There is going to be a bit or rambling here so bear with me.

Let’s start with my mindset when preparing for the gym.

Friday I was ill again with this nasty stomach bug. It basically flushes you out through sickness and diarrhoea. Yes I know it sounds nasty, but we are just human no matter how high up you are. This bug left me hungry and not able to eat for 24 hours until Saturday morning. Saturday I had only a little food, even though I felt much better. Sunday I went on a short bike ride and ended up helping the kids ride the bikes up and down the road for a hour or so and again I had little food to fuel me for this activity.

Hitting the Gym this morning was going to be rough, or so I though. The lack of food, the bug and lots of exercise is enough to make me feel weak and so I prepared for a light session. Anyway, I got to the Gym and did a short warm up on the rowing machine before hitting chest. I ended up having a very strong and powerful workout session in the end. My focus and strength was actually there.

I sit at home now, wondering if I should have pushed for a new PB in bench press and I’m also thinking to myself that I have walked away knowing I had a very intense and good session, without having to up my weight and fail. On to the incline dumbbebell press, again I had a very good session too. I managed to clean the 80lb dumbbells and do 6 reps, pushing myself beyond my mental limits on the last rep. Nothing wrong with shouting to finish the set is there? 🙂 I then had a lift up and did 3 reps of the 90lb dumbbells to finish.

Even the 40lb flys felt very light, although I didn’t want to push myself for and injury.

On to Biceps, I did standing Ez bar curls with 10kg on each end and moved up to 15kg on each side, again it felt good. Standing one arm curls started at 40lb dumbbells and finished on 50lb dumbbells before hitting some nice preacher concentration Ez bar curls. This session went great too, as I had a couple off guys doing the same exercise and so they could assist me when I needed help.

On the last set I managed 6 reps (not sure of the weight) and the guy pulled the two 10lbs off each side and I carried on for maybe 2-3 reps till I was fatigued. He helped me on the last couple too, which really pumped the muscle and got those fibres splitting.

I was expecting a weak and casual session, it ended up being a very strong and buzzing session. I have learnt now that no matter how focused you are on lifting something, if it’s not happening, it’s not happening, simple!

Now I want to type about Ego and Pride.

I am one of the weaker and newer guys at the gym and simply don’t have the strength that the other guys have. (Just before I put myself down though, I am getting stronger and I do all the big compound exercises, I don’t stick to just bench press and curls) So when I am bench pressing with the lads, they are pushing 300lb + and I’m doing 240lb max. This makes me feel a little intimidated and my ego wants to take over and push myself into uncomfortable zones of bad form, just to try and make myself feel better.

I understand that I need to get this out my head and stick to my comfort zones and just keep pushing reps after reps and years after years until I get stronger and are capable of doing these sort of weights. So, I need to remind myself that I need to leave my ego or pride at the door and stick to what I can do and progress at my own rate, whilst lifting maximum weights for maximum reps.

Injuries.

Again, pride can take over. The guy at the gym this morning had a slightly pulled muscle in his left shoulder/tricep and so he worked out on his own with sensible weights. Once he joined us on the incline dumbbell press, he tried to push himself just a little bit harder. He started on 40lb dumbbells and was fine, he then moved to 50lb and then 60lb until he made his injury worse.

He should have stopped at 50lb max, but he didn’t. He wanted to push harder as he felt that he wanted to keep up with us. I ain’t going to lie either, I do this quite a lot and that’s why I am typing this so I can let it sink in my head and I can read it later to see if I am progressing with the sensible side of weightlifting or if I’m still not understanding the basic principles.

Fortunately though, we were spotting him and managed to get the weights of him before any serious harm was done. This is what I mean by pride, ego and injuries. You have to let them heal or work around them in a sensible way. Otherwise, it could be days, weeks, months or even years before you can perform that exercise again. Is it worth it? No, it’s not worth it.

I think I have put here what I wanted to note down and I hope I learn from what I see and how I understand my body.

There’s a right time and a right place for everything…