It is a new month, and I love new beginnings. I love fresh starts. I'm very excited to hit new goals this month and push my body further.
HOWEVER....
Yesterday afternoon was my designated deadlift day. I know "deadlift" is not a body part, but an exercise... but I usually dedicate a whole training session on just that movement (with light chest & glute accessory work) because the deadlift is such a taxing compound exercise. Everything, just about everything in your body, gets engaged.
Obviously, this is not me.
A chick doing deadlifts: More fitting for the blog.
The following were the deadlifts I performed (so glad I started recording my workouts and numbers again). As you will notice, the sets/reps are irregular, as my focus was to lift HEAVY and properly enough to feel the burn in all the appropriate areas:
- Sumo deadlift: 2-100x10, 1-100x7
- Stiff-legged deadlift: 2-80x6
By the time I was done with these, my forearms were on fire, and my palms were beginning to develop some more new calluses. I was shaky from all that weight pulled. Keep in mind I am ~120lb, 5 feet tall. A 100lb barbell on the ground is gonna be pretty taxing.
But, for some reason, I thought I was able to handle some more work. Like I mentioned, I usually sprinkle my deadlift days with accessory glute and chest work. I saw a squat rack open - which is kinda rare, because it's always being hogged, either by dudes who like to rest after sets for WAY TOO LONG, or worse - BICEP-CURLERS. In the squat rack. Need I say more.
So I Messed Up.. Big Time
I tried warming up with a set of barbell squats. I must have looked at the wrong number, or totally had a glycogen-depleted-state-of-mind-hazy-brain moment because now, looking back on it - insert moment of clarity here, what I did was not a warm-up at all. I ended up using 2-25 lb. plates, which made the "warm-up" set 95, which is my current NEW PR (not my 1RM or 1-rep max though).
Well, a few reps passed, and on one of the bottom movements, moving back up, I felt it: surge of heat, and a most unusual pulling sensation, on my right gluteal muscle. Great.
I must admit, I should have been paying more attention to the plates used. A PROPER WARMUP would have eliminated this problem - but I messed it up, completely. I was dizzy, shaky from deadlifting, and definitely felt like I wiped my glycogen by that point. I did not pay attention - big mistake when working under heavy load.
It didn't feel completely painful, necessarily - but there was a discomfort there that definitely could not be ignored. I tried squatting with just the bar (45lb), which did not seem heavy at all (anymore), but the movement was still very much awkward and uncomfortable. I stretched then left the gym.
Talk about a literal pain in the ass.
Necessary Deload
Now, because of my mistake, I will be sitting out of lower-body exercises until that muscle heals. I don't really know how to tell for sure if it is healed completely, since I'm not feeling a ton of pain at the moment, but I really do not want to take any chances. I'd like to keep lifting for a very, very long time, and I would even like to get into competitive powerlifting someday - once I have the means for a proper coach.
My stubborn ass was supposed to take a deload week this week too. Which means, light to no lifting, bodyweight exercises only, and an off-cycle from HIIT workouts. But - and I'm not the only one out there who feels this way - a deload makes one feel crazy. Not working out so much, not being active as much.. it makes you feel like, for some reason, that it is going to lead to a rebound into the sedentary lifestyle again. I already had to take a break from exercise last year due to a surgery, and because of that I fell off the wagon and became horribly inconsistent. I hate starting from scratch, especially since now I know just what my body is capable of.
But I suppose deload weeks are necessary. And they are. My body knew it too, I just didn't listen to it like a total hard-headed moron.
I PROMISE, PROMISE PROMISE (mostly to myself) that once I'm healed, I'm going to go back. I'm NOT turning back, but I'm going to kick some more ass...
...More carefully this time around, of course.
I had to buy a clay hot/cold compress, and now I'm pretty much "icing" my right cheek. Hooray.
And I'm Back To Carb Nite
I've been enjoying Carb Back-Loading these past few weeks now, and I was definitely reaping the benefits. I didn't notice too much fat loss (if at all) but I have really been enjoying seeing my muscles grow, pop & make me look absolutely athletic and pumped:
NO flexing required. CBL makes me look very defined!
Now, due to necessary rest and recovery, and a decrease in volume in my workouts, I have to slide back into Carb Nite again to prevent myself from sabotaging my current progress. Besides, I need some accelerated fat loss for competition anyway. I will not induce metabolic damage by putting myself in a ridiculous caloric deficit. I will eat my protein and fats accordingly, and have my one night a week of carb-binging. Which I'll never complain about - until of course, the night of, but that's because - at that point - I'm so stuffed with sugar and carbs that I'm gonna pop.
I will have to live with the fact that - due to lower frequency of carb refeeds - I will not be looking as muscular as the pictures above show, but will be looking more "flat" - which is typical for users of Carb Nite. The following feedback from a fellow forum user to another user (one who got injured) at DangerouslyHardcore.com makes me feel a little better about the whole ordeal:
"My advice would be to do CNS and don't stress so much about losing muscle. There is such thing as muscle memory, and if I were you I'd concentrate on getting as lean as possible which will put you in a nice zone to make gains once you go CBL. Just make sure you don't skimp on the fat, and I don't think you can lose too much muscle in so little time. Beware though, you'll look a lot flatter which in no way indicates muscle loss, but that's what happens when you drop the carbs."This pretty much sums up what I'm going to be doing from this point forth.
May Plan
From here on out, I will do another 10-day recalibrating phase, so my next Carb Nite will officially be on dayELEVEN of the 30dayPUSH: May 11. It will also be my sister's birthday and a concert night with my boyfriend, so I suppose this all timed out perfectly. My Carb Nites will be on Saturdays from now until I get to my goal body. This all conveniently works out.
In the meantime, I will try to only do yoga (lots of it), some ab work, upper body resistance, and walks. I will upgrade to some circuit/cardio work as the weeks go by. I won't be hitting the weights as hard, until I am confident I can work out again without getting injured again.
Goal this May? Carb Nite, Rest, recover, lose fat, get into bikini ready shape in time for summer!
And a Hint Of Advice..
Coming from someone who just learned the dumb, hard way:
REST.
Take time off.
LISTEN TO YOUR BODY, LITERALLY.
..Or else it's going to do what it wants and make you listen to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment