One word sums up my calves today .... "OWCH!!"

2 rest days required....I can barely walk (literally)

Might try stretching on Monday

Ok so, the calf thing has turned out to be a little worse than I thought. The tightness in them meant that my knees were over-compensating and, I suspect my technique was also off so, walking is still uncomfortable around my knees.

I did struggle down to the gym last night just to do weights (no legs obviously) and tried about 20 mins on the cross trainer as I thought no impact might be okay. I have decided to skip my cardio today and let my legs rest

Add to this rather slack week of excercise the fact that I have 2 work colleagues staying in my flat and, being the only one with a company credit card, I am obliged to take them out in the evnings! So, I have been drinking and eating resteraunt food aswell!!!

Forget cheat days.....I'm having a cheat week!!

Well, I rested up for a week and my knees felt fine so, I headed back down to the gym today. I thought I should probably start off nice and easy so, did an hour on the stepper. Still felt okay so, moved onto intervals on the treadmill. 5 min warmup was fine but, after the first 1 minute interval, my right knee was beginning to hurt so, I stopped.

By the time I got home, my knee had started to swel up a bit so, I'm typing this with an ice-pack on it....all this because of skipping!! Grrrr!

I'm going to do weights tomorrow but, not the legs and I shall avoid any impact cardio for a while. Rope work has officially and permanently been removed from my program.

At last!! Monday was a good day, did weights and, just about managed to maintain everything I had been lifting before I had to stop. Yesterday was average, only managing 90 mins cardio but, my knees were fine, even on the treadmill.

Hopefully now I can get back into my usual routine...

Again, no significanty leg issues. I'm even considering rope work again (but with tuition and for less time) Its about time I posted some weights (as of last night) - I am under no illusions that these weights are in any way heavy - Oh, and they're all in kilos I'm afraid....sorry

Leg press (130kg) 3 x 10
Leg curl (50kg) 3 x 10
Dumbell chest press (40kg total) 3 x 10
Dumbell Shoulder press (30kg total) 3 x 10
Lat pulldown (50kg) 3 x 10
Dips (bodyweight) 3 x 10
Seated rows (40kg) 3 x 10
Bench flyes (25kg total) 3 x 10
Bicep curls (preacher bench - 25kg) 3 x 10
weighted crunches (15kg) 3 x 20
weird ab machine (50kg) 2 x 20
oblique crunches 4 x 25 (2 sets each side)
plank 3 x 70 seconds

45 minutes cardio

* I have no idea what the weird ab machine is but, you hook your legs under some pads and pull down on some handles at the same time. Every time I see anyone doing it, they look weird to me...

My shin splints came back last night. I could feel them coming on so stopped running straight away. Strange since I had done an hour on the stepper beforehand which seemed to ahve been solving the problem. Went on to do my intervals on the cross trainer instead and actually found them harder than on the treadmill which surprised me.

90 minutes total which, with the last 30 minutes being intervals, is easily the equivalent of 2 hrs.

Whoo-hoo! More progress! I have to wear a suit next week (I NEVER wear suits!) for a funeral so, I dusted off an old black suit that I haven't worn since I was about 18 - 19 years old (15 years ago). I had tried the trousers on a month or so ago and they didn't fit, I couldn't even do them up! There is no label but, I would guess that they are probably a 32" waist. Anyway, just tried them on again and, although the waist is a bit of a 'snug' fit, they seemed fine!! So, it looks like I currently have a 32" waste!! Wow!

Excellent workout last night - only the final rep on shoulder presses eluded me. Booked a re-assessment next week to mix the training up a bit. I want to increase weights and lower the reps and get some squats in there. I'll be swapping to the barbell for chest presses.

Nice Chris sounds like your making real progress. Awesome keep it up. Love your excitment!! Great job

Well, its been about a month since my last post and, until last night, it had been about a month since my last visit to the gym too (sorry to disappoint Jen )

Much as I would love to claim illness or injury or some kind of selfless charity work as my reason for such a long absence from the gym, I'm afraid I cannot. My reasons were both hedonistic and self-indulgent and thoroughly enjoyable!!

Anyways, back to the matter in hand....I foolishly attempted to maintain all of my weights from 4 weeks ago last night and, suffice to say, it was not a success!! On a couple of excercises (namely dips and shoulder press) I skipped an entire set! Only managed 15 minutes cardio afterwards before throwing in the towel and hitting the shower

Adding insult to injury, I seem to be developing a sore throat and a few aches and pains (there is a flu bug doing the rounds locally) so, I am stuffing myself full of drugs from the chemist in the hope that I will not come down with anything that will keep me out of the gym any longer!!

Just cardio tonight - 90mins is the plan....wish me luck!!

45 mins x-trainer and 45 mins stepper last night. Could have quit very easily after 20mins but, managed to push through and the last hour was easy. In fact, I could have carried on - encouraging after such a long break.

No time to train today unfortunately

Weights again today - still struggled a bit on some excercises but, not as bad as Tuesday. Going to change the entire workout next week and start again from scratch.

After all, a change is as good as a rest.

Well, I've lost muscle and gained bodyfat over the last month! I'm not surprised considering I didn't train and ate badly.

Before I was 16.4% @ 73.3kg
Now I am 17.5% @ 73.5kg

I plan to get back down to 16.4% by this time next week - wish me luck!

You might look to take some propolis and OSHA to kick out sore throat/sickness.

I've not heard of either of those but, thankfully whatever I had was only a 24hr thing and the day that I was properly sick was a day I couldn't have gone to the gym anyway so, it all worked out pretty well

So, today was the day that I re-programmed my workout. I had an hour session which ran onto an 75mins and we still didn't get to the end of it! I'm going to be doing a split routine and went through most of the excercises (thats like 3 workouts at once!!!) - by the end, I had very little energy for lifting weights...although, I did manage 45mins cardio afterwards before collapsing (not literally) in the steam room.

Got some old favourites back in my routine now such as squats, reverse dumbell flyes, dumbell rows and lat pullups. I have another session booked for tomorrow to finalise the split and go through some core excercises and then I'm set. Really looking forward to getting started. I definitly needed a change.