Transform'd

The start of a new routine. Ouch. We had a bit of a late start this morning, because Adrian thought I had the workout sheet (I might’ve had it – but lost it because of the illness etc… when we were last working on it)… so we took a good 10-15 mins printing out the new workout. But got through most of it.

Not quite at the same strength level as when we first approach this, but still, wasn’t TOO bad. But still – not quite as good as I remember… which kinda sucks Boo.

Right now I’m not feeling too bad. Not as exhausted or achey as after the TRX. I’m going to withhold final judgement till tomorrow!

Oh – and I’m now working out with Adrian 3 times per week during this phase. I think it makes the most sense. So right now Mon, Thurs and Sat. We may move to a Mon, Weds, Fri approach soon though – apparently he may have sufficient room to fit me in. Cool

Getting up this morning was hard work. I got to bed at a reasonable time, but what with the humidity, heat, and just recovery from a long day of travel on Sunday, I didn’t want to get up. But I did… got into the gym… worked out… did arms – so my bis and tris are screaming right now.

Bumped into Adrian at the gym too – turns out he did cancel a training session so that we could workout today, but sadly he forgot to let me know LOL! So we bumped into each other half way through my workout. Oops. All OK… training on Thurs, and potentially at the weekend too. Time to start these dropsets. Ouch. This is going to hurt.

But I’m looking forward to this new phase. Apparently I can stand to put on between 8-10lbs of mass in this phase – which is pretty incredible. That about 6% of my total body mass, so I’m thinking how huge that change is. To put it in context, I’ve only put on 6lbs on muscle in the past 3-4 months! And there’ve been significant changes through that experience too… so to do the same – if not more – in a shorter period of time… now you’re talking

On a sidenote… popped into the Nikey store yesterday to pick up some new training shirts. Very nice. One in particular – it’s got a far tighter waist, and it fits. Sure, some of the love handles still peek through, but it really shows a more balanced upper body! Things are definitely changing / improving. Sure, I still wish I hadn’t put on the fat I had over the past few weeks, but I’ll live with it. Growth is important right now, and I’m getting it.

On a final note – sadly haven’t been as good about preparing food – last night I was just too tired when I got home to do anything. I slept for a bit, took it easy, but couldn’t muster the energy to cook all the chicken, quinoa (I finally found some!!!) and pasta. Maybe Thurs… or maybe at the weekend. I’ve got 10 chicken breasts that I need to eat sooner rather than later

Chatting with Adrian today, it seems like we’ll be moving into more and more TRX workouts, and I’m kinda happy about that for a few reasons.

One – it kills. It really stretches the body. Pushes you.

Two – it works the whole body. We’re not isolating.

Three – it promote athleticism and overall fitness, rather than the typical gym bodies you see out there. Sidenote: there was this incredible guy at the gym on Sat. He had an amazing upper body physique, but his legs were pitiful. I swear mine might be better. That sort of imbalance would be avoided (to a certain extent) with using TRX.

Four – this is one I realized earlier today. I do feel self conscious at the gym. Seeing all these guys push their free weights, and me trying to do the same, but just a lot less. That’s fine. I’m growing and adapting. But the thing about TRX is that you can work as hard as those guys, but it looks entirely different – there’s no comparison. There’s perhaps intrigue…  and perhaps an element of ridicule (until someone actually does the workout, and then they get their ass kicked).

I think this could be a lot of fun! And I’m happy to say – bring it on. It’s going to kill, without a doubt, but I think it’ll be worth it!!!

Another TRX workout today. Kinda similar to last weeks workout… but with a few twists. One was insane – basically, handstand with a foot held in the TRX straps, and doing a pushup! It wasn’t as difficult as I’d anticipated, but it was hard to maintain your balance… that was a big struggle. I’m looking forward to doing it again though – because that would KILL.

And seriously – today I really felt quite sick at the end of the workout. Holy fucking shit. I pushed (or was pushed) extremely hard. Good stuff though. Just need to make sure I eat enough to make up for it!

Oh – and an update on the weekend… nutrition yesterday was excellent, but sadly – due to the G20/G8 in Toronto, when I went to buy food for my week, the supermarket was in lockdown. So no food. I’m like – WTF?! So sadly, for the first few days of this week, it’s back to prepared foods. OK, but not ideal.

This week is going to be an extremely short week – on Weds night I’m heading up north to the cabin and out kayaking from Thurs onwards. I’m going to head out today or tomorrow to SND to catch up on protein bars, to ensure I have sufficient nutrition while I’m away. I’m sure I’m going to be ravenous while out there, and want to make sure I have sufficient nutrition to support my development.

Then – when I get back, I’m hoping I can nab Adrian for training on Tues next week (he’s off recovering on Mon). I’ll go in again on Mon for the sauna, but I don’t want to take it too hard on Mon, as we’ll be going more intense on Tues (drop-sets), Thurs and then Sat… for the next few weeks, we’re going to be working out 3x a week with Adrian, and then a few more workouts by myself. That works.

We’ll see how this goes – apparently Adrian just put someone through the same workout he’ll be putting me through, and the dude put on 10lbs of weight… most of that was lean muscle. I’m hoping. I’m seriously hoping. Fingers crossed.

When I was in the gym today, I realized something. Adrian had been speaking about it on Thursday… how he comes into the gym, and when he works out, he’s dead by the end of it. It’s so completely intense. He’s so totally focussed and punishing his body, that he gets such a great workout.

He can do in a hour what most would normally do in 2.5 hours.

And that just popped into my head today. I didn’t work out with any great intensity. I got a light buzz. But in comparison to the TRX workout that I did earlier in the week, it was pretty pathetic. The arms workout I did on Tues was better than today. Guess my heart wasn’t in it today

So that’s a new goal – intensity of training. I need to go in and HIT IT. I need to work excruciatingly hard and come out pretty exhausted. That’s what’s going to get my body changing and adapting – not these light, conditional workouts. That’s not what I’m after. But am I ready for what it’ll take to reach these exhaustion workouts??? Dunno.