MY FIRST TIME

I don’t normally do this but this is my first time doing it
What I mean by “it” is taking pre-workout. It’s not so much that I am against pre-workout or supplements, my take is that I never want to take something that I feel like I’m going to be addicted to. I don’t want to have to rely on anything unnatural to keep my body moving. I was talking to someone earlier today and they gave me a little insight on why they use it and it made me realize it’s not that bad. No he wasn’t selling me on it he was just giving me a situation to where he justified the reason why he used it. This is why you should always have an open mind when it comes to health and nutrition because you can always learn from someone’s else’s experience.

Last week a lady came into my job and dropped off a gift bag full of healthy supplements, treats and different health food items. It just so happened that this pre-workout stuff was in it. There were also some BCAAs that I have never taken a day in my life. So I decided why not, let’s go ahead and take this stuff and see what it’s like before a work out. Let’s see what all the hype is about. It had 200 mg of caffeine! The only thing that I could think of was how does this make me feel in comparison to coffee before a workout.

The flavor was pretty good. They reminded me of some very sweet blueberry popsicle. I had a slight mediciny taste to it but that was more of an after taste. I took it 30 minutes prior to working out. I knew I had a client to train so I wanted to get that in my system to see how my body would react before I would start working out. Within the first 5 to 10 minutes after taking the pre-work out I felt my body get warm and my skin started itching. Once my skin started itching I felt my lips and they started to get very warm and started itching as well. I didn’t panic because I figured this was a side effect especially since this is my first time ever taking it.

I proceed to train my client and I can feel myself getting a little bit more energized as I kept moving around. Now mind you that it’s about 430 in the afternoon. I did not get to my work out first thing this morning. By the time I got to the gym this afternoon to train my client I felt slightly sluggish coming in. This is why I knew I had to bring this pre-workout stuff just to go ahead and give it a test run, The itching finally went away after about 10 to 15 minutes then I got really hungry. I finished torturing my client, then I hit the gym floor ready to work out on my chest.

This is my first time working out with weights in almost 2 weeks. I go through these phases when I don’t feel like lifting weights because I know how hungry I get after working out. I don’t have anything on hand right then and there that could be bad. Bad as in I am liable to make bad eating choices afterwords so this is why I stress preparation is key because I know I fail at times.

Here’s my chest routine I did

Exercise 1: DUMBBELL OVERHEAD PULLOVERS

1st Set- 15 REPS- 50LBS
2nd Set- 10- 70LBS
3rd Set- 5- 80LBS
4th Set- 5 – 80LBS
5th Set – 10- 70LBS
6th Set- 15- 50LBS

Exercise 2: FLAT BENCH DUMBBELL FLYS

Exercise 3: FLAT BENCH DUMBBELL PRESSES

Now for the two exercises above I stayed with the same rep range as well as weights. My fellow blogger and friend ShayLon made a blog post last week regarding pyramid sets. That got my wheels turning. I decided to go ahead and do some pyramid sets myself. These are what you will call ascending as well as descending sets. You start off with a light amount of weight then go with a lot of reps. When you move up in weight, then decrease the reps. Once you get to your peak you come down the opposite way of how you went up. It’s a high volume work out. You can set your base reps as high as you want them and then work your way to your peak. Just remember whatever goes up must come down. You can apply this to any muscle group you are working on whether its legs, biceps, or triceps, back or shoulders. It’s all about switching up your routine and doing something new.

During my last set of presses I was really feeling energized. I mean it didn’t give me the same UMPH as coffee but I feel like the energy may have lasted a little longer. It may be all mental. I then been move on to

Exercise 4: FLAT BARBELL BENCH PRESS

1st Set – 15 reps – 135lbs
2nd Set – 10 reps – 225lbs
3rd Set – 3 reps (I wanted five but my arms were giving out) 275lbs

4th Set – 2 reps – 275lbs
5th Set – 10 reps – 225lbs
6th Set – 15 reps – 135lbs

Then finish off the rest of my workout with a 10 minute incline walk on the treadmill. This week my workout has been 40 to 60 minutes of straight cardio. Today was the first day that I decided to add weights.

Now this is my first time ever trying BCAAs. I always hear about people taking it post workout. If you want to know more about BCAA’s here’s the link to a website that will define it for you.

https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bcaas-the-many-benefits-of-amino-acids.html

This tasted like a very sweet with a slight mediciney taste of a green apple. Michael when you first sip it it taste good but then if you keep drinking it you know it’s not a regular drink. Unlike the pre-workout that I took before the work out I didn’t feel any tingling or warm sensation throughout my body.

So will I use a pre-work out again? I think I will stick to my coffee. I’m so use to running off of low fuel when I start working out that I know how to mentally push my body to a point where I can block out a weakness and fatigue. When I do feel fatigue I know that it’s time to move on to something else. More than likely when I do finally feel fatigue it’s about after 45 minutes to an hour of weightlifting. For most people that is more than enough time. I’m trying to get used to shortening my workouts while being more efficient. This work out in total took me 50 minutes. So if you looking for a new workout routine try this one and let me know how works out for you.