Looks like MEAT's back on the menu, boys!

I'm back into resistance. I don't have its application mapped out yet, but I will! I didn't step into Azeroth and get healed by a priest, either. Yet, I found a way to work around my right intercostal muscle injury. Last night, I researched super slow resistance training.

I'm convinced it would be great for what I want to accomplish. I gave it a test run this morning, and made it halfway through my chest routine, as by definition, super slow resistance takes much longer. Using a modified Tabata timer on my iPad, I performed 10 seconds concentric + 10 seconds eccentric per rep, for a total of just 5 reps. I did my standard 4 sets. It was at a glacial speed, but I loved the control and the form involved. There are some great benefits for what I want to accomplish:

1. First and foremost, I don't have to wait 4-6 weeks for resistance training. As R.I.C.E. has been disavowed by its creator and falls out of practice; I prefer working the injured area within the context of M.E.A.T. since I don't feel shards of pain when I move slow;
2. There is minimal risk of new injury or re-injury;
3. Minimizes weight creep: I want my iron set well-worn before I have to chase more cash after it.

I abhor a runaway train of machismo. How I grow weary of "bruh" advice and antecedal evidence. I have an impression that there are those who take identity by the weight they can lift, though they really ought to give credit to inertia and gravity...which routine would I prefer if I was clinging on the side of a rock face?...at any rate, it's NEVER about the objects...did the workout put me in a better position toward the objective? If wearing a pink tutu outside of a McDonald's window while dancing on roller skates to the tune of The Supreme's You Can't Hurry Love is your ab routine and works...well, as the Steve Miller Band sang:

"If you keep on dancing, you'll never grow old...dance, dance, dance."

I'm also trying out a shift toward intermittent fasting. While I wish it was possible for a one-meal daily approach, for my food is far too bulky (a lb of romaine is a LOT), I'm adopting a 16:8 approach, where I have an 8-hour window to eat. Additionally, I'm going to adopt a fasting on Sundays approach, for both its physical and spiritual significance.

Today kicks off Week 6 of my overall program. I'm excited about climbing atop the scale in a week. Yet, I have these days ahead and it remains ambiguous. Don't get me wrong, this injury has given me a bright challenge to answer, but I hate that the momentum is lost—only in the sphere of workouts, however. My nutrition is rock hard...and if I may misappropriate the lyrics from a KISS title with the same words:

You make me sweat, you turn me 'round.
You get me up, you never let me down.
You make me rock hard.

Yeah, that's MY diet!

I haven't figure out the puzzle as of yet: this morning was another 4am; I tested out the slow-mo TKD, followed it with some incline on the treadmill, and then intervals on the bike before going back for more incline on the treadmill. I just couldn't find my rhythm. I MISS my resistance! It just feels incomplete without doing the back, abs, and Tabata that was scheduled.

My injury is the type where the pain is diminished, if not absent and replaced by tenderness, if I slowly slide into an extension, not unlike how a slow stretch reaches further. I'm playing with the idea of adding a resistance program that, if not now, could be applied later; one moves away from concentrating on the chest once a week and instead hits it three times a week with less ammo. In that approach, I'd combine my other workouts—I know, pretty obvious!

While it may seem I might be leaning toward overtraining, I'm actually reducing things. Our bodies don't work in isolation. As much as I might prance around saying today is just a back day or whatever, the body works in unison to achieve an objective. Maybe at the core, it's why I find bodybuilding suspect. At this time, I see my iron workout as just a bridge to replace it for bodyweight training when my strength increase intersects with my weightloss. Who needs iron when one can just crank out pushups, situps, and chinups? Again, it's about moving my body in space. But, again all of this is academic for now...

Now, I never want to just focus on the details of today. I haven't talked about my return to Facebook since I don't want to overlook what I'm doing, but my return will be a major milestone for me—not working out, though...more of a secondary pursuit and just another source of motivation. Yes, OF COURSE I hope to showcase my harvest in September and pop open a six-pack...

...BUT...more importantly, I hope to reconnect with others who have enriched my life; I want to thrust my hand out in space and save my friends & family from the sands of time. I've purposely chosen to be disconnected from everyone for such a time as this. All of this training is about coming back. I will do my best to reunite the fleet...

I have a sneaky suspicion that I have a strain to an intercostal muscle underneath my right lat (1. link, 2. example). It makes sense...there's sharp pain when I breathe deeply and things like sitting down and reaching up or down are always accompanied by a jolt that makes me yelp.

As much as I hoped that this was just a fleeting pain of the day, instead it will make me change my workout regimen for the next 3-6 weeks. While I've made some awesome gains these past four weeks with my workout, I'm going to transmute this letdown into a win. poof "Tada!" I'm entering the last week of my first six-week stretch, when I will be weighing on May 14. Whereas I had hoped for a hard-hitting interpretation of my workout to maximize weight loss up to the weigh-in, I'll be switching the routine into a cardio focus.

I went through the motions of what resistance I could save and...yeah, nothing. I mean, I could do some of my Arms & Abs day because I could work my biceps, though I'd have to avoid pulling the weights off the rack. And clearly, my 3x week abs are a no-go. Surprisingly, an exercise ball is pretty solid for me as a chair as it keeps me upright.

My Tabata will have to be on hold, along with most obviously my Taekwondo forms since that was the catalyst. I'm considering on performing a slow motion version of the TKD patterns, more of a pressing version, not unlike some of the movements in Kwang-Gae. I'm even considering teaching myself Tai Chi.

Since I will likely require further healing than a week, it's time to consider what the next six-week period will look like and I'm excited about it. Its weigh-in date is June 25, which is the precursor to my Chi-running in July, which hinges solely on as to whether I'm under 200 lbs.

Thus, this last week and the the next period are critical to get there. My nutrition rocks and can put me in the position to win, but I know I need better endurance...so this injury is a win: it channels my focus in another direction with enhanced cardio.