Its been a while since I last posted some information on how my training is going and no – that picture is not me but I thought it fitted rather well into the title. As a mean of a catch up, I train in my garage with limited equipment, I have some dumbbells and a multibar which allows me to do pull-ups and press-ups. They say training is half guess work in that you try something, see if it works and change on up and while I should really join a gym and do it properly.
The goal
With limited equipment and limited knowledge of what works, the goal was to get stronger, bigger and of course fitter. In June 2011 I am entering CareIT Challenge which is a 10 Mile run, 15 Mile Bike ride and 2.5 mile Canoe challenge. My present training is alternative days working mainly on upper body but I have an idea on how to step this up a lot leading up to June and beyond.
Protein shakes
Like most people who have trained I guess, I bought into these protein shakes, I mixed them with natural yogurt and milk and I took this stuff month after month. I agreed that your body needs Protein while training and maybe my level of training was not intensive enough to warrant me needing these but after getting sick of wasting money on this stuff, I did some research. They claim on the web that in fact you can get enough of what you need in just the food you eat (if you eat right of course) and they contain a lot of sugar. As an experiment I stopped buying these shakes and my body as expected started to go on a downward turn.
After some more searching about, it dawned on me that I was just not eating enough daily to counteract my training. I changed what I ate and when, in the mornings for example I make sure I have scrambled egg with toast as well as some cereal and fresh orange juice. I eat more during the day and night until I finally go to bed. I eat a lot more chicken which does contain protein but I also drink a lot more water during the day.
Train no matter what
I read that as long as you eat right, rest well and train hard on a consistent basis, you will get stronger, you will get bigger. No Matter how cold it is outside and the fact I have just done a hard days work – I train. The length with vary deepening on how cold it gets and how much my lungs hurt but I often carry the training on later on in the warmth of my bedroom with the loose weights and such. I am not sure if this is ‘wrong’ But I train every other day in effect (example Mon, Web, Fri, Sun).
Changing up a gear
When I was ill on Christmas day and in hospital, i looked at my body and said “why am I not bigger than I am, I am wasting my time or what”. This was in fact a wake up call for me, yes I was training but not to the extreme, If I wanted to make some progress, it was time to step it up a gear.
Once I got into January I started not only to change the way I train with the loose weights but start to look into the proper way to train. This started to work quite well for me, I actually felt the burn in my arms and chest as I trained, my punching got harder and I started to outgrow the cloths I own.
Feeling better for it
I need to say here that if you spent all day in the office, maybe had a late night and early morning, cut out on breakfast and had some greasy fry –up later on in the day – you may well not feel in the mood to start working out in your garage or even in a proper gym. The same person though might suffer from one cold after another and generally feel tired all the time (I happen to know somebody like this over the internet). Apart from that Christmas day issue (when my temperature got to 42c and I collapsed), I have had zero illness in the last two years or so. I feel better in myself, I have lots of energy and I guess look in great shape.
It is easy to give up, I know it is not going to happen in a couple of months worth of training, I keep at this no matter what. You do not need to spend lots of equipment of gyms to get healthy and fit, eeven two chairs can provide a means to train.
