Month: September 2018

Week of 9/24/2018 Training

/ lubimur / Leave a comment

9/24/2018

8:45 – Triceps Flex x 30, not very intense, did hold for a few seconds at the end of each rep trying to get a little deeper; placed hands on chair behind glutes to make it easier to focus on the squeeze

Air Squats x 10, feet hip width apart, felt good, great form

I am so sleepy and tired right now. I think it may have to do with this place, it’s just depressing being here. I did help some guys repair a friends ceiling on Saturday

11:00 – Stairs x 27.5 floors (3 sets of 8.5), skipped every other one, sweating worse than I was last week when I did 5 sets; didn’t time first set because I was hand delivering something to the 7th floor, and spent about 8-9 minutes chatting before starting back up. The remaining two sets of stairs were 1:58 and 2:01

On my way to the tower I went into the gym and did some box jumps. I did the 2nd lowest x 3, the 2nd tallest x 2, and the tallest x 1. Felt it in my back on that last one, but it’s all good. I can jump again. I think the windshield wiper exercise and stretch is making a difference. Maybe it’s the superman; maybe it’s both.

12:30 – superman 3 x 20 sec/side, push heal against bottom of desk, raise arm as high as possible

Windshield wipers x 20, very bent lags (doing them in my cube), these aren’t even a challenge anymore, right lat under shoulder blade (along ribs near middle of back) kept cramping when going to left side.

Side Delt raises Purple band x 58; total failure on 58; reps 25 on I did as fast as I could

12:55 – Windshield Wipers x 20, straight leg, a bit challenging but coulda done 25 I’m sure. I was in the tax library with the door shut and didn’t want to risk getting busted.

1:00 – Lunch, bone broth with cauli-rice and brisket and hot sauce

2:15 – Wall Jumps Sideways x 2; Sprints x 2, not sure about distance or time, I think it’s about 40 yards. Back is feeling good so I wanted to see if I could actually sprint. It’s been a long time since my back would let me

Lying Chair position Flat Back (for abs) x 20 seconds;

Windshield Wiper Stretch 90 degree legs x 30 seconds per side

9/25/2018

9:10 – Abductor Stretch x 30 sec/side

Seated Toe touch opposite sides x 25, sat up straight each time

Hip Flexor Stretch x 30 sec, twisting torso

10:25 – Bird Dogs X 10/side SUPERSET W/ Supermans x 10

10:30 – In the Gym

Windshield wipers x 30, stretch x 30 Sec/side

Pull ups x 0, gave it hell though,

explosive pushups 3 x 6

hanging pull up bar transitions(?), moving back and forth between the two different pullup bars, (think American Ninja)

seated cable row x 30, 60 lbs

fingertip hangs (didn’t time myself, just till it hurt too bad to take)

jumps on 2nd tallest x 5

11:40 – Rear Delt Press into back of chair x 50, good squeeze

Side Delt Raise Black Band x 17, total failure on 18, held as long as I could without injury

11:45 – Biceps curl Purple band x 40, crazy burn, sweating hard, close to fail, low blood sugar I think

3:40 – Wall Hurdles x 16, twisted my ankle.

Biceps curl Purple band x 50, crazy burn, sweating hard, close to fail; back is starting to flair up.

9/26/2018 Wednesday

8:45 – Knee Pushups x 61, hands close (shoulder width), great form and focus, total failure on 62, couldn’t even come back up an inch. Almost hat failure at 55 and again at 60 but I took a couple of deep breaths and dug deeeep.

Ankle still hurt, did not like getting down to the floor for my pushups.

9:05 – Supermans x 25, tried not to raise torso too much to avoid possible compression, #14-20 were legs only. This definitely works glutes more.

