Invisible Pecs?

You know how your muscles basically vanish when you stop working out? Well I thought that happened to me after several months of doing eff aye except for eating a whole bunch more than usual and sitting on my now pleasantly jiggly bottom.

However, even though the slight bulge on my chest has decreased, in a cold workout (aka one out of seemingly nowhere so far as your body is concerned) I managed to do much more than I could when my pecs are bigger. Its like, now they're concentrated, or something. Or before they were swollen. Or something.

Do muscles have to swell up first before they grow the useful bits?

o_o

Also, I am hungry now like, almost constantly. I think I might have to get some protein drinks and stuff just to tide me over.

Also having an actual butt is awesome.

Day 20: Late

Yesterday I only did a light workout, but today I did a full one, but I didn't get time to do the blog until just now, aaaaand now its time to sleep. I'll do two or three days fine and then have a day where its really difficult to work out, not because I am tired but because I just don't feel like it. This could be because results day for my recent hospital appointment is tomorrow, but it might not be. I dunno.

Bleh.

Today's workout was nearly the full one that I posted earlier, though I keep missing bits out, I am getting closer to having a perfect routine for my body. I have added a new kind of situp to the core section which will apparently flatten my abs more, and I have also added a cardio section to the weights using my lightest pair.

So theres progress being made :D

My flex pecs are getting a lot bigger, and its starting to show when I am not flexed, my tshirts drape now which is nice. My abs are also starting to show a little bit, theres still a reserve of fat on my stomach but when I am moving around and doing stuff the shadow of the pecs is starting to show through, my six pack should be perfectly symmetrical and quite large. Oh my.

Things are goin good towards the pride toplessness! Pictures in ten workout days! Woooo!

- SR

Day 18: (Part two) Baked Potato

With my newfound gymspiration I found that working out became more of a focused thing than a "hey I want to do this today because its fun and I like it". However I forgot to factor in the heat. Bleh! Apparently summer is going to be much hotter than our current heatwave, so I am going to start working out in the morning. Around about 9 - 10 am the house is still quite cool, and theres plenty of time to get hydrated and take a cool bath or shower.

Man.

I was so overheated I wasn't even able to complete a full workout session, I started getting cramps in my obliques so I had to stop early on my core workout and move onto the weights and final cardio. The cramps have gone now, but I seriously thought that I was going to pop like a sausage.

Speaking of I think its grilled food and salad tomorrow. Lush.

- SR

Day 16: Extra bits

Ahh I have a new favourite shirt. Its a small I <3 NY tee and it fits me perfectly and shows my workout lumps. Though it has a hole on the chest where the puppy decided he would jump up and give me a hug. I am six foot one, he is like a viper or something. ANYWAY, today I tried out a whole buncha new things and I am now breaking down my routine into the following handy blocks:

Stretches-
Making sure that I stretch all the muscle groups that I am going to be working out properly, stretch for a count of twelve pushes each time, or for 20 seconds. The stretches take about 2 or 3 minutes and can be done in isolation to increase flexibility.

Deep stretching/yoga-
At the moment, I am doing the tree pose, the crescent pose, the lord of the dance pose and the sun salutation. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes and limbers everything up, though I can't do the sun salutation properly yet so I need to do more stretching sessions in my day to make things looser. If I ever manage to put my face between my knees chances are the Mayans were onto something.

Cardio warmup-
During this section I am targeting my torso, legs and sides whilst maintaining movement at a regular speed. There are names for some of the things that I do, but really it just blends into a hyper moment where I prance around and look a bit ponsy.

Core1-
Twist crunches
Pushups
Crunches
Slow Squats
Pushups
Crunches
Slow Squats
Twist crunches

20 of each, short break in between.

Weights-
Butterfly lifts
Curls,
Squats,
Flexes,
Uhm... kinda lungey things? I'm not sure. Its all a bit sparkly, but its fun so yeah. I'll try and find a video for the next post or something.

Unicorns would do it. I'm just saying.

Core 2-
Sideways leg lifts (20 on each side)
Pushups
Crunches
Squats
Pushups
Crunches
Squats
Pass-the-pillow. Again, I will try and find a video, you're meant to do it with a Swiss ball but eh. Basically you have to hold something between your ankles, and pass it to your hands without bending your knees or lifting your butt of the floor OR you shoulders. Its easy at first but by the end of the first set you want to kill someone. Totally worth it though. It gets the deep muscles in your stomach all toasty and warm.

