Winter is the hardest time for me in terms of working out. I get bored easier. I’m not outside as much so I rely on the gym to keep my body moving and I usually add a day or two into my cycle, having only one no-gym day instead of two or three. And I tend to double up on my workouts. I’ll do a round of weights and hit the treadmill at the gym, then come home and do an hour of yoga or pilates.

Then sit there and dream about white sandy beaches while watching the snow pile up outside my window. Maine winters are rough.

I follow Mike McErlane and M&F’s WorkoutTrainer and have gotten a lot of great tips and new things to try from them. Yesterday’s little gem was Diminishing Sets. Curiosity had me clicking and watching the video. Then the gears started grinding… By the time I got home from covering a high school basketball game, my mind was made up. I was doing this. I just needed to sit down and plot how, which body parts, and when. Winter time is when I tend to overtrain, so I knew I needed to be careful.

Diminishing sets is doing one thing, for 70 reps, in 4 sets. Sounds easy, right? I hardly think so and I’m not going into this thinking it will be. Can I do 70 weighted squats? Not hardly. I can do 3 sets of 15, tops right now at the weight I just bumped myself up to before my legs start shouting at me “Hey, crazy lady! Cut that out!”

Starting out, 70 reps in 4 sets isn’t going to happen. Unless you do it at the lowest weight possible. But then you just defeat the purpose, right? I’m heading into the gym tonight with the goal of starting at 6 sets to get my 70 reps of each body part I plan on training tonight.

…. I’m sure a blog update will follow cursing the Gym Gods for ever coming up with this idea. But it’s worth a shot.