Seated Wall Posture arm raises (to improve posture, not sure what to call these) x 20, need to remember to keep lower back pressed against the wall

Stiff Leg Dead Lifts x 30

9:20 – Standing back extensions x 25

3:30 – stairs x 10 floors

9/27/2018 Thursday

Started out with the best of intentions to watch a motivational video and then start the prison cube workout early. It is now 9:55, the boss is bitching because the company I’m calling to get answers about taxes on invoices wouldn’t answer their phones at the end of the day yesterday, so I went home after being at work for 9 hours. Apparently I am undependable and she’ll just have to do everything herself. The best part is, one of my coworkers is such a basket case that my boss can’t give her any random shit to do for the audit because it won’t get done and she gets stressed to the point of tears. So my coworker is in good standing with the boss because she hasn’t failed the boss on any audit tasks given to her.

9:55 – Scapular Pushups x 25, harder than I thought it would be, really started to burn front delts, probably could done 10 more

Boss just walked by and saw me stretching my front delts … it’s tough being a disappointment.

11:40 – Side Delt Raise Purple Band x 20, I thought I heard the boss coming. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, days like today it matters. Why be consistent, right? Nothing like being at the whim of someone else’s moods. I’m taking a half day today and taking tomorrow off. Later!!

Every Single Second Matters, Pay attention to them. They grow and multiply, and in them you are either moving forward or sliding backward.

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Fitness Update

/ lubimur / Leave a comment

9/21/2018

11:25 – Pushups x 50, medium elbows; compete failure at top of last rep, couldn’t go back to floor, body shaking like I have hypothermia

SUPERSET w/Side Delt Raises Black Band x 17, failure

Now BCAA and lunch – cauliflower and brisket in bone broth

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Training Week of 9/17/2018

/ lubimur / Leave a comment

9/17/2018

8:25 – Delt Raise with Purple bands x 50; this was to failure, the burn was almost unbearable. I didn’t grip the handle because I didn’t want to stress my elbow, I just wrapped the ends around my hands, I also used the full length rather than shorten it to make it harder.

10:30 – Neck Mobility and Hip Mobility drills

3:15 Toe Touches x 10

That’s it today, work is just crushing and the deadline is screaming toward me like a runaway freight train.

9/18/2018 Tuesday

8:30 – Triceps Flex x 30 seconds

10:25 – Iso-Biceps Desk Curl x 25, tried to lift desk while seated, really try to move it; back didn’t love this move, reclined in my chair some and braced elbows into iliac crest;

10:35 – Neck and Hip Mobility

10:45 – went and laid on the wall by the pond for about 20 minutes to readjust my alignment, then I did some windshield-wiper inspired twisting stretches – about 30 seconds per side x 2/side and it really seems to have helped the stiffness in my back.

12:05 – – Iso-Biceps Desk Curl x 30 sec, really went for failure which is hard to do with isometrics, you just pretty much start pushing less and less rather than failing to push

Biceps Flex Pulse x 25

Delt side Raise Purple Bands x 52, reached failure, insane burn

Walking Lunges x 5/side w/superset of

standing Leg curl x 50, not quite failure but close, muscles were shaking

2:15 – Delt Raise Purple Band x 25, have my ear buds in and the wire was in the way, my coworker keeps interrupting me too. Serious burn at 25, will have to dig deep to push past that.

2:27 – Delt Raise Purple Band x 30, not failure but damn that burns!

9/19/2018 Wednesday

Damn, so tired! Did I mention Suki is now 13 weeks old (only!)? She was up at 4 and would not go back to bed. The sleep deprivation is definitely catching up. I overslept this morning, and my back is pretty stiff, not too sore though.

9:55 – Seated Back Stretch x 40 sec; basically just leaning forward with feet flat on the floor and touching the floor with my hands.

10:15 – Windshield Wipers x 5 bent leg, x 10 straight leg, x 10 bent leg; warmed up with standing torso twists x 25

Windshield wiper stretch to left side x 60 sec, to right side x 30 sec

Did some weird rounded back stretch on my knees and then lifted my arms straight out in front to work the mid/lower back

Back feels pretty good.

10:30 – hip flexor and quad stretching; Wall Jumps x 5/side

Wall Hurdles x 3/side

Standing High Knee Jumps x 10

I must start rebuilding my explosive power. I am so exhausted, and my legs feel like lead. It’s like I have no bounce left.

