To Workout or To Not Workout - Week 2 Day 1 of The Bodyweight 8X8 training Program

What was supposed to be a workout for Sunday got pushed to Monday. I have strongly believed that when you are not up to the mark with your health, do not push yourself. The goal of a fitness program is to make you healthy and strong not to worsen the situation. All the macho banter about going the distance is great motivational talk in magazines and DVDs. But in real life, if your workouts are stressing you out and delaying recuperation, then you are not doing the right thing by pushing too hard. Do that when you are better not when you are under the weather.

I was down with a heavy cold, runny nose some fever and headache. I did pull out my TRX and proceed to set it up. But I thought about earlier that day when I had to drop my in-law and return home. Scaling the three flights of stairs were a really daunting task and my lungs gave out before I reached my door steps. I simply put all the equipment back in place and decided not to workout out.

Today was supposed to be a rest day (until I can devise a good and quick stretching and static straight arm strength program for Mondays and Wednesdays). So I decided to try working out today (on Monday i.e) instead. While I was still a little down, it wasn’t as bad as yesterday and in fact I was able to escalate the training to 5X8 on all the BIG 3 moves.

The routine looked like this:

·         Jackknife Squats – 5X8

·         Inverted Rows – 5X8

·         Incline Push-Ups – 5X8

This was followed by:

·         Flat tucked Leg raises – 3X5

·         Simple Bridge – 3X5

·         Pike Press – 3X5

In all this, I was able to pull off the big 3 moves pretty well. I did take a small break just before the 5^th set. Not too long, about 8-12 seconds. But the last three moves I got done quickly and was able to do the pike press rather easily compared to my previous sessions. I guess it’s time to escalate the workload on this circuit too.