DoTheEvolution.Me

First things first, good god was the sauna hot today, though it almost always is on LEG day.

Not sure what the hell happpened, but I wentt in, did my lunges/press/curls/sumosquats/calf raises, and suddenly at the end felt how absolutely wiped I was.  Breathing hard with a nicely elevated heart rate as I went into the sauna, which actually did feel hotter than usual.  That, plus the intensity of my workout, made it a LONG 15 minutes this morning.

Totally worth it though, because that 12 second rush of blood vessels contracted when I stepped out was simply fantastic.

Happy that I crushed my last day of legs.  Felt good, felt strong.  And I hit 171.8 on the scale this morning (though it fluctuates up to 2 pounds day to day depending on my hydration).  So that was exciting too.

Don’t know if it was becauase I didn’t get to bed until 11 last night, or because I worked out harder than usual, but for whatever reason legs absolutely kicked my ass today.  That’s not to say I didn’t give them a run for their money, but at the end of today’s routine it took me a good 5 minutes to catch my breath and I absolutely fried in the sauna.  Lunges started off a bit rough, but by the end of the leg press it was fully on, and I pushed out quite a few more reps than I had the previous week.

There’s something dreadful and magical about having LEGS be on hump day of the work week.  Tomorrow I’ll be all excited in the morning because its just “pull thursday”, and then friday morning I’ll be cursing the fact that it’s friday and I’m up at 6am doing sprints.  It goes on and on and on and on!

Here’s to legs, those wonderful appendages that get us where we need to go day after day without complaint.

Smashed um this morning. Lunges, Leg Press, Leg Curls, Sumo Squats, and calf raises.  I was in, present, and pushing, then out.  It was swift and brutal, and felt great.  My dropset on the legpress was particularly deadly today, went a good 4 reps beyond my normal.  Excrutiating, but felt good.

First off, the sun is rising just before I head out the gym these days, so there’s a very fantastic quality to the light and world in the mornings as I head over to north boulder rec.  This morning specifically, Venus was extremely visible and extremely close to the sliver of the moon.  It was beautiful.

Good leg workout this morning, but I could have pushed harder. I held back, maybe gave 85% of what I really could have. An extra rep here, better form there, small little avoidances that added up to less than complete effort.  I’ve become hyper aware of that fact that in the gym, like in life, when I’m not giving 100% its usually just because I’m avoiding feeling.  Specifically in the gym, its the agony of a muscle burning, and the possibility of it giving out.  In life, it’s often loneliness, frustration, sadness, regret, fear of death, any number of things that I often chose to simply avoid.

So-So workout this morning.  Continued feeling a little worn out this week, and found myself cheating a bit during my first couple of exercises. In terms of legs, I must say I actually kinda miss squats, I just don’t get “warm” off lunges the same way I do with squats.  Will prolly re-integrate them in my routine at some point…

Week 10 has been a tough one so far, but I’m ready to keep pushing through till week 12.

176 on the scale this morning, which is good.   My favorite  comment was from a friend yesterday whom I hadn’t seen in a while: “You’re looking youthful and vibrant!”.  Doesn’t get any better than that!

GREAT leg workout this morning, tore through lunges, leg press, leg curl, sumo squats, and calf raises.  I’m going to be sore.

Don’t have much else to check in about, I’m enjoying working out, slowly trimming up, and ready for spring!

Legs were pretty good this morning, i was spot on for lunges and leg curls. Wavered in and out of full presence and intensity on the rest, by I was definitely wobbly by the end.

One of the things I’ve had to adjust to with this routine is how short, and in some ways easy it is.  I’m fairly sure I was over training for a while there, and my body would be absolutely wrecked by the end of a routine.  With the SFL routine, I don’t feel that way, which at first made me think I wasn’t doing enough.

But, the routines working, my muslces are growing, and my body fat is decreasing.  It’s more of a slow and steady thing than a dramatic WOW transformation, but I’m totally okay with that because this routine feels SUSTAINABLE.  I could, and may, keep going on with it for a very long time.

So good workout, need to work on really pushing on the first 10 reps of the leg press next week.

Yeah, so legs were NOT so fun this morning.  My body was already pretty sore, worn out, and tired from a full day of snowboarding yesterday.  But a little fun on the mountain is no excuse to not keep training, so there I was this morning, pushing through lunges, leg presses, hamstring curls, sumo squats, and calf raises.  My muscles were definitely a little worn out already, so my intensity wasn’t as FULL ON as it sometimes is, but the fact that I went pleases me more than anything else.  My remaining training days are ticking away, so I have to make the most of um.

Lifting weights to lose weight is fun.  Or, maybe “makes my muscles burn and scream on fire” is more like it on leg day.  It was a great one today, really naield the leg press especially.

Not much else to check in on, just going to keep on keepin’ on.

This morning was a great workout.  Probably my best leg day yet.  Again, the micro-adjustments I’ve been making to my weight levels are really starting to pay off.  Lunges were full on nasty today, and felt like the perfect intensity.  I still struggled a bit with Straight-Leg Deadlifts, my lower back always aches by the end and I have a hard time really feeling my hamstrings during the exercise.  Calves were also fantastic today, the no rest style of the Strength for Life calf exercise is just plain fantastic.

Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about things.  I’m a little tired and do need to get some more sleep, but overall I’d say I have more energy than I did when I started the program 5 weeks ago.  I’m having a hard time telling whether or not my body is changing (which reminds me I should do another bodyfat test today), but it does feel like its tightening up a little bit.  I’m going to push hard in the last 6 weeks, trying to workout with more and more focus and intensity each week.

I’m still not drinking for the time being, and might very well just stick to that until the end of the 12 weeks.  I do find myself becoming more increasingly sensitive to what I do eat as I stick to my healthy regiment, and can see how by the end of all this, I might willingly choose to make many of my dietary choices and lifestyle choices permanent beyond the program, simply because of how it makes me feel, which is good!

Which, after all, does provide Strength for Life.