The Largest Red

Coming back from the short getaway to Myrtle was very nice as it seems that the world sort of returned to normal in my absence. I returned to the lifting of mask mandates and capacity limits for NJ which makes it a lot easier to be social and interact with people. Personal Updates I do not really have many updates regarding my body as I had maxed out before leaving for Myrtle and since then have just gotten into a rhythm of doing my programmed workouts for football which are definitely a change-up from what I had been doing for the past year. I am excited to get into this groove and start working out earlier so that I am ready to get the most out of the limited amount of time I have left being a part of this team. This paragraph is a little bit of cheating due to the fact that I am posting this a bit later than Sunday but I feel like it is important to post in order to give me an idea of when this started and to hold me accountable for this claim. I realized through encounters this wee...

After taking last week off I have a lot of potential topics to update on, but I will try to stick to the main ones so that this does not go on too long. Lifting Updates As has been the theme in these posts so far I will start off by talking about my body. Before I left for Myrtle Beach, I decided to do a max test for bench and squat to get a baseline going into the summer. After battling injuries in both my chest and hip for several months I definitely went through ups and downs. I think that I will now get into a more formal routine and get into football-specific shape doing agility and fieldwork as well as continuing to train the major lifts. I also think that I will start taking creatine again as I will be training consistently and it helps me to retain additional water especially as I am pushing myself in the heat and moving a lot of weight. My all-time max on bench was around 365, maybe a little higher, but I got hurt before I was able to test. At that time I was able to do 325/33...

This post will be relatively short as I will likely take the next week off from posting and have a larger post the following week that encompasses two weeks. Personal Updates This past week regarding my body I have planned to start prepping for a max out test prior to the last week of May because I will be away from gyms. I want to get a new baseline for my strength levels before going into the summer and I think this is the best time to do so. I have struggled with weird and random injuries and maybe taking a week off from the weights and doing strictly band and bodyweight work I will be set for the summer body-wise. I am excited to really get after it this summer and continue to get into great shape so I can finish out my football career strong and play at my best. I was also able to go down to Princeton and visit this weekend for graduation which was really nice. I got to see a lot of my friends that I have not seen in over a year and it was nice to see things opening up a bit more....

This week will be remembered as the week of mother's day weekend. My mom always tries to do something a bit extra for mother's day so that we have a memory or an experience instead of a run-of-the-mill dinner or something. This year was quite possibly the most memorable one yet, and it will be tough to be topped.  Personal Updates As far as my body, I have been sort of struggling to gain strength in the weight room and really recover from my hip injury specifically. I am not sure exactly why I have been failing to make gains in the past several weeks, but it is definitely frustrating. I feel that I am resting and recovering enough, getting sufficient sleep, and following a program that should yield results so I am not sure what else I can do. The one thing I think I could work on is getting more protein per day, so that is something that I have been focusing on recently. I am trying some different foods and habits and hopefully, it will get me back on track. Other than that, th...

I haven't had too much going on in the past few weeks. This feels like more of a grinding period in my life where I am just kind of keeping my head down and moving forward. This would be part of the video montage if my life was a movie, not worthy of major screentime. Personal Updates Continuing in the theme of talking about my body, I feel somewhat at peace that I have figured out what was causing me trouble in my hip. I have made some alterations to my workout regimen in order to address the underlying problems, and although I feel very weak and am not able to do the numbers that I could do before the injury became problematic, I think that it is better to build a solid foundation even if I will have to do some slightly embarrassing weights for a while.  I also feel like I have slightly been sliding in my strength gains and so I am going to try to make some modifications to my diet to get into a rhythm of eating the right things more consistently. This will include trying some di...

You know what they say is the definition of insanity. I feel like I have been caught in a cycle of doing the same things over and over again in my life, trying to make changes but falling back into old habits. In a few areas of my life, I have decided to make a radical change. Personal Updates In regard to my body, as I realize I have continued to give updates on my physical health in pretty much all of these posts, I made a pretty big leap this week. After months of not knowing what was wrong with my hip, and being concerned that I may further hurt myself by doing the wrong thing, I finally figured out the issue. I got an MRI and spoke with a doctor and trainers and figured out that the source of my pain is the underdevelopment of some muscles and the overdevelopment of others. In certain movements due to lack of training or overtraining my body was recruiting different muscle groups to perform exercises which put unnecessary strain on my hip.  I will have to put more thought into...

I definitely was not expecting the first meeting with my 5'5 40-something-year-old personal trainer named Zubin to go that well this morning but was pleasantly surprised. I went in thinking that at a minimum I would get some good material to write in a sketch or comedy set one day but left feeling pretty humbled and curious about some aspects of training that I took for granted. Thanks, Zub. Personal Updates This week was a bit busy in a few different areas of my life. In regard to my physical health, I got an MRI for my hip this past Monday and am currently awaiting the results. I know that I will not have to get any surgery but it will be nice to figure out what exactly is wrong, what caused it, and what I can do to get better. I actually started to make some progress this week as well with squatting and some other lower body exercises while my bench has remained strong. I also had a free session with a personal trainer at my gym this morning which was definitely an interesting e...

In reading different books and blogs I think that I might benefit from a private space to talk about thoughts and other things that I do not necessarily want to share with the world. Not sure when or how I will go about that, nor why I wrote it here, but I wasn't sure what else to put as an intro. Personal Updates Not too much has been going on in my personal life as of late. I actually worked the most hours in a week than I have since the summer which was not too bad. Part of this was a function of interviewing candidates for a new position in the firm I have been working for for the past year. I am fortunate enough to be able to start managing a new intern and actually was able to participate in the selection and interview process for candidates which was a pretty cool experience. In regard to my body I have continued to be able to bench with only slight pain that comes about now and then, but not in the act of benching. I have not lost too much strength from not benching for sev...

This week was Holy Week and I was excited to have my family come home for the weekend. It has just been me home with my parents for a few months so it is nice to have a bit of a shake-up every now and then to escape the monotony.  Personal Updates With respect to my body, I can confidently say I was able to bench again this week without pain. I think that I am back to healthy on the bench press which is great news after struggling for so long. After not being able to bench for nearly 4 months, I was able to do two sets of 315 for 3 reps this past Monday which is not too far off where I was when I first got hurt. I am happy that I did not lose too much strength, and I am excited to start building up again. After being at home and stuck in the same routine for so long, it is nice to have some time with family as it seems like somewhat of a return to normalcy. Especially as I had to go into NYC in order to pick up my sister and I got to see some people out and about. Although the city...

The weather is warming up and it is seeming like spring may be here to stay. This week is the first week that my hope for returning to school next year has really materialized. Seeing the world start to open up, vaccination becoming more widespread, and seeing people out and about again gives me hope that next fall things will be able to return somewhat to normal. (This picture is mainly because I am excited about bonfire season and had my first one of the year this week) Personal Life/Updates I have not had too much going on this week. I worked a bit more than usual and had to attend a lot of meetings for school and football, but other than that nothing too serious took place. The most noteworthy thing was that I secured a thesis advisor which is something that I was somewhat nervous about given that I did not have the best experience with my JP advisor last year. I am hopeful that I can get the ball rolling in the next month or so and go into next year with a solid plan and hopefully...