Taking it up a notch

Well, this past Saturday I decided it was time to move on to the Week 3-6 fitness routine. As I mentioned in an earlier post I was trying to milk the Week 1-2 routine for as long as possible but I had hit a plateau in my weight loss the past week and a bit so I decided it was time to move on to the more challenging routine. The main difference between the two routines is the addition of the Horse Curls exercise and the extra reps for the exercises you've already been doing. I have to say it certainly is more challenging. I was huffing and puffing in no time and perspiring more than before. And for some reason the 12 lb. dumbbells I had been moving fairly easily with the Week 1-2 routine now felt like 50 lbs. It's amazing how the mind works in these situations. The moment you think the weight might be too heavy it's like your muscles just want to stop working. You really have to will yourself to complete all the reps for some of the exercises. In some cases I had to split up the exercise into three mini-sets of 10 reps with a 15 second break between each set just to get through them. I can certainly feel my muscles being challenged and growing but I'm mildly disappointed that after three sessions my weight is still the same at 222 lbs. I was hoping to start seeing a .5 lb drop after every session or two. I'm not cheating on my eating so I can only hope it's muscle being traded for fat at this point and the weight loss will start to kick in again soon. I'll keep you posted.