I'm a few weeks into the season and things seem to be going reasonably well. My main focus' at the moment are to bulk up - creating good stability, particularly in my lumbar spine - and create a good aerobic platform.
To estimate body fat and to attempt to quantify muscular gains, at GB rowing we conducted skin fold testing. This requires Homer to prod, poke and then mark certain anatomical locations. There are seven different locations, three on the legs and arms and the other four are on the trunk. Homer then uses highly sensitive calipers (£50 to calibrate them!!!) to then measure the skin fold at that location. Two to three measurements are taken and an average generated. Three weeks ago I had this done, it wasn't all that pretty and it seemed to suggest I had put on 2kgs of fat since the previous testing!! Thankfully other people in the squad were slightly worse. I wasn't too worried though, as i knew this would come off - and I would need some of it when training in Sierra Nevada (watch this space in January to find out why!). Today I was re-tested; I have lost an estimated 1.5kg in fat, weighing roughly the same and my girths are generally bigger. With taking the creatine it is expected for there to be an element of water retension in the muscle tissues, so it is hard to quantify exact muscle gains. The long and short of it is that I'm bigger, stronger and leaner than I was 3 weeks ago, which has to be a positive. Some bigger gains can be made and I'm looking forward to the next assessment.
On the slightly negative, I've been feeling really quite tired this week, my back has been a bit sore and I'm just about holding off illness. To aid my recovery I've been increasing my sleep time and making sure I eat well with plenty of fresh fruit and veg. I receive the third and final injection tomorrow, I'm expecting it to be a little uncomfortable again - but as Clubber Lang would say, no pain no gain!!
No comments:
Post a Comment