Sorry for the lack of updates the last few days fella's. Truth be told during the intensive cruise there isn't anything overly exciting happening so I didn't feel the need to post I guess haha.
Getting back to training on Thursday which I am looking forward too. Finishing planning out my next blast but as of now its looking like it will be 4 weeks:
Week 1 Tier 1 Basic
Week 2-4 Tier 2 Basic.
I like the ramp up week of lower volume before hitting it full go for weeks 2-3. During this deficit tier 2 seems about perfect with where I am at calorie wise. 4 weeks instead of 5 this time because I could tell part through my 5th week that I was starting to drive myself into the ground and should have probably stopped after week 4 on this last blast.
Thursday is also my birthday so I look forward to that. I have always wanted to make my rounds to all the places that give you free food on your Bday and this year I am finally going to do it. So far I will be going too:
Panera - Free Pastry
Starbucks - Any free drink
Moes - free Burrito
Red Robin - Free Burger.
If anyone knows of any other good ones to go to for freebies let me know!
I can only justify doing this though by going in Thursday morning and having a killer first day back to training so I will be sure to get after it a little extra for sure.
Do you warm up before a training session?
Poll for me real fast: Yes or No in the comments and a brief reason why or why not.
“Warming up” is a funny phrase because it can vary so much from one person to the next and especially depends on the type of training someone is doing.
Ask a marathon runner what their warm up is and they might say something like a “quick” mile jog. (HAH? a “quick mile jog? Not for me #meathead)
Ask a pilates instructor and they might say 3-5 minutes of some kind of dynamic movements or stretching
Someone else might say static stretching for a few minutes (I generally don’t like this but that is for another time.)
A third person might say a “few minutes” of some kind of aerobic exercise or machine.
Are these right? Are they wrong? Context, context context.
For myself, when I warm up (which can vary day in terms of what I do and sometimes I don’t really do a warm up) I like to do maybe 3-5 minutes on a stationary bike or elliptical for the sake of increased blood flow, moderate increase in heart rate, and to get myself generally all the more in the mood to train.
Beyond that, since my training is completely resistance training focused, I like to perform some specific warm up variations prior the my main compound movements for the day. This can sometimes be light sets of the actual movement it self, some non-resistance contraction work to help create a strong mind to muscle connection, and maybe some dynamic movements to feel a bit “loose” (which can also mean a lot of different things depending who you talk to) and to simply encourage synovial fluid to my joints to keep them happy when I get under heavy loads.
I write this so you can consider how you warm up and more or less figure out if your warm up you are doing (or maybe not doing) is impacting your actual gym session and if so how is it impacting it? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
Lastly, a quick word on foam rolling. I like it a lot and it can be very helpful BUT if you foam roll prior to your training session for 20 minutes plus like some do then I would suggest that you might not full understand foam rolling and how to do it properly from a time frame stand point. Maybe you have a unique scenario where you need to do for an extended period of time prior to training but I doubt it but would also love to hear why you do it because I am genuinely interested.
I just find that foam rolling for such periods of time really doesn’t do anything overly positive for you. The tight muscle(s) you are trying to turn “off” because they always are tight and feel turned “on” need to be properly mobilized and stabilized to fix the issue. Foam rolling can be a helpful tool but I don’t think it will magically fix your issue because odds are shortly after foam rolling your muscle(s) will probably revert right back to the “on” or “tight” way it was prior to foam rolling IF you do not properly mobilize and stabilize it through corrective action.
If you find your a "marathon foam roller” prior to training then I encourage you to take a step back and ask yourself why you are foam rolling in the first place, what you are trying to fix and how might you change your current protocol to actually fix your issue.
For some more on warming up check out this article - a lot of great points in it and some of which I alluded to in my post.
http://bonvecstrength.com/2017/01/16/4-warm-up-mistakes-youre-probably-making/