BuckSpin - A Year Of Change

I’m a quote/saying junkie. I collect em’. Love em’. They help me to think clearly and make decisions. One of my favorites is this one. I’m sure there are subtle variations, but it basically goes:

"Experience is the toughest teacher in that it gives the test 1st, lesson 2nd"

I just finished up a great 6 week training cycle that not only yielded nice physical & strength gains but got me back on track from a bout with overtraining that I lost by unanimous decision. I trained fewer times (3x/week) and those sessions were parred to just 2/3s (9 lifts maximum) of what I had been doing as far as exercises/sets as well as addressing certain grips & lifts to allow me to just go balls to the wall gonzo. I trained much harder and more intensely as a result. I rested more (it was perhaps the major focus of this cycle) and it all worked out very well. I even adjusted my ab/core sessions to shorter yet more intense sessions with the same results.

But this last week was rough. I felt tired and had trouble getting jacked up to train. My shoulders, while doing MUCH better, started to ache a lil’ longer between sessions. My legs are still not 100% recovered from my last Training Day From Hell. My sleep quality slowly started to suffer. So, I’m listening to my body and drawing on those lessons learned of going for months and months with no breaks and taking my first planned & scheduled "down time" to rest and heal for a week.

I need to re-evaluate my current sessions. I know I must split Back & Legs into 2 seperate sessions (its just getting to be too much) and work on targeting different areas. I’ll probably end up going back to 4 days a week with Tue & Thur being shortened (4-5 lifts max) yet insane days devoted to either Back or Legs. A few lifts will be shuffled around between sessions, all the sessions will have their lift orders changed, and a few new lifts will either be coming back or tried for the first time.

And today I’m just not ready physically, mentally, preparedly and even a lil’ spiritually. I need to "lay my burden down" and refuel all of those to be ready for what will undoubtedly be the most difficult cycle I’ve undertaken yet…the next one.

Starting Monday, November 3rd, I will undergoing a "trial run" of what is basically a 21 day pre-contest cut to see how my body responds. I got the final details the other night from my coach. This is NOT going to be easy, but if it was then everyone would "look like that", right?

I read all the time how people "fall off the wagon" and cheat on their nutrition, miss workouts, etc. I just don’t do that. So, I view this week as a "reward week" for 6 weeks of busting my @$$, doing every training session to the best of my abilities, eating clean 24/7, etc. I get to just chill, detox, relax, reset, plan, reinspire, etc.

And, as you will read later, I am going to need every ounce of it and have my body, mind & soul 100% recharged for this exciting yet admittedly intimidating challenge I will be undertaking.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 9:37 am and is filed under Training, Other, Motivation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.