I think I have never experienced such a
painful muscle soreness than I have since yesterday... The reason: my
boyfriend and I had an extreme legsession at our coach's home-gym.
J-M asked us to hit a leg-training together with him to check if our intensity and form were okay.
Before, I was convinced that the intensity of my workouts was fairly good,
but my coach really pushed me to my limits. It's a pity that we
can't train together that often, since I realized that I train even heavier
when someone is there to help me get through that last rep.
And I guess I would improve my muscle volume and definition even
more if I had such a bad-ass gym buddy for each and every work out.
Unfortunately
my boyfriend and I can't train together anymore, due to our different work-schedules,so I rather prefer to train on my
own than with someone that can't motivate or push me the way I need it
(military-drill like).
We
started the routine with a superset of leg-curls and leg-press and I was
already dying because my coach has these very old-school machines that don't
help you at all during the exercise. So I had to decrease the weights to
actually perform the movement properly. He also has a leg-press that I
have never seen before. Usually you sit straight up in the chair and
only push with your legs... In his leg-press you are lying on your back
and pushing the weights up at a 90 degree angle, which works your
glutes even more considering that you can't help with your hips or back.
He told me that it's better to press the weights explosively and come
back in a controlled slow-motion, the same goes for the lying leg-curl
and the leg-extension.
Afterwards,
I did some squats together with backwards lunges. And here again I learned
something new: If you perform the squats at the Smith machine, you adjust the
barbell on your shoulders, remove it from the holders, move as much
forward as possible so you can perform a real proper and deep squat that
goes right into your glutes. Usually I squat with 20 kg , barbell
included. Here, I only squatted with 15kg and my legs were shaking heavily,
which made the backwards lunges even harder.
We finished the leg-workout with some step-up lunges and leg-extensions. My quads were burning like hell... I felt like I
have never lifted before because even with less weights I hardly managed to
carry out the exercise.
On the calf press I even managed to press a
little more weight than usually, which I am clearly feeling today while walking stairs.To finish did some abs exercises like planks and crunches,which is not a
nice thing to do when your legs and butt are shaking like crazy. And last but not least my intensive interval-routine on the bicycle to finish my legs.
All
in all, I was very happy that my coach was satisfied with my routines and
that I never gave up nor complained even if I was running empty at the
end of every single set. Surprisingly, I was still feeling energized and
even more motivated to dig deeper and train harder during the next
workouts, whether it's shoulders-,back-,biceps- or triceps-day.
My
coach motivated me and bolstered me up that I can train even harder and
that I should get rid of the fear that I could hurt myself. He
suggested me; when I feel like quitting for the last 5 reps, I
should pause for a second or two and do another two reps, pause 2
seconds and do the last reps. This way, I would be able to surpass my
fear and improve my muscle quality.
I
definitely take his advises and tips to heart and put them into
practice during my next workouts, even if it means to have constant
muscle soreness... That's the only way I can surpass myself and rock the stage by the end of March.
#NopainNogain
