Not Just a Man's World

As I sit here writing this, I’ve just got out of the gym.  I’ve got tears running down my cheeks and I’m feeling depressed.  In fact, I’ve been crying on and off since the second exercise in the workout.

This isn’t because I dropped a weights plate on my foot (though that would seem a better reason).  It’s because I increased my upper body workload for the first time this evening and it’s hit me hard, mentally and physically.

This isn’t going to be a post about how to make your workouts challenging.  There are plenty of articles written about that.  It’s an insight into how it has made me feel and how to get past the initial pain and depression.

The main reason I’m a wreck

I wrote yesterday about my desire to improve my work capacity.  While I’ve been starting to work on this in my lower body workouts I’ve been taking the upper body workouts gently.  Historically I’ve easily over-trained my arms, but for the last couple of weeks I’ve been cruising through my upper body workouts, so it was time I upped the ante.

Of course I may have overdone that.  Let’s play spot the difference:

Last week’s first upper body workout

• 10 sets x 3 reps: Push press
• 5 sets x 8 reps: Rope upright row
• 5 sets x 8 reps: One arm horizontal row
• 5 sets x AMRAP: Grippers

 Last week’s second upper body workout

• 10 sets x 3 reps: Pull up
• 5 sets x 8 reps: Press up
• 5 sets x 8 reps: One arm military press
• 5 sets x AMRAP: Grippers

Today’s upper body workout

• 10 sets x 3 reps: Push press
• 10 sets x 3 reps: Pull up
• 5 sets x 8 reps: Press up
• 5 sets x 8 reps: Rope upright row
• 5 sets x 8 reps: One arm military press
• 5 sets x 8 reps: One arm horizontal row
• 5 sets x AMRAP: Grippers

Reasons to be depressed?

My numbers went down.  This is a natural result of doubling the size of the workload.  Fatigue was significantly increased, most noticeably in the later exercises but there was also fatigue present for my pull ups which had been a primary exercise before, done when I was fresh.

I know all of this, but it is still mentally difficult to come to terms with the numbers written on the page at the end of the workout and even harder to get past it when I’m trying to increase reps or the load for exercises.

Menstrual cycle and making workouts more challenging

My period is due to start on Friday or Saturday.  I’m usually a bit weepy in the last few days leading up to the start of my menstrual cycle, though mentally I’m not weak.  It’s a strange combination of crying my eyes out during hard workouts but stubbornly pushing on for yet one more rep.

Once my period has started I will find that for a few days I will try to do workouts but find that my mind is not up to it.  As soon as I start to struggle with the reps I will find I can no longer move the weight and I don’t think it’s got anything to do with my muscles.  I get the same rep-struggling moments during the rest of the month but force myself to carry on pushing out good quality reps.

Theoretically, the mental strength I still have the week before my period starts should help me get through such a difficult change to my workout.  But the unstable mental state and risk of depression that accompanies it makes it a difficult balancing act.

Dealing with the impact of increasing workload

So what lessons have I learned from making my workout more challenging?

1. Don’t make a workout more challenging within a week of my period starting, either the week before or the actual week it’s happening (so that leaves me with two weeks in every month).
2. Fatigue affects numbers.  Don’t be surprised when some of the numbers get worse.  Keep hold on the ones that got better, even if that was only your first exercise, and wait until you have comparatives from a similar sized workout.
3. Focus on the positives.  I made it through the entire workout.  I may have had to abandon my grip workout after 3 sets because I could no longer set the grippers, I may have got less reps on my pull ups and press ups, but I increased the weight significantly on my push press and increased the weight slightly on all the other assistance exercises. 

Related posts:

1. Lessons learned: exercise and the menstrual cycle
2. Lessons learned this week: grip workouts
3. Lessons learned: workouts to suit your body
4. Periodization and your menstrual cycle