Still determined to get my glutes/chest workout in, I went straight home after work, changed into my gym clothes and went over to the Y to push some weight around. See I want to do big lifting days on Wednesdays and Thursdays so I can go heavy Saturdays and Sundays too. Fridays are my rest days. This pattern has just worked itself out to be like this. Monday and Tuesday are cardio days, and I will eventually do yoga on Monday evenings if I ever get the balls to sign up.
I read an article on bodybuilding.com about intensifying your workouts, both cardio and weight lifting, to maximize results, preserve the most muscle, and burn the most fat. You mean I don't have to do an hour of boring steady-state cardio, and I get to lift like an animal?? Sign me up!!! I decided to apply that approach to my training. No nonsense, no time-wasting, just beautifully intense.
The way to intensify cardio is obvious, just do HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) which I already do. In the weight room, the way to go intense is to lift heavy, only 8-12 reps, and cut way down on rest time in between sets moving from one move to the next. I tried it out tonight. It was awesome! I was pouring sweat half-way through and really got my heart rate up.
I am a little concerned about my knees. They were feeling fine up until after my run today. Today was my third day in a row running outside and I know better than that. My body is not conditioned enough to have high-impact three days in a row like that. Oh well! Took an extra glucosamine and fish oil this evening, and I'll rest them the next two days at least.
Tomorrow is back and core, plus shoulders/bis/tris. I might break it up into two workouts if I need to. We'll see.
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Here is how I'm keeping track of everything, my master spreadsheet. The smiley faces are perfect clean eating days, and then I write in my workouts. Not too complex. On the right side I have columns tracking dates, days, and weight.
If you can't tell from the smiley faces, my eating has been perfect. Made more turkey meatloaf muffins last night, and paired them with broccoli, eggplant, and spaghetti squash. I am considering today and tomorrow "lower carb" days in my attempt to psudeo carb cycle.
Carb cycling is where you cycle low carb and higher carb days. Since any excess carbs that don't get used by your body as fuel get stored as fat, if you go lower with carbs you up your chances of not storing fat and making your body use fat as an option for fuel. You have to keep the protein up though, because the last thing you want to do is sacrifice an ounce of that hard-earned muscle by burning it as fuel.
The high carb days are to carb up and replenish your glycogen stores, to remind your body there isn't a shortage of food so it doesn't go into fat hoarding mode. It is a great method but a tricky game to play. I don't want to eat any carbs I shouldn't but I also want to give my body plently of energy so I feel great and can get in solid quality workouts. I just do what makes my body feel best.
I have had ZERO sugar since starting this thing. The only artifical sweetener I'll use is Stevia, which is actually not artificial, it is a plant extract. However, now that I have gone so long without any sugar and my blood sugars are constantly stablized, I don't need stevia in my coffee or oatmeal anymore, the two places I was using it. How about that? Pretty cool.
So all in all great day, things are going well, little worried about the knees but planning to rest them. No running until Saturday or Sunday.
