The Past - busy body at work
It's been three months since I last posted here. But I have achieved quite a lot in the real world in this time. First of all, I had to write, rewrite, edit and defend my BA-thesis and write the last exams and fill in application forms etc. to get my degree before everyone at my uni leaves for their summer vacation. Now I'm officially a Bachelor of Arts in German language and culture, literary studies to be exact.
I also trained and prepared for my first wrestling match, making weight (dropped my weight from 68 to 60kg to get into the lower weight class), learning new techniques and getting into the right mindset. Just to hear - a week before the competition - that I am not allowed to take part in the tournament, because it was the Finnish Championships and even though I've been living in Finland for the past 6 years and got the citizenship application process going, I was not granted permission to compete. I get it, because where do you draw the line if you allow exceptions to the rule, but... I was a little disappointed and demotivated by the whole thing, so I kept a low profile in MMA during the last few months. and well, yeah, thanks to the stress on the university side, my time was a little limited and I got two bad colds as soon as the stress started to fade away.
The Present - Body Pump 90 and its after effects
I just returned from my vacation trip to Germany last night (literally, I arrived back home at 3:45am), took a nap and then I was off to my gym. I had missed it. Had a great Body Pump class with a budy from my MMA Team, as I had promised her before, and holy moly my muscles are already sore. Even though Body Pump 90 was scheduled to be started on Monday, she already put us through the whole shebang, and whoa, I like this release. The warm-up is a little meh, but leg track number one aka "squat till you drop" was not fun, fun would definitely be the wrong word to describe it, but after the first set, I already felt my quads and the backs of my thighs...and my bum getting sore. The chest track was kind of nice, until we were introduced to the nasty little surprise of dropping your barbell halfway down, hold, drop all the way down, hold, push halfway up, hold, slowly push up the rest of the way. It hurt. It hurt bad, but what do they always say? Pain is where progress happens? The back track was pretty basic, pretty similar to the one in the last release. And then triceps. French bench presses and lying triceps press. It was not that it was bad, it's just that are few things I hate more than french bench presses. And as a surprise at the end, there were dips. I like dips. They are hard, they hurt and they bring progress. Oh, talking about things I hate more than french bench presses: biceps curls. And the biceps track this time was... surprisingly fun. I overestimated my strength and had to change my weights 3/4 through the track, but now my arms are comfortably weak. Then lunges, pretty basic. But the shoulder track, even though basic, was hard. I loved it. It hooks in with one of my goals, so, I really loved it. Abs and Cool Down were sit ups and the basic Les Mills stretching routine, so yeah, a nice release they got there. Enjoyed it, recommend it.
The Future - new goals ahead
It's June already. So, not much I can do about that summer body any more, but I have to admit, thanks to dropping my weight to 60kg, I realised that I don't really like myself in 60kg, so I tried to gain 2-3kg back. With the result that I'm super confident with my body. Sure, there are areas, I'd like to improve, but all in all I like my body. Actually, I love it for what kind of stuff I am able to throw at it and it just performs. And rather nicely at that. So, what do I want to do? Well, when I was in Berlin, we went to see "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and I could not help myself, but admire Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman's) chiseled and defined shoulders. I want shoulders like that. Not that massive, but the female version of it; defined shoulder muscles where you can actually see the different muscles work whilst working. So, a little "bulking" up in that department. My arms in general could be more defined. So, that's what I'll be doing for the next 11 weeks.
I'll also get back to MMA as often as possible, because I'd love to compete in an MMA competition in autumn.
Oh, and I want to write into this blog more often. Maybe about other stuff than just workout and lifestyle and eating, even though I have a few subjects I could write about in those fields, too (I've been dropping serious weight with the 5:2-diet, I've been dabbling with vegan nutrition and I've revised a training program for my roommate, so, lots to tell on this side of life, too). But for now, I have to go to bed. Got an early wake-up call tomorrow. Good night!
