Highland Games Training Week 6 of 15 Done

Well, no pictures this time, and I’m a day late getting it posted – though, with good reason I feel.  I dog sat for a friend last night while he was in the hospital with spleen issues.

I did my workout yesterday (I lay them out so that upper body is always on Wednesday.  I’m really not sure why), then rushed over there without bothering to take pictures.  Then, when I got there, I realized I didn’t have the WiFi password, so I said heck with it, I’ll do it tomorrow 🙂

So, the Wichita Highland Games training continues at best possible pace.  No injuries, though my legs were killing me from over doing it last week for part of this week, so I sat a day out extra to give me more recovery time.  I actually started to do my workout on it’s schedule, and did 10 body weight squats, and realized that was all I had in me – i had burned the muscles in my legs way too heavily.  So, I sat it out for the day, and picked it up the next day.

And, I’m fine with sitting a day out – my goal is to injure myself as infrequently as possible 🙂

I started the rotation between high-rep workouts (50-40-30-20-10-20-30-40-50) for upper body this week, and the results were “OK”.  I haven’t decided which one produces better results, but it’s a marathon, not a race, so one week doesn’t really give me good enough feedback to make decisions based upon it.  I’ve got 9 weeks left, so I’ll make a more informed decision in two more weeks.

I’ve lost some size around the middle – not a lot, just a little – during the course of the workouts.  However, I haven’t shed any weight (I weigh in weekly at the Dr.’s office where I’m doing a medical study), and in fact, my weigh in is higher than where I started at.  I started at 225, I’m now up to 331 – 335 range.  Which means the usual disclaimer image I use is actually a lie 😉  But – the goal isn’t losing pounds (or size) anyway, so it’s not important.  Tomorrow morning I’ll weigh in again, and see where I’m at.  I will say, though, that I’ve gotten just a little vanity in my workout – i added Pallof Presses (which is an interesting exercise) and Crunches to my leg workout days, just because it tightens the muscles a bit.  The common theory is that ab workouts don’t really do a lot for you when using crunches or most ab-specific workout items – more often than not, the other stuff you do already gives you enough of the ab workout already, plus location specific weight loss doesn’t happen, because the body takes it from everywhere.  I have some testing I want to do with that – because of the way the body’s energy transport mechanisms work, that’s counter-intuitive to how the layout of the body works.  But, it’s been on BuzzFeed, so it must be correct? 😉  Workout out is one of those areas that’s always evolving, with advice that goes back and forth – it’s not uncommon for conventional wisdom to be over-turned, then come back into vogue later with a new study.

After the Highland Games, I’ll look at losing the gut (up to a certain point).  For now, it’s just an extra set of exercises in my workout, just because I don’t like feeling fat.

Overall, still gaining ground, and overall still happy with results.   Some things, like grabbing my chinup bar throughout the day, take a lot less effort now.  I did one yesterday, stopped, and realized exactly how much less effort and how much more fluid the motion is now.  Yep, it’s a win. 🙂