The Workout

Phase III of the diet required that I excercise to trigger the next level of metabolism. Sadly - I hate excercise and it had been difficult to motivate me to get into the mode for a long time. After the persistent nagging of my sister-in-law, I finally decided to check out 3 gyms within a 15-mile radius of my house.

Hated the first one, loved the 2nd one so much that i did not bother to go the 3rd one. Signed up. And I now work out there 6 days a week. I've engaged a personal trainer to help me find my way around the collosal gym and to help me build a routine - which I've described below.

One nasty side effect - I get enormously hungry - and my eating has gone out of whack. So combined with the fact that adding muscle adds weight - I am also off the diet. Not good from a weight loss/ trimming perspective. But I am getting stronger and restoring some of the muscle I've lost over the years.

The Workout

While I was familiar with the concept of allowing the muscles to rest between workouts, i had not realized that they need more than 1 day of rest. My trainer insists on a minimum of 2 days, and ideally 3 days. Given that fatigue sets into the set of muscles about 36 hours after the workout -this theory does seem to have some basis - or perhaps the process is longer cos I am newbie.

So we've come up with a 4-day circuit that runs as follows
  1. Day 1: 4 sets each of excercises for the Chest and Triceps
  2. Day 2: 4 sets each of excercises for the Back and Biceps
  3. Day 3: 4 sets of excercises for the Shoulders, 1 set for Calves and the much hated Ab Crunches
  4. Day 4: 6 sets of excercises for the Legs (Leg Press, Quad Extension, Ham Curls, Adductors, Abductors and Kickbacks)

The first time through the circuit it took about 80 minutes to complete the entire routine on any given day. I was WIPEd out after the Day 4 Leg session. Now, I get through most in about 50 minutes, and Day 3 (Shoulders and Calves) has been known to get done in 45.

After 6 weeks, I am still struggling to find visible evidence of the muscle I know I've built.. I can run up a flight of stairs instead of looking for an elevator (well.. a small flight..else I can walk).. and my posture has improved. I still need a stronger sign to tell me this is all paying off - cos that eating is causing havoc with my weight.

I do feel very good, and am registering small increases in the weights every week. So good in fact that I have also started doing and enjoying cardio (thanks to the treadmills fitted with individual TV sets) - 5 miles in a single session is still an unfulfilled dream - perhaps i will get there by the middle of July.

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