Week 7 Repeat

Since I took a few days off to help rest my battered elbow I decided that it would be best to repeat Week 7 so I'm not going into recovery week with barely any work under my belt. Recovery week is designed to help your body build muscle after putting yourself through torture for the previous three, and I just don't think I've done that. Lets hope one more week puts me on the right path.

Chest, shoulders, and triceps was the workout of the day, and let me tell you can tell when you take three days off. I was lethargic, tired, and overall just not happy with having to move weights up and down in the vain attempt to have a Men's Fitness cover model body. I chalk a lot of this up to the fact that I was visiting family over the weekend, so my diet was about as bass-akwards as possible. I tried my best to eat well, but sometimes you just have to give in and realize that you can't control what you put into your mouth 100% of the time (sometimes the best you can do is control the volume). When your father has friends over and prepares a great meal you don't scoff at it and say, "bah, that doesn't fit in my psycho-P90X diet." You smile graciously and do your best to make things fit. Thankfully my father is a food snob - he only puts the best on the table. This usually means great cuts of beef, fresh vegetables, and the like. Unfortunately I had to limit myself to only a spoonful of the pasta salad which was oh so yummy.

Other than the fact that I wanted to put the weights down and just sit on the couch and shove bon bons into my face this morning, the workout wasn't half bad. I kept pace with my numbers from last week, so at the very least I didn't get any weaker. I do find it funny that when working out I'm bitching, moaning, and complaining about feeling like crap, but in the end I did exactly the same as last week. I did get my arms to feel like jello and my chest was definitely feeling it, so overall the workout was solid.

Unfortunately I can't say the same after what was apparently a one-hit wonder with ab ripper a few weeks ago. Since then I just have not been able to repeat the performance. I know that I'm getting stronger through the entire routine, but I haven't had another amazing, "holy crap I think I did all 349 reps" kind of workout. Part of the problem is probably due to the fact that I'm not completing all the reps, but as I get stronger I find that I work slower and with better form through the beginning of the workout. This leaves me just as toasted halfway through as I was when I first started. I bet that if I tried to blow through the workout quickly I could do most of the reps.

My main goal with ab ripper now is just to build myself so I can complete as much of the workout without stopping as possible. Right now I'm solidly through crunchy frog (the fourth exercise out of 11) without stopping, but I can't get through 25 reps of cross leg/wide leg sit ups in the prescribed time. I did switch to the harder, cross-leg version about two weeks ago, so it'll probably just be a matter of time. I think the real accomplishment will be getting through fifer scissors. Those things make my abs scream!

On a completely unrelated side note, thanks to Muddy and Portal I have had the stupid song "Still Alive" running through my head for three days straight. It was so bad I actually downloaded the MP3 from Amazon so I could at least hear the real version. I curse Muddy, GlaDOS, and JC Coulton right now.

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