wabeer1’s thoughts

Late in 2008 I was sitting idle, a dodged up knee from sports and running, bunged up shoulder and wondering how the F did it all go so wrong. I have always been active and thought for a moment that maybe it was retirement time for sports and lifting..heck most of my mates had given up.

Thinking about this more and more, it occured to me that training and sports has always been the fabric of my life. In my dark stressful days of work in my ’20s (well even now!) I looked forward to smashing out my frustrations at the gym, the nice summer days running on the beach, lifting heavy at the gym and meeting miletones in training, watching my body transform, improving my athletic and sporting edge..this list goes on - I LOVE TRAINING!

It did not take me long to re-discover the passion again and had to do some soul searching as 2008 was not a good year. I basically let go of my lifting and went down the path of focussing more on fitness and sports. One thing you discover in your ’30s is that your body is more prone to injury and I thought like I was bullet proof - reality check!!

Also given that alot of heart disease runs throught the family and seeing 1st hand the aftermath..do I want to end up like this..heck no! I have respect for myself and others and no way will accept anyting than the best that I can be in life.

Christmas approached, ate loads of food, drank heaps  and it got bad before it got good again. Basically devised a new strategy in the first week of January 2009. With consultation with my training partner, we basically decided it was time to revisit all aspects of traning from when we lifted, what I ate, the supplements and for me what sports would be more compitable in meeting my fitness expectations and safeguarding my body against possible injury. For me boxing was my new sport as I like the mental and physical challenge as well as the skill.

It was decided that we would start lifting in the morning as my new strategy was to limit my workout time and get the most out 45 minutes at the highest intensity - I remember this system worked best for me many years ago. In Jan I was in a bad state, 14.5%, small arms & shoulders and average fitness I basically had wiped out most of my mass gains over the years.

Diet, this has been the most crucial aspect of my training and also been the hardest. Bottom line is that I cut alot of the bad food out and have managed to remain lean ever since. Getting the protein and carb balance right is not an easy task but think that this has been downpacked finally. Also, was not interested in bulking and cutting regimes as I am still focussed on being fit and athletic and will not subject myself to this system and do not believe in low carb diets or things like hydroxycut or Lipo 6 - learnt the hard way on alongtime ago this and does not drive the right behaviour and is not sustainable - I want abs all year round!

The next 6 months look very promsing as I have met all my expectations to date, further refined my diet, have remained injury free and fighting fit, launched a new periodisation system which is seeing major spikes in strength and supporting lean mass gains…

Life is freaking awesome and loving it - bar that split second thought of ever giving up. I always knew when my body was ready I was coming back and BIG TIME!!

Ok stats time:

Current Body Bodyfat: 6% change since Jan
July  8.50%  
Jan stat: 14.5%

Weight: 77kg - 169lbs
+1kg change in 2 weeks
+5kg change since late April!
+2kg change since Jan

Chest: +4cm change since Jan
July 104cm
Jan 100cm

Arms (based on flexed):
39.5cm (unflexed 35cm), which is a 5.3cm (34.2 cm)change since Jan
and +2cm since May (37.5cm)
Great outcome for these scrawny suckers!

Waist:4.5cm drop since Jan
July 77.5 cm,  
Jan it was 82cm

Thighs: 54.2cm +3.2cm since May -
Squats and deadlifts are starting to filter through some results!

Overall happy with progression to date and can’t wait to see were I am in the next 6 months!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 7:29 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.