I’ve been getting to the gym and doing my time but the quality of my workouts have suffered. The gym at Balad was absolutely packed with equipment, unfortunately, that is not the situation at McChord’s gym. For some reason, the quality of my workout has been slipping but I’m still doing my time. I can definitely tell that I’m not getting an adequate amount of stretching – I feel so old some days. I’ve got to give myself a little credit because all I do is move awkward heavy boxes all night long. The lightest box that I move weighs 71lbs and I’m bound to move at least a dozen of them a night.
Everyone is taught how to properly lift an object at some point during our working lives. Use your legs, don’t twist your back etc. These damn things are so awkward that its nearly impossible to practice the proper lifting techniques. My lower back bears the brunt of the work.
I’m still going to the gym – I’m still putting my time in – I’m just not seeing the same gains that I saw while deployed. I haven’t seen any weight gains since I returned so at least I’ve got that going for me. I just need to find a way to spice up my workouts – cayenne pepper maybe?
Might be time to shake things up a bit. I was just reading last night about upping the weekly workout time by 25-30% every other week for 4-6 weeks to see what happens. This was advice from a couple of the most successful triathlon folks ever so that’s their perspective- they spend some time lifting but mostly it’s about swim/run/bike.
And there’s always intervals too. Yeah, I know, we all hate them… but they do the trick if hit often enough.