I did NOT want to workout (from April 2012)

From April 2012…

I did NOT Want to Workout!  (But I did want to… What??)

For the past couple weeks I’ve been trying to get my ass back in the ghyme.  (Gym, for all you non Simpson’s fans. haha)

Up till the end of 2011 I was hitting it hard and making some great gains, but at the beginning of 2012, I had a lil snag with business that meant I wasn’t able to make it in to workout.  (Yeah, lame excuse, but I’ll explain some time in the future and it will make more sense).

Anyway, I ended up taking off about 3.5 months from doing any lifting.  Plus I was either eating krap (to stay alive) or not eating enough and dropped about 13lbs.  I was around 178lbs in December 2011, and after my lil snafu for the first few months of 2012 I was about 165lbs.  

So I decided to get my arse back in gear and hit the weights again.

I quickly figured out that someone had apparently abducted my motivation and this was going to be rough.

Around the middle of April I started back at the ghyme.  (If you can call what I was doing working out).  For the first 2-3 weeks every time I went to workout it was painful.  Not because I was sore or it hurt physically, but because I didn’t want to go.  I think I only went about 4 or 5 times.

I would get to the gym after all that time off and then not want to be there.  UGH!  

WHY???  

Well, one big reason was that I had lost a LOT of strength.  That’s not good.  When you’re doing “air bench” and it feels heavy, that’s a problem.  HA… Ok, I actually used weight on squat/bench/etc, but it just felt freakin heavy as!  Blah blah, yeah, I know…. It’ll take some time to come back, but it’s still disconcerting.  

In December 2011 I was doing reps with 435lbs on squat and 565lbs on deadlift and I don’t remember what on bench cuz I hate bench.  So a few months after when I come back and 135 on squat feels like…. WTH!!!???… It f%&ks with your mind a bit.

So how am I implementing my training now?

Well, I looked at what really motivates me and how I operate.  I like things that really piss me off for motivation and I like SOP’s. (Standard Operating Procedures).  So I found a couple things that really piss me off and looked at myself in the mirror and took a picture. (Even tho “muscles” aren’t my primary goal, I do appreciate them).  I really don’t give a shit about age, but when peeps think your 10+ years younger than you are, it’s a bit of an ego boost.    

Anyway…. So then I went back to my old workout spreadsheets to add a little pain to the equation and basically cut all my maxes in half or less.  That sucked!!

So basically what I’m saying in a long winded way is you have no excuse.  Were you deadlifting over 500lb’s or squatting over 400lb’s?  Then what’s the hold up???  Your 72″ TV at home? 

Stay tuned, because I know it will take me a while, but I am going to come back stronger and beterrerer than ever!!

Travis Hlavka (9 Posts)

I may act like a 12yr old a lot of the time, but that's because I have a genetic defect that will not allow me grow up. HOWEVER, I do take strength training and fitness very seriously and I love using what I know to help others reach their fitness goals and avoid the bazillion mistakes I've made in my 25+ yrs of training. Since I don't know everything, I never stop learning. Note: I am no longer a "certified" trainer, but I truly understand more about fitness and health now than I ever did with that official piece of paper.