As 2011 draws to a close, thought it fitting to write a short piece recapping on a few major points and of course looking forward to what 2012 may bring. A lot of people I have talked to seem to think that 2011 was a bad year for them, while I cannot offer any thoughts on how they felt for 2011, I look at 2011 as a time for chance. So what happened in 2011 and how do I see the next year progressing?
Posts tagged training
Happy New Year
The Xmas training rest period
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.
Training Rest Week – Did it work?
As part of my training schedule, I was advised by enough people that I should take a week out of training for one week, to give my body time to repair some of the damage that I had been inflicting over the last 6 months. The reason why I was so against this, even though it was good advice, my body never felt like it needed a rest and I felt like I was making good gains. I did my last session on a Friday and never did any training until the following Sunday, that’s 8 days without any physical exercise. Did the week help? Will the first day back been like day one in the gym?
Training Rest Week
I have been training since March 2011 and I started on a 5 day schedule and finally moved onto a 4 day routine. I have never missed a day or a week since I began, my rest days been Wednesday and the weekend and even then I would sometimes do some light training on a Sunday with the punch bag. Everyone I spoke to said I should be taking ‘rest weeks’ to allow my body to recover, in my goal to get bigger – I carried on regardless, the theory was my body will tell me when I need a rest.
Optimum Health – Ultimate Whey Protein
This is another product I bought from Discount Supplements and I shall be honest in that that thing that attracted me to this was the price and the size of the bag. The reviews on the site said:
Having had a bad batch of protein from a different supplier I thought I’d opt for this. It has a ‘polyfilla’ type powder, very powdery if that makes sense but it does mix ok. I do half water / half ss milk and chuck an ice cube in if I’m at home. Great for meal replacement so helps keep weight down with lean gains too.
I went for the Banana flavour as in theory this is least one they can mess up. I tastes very nice indeed and can even be mixed in a normal bottle without the use of a mixer. At £24.99 for 75 Serving , you cannot really go to wrong.
Optimum Health – Ultimate Creatine
It has come to that time again when I need to get back on the Creatine and this time instead of waiting for Holland & Barrett, I headed off to Discount Supplements which features much cheaper prices then the stores but also has reviews. The previous stuff I had came from Holland and Barrett and at £20.99 was a touch expensive. It had a fruity flavour though and required a large scoop (43g) . This new stuff tastes of nothing – it even looks like polyfilla (Stuff you fill cracks with). You take 1 rounded teaspoon with juice or water. Creatine in my understanding holds in the water (which is why you drink more) which makes you bigger and thus makes you lift heavier weights. It does not work for everybody though. I need to say hats off to Discount Supplement though, I ordered one batch Sunday, One Batch Monday and it arrived by 10am Tuesday – cannot say fairer then that for Free Delivery.
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 2011 Update
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.
Fitness Training Update
Some time back I got off my back side, off the computer and started training. It was important to work out what it was I was trying to gain from this exercise – was it getting bigger (physically), stronger, fitter, look better or something else? Like so many people out there, I liked the idea of joining a gym but the on-going cost, would I keep it up, would I feel a bit stupid (and weak) in a gym that only housed muscle heads? I had a good space in my garage, I had a set of loose weights and if you kept up with my posts – a PunchBag and various other parts of equipment. Did I steer from my path? Did I reach any of my goals, was this training paying off?
Goodbye Skype
I thought I would take a break from Tech for this one post and go through some changes of late, some good, some bad and as always “Everything changes” as they say. The Blog is going well, I am looking forward to my first cheque from Google Adsense (which only took me three years to hit the required minimum of £60) – money for nothing right? I do hate adverts and I hate having them on here but they are required evil to keep the site going – Sorry…
