Week 2 Blog Post

 #2

Week two was interesting, to say the least. Due to our different schedules, we ended up doing a decent amount of our workouts on our own instead of working out together. I will say there are both pros and cons to working out in a group. A pro about working with someone else is the level of intensity. When you have a partner in the gym, just like a trainer, they can help push you to muscle failure or even beyond failure by adding cheat reps to the end of a workout set (shortened range of motion on an exercise and the help of other muscles to exert the same amount of force). A con of working out in a group is that you will oftentimes get distracted and take longer rest periods. When you take a longer rest period, over time, you will be working your muscles less. If you can control how long you rest with a timer, you can make sure you are working your muscles as hard as possible. We also do not have the same gym membership so when we do work out in one of our homes, we have limited equipment allowing us to only hit muscles at a certain angle or weight. Although the equipment can be limited, there is always something that we can adjust to make a workout more intense. For example, we can implement a drop-set. What this means is that once we reach failure during a set, we lower the weight and go again till failure. This allows for metabolic overload, which is the main driver for hypertrophy (muscle cell growth). 

The next aspect of my project that I would like to talk about is nutrition. I think the most important part of any diet or specific way of eating is finding your weak points. This means figuring out which micro or macronutrients you may be deficient in and understanding your eating habits. What I realized this week is that I do not get enough magnesium, which is a key electrolyte that aids in muscle recovery. I decided to make sure that I was eating significantly more nutrient-dense foods and a dietary supplement at night to make sure I was getting an appropriate amount of magnesium. By making sure you reach your daily micronutrient goals and getting at least 8 hours of quality sleep, you can give your body its best shot at a full recovery after a long week of working out. 

My goals from last week were to just keep enjoying my workouts and cooking and to see some progress in the gym. I would say that I’ve been able to do both. I would say I am more excited than ever to work out (rest day is the real chore) and my body feels great. I think I can credit the way I feel to the stricter diet, appropriate micronutrient intake, and tons of sleep. I also believe the lack of cortisol (stress hormone) has also helped me feel great given the fact that cortisol decreases growth hormone and many other vital hormones that the body needs. 

In my last blog post, I was asked a question about my decisions and sources on what workouts I am doing and what meals I prepare. Over the last year, I’ve done a lot of research about the human body and optimizing diet and exercise. When I first got into health and nutrition, I learned a lot from youtube (a good amount of non-credible sources) but as time went on, I kept digging deeper for more information through studies and literature. A lot of my information about protein intake, workout splits, and muscle protein synthesis comes from Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D. Over the years, Schoenfeld has been cited in 10,000 peer-reviewed papers. For my micronutrient intake, I usually follow the FDA’s recommendation.