A new plan

Today at the gym wasn’t really a work out, it was a consultation to put together a new plan for me to help meet my new long term goal – get fit to join the RAF.  As such, I have updated my weight tracker with my weight a day early, and also my body fat percentage a week and a day early.  I’m doing well in both respects, and even my blood pressure has come down, though it is still a little high.

My new plan isn’t that much different from my old one really.  I am increasing the resistance on my interval training on the bike to be 8 minimum and 11 maximum, up 1 notch each.  On the day I was doing the harder cycle training – upper body workout days – I have changed the cardio on that from being on the bike to using a rowing machine.  It does seem like a bit of a cheat getting rid of the harder cycling part, but there is method to my madness.

The reason I am changing this cycling session to be rowing instead of sticking with it is because my legs seem to get very tired very quickly through it.  Whilst you may think that I would see that as a good thing, psychologically it is affecting me.  It’s showing that I am not improving in that area, despite doing it twice a week for 5 weeks.  I should be able to get further through it without my legs aching and me really struggling.  It is somewhat demotivating.  Besides, shaking things up a little will keep my body guessing.

The chest press I was doing was on a resistance machine, hence the high weight load early on.  I am swapping this out for a free-weight based chest press where I will be down to 10Kg in each hand.  I’ll look to rise through the weights with that at a decent pace and build my strength.

I have another review in 4 weeks time for a new program to help shake things up then.  I hope to add running as a permanent fixture to my training then instead of every so often.  I also have a target for then to be able to do 10 press-ups.  It’s a big ask, an increase of 2 press-ups a week, but I am confident I can do that.

As such, I won’t be checking my body fat percentage in 3 weeks, but will get it done at my next assessment again.