Stage 1 complete!

So there we go, the 28-day challenge complete. I'll be getting my results done tomorrow (BCA and measurements) and hopefully again at the weekend, as apparently I can expect the biggest growth over the next 3/4 days as the muscles rest.

To help this along, I'm going to be aiming to do an hour of yoga a day next week, and that's about it! Well, maybe the odd Tabata session, as the next four weeks are going to be aimed at getting my body fat % down to single figures. I think I've burnt off a bit, it'll be interesting to see how much.

Something I've noticed about this last week is I haven't been suffering from DOMS too much, so I'm not sure if my body has just got used to working out every day, or, worryingly, that I haven't been upping my weights as much as I should?

The guidelines stated that for most of the exercises form was the most important, followed by getting the number of reps and Time-Under-Tension spot on. Weight wasn't even mentioned. The first week I struggled, the second I started getting the hang of knowing what weight to use when (doing 4 sets of 5 reps of shoulder presses at 2 sec concentric explosive eccentric compared to 10 sets of 10 reps at 4:0:2:0 for example).

I've discovered I enjoy German Volume Training (the 10x10 mentioned above) - it's lower weights and the first 3 sets you wonder if you've gone to low. Strangely set 8 also feels easier, due to short-term nerves learning the movement or something similar, but then 9 and 10 are real red-faced struggles.

I've also learnt that my strength to weight ratio is a bit low for my liking. One exercise for chest was 40 reps push-ups with 30secs rest x 4 - I could possibly manage 40 pushups in one go, but not 160 with such short rests. And not because of the lactic acid, I could work through that, it was literally not having any strength left after Bench and Flyes. Similarly I can now do 3, maybe 4 pull-ups, but thats it then, I'm down to negatives after that.

So I'm going to aim for a holding pattern of 5 x 5's twice or 3 times a week, with Tabata at the end of sessions and some longer HIIT on the other days.

I'm going to keep eating clean, but relax a little (got some gluten-free chocolate brownies to make next week!). I think I now prefer eating clean - the thought of eating chips or fish (anything deep-fried actually) makes me feel queasy, but being able to occasionally indulge will be nice.

I'm not rushing back to the beer either - yes, I'm looking forward to having one or two this week, but I wasn't gagging for one after work tonight so I'll take my time and enjoy one with a couple of friends when we're all available.

Would I do it again? Not sure. The answer to that will be a blog post on it's own, once I've got the results at the end of the week.

Seems a nice place to end this post, so I will.

Cheers all :)