Trainer Notes: Week 9

Week 9 brought some tough new challenges for Michael. His new workout routine is definitely challenging him to step up his game another notch. While our basic structure of balancing resistance training with cardiovascular exercise remains the same, we have brought the intestity up another level. We have progressed on the exercises and lowered the rep range, which allows us to make those exercises a little more difficult during each set he performs. In some cases, this means increasing the resistance, and in others it means continuing to challenge him with harder progressions and positions that are tougher to control. As he has proven since the beginning of this competition, however, he has the drive and the fight to push through every challenge we have put in front of him. While he has definitely been very fatiqued before, the end of week 9 had Michael more physically and maybe even mentally fatigued than at any point so far in this challenge. He has worked through it like a champ, though, and that's what also makes adequate recovery, even through tough competitions like this, so important.

We still have Michael taking the weekends off from structured exercise. Monday through Friday he is going all out, giving it everything he has through 5 days of challenging and intense workouts. We structure and design the plan during the week to allow adequate muscle recovery, but by the end of the week his body, and we feel even more importantly, his mind, need a break. We encourage active recovery, like walks with the dog, working around the house and in the yard, a nice bikeride, etc., but not stuctured and intense exercise. These activities still burn calories and help support the metabolism, but are supposed to be fun and very low in intensity. Even though this is a competition, it's a journey, not a sprint, and we want to avoid physical breakdown and injury, as well as psychological burnout. The body also makes most of its progress through the recovery process, and Michael even reports that he feels his body changing the most over the course of his "weekends off." Keep up the good fight everyone, and thank you to all of our current clients who have directly or indirectly provided Michael with support. We are hearing more and more how Michael's efforts and results so far are an inspiration and providing motivation to many of you out there. We pass this along to Michael, and he tells us all the time how appreciative he is and how much it motivates and inspires him in return. We have our next weigh-in this Wednesday, so stay tuned for the results...