Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 191
Day 191 I was a little worried I'd wake up feeling pretty worse for wear today, but fortunately my quad wasn't feeling too bad. However, my left knee has also been feeling a bit cranky, which leads me to think my body is telling me I probably need to adjust and back off on certain things a bit.
I'm not recovering as well as I'd like to. Last week was pretty tough, but I shouldn't be feeling this tight and bound up. The one thing I'm definitely guilty of lately, is not committing enough time to my stretching and recover methods. So, as much as I need to back off a bit, I probably need to contribute more time to preventing injuries and increasing the rate of recovery.
My workout today was a somewhat random upper body workout. I usually superset most of my strength exercises, but today I felt like focusing on one exercise a time.
Today's Workout
Exercise 1: Close Grip Bench Press 4 sets / 10 reps / 2 min rest Set 1: 185lbs x 10 Set 2: 185lbs x 10 Set 3: 185lbs x 10 Set 4: 185lbs x 10
Exercise 2: Tricep Dips 4 sets / 12 - 15 reps / 2 min rest Set 1: BW x 15 Set 2: BW x 15 Set 3: BW x 15 Set 4: BW x 20
Exercise 3: Dumbbell Lying Tricep Extensions 3 sets / 12 - 15 reps / 60 sec rest Set 1: 27.5 lbs x 15 Set 2: 27.5 lbs x 15 Set 3: 30 lbs x 15
Superset
Exercise 4: Standing Barbell Curl 4 sets / 12 - 15 reps / no rest Set 1: 75 lbs x 15 Set 2: 75 lbs x 15 Set 3: 75 lbs x 15 Set 4: 75 lbs x 15
Exercise 5: Fwd Cable Shoulder Raise 3 sets / 12 - 15 reps / 60 sec rest Set 1: 30 lbs x 15 Set 2: 30 lbs x 15 Set 3: 30 lbs x 15
Exercise 4: Dumbbell Zottman Curl 2 sets / 10 - 12 reps / 60 sec rest Set 1: 30 lbs x 12 Set 2: 30 lbs x 12
Obviously being a workout consisting of mostly arm exercises, I stuck to the plan of giving my legs a rest. It didn't involve any recover methods but I did do my best to stretch and roll as much as possible throughout the rest of my day. I trained my group tonight but unlike last night decided to stick to just instructing.
I'm optimistic that I'll be able to push really hard again soon. Occasionally I just need that little reminder from my body that I will only let me do so much. Tomorrow, I still hope to get a lot of work done but I think the balance will be swayed more toward corrective / pre-hab exercises rather than things like squats or sprinting.