It was one of those days today and we've all had em. Whatever could go wrong, went wrong. My son was driving me batshit crazy with yet another day that I swear he is 9 years old and can't remember to wipe his own ass let alone remember to take his baseball gear to school with him (he's in high school). If that sounds minor, believe me when I say this was just the start. Everything was downhill from there - to the point where you consider just laughing about it because it is so ridiculous but .. you can't ... because you are PISSED.
I don't have many "bad days", if I am being honest. I also don't have bad workouts but on days when everything tends to be going wrong, the thought always crosses my mind that it MIGHT be a better idea to just keep my ass home and not train. Why? Because a bad day outside of the gym is one thing but a bad day in the gym is quite another. And today was leg day AND I have a history of back trouble so you can imagine my anxiety when I finally said there was no way I was going to miss training tonight.
There are many benefits to spending over 30 years in the gym but the main one that I was able to draw upon today was being disciplined and staying focused for my session. It is no easy task to not allow your day to follow you through the doors of the gym and end up impacting your workout. Add to the situation that I was telling myself that when I got to the gym I would put my headphones in and wipe out the rest of the world but ... you guessed it ..... my headphones were at home on the charger. I was stuck with the gym music and my gym music is a cross between Kenny G and Culture Club. Not exactly ball-bustin' leg music but even worse, I also get to hear everyone talking about dumb shit that has nothing to do with training. To me, conversations are even worse than bad music when I am training.
How'd it go? Shit please. I killed it. Bigger numbers, more volume and faster pace. My legs were destroyed.
The alternative was to stay at home and continue to be pissed or go to the gym and blow off some stress by moving some weight. The reality is if you plan to stay home from the gym every time your day hasn't been the best, you won't get much training done.
Some notes for the 2nd week of my off season:
*My hunger is markedly increased.
*My strength started to go up this week and weights are feeling a lot lighter which is, of course, an awesome feeling.
*Feeling MUCH fuller - to the point that when I eat carbs I can almost feel my muscles expanding.
*I am not lean but in only a week and a half I feel like I am already starting to get leaner.
*Soreness is considerably less with the more frequent training schedule.
Diet has not changed, yet, but it is possible that with the way things are going it won't be long before a change is needed. Getting 6 meals with absolutely no problem.
Body weight is up from 224 to 230.
In a nutshell, things are going very well out of the gates.