Believe me, I know, I´m a doctor.
So... we got the question if I´m still wandering this earth out of the way...
Although I suspect I got close to something different when I lost about 11kg in 3 weeks last summer due to delicious Indian food.
Since December I am training regularly without immediate-onset diarrhea. Plus I got a Squat- rack now. And a barbell and several dumbbells. And plates. Lot of plates!!
December and January I did Dan Johns "Mass Made Simple".
Several things I learned:
- I need to eat more to gain muscle mass.(yeah...REALLY!!)
- I actually can work up to 3 meals a day without feeling like sh*t all the times.(this one was a new lesson... Like you should all new stuff: small increments over some time.)
- I realized how little in terms of frequency I can hit the weights and still (or because of it?) make gains. Both in body-weight and weight I move.
- I like the 2-3-5 rep approach. More of that one later.
- Gaining weight (in my case over the 6 weeks about 7-8kg without adding much fat) makes you suck at body-weight-exercises. Even If you do them in the warm-up. More of that also later...
And one more thing:
High rep back-squats can crush you. Not literally but mentally.
During one workout with my body-weight on the bar after rep 31 I literally crushed. I know this state from other encounters in my life and I simply lost it.
Imagine me, after all the strength work for the upper body, the complexes and 31 reps of the back squat I am standing in the rack...and...start panicking ( "the last rep was so hard...breathing is getting so difficult...the bars is crushing the contact- points on my back..." all the excuses I could find).
I mean it was just a workout but I had my heart set on the set of 50. But after the last rep the thought of the remaining 19 reps overwhelmed me.
I´m very careful not to state that the 31 reps killed my mindset. They made me stronger. In every way. It was the process of thinking about the pain about to come from additional 19 reps...
I even was unable to fall back to my panic- coping- mechanisms like controlled breathing, etc I discovered during my skydive- training.
I simply lost it in my mind, so after I had been frozen up for like 10 sec I stumbled forward into the rack, fell backward (something you get used to when doing high- rep set of back- squats...) and fluctuated between being pissed and about to cry.
Then I started laughing... It was just a workout.
The lesson for me?
High- rep Back squats help you build muscle mass.
High- rep Back squats challenge your mind and because of that I will come back to them. I do not want to but I will...
Ok...So Mass made simple is over. What now?
Well... I got a rack and a whole lot of iron. What dou you think comes next?
Well... there is something else...
Rugby.
I first saw it on TV last summer and liked it. I had no idea what the rules are (I still have no idea!!) but the very thought of a sport where you have to run a lot, analyze situations with multiple elements under pressure (time and real physical one) and get together with teammates to crash with other guys trying to push the the hell out the way almost instantly seemed a good idea to me.
Well...I´m special...
Plus I will not be able or willing to attend Martial Arts classes after my move to my current residence (private reasons so no answers to your questions here) so I need a little human contact. (in my head this one was really funny...)
So I´m managing a new contact sport with my strength and conditioning program right now...
There are the points of strength training, conditioning, sport practice, etc.
More of that later, right now I need to eat.
Meat. Fish. Eggs. Vegetables.
(You are welcome, I just saved you an entire diet- book)
Train hard and enjoy every moment!
Harry
