X-Force Blog, Monday, 02-13-12, 1:06pm

X-Force Blog, Monday, 02-13-12, 1:06pm

Monday, February 13, 2012

In Other News:

Upcoming Community Events
Wednesday, May 09, 2012

5 Simple Steps for Achieving Any Goal
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
   

Bam! Bam! Bam! Holy X-Force, Batman!


I “X-Forced” myself through today’s workout: pec deck, pull down, leg curl and leg extension. Eight to nine reps on each. Three counts out. Five super slow counts back.  All my weight settings went up.  Chatted up Dr. Ellington Darden for a second.  Stopped to chat with Dana who was waiting for her turn. She said she was doing great! Down six lbs. Then, I went right back to my desk, sat down and started blogging. I wanted to be able to reference how I feel physically during and after the session. 



As I progress from machine to machine my breathing accelerates gradually. By the end of the line I am “out of breath.” My muscles feel like they just went through it hard, because they did. The resulting sensation feels almost like they are all trying to fire over and over again. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! BAM! That sensation lasts about 20-30 minutes.

The remainder of the day the effects of X-Force linger. The weight increase on the return movement combined with the slow 5-count really pushes things over the edge. By the end of the line I am fatigued and my muscles are really perturbed. Today, I had to find a mental goal to focus on to go the extra mile to reach my end goal. “Think of how great you’re going to look at IHRSA!” I thought to myself.

IHRSA is a well-respected fitness conference in L.A. that my marketing & sales cohort Tara Sampson and I will speak at on behalf of GHF Training at Gainesville Health & Fitness. Who’s who in the fitness world will be there. You gotta look fit at the fitness conference. It’s fitting. It’s in May. And, it just so happens IHRSA falls exactly at the end of the X-Force study at GHF. Honestly, it’s a total coincidence.

But back to goals. I’m a goal guy. If you want me to do nine reps, tell me, “Do nine reps.” I won’t argue. Don’t tell me “eight” and then say, “Oooh you’ve got one more in you! Let’s do nine!” Give me a straight answer. Show me the target and I’m going to try and make a bull’s-eye. I was a competitive gymnast for nine years. As a result, I am really hung up on perfect form. I don’t like the feeling of fatigue breaking me into bad form during a set. I’d rather go a little lighter and do a perfect set of 9 then squirm and give you a sloppy 10.

I can tell this will be a source of consternation. The X-Force regimen requires the weights to increase throughout the study until I am X-Forced down to 4-5 reps. See what I did there? The weights increase… X-FORCING… me down in reps. My nine years of doing the physically impossible perfectly is going to have to take a back seat in the name of fitness science.

John, Fitness Jedi & X-Force Guy