Total time spent in the gym so far this week: 1 hour, split over two sessions. Monday's session was 35 mins (some of which was simply catching up on gossip - that's what the watercooler's there for, right?), Wednesday's session was a mere 25 mins. You might wonder what the point of such short sessions is or even whether it's worth getting your gear on for that amount of time. Firstly, it is always worth getting into your lycra but more importantly (maybe ... I do like my lycra!) it allows for greater focus and intensity ... and greater results.
We're talking quality not quantity
That may seem strange coming from me, a person who will happily (and does happily) train two to three times a day most days of the week. My overall training volume is high and that's the way I like it. A few short sessions spread out over the day makes sense to me for several reasons:
- in terms of time management. I fit in short sessions first thing in the morning, at lunch time and again later in the evening. That appeals far more than having to wait till work is done for the day and then go and putz about in the gym for an hour or so and fits in better with parental duties.
- keeping my eating clean and controlled. If I know I'm training at lunch time, it makes no sense to be eating crap mid-morning - it'll ruin my workout ... and this applies all through the day. It's part of my being mindful about my food. If I'm constantly just fuelling and re-fuelling, I'm not driving myself nuts with cravings.
- it regulates my mood. Poor night's sleep - half hour run first thing to clear the head. Crap morning at work - lunch time swim to blast your frustrations. Stuck in traffic for a million years on the way home - break out the barbell when you get back and squat the pain away!
- it maximises caloric burn. Get your sessions spot on and you'll not only burn calories during them but also get a good afterburn. Time it right and it's like all day interval training!
That's my reasoning behind the high volume. Nonetheless, I still consider my training to be heavier on quality than quantity. Take, for example, my recent gym sessions.
With only half an hour to hand, you go for the supersets. In the earlier stages of my challenge, I was doing antagonistic supersets, working opposing muscles (e.g. biceps and triceps, chest and back) with no rest between exercises. Good for mass but not great for definition. Now I'm into the final month and still supersetting but using two exercises for the same muscle group (e.g. tricep pulldowns followed by dips). Choose your exercises carefully and you can do it all from one bench or piece of equipment and save the time you'd normally spend waiting to get on the lat pulldown or whatever. I believe same muscle supersetting promotes greater definition. We'll see in four weeks time if this is true!
In the mean time, I have noticed some changes which I suspect are a result of a combination of my pulls up regime and my extra swimming. Take a look (and ignore the pre-bubble bath hairdo if you please) :
Baby got back!
Ignore the lack of gun flex and check out the sneaky lat action.
I'm thinking that I need to get someone to take pics of me at the gym (yep, I've even got a poor sucker in mind to be my photographer too - he just doesn't know it yet!) It is very hard to get decent pics of yourself with no tripod. Also, the lighting at the gym makes me look way more awesome! That said, I'm happier now that things are moving in the right direction (and highly entertained by the size of my shoulders in relation to my waist). Superhero proportions are not easy to attain and even though I have very humanly half-assed it and messed up on occasion, I think I'm going to get decently close to the mark. Should have had a little more faith in myself from the start but at least now I've got it from here on in.
Almost in the home straight now - guess I'd better start scoping out a Catwoman costume, huh? :)
Very nice muscle definition! Have you considered bodybuilding competitions, Hippolyta? I'm sure that they do look for the shoulder-waist proportions. You'd probably do very well.
ReplyDeleteIs Halloween the same in Scotland as in US? It would be a great goal to get and wear the Catwoman costume by Halloween. Or is that what you were already planning.
I love the super sets too. And I absolutely adore doing dips. They feel like a cool gym trick.
:-) Marion
Thanks Marion! Body building is something for the future I think. I prefer to focus on functional strength just now, while I'm still young ;) There are some truly amazing female figure athletes and body builders in their 50s, 60s and beyond - very inspirational! Definitely something to aim for when I've had my fill of endurance sports. Have to do an Ironman first obviously to fulfill the full quota of all round bad-assery and ensure that world dominations follows :) but after that, it'll be BB for me I think.
ReplyDeleteI was aiming to be in Catwoman shape by October to mark my birthday - fab at 35 if you will! Just so happens that it falls in the same month as Halloween, though it's not as big a deal here as it is in the US. It's a good excuse to dress up anyway :)