Back! Day 1 HST and Low Carb

Catching up since my last post, I worked for a couple of weeks on hitting a few strength goals, while doing a low carb diet that included one day off a week where I enjoyed myself.

I hit my goal of squating 225 lbs. for six reps. Yay! Felt good. I was hoping to get my bench up to 215, but I failed, only being able to do 205 for 4 or 5 reps :( Dead lift, I hit the goal of 225 lbs., yay, but I still worry about my form... I think this is still a relatively new exercise for me and by body is still getting used to it. Another round of HST will hopefully reinforce my weak areas and I'll go past 225 on dead lifts after this round of HST. Finally, hanging straight leg lifts, I'm pretty happy with being able to do 16; my new goal is 20. Curls, I'm still stuck at 40 to 45, but honestly, I think doing those after a full workout (after doing all those back exercises) is silly... I strongly suspect I've been over training them. Finally, while my pull-ups are only slowly making progress (5 reps at 50 lbs. assisted is all I am able to do), I'm up to 160 on the chest crusher exercise. Oh, and calves, I'm up to the same.

I was at San Diego Comic-con and then on a press tour in NYC, so it was the perfect time to do some strategic deconditioning before starting up a new round of HST. BTW Comic-con is so freaking fun that I plan to go every year from now on... from all the comics, toys and movie related stuff, to the True Blood panel, to the celebrities (I met Lou Ferrigno, saw a bunch of Star Trek and BSG people, and then I flew on a plane home with Amanda Tapping sitting next to me!!!). In NYC I also met Shawn White, a fellow red head and one of the nicest celebrities I've ever encountered (Amanda Tapping was SUPER nice too).

Anyway, so seven days off, and I'm back at the gym doing my HST 15's. After doing max weights on sort of a split routine, doing so many reps feels weird, but I love the pump! Going from exercise to exercise (back, legs, chest, shoulder, rinse, repeat) without resting long between them is super aerobic intense and fun! The only down-side is the embarrassment of how little weight you're lifting. Doing 125 lbs. squats when you can finally pump out the same at 225 sucks! The only exercise today that was tough was the lunges; at 50 lbs (one 25 lb. dumbbell in each hand), I had to stop at 10 reps., but after having done squats and deadlifts already, this is probably not surprising.

Low carb is much more enjoyable now that I've switched to the one day off a week program. I've also starting eating more healthy slow acting but very healthy foods like broccoli, while at the same time doing the six meals a day approach. Works great!

Off to work now.