#Fitness - #ChestDay post workout 'feelings'.

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Post workout feelings this Chest Day

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Those Feels

Have you ever worked so hard towards meeting or reaching a goal that you felt sick to your stomach when there wasn't immediate results?  I know I feel that way everytime I work chest.  It has been a very, VERY long time since I have been able to push 2 plate.  I'm getting back to it but it makes me feel a little sick knowing it is taking so long.

When I was younger this was easier to do, I was going up 10-15lbs a month or so, no I'm lucky to go up 5 a month.  No matter how I train.  I feel that with my new training being a slower more controlled to prevent injury of this old man body of mine that the effect is taking even longer.  Of course I'd love to blame a slower training on slower gains but the truth of the matter is I need to train properly and I just don't like things taking so long.

I am impatient.

I'm in my early 30's but I feel so much worse, having had a bad go (accidents, broken limbs, and so on) it just feels as if it has taken its toll on me and I want to get my old body back sooner than later.  I know there is no easy way to make it happen.  As a young man it still took me a long time to sculpt out my body, but as an older gentleman I am finding it much harder to get back in the swing of things and getting my body back on track.

What I'm lifting

On chest day I tend to start out with my heaviest exercises first, wel starting with medium weight and working my way up to my heavier weights obviously, this is where I bench or chest press.  I keep this first so I am training this way with the optimal body strength.  So basically me at my best so I reduce risk of injury.  I'm not sure if this is the best way to train though.  I guess I am going to have to read some books/epubs on this so I get a better idea on what to do.

From there though I move into fly's, inclined press, cable cross, etc, basically all the exercises I can do to focus on the chest.  It has worked in the past to get me to bulk up chest wise, but I also need to burn more calories, as I am trying to lose weight while building more muscle, again sometimes I wish there was an easy button for this.

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#Fitness - The joys of #LegDay in the #Gym

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Probably one of the best days in the world, is Leg Day.

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The Change

I make no bones about it, Leg Day is probably one of my favourite days if not my favourite day in the gym.  I always feel great after Leg Day, sore, exhausted, yet energised, it gives me a sense of well being.  I don't know why but it really does change my mood, of all the days to train, whenever I train legs I find myself in almost a state of euphoria even though the metal plate in my ankle aches with each rep of each set, its almost as if it is a challenge to push harder and since I love a good challenge, I always do.

Today I challenged myself in a good way, I kept my squats to a lower weight then usual and focused more on form then on weight.  5 sets of 10 reps, all good and healthy, not really a challenge for my weight, but the challenge was keeping proper form.  Helping to avoid injury with my lower back and knee's by performing each squat carefully and ensuring my posture and form were correct.  That has been my goal.

Like the squats I continued to pursue better form for all my Leg Day exercises, thus avoiding injury.  Hamstring Curls, Leg Extensions, Leg Press, all of them were better than normal.  Maintaining proper body position on the equipment helps keep my joints safe or so I am told and that is my new goal.  To keep myself healthy and improve my overall lifestyle.

In the past I've been reckless with my exercises and lately I've been focusing more and more on avoiding injury because I just had a feeling it was coming if I kept training the way I did.  So I am quite glad I made this decision to improve my training methods by avoiding exercising in ways that could lead to injury.  So lowering the weight and performing my exercises under better control and with proper posture and form I feel has ultimately helped me avoid injury but in the long run will help me be able to go heavier and keep myself healthier.

The Result

The result of the changes above are quite simple, less injury, longer training times, slower improvements, but again, less injury, or chance of injury.  By removing or lowering the chance of injury I feel that I am actually making it easier and faster to train, because if I injure myself I won't be able to train, and if I can't train I won't be able to improve.  So its a better scenario, a winning scenario I feel.

I cannot fathom why it took me so long to adjust to this safer style of training, maybe it was because I was in a hurry to lose weight, or maybe its because I was simply ill informed of what could happen, but the more I look into my health and fitness.

The more I read about training habits and appropriate ways to train and how to train, the more I realize I have been putting myself in a lot of danger and risk of injury.  So after today's exercise being the first with this new training methodology I have to say I will adopt this into the rest of my training.  

I feel better, but I know it will be the right way.  I will continue to research and train based on what I've read and keeping myself healthy first, focused on prevention of injury followed by loss of weight, and third building a nice body and form.  I've got a lifetime to train, so I am going to train properly and take my time and stop rushing for gains and success. I'll get where I want to be!.

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