just DO

My strength workouts right now are not hard, meaning, I'm not lifting heavy weight, but they are taxing. Because I try to rest very little in between exercises, my heart rate stays elevated. In addition to that, I've got a good burn going on through most of it. After an hour, it's very draining. I was fatigued for a few hours when I was done yesterday. I don't really understand it, working out is supposed to energize you. And if you are fatigued, you might be working too hard, but I don't feel that is the case. I'm used to squatting my bodyweight or heavier, so doing 30lbs squats is extremely easy. It must be the faster pace.

Since Hanna has been working out with me, it's been such a blast! I'm really going to miss it when she goes back to school. She will probably be doing a lot less running, which she will be happy about. She won't have time for a run at night since that's the only time she'll have to train. I'd rather she stuck to her weight training routine and drop the running. I'm not going to be responsible for wrecking her metabolism with tons of cardio.

We've decided on a full body routine 3 times a week. And if she's interested (which I know she is) in adding a body part specific day, we can do that 1 day in addition. For instance, I know she is interested in getting more definition in her arms, so we will probably take a 4th day and make it a shoulder day. I wouldn't mind that either because I would love to build my shoulders more.

We are not doing body part splits because I just don't think that is necessary. Full body workouts are going to help her engage all her muscles and burn more calories.

Yesterday when we were working out, she was a completely different girl than she was the first week. She showed me how strong she really was. I always knew that she could lift heavier and handle more than she was doing. I was so proud of her! She was getting after it like I'd never seen her before. She was even asking me to try heavier weight (whoo hoo!). I was doing bent over rows with 40lbs, which is a tad on the easy side for me, but she wanted to see if she could press the weight on the bar. 40 lbs was a little much for her, so we lowered it to 30lbs. That was much better. And she loved it! She brought the bar up over her head again and again. I think she even surprised herself. Then she was motivated to try heavier weights with all her exercises. She went from whining about doing hip extensions to doing them with 30lbs. And from crunches to straight arm crunches with dumbbells! Everything she did, she tried heavier weight. I don't want her to jump too far and risk an injury, so I will keep her down to a proper weight. Plus, if you are lifting almost do your max, doing 10-12 reps of 13 different movements, 3 times through, it would be way too taxing on the central nervous system. So while it's kind of cool to have her try heavier weight and get an idea of what her 1RM might be, it's not something she will be doing at every workout.

So often I read blogs and articles that say "lift heavier!". But I think that can be some dangerous advice. Often times, people let their egos get in the way of proper training. For me, it's never been about the amount of weight I can lift. It's about the results I can get. If I can get results using 30lbs, why use 130lbs? And everyone's ability is different. My max load might seem wimpy to someone else, but that's MY ability. I'm not going to lift heavier than I can with proper form just because someone else doesn't think the weight I use is heavy enough to get results. I've seen and read about weight lifting injuries and I'm NOT going to risk it!

That's not to say I don't get excited about personal bests. It was a goal at one time to squat 100lbs. I was so happy when I was able to do that! Eventually, I was able to surpass that goal. But I don't lift that heavy all the time. One reason, is I don't want to injure myself. Another reason, is I know that variation is a necessity for growth. One week I might deadlift 125lbs for 6 reps and the next I might go down to 80lbs for 12 reps. Now some people might say that's wrong. To stimulate muscle growth, you have to challenge it with heavier weight than you lifted last time. You have to keep improving, keep pushing, adding more weight. But eventually we have to stop adding weight, that's just the way it is. Otherwise, there would be dudes out there that could lift cars. You WILL hit a max for your potential as a human being.

By switching the weight and reps, you'll be using a method that keeps the body guessing. I believe that the worst thing you can do if you are looking to improve, is bore your muscles with the same stuff day in and day out. I don't care who you are or what you do. Look at your workout, is it the same as yesterday? And the day before? And the week before? Is your body looking exactly the same? There might be a correlation.

The amount of weight you lift, the number of times per week you should train a body part, the number of reps you should use.....there is nothing set in stone. Because everyone responds differently to training stimulus, there will never be a magic number. The only way to find out what works for YOU is to experiment. Find the combination that produces results in YOUR body. There is TOO MUCH INFORMATION out there. We can become paralyzed by it. We can be overwhelmed and not know what we should do with all the conflicting information. While it's important to read and keep learning, it's more important to get off your butt and just do something.