I haven’t been updating my Fitness Journal for a while, but here’s one to start 2014! I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I started out my fitness journey, but here I am now, quite far from where I used to be.
While I started out with a single weight-loss goal in mind, I am now on a quest to become stronger. I can’t tell you how it’s been like for me, but (cheesy as it may sound) I’ve fallen in love with iron, and my love for it has only grown deeper with every week that passes by. I love the feeling of being able to lift weights; each time I add on a little weight to the barbell, or use a heavier dumbbell, or use a heavier setting on the weights machines as compared to what I was doing before, it makes me happy!
So when people ask me: “Why are you training so hard?”, I’d always tell them: “I just wanna get stronger!” Now, I’ve got more motivation and a goal to work towards!
For the next 8 weeks, I’m going to be part of a Fitter U, community campaign/contest by U Sports and LiveFitter, targeted at everyday people like you and I who want to get fitter! It is also supported by my favourite sports supplement brand, Optimum Nutrition.
There are 4 categories in this contest – Strength, Endurance, Sports, Physique.
I’ll be participating in the Strength category, obviously! (And also because my Endurance sucks, I’m too unshapely to be in Physique, and because I’m too uncoordinated to play any Sport)
Today, I’ve just started on the first day of my new strength training program, planned by my friend / training buddy / coach/trainer Jia. For the next 8 weeks, I’m gonna be focusing on improving and gaining strength in the 3 big lifts: squats, bench press and deadlifts.
Today, I did front squats and bench presses (plus pull-ups as assistance work). Started my worksets at weights that are lower than the max I’ve previously done before, as my worksets are now all 3×5. Apparently, I bench like it is my first day doing bench presses (see video!), and my jump negatives pull-ups suck too. Zzz. Super ugly – I didn’t even bench like this when I did 40kg, and this was only 37.5kg (albeit 3 sets of 5 reps). This new program makes me feel like I’m building up my strength base from scratch, but I know I’ll get to my goals at the end of 8 weeks! Also, hopefully after doing jump negatives for 8 weeks, I will finally be able to do 1x strict pull-up?! =P
Tomorrow’s rest day for me. This is probably the biggest challenge for me – I’m always so restless that complete rest days are usually out of the question for me.
But I’m under strict orders from Jia: Rest days means REST MORE and EAT MORE!
Follow my fitness journey with Fitter U, at www.daphnemaia.net