High Intensity vs. High Volume in terms of my well being

I feel a little guilty...

Why, you might ask, would you feel bee feeling guilty Chad? Did you go on a food binge? Did you soil yourself in an intense effort to get one last rep, and not clean it up? Nope...I feel guilty because I did something I haven't done in a while. I did a HVT (High Volume Training) workout - audible gasp from the Dr. Darden Discussion Forum - and I targeted specific muscle groups instead of performing a whole body routine (which is what I have been doing).

What brought on this drastic change in routine? I'm not sure, to be honest. I stepped into this new gym, which is actually an old facility with miss matched equipment arrayed in several rooms in a hap-hazard fashion, and felt like a kid in a candy store. I had every intention to performing a well balanced, whole body routine that worked around my consolidated lift on Wednesday. I was going to spot my partner through his chest, shoulder and bicep routine and then perform an epic, all out, single set to failure routine then go home and sleep. However, as I spotted him on his 2nd set of bench presses, a strange feeling coursed through my body. A flash back to last year perhaps, a desire to relive the bonding we had as we began our physical transformations...the fun we had. I think that is what it was, I was having "fun" and so I jumped in. I did super-sets and pre-exhaustion and I pumped up my muscles and I posed in the mirror. I did all the jack-ass stuff we joke about weight lifters, and I enjoyed it.

Last night I went to bed with sore shoulders, an achy chest and dead arms. I admit that I probably over trained, but I also had so much fun. I feel a little guilty at brazenly turning my back on the HIT principles I have dedicated myself to for the last year. However, in an attempt to continue to strive for a balance, I must not take the enjoyment out of my fitness goals. I must realize that in my attempts to transform my body into what I desire, I also have to take into consideration the mental and emotional well being that I need.

So will I do it again? To be perfectly honest I don't know. I guess I'll listen to my body and my emotions and make that decision when the circumstance presents itself. I can tell you that I am not as strong as I have been, and that I did not have the endurance that I thought I did. This is a surprise to me, because I thought I was progressing well using HIT.