Tuesday, September 7, 2010

What not to do in the gym

I deliberately took about a month off from lifting, including the time I spent in CA on vacation. I had a few parts of my body that were complaining from all the lifting I've been doing, and some rest from the gym seemed like a good idea.

Last Monday, I returned to the gym. On Friday, I did my first lower body workout in the gym in about 6 weeks. I thought I'd do a nice, simple workout to re-adapt myself to these lifts:

5x3 squats
3x10 walking lunges
5x3 deadlifts

On the squats and deads, I added weight each set, so that my last set was relatively hard, but the early sets weren't very hard. But, after not doing these lifts for a while, my body was not ready. So, I have been sore all over for days now. On Saturday, I could barely walk, but it was a college football day, so that was OK. On Sunday, I could barely move, but it was a long weekend, so I didn't worry about it too much.

On Monday, I forced myself outside for a bike ride - nothing too long or strenuous - just over an hour at a moderate pace. I felt no better after the bike ride, but no worse either. But this morning, both of my hamstrings were unhappy.

So, I clearly way overdid things on Friday. Tonight, I'll be in the gym, doing an upper body workout, but I'll be sure to be a bit more careful than I was last week.

And then tomorrow, I'm hoping that my legs are finally recovered enough to go for a run.

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