Day 12

Productive day.

I wasn't in the mood to go the gym, at all. I've been quite depressed lately; my life's upside down right now and i'm feeling like shit. That's another reason to why i skipped yesterday's workout.

Nonetheless, i pushed myself to go and i went. Today i stacked two workouts in one: yesterday's back and triceps and today's shoulders and abs. Later on: 50 mins of cardio. It was hard as hell, but i pulled it off and i'm damn proud.

Now, what i'm not that happy with is the quality of the workout. First of all, i'm still in a phase in which i'm getting acquainted with the machines, the times, the weights and the exercises. So given that all exercises from any routine suffer certain changes just by swapping gyms, machines and even the type of dumbbells, this routine i'm familiar with needs to be optimized to this gym. The place is kinda old (Muhammad Alí trained there!), there's a sad mixture of prehistoric equipment with second hand 1980's "new" stuff and bunch of foreigners speaking turkish 24/7. So what happens is: the Smith bar, for example, is now very well oiled and the resistance is much higher, so weights need to be readjusted. 90 degree benches don't really go beyond 82 degrees, and after a couple of sets, your back will whine you outta the gym. There is no freaking simple Scott bench to train biceps; they all have some kind of old "component", so the bench comes incorporated with a rusty W bar, wich in turn is connected to a simple poley so kranky, that not even Arnold could work beyond two 5 kgs bricks.

So my routine was like that: clumsy, but educational.

The cardio wasn't much better. I just didn't sweat like the other day. I'd say temperature was about the same, i used the same speed on the treadmill and i jogged some 35 mins. I guess my metabolism is slowly getting on par with what i'm doing so next week may be time to start pumping up the speed on the treadmill or the resistance on the stepper.

I've noticed that i'm still sore in my pecs and biceps from wednesday's workout. Perhaps a tad too sore. That ain't good. I believe the reason for this is: i am, ultimately, following a somehow hypocaloric diet, so my body's not remotely getting enough protein and carbs. I'm eating healthy and enough, but i'm probably having no more than 1800 calories a day. Of which 15-20 is fat. For the output i'm putting lately, i'd need about 2500 - 3000 calories. So i am getting thinner, but my muscles are recovering very, very slowly and and in the end: they won't grow as expected.

It's because of that that i did some reading concerning what would be the necessary "dopey" stack to aid muscle growth and recovery. I believe i need some quality protein (either Whey or a protein blend with whey, casein, egg, etc), creatine (specially because i'm vegetarian) and L-Glutamine (to protect the muscles from being "eaten up" instead of the fat).

Now, without the proper information, someone could read all this and say i'm halfway there from being a crack-head. Well, no. I won't rant about any of this, i'd just simply encourage you to check out the links and find out. Whey is a type of protein that everyone, EVERYONE, should include in their diet. Creatine has almost no side effects and is a clear no-brainer for anyone interested in gaining some muscle. And L-Glutamine had had some controversy, but it's also a must, specially to protect your muscles if your intake is not high enough.

So, i'm gonna buy all this next month, together with some Flax Oil or Udo's Oil to finally get some omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids. Next month i was also thinking of getting an mp3 flash player for myself, to join me in my cardios, but with all this spending, i see it rather unlikely.

Focker ... OUT!

Oh yeah: 8 % completed!