I am now on week 7 of this Powerbuilder A.I. and so far, I really love what I am doing. Mentally, the hypertrophy approach without testing the big lifts has been good. I know at some point I am going to have to see where I really stand with those. Whatever I end up hitting will be a PR simply because this is a new bodyweight. In the back of my mind, nothing will be as heavy as I was lifting before COVID closed the world down. I will have to come to terms with that.
The variety of exercises has been nice. There are some that I stick to for the most part just for the sake of routine, but mixing in different lifts and movements has been a welcomed change of pace.
Squats have been terrible so I have scaled those considerably. Deadlifts and bench have been holding their own, with deadlifts being struggle bus this week. I shouldn’t be surprised as I have been dealing with the annual cold and congestion. I am sure I will have this stupid cough for a couple of weeks. Seems like that is always the last thing to go. I feel like the energy is there for the most part, but training so early is not the easiest thing as I have gotten older. In the middle of the day, I usually get pretty hyped up and I start thinking “OK, this is the week we go in and really push as hard as we can.” Then that 3:50am alarm goes off I am feel like I am dragging myself to the gym by muscle memory only.
Most importantly, I like some of the physical changes that I am noticing. That has probably been the best part about all of this. Sure, would be nice to be pulling 600 again, but not at the bodyweight that I was at. Not at the level of health that I was at.
