Well, I’m back again. My cold lasted around ten days, but during that time I did no exercise whatsoever – I just felt too ill. I must confess; I went on a major downer afterwards. It seems like every time I try to get fit something happens to prevent me from accomplishing my goals. I spent the subsequent weeks repeatedly asking myself “what is the point?”.
Time and time again I manage to reach a reasonable level of fitness only to see it all go down the drain. I watched a TV programme about obesity a few weeks ago. Long term studies had been performed to monitor the lifestyle of dieters and non-dieters. Without going into it in full detail the outcome was that those people who had spent a decade yo-yo dieting (losing weight, only to put it all back on again) ended up being heavier than those over-eaters who made no attempt to lose weight. It was also strongly argued that the vast majority of those yo-yo dieters would have probably been lighter after the decade of over-eating if they hadn’t bothered doing any dieting at all, and that there dieting lifestyle had grossly contributed to their current obesity.
Their constant dieting had actually made them fatter!
I understand the arguments behind these theories and, conversely, am in full agreement. I daresay that if I had never begun any form of dieting in my very early thirties I would probably be significantly lighter than I find myself today, especially if I had added a fair amount of cardio into my routines. Hindsight is a wonderful thing…!
Anyway, I digress. Last Monday I decided to dig myself out of the hole I had created and once again began the slow and steady climb back to a fitter Neil. I managed 3 painful HIIT routines and 3 weights sessions last week. As usual, in an effort to re-motivate me, I am trying something different. In fact, this is something I have NEVER tried before and goes against everything I have learned about weight training over the last 20 years…
I have decided to adopt my CONSISTENCY philosophy with my weight training. As opposed to training each body part twice per week with a rest/growth period inbetween I am now going to perform a full upper body workout four times per week. I will be doing high-rep sets with low weights and short rest periods, keeping my heart rate up throughout. This will in turn burn more calories than one of my “normal” weights sessions and help to offset the fact that I am not dieting.
Why am I doing this? As mentioned in an earlier post, my enthusiasm for the weights has been severely waning as this year has progressed. It has become mundane. This is something different and goes against what is considered the norm. I don’t expect to increase my muscular density but if I manage to maintain some CONSISTENCY then I am fairly certain I will tone up at a faster rate and burn a few extra fat cells in the process.
My weights routine is as follows:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday:
Chest – 2 sets of 30 reps
Back – 2 sets of 30 reps
Biceps – 2 sets of 30 reps
Triceps – 2 sets of 30 reps
Shoulders – 2 sets of 30 reps
Traps – 1 set of 30 reps
Abs – 2 sets of 30 reps
My cardio routine is as follows:
Monday – HIIT (25 minutes)
Tuesday – HIIT (25 minutes)
Wednesday – extended run, either indoor or outdoor, no less than 2 miles
Thursday – HIIT (25 minutes)
Friday – HIIT (25 minutes)
Saturday – extended run, either indoor or outdoor, no less than 3 miles
Sunday – rest day
As I am currently soooooo unfit I imagine this is going to be incredibly hard going. For those people who have read my Blog before you will probably know that I love the challenge and enjoy pushing myself. I am totally looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and hope to be running a good distance again before the end of the year. I would like to see myself running a five miler within the next fortnight – that would give my morale a much needed boost.
Right. ‘nuff said.