Progress and Motivation

So, I can say I'm pretty happy with how training has been going recently, I feel stronger and stronger all the time. 

As well as my 100kg deadlift last Monday, I hit a 62.5kg bench press last Friday and equalled the 100kg deadlift in training on Monday this week. I also increased my 5 RM to 80kgs, which seemed impossible only a few weeks ago. 

I'm training my squats solidly, I'm still hitting 60kgs without a spotter even on lighter nights. Although it does feel my squat is lagging a little behind my other lifts at the moment. I am going to focus a little more in getting some power through my squat, might hit up some box jumps for a challenge.

On Saturday I had a massive shoulder training with D, he really pushed me through some ladders and made me work a lot harder and faster than I normally do. I can see why his shoulders are so big when he trains like that all the time, I'll be taking more notice of that in the future!

This capped a pretty massive week in terms of strength gains. I can see some slight change in my figure, I'm leaning up a bit on my side profile and through my core. My upper body is still well ahead of my lower in terms of definition but I think that will improve more once I've dropped more body fat.

In the lead up to my next body fat test I've added a few more cardio sessions into my routine to try to help that along. It's a pain getting up earlier and earlier but I found only sessions on the weekend was not enough. Although it's been a little taxing, I am feeling good about getting more cardio in, so on top of walking to work every day (3kms, 25-20 minutes) I'm doing 5 half hour sessions on the elliptical each week.

I went with my work on a trip out of town yesterday, complete with catered deliciousness... I took a cooler bag full of chicken rice, kumara and protein bars with me. While I felt like a total weirdo putting my lunch together and eating it with people outside of my work, I was proud that I stuck to my diet no matter what the situation was that I was in.

I have been reading Total Recall, the autobiography of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it has been really helpful for my training mentality recently. He has such a positive outlook to training and was such an influential figure in this sport, it's been great to learn more about him. 

Arnold has such a good way of describing the process of training and building muscle, you have to take a objectively critical (not hurtful!) look at how you are doing and decide what needs work - add a little here, take a little off there. He says he thinks of it as being an artist, which I quite like. While reading, I thought there was no negative self talk or putting himself down, he approached his work with an analytical mindset. If he didn't feel he looked his best at one show, his talk is about what he thinks went wrong and how he is going to improve next time. 

He has such a competitive edge, he will do so much to be the best. He had a very high work rate, although he compliments other bodybuilders on their ability to train more and harder than him.

It definitely helps to remember this when I'm struggling to get out of bed or I don't want to hit the last set because I'm tired and sore. It's always a reminder to me that if I'm not getting up or doing the last set, my competition will be, and they will beat me because I've done the work.