So let it be written so let it be done.
60 sessions spanning five months, three days a week, and now it is over.
Session 1 :
I started training Wednesday this week, in a three-day spurt. At this stage, three days had passed without training. I was ready and geared up for it regardless of wanting to best my bench press from the previous week. Then instead of doing a flat bench, we started on an incline. Shocking the muscles I have been thought is key. Getting stuck in a routine leads to a plateau, a plateau leads to a rut, and being in a rut, can be hard to get out of. I was not gonna get my best bench press, but at least I improved my incline. We worked on the back as we do on chest day, with lots of pulldowns and rows. Out of all the areas on my body, my back is probably the least developed, it is definitely stronger than it was, but it is the area with room for most improvement. I always refrained from doing back, as I was always in pain after it. I noticed I do not get those knots in my back after doing these sessions. Form, pace and composure are thought over in Davy’s, and generally I feel that good type of soreness that you get from a workout, not the debilitating one.
Session 2:
I went over thinking I would know what to expect. I was wrong. Despite it being the last week Davy wanted to change things up slightly again, as a timely reminder that despite the 20 weeks, there is always scope to learn something new. We started with an intense warm-up, free squats, straight into lunges, straight back to squats to lunges, to squats, to lunges. No rest, balls to the wall stuff. We went onto machines that I just do not know the name for. One is like being in a spaceship, strap yourself in and single-leg press. I actually enjoyed that when I got the hang of it. I could feel my core activating as I struggled to keep myself stable. There were more squats and time under tension leg presses, followed by more fecking lunges and hamstring curls.
Session 3 :
I started this workout as I had just come out of the sea. As a warm-up I decided to go for a run around the block, about 4.5k in total done unintentionally as fast as I could go. By unintentional I mean, sometimes it just hits you. The buzz overcomes the fatigue, you’re bouncing that bit higher and going that bit faster. Now I am a very sweaty person, during that half marathon I sweated out 8lbs of water over the 2 hours. So by the time I got back to the gym I looked pathetic. Still, though shoulders needed to be done. As for most of the week, it was a completely different experience than what I was becoming used to. It was dumbell shoulder press, into these types of shoulder rows into shrugs. That was followed by some Arnie presses into lateral raises. We went onto more shoulder shrugs, which I enjoyed as it felt heavy. I kept telling Vinnie as a joke if he is sure he doesn’t want to me to lift some real weights, so he just kept adding plates. When the shoulder workout was done we moved on to triceps and biceps and then it was over. I left listening to the musical stylings of ELO and “Mr. Blue Sky”
Conclusion :
Twenty hard weeks with ups and downs, injuries, and unhealthy habits all came to the surface over the course of it. All stumbling blocks allow you the opportunity to test your mindset. I have had days where I couldn’t even open the curtains because my weight upset me. Followed by not eating, training to excess, and then burning out. Particularly in the last year, I became so obsessed with losing weight that any clothes I had bought, would one week later be way too big for me. It was unsustainable, I couldn’t enjoy food without feeling I needed to punish myself afterward. I started to dislike going to the gym as my body was sore, my knee gave up on me because I kept demanding it trained while injured.
This unhealthy trend has started to slowly evaporate while training with Davy. Don’t get me wrong, there is a puddle of it still in me. I step on the scale 9 pounds heavier than I was and that can still freak me out. I reason that most of the gain (not all) is a bit of muscle. My legs, chest, and arms have taken shape. There have been times over the 20 weeks that I have let myself down, particularly in the second half. Mostly when it comes to diet, just eat more than I need. The 2,200 calories was something I struggled to eat originally before the course. I have since been hitting that target comfortably in the most recent weeks. Which jumps from being a good thing to a bad thing. It still gets in my head, that is until I get a good training session in.
The main thing it has done for me though is it has allowed me to enjoy training again, as I type this on Wednesday, I am mad to get into there when work finishes after taking a few days off. My main goal over the next few years is to maintain the buzz I get training with the lads, and the discipline they bring, while on my own. I won’t be showing up to the gym still feeling the effects of 2 hours of sleep and a bottle of whiskey like I was, I will be going with a smile and determination.
Thanks to Davy, Lee, Catherine, and Vinnie for all their help over the last 20 weeks.
If you want to make a change, you can contact Davy on 0892528904 or email [email protected].
