Exercise, Progressive Loading, and Recovery

Part of my exercise plan is to progressively load based on prior volumes and rates. I show those priors in the table and charts presented here. A refresher ...


I am of the opinion that I work at the limits of my capacity to recover: proper sleep, rest between sessions, and food. My belief is that, with the load increases from sessions 51 to 52, and then from 56 to 57, I went a little too far relative to my capacity to recover. My sleep, which had been good, finds me awake at 3am 4am, for no obvious reason, this past week. My rest between sessions has not changed much as the load increases took place. So, working harder, resting less.

The clincher, though, is food. For a number of reasons, I fast. Just to make life more difficult, I tend to calorie restrict. That's not a good combination. You can do it for a while, but eventually, the body rebels, and it lowers your metabolic thermostat. Today, I believe, I hit that boundary. Helped by misjudging how big last evenings' Lantus shot should have been. I should have made it even lower than my applied windage on the number suggested. Oh well ...

So, rather than continuing with my current fasted period, on my way to 40+ fasted hours, I had lunch at almost 20 hours. Pork parm, canadian bacon, marinara sauce with mushrooms, a touch of pasta, and giardineria. Means I get to eat something when I get home later.

Off to volleyball.




Comments

rich ruscio said…
Of course, just because I can eat something when I'm home, doesn't mean I will.

I still have that blood glucose thing to contend with. And I do NOT want to go to bed with more food in my tummy (= Bigger Numbers in morning).

So, the plan is small shot, sleep, hit the weights, eat nominal normal calories per day.
Unknown said…
Hi Rich,

Have you considered working out M-F, taking Sat,Sun as a rest period? Or does would that mess with your fasting, eating, etc?

Jared
rich ruscio said…
I have considered other timing patterns. But I always get back to a few principles I find unavoidable: I need to exercise as much as I can. I need to move as much iron as I can. My recovery capacity is less than fully wonderful. Overwork will cause issues. 2 days in a row have a history of doing me damage.

My training advice is that "heavy" deadlift workouts can take up to a week to recover, and "light" workouts, 2 - 3 days. I realize that heavy and light are relative terms, but when I do 150 reps of 105 / 115 pounds, that's not light to me.

Besides, I don't have any weekday / weekend constraints, like working folks do.

So, I always come down on 1 or 2 days rest, sometimes 3, and continue the progressive loading I'm doing. Eventually, that'll fail, somehow, and then I'll start a fresh exercise set.

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