On the 7th day he rested... and built up his muscles!

REST DAYS ...

and muscle building

I am into my second week of my 21 days straight and I am doing well and feeling good. I feel like my arms and shoulders are getting bigger. I have been pushing myself to go a bit longer and do an extra set or a bit more weight when I am feeling good and comfortable with what I am already doing. I am trying to get out of comfort zone by doing a bit extra, in terms of weight and reps in order to see improvements in my strength. I am also increasing my protein intake to help with building muscles that burn fat, a big factor for me and my weight; I am also using one day a week, Sundays, to use it as a rest day. 

It is very important to make sure that I have at least one day to rest a week during this building of a new habit as to give my body a chance to take proper advantage of the restructuring it is going under. When working with weights you are actually creating little tears in your muscles which  heal during rest and the rest and heal process makes you stronger and builds the muscles. 

It was tough for me to take the day off this past Sunday, I was feeling guilty of not being at the gym but I knew I needed a rest day to help assist the process I was going under. I made sure to keep my calories in line by use of the app MyFitnessPal (available in the google play store or apple app store ).  

I have been actively reading sources for as much information I can on nutrition and rest days as I want to make sure I am doing everything right. I can never say enough about how much helpful information there is out in the web-universe and it has been so helpful. I am not wanting to be the bodybuilder type or sports god body type I just want to work on better habits and work on the body I have for my frame. I have always had strong legs and always considered myself a workhorse when it comes to powering through weights; granted, I am definitely seeing things clearer now then when I first started when it comes to where my specific strength really lies. 

By utilizing these rest days I notice afterwards that my strength in the weaker areas I have shows some improvement. I am also working on specific areas now, instead of working on several areas per trip to the gym I am now focusing on individual areas such as legs, arms and shoulders, chest and back, as well as my usual treadmill, wall squats, calf raises and side to sides.

I like/hate the cardio part, as it is a good way to get my heart rate going and getting it in the fat burning zone before hitting the weights. I like it because I feel good after I have done it and I feel accomplished, but I hate it as I feel like it just takes up too much time and where I could be on the weights, that and it is boring as hell especially when the TV monitors are set to something boring (such as today it was "Mansbridge One on ONE on CBC) and of course there is no TV remote available at 4am as the gym doesn't open to  the non FOB pass people until 7am. If  sports highlights are on I can just go for 30 mins or more pretty easily (lately it has been 40 mins; but if sports aren't on, which most of the time it is by the way, I keep telling myself 3 more songs. I equate 3 more songs to 10 mins of music/walking, I seem to be more conscious of my knees hips and legs more when I am not enthralled in a visual I am interested in while on the treadmill. 

I am starting to look forward to the next workout even after I finish the last one, I hope this continues. I am just going to keep pushing myself to stay to this routine until the 21 days are up and then see how I cam doing and either keep working out 6 days a week or possibly go down to 5 days where in theory I would take Wednesdays and Sundays off but I am not sure about that as I am determined to achieve a few certain goals this year by the time I leave for my cruise in December. 

The one thing I do wish for is for a work out partner for 4 ams, I would ask my brother in law but he does cross fit at another gym and I don't think he would want to leave that and join a different place. Oh well, I need to do it on my own anyways; I got myself into this mess I have to dig myself out of it.