Month: December 2018

Cubicle Prison Workout Week of 12/17/2018

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12/17/2018 Monday

8:50 – Squats x 90; Medium wide stance, (shoulder width); good form, slow and steady; parallel or slightly beyond; not failure, but got really difficult; Breathing too heavy, it’s too hot in here, I feel a little pass out-ish, not hydrated enough; planned to do 50

10:25 – BCAAs

10:35 – Handstand Pushups x 5; total failure on last rep, didn’t make it 100% to the top; hands were shoulder width, I was about 0 inches from the wall I’d guess.

30 second Rest

– Wall Handstand x 20 seconds; very intense, had to stop, blood rushing to head, arms shaking; don’t know if I could have made it to 30 seconds;

I wonder if I was too far from the wall, and that made it easier? I was more angled than straight up and down. I did the handstands in the stairwell, and walking down two floors my legs were a bit shaky from this morning’s squats. Bravo me!

11:20 – Iso-Side Delt Raises x 30 seconds; pressing against arms of chair; pushed hard;

11:40 – Lunch – homemade turkey soup with stock and meat from thanksgiving. This is significant because the turkey was a Mary’s pastured turkey.

12/18/2018 Tuesday

I am Fit after Fifty

My upper chest/front delts are really tight from that handstand work yesterday. I slept like a rock last night for 9 hours solid. Didn’t wake up until 6:30 AM. I just did a set of 10 pushups, just to see, and they were pretty tough. I’m not sure what my plan of attack will be. Should I attempt the pushup app, should a maybe stick with updog pushups? I think I’ll try the updog and see if that warms me up enough.

8:38 – BCAAs; a coworker noticed me taking the BCAAs, that was kind of motivating. Now I feel like I need to do something to be legit taking them. I am not a poser.

8:41 – Updog Pushups x 25; had to stop because I heard boss lady get here early! They felt pretty good though, once I got limbered up. I did them fairly slow, focusing more on the stretch than the contraction. Also visualized pushing the floor away from me rather than pushing myself off the floor.

9:20 – Pushups 1×40, 1×25; did these in the stairwell for privacy, set 1 was almost failure, I had to stop because I lost my concentration and almost fell over. Took a 1 minute rest between sets and walked up the stairs 2 stories then back down. 2nd set was total and absolute failure. I barely got rep #25 out, I was stuck at the bottom, just kept pushing, go part way up, then a little more, and then with a roar hit the top of the rep. I had to get on my knees immediately or fall flat on my face. Literally.

I was almost at failure at the bottom of every rep after #21. This is probably the deepest I’ve dug this year, maybe ever while at cubicle prison. I walked back up the two stories to my floor, and at the very top step I had to sit down because I felt like I was going to black out. It took me a couple of minutes to get back to my feet. Back at my desk I checked my heart rate and it was about 165 bpm. I’m sure I wasn’t properly hydrated for that level of intensity. I wasn’t planning to push that hard.

9:30 – More BCAAs and agua.

10:30 – Neck Mobility Drills; Shoulder Mobility Drills;

11:55 – Pushups x 60; medium hands and elbows; total failure again; there is no way I could do these at my desk, I am breathing and grunting and pushing like I would in the gym. I don’t care if someone hears me in the stairwell. I can’t believe I got to 60, at 30 I was telling myself just make it to 50, at 50 I was like “just 1 more, shoot for 55”, at 55 I just went for the impossible, push until I break. It took 4 minutes to walk downs the stairs, grind out the pushups, and walk back up. This time after doing the pushups I tried to catch my breath a little before climbing the stairs.

I can’t believe how deep I have been able to dig today, I mean really pushing past my limits. Work is just sucking the last two days too. I am supposed to leave today and not come back until the January 2nd , and the warden just keeps finding all this tedious bullshit to do to keep interrupting my deadline driven work. She’s just looking for things to stress about instead of coasting into the break we all so desperately need.

12:13 – Updog Tricep Extensions x 25; elbows close to body; failure on these too! I am crushing it today!

6 mi break

– Seated Tricep Dips x 25; Full ROM, feet elevated on mini-fridge, very near failure, I could count it as a fail, but I think I lost my focus and just crashed down but could have gotten 1 or maybe 2 more;

Lunch! – Homemade Turkey Soup, Organifi,

2:45 – Single Leg Standing Calf Raise 1x 30, 1 x 20; basically super-set them, moved from one leg to other and back nonstop. Reached failure on each set, had to pause near the end a couple of time on the left leg to finish the set.

I think this is how I am going to approach calf training: pick a total number of reps I want to hit, and just start grinding toward them until I hit it no matter how many sets it takes. I think I’ll do this every day too. I seem to remember back in the day reading that calf muscles recover very quickly. I’m also going to focus less on my outer calf, not try to be so balanced. The bulk of the muscle is toward the inner leg, so if I want my kids to stop telling me I have starving prisoner legs, I need to focus on the bulky part of the muscle. This means at the top of my movement picture a ballerina going up onto her big toe.

I’m sending this one off on a Tuesday because I am leaving today and not coming back to the prison until the new year. I’m going to be focused on some important things over my release, so I may not be too diligent with my updates.

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Cubicle Prison Week Of 12/10/2018

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Goals: 6 pounds of muscle by 10/01/2019; Still not sure what I weigh, some days I weigh 154, some days I weigh 150, so I think it is more realistic to pick a target weight instead of a number of pounds to gain. So my goal weight is 158.

Last Labs:

12/10/2018 Monday

9:50 – Seated Knee Raises x 25/side

– Seated Scapular Dips x 25; just warming them up;

– Seated Scapular Dips x 50, Feet on Mini-fridge; back arched, eyes up; good pump;

This is going to be a super busy week, I’m going to have to force myself to take breaks. I’m behind on my self-appointed timeline, and we have the departmental Christmas lunch on Thursday and a team building event at Top Golf on Friday. I am going to skip the Thursday lunch and I’m sure it will piss people off. There is just too much to do, in addition to the regular work overload that is. I have to build a return for a new location, I have to contact a state about a stupid f*ing collection letter for unpaid sales tax (as if), etc, etc. I’m trying not to complain though, it only hurts me. There are always options, you either do something about it, work toward doing something about it, or suck it up and accept it.

10:30 – Neck Mobility Drills

I actually had an almost crick in my neck Yesterday morning, reminded me of why I do these 5 days a week.

– Standing Torso Twist

– Twisting Chair Torso Twists

11:30 – BCAAs

– 100 Pushups App x 30, 25, 20, 15, 32 (supposed to do 40) ; Holy 5h1t that was tough!! thank goodness for the 2 min rest! Failed on #33, my whole body was shaking out of control. Technically I failed on the eccentric phase of #32, as I was coming down I lost it at the very bottom of the movement and just fell into the floor. 122 total pushups

– Rotator Cuff Abducted Horizontal Lateral Rotation x 25/side; used tape dispenser for weight;

12:20 – Pushups x 30; narrow hands; couldn’t stand the thought of that last session beating me, so I figured I’d squeeze out a few more just for the discipline of it.

– Now for lunch: a bratwurst and some broccoli, and green tea

12/11/2018 Tuesday

This morning while reading and journaling I did butterfly stretches again, not sure for how long. Also did some standing active stretching on my hamstrings for about 30 seconds.

8:00 – Curls x 15; 15 was close to fail on my left arm; using 4 reams of paper in my bag, so I guess that’s 20 pounds. No coffee yet; it’s hot in here too, wasn’t prepared mentally for that.

8:25 – Curls x 15 left, x 16 right; total failure on 16 and 17 respectively; full ROM, lockout at bottom of mvmt;

– BCAAs (½ serving)

11:00 – Shoulder Circles for Warmup, large and small

– Pushups x 60 (61?); wide hands and elbows; failure? Maybe had one more in me, but no way two more; just curious how many wide grip I could do in a row. Not bad after yesterday, it was my shoulders that gave out first; I am freaking starving.

– BCAAs (½ serving)

– Wall Jumps 1 x 25, 1 x 21; 1 minute rest in between; freaking exhausting! Personal best, had to stop at 21 because I got a stabbing pain in my solar plexus. For both sets I was sucking wind like I might pass out. I almost quit at 15 on the both sets, then again at 20 on the first set, and only managed to push further by visualizing the crossfit games athletes. I wasn’t planning to do a second set at all. My throat is on fire from sucking in that cold wind so hard and fast. I realized that in order to do this I have to arch my back, no rounding or keeping it neutral, that’s what causes me pain.

– Cat hang x 18 seconds; definitely wasn’t making it to 20 seconds.

– Light jog from doors of building back to where I left my badge; Doh!!

Note: before the pushups I walked down two stories to do them and then had to walk back up, and same with the wall jumps. Coming up after the wall jumps really gassed me.

5 min rest

11:44 – 200 Squat App x 13, 16, 10, 10, 13; 1 min rest between; Leaning back into at the very bottom (it like sitting into a chair) while flexing abs gives me better form, also focus eyes slightly downward not straight ahead, and feet shoulder width at max, maybe even slightly less like in between hip width and shoulder width.

