Sunday, June 17, 2012

Thus Far

I mentioned I was starting a new lifting program.  It's been a week and thus far...  hmm...  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  It's a lot, but it's good because I need it.  But it's a lot of reps and a lot of sets for some lifts and that's frustrating for me because in my ignorant state it doesn't feel like I'm doing myself as much good if I've got the weight down low enough that I can finish a total of 51 squats in 5 sets.  That said, I have absolute trust that Tara knows what she's doing.  I have a lot to learn about how lifting works, and I'm willing at this time to just have faith that there's a master plan in the works.

On Friday after my session I felt weak and pathetic and woefully clumsy and lamented that I was always going to be flabby.

On Saturday after my session I had a tiny bit of a high, and wasn't really worried that I was flopping around like a goldfish on the carpet while trying to do v-ups.

I don't think anything really changed from one day to the next.  I think, like in climbing, you have strong days and weak days and sometimes you feel good and sometimes bad, and often these things have little to do with one-another.

Perhaps not exciting, but it's only been a week.

8 comments:

  1. Hey, you're making the effort! You know what you need to do right now? Tell yourself that. You are doing the work, right now. I don't care about how you feel about things day to day, honestly. You shouldn't either, too much. You should congratulate yourself for doing the work to the best of your body's ability that day and move on to the next day. Your body will take a while to realize that it's being consistently subjected to heavy work. It might still think "oh, this is temporary, whatever she's doing...let's not use the energy to adapt to this kind of crap yet. She'll stop. Don't jump to conclusions, muscles." Your body is actually doing what it's supposed to do in taking a while to adjust to the forces you're suddenly pushing on it; it's not going to change its form in reaction to those forces unless it thinks it REALLY needs to, because that takes work. Your body is being lazy. You have to persevere with workout after workout to convince your body it is going to be subjected to this a LOT and it better be prepared for it. It takes time to make that argument. Your body wants a lot of evidence before it's going to change its ways. So get in that gym and GIVE it the evidence.

    Think in years, not in weeks. Honestly. Think about what you need to do right now and trust that it will be productive in the direction of where you'll be with your fitness/strength at this time next YEAR. When you decide to accept your body's capabilities as they are right now, that's when you're going to free your mind up enough to do work that will change it for the better a year or two years from now.

    Trust your trainer, absolutely, but also remember that there are multiple ways to gain strength (and I'll remind you that muscle mass does not necessarily mean true strength) and you might respond to some better than others. Give a program several months and if it's not doing SOMETHING, maybe re-evaluate what you're doing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HAha... again... work in progress.

      I am thinking in terms of years, the post was really more to relate first impressions than anything else, but I do appreciate your reminder. I try to remember that making an effort is good in itself, and that changes are a long term aim, but some days are easier than others.

      Damn, I do love your perspective.

      Delete
  2. Honestly, I'm terrible about keeping this in mind sometimes, and my boyfriend, a nationally ranked powerlifter himself, has to bring up the whole "years" aspect of this endeavor. I'm so anxious about everything all the time that if something goes wrong that day in my training or my body doesn't seem to be cooperating with my efforts, I get twitchy and need someone to tell me to look at the big picture. So we'll reinforce this to one another in the future. Don't count the days, make the days count. And that was freaking cheesey. I can't believe I just typed that. But's it's...applicable. I feel like an infomercial for P90X or something now. Eeeeew.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, sweet jeebus, that was tacky! And you do sound like an informercial.

      That said, yes, let's definitely try to reinforce one-another. I know that I have a hard time maintaining perspective, but I usually need to be reminded of how far I've come rather than how long it'll take from now. I rarely give myself credit, or treat myself with compassion. The ripping on myself is standard fare because some part of me thinks I need it or I'll get lazy(er) or cocky or something.

      And congratulations to you for being invited to do a guest post on Feminist Figure Girl's blog... that is too awesome I'm in envy. Also I can't help but wish you'd appraise me with that critical eye and tell me what lifts I'm supposed to be good at. In climbing, I know I have a body built best for bouldering (not skinny enough for sport, or lanky enough for trad), but lifting is all new to me.

      Delete
  3. Ooooh, I could do this for the major three powerlifting lifts. I don't know anything beyond what you say is a good/desirable physique for climbing (long and lanky/light? Right?) but I've become more educated as to what various builds are most suited for in powerlifting. The interesting thing about powerlifting is that some builds are extremely advantageous for one lift and not so much for another--I, for example, am basically made to deadlift. My arms exceed my height by six inches in length (that's right, SIX. It's CRAZY). But having long arms is not good for benching. At all. I also have long femurs in proportion to my body and that's not a great squat build (although other aspects of my physique make some parts of squatting easier for me). If you do want to send me a full-length pic, I could tell you what I think you're built for/what to watch out for in regards to proportional disadvantage as you work on these lifts. I posted my email in my about page response to your comment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sending you photos and getting the run-down actually sounds like a huge amount of fun!

      Long and lanky is generally accepted to be good for climbers, but truthfully that lanky frame is best for traditional climbing (where the climber sets her own protection as she climbs). For bouldering (short, but very intense climbs on boulders), one might prefer a much more muscular frame since the strength is needed and more weight isn't as much of a disadvantage (look up images of Lisa Rands).

      Amongst climbers that difference between your wingspan and height will often be referred to as one's "ape index". Last measured, mine was 0.

      Delete
  4. Two words: Muscle endurance. You cannot build strength without muscular endurance! Consider how tired you are after two high repetition sets (where you struggle to increase the weight for the third set) and then tell me I'm wrong :) This is all just building a foundation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I said, i have absolute trust... I figured we were trying to create a better foundation. I'm just not so patient, hence the mild frustration!

      Delete