TGIF :D
October 10th, 2008
I love Friday! Always gets me excited for the weekend. Not that I do anything exciting but just the fact that I don’t have to worry about what to wear or rush to work gets me in the happy mood. And this weekend it’s a long weekend for federal employees. Yeah baby!! It’s Columbus day!!! 
While I don’t have the luxury of being a federal employee, I do happen to work in that environment so I’m off just by association. Woohoo! for me 
I don’t have much planned for this weekend except cook, clean, read some books and relax. I need to get my mojo back.
Oh yesterday I started strength training. Can I just say my performance was subpar *eyeroll*. Lately, I’ve been reading various posts on strength training and finally settled to follow this person’s routine (his name’s Matt) for few weeks and see if it makes a difference. He’s got a nice workout log (free) which you can download and print. He also has nice explanations of what weights and amount of reps/sets you’ll need for the goals you have in mind. I did have to google some of the exercises as I wasn’t familiar with the terminology.
In the beginning, in order for me to build muscles and gain strength I need to choose weights that will cause my muscles to pretty much die or the term used by the dude “fail” at 8-10 reps per set. So I, being the idiot that I am, decided to choose dumbells weighing 10 lb each. And I proceeded to do my repetitions 1, 2, 3…uh 7, uhhh 8 and muscle FAIL!! It was definitely muscle FAIL for me . I was able to follow his routine for Day 1, not bad. Tomorrow is Day 2 for me…can’t help looking forward to it My biceps and shoulders are sore although not incapacitated as I’d thought they would be. They were wobbly last night after I was done with my routine. So maybe the real pain will hit tomorrow…they do say it hurts more after 2 days. Great!
Remind me again why I’m torturing myself like this?
Have a great weekend everyone
October 11th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Pintobean, it’s Matt over at Answer Fitness (aka “The Fitness Nerd” or the “dude” as you call me.)
I’m thrilled you’re trying out the full-body routine.
Sounds like you did the workout exactly as you should have — using a weight that kept you in the lower rep range. That’s fantastic! Also, the soreness you talk about is the kind you want — a little tightness and a sense that you can really feel your muscles move the next day, but no real pain and no reduction in movements (except maybe for the tightness, which you should treat with some mild stretching across the day.)
One thing I was concerned about, though, was that you said you were going to do Workout #2 the next day.
You DON’T want to do this routine two days in a row — give yourself at least a full day to recover, more if you are still very sore from the previous workout.
So if you do Workout #1 on Friday, don’t perform Workout #2 until at least Sunday or Monday (depending on your soreness.) And then give yourself at least another 48 hours before performing the third workout.
Remember, the intensity and volume on this plan is fairly high, and because you are working your whole body, it is more taxing on your central nervous system. It requires a good rest and recovery period.
If you want to get exercise more than just three days a week, however, use the in-between recovery days to do some cardio — either solid-state or high intensity or mixture of both. Combined with with the full body routine, this can have dramatic results.
Also, let me know how you are eating around this workout — what you eat before and after makes a big difference. What is your typical pre-workout meal like and when are you eating it? Also, when and what are you eating immediately after you are done?
I ask this because how you eat around the training can impact things like strength, recovery and soreness later on. Also, by eating certain foods around the workout, you will have better “toning” results (which if you’ve spent any additional time on my site, you will know basically just means adding more muscle and stripping off body fat.)
Keep me updated on your progress, and let me know if you have any questions whatsoever around the workout, training or diet. I’d like to follow along from Answer Fitness as well.
Oh, and why are you torturing yourself like this? Well, ask yourself that question in about six weeks when you’ve dropped a size or two, have more energy than ever before, are stronger and people start to spontaneously remark how great you’re looking. Starting out is the hard part, but once you get two months under your belt and see results, that will keep you motivated.
Best of luck!
matt
October 13th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
who is this fitness nerd dude?