Music and Training - the case of the missing shuffle

Looking suitably excited for leg day!

Like most people, I've found that music (or lack of) has a profound effect on my training. I think of this today, as when I was leaving the house to walk to work (It's 3kms, takes about 25 minutes and I count this as my cardio of the day, low impact and just hard enough to get my heart rate up) and I couldn't find my beloved ipod shuffle. I checked my gym bag, my handbag and all the regular spots around my house. I know I had it last night! I checked my hoodies and pockets but still no luck :(

Now I know it's not the most superior of the ipod technologies, and my iphone is actually better, but I love my shuffle because it's small and clips to my clothes, so when I'm training I don't worry about it getting in the way, dropping it, or crushing it while training. It's my trusty companion, and I'm a little lost without it when I've forgotten it or its battery is flat. It really did get my day off to a bad start, compounded by me leaving my protein shaker on the roof of my car after I was looking for my ipod under my seat... see, it threw off my whole morning.

I use music not only to block out the Extreme gym music (some of which is pretty awful, but better than my old gym at least, it's hard to lift to jazz music or the Monkees) but to block other people out around me. As a lady who lifts, it can be a little intimidating hanging out on the floor with the big boys, so I prefer to be plugged in and allow myself to be absorbed in what I'm doing, rather than worried about whether anyone is watching. I usually train alone and don't really need to engage in conversation while working out (it's nice and if one of my friends is there I'll chat between sets) but while I'm lifting it's all about me.

For normal lifting, I don't really worry too much about what's playing, I usually don't recognise the songs as I go and have no particular favourites, as long as something is going on in my ear that's ok.

When I'm lifting heavy though, it needs to be a song that suits my mood, what I'm lifting, and has the right beat. I tend to lift on a particular crescendo or passage in each song, and I've found that talking to others they do the same thing. I'm not sure why, just seems to help me concentrate and get the setup for lift just right. It also helps me keep my breathing in sync for each rep and helps me time my rest so it's not too long and not to short. The shuffle is perfect and I can clip it to the side of my clothes and I don't have to worry about it falling out off my pocket.

For cardio, well something upbeat and poppy usually does the trick for this, I tend not to go too hard out on that at the moment, so can be something a little more gentle as well.

So after this in depth contemplation of how much I love my music and my shuffle while walking to work on my own, I made one last, desperate attempt to empty my gym bag before calling the gym and reporting it missing. there would have been posters on the wall of the gym and all....so you'll be glad to know I found it, wrapped in my gym towel, when I emptied my bag out at work. We both breathed a sigh of relief and we'll be training together at lunchtime! Hooray!

I may have been slack on posting, but definitely not slack on my diet!

Wow! What a week! Diet/Food plan officially started on Monday! 

Sunday we went grocery shopping, I swear there was more green in our trolley that day than I've ever seen! Next week I'm going to hit up the markets to see if I can get kumara (sweet potato) cheaper, we need so much of it that it's worth it to even get a few dollars savings. Otherwise it wasn't too far off what we'd normally buy, except all other protein sources swapped out for chicken...delicious!

Sunday night was spent chopping, cooking, and putting a weeks worth of food for two in containers. Not a small task by any stretch of the imagination, but now I think I've got the routine sorted it won't take me three hours next Sunday... well hopefully!

The food plan for me is basically:

• Oats and protein shake for breakfast
• chicken, kumara, rice and broccoli for meal one
• same for lunch (meal two)
• Apple and protein shake for afternoon tea
• Chicken and greek salad for dinner
• Protein shake after the gym

(I'll do another post about the supplements I'm on later)

The funny thing is, I'm actually enjoying the structure and regimentation of this plan and the sameness of the food doesn't even really bother me. I take my wee cooler bag of food with me to work and mix everything up as I need it.

There's something comforting about knowing what I am going to be eating that day, and already having set my portions out makes mealtimes a little less scary and chaotic. I like having scales and cups to measure out all my portions and making sure I'm eating enough at all times. To be honest I wish I had done this years ago, it would have saved myself a lot of time and energy!

Eating like this means I'm never full, but never hungry either, just a nice balance the whole day. It's been easier to resist the temptation of treats at work when I know what I have to eat (and I am actually eating a meal at morning tea rather than relying on a snack to keep me going!)

 I feel I have more energy and the lifts that I have tried to push hard on (hurt my back on Saturday cleaning the car, of all things, so I've been taking it a bit easier than normal) have been going well,18 kg dumbbell bench press seemed to go up easier than before. it looks like my delts are coming along well, and I can already see a bit more leanness through my stomach and back. I'm looking forward to being able to hit deadlifts and squats with real enthusiasm again, in the meantime look out accessory lifting, I'm coming for you!

