Amazing what a recovery week can do to you!

It really is amazing what some rest can do for your mind and body. I am felling more energetic and in good spirit today. When I left my house to go to work, I was not sure if I will go to gym or take more rest. But as the day progressed I felt good about myself. I stretched a bit to see if any of the muscles are sore. No. Not at all. I decided to go ahead and hit the gym .

It was a good thing too. I did not feel tired, just fatigued after the work out. And guess what? I got 9, 7 and 5 reps for my benchpress with 110 lbs. You know what that means? It means its time to up the weight for the next benchpress. I can finally do a benchpress with 35 lbs on either side of the bar for the next time! It is time for the elusive weight to become true for the first time. It is so much fun to set goals and try to reach them. It is like building a house, brick by brick while you have the final completed house firmly imprinted in your mind.

Even the deadlifts felt easy. I was able to do 190 lbs with relative ease. Finally I can do a plate and 25 lbs for my next deadlift. All good. But I still have a long way to go to reach my goal of benchpressing a plate on either side. I know the target. I know the path. It is now just a matter of time.

Filed under: benchpress, deadlifts, energy, recovery, rest

The recovery week is here

I have been doing my strength and mass gaining exercises for about 6 weeks now. Time to take a break. Let the muscles recover completely before my next bout of extremities. I just completed shoulder and trapezoids exercises today and I did not feel good about it.

All this week my performance has not been so good at the gym. First I did fewer reps than before week on my bench press this past Monday. I also did not do as well as I expected on my deadlifts too. Then I had a very weak bicep curl on Tuesday. Today (wednesday) I stepped into the gym with very low confidence. My body does not feel all energized. I felt tired even before I started. Not good. I picked up 42.5 lbs to start my shoulder press but again could not do any better than previous week. I could not finished my 3rd set at all. Not even a single rep. Which is bad news. My body is demanding rest. And rightly so too. It has been a little over 6 weeks since I started my mass gain phase. I need some rest.

Respecting what my body is telling me I decided to give myself this week off. I have been lifting very heavy for the past few days and that compounded with a very busy week at work aggravated the situation. It feels great to even think about the week off. It is unlike the feeling I get when I have to miss gym because of other reasons such as I am busy at work or because I have to travel etc. Looking forward to a restful week…

Filed under: energy, fatigue, recovery, rest, tired