Recovery

Sunday, November 15 - Rest Day

Sometimes, we just need a day off. During this current period of my attempt to get into shape, I've been very careful to moderate my enthusiasm. Even so, I'm finding myself run down today. Part of this is realizing that every area of your life that stresses you out or drains you of energy takes away from your ability to keep working out hard - even if it's not physical activity. Pressures within the family or at work can have an effect on your ability to exercise. 

This is why it is important to not just take programmed days off, but sometimes to listen to your body and get the rest you need even when you have a workout planned. Rest is a part of progress, too. Your muscles and joints need time to recover from exercise. Besides physical rest, you also need to keep fueling your body with lots of good nutrition - fruits and veggies, proteins from various sources, and lots of water!

Have a beautiful day and God bless you!

Saturday, November 14 - Workout

Today I didn't do a full structured work out. Instead, I was just very active during the day with some exercise thrown in. I was doing a lot of laundry and my pull-up bar happens to be next to my laundry machines, so whenever I went down to switch a load, I did a few pull-ups and chin-ups. Over the course of the day, I probably did about fifteen or twenty.

In the afternoon, I went to the YMCA with my son. I wanted to focus on spending some time with him, so we did the Elliptical and walked and ran on the track a little. Nothing too intense, but I took a few minutes to do some more pull-ups - and I did 8 over three sets.

I can feel some soreness in my core and in my back from the pull-ups and chin-ups today. It was good to connect with my son as well.