I tried, so hard, to keep on top of this blog - but I've failed.
I am a fiction writer by day and a fitness instructor by night. I thought I could use this blog to widen my non-fiction writing experience. For a while it worked, but not as well as I'd hoped. I'd wanted to be able to take my personal experiences and translate them into fun, witty and helpful posts...
But it's time to face the truth: I am not an article writer. I am a fiction writer, and as such I'm going to leave the article writing to someone else.
Thanks for your support over the last couple of years, and I hope you reach your weight/fitness/strength goals. This blog will stay up and running for a while longer, and then - sometime after Easter - I'll take it down.
If you're interested in finding out more about my fiction, please follow this link to my writing website.
Monday, 24 February 2014
Saturday, 1 February 2014
Injury and embarrassment
Six days ago, I injured myself doing a deadlift in the gym. I've told pretty much everyone about my stupidity, so I might as well share it here - it might prevent you from doing something similar.
I've been following the weightlifting protocol 5/3/1 where you work to pretty tight progressive weights over the course of the session and the weeks. I was only using it for a couple of lifts, including my deadlift.
So, there I was last Sunday morning... I did a 5 rep set x 30kg, 3 x 36kg, 3 x 41kg, 3 x 51kg and the last set was as many reps as possible at 58.5kg. I did 4 good reps, and went for a 5th...
Now... something happened between that 4th and 5th rep, but I don't quite know what. I lost concentration, I forgot how heavy the bar was, I didn't push through my feet but pulled from my arms... One or all of these happened, and the top of my left glute went ping. I heard it.
I dropped the weight, said 'ow' very loudly, decided to give up the rep and even tried to bend down to unload the bar. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. I shuffled into the gym office and promptly fainted on my colleague.
I was completely laid up for two days, and in pain ever since - a sharp pain when I move the wrong way, and a dull ache at all other times. Standing still is not easy, and sitting down on a proper chair is impossible - I have to slouch back propped with cushions and my feet up.
I've also completely finished a box of chocolates, snacked at all the wrong times, and I can feel myself getting weaker and less fit with every passing minute. But I am using this time to ditch 5/3/1 and go back to my own system, which was actually working very well.
To finish, the moral of this story - the thing you should remember whether you're lifting 20kg or 200kg - is respect the weight, don't lose concentration and try really, really hard never to faint in front of the people you work with!
I've been following the weightlifting protocol 5/3/1 where you work to pretty tight progressive weights over the course of the session and the weeks. I was only using it for a couple of lifts, including my deadlift.
So, there I was last Sunday morning... I did a 5 rep set x 30kg, 3 x 36kg, 3 x 41kg, 3 x 51kg and the last set was as many reps as possible at 58.5kg. I did 4 good reps, and went for a 5th...
Now... something happened between that 4th and 5th rep, but I don't quite know what. I lost concentration, I forgot how heavy the bar was, I didn't push through my feet but pulled from my arms... One or all of these happened, and the top of my left glute went ping. I heard it.
I dropped the weight, said 'ow' very loudly, decided to give up the rep and even tried to bend down to unload the bar. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. I shuffled into the gym office and promptly fainted on my colleague.
I was completely laid up for two days, and in pain ever since - a sharp pain when I move the wrong way, and a dull ache at all other times. Standing still is not easy, and sitting down on a proper chair is impossible - I have to slouch back propped with cushions and my feet up.
I've also completely finished a box of chocolates, snacked at all the wrong times, and I can feel myself getting weaker and less fit with every passing minute. But I am using this time to ditch 5/3/1 and go back to my own system, which was actually working very well.
To finish, the moral of this story - the thing you should remember whether you're lifting 20kg or 200kg - is respect the weight, don't lose concentration and try really, really hard never to faint in front of the people you work with!
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