A Public Announcement

After a couple of years of fighting with motivation, I've decided to just bite the bullet and stop lifting. I must say, I am LOVING it.  I love not feeling worried about whether to go to the gym or not and stressed about not going and then if I do go not really enjoying it.

At the moment, for exercise I'm running for about 30-40 minutes 2 -3 times a week.  The runs involve LOTS of hard hills so it's more interval training that steady state cardio.  I am really enjoying myself.  I feel really fit now and so light when I run.

I'm also enjoying how I look; I've dropped about 5kg (11lbs) since October and to be honest, I don't have the desire to look muscly anymore.  Dare I say that I want to look "toned" :-/  More importantly than how I look I actually FEEL way better.  I don't feel so tired, so achy.  I can actually function properly during the day.  I actually feel more positive (probably because I don't feel so shitty) so I am STOKED.

I am a little sad about losing my strength, but you can't win em all.

So for now, this blog will be put to rest.  I anticipate  I might start lifting again in winter, but to be honest I can't even be sure of that!

That Bench Press Video

...the one I was supposed to post about two months ago, well... here it is!  It's the video from this training session.

Training: Friday 16th September

Oops, I forgot to post my training from last Friday.  As with all Fridays I was over training and just wanted to get in and out of the gym so I just did the basics.  Despite my poor training attitude, I think I did pretty good.

Push Press
20kg x 10
30kg x 8
42.5kg x 5
47.5kg x 3
52.5kg x 5

Deadlift
60kg x 10
80kg x 5
105kg x 5
120kg x 3
135kg x 4

Incline Crunches
3 x 10, no weight

I get confused with what to call these things.  If you're on one of those benches like you do decline bench on, do you call them incline or decline crunches?  I used to call them decline, but then I saw someone else calling them incline... I get confused.  Someone help me!

Hanging Leg Raises
2 x10

Well, that's my first working cycle of this round of 5/3/1 so I'll be bumping up the weights next time.  Next week (or this week now) is supposed to be a deload week.  Sometimes I just take the week off weights which I probably shouldn't do but the weights are so light it's sometimes like doing nothing anyway.  I think as long as I'm exercising it should be okay.  When the weights get heavier it's probably more important to get in there and do the deload properly.  

On Saturday morning, for the first time in a long time, I got up early and went for a run before work.  It was great to get out and about actually.  I was quite sore the next morning as I'm not conditioned to running continuously for 40 minutes like I used to be.  Although I run a lot in soccer, it's more stop-start and sprints than a long jog. The aim is to get out at least 3 times a week for a run once Daylight Savings starts this weekend (yay!).  I'm obviously going to build it up as I'm not a spring chicken anymore and my joints cried after just my Saturday run.  If the weather is good I'll get up early on Thursday morning for a run before work since I start late that day.