Hugo's Indecisive Day

Today has been one of those days that I just woke up and I did not felt like training, or doing anything else for that matter. The reason for that was a lack of sleep last night caused by my curiousness on who would win the election. Naturally, I would have felt so guilty if I would have gone to work without training. Especially considering the fact that it was Leg Day. So after some aimless walking at 6am, some thinking, some more walking, looking at my e-mail, more walking, I decide to open up the door that leads to my home gym. I turn on the dim light bulb and see there staring at me the Almighty Squat Rack; the one responsible not only for Leg Development but for overall body power. My mind immediately starts creating excuses on why I should only stick to a light routine of extensions, leg curls and leg presses; 20 minutes perhaps and done. I stare at the equipment blankly, indecisive and drowsy with no idea on what I wanted to do.

I look at my watch and see that it is 6:30 am already. Knowing full well that I am going through one of those indecisive days, I figured that I would start with some lunges with no weights and see where would that lead. I start and I almost lost balance on the first repetition (how pathetic, I think to myself). I decide to regain control and put a sincere effort. One, one, two, two, three, three... fifteen and fifteen. That made me broke a sweat and I began to feel adrenaline run through my veins. Perhaps I would do 30 minutes instead of 20. So after this warm-up I decide to pick up my 40 pound dumbbells and do a real set of lunges. I do 10 reps and place the dumbbells on the floor. I could swear that I heard the standing calf raise machine (loaded with 650 pounds) calling me so I respond by going to it and performing 18 solid reps. More adrenaline. After a minute or so I repeat the aforementioned event 4 more additional times for a total of five supersets. On the last set I get 8 reps for each leg on the lunges and 12 on the calf raises. As I planned to sit on the leg extension machine I hear the squat rack calling me. Change of plans; gotta do Squats.

I load up the old Olympic Barbell with four 50lb plates (2 on each side). I slam 8 repetitions and then next thing you know after 30 seconds of me placing the bar on the rack, I pick it up again and do 20 repetitions of calf raises with the bar on my back. After placing the bar back on the rack, I see myself going to the calf raise machine and doing 10 repetitions with 450 pounds. I rest for about 90 seconds in disbelief. What is going on here? Wasn't this a 20-30 minute routine of leg press, extensions and curls? I decide to repeat the triset exactly as described 3 more times for a total of 4 trisets.

At this point my adrenaline is very high, my heart is racing, and endorphins are high. Bad combo for me as when I reach this point I start going crazy. I feel exhausted but great at the same time; a contradiction of terms for the average human being. Now I set up the leg press machine with 600 pounds, the leg extensions and leg curl with 150 pounds (these machines are not the pulley type, they are the free weight type), and have the 40 pound dumbbells readily available. I start with 10 solid repetitions on the leg curl machine, feeling the extension and the contraction of the hamstring. I move with no rest to the leg press machine and to my surprise I get 12 reps. I am breathing heavily. 10 seconds later I do 10 repetitions of stiff legged deadlifts using a pair of 40 pound dumbbells. I am careful not to reach failure on this exercise as I don't like straining my back. I just concentrate on the stretch of the hamstring and their contraction as my upper body goes up.

Then I do 12 reps of leg extensions, and just when I am about to take a well deserved rest, I turn around and do 8 reps on the leg curl machine again. Exhausted, I drink water and take my pulse; a whooping 168 beats per minute; not a routine for the weak of heart (no pun intended), I think to myself. After 90 seconds I start the whole circuit of 5 exercises all over again. Once I was done, I rested 90 seconds more, and repeated the sequence one last time for a grand total of three sequences.

I look at my watch and a full 60 minutes had gone by without me not even noticing. It was 7:30am already. Took a shower, had a big protein shake supplemented with creatine and multiple vitamins and headed to work. At this point I was unstoppable and knew that nothing that could happen today could stop me. I was looking forward to a great day. After all, this morning I survived a battle with my lazy alter ego, the one that I keep locked on the basement with no food hoping it will starve to death so that it stops causing trouble.

So tonight when I get home I'll go to sleep early and catch some good growth.

What is the morale of the story? Whenever you feel like not training just reach for that inner strength within yourself. Know that you are the owner of your body and you are the one at the helm. Press on! You may be surprised at the fact that the day that you felt like not working out at all is the day that you had one of the best workouts ever.

By the way, you can apply the philosophy above to anything else in life as well.

Take Care and Train Hard!

Hugo A. Rivera
Visit Physique Engineering Technologies
Where People Ship In to Shape Up!

Click HERE return to the IOL Motivational Moments