Weight Loss Progress: 165 Days and Insanity Begins

A couple of weeks back I was doing bicep curls, in the gym, with a straight bar on a cable machine. I was doing high weight combined with low reps. At the tail end of my set, I developed a pain in my forearm. The pain felt just like shin splints, only it was in my forearm instead.

The pain was a dull ache through the bicep curl but flared up as soon as I hit the top of the motion. When stopped pulling and began to change direction (go back down with the bar), that is when the pain got bad. In an effort to continue working out, I went to a lower weight and increased reps.

The changed reduced the pain considerably but instead of only hurting during the exercise, I was dealing with a dull ache throughout the day. I tried eliminating bicep curls for a few days but even gripping a bar, with force, set my forearm to aching.

I decided to take some time off from the gym and allow my arm to heal. I wound up taking a week off and while I didn’t like the idea of stopping for a week, I feel great now. My forearm no longer hurts and the other littles aches & pains I’ve been dealing with have gone away as well.

Don’t be mistaken, my mini-vacation from the gym wasn’t spent on the couch, watching television. I used my limited free time to do some hunting. When I wasn’t trudging through a field, trying to kick up a pheasant, I was hiking in and out of the woods with a tree stand strapped to my back.

The time away from the gym hasn’t hurt my weight. I’m still hovering between 35 and 38 pounds lost. While I didn’t expect to see the world crash down around me, in regards to my weight, while I was away, it was nice to actually see that a little time spent healing wasn’t going to undo my hard work.

Yesterday I got back on track with exercising and began the INSANITY program. It starts out with the Fit Test to give you a baseline for comparison as you progress. My results weren’t stellar but based on the numerous YouTube videos I’ve watched, I’m off to a decent start.

Before the warm up was over, I was sweating and breathing heavy. By the end of the Fit Test I was dripping. The worse part was the funk. I mean, I’m drenched when I leave the gym after a hard workout but, I can’t ever smell myself. Insanity, well, it brings out the funk…

I did the Insanity Fit Test first thing in the morning. I got cleaned up, went to work, and continued on with my day. I had some stuff to do right after work so I planned on hitting the gym in the evening. One thing lead to another and before I knew it, it was too late to hit the gym.

I felt bad about not making it to the gym yesterday but this morning I’m feeling pretty sore from Insanity. The soreness translates to a feeling of accomplishment. Now that I see that I got in a good workout yesterday, I’m not feeling as guilty today.

Today I’ll complete Day 2 of Insanity and pick up with the gym tomorrow. Wednesdays are always busy with my wife’s school schedule so my gym sessions are typically short. I think I’ll eliminate my usual short cardio workout to focus on strength training and make up for the cardio with Day 3 of Insanity.

Before I get too far along with the Insanity, I need to take some measurements. It is the one area I’ve been having the most trouble keeping up with. It is more important now due to the intense cardio workout I’m doing. If I don’t see much change on the scale, after 60 days, I want to be able to look at body measurements instead.