Wrap Up of the Cube Method, Week 1

Happy Friday!!

Week one of the Cube Method was a great success! My weight is on the decline (thankfully) and I feel like my workouts were awesome all week, which means my recovery week was well worth it and needed.

I have my program set so I lift four times a week with one bench day, one deadlift day, one squat day, and one day where I basically work on weak points, whatever I feel that may be; however, that day must always include overhead press, curls, and calves.

This program is really a new challenge for me because it requires more rep work than I am used to. This week I did deadlifts for reps and speed squats; two things I really need to work on as all my years of a distance runner have left me with not a whole lot of speed or explosiveness.

Now that I have officially completed one week on the program I will let you know this: biggest challenge ever is still Olympic stance squats. Those darn things have left me sore not once, but TWICE this week!!! I will conquer them though! I thought I was past the days of being challenged with squatting 100 pounds (ha).

This week for my accessory day, I focused a lot on triceps and shoulders. I'm really focused on increasing my bench right now. It has made great progress over the last few months but my goal is to bench 135 by June so I definitely still have some work to do.

For each of my workouts I ended with abs and conditioning. I did barbell complexes for conditioning twice this week and loved it! They were a great way to finish the workout and get my heart rate up. I'm hopeful the weather will shape up soon so I can start doing hill sprints and other outside conditioning (a prowler is next on my list of workout toys to buy!) Snow is in the forecast for the weekend but after that I'm hopeful spring will finally decide to "spring" and I can enjoy outdoor workout finishers.

I found that since I'm only eating carbs once a week, I really need to focus on recovering even more than before. I was sure to devote more time to foam rolling and did a bit more stretching this week. I also took a couple Epsom salt baths, which not only helped me recover, but were also very relaxing :)

Sunday marks the beginning of week two! Stay tuned for more workout logs, workout tips, and other advice from me!!

Remember: the harder you work, the luckier you get :)

A little motivation for the day:



And I really want these shoes: