Day 18: pumped

Status - return to form
Water - 2 liters
Mood - excellent

day 18 of 68

Cardio:

NONE

Weights:

HST , and man did I feel great. My workout partner Ricky, who also has a new fitness blog (http://rick-transformed.blogspot.com/), thought I was crazed since I decided, again, to increase the weight in all my lifts. I felt very strong, and honestly, truly out of my mind. Too much adrenaline, I guess.

Like Mike says, go hard or go home !

Since I don't have an ipod yet, I find myself mentally rehearsing one of my favorite songs off of the old-school Rocky soundtrack. I'm surprised how pumped I get from it, even without a headset. Maybe this has something to do with my newfound intensity and focus.

I've realized that mental preparation is vitally important when stepping into any gym, before lifting any weight. Priming your mind, anchoring it to something that drives you nutts - gets your heart racing, your body physiologically active, is probably the most important step for me. As I said, I think of that Rocky song and join it with a mental image of the Hulk screaming or in the process of crushing some large, unbelievable heavy object. And sooner than later I'm doing the same, just with barbells.

Life:

Excited to write this weekend. I will finally have some free time. A few ideas brewing in my head.

Ricky hurt his calf. Not sure how. Nevertheless, he had took yesterday off in order to rest it up. But let me say, the kid came back today with a fury ! Seriously, he has no idea of his own potential. Although his cardio endurance needs a lot of work, he is unusually strong for a novice lifter. Seeing him in the gym working hard and making huge strides gets me excited. I can't imagine the shape he'll be in at the end of the summer. I just hope he'll continue with the program, and clean up his diet some more.

Don't say anything to him, but in the past week his flat barbell bench press has gone up almost 20 lbs ! I'm so jealous. As an experience resistance trainer (I wouldn't dare say bodybuilder), it's frustrating when you reach a strength plateau. Granted, I can lift 2 x my body weight in certain exercises, but my maxes haven't budged in over 4 months ! I was talking to a friend last week or so, who was experiencing the same problem. Now this dude is another story - 6'5 about 270 (although he swears 240). Max bench of god knows how much. Let me just say, he smashes through 20 reps at 315 lbs.

And he's complaining ! Pah !

This weekend:

tons of cardio !!! Even though I don't have a cool nike+ wristband, I'll still be tearing up the road (or rubber). Will post daily mileage. I hope others in the sphere are watching out, cause I'm hard on your heels, haha.

Catch you later,

--Jay