So today was a reminder that yes, you do need to take care of yourself or good luck performing at your best. I guess that's part of my reminder that I'm 30 now. Today's gym time was... not good. I should have known it was not going to go well when I somehow put two contacts in one eye without realizing it, and then spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what the hell was up with my vision. Left the house late, trains took extra time this morning, workout started 30 min later than I would have wanted it to. Didn't make my progression on squats (3 out of 5 reps). Was running late so only did one round of abs (at a higher weight than usual though, so that's at least progress). Make it through two sets of Romanian Deadlifts before I decided I wasn't feeling well and called it quits. Got treated to a luke-warm shower for my efforts (where is my extra $10 a month this year going????). What's worse is I'm not sure I'll hit any of my progressions this week outside of Deadlift on Thursday.

None of this should be a surprise though and I certainly can't be more than a little frustrated with it, I had a fantastic weekend. Epic rave Friday night followed by amazing 1920's prohibition party that had open-close electroswing in the basement all night! Electroswing for those who aren't familiar is swing melodies played with house basslines. It's an amazing modern fusion of great genres of music and I seriously don't know anyone who can honestly tell me they don't have fun with it. We also just happen to have two of the best electroswing DJs in the business here in NYC, Faith in the Glitch and Rich Green, so having them tag team all night was just incredible. This also meant back to back nights going to bed at 6am and I was on-call this weekend for work, so I had to be semi-conscious at 9am both mornings. I may have slept a total of 8-9 hours this weekend.

So while it may suck that my progress is held up a week, it's a reminder that we only have 100% to give and sometimes that means not being able to give what we want to one facet of our lives so that we can enjoy another. I have fitness goals, but like I said in my original post on the matter, they are probably like 6th on my priority list. Making time to have amazing experiences with friends comes in way higher. Also, because of the risk of injury if I try to push myself too much at the gym, I made the smart choice to accept my limitations for this session. The gym will be there tomorrow, missing a session or a week is a lot less harmful than missing a month because I pulled something. Sure you can push yourself to give 110% for spurts, but that isn't free either. You will need to recover from that, whether that's by choice and resting or by eventually injuring yourself and being forced to stop. I wouldn't say life lesson learned here, just a reminder that leading a full and diverse life means trade-offs. Having a sense of who you are and what you want to achieve is so important because it will determine how you make those trade-offs. If you ever feel like some part of your life is dragging, make time to have a meeting with yourself and really evaluate what your priorities are and what you want to achieve. If everything still comes up the same then it may just be a limitation you need to accept.

Today's Sets

Squat - 10x135, 5x175, 5x205, 5x245, 3x280
Russian Twist - 24x45#
Bird-dog - 30
V-Up 15x45#
RM Deadlift 5x135, 5x185

Total - 107

Sounds of the Weekend