It's great to be back!!!
First off, a primer. Last drill weekend, a Navy doctor waived me from the October/November Physical Readiness Test because while he told me that I could resume training at the beginning of October, it would not be enough time to get ready for the test. So I have about 29 weeks to prepare for the spring one. Good for me, because I'm out of shape. I 'm back at 242 lbs: while it wasn't major weight gain, I've lost some muscle and conditioning and I feel a little rusty.
Of course, this also made ponder my direction as far as weightlifting goes. My right shoulder is now loose and pain free again, as are some of my other aches and pains. What made me think was my weight: there really ain't much room for error or anything else. At this weight, my energy levels ain't as good and I snore more. I'm pretty sure my knees would ache less, too. After every PRT, my legs are hammered. I've always said my best bodyweight was around 196-206. I would like to be at a point where I'm always in great shape, not just when Navy physicals are happening. At a lighter weight, this layoff might have not been as bad.
But the other thing that made me think was my wife. She was recently diagnosed as the kind of diabetic that didn't need insulin shots but needed to watch it. She was getting close to me in weight (in good shape, she would be around 170) and after years of trying to get her back on the wagon, this was the motivation she needed to push her over the edge. Now, I'm training her and her body is starting to respond. I don't want that for myself, either.
My rib is about 95% better. I still feel a slight twinge when I turn to look behind me pulling out of a parking spot, but it's tiny. I can sleep on my left again and I was able to do 10 reps of Blast Strap pushups with no pain. I've spent this week doing level 1 on the elliptical and treadmill to start building towards a 12:23 - 12:00 1.5 mile run (sub-12 min if I can) to start out, and that's kicking my ass. I also started to test my lifts. Right now, since I want to get leaner, I'm leaning towards hypertrophy more than straight power. I also want to do something different. I have a spreadsheet of Chad Waterbury's programs that I'm looking at since a lot of his programs are full body, have variety, and cycle in heavy weights enough that I won't lose strength (heck, I might gain some). So after 4 weeks of 10-15 rep stuff to get my body up to speed, the Total Body Training cycle will be first.
BTW, I'm still doing Kris' virtual meet in February. That would be a great test of strength for me. The timing couldn't be better. And if ther's one last thing I learned from all this, the chicken and the trampoline, I will be smarter with my risk taking:)
3 comments:
Really good to see you back so soon! Seems like we are thinking along the same lines. Like you, I have decided to keep myself a little leaner. Not because I fear turning ill, but because walking around a bit overweight is not fun even with shoulders to match the waist... Also, I want to be closer to somekind of good competition weight where I'm not giving a way a whole lot by just carrying a lot of extra flab. Does this mean you will also start dieting? Week 2 just began for me. :-)
The doctor told me 4 weeks for the rib to heal and I was pretty compliant. I did take a lot of extra calcium, too. I kept my cravings for the iron at bay.
I'm not much of a dieter, Kris. I'm eating less at night, and less sweets, and smaller plates for dinner. Trying to eat better at breakfast time. I'm not a fatty cook, either. Less carbs on some days might be in the cards but that's it. I would rather run off a Snicker's bar than refuse it:)
I'm training to run a faster 1.5 mile run, and that training (done at lunch 5 days a week) covers me for some fat loss. The hypertrophy work should cover the rest. I could lose fat in the past with modified Westside, but sets of 8-15 reps got that job done faster in the past.
What is your plan to get leaner, Kris? And how much leaner do you want to be?
More detail to follow on my blog, but I'm dieting down on a cyclical ketogenic diet and using a slightly modified version of a 16 week periodization program. I started at 24.4% bodyfat, the long term plan is to try to keep it down to under 16%. In practice, I am carrying about 56 lbs of fat with 174 lbs of lean body mass. Accounting for no muscle loss, I would be at 207 lbs with 16% bodyfat. No diet comes without some muscle loss, so guess I am looking at about 200 lbs give or take for now. I probably won't lose quite as much before the virtual meet (the plan is to allow 8 weeks for a peaking cycle at maintenance to slightly above calories), but plan to do another diet stint sometime after that until the goal is met. The main goal in terms of strength is to increase relative strength; I don't like the idea of my absolute numbers dropping, but if Wilks gives me a better total then so be it. Still haven't calculated what kind of drops this allows for.
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