Its been awhile, but here is what I learned in the mean time...

I know I haven’t posted in a long time. I guess life just got in front of me and well here I am. I hope everyone’s holidays went fabulously! For people who know me, the holidays have turned into a stressful event for me, especially with the 2018 season being the 1 yr anniversary of my mother’s death. But actually it turned out alright, thanks to some kids I met through my dad’s new girlfriend (yup read that right), and a close friend having drinks on hand for me. I was supposed to be cutting but that went down the tubes. And it brings me back to my previous post about being ready for a change, wither its weight loss, gain, performance or really anything in life. Sometimes, you need to listen to your own advice. I did not. So I stopped my cut, re grouped, and began again last week. In fact I ended up doing an inadvertent mass. Yup, gained weight. While normally I would be upset over this, for some reason this time around I am not. Why…well…I’ve never been stronger in my life. That’s right, I hit PRs all over the place. So as I slowly change my mind set about the number on a scale, performance and body composition, the journey became a bit easier. While most of that weight is fat, some of it will be muscle mass. Which is what I am eventually going for so I made peace with the number facing me this morning. But now it’s onto another cut, with a ready mind and willing body. And in a few weeks, I will also share some very exciting news as well!!

This installment of the blog will be a bit more technical as I found myself doing what not should be done in a gym last week, and is relevant to all those of you wanting to hit PRs. I am happy that I hit them in my lifts, but I don’t want to do that at the expense of poor technique. This lil expert was taking from a guy that is way smarter than me and has tons of science to back up what he says and it shows.

The other week, while feeling strong and hitting my PRs in my lifts I realized how jazzed up I was and just pushed through my reps without any thought to my 2/fail (meaning I stop when I have 2 left in the tank) and trying to eek out my last few reps and get the 5 sets of 13. Now…some ask “is this a bad thing”? Yes it is. If you want to be true to yourself and actually grow some muscles. If PRs are hit with good technique, then you can see some muscle growth. If not, then well, all you are doing is moving some weight around and risking injury. Not only that but if you are using poor technique, then how are you tracking your progress? Did you really do the 5 sets of 10, or would it have really been 10, 10, 8, 7, 5? The later shows progression and good design. While the former is really just a fallacy and you are doing your muscles a disservice. So if you want to maximize muscle growth, then don’t sacrifice technique. Keep your form, maximize muscle growth and stay injury free.

                                                                                …………………………. Paraphrased from Dr. Mike Israetel