DoTheEvolution.Me

Ahh pull day, my tried and true nemesis.  We’ve never really gotten along or really ‘connected’ with each other, but we still hang once a week.  This morning was a good workout despite not getting enough sleep last night. (turns out eating after 9 keeps me up late!)

I felt weak as hell doing dips today, not sure why, but I think possibly because I engaged with some of the earlier exercises more fully than usual.
Well, 8 last sets of sprints and some ab work tomorrow, then I’m officially done.

Exciting.

Not too much to say about today that I haven’t already said about pull day before.  I considered it to be a 7/10 on my workout scale, not a bad day, but not exceptional.   The next few months are likely going to be very chaotic, so I’m enjoying these last days of uber stable training as much as a I can.

One week till the Sex, God, Rock ‘n Roll Boulder Theater premiere and end of my 16 weeks of sobriety!  http://tinyurl.com/sgrr515

It was a hard waking up this morning, went to bed a little later than usual last night after a really bonding men’s group/after-hang at the Hungry Toad.  Anyways, consequently I was in a deep sleep state when the ‘ol Alarm went off, and the first thought in my head was “nooooooo……..it feels sooo good to be sleeping right now!!”.

Sprang out of bed 5 minutes later and was off for some shoulder action.  The workout itself was good, but not great.   I really dropped into dips quite well today, and shoulder shrugs were also spot on.  The other exercises were a bit more foggy, I struggle with bringing the same intensity to my back and shoulder muscles.

2 more weeks!

Tired this morning.  Real tired.

HA. I’ve probably started 30% of my posts with that by now I imagine.

This morning I decided to use the gym as a way to explore that tiredness.  When I wake up and feel tired, what am I really feeling?   When I’ve been up all night and not gotten enough sleep, I say I’m tired.  When I’ve put in a day of high mental concentration/intensity at work I say I’m tired.  Anytime I go back home and am around my family I feel tired.

Obviously tired means a lot of things, and touches in on many different aspects of my ‘self’: physically, emotionally, and mentally.

I tried to stay in touch with my “tiredness” today as I lifted  (back, shoulders, and biceps/triceps) and, big suprise, I found that in many ways my body had just as much energy as it normally did, when I really felt into it down to the cellular level.

Still, I was tired, so it wasn’t the most amazing workout I’ve ever had, but it was a good one, and I did really get clarity around the fact that for me personally, a lot of times my “tiredness” is an escape, an avoidance, an excuse to disengage, shutdown, and as mentioned yesterday, to not FEEL.

Trying to remain open and present thru my ‘tiredness’ just got added to life’s practices.

Shoulder day.  One of my toughest days.  not so much because of the exercises themselves, more in bringing my intensity to them.  This morning I did fairly well, dumbbell rows finally felt like they went well, and dips absolutely destroyed me.

One thing of particular I’d like to note is how much I enjoyed actually walking into my gym this morning. After changing I headed over to the weight room and was immediately greeted by one of the women I know that works out at the same time as me.  She cracked a joke about now having to work hard because I showed up, and a series of laughs ensued between me and some other folks there.

Being able te enjoy the people I work out with is a huge part of what is making this routine fairly easy for.  So find a gym you like, and go at a time when there are people there you like.

I watched this week’s episode of Heroes last night, and then Juno.  Strangely enough, the entire time I was watching them I felt this odd excitement about going to the gym in the morning.  Very subtle, but I was kinda looking forward to it, and was happy to know I had it to look forward to in the morning.  Pretty damn weird for me, as I usually have a weird dread/anxiety knowing I have to get up early.  Don’t know if that feeling will happen again tonight, but no matter, as I enjoyed the hell out of it last night.

This morning’s workout was pimptacular.  I felt good and sore in my legs and abs from earlier in the week, but not too sore.  Just sore enough to make getting into my body easier and to really work out the shoulders and pull muscles.  Reverse flies and shoulder shrugs were the highlight for me today, I was just damn spot on doing them.  Dips went very well today as well.

The other somewhat exciting thing that happened yesteday is that I internally commited to doing this once a year in perpetuity.  If the tradeoff for feeling this strong, healthy, confident, and grounded in my body is a paltry 12 weeks out of my year, I’m so in.  It’s totally worth it.  I haven’t lost a ton of weight or anything, but I FEEL strong, which is what’s  important to me.

I can’t friggin WAIT for my 10:30 shake.  Eating is soooo much more exciting for me when its happening consciously!

Rock.

Great shoulder day.  All I’ll really say is that shoulder shrugs were done.  And EVERYONE knows that shoulder shrugs lead to huge TRAPS, which chicks totally dig.

My body is rocked right now.  Training earlier this week, full day of boarding tuesday, LEGS yesterday, and training again this morning….I’m pretty achey.

Nonetheless, week’s like this are what training is all about for me.  Don’t have to hold back in Life cuz I can trust my body will keep up.  In fact, we’re having an insaine blizzard right now so I’m going BACK to copper moutnain tomorrow.  HELL YEAH.

Shoulders felt good this morning, I particularly pwned reverse flies, and have a feeling my delts are going to be very, very sore.

The good news, just whipped out the old body tape and I’ve lost about half an inch around the waste and am at 22 on my body fat pincher, which is a decrease.  Keep on keepin on.

Definitely struggled this morning.  I was a little tired, I’m in my 6th week, and it was PULL day, which I rarely feel good about.  I’m not sure if its the weights, exercises, or my attitude towards them, but I just can’t seem to get a pump on shoulder day.  Perhaps its just the nature of the muscle group in that they don’t fatigue in the same way legs and more concentrated upper body muscles do.  Regardless, i did my best to train hard this morning, but it definitely wasn’t my best day of training yet.  I think some of my fear is kicking in, I’m halfway through the program and while I think I’ve lost a couple pounds, my body more or less looks the same.  No majorly dramatic changes or newly visible cuts of muscles.  That is discouraging me quite a bit.  However, I’m trying to remain centered and optimistic.  I’m going to push harder in the 2nd half of training than in the first for one, and two, my body might not radically change in some ways until after the program completes.  I’ve started the engines and am trying to get them to burn as hot as possible, but that just takes time….I hope.

Just realized I didn’t write this morning, as I once again got sucked right into work.

I’m now home cooking this week’s batch of Quinoa, listening to some Vampire Weekend and realizing last night was a LOST rerun, so I’m not sure what I’m going to do tonight.  Must fight the urge to work…

Exercise this morning was kinda HO-HUM, not totally great.  Again felt the challenges of shoulder exercises, which are just a group of muscles that are hard to work to exhaustion.

I might add in Shoulder Shrugs out of my own violition to PULL day for the rest of the routine, as its a great exercise and what lady  DOESN’T like a dude with wicked huge traps?!?!?! ;^)

Sprints and Abs tomorrow, then cardio weights Saturday and week 5 will be over.