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.

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.

Final week.  At this point I’ll say that I’m DEFINITELY excited to take next week off, and the idea of sleeping in is quite lovely to me.  However, I have to admit to myself that I feel better when I’m training than when I’m not.  So while this may officially be the last week of the routine, I’m going to continue on pretty strongly after that.  Life is momentum for me, and the simple act of committing to get up each morning and move heavy weights around has created some in my life and i have no desire to waste all that energy.

Chest was pretty good this morning, dumbbell bench press was quite tough, I was reeeeaaally struggling by the final reps.  Fantastic.  Had a great couple of sets of bicep curls as well, it blows me away how much less weight i’m doing than I used to, but how much more intense they are with proper focus at the proper weight.  No cheating.

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

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!

Sluggish today.  No particular reason, got an okay amount of sleep, woke up on time, ate fairly well this weekend….but when I pushed things didn’t move as fast or as powerfully as I wanted them to be.  One of the great things I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing with my strength traininng, though I think it applies to any practice, is the joy of highs and lows.  Often they come for no particular reason, days I intend on having the best workout ever turn out ho-hum, while other days where i feel like I’ve barely been able to get out of bed turn out to be the best.  Learning to enjoy the ride, whether its up or down, has been a great practice for me.  States come and go, as do good and bad workout sessions, moods, the weather, and so much else.

174.2 on the scale this morning.  My goals to have the lovely number 173 flash up on that scale by a week from friday.    Make it so.

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!

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.

Routine was a bit different today, didn’t workout till 8am as I stayed up late last night along with fellow crew to watch the premiere of the television show I helped create….So slept in a bit this morning and decided to workout a little later.  I definitely ate off diet quite a bit this weekend, both friday at a gathering at a friends and last night at our little premiere shindig.  While it was nice to splurge on some junk food and whatnot, I’m definiitely feeling the effects in my body.  I feel a bit sluggish, tired, and more congested than usual.  Looking forward to getting back to cleaner foods for the week!

Wasn’t my strongest chest workout this morning, partly because of the lack of sleep and poor eating this weekend.  Definitely didn’t feel as strong as normal.  So begins week 12!

Stats this morning: 37″ and 20 on the calipers.

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.