11:35 – Neck & Hip Mobility drills; these take 4.5-5 min in total

Shoulder Mobility drills

Side Delt Raise Purple Band x 60, did fast reps (watching a Michael Vazquez video) focusing on explosiveness

Seated Curl Purple Band x 50; fast reps, chair at highest level; Did feel it some in my left elbow. I’m wearing my old Sports elbow brace. Need to find my new one and start wearing it.

How long does it take for a 51 year old to recover from workouts? From walking the stairs? The thing is, It seems like I’ve been doing more work on my arms than anything and they seem ready for more. My hamstrings feel fine even after yesterday. Is it because I can recover from ultra-light high rep training faster than heavier training even though it seems the intensity level is the same (like going to failure on delts and hams)? If so, how to I translate that into legs? And will it benefit me for explosive power or backpacking?

– “specializing in health, fitness and wellness for men over 50” –

So far I see a recurring theme : more recovery time after hard workouts and more sleep. It does appear that stress affects recovery times as well. Of course it would, cortisol is catabolic. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.

Aha, Fast muscle fibers are designed for explosive movements Generally, these muscles require more time to recover between workouts, and The slower muscle fibers are designed for endurance activities and they take less time to recover. That kind of answers my question about high rep vs heavy/explosive training.

Also more intensity will require longer recovery. Most of the time we are at medium intensity, probably more because of a mental thing than anything else. The less intense your workouts, the less recovery time those muscles need. And of course, the more intense, the more recovery needed. Not talking about cardio intensity though.

Age: General guideline: 20 yrs old – tend towards 2 days; 50+ – tend towards a week for a muscle group to fully recover.

9/20/2018 Thursday

10:00 – triceps Flex x 50, really trying to get them to cramp

10:15 – Seated Bicep Curl Black Band x 25, alternating; couldn’t do both arms at the same time, back was aching when I tried.

10:25(ish)-10:50 – Stairs x 44.5 stories (floors) (5 sets 8.5 floors, +2more); laps 1,2,5 I skipped a step; 3, 4 took every step; lap 1 – 2:04, lap 2 – 2:06; 3 – 2:20; lap 4 – 2:21; lap 5 – 2:19; all times are rounded up to nearest second

11:07 – Side Delt Raise Black Band x 32, total failure, failed doing 32; prob coulda failed on 33 if I was more mentally disciplined and dug deeper;

I am wearing my good Mueller elbow brace and my new ankle support, both definitely help.

11:15 – Chair dips x 65, actually more like pulses, very short range of motion; started getting fatigued, as soon as my elbows started to burn I stopped. I don’t want to slow my elbow recovery from whatever it is that ails it.

11:17 – Chair dips x 40, what the hell why not. This time had shoulders up in the shrug position

9/21/2018 Friday

This morning before getting out of bed I did a short windshield wiper stretch, about 30 sec/side. Might have helped some, hard to tell. Maybe cumulatively it will.

8:35 – Supermans x 30; first 5 were legs only, 2nd 5 were torso only, final 25 were full body

Superset w/ updog pushups x 50, 1st 40 were medium (45 degree), last 10 were wide; I think doing the supermans first helped. I am wearing my elbow brace (left elbow), right elbow started to burn, left was ok.

3 min rest

Pushups x 30, really good form, elbow ok, elbows close to body; when I stopped I wished I had gone to fail because I was so close.

10:00 – Supermans x 30, 20 legs only, 10 torso only

Superset w/ windshield wipers x 30; felt really good, legs straight. Follow up with stretching, 60 sec to left and 30 to right

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Prison Cube workout week of 9/10/2018

/ lubimur / Leave a comment

I want to make note of the fact that I am not in the shape I should be or could be. I am probably ahead of the curve, but I am weak and losing my flexibility. I am starting at ground zero like many people my age who suddenly realize their bodies aren’t keeping up with their minds; people who discover they can’t do something that has never been a challenge for them before. We mentally feel just like we did when we were 30 or 35, and now that the kids are starting to live lives more independent of the parents we find we have time to take on some activities we miss. As soon as we try though, our bodies tell us that our mind is out of touch with our physical autonomy.

