light headed lifting

Hello and welcome back to Tobias Talks

It has been one heck of a week, I went to the gym three times last week. I very nearly passed out whilst doing a seated overhead press. The world went very shaky and I'm just glad I chose to do that exercise seated.

I haven't weighed myself this week and that was intentional. There are only ever two results to weighing myself and both are negative. I either have lost weight in which case I feel happy and accomplished, I relax my diet, reduce intensity in the gym and then don't improve that week. OR, I don't lose weight, I feel disappointed and unmotivated and feel that hard work isn't worth it if I don't get results. So the solution seemed simple, much less frequent weigh-ins. From now, I'll be aiming to weigh myself once or twice a month instead. This should give me data for an overall trend as opposed to smaller fluctuations.

I'm still happy with my lifting and trying not to get too obsessive about exactly what I'm doing. I am lifting heavy and still aiming for about 24 reps of each exercise, say 3 sets of 8 reps, or 5 sets of 5 reps. Somewhere around that number is a good goal for me. I'm also aiming for between 4-5 exercises, either all of one muscle group or complementary muscle groups, i.e. chest and triceps. For a total workout volume of about 80-100 reps.

I'm aiming to keep the weight heavy but the form is most important. I feel my form is improving all the time, even if the weight isn't necessarily getting any heavier. A consistent approach is best.

I am enjoying my 20 minutes of daily cardio. Cardio, though not actually very good for weight loss, is very important to overall physical and perhaps mental health. I have noticed a small improvement in my overall fitness and I am often less out of breath when I have to do strenuous every day tasks such as lifting and carrying heavy objects.

My ultimate goal is to keep all of this activity up, regardless of weight loss, weight lifting PR's or precise macros. The best thing I can do for my health is to consistently exercise and eat "well". I am still struggling to find a natural balance for my eating. But I think I will try to keep it simple with small everyday changes such as reducing the amount of sweets and crisps I eat and making sure I eat balanced and nutritious meals.

Thanks for reading.

Your friend, Tobias