To The Max

As I get back into actively pursuing a healthier lifestyle and getting into exercising of some capacity with whatever strength conditioning and cardio I can find at home (since gyms and the like are still closed), I begin to remember what it is like to start back up after any given time period that is slower and lacking on the activity.

Now maybe back when I did exercise 4 times a week, I might not have pushed myself as hard so the recovery process was quick and no fatigue or soreness the next days, or maybe I truly am lucky enough to have a quick recovery rate when I've already conditioned the body to respond to higher activity levels. But now, after 2 days in a row of activity, yesterday being legs and core and running, and today of just strength consisting of triceps, chest, and shoulders, I feel a bit fatigued. My legs are feeling it from yesterday, but not to the point of restricting my movement or not noticeable enough for me to want to avoid movement whenever possible. My shoulders are starting to feel some fatigue after 5 hours since concluding today's workout.

I don't know if this is good or bad. Obviously there's the good factor in which this means I am creating the proper tears in muscles so as to encourage hypertrophy and strength gains (and hopefully endurance and stamina gains too), but am I doing too much too quickly? I might be misguided in my thinking that I am still in decent shape enough to pull off such rapid changes from a pretty sedentary lifestyle to this majorly active lifestyle. Okay, maybe I wasn't sedentary because work has me on my feet and being lightly active, but I mean without the added strength and endurance training.

I guess I should just be cautious so as to not injure myself and then fall off track nary a week into the routine, but I can also gauge things as I go and push myself a little bit here and there. I should be ready to slow down and take active rest days (no strenuous work, but movement to encourage blood flow for quicker recovery) whenever my body is giving me signs to stop.

I want to push my strength and my endurance to the max for myself and whatever or wherever my genetics can go. Or even past genetics if it is possible, but I also have to realize that this is a long term war, and not just a mere battle, nor even a skirmish. It's a long fought and never-ending fight, but it's a good fight that I will be fighting. I mean after all, my middle name translates to "worldly soldier". I may not be in the United States military (although if I had to the Marines are dope) but I can push myself to be physically capable like the military and to be able to fight on physically, mentally, and hopefully spiritually as well.