This marks my third week in my weightlifting journey. Last week I described the challenges I faced in making it to the gym on my scheduled days. Schoolwork, clubs, and of course Thursday Night Football all proved to be obstacles to my time spent in the weight room. However, I am happy to report that I’ve worked out on every scheduled day since my last blog entry, and I’m still enjoying my time in the weightroom. That being said, my “Gym Odyssey” has not been smooth sailing yet.

I’ve noticed that although other components in my life are no longer keeping me out of the gym, I think they’re hurting my efficiency in the gym in other ways. So, instead of focusing solely on my training in terms of working out, I’ve broken down my fitness journey into three main factors: weightlifting, eating, and sleeping.

Weightlifting

This factor is the most obvious and pretty self-explanatory. If my goal is to build muscle, I need to target those specific muscles in the gym by lifting weights. Over time, as I train those muscles, they will naturally get bigger and stronger. Through the first two weeks of my weight training, this was the only factor I focused on. Yet, I quickly realized that there is more to building muscle than just lifting weights.

Eating

Back home, I ate a lot. If you put a pizza pie in front of me, I’d eat the whole thing. However, at school, things aren’t as easy. I often miss out on breakfast because I don’t wake up early enough for my 9:00 a.m. math class. Furthermore, when I do eat, it may not be as balanced and nutritious as my meals at home would have been. These factors, coupled with my weightlifting causing a need for increased caloric intake, means I often find myself hungry throughout the day. This is particularly harmful for a skinny kid, such as me, trying to put on muscle. I need a massive number of calories, especially in the form of protein, in order to give my body the nutrients it needs to build up the muscles I’m working in the gym. Moving forward, I am going to make a conscious effort to eat as many meals as I can in order to give my body enough calories and nutrients to promote muscle growth.

Sleeping

I believe practicing healthy sleep hygiene is often overlooked, and it’s an aspect of health that I often neglect myself. Muscles don’t grow as you’re working out; instead, they grow when you rest and sleep. Therefore, on nights that I do homework into the late hours of the night, I am hurting my muscle growth by not allowing my body enough time to recover during my sleep. In order to correct my unhealthy sleep habits, I am setting a goal to go to bed before midnight every day (I might take a few cheat days on Friday and Saturday). This would allow me to get 8 hours of sleep when I wake up at 8:00 a.m. for my 9:00 a.m. math class. Hopefully this correction will help me not only build muscle, but also feel more awake and energetic during the day.

I believe that focusing on all three of those aspects, instead of just weightlifting, will greatly benefit not only my weightlifting, but also my overall health. In the meantime, I will be working out as previously scheduled, and I look forward to updating you on my progress next week!

Richard Black