Weightlifting Summer Project- Post #4

Wow, this summer has really went quick! The last summer days before school starts are slowly dwindling away, and it's almost time for the time of year we just all absolutely love! Or...maybe not. In any event, my summer project has went very well. It's been about 2 weeks since my last post, but this was done purposely because I feel that my posts should be more about quality instead of quantity. My project has continued to go as planned, and it's going great!

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Body Stats (Beginning/Current)

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Height: 5'8/5'8 (0 inch increase)

Weight: 130/140 lbs (3 pound increase)

Body Fat Percentage: 6.4%/6.67% (Extremely little increase)

Lean Body Mass: 121.7/128 lbs ( ~1 pound increase)

Wow, well let's just say that Kettering Soccer workouts are very, very tough. After carrying your buddies up and down hills, hundreds of Russian lunges, minutes of minutes of non-stop pushups, Cooper tests, 400M timed runs, and soccer drills, tryouts have finally ended! Because it's my first year, I wasn't automatically placed on Varsity, but I earned a starting Defensive wing spot, so I'm happy! Soccer has made weightlifting much harder, but I'm still making progress.

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Lifting Stats (Beginning/Current)

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Barbell Bench Press: 110/145 (5 pound increase)

Barbell Parallel Squat 135/225 (15 pounds increase)

Barbell Deadlift 90/225 (35 pound increase)

My projects main focus was for strength gains, and so far it's still going very well! My bench press increase rate is slowly starting to decline, but luckily I'm still able to put up 5 more pounds. My parallel squatting has continued to rise, at a rate of about 10-15 pounds a week. I absolutely love squatting, I've come to love it more than benching! My deadlift has been rising a substantial amount as well, but this mainly isn't a huge increase in strength, I've just been working on my form. So as far as the deadlift goes, my increases are mostly because of form improvements. Overall my stats have been able to keep improving!

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Diet

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My diet has remained just about the same as my other posts. Due to soccer, I've had to eat a little more to keep gaining weight, but not much! I feel like my body has been forcing me to drink more water due to 3 hour Soccer practices in 90 degree weather, so I've been drinking 120-140 ounces of water a day. That's a little over a gallon a day, or about twice what the average person should be drinking daily. Overall, my diet is in great shape. Plenty of protein, plenty of carbs, a healthy amount of good fats, and plenty of water.

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Overall

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This week I've learned a few things from my project. First, by staying hydrated, I feel so much better. I've noticed the white of my eyes are much whiter. Yes, I know, VERY strange observation, but it's true! I have a lot more energy, I stay cooler, and when I go outside I really don't even feel as hot as I used too. From an athletic standpoint, I'm able to perform at a much higher level.

This week I've also learned that weightlifting definitely helps speed. I've been squatting so much, and I'm used to much more intense leg fatigue and lactic acid buildup in my legs. This has helped me so incredibly much with running. My 400M times have completely transformed. During soccer tryouts, my 400M times were a 1:01, a 1:05, and a 1:11 or 1:12, with a couple minutes in between each run. To put it in perspective, 0:57 is my 400M meet time. A1:01 is what a lot of kids run in a track meet. During track season, my 400M times for the same drill were 1:12, 1:16, and 1:24 or something like that. My turnover is so much better, and weightlifting has really helped me break my running plateau! I can't wait for track now!

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So you get the burning feeling 'eh?

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So you've been running a lot, heavy weightlifting, or even swimming, and you feel that awful burning sensation in your legs. Sometimes it's so bad that you're on the brink of physical failure. So what causes that? Well, I hate to do this, but let's go back to Honors Biology here guys! Well, it helps! The body's main form of energy is ATP. When you do anaerobic exercise (some are listed above), you quickly burn ATP, which means that Phosphate groups are leaving your ATP's, and leaving only ADP's left behind. This creates lactic acid, and that burning sensation in your legs. If you want less of that feeling, you must eat more protein, especially red meats, which have natural levels of Creatine. Creatine will put Phosphate groups into your leftover ADP's to transform them back to ATP, so you get less of that burning feeling, you can workout longer, have more energy, and not burn up as bad. Eat protein for sports, it helps!

Keep having a fantastic Summer guys :)