By end of Aug’17, having reached optimum level of Body Mass Index (BMI), I was fully prepared to alter my workout plan & transit to a muscular body structure. I was exploring my fitness endurance.
It was a sunny day on 3rd September 2017 & I got a call from my gym buddy Kunal!
Kunal: Bro, when are you hitting the gym? We need to start chest workout
Me: Will be there in 5 minutes!
As soon as I reached gym, we started push ups followed by chest press. On completing first set, I realized that building muscle given my current strength & diet pattern would be herculean task. There was a need to increase my diet to meet the requisite energy levels for muscle building and increase my fitness endurance.
Initially, when I started shoulder & chest work-out, I was not able to even lift even 7.5 Kgs since my endurance level was more apt for functional regime. The same situation happened when I underwent shoulder & back exercises. I was not able to do more than 5 chin-ups per set. I felt completely drained. I was feeling so helpless & was questioning myself- have I lost my flair & motivation to workout? Do I have it in me to go to next level? All these questions were pondering me for quite some now & frankly I was not able to understand the reason for not able to pick heavy weights. This made me really disappointed. I thought my stamina & endurance level which I had built over last 15 months, had gone down.
The very next week,10th September 17, I phoned up Shadab & discussed the challenges I was facing.
Me: Shadab, I am facing difficulty in picking up heavy weights. Please guide me!
Shadab: Sushant sir, I understand your situation. Now you need to alter your diet & take more of carbs to build energy levels to pick up weights.
I could realize that I need to further augment my energy level to attain next level of fitness endurance. However, change in diet was a tricky call since high intake of carb will increase fat content in one’s body.
Over period of next 2 months with proper diet I underwent body toning exercises with medium weights. Initially, I was able to do only 10 reps of push-ups for each set. With passage of time & intake of carb in requisite proportion, I was able to increase reps for both push ups & chin-ups. It was in the month of Feb’18 when I attained complete control over my strength level. I started doing weight training starting from 7.5 Kgs upto 22.5 Kgs across chest, shoulder, back, biceps & triceps. By May’2018, I was equipped to undergo full range weight training. This motivated me to go one step further & I mixed my weight training with functional exercises to build a complete fitness workout in my life regime.
With this in mind, I continued to blend functional, cardio & weight training on a daily basis. There were more challenges throughout my journey, which I intend to post in my next blog.
In case you want to know how I have been able to overcome them, I’d be really happy to guide.
