It is said that when you are training, you have to let your body rest up, week after week of ripping the muscle and letting it grow back will take it’s toll if you do not allow the body time to fully recover. I had spoken to the gym owner and he told me that it closed 23rd Dec and re-opens 3rd Jan. As the gym closed lunch time on the 23rd Dec, that week I did a 4 day straight training session and this was hard work let me tell you. While it seems like a long time off the gym, the reality is at most you have one week off but as I am not at work also, my physical activity is lower than normal.
Posts tagged gym
The Xmas training rest period
Training – Aug 2011 Update
As we enter August 2011, a journey which I started in March and is still going strong and I am starting to see some changes as I try and fool my body into getting bigger. I started this training as a means to get stronger and did not think I could get that big but with the right routine and dedication, anything is possible. I took some pictures of the gym I train at and as you will see later, it is not the biggest gym in the world, it gets very hot in there (no aircon) and at peak times it can be difficult to get on the correct equipment you need at that time.
Training cycle continues onwards
Seen as it was the 20th May the last time I wrote anything, I would hate to think that people thought I had given up this training schedule. The only difference is that I was sure people got bored reading about me keeping fit and thus why I have not posted as much. SO what has changed since we last posted? The first thing was I changed from a 5 day schedule to a 4 day schedule, this meant I trained Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – giving my body more time to recover. I had a medical check at work for the over 40′s which tells you if you are due a heart attack and such – more on this in a bit though.
Training Update Month Three
I am trying to keep the number of posts about fitness and training to a low number, I would hate to force feed the readers with a weekly update of me going to the gym and brag about it – this is not my point but more of how much down the road to changing my lifestyle to be bigger, fitter, stronger and overall better (in my eyes). Fitness is not for everyone I understand and can be a annoying to read about even.
My original goal was to become stronger, maybe bigger but at no point did I expect to be like a “body-builder” – I had told myself that I had tried this a few times in the past (during my time in the army for example) and I failed to get big back then so I assumed that my body was just “not the type” to get big and strong. In this post I plan to lay out what I have learned along the way and my short term goals.
The true cost of keeping fit
They say that no matter what sport or hobby you choose, if you get serious about it,then it will cost you money. I was just thinking about how my initial steps into the world of keeping myself fit has started to take on a lot more of my time and also my wallet. I started with the equipment I already had (some loose weights) and added to this a punch bag, some dumbbells and finally a bar to fit across the door to allow me to do pull-ups and such. Although I dabbled in buying Protein drinks, it was always when they were in a Sale and bought anything to be honest. I hit a point in my training were I choose in my case to advance forward with what I saw as the cheapest route forward – this was joining a gym.
Five Day Strength Routine – Update
As we approach the end of April 2011, I thought I would update those interested in my current passion and this is going to the gym to get bigger, stronger and fitter. If you recall I got this Five day routine from the internet but never started the routine straight away. I joined the gym on the 7th March, spent one week on some general (and wrong) training, the next week I was ill – this meant I never started this routine until 21st March. The purpose of the routine is a simple one, you only do two muscle groups per day which means each muscle has 6 days of rest and you also have two days rest in the week.
Fitness Training – the update
In respect to the last post Joining a Gym – I thought I would update people on my progress. I have a few goals in mind, one is to train for the CareIT Challenge in June 2011, the other is to get stronger, bigger, fitter. My First week of the gym was as expected not training to the full potential due to the fact I either never knew what the machines did and also I had no plan of attack in what area’s to train. What this means was I jumped from machine to machine training random muscles and missing half the machines due to having no idea what they did. Of course to get the most out of this experience, I needed to find a guide to show me what to do – and this I did.
Today I Joined A Gym
For some time I have been using the Loose weights, punch bag and my multi bar to train best I can and while this goes some way into providing a great work out, it cannot complete with the complete set of equipment that a typical gym can provide. What made me choose to join a gym was quite funny actually, as I was clearing out my garage of Junk, I managed to throw away the piece of foam + carpet I used on the floor – this meant some of my daily workout could not be done – I bit the bullet and finally looked around for a gym.
What was important to me in choosing the right one was it had to be local, no driving 10 miles just to get there. The next step was the overall cost, a lot of them charge a joining fee plus a monthly fee and separate payments for other parts such as Sauna for example. I looked at one and this was £40 to join (special offer) and £52 a month – wow. The local council one was £20 joining fee plus a choice of per usage fee of £4.50, a monthly fee of £35 with no fixed term and finally cheaper if you signed up for 8 months. Finally I choose one that a person at work goes to, this is simply £35 a month cash up front or £25 a month if you sign up by direct debt for one year. They had a whole rafter of machines, loose weights, running machines, sunbed and so forth. I enjoyed my hour I spent there getting used to the machine, plan to Go Monday, Wednesday and Friday with running on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday – Sunday as they say is a day of rest.
