geographer’s BodyBlog

I still have no clear bodybuilding plan. I hope to finally lay it out by tomorrow.

However, I feel really tired but happy these last few training days. I went over to my friend B’s place and that was good.

My first training after the New Year was on Jan 2 (Fri), then I went again on Jan 4 (Sun). Then, today, my friend D who is also my neighbor and gym buddy, returned from his small town of Yellowknife and invited me for a workout. I was still a bit sore from my leg workout yesterday but I had the sense that D would want to do upper body work so I agreed to join him. We did shoulders…at least 2 exercises and man, am I SORE. I’m beginning to realize that there’s actually a huge difference between going to the gym alone and going with someone else who can push you further.

D is a pusher (not drugs) and he does it well. He’s way stronger than me even if his frame is smaller. However, when we’re spotting each other, he never makes me feel insecure — he makes me want to reach the same level of strength that he has. He’s a good motivator and I believe he will be a very successful guy in the future.

Today, I realized that I’m finding bodybuilding really interesting because of this: the fact that strength and progress is actually measurable (and hopefully, visibly tangible) compared to the "stuff" that I do as an academic sometimes. I’m not saying that we academics do not produce anything, but I derive a lot of pleasure, for example from seeing that I’m losing a few inches or my stomach is getting flatter…which simply means that I’m also getting stronger.

Anyway, I found this article last week which makes me thank D for being patient with me at the gym. I hope he’s not reading this (nobody among my close friends know I’m keeping this blog), but IF ever I reach my physical goals, I’ll treat the man with some major steak or whatever food he likes:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_transformat
ions/the_secrets_to_body_transformation

I’ll show this to D and probably we can lay out a plan together. But I’ll be open to any suggestions from you guys. Have a good one everyone!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 3:14 am and is filed under Training. 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.