The Speculist

Not a lot to report this week. Holding steady at 243 pounds for a total weight loss of 54 pounds!

Here's some more information on my sledge hammer workout. I do three workouts per week. Each workout consists of three core moves which I do every time, and which don't require the hammer, and two variable moves each of which I do only once a week and which do require the hammer. So there are a total of nine moves, as follows:

Core (Chair) Moves

The Anvil
The Tongs
The Bellows

Variable (Hammer-Swing) Moves

The Step
The Spike
The Piston
The Quarry
The Lunge
The Sideswing

Initially I was doing 10 sets of each exercise, 5 per workout. That was proving too time-consuming, so I dropped it to 5 sets. A typical week would look like this:

Monday
Anvil
Tongs
Bellows
Step
Spike

Wednesday
Anvil
Tongs
Bellows
Piston
Quarry

Friday
Anvil
Tongs
Bellows
Lunge
Sideswing

The goal is to do the same number of reps per set, and not increase the number of reps until I can handle it for all five sets. Yesterday I did 40 reps per set -- 200 reps total for each move. The goal is 100 reps per set for a total of 500 reps in one workout. After I reach that point, I will move on from this basic workout to some more advanced moves.

I should point out that although five exercises are listed, each hammer swing must be performed with both the right and left hand. So it's really a total of seven exercises per workout.

So what are the moves? Well, I'm not sure I'm ready to tell all that yet. Not just yet. Not for free, anyway.

More later.