9/10/2018 Monday

8:40 – Stairs – 2 stories x 3

11:40 – Neck Mobility, Waist mobility

Shoulder Circles – 2 sets x 20, front and back alternating sets

Updog / Downdog x 10

Note: my back is really stiff and sore right at the tailbone

12:10 – Rear Delt Flex against prison chair back x 30

Man I just have no gas in the tank.

12:25 – Seated Scapular Dips x 50 with feat elevated

Lunch – Bone Broth with ground sausage, purple onion, purple basil, red cabbage, and Dragon Cayenne pepper

9/11/2018

9:30 – Iso-chest squeeze x 60 seconds; elbows together low, good focus

Air squats x 20; feet hip width, toes straight forward, really focused on not letting my abductors take over but making my outer quad, adductors, and gluteus maximus do the work; after rep 10 I was butt to heels

11:20 – Iso-delt raise against chair arms x 30 seconds; good focus

12:00 – Triceps Flex x 30; held squeeze between each rep, almost got my left triceps to cramp (that is the goal)

Bicep Flex x 30; the goal is to squeeze as hard as possible

Lying Superman x 10; first time, not very good at it but it felt pretty good when I was done. Read one article that said legs shouldn’t come up too high or it will hyperextend your back which isn’t good. Need more research.

Triceps Flex x 30

12:30 Lunch – bone broth with some rice and cabbage& onion, and a little smoked ground sausage. I made this for my daughter’s lunch which is why it had rice , but she said it’s too weird to eat at school

12:45 – Iso-delt raise x 50; pushed really hard on every rep, trying to break the arms of the chair

2:05 – Stretch Hip Flexors – standing, wide stance, flex adductor of front leg during stretch, 10 bend and straighten then 30 sec hold

Hamstring Stretch – standing Toe touch, feet closer than hip width.

2:45 – Twisting Vertical Knee raises x 10 – not exactly, it was more of a twisting with knees raised (made a video)

Iso-delt raise x 25 (made a video)

9/12/2018 Wednesday

8:25 – Triceps flex x 30 sec, 2 sets; still can’t flex it to the point of feeling like it might cramp like I can my biceps. Not sure if it’s a weak mind/muscle connection or if it’s the way the triceps are designed. the On second set I grabbed the edges of my chair just behind my butt and arched my back, seemed to give me a deeper contraction.

I have been avoiding doing pushups this week because of my elbow situation (Annular Ligament?), but I am missing them. They are intense and work my muscles hard. I am starving right now, and I’m sleep deprived because of our puppy combined with it being hell week at work. So it is hard to motivate myself to do anything. At least with pushups it’s just one simple move, doesn’t require a ton of focus to make the muscles work hard.

10:30 – Air squats x 10, butt to floor

Iso-delt raise x 35 sec, gave it everything I had – really dug deep

10:35 – Superset

Reverse Lunges 2 sets x 10, continuous;

10 Air Squats all the way down, feet slightly wider than hips, knees forward (don’t flair out to the sides). This really worked my adductors too.

9/13/2018

8:45 – Windshield wipers x 30 – probably could have done 50, these were far easier than they used to be prior to starting my sports massage therapy. Bent knees, tried to focus on keeping my lower back flat; still have limited range of motion going to the left side (right hip) but far more mobility than before. At around 15 my right hip joint popped slightly and my ROM increased a bit.

Triceps Flex x 25, getting deeper flex, getting closer to the cramping feeling

Seated Scapular Dips x 50; feet on floor

9:45 – Iso-delt raises x 50, max intensity

10:45 – Stairs – Oh Yeah Baby! 36 floors (8.5 floors x 4, +2 to get back to my desk), for 10 of those floors I didn’t straighten my knees, I kept them bent to work the glutes more. Really pushed, 1st time up was 1 min 59 sec, next two were 2min 35sec & 2min 30 sec, final set was 2min 40sec.

Triceps Flex x 50, really good squeezes

I am curious to see what just flexing will do to my musculature over the next 3 weeks. I’m neglecting my biceps right now because bending them that much seems to irritate my elbow problem, so just like I’m not doing pushups I am hoping that total rest will get it rehabbed soon.

