Today marks the last full week of training for a month or so now: I finished the streak on a high by smashing through all 4 days for the week, I upped the weights on dumbbell presses (chest press is on 20kg dumbbells, up from 12kg when I started training back in January); my diet stayed on track during the days that I had a gym session, but on workdays I lived off of sandwich meal deals and/or fast food, not the model I want to be representing but we’re all only human.

The biggest thing I’ve taken away from this week of workouts and dieting was a lesson learnt on Thursday (leg day), where, during what I thought were conventional deadlifts, I discovered that I was doing the wrong variety, with the wrong form too: Instead of bending my knees and doing the regular variety, I’ve been doing stiff leg deadlifts for the last few weeks, this exercise exercises the back more than it does the legs, and therefore doesn’t belong on a days routine otherwise dedicated to improving my legs, let alone the day after back and biceps day – it’s really easy to overexert the back by exercising, and back injuries are the furthest thing from a joke as they can have permanent life-changing complications.

What I can anticipate happening over the next few weeks where I won’t be able to train at the same consistency as usual are that I’ll put on weight. Not the end of the world, and the weight gained won’t be too noticeable, and it’s not like fasting is an option (obviously a joke, please remember to eat), my original goal was to slim & gain muscle so this is a few steps in the wrong direction. It’s not all bad news though, My muscles will have time to recover. The best thing about resting periods are that your body has time to catch up with you and heal, I can’t slack off for too long though otherwise I’ll lose my progress.

Featured image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/candlescents/3670671547 licensed under CC2.0