Recovery Workout

Last Friday's workout, especially the finishers, has caused me such a pain in my ass sore especially at my lower back (due to deadlifts), my calves (due to box jump) and my shoulders (due to bench press).

Well, basically the whole body, and that sucks. It hurts the most when I woke up after sleeping in the same position for 8 hours. Aw man. Only God knows how I felt that time.

And I even thought of training on Saturday, trying to catch up with the lost time last week, (My last training was on Monday), but since I will be training with Kasey on Sunday, I decided to rest. He said he's gonna do ABC training with me, targetting triceps, which freaks me out actually. But we ended up doing recovery workout yesterday rather than the ABC training. (phew! Thank God for that!)

So, the whole point of recovery workout is to shorten the muscle recovery duration from 1 week to 2-3 days. Or 3-4 days to 1-2 days. Whichever.

How to do recovery workout, you must ask.

(I'm trying to get the point as accurate as possible) According to Kasey, I will need to do the recovery workout only at 20% of the total weight that I did from my last training. 20% of volume and 20% of weight. So I did only 10kg of deadlifts with 5 reps, and bodyweight push-up on knees, with 4 reps.

The key point here is to pump in just enough blood to the sore muscles for faster recovery. And guess what? No more pain at my lower back and shoulder when I woke up this morning. Amazing isn't it? Just like magic, if you ask me. hehehe.....

So yeah, basically that is the thing. 20% of volume and weight for recovery workout.

5x5 and finishers

Sorry for not updating such a long time. The problem is the same : I dunno what to write or update. Anyway, lately, I have been doing minimalist training. Like what Kasey said, I will need a total of 100 reps per week for bodybuilding, doing compound exercises. Compare to what I did previously, I definitely need some time to adjust to this "new approach" as I am used to doing tonnes of workouts with high reps. Not to say that those are not good for me. It's just another different approach if I want to lose weight and get leaned.

But in order for me to get lean, I will definitely need to gain muscle mass before I go to the "cutting" phase. Otherwise, all the so-called lose-weight workouts will eat up my muscles if I do my training vigorously. So, yeah, currently is my "bodybuilding" phase.

When I say minimalist training with a total of 100 reps per week, it goes something like this :-

Monday

Back Squat 5 reps x 5 sets = 25 reps

Deadlift 5 reps x 5 sets = 25 reps

Thursday

Bench Press 5 reps x 5 sets = 25 reps

Overhead Press 5 reps x 5 sets = 25 reps

Total reps = 100

Yeah. That's what I'm talking about - MINIMALIST. Well, because I still need to "reprogramme" my mind from high-intensity-high-rep workout to minimalist training, I still slot in few other workouts such as rowing, lat pull down after my compound exercises.

Sometimes I also slot in the finishers workout as part of my cardio. Aizan said that if I miss doing high-intensity-high-rep workout, I can choose some finishers to do. So this is what I did last night :-

Bench Press

20kg x 5

22.5kg x 5

27.5kg x 5

30kg x 5

32.5kg x 5

Overhead Press

20kg x 5

22.5kg x 4

22.5kg x 4

22.5kg x 3

20kg x 5

So weak on my OH Press. Man I was struggling in my 4th set. I even grunt ok? Sheesshhh...... That's why I reduced my weight. Hopefully I can increased my weight in another 2-3 weeks time.

And here's my finisher as part of my cardio (I did Pushmore's WOD 040411. Also this video by Jaquelyn Kay)

5 rounds of :-

9 Deadlifts (30kg)
12 Hands Release Push Up
15 Box Jump (jumped on bench, dunno how many inch is that)

My time = 13:16

Damn I felt good! :)

He's one helluva trainer!

There are just so many things that I wanna highlight to you guys about this trainer whom I have just hired. Met for the first time after few months knowing him through his blog and other fitness junkie.

His name is Kasey Brown. I know his name stirs quite a few emotions to those who knew him before. But emotions aside, I also know that he's a very knowledgeable trainer (you can tell from the way he writes his blog) and through Aizan's recommendation, I decided to give it a try and hire him.

Throughout the whole 1hr session with him last Sunday, he projected the professionalism of which a trainer, or any trainers in Malaysia, should have. First, he did not even touch his handphone, let alone sms or call, unlike some trainers I see, especially at the commercial gyms. This shows the high level of commitment and attention that he's giving to me during the training.

Secondly, he listens attentively to my questions, and answers one by one, leaving me satisfied and understood them.

Thirdly, and most amazingly, by just correcting my form and teaching me about potentiation, I can already lift my 1RM in just 1 session, in which I have never thought I can or able to do so.

He did potentiation with me, and my record for back squats increased from 42kg to 60kg.

He corrected my form in deadlifts, and has definitely increased my record from 30kg to 60kg.

Of course he taught me other stuffs as well, but these few points are already sufficient enough to make him one helluva trainer!

p.s. Stop rolling your eyes. Seriously, he doesn't pay

me to write this blog. It's all from the heart. :)

Is that possible?

How do I gain muscle without looking fat, especially at my round face? Honestly, I have been eating 5 meals a day. Not very clean but not very 'dirty' also. I have not been eating rice for 2 days, and targetting on eating more protein, since the last 2 days were non-workout days.

But ya, though I have gained some muscle last week, but the comment that I got was, I look fatter than before. Not 1 person ok? Three!!! In a week's time!

Does that mean 5meals a day doesn't work for me? Too much peanut butter and wholemeal bread? Too much green tea? Last I remember, green tea works well for me. Sugar? I am reducing my coffee intake and didn't take creamer. Reducing the sugar also.

Something's wrong somewhere. What is it? Siiiggghhhh..... I really hate people say that I am fat. Really hate it.

What is wrong actually?

Here's what I think

"You shouldn't do slow, steady-paced cardio for more than 30-40mins because it will increased your cortisol and can caused muscle loss."

"This workout is too much coz it's definitely affecting your CNS."

"You can take carbs within 3 hours after your workout."

"Low carb on non-workout/less-intensity workout day, high card on workout days."

"Must count your calorie to make sure that you don't overeat."

"Sometimes, you gotta do HIIT. Sometimes you do slow-paced cardio."

All the above has their own truth in it. It really depends on individual's experience. For me, I usually will do some research on some issues, then sometimes discuss with my fitness junkie friends, then I'll usually try it on myself. But sometimes, the "experiments" didn't last long enough for me to see the results.

For example, I've tried carb cycling before. I knew that on the low-carbs day, I was feeling so pooped out during my training that it has actually stopped me from trying it again. But on the other side, my body shape has changed. I was actually feeling lighter, slightly leaner and I love what I saw in the mirror. So does that mean the theory is wrong?

I don't think so. I will just need some adjustment on this diet and I'm good to go coz this diet is really working for me. So are all other famous fitness enthusiasts around the world said. Look at this guy, Kane Sumabat. His diet is very high in protein and fats, but yet he can still do advanced trainings. It's all in the mind, and I gotta train my mind to think differently.

I'm still in the midst of doing HIIT, but my trainer told me that, I should combine both HIIT and slow-paced cardio into my workout. He even suggested me to run for 45mins and not less than that. Which is why, I ran for 30mins last night.

I also know that functional training for 1hr works best for me. Otherwise, how do I manage to gain 1.7kg muscles in withint 2 months time? Something somewhere must be working right for me. And as far as I remember, I did mostly functional training with my trainer for the last 2 months.

My point is, don't believe what you read. Do it, experiment it, and you'll know what works best for you and your body.