Tag Archives: failure

Day 28: Epic fail

day 28- front

Weight: 127.4 lbs.
Workout B: 11 minutes, 45 seconds
Total inches: 119.5
Protein: 135 g (15 g over target)
Calories: 2,389

I had been seated for about 5 seconds before I reached the breaking point.

It’s not an encouraging sign when that’s the first move of your workout.

In my previous seven workouts, I had managed to complete 90 to 100 percent of the workouts. I reached the point of failure late in the routine, as fatigue and weakness set in.

But not at the beginning. Never at the beginning.

My first exercise was to do seven reps at 50 pounds (two 25-pound dumbbells) of the slight incline bench press. In a previous workout, I had completed seven reps at 40 pounds.

I sat down, and the dumbbells felt like they were super-glued to the floor. Oy. Usually, I have no problem picking them up, sitting back and having them near my ears, ready to lift skyward.

I couldn’t even get them up to my lap. Uh oh.

I started to sweat. Was I screwed?

I lifted the right dumbbell and tested to see if I could get it in position. Not graceful, but doable.

I lifted the left dumbbell, with two hands. I barely got it in place after a mild struggle.

How the hell was I going to get these two 25-pound monsters to budge at the same time?

I moved a stack of plates and sat the left dumbbell on it. Five minutes had elapsed, and I still hadn’t even gotten close to the first rep. I slowly, very slowly picked up both dumbbells and sat back on the bench.

Four puny reps later, I was done. Oh for a spotter right about now …

Fifty pounds had kicked my ass. I skipped the squat reps and the 3-minute stationary bike, but I did the optional 50 kettlebell swings at 30 pounds. I was going to pound out those 50 no matter what.

And I did. Nothing like four reps to loosen you up for the kettlebell.

The shortest workout to date will lead to another day of rest between workouts, totaling 4. In re-reading the Occam’s Protocol info in “The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon | iTunes aff. links], I saw that author Tim Ferriss had gotten up to 12 days between identical workouts, or 5 days between alternating A/B workouts.

Not only does the body need more time to rest and recover (and feed), muscles need a lot of time to grow. Grow, damn you, grow!

I made sure that I tried hard. No way was I going to give up that early in the workout. Not at this point.

Day 28 - side

Day 23: The definition of failure

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Day 23

Weight: 126.0 lbs.
Workout A: 21 minutes, 33 seconds
Total inches: 118.1
Protein: 133 g (13 g over target)
Calories: 2,408

Today was another failed workout. If that’s how we look at it.

Each workout is supposedly designed to be done till failure. Getting through all the reps means the resistance is too low.

Only two of the seven workouts so far have resulted in failure, or not doing (n-1) reps.

So the next workout will come a little later, and at the same barbell weight.

But real failure would be to stop short. I wish that 30 days would be enough, but it’s clear at this point that I’ll need to invest more time.

Quitting happens because results are small, or even undetectable. They take too long, or cost too much.

I have great patience, so I don’t mind continuing to move forward on a slowly unfolding project. I believe the end results will prove me right. But even if at Day 60 or Day 90, it doesn’t happen, that will also not be failure.

I will see it as a great experience, something from which more lessons can be drawn.

No failure here. Only room to grow.