I knew when I woke up this morning that even before I got out from bed, my training was going to take a hit today. It wasn’t that I was being negative in anyway, I just had this gut feeling that no matter what I did, it was going to be an effort. A sign of over-training perhaps? More carbohydrates spread throughout the day, and not just bunched around breakfast and my post-workout, (which happens to be the first two meals of the day for me now!). My body telling, begging me even, that it needed a rest day today? It could be all 3, but being the stubborn type of person that I am when it comes to training (one reason why I’ve never had a trainer – I’ve always wanted to learn and understand everything myself so that I could train myself without having to rely on anyone else to make those decisions for me).
As much as my body may have been telling me otherwise, I got up, pulled on my shorts ate my oats, drank my shake, and drove to my local gym to train calves. It started off OK. For a moment I thought I had shaken off whatever it was that was slowing me from my usual bounce in the mornings, but from about the 4th set onwards, I knew I had started something with my body that I wasn’t going to win. My body had told me to get more sleep and rest – an early sign being the twitch in my biceps the day after I had trained them so hard with triceps. The best I could do was see out the end of my training session, before heading home to give my body what it needed – fuel and rest!
Below is an overview of my calf workout. To see the full workout, plus many exclusive training videos, check out my new fitness site – Rob Riches – All Access
7 sets of Seated Calf Raises
3 sets of Seated Leg Press
6 sets of Leg Sled Calf Press
Once back home, I immediately hit the bed, waking up feeling somewhat refreshed almost 2 hours later, and not surprisingly a little hungry. Not wanting to cook up much of the good food I had in the fridge (too time consuming), I opted for something quick and filling, and made one of my pancake mixtures, adding 6 egg whites, a scoop of vanilla 100% Gold Standard Whey, half a cup of flaxmeal, half a cup of oatbran, 6oz of rice milk, and blended them in a mixer, making two medium sized pancakes, (see image at top of page), plus had two lightly toasted slices of Ezekiel bread with a teaspoon of RAW honey spread over each one.
With my body feeling somewhat rested, and adequately fueled up, I could head into the studio to start my day – some 2 hours later than usual! (Thankfully this week’s schedule isn’t quite as rigid as it normal is, and there’s no filming to do, only editing and admin work).
One of the many things I’ve been doing at the studio is setting up my next Sports Model Weekend camps with some big name photographers and even bigger name fitness magazines. I’ll be holding three by the end of January next year, with workshops in London, Canada, and Los Angeles, with each person attending getting a professionally edited shot of them, and the chance to be published in a magazine. For more information, click on any of the workshop images below.
After several hours hard work on the computer, it was time to eat again. Not having pre-cooked up all my meals the night before, (and certainly not this morning, no thanks to my body’s seemingly urgent need to sleep some more), I used what we had in the fridge at the studio from a left-over cooking show.
I sliced a chicken breast, adding a squirt of organic tomato and mustard sauce (no hydrogenated oils, syrups, much sodium or sugar added), along with some pink sea salt, crushed chili’s, and Italian seasoning, and BBQ’d them, smothered in my homemade-leftover sauce, topping it over with some lightly toasted Ezekiel bread (sprouted grain, wheat-free, gluten-free bread, that’s a complete protein), and some spinach and other green veg. It tasted amazing!
Back to the computer for several more hours before eating again, and my next meal wasn’t that much different, except instead of the Ezekiel bread, I used a couple of Ezekiel tortilla wraps that I had picked up at the local store, along with some other greens and veg.