Shut Up Left Arm You're Drunk!

Today both of my arms are hungover and it's no surprise since they were obviously drunk at training on Tuesday.  You know "drunk arms" where you attempt to lift something and your arms go every direction except where they are supposed to.  See the video for an example of my drunk arms.  My left arm being clearly drunker than my right.

Which made me wonder about one sided weakness and the best ways to work on evening out.  It turns out what Mike had us doing is exactly what you should do to even things out.  So here is some advice for my left arm:

• Left arm - no more relying on the sober right arm to carry to load while you drink away.
• Use dumbballs instead of barballs (yes balls not bells...we’ve had this conversation).  This allows each arm to work by itself to complete the movement and doesn’t allow the stronger arm to do more than the weaker

•  Left arm - no more waiting until the right arm is done and then pretending its overall tiredness and not your left arm drunken lazines.
•  Use your weaker arm first. 

•  Left arm - you get off easy on this one. 
• Work each arm equally.  Don’t do extra sets or more weight with the weaker arm.  Using the same weight an reps will even them out over time.  

• Left arm - you won’t get off so easy on this one.  You will be my official beer lifting... I mean protein shake lifting arm from now on.
• Outside of the gym… use the weaker arm more for everyday activities… I suppose this is more of a use both arms equally instead of settling into the habit of just using the stronger arm.  Apparently it can also help you become more comfortable using it in the gym which will allow for better mind muscle connection. 

Right arm - Keep up the Good work!

~ Biz

Sitting still seems pretty awesome.

I was super excited to be allowed to sit!  It was a glorious time until Mike decided if I was sitting then I should lift some heavy things.  I should come to expect this but our assessment of what is a good weight is always different.  If it were solely up to me I would stick with a nice safe lower than double digits weight.   A size that I could do a thousand reps with and still look fresh as a daisy.  A size that would not contribute to hardly any change, which is kind of bummer. 

Cue Mike and the, in my opinion, giant weights.   They really aren’t that giant, usually.  They certainly feel pretty dang giant through my reps.  There is no way I can breeze through my set.  And if I can he is there to make adjustments as needed.  I gripe, complain and belly ache through this whole process.  Fortunately, Mike seems invincible to the creative phrases that escape my lips.

He also is pretty darn positive about the whole thing too.  Telling me not to have negative self-talk and that I *can* do it.  Sometimes it seems pretty daunting.  I have these little stick arms and you want me to lift what, how many times?  My brain intermittently will flash the image of me somehow braining myself with a weight.  Fortunately, for me and my brain, it hasn’t happened yet and when I get a little wobbly Mike stands for back up.  I would imagine that is a scary spot to be; behind uncontrolled arms on a noodle rampage!  Still all that positive-ness has me convinced that he poops rainbows.  But it’s the good kind of positive.  Not too chipper, like he is trying to butter up a ray of sunshine and use it as a suppository, but enough to be believable. 

Look at that!  I could do it and I did.  I might have been a little warbly at the end, I may have made an unattractive grunt or a ridiculous looking grimace but I did it.  And pushing yourself (or being pushed in my case) is where you start to see change.

Schedule Swapping and Consistency

Heather doing whatever they are called...
but they make her butt look amazing!

So just as soon as I get back from my snowboarding and think we can finally get back to a normal schedule I remember that I have to go out of town for work... sheesh. Then it turns out Heather will be gone as soon as I get back so our reschedule options are limited. I will say that getting the three of us on schedule is one of the harder parts of partner training (the rest is super easy?)

Thankfully Mike is always willing to work with us to find times to train (even when they are inconvenient for him). He was willing to squeeze us in just before I left town for Montana and right when I got back so we managed to keep 3 sessions in 3 week. Once again he is working with us and is now sacrificing his Sunday morning to train us before I leave so we don't have to miss a week. I am less than excited about giving up my bloody mary but sometimes you just have to makes those tough sacrifices. This leads me to some thoughts on consistency of a training regimen. Consistency seems to be critical. We've been able to keep our weekly session going for around 5 months with minimal interruptions... although I seem to remember Shannon (who's awesome) coming once to save me when Heather abandoned me for what I'm sure was an awesome work trip.

Bulgarians.  Not to be confused with Bulge-atarians

As usual I did a little googling and I found this that seemed to ring true:

For some people, it is common to become energized about working out and jump right in. In these cases, unless there is a long-term plan in place or some thought has gone into how the fitness activity will be sustained, there is often a drop off in enthusiasm, resulting in inconsistency. A well thought out fitness plan will go a long way in helping you to reach your goals.

I'm waaaaay to lazy to plan so Mike is my plan. I'm very much the type to go all in and then when unable to maintain it to give up. Having training once a week is sustainable and has allowed me to maintain consistency with a strength workout that I have never had before.

Having a partner is also key. Heather will yell at me if I try to flake out (yeah, she's pretty mean). Seriously having 2 people counting on your being there makes it a lot easier to keep it up and knowing there will be 2 smiling faces is a added incentive (and yes when Heather isn't yelling at me she does smile for about 30 seconds until we start swinging kettle balls).

For optimal results, you will want to build up to higher and higher levels of cardiovascular strength, flexibility and strength training. A gradual increase in intensity will allow your muscles, tendons and ligaments a chance to adjust to the strains and challenges of a fitness regimen.

Training with Mike each week allows for the gradual increases in difficulty. I am getting stronger even while I've been working on some injury recovery, travel, holidays... life in general. This is because of the consistency we've achieved (and good training of course).

~Biz

Banging training v 2.0