Fitness Update

Before Christmas I began using a Kettlebell as my main form of training and I loved it- it's a tough but enjoyable workout. However, just after New Year I had a “bad back incident” which totally scuppered my fitness plans. Consequently, I’ve had to spend the last couple of weeks trying to build up slowly and as such I’ve begun rowing again. Last week I did four 2000m sessions on my Concept 2. This week I’ve moved up to 3000m and I’ve trained Sunday, Monday and today. I expect to do five sessions this week then take a two day rest break. When I last rowed regularly I always took a day off in between each session but training each day (and not doing too much) has seen me get better results. So far this week I’ve set a new 3000m record each time I’ve trained, taking seven, then eleven and, tonight, twenty seconds off my previous times. It can’t continue like this for long I’m sure but it feels good to be making quick progress and I’m convinced that training like this (and taking a full two days to recover) is the better option for me at the moment. I’ve noticed in the past that whenever I have had a two day break when training regularly I’ve always felt much better, as if my body has make extra gains. I would never take two days between each session, but with this cardio workout and moderate training time, it’s much easier to train solidly for four or five days and then take a longer break.

I’m aiming to keep the rowing up when I get back to the kettlebells (put back another week because my back’s not quite up to it yet) but I reckon the distances I row will stay a bit shorter. A few thousand metres here and there will keep me in practice with the occasional longer row once in a while just to see how my fitness is progressing.