Rocky 3

Just before the middle of November, I was probably in the best shape I have ever been in, at my highest performance levels and most fit. I could definitely see it in my abs and I had an athletic build to my frame, and my desire to workout was at its all time highest. Then the busyness of this time of year (on top of my already busy life) has taken away some of my desire to workout, and all of the breaks from working out has worked against me. I feel like Rocky Balboa in Rocky 3: on top of the world but getting complacent, then getting knocked off his perch, trying to find that desire to get back to training with the same intensity as before...

I have felt that desire to train intensely starting to come back lately; I just hope I continue to have opportunities to put it to use in the gym

Yesterday, Chris and I did the Spartacus routine (normal version); for the last few routines, I have moved up from 15 lb. dumbbells to 20 lb. dumbbells (single-arm dumbbell swing, bent-over dumbbell rows, push up position rows, dumbbell side lunge and touch); but this time I went back to the 15's, hoping to be able to go longer without stopping. Although I stopped several times, I did feel a difference, though I don't know if I was at a 100% yesterday.

Last week I didn't work out at all; it was just too busy for me to do so. So much, in fact, that I was only getting 3-5 hours of sleep every night last week. It got to the point where not even coffee was helping me to stay up. It all caught up to me by Christmas Day, but thankfully I didn't need to stay up late anymore, getting everything on my to-do list finished. On the night of the 24th I got 9 hours of sleep, but was still catching up and needed another good night's rest to feel almost normal. I got about 6.5 hours Saturday night, and while I felt good enough to do Spartacus, I wonder if I could have done better if I had more rest...

Today, I did our normal shoulders routine (bent over raises, lateral raises, front raises, and arnold's ); I used 15's for all of those, but for the arnold's I used 25's for the first set (that was a first for me), but had to go back down to the 20's for the final 3 sets. I did another 4 sets of 10 reps of the bent over raises with the 25's (for a total of 7 sets of 10 reps). I felt pretty strong for that move and I went for more weight. The next time I do this shoulder routine, I will move up to 20's...