Training and eating

Two significant things happened within the past couple days in terms of my training.

Since it looks like kayak racing season has wound down for me this year, I entered into a different phase of my weight/resistance training, or mesocycle, in which I’ll once again start lifting weights in a linear progression fashion where I add more and more weight to try to add strength and maybe a little bit of muscle mass.

It doesn’t make sense to try to add muscle in-season, paddling 16 hours straight.

This will be a big shift for me because for the past few months I’ve adopted more of a bodybuilding-type routine where I’ve lifted weights ~50-70% of my maximums but have done 10 or so sets of 10-12 reps.  It served to preserve strength and provide some cardio benefits when not paddling or peddling in the great outdoors.

Now I’ll try to max out on a regular basis and do no more than 4 working sets after some lighter weights as warm-up.

To this end, I stopped by my local Gold’s Gym last night on my way home from a rec. league softball game to activate a 1-year membership that my wife won for me at a silent auction at the beginning of the summer.

So tonight I hit Gold’s Gym and was very happy with the quantity and range of equipment they have.  I mostly stuck to the dumbbells and benches and actually set a new 1 rep max on the incline flye.  With heavier dumbbells it is easier to lift heavier weights as opposed to trying to lift two dumbbells in one hand to go over the 50-pound maximum dumbbell weight in my neighborhood gym.

Gold’s Gym, Charlottesville, VA

The next few months and this next year is going to be really fun!  I liked the vibe of Gold’s and I’m sure I’ll be training there more often than my local fitness center.

The second significant thing that happened was Amazon.com sent me a notification that a cookbook I pre-ordered a few weeks back, Eat Happy by Anna Vocino, shipped and I should have it next week.  Anna is the hostess of my favorite podcast, Vinnie Tortorich’s Fitness Confidential, and her cookbook is full of recipes that are gluten-free and contain little to no sugar and grains.  This will fit nicely with my #NSNG (no sugar, no grains) nutrition plan I adopted a couple years ago and I can’t wait to try more of her wonderful recipes!

See you at the gym and maybe out for some gluten-free Fat Head Pizza, already one of my favorites.