I haven't been updating my Journal, but I haven't stopped exercising. I'll backfill my entries, but here are the highlights.
I took off from December 19th until January 5th. It was a good break, but I was definitely ready to start again when it was done.
Form Matters!
Made a big mistake in December. While doing squats, for some reason I got the idea that my legs were too close together, and needed to be farther apart. I don't know why I got this idea, since the exercises were pretty comfortable, but I decided that I should move my feet about four inches wider than shoulder width.
One set was enough to strain my knee tendons pretty badly. I finished the other sets at a normal distance, but the damage was done. I took two weeks off from all exercise for the Holidays anyway.
Tried again January 7th, and managed two sets, but it was clear that my knees were still injured. Skipped exercise entirely on the 10th, and skipped squats again on the 14th. Finally by the 17th I was able to keep going without feeling injured. That couple of extra inches of foot distance cost me a month of progress!
Stalled...
Progress on pullups is completely stalled, so I've gone back to
the book to see what might be wrong.
Based on my review, I've changed up a couple of things:
- I was doing all upper body exercises in one session, and all lower body exercises in another. Looking at the recommended workouts, Coach Wade mixes upper and lower body up so that squats and leg lifts are never on the same day, nor are pushups/pullups. Accordingly, I've changed my routine from "push/pull" one day and "squat/leg lifts" the other, to "push/leg lifts" one day and "squat/pull" the other. I hope this helps me start making progress.
- My original routine called for four days of exercise a week. I did this because I want to establish a routine and a rhythm so that I wouldn't quit. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that leaves enough recovery time. The book calls for only one hard routine of each type per week. In the interest of improving, I'm going to start spreading my routines out so that I have enough rest between workout days.
Since I'm moving to two workout days a week, I decided to make sure that the workouts really counted. Focusing on slow, controlled movements today has really exposed the fact that I've been cheating a lot. I could barely make it through the sets that I previously thought I could breeze through. As annoying as it is, I may have to go back a bit and lower my reps in order to start making real progress.
I have to remember that this is a long term project and not allow myself to get frustrated.