Cardio-
Dance! Woo! Two tracks, both six minutes, the rules of the game are that you cannot stop moving from the start to finish of each track, and you also have to move every muscle group. So you kinda look like a spazz, its not something I would do in a club, but it improves your breathing and your stamina. It is also a really good warm-down.

Stretching2-
Stretch everything you worked out again and massage places which are a bit sore or feeling laggy. Make sure you don't leave any knots or sore spots. Continue this one in the shower too.

Oh and as an extra thing, today whilst playing with the dog I totally decked it. At high speed, flat on my face. Didn't feel it though. Two months ago I would have been bruised for about a month haha but I just got up and was perfectly fine. I didn't know working out made you less vulnerable, but maybe someone should have said something about that.

There's a chance I wasn't listening if they did.

-SR

Who listens to wooden tops anyway? :P

Day 10: Uhm

So yesterday sort of dissapeared in a blur of various things and I somehow ended up not working out. So that sucked. Though I didn't do nothing, I totally racked up a good 8000+ steps on my pokewalker AND found a hyper potion, so I am pretty much set for life on those boons.

Today was a festival thing, so I've been walking around town a lot, and also this:
So yah. That was pretty fun, though I didn't walk the dog today, but I did play with him outside for a bit. Same routine as yesterday, though I thought maybe I should spell it out. This is my current main block of exercise:
- Stretches and light cardio + some yoga that I can do without snapping anything.
- 20 pushups
- 20 crunches
- 20 pushups
- 20 crunches
- 20 long arm butterflies (?) I don't know how to describe it really, but I am on my back on a bench and my arms are fully extended, with weights. Then I raise them from below the bench level to meet above me, as slowly as possible.
- 20 regular butterflies... like the previous but with bent arms, kind of like the way you use the machine in the gym.
- 20+ situps (until I feel like my abs are no longer my friend)
- 20+ pressups (same as above but with pecs and arms)
- 6 - 10 minutes of Cardio as a warm down

So far I haven't pulled anything so it seems to be working, and there are definate gains, and I feel pretty spectacular.

19 days until the 1 month picture! ... Is anyone even reading this? XD - SR

Day 8: THINGS

I actually have things that are starting to resemble pecs, I mean, theres like actual muscle there now which you can cup in your hand. WOO! Theres a thing! Now I just need to make em bigger. Hrrm hrrm hrrm. I guess I can do it slowly, but I am just so happy that its there and that I am starting to get stronger!

In 22 days hopefully they will be thing enough to be visible on camera, they are visible now but like, not defined. Or something.

Yay! A thing.

I've built some weights and some yoga warmup stretches into my routine now. Now the process takes about 40 minutes, and included pressups, crunches, weights, stretches, cardio and some light squats (because I don't want to fuck my knees up too bad). So its going good! Thats also not counting all the walking with the puppy and the general prancing around during daylight hours. Its going welllll!

Though I am much hungrier. Like. A lot more. Its kinda wierd. But I'm liking it. Sorta.

- SR

Day 2: Attempt two!

Puppies!Dogs are not helpful when you're trying to work out at home, especially when they thing that catching your skipping rope mid air and tripping you over with it is the best game. Fecking dog.

Owww.

My basic routine now includes pressups, situps and cardio. I do 20 pressups, then 20 situps and then repeat until my arms are telling me that we will not be on speaking terms if this continues. I aim to do the pressups and situps as slowly as possible as I have read somewhere that 20 slow pressups has much more effect than 20 fast pressups. That could be wrong though, I'll let you know if I survive. After I've finished torturing my muscles, I torture my lungs with either skipping or some light jogging. I am still weak from the infections last year, so I can't go very far with either at the moment, but I am in a much better place now than I was at the start of March. Eventually I want to work weights and much longer cardio sessions into my workout on a weekly basis.

Though running with a puppy on a lead is not at all fun, I got my pet degus a running wheel at the weekend and I am entirely jelous. I want a treadmill so bad, but I don't have the money or the space, though a full sized version of this probably wouldn't be much cheaper or take up less space.
I'm starting to get all full up with cold, so I am hoping that by exercising I can minimise the impact, but knowing my luck it will probably make me feel a lot worse. Ahh well.

Also, how did I miss this song? V V Brown is awesome, but its been out for two years? I stopped listening to the radio before christmas, but I didn't realise that I was this behind on music. Rubbish. - SR

PS! If you have any comments or suggestions for working out, then please feel free to leave them here.