout split can be briefly summarised as follows:

Two upper body days per week

Two lower body days per week

One day of either full body HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) OR a cardio day where I go for a run or something like that

I also do 20 minutes of cardio in the form of treadmill HIIT at the start of every single workout, therefore: cardio five times a week.

The reason I went from doing basically zero cardio whatsoever to doing it five times per week boils down to the fact that, considering where I am right now in my life, my goal is to lose body fat while retaining and building muscle. This is also why I'm making sure to COMBINE cardio with resistance training and not go straight into just cold hard cardio (don't wanna be a stick yo).

Anyway, before I get into the workouts I'd just like to add a small disclaimer: although I had some solid sessions this week, one or two were a bit more laid back here and there because I had severe muscle soreness from getting back to the gym for the first time in over a week. But without further ado, here are the workouts I did this week:

Tuesday (upper body day)

- 20 minutes of treadmill HIIT (10 minute run at a medium pace followed by 10 minutes of 30-seconds-on-30-seconds-off sprints)

- 4 sets of 8 deadlifts at 50 kg

- 4 sets of 12 bent-over barbell rows at 25-30kg

Superset with

- 4 sets of 10 barbell military presses at 10kg

- 4 sets of 20 cable lateral raises (10 on each arm) (personally I do these with a very light weight because this exercise targets a super challenging muscle)

- 3 sets of 12 seated cable rows at 20-25kg

Stats for this workout:

Total of 633 calories burned in less than an hour with a decent heart rate

Wednesday (lower body day)

- 20 minutes of treadmill HIIT

- 3 leg press ladders (So how this works is as follows: I set the leg press machine to 50 kg and then I do 1 rep, 1 pulse; 2 reps, 2 pulses; 3 reps, 3 pulses, etc. all the way to 5 reps and then back from 5 reps to 1 rep. The pulses ensure tension in your quads)

- 4 sets of 14-16 standing calf raises at 60kg

- 2 drop sets leg extension (The way you do this is you set the weight to a rather challenging weight in the beginning. For me this is about 45kg. So then you do 6 reps on 45kg, 8 reps on 40kg, 10 reps on 35kg, 12 reps on 30kg, 14 reps on 25kg and 16 reps on 20kg - obviously with no breaks in between. This is one drop set. For the second one you work your way back from 20kg to 45kg)

- 3 sets of 12 weighted back extensions (Make sure to position your feet pointing outwards and make very good use of a mind-muscle connection to make sure you use your hamstrings to control your movement. In this specific case it is meant to be a hamstring exercise, not a back exercise)

Stats for this workout:

669 calories burned in an hour. Very decent indeed

Thursday (somewhat of an active rest day because my muscles were taking strain)

- 30 minutes of yoga and foam rolling

- 15 minutes of treadmill HIIT

Stats for this workout:

Some good ol' yoga - good for the soul and sore muscles

Followed by some saucy treadmill HIIT

Friday (HIIT circuit combined with upper body)

- 20 minutes treadmill HIIT

- 3 sets of the following circuit: 5 box jumps, 8 medicine ball jump squats and 12 stiff-legged kettlebell deadlifts

- 4 sets of 16 barbell curls at 15kg

- 3 sets of 16 hammer curls at 8kg (8 on each arm)

Superset with

- 3 sets of 24 dumbbell bicep curls at 8kg (12 on each arm)

Stats for this workout:

614 calories burned in only 53 minutes.

Saturday (just a casual little run)

- 20 minute run of approximately 2.87km

Stats for this workout:

Not a fast runner AT ALL as you can see. But loving every second of getting better and better at it.

And that's it! My rest days were then obviously Monday and today (Sunday). Let me know if you would like more posts like this and thank you so much for reading!