12:16 – Triceps Flex x 30 seconds; flexed as hard as I could mentally, not very close to cramping though.

– Biceps Flex x 10 seconds; wow, may need to try that one again. No wait, coworker just bounced, so …

– Curls x 15 left, x 16 right; full ROM, last 4 on left and last 1 on right were cheats, big cheats on left. # 15 every time I tried to let go with my right hand the weight just dragged my arm down.

12:17 – lunch! Bratwurst, bone broth

2:30 – Neck Mobility – How could I forget??

– Seated Knee Raises x 25; extra wide knees and feet;

3:30 – Anniversary Celebration – they had a meat and cheese tray that I camped out by, loaded up on some calories and protein! Had about 8 or 9 slices each of pepperoni, Canadian bacon, pastrami, and probably 10 or 11 of salami. It’s funny too because earlier after lunch I began wondering if I needed to increase my calorie count for my training.

12/12/2018 Wednesday

Weight: 154 (fully dressed, t-shirt and light sweater, so probably ½ pounds or more in clothing)

Finally remembered to get on the scale this morning! Way overslept, got up at 6:45. I guess my body and mind finally had to just shut down after pushing so hard both mentally and physically. Essentially got 8.5-9 hours of sleep.

Muscles are feeling super pumped. My shoulder joints feel a bit weak and tender, like they aren’t going to survive much more stress, so I won’t be testing those waters today. Legs are slightly sore from yesterday, but it is one of those feelings where it will probably be worse tomorrow. Chest is just tight and swollen, looks kinda good not gonna lie. Biceps feel a little weak but not sore.

8:35 – Seated Scapular Dips x 50; back arched, eyes toward ceiling, shoulder blades pulled close together, feet on floor; front delts were really burning for some reason.

8:45 – Standing Bent Over Rows x 25/side; still using the bag with 4 reams of paper; just getting the feel for it, haven’t done this move in a long time.

9:40 – Seated Hamstring Stretch x 2 minutes; both legs at once

– Seated Torso Twists x 30; just trying to move, I feel like I could fall asleep any second.

10:15 – Elbow-Hinge Pushups Tricep Extension thing x 25; not sure what this exercise is, it’s like a pushup, but I’m trying to only move at the elbow, not the shoulder joint so that the pec isn’t involved in the movement. My hands on desk, elbows locked into my sides, bend elbows to lower my body toward desk, then push my boy up arching my back using only the triceps. I’m not sure I’m doing a good job describing this.

Yesterday I was thinking about my legs being too skinny, and that I want them to be bigger. I was also thinking about that in contrast to doing the stairs so I can handle our backpacking hikes better. A couple of thoughts occurred to me: First, more muscle on my legs gives me more to work with. Cyclists and runners now incorporate strength training to improve their performance. Second, I’ve never been an endurance guy, I think genetically I just have more fast twitch than slow twitch fibers, so I may never be able to match the endurance of the other guys. But if I am stronger my pack weight will be less of an issue, and I may be able to use that to keep pace. After all, we aren’t doing purely endurance, we are doing it under loads.

So I have this dilemma, I feel like I may want to do the stairs today but I don’t want to interfere with my muscle and strength gains. But then again, I’m not lifting heavy, nor have I achieved muscular failure yet. Most of my leg workouts are high rep, so how is doing 60 squats any different from doing the stairs?

10:30 – Neck Mobility Drills; woke up in the middle of the night to drink some water and noticed my neck seem a little stiff from sleeping in the same position for an extended (longer than normal) period. I’s fine this morning, no crick in my neck, but need to stay ahead of that.

10:54 BCAAs

11:15 – Stiff leg Deadlifts x 50; arch back, come ups as fast/explosively as possible;

– 200 Squats App x 13, 16, 11, 11, 20; did odd # sets narrow feet, takes more focus to push through glutes, kind of uncomfortable in my lower back. Too much stretch maybe?;

10 min rest (actually finishing a return and printing it off)

11:40 – Superman x 20;

– Up Dog Tricep Extension 2 x 25, 2 minute rest; same as the thing above, start on the ground like the sphynx, straighten elbows to lift yourself into the up dog position without moving your shoulders or engaging your pecs; second set was brutal; experimented with hand placement, no conclusions yet; felt the burn right above the elbow (tendon?); it seems much harder with elbows closer to body then when upper arm is perpendicular to the ground, feel it more in the belly of the triceps but elbows burn worse (I think)

11:57 – Seated Tricep Dips x 40; short ROM, feet on floor; If I do the short ROM and keep the handles of the chair close, the chair doesn’t make as much noise.

12:00 – Lunch!! Bratwurst, some chicