In Need of a Change

Lately I’ve been feeling like my training progress is coming to a grinding halt. I seem to be stalling out on progress in my 5x5’s, and an overall plateau is definitely right around the corner if I don’t switch things up. Certain minor injuries seem to be flaring up with the emphasis on the heavy weights, and I’m afraid minor will turn into major if I don’t make a little change here. So, in an effort to prevent a complete halt in progress, I’ve decided to switching things back to the Arnold supersets. Take my head out of my training log and just move some weight. I can tell that I’m starting to get frustrated with the lack of new maxes each week, and I’m trying to avoid falling into the same bad place that I was in during the early winter. I have a distinct feeling that I’ll go 3 or 4 weeks with the supersets and then need to pull back altogether on my workouts to recover a bit and maybe try another “active recovery” period where my workout intensity and weights are a little lower than what I usually do. Then I can go for the final push before the diet starts. I'll finish this week out with the 5x5's and then start fresh on Sunday with the supersets.
I think that’s my problem now. I’m so used to being right smack dab in the middle of a contest diet during this time of year. I’ve competed every spring for the past 3 years. And this year, I’m no where near even starting my contest diet. I know I’m craving change….and contest prep certainly provides that change. I like that I can see my body transform on a weekly basis. Every week my diet and cardio changes. It’s hard to see anything but fat right now. Of course, I know that’s not entirely the case. But I’m getting antsy. And I’m ready to see what’s under this mess.

This morning I trained hams and had a pretty good workout. My lower back is still bothering me, and I know it's my left hamstring getting worse. So, I'm trying to be creative with my ham workouts to make sure that I still hit them well. What's starting to concern me is that I'm losing some feeling and range of motion down my left leg. I get a tingling feeling in the arch of my foot and can't feel anything down the outside of my left ham, and it makes it difficult to contract the muscle. I have two more sessions with the chiropractor and then I think I'll look into a physical therapist for this hamstring. Guess that's it for now...