Time's up lazy bones, time to step up the pace!
For those of you who have been following my Viable Vegan Voyage series you will know my plan is to get to fittest I have ever been by the time I hit 40. That is the end of June this year, yes, I know, I don't look 40, no stop, your too kind! But seriously, I have always kept myself in reasonable shape as in I have not been obese. I was a regular gym goer up to a few years ago. I stopped all exercise a few years back and went Vegan in the middle of that. I wanted to let myself go to the dogs so to speak, as in I wanted to let any gains that I had completely waste away. I had lost almost all muscle tone and had done very little activity in the summer of 2017 as I had a cartilage injury that required surgery, that meant no surfing, no BMX, no anything really. So I have been back to the gym now for about 6 months. I have had to go easy on my legs as I don't want to agitate the injury in my knee. I have had 2 breaks since starting on my Viable Vegan Voyage. 1 was at Christmas and 1 was the week before last. Now it is time to get back into it and hit it hard.
A change is as good as a break!
I have stepped up my routine, previously I was in the gym 3 days per week, On the 3 days I would super set to cover all the muscle groups in the time I had. Now I have worked out a new 5 day routine and I am working on this. I track my workouts with the JE-fit app. It is super handy to use and I have used it for years. I can go back to my heady days of heavy lifts and look in awe as I struggle with the weak leg I was left with after the injury. There is a handy little weekly report that is generated and sent to me, below is a snip of that report! How is that for motivation! Below that weekly is my lifetime. Man you feel like a BEAST when you see these figures!
No sweets (candy) for you!
Well, maybe some! On weekend nights myself and Natasha typically chill and watch a movie or two, this will typically involve monching mindlessly through bags of crisps, sweets etc. So I have decided to cut down on these and switch to seeds, nuts and dried fruits. I have also taken a yogurt out of my lunch too and replaced with fruit. I purchased a body composition monitor while I was on my spring break and I was taken aback when I saw the figures it gave back to me! I currently stand at 93.1kg I have a muscle mass of 36.2% and fat mass of .... Wait for it.... 22.3% Not a happy bunny at all. Visually I have seen huge changes, my shoulders, chest, back and arms have increased in size considerably. My legs have started to get some good tone too but are still not near where they should be. I have to put this down to my injury and lack work on the legs. I also have to stop with the injury talk!
New toys!
While I was on my spring break I decided I would get some new kit for the gym. I got the dreaded body composition monitor detailed above and I also got some suspension gear. No, not fifty shades stuff. The suspension rig allows me to do great body weight exercises that I simply could not have done with my current setup. I can attach the TRX harness to the power-cage I already have and viola, now I have the ability to do cable flys, overhead work and I want to be able to do a crucifix like the one below. These two new pieces of kit are great, I love the variation I can now add to my routine and I can track my progress with the monitor.
Thats a wrap
If you want to get the back story on this series you can check out my previous posts on it.
- Setting sail (the first post in the series).
- 4 months under way. (Captains log)
- Spring break. (break Week)
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