The other change I've made (well, been told to make!) is adding cardio back into my workouts. It's low impact cardio where I'm aiming for a heart rate of between 105-140 BPM, so not a hard slog by any stretch of the imagination. It's given me the inspiration to start walking to work again, which isn't far, only about 3kms, but just long enough (and I leave the house late enough!) that I have to push myself a wee bit to get to work on time!

So in all everything seems to be going ok 4 days in :) I'm doing a lot of stretching and foam rolling for my back and I'll keep you up to date on when it feels good enough to try for some big numbers!

Auckland trip, eating more and supplements, yay!

Auckland was good, I managed to hit the gym twice while I was there.I trained at Les Mills on Victoria Street which was not too far from the hotel we were staying in. It was interesting training at a gym that had the cardio machines surrounding the weight floor, felt like you were being observed the whole time which seemed quite weird... I could almost hear them thinking "what are these strange people doing, picking things up and putting them down..." 

The gym felt a little cramped, training on the hammer strength machines in the loft area was interesting. It could have been the number of people there or just that it was different to how Extreme is set out and I wasn't used to it. It felt a little like a rabbit warren in some parts, I still have no idea how far back the ladies changing room goes.

We did have a hard weekend though, I didn't get much sleep and I could tell it was effecting my training. I only went up to 85kg deadlift on Sunday, and it didn't feel pretty. Whether it was just lack of sleep or something else I don't know. But at least I was good and actually went to train.

So I've put on about 2kgs so far, up from 56 to 58kg. Whether I'm excited about this or not is yet to be seen, but I'm telling myself gains are good and this is what I'm after! The eating thing has been interesting. I am definitely trying very hard to get used to eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, so that Monday when we start the proper diet plan, it isn't too much of a shock. I'm excited and nervous about being told what to eat and when, so I'll let you know how that's going.

We brought Cell Mass yesterday so had my first serve last night. I'm taking it straight after the gym, hopefully it will help me recovery and gains (yes I want them!). 

I trained arms at lunchtime and have got shoulders tonight. I'm going to play around with some more Olympic lifting tonight, I really enjoyed that so want to add a bit more into my training.

The Gym and Travel…

Well I'm off to Auckland this weekend, and for those of you new to my life, this isn't the first trip away I've had this year that’s threatened to throw my gym groove off.

For my longer trips, I really only attempted to use hotel gyms, some great (Yay go Texas!) and some which left a lot to be desired (Sydney, Slovakia, I'm looking at you!). 

Hotel gym in Slovakia aka "The lifter's nightmare"

This had mixed results, in Texas, the food I ate made me feel worse, but the gym there was much better and despite my initial feelings, I managed to come out of that trip in a good place. Europe was a little harder. Even though I hit a deadlift PR in a gym in Austria at the beginning of my trip, the lack of facilities in Bratislava including nearby gyms that were never open, and lack of energy, made it almost impossible to stay on top.

This short weekend trip, I have more of a plan. My gym has locations in Auckland, and I have mapped out the route from my hotel to the nearest one. I'll be heading there Friday and first thing in the morning before the events start on Saturday and Sunday. I'll try stick to my workout plan as much as possible, but I may have to do "workouts-lite" to fit everything in. This should be ok as long as I roar back into it when I get home on Monday.

As for eating (my nemesis!), I’m going to be doing another mass batch of cooking tonight and taking a whole lot of food and protein powder with me so I have snacks ready if I need it and I'm not as likely to eat something bad for me. I'll make sure to take a water bottle with me wherever I go to try to stop me buying energy drinks.

So we shall see if this amazing plan of mine actually works…

Eating ALL of the things...

Food and I have a love/hate relationship. Love the taste, not so much the effect. So as I've said before, my diet is a little rough.

Well, I'm working on it. I haven't got my diet plan from the Boss just yet, but I'm trying to get used to eating more, and eating more often. So for the last week it's been breakfast, lunch and dinner for me with loads of protein.

 I've been busy in the kitchen making kumara and carrot to heat and eat with protein at work. Definitely worth the effort to have something convenient to eat for lunch.

18 Serves :D

All this while trying to cut down on so much sugar and caffeine...some days, this works better than others. Like today. Work morning tea, cake galore! Could I control myself? No, not really. 

But I will make up for it, by hitting the gym extra hard. 

And not surprisingly, more food in me, has meant some bigger, more solid lifts. Which I really can't complain about. More food means more energy, so I can train for longer and starting to hit some bigger numbers.

I know it seems like pretty simple stuff, and something I really should know by now. But even though I tell myself these things, theory is not the same as practice. So I am trying to practice what I know is right. It's about time I stopped sabotaging my training with a bad diet and so I'm really hoping I'll be able to change.

I like structure and routine, recording my workouts and analysing things, so I can't wait to get my diet plan from the Boss and be able to do this with my eating as well #fitnerd