Sometimes I forget...

Sometimes I forget that I'm not 230lbs anymore. Several times in the last month I have found myself making accommodations for the weight I no longer carry.

A few weeks ago Superman had me doing something on the weight bench. I sat on the edge...then immediately moved more towards the middle.  I was afraid I was going to flip it by putting too much weight too close to the end. Just yesterday he had me standing on a plastic step doing deadlifts. I found myself scooting back...because I was afraid I was going to flip it!

Superman competed in his second bodybuilding competition a few days ago. He didn't place, but it wasn't a drug tested competition, and several of the guys he lost to had obvious signs of steroid use. He's content with what he brought to the stage though, and I couldn't be more proud of him. He looked amazing!! His cheering section got to hang out with his parents again this year. Yesterday he told me that his mom had commented to him that she could see the changes in my physique from last year!

German volume training

,,Last week Superman got the brilliant idea to test this on me. It was...interesting.

GVT is a training method where you pick a few compound exercises, and you do 10 sets of 10 repetitions of them. The weight stays kind of light, but 100 reps is brutal.

Last week we did bench press (75lbs) and deadlifts (135lbs). The first 4-6 sets were relatively easy. By the 7th set of each, I was struggling. On the deads, I had to pause between reps several times per set. On the bench, he made me rack briefly after the 6th or 7th rep. My arms were so shaky when we were done! The next morning I woke up at 4 am to pee...and realized I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. It hurt to breathe, my  shoulders and entire back was tight. It took until Monday for everything to loosen up!

He didn't call it GVT, but Tuesday we kinda did it for legs. He gleefully announced that we were doing 10 kinds of squats. That's right kids, an entire hour of nothing but squats. Bodyweight, sissy squats (totally NOT for sissies), dumbbell squats, squat machine, front squats on the machine, barbell squats, barbell squats with bands/kettle bells dangling, front squats, box squats...and jump squats. Wednesday morning my quads were tight, but not horrible. Thursday morning...OMG!

Yesterday he decided to do a modified GVT round 2. We started with shoulder press, biceps curls and close grip smith machine push ups (5 sets of 10 of each exercise). Then we did triceps push downs, concentration curls, and rear delt raises (5 sets of 10 of each exercise). My arms weren't as shaky afterwards. Hopefully that means I won't be too sore this weekend...