I've been on this resistance training program for five weeks now, I upped my weights this past Monday, and I'm seeing all the same progress as I did in my last program April-May. From the end of the first week I noticed my skin looked healthier - it was more vibrant, smoother, tighter, and generally looked and felt amazing. It wasn't necessarily that I'd built up new muscle - it had only been a week, after all - but rather to do with circulation and nutrition. Just like last time, I've revisited my eating habits and piled more nutritious foods onto my plates like grains and a greater variety of veggies. I've never been remotely vegetarian so I'm still getting my protein from eggs, salmon, chicken, turkey, whey and milk, and with them a variety of other nutrients.
After three weeks I felt stronger and slimmer, too, and being able to increase the weight by 2.5kg, I'm absolutely certain that my strength is improving. My reps crept up after two weeks by about 2-3 per set, and I've increased my weights to 15kg - it's not a huge amount, I'm sure lots of experienced ladies reading this might scoff, but the movements/position of the weight in the workouts I'm using in this program were new to me so the last thing I wanted was to injure myself. But as far as the familiar moves like deadlifts go, I've increased it to 20kg, which is the highest my barbell can go at the moment and while that's presently an appropriate challenge - a little over one third of my body weight - I'm sure I'll need a new pair of plates by the end of the month! Yay!
I'm also trying to eat a little more on training days - I've been reading about body recomposition, a means of losing fat while gaining muscle, which is a bit of a contradictory thing since losing fat means creating a calorie deficit while gaining muscle requires a calorie surplus, but it's basically what I've already been doing. I try to create a small deficit on rest days anyway, and eat a little more on training days, but I've always wondered if I wasn't still eating too little on training days and, according to my research, I have. So I'm going to increase training day calories by another 100-150, totalling about 1750 calories a day, while my rest days will be about 1500 calories. It may still not be enough, but I'd think I will see an improvement. Only time will tell, though.
I'm in resistance training for the long-haul; I don't expect to see fat-loss happen in a few weeks and neither am I focusing on it. Instead it's strength, ability and efficiency I'm working towards, and that means range of movement, depth and weights. I'm still supplementing with Core de Force, though, for its MMA-HIIT fusion.
It's also possible, as far as I've read, that trying body recomp as I am now may not work as well as it would if I'd stopped training for a couple of months or never trained at all, but I've got a low-impact month pencilled in for October, when I finish this 3-month training plan, and if I start with body recomp right off the bat in November, I may have an easier time of it.
But, as it's so close to what I've been doing anyway, just eating a little more on training days, it takes little adjustment and might result in better, leaner gains, so I'm going to give it a shot all the same.
I'll increase my weights again in 4 weeks and update again then if there's any progress worth mentioning. Otherwise, on I go!
After three weeks I felt stronger and slimmer, too, and being able to increase the weight by 2.5kg, I'm absolutely certain that my strength is improving. My reps crept up after two weeks by about 2-3 per set, and I've increased my weights to 15kg - it's not a huge amount, I'm sure lots of experienced ladies reading this might scoff, but the movements/position of the weight in the workouts I'm using in this program were new to me so the last thing I wanted was to injure myself. But as far as the familiar moves like deadlifts go, I've increased it to 20kg, which is the highest my barbell can go at the moment and while that's presently an appropriate challenge - a little over one third of my body weight - I'm sure I'll need a new pair of plates by the end of the month! Yay!
I'm also trying to eat a little more on training days - I've been reading about body recomposition, a means of losing fat while gaining muscle, which is a bit of a contradictory thing since losing fat means creating a calorie deficit while gaining muscle requires a calorie surplus, but it's basically what I've already been doing. I try to create a small deficit on rest days anyway, and eat a little more on training days, but I've always wondered if I wasn't still eating too little on training days and, according to my research, I have. So I'm going to increase training day calories by another 100-150, totalling about 1750 calories a day, while my rest days will be about 1500 calories. It may still not be enough, but I'd think I will see an improvement. Only time will tell, though.
I'm in resistance training for the long-haul; I don't expect to see fat-loss happen in a few weeks and neither am I focusing on it. Instead it's strength, ability and efficiency I'm working towards, and that means range of movement, depth and weights. I'm still supplementing with Core de Force, though, for its MMA-HIIT fusion.
It's also possible, as far as I've read, that trying body recomp as I am now may not work as well as it would if I'd stopped training for a couple of months or never trained at all, but I've got a low-impact month pencilled in for October, when I finish this 3-month training plan, and if I start with body recomp right off the bat in November, I may have an easier time of it.
But, as it's so close to what I've been doing anyway, just eating a little more on training days, it takes little adjustment and might result in better, leaner gains, so I'm going to give it a shot all the same.
I'll increase my weights again in 4 weeks and update again then if there's any progress worth mentioning. Otherwise, on I go!
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