12:00 – Air Squats x 10, butt to heel, back feels looser after this morning

I forgot to not that last night when I came back to bed from taking out the puppy I sat cross legged with my pillows in my lap and laid down that way for I guess 20 minutes. I wonder if that helped loosen me up for my hip to pop this morning? I think I’ll do that stretch again tonight.

12:05 – Stiff Leg Air Deadlift (no weight) x 50, kept pretty deep arch in my back, trying to keep my back flat kind of hurt. It got difficult, lower back started weakening. For reps 30-40 I rounded my back toe-touch style and that felt the best of the three options. May just do that from now on, don’t know.

2:30 – Toe touches x 10; I found that if I start out with a straight back and then round about ½ way down it is the most pain free.

3:40 – Glute Flex with Posterior Pelvic Tilt x 20; a slight bend in the knees helps shift the focus away from the abductors and more into the glutes

9/14/2018

8:25 – Seated Scapular Dips x 50, almost to failure; hand placement was right behind hip joint ( a little further behind my body than normal) and I could really feel it in my rear delts;

Note: The plan was to not do any leg work today because I was so much more aggressive with them than usual yesterday. They feel fine though, no soreness or fatigue at all.

Went to lunch (on the company) at Norma’s Cafe: Chicken fried steak, green beans, steamed broccoli, turnip greens (which were surprisingly good).

Been arbitrarily flexing my triceps when I walk. Went down to the pond around 2:15 just to walk in hopes of trying to digest some lunch. While down there I did about 10-12 wall vaults, and about 3-4 jump ups on the wall.

Backpack Training 9/4/2018

/ lubimur / Leave a comment

3 and ½ weeks until we hit the trail. We will be going to Cross Timber Trail again, the same one we did in January. I’m a little nervous, the trip in January almost put me off of backpacking entirely. That was my first real backpacking trip and I was not prepared. We covered at least 20

miles (hard to say exactly how much distance because we lost the trail and had to find our way back).

About 3 weeks ago I started doing the stairs at work two days per week, 19 stories per trip. Last week I bumped it up to 28 stories on one of the days. Still not enough, but better than nothing. Today instead of doing stairs, I did alternating reverse lunges – 25 per side. I am also starting back on my cubicle prison workouts, but nothing like I was doing. I keep dealing with injuries. I have been dealing with some really persistent tennis elbow, and before that I had carpel tunnel syndrome. Before that I had gashed my hand open pretty good trying to break off a piece of Plexiglas for the back door (yes I scored it really well first, just not well enough). And then there is the back pain which got worse since my last updates …

9/7/2018 Friday

On Wednesday I had my back worked on by Aubrey. Before I went to my appointment I did some hamstring stretches, toe touches, a few air squats, about 90 secoinds of flat footed squating, and some pushups – regular, updog, and knee.

Yesterday I did updog (about 30 I think), knee pushups (about 30 I think), and regular pushups (about 10 I think) – all with tricep focus; chair dips ( I think a set of 50 and 30); and some isometric delt raises using the arms of my work chair for resistence. I don’t record any of these because work is so much more insane than it was when I started keeping track of my prison cube workouts and gym workouts. Injury-wise my body is finally back to where I could get into the gym again, but there is no time. Maybe I can do the last two weeks of the month some months, we’ll see.

Now for today.

8:45 – isometric delt raises x 50 (I say isometric because my arms don’t really move, but I am pulsing against the arms of my chair rather than holding constant)

9:30 – updog pushups x 50, focus on pec using wide elbows and hands

10:35-10:50 – stairs, 8.5 stories x 3, + 2 stories back to my prison cube; 90 degree squats x 10

11:25 – iso-delt x 60 seconds, dug really deep last 3-4 seconds

Knee pushups x 10 straight to pushups x 20, pec emphasis with wide hands and elbows

1 min rest

pushups x 20, fast

11:40 – lunch – 2 eggs and a little left over fajita(ish) pork

1:45 – standing posterior pelvic tilts x 30

3:35 – Iso-delt raise x 50, pushed hard

Rear delt iso-elbow squeeze against chair back (think seated row with elbows bent and arms parellel to floor)

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr