YoYo’s World

“The thing that is overlooked the most when it comes to exercising is rest.”

I know it probably seems like I’ve been M.I.A. I haven’t been posting because I’ve been busy and sick. Today is the start of week four and I missed three days of conditioning last week due to cold and illness. I am taking Human Physiology and I just learned in class that the hormones cortisol and epinephrine because it “prevents proliferation of T-cells” (physiology notes). This means that it keeps T-cells from being produced and as you may know, T-cells are an integral part of your immune system.

Essentially, exercising while sick theoretically causes you to become more sick; depending on intensity of training. I didn’t want to take a risk and I felt pretty crappy, so I decided to take those few days to heal. I find it better to take rest for three days, rather than exercise ineffectively for a week and stay sick for an extra four days.

NOTE: The thing that is overlooked the most when it comes to exercising is rest.

Today was my first day back and my day strength training. Here’s today’s workout:

Seated Dip: 2 sets, 50 reps; 20 lbs
Back Extension: 50 reps 35 lbs; 50 reps 40 lbs; 100 reps 45 lbs
Biceps: 35 reps, 15 reps; 20 lbs
Overhead: 25 reps, 10 reps; 20 lbs
Abs: 55 reps, 40 reps; 35 lbs
Calves: 3 sets of 20 reps, 100 reps; 120 lbs
Plank: 75 secs, 55 secs
Side Plank: 30 secs; Variation #1: 6 reps; Variation #2: 15 reps
Birdog: 30 secs; Variation #1: 15 reps

If you compare these numbers with workouts in the past, you will notice an increase in either weight or repetitions. I was shocked and proud of myself to have come back with such a fury after three days of unscheduled rest. I even added another exercise, the calf. I realized that I needed to work on my plantar flexion if I wanted to build my running edurance. I decided to get on a leg press, put my toes on the bottom edge-the balls of my feet weren’t on the machines- and pushed my toes forward to work on all of my plantar flexion muscles; gastrocnemius, soleus, tibialis m and others. This exercise not only strengthened my calf muscles, but it also strengthened my hamstrings-biceps femoris long and short heads, semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles- which are very important for flexing your legs as well.

I am also going to start on a modified training program. I will be running three times a week and strength training three times a week with one day of rest. The other program I feel was a very good one, but I am taking the advice from a few of my professors; they say it’s unecessary to be training as hard as I am for a half marathon. I also decided to put rest to the test.

This is of course not a true test of rest but since this will be a different kind of rest, compared to my last program, I’m just going to call it that = P. I’ve decided I will run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while strength training Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. My day of rest will be on Sundays.

Share This