I started the T-Dawg diet this Monday, and tried the first two Meltdown training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, and I have to say WOW.
I had just come off a strength building program where I was working at lower rep ranges and taking long rests between sets and was doing no other conditioning, so no cardio or GPP. Plus I was eating a fairly high carb, high calorie diet. Shifting gears into both the low carb diet with monitored calories and into a program like Meltdown with 4 back to back sets with no rest has really kicked my butt. Each session the first superset went well, but by the second exercise in the second set I was suddenly realizing that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the plan as written. On day 1 I had to take a short break after the 2nd exercise in the 2nd set, and I had to take more than 2 minutes before the 3rd set PLUS add breaks between each exercise. On day 2 I was able to complete all reps and only had to modify the program by resting 4 minutes before the 3rd set. Not sure if I made progress or if I just went lighter on myself for the second day.
Considering how quickly the A parts of these workouts go by since they’re only 3 supersets with 2 breaks, and considering that I chose “manageable” weights to work with, I am amazed at just how winded and sweaty I was and just how much it got my heart pounding in my chest. It took about 15 minutes of cooldown stretching, a walk home, and an hour of relaxing in my apartment before I started to feel decent again. During the workouts and immediately after I had to keep repeating to myself, “This will get easier. This will make you stronger. This is how it is SUPPOSED to feel.”
Anyway, that was my experience, so for anyone coming out of a pretty slow paced routine who hasn’t been doing a lot (or any) of cardio, if you haven’t heard it enough times already, those first few workouts are going to set the room spinning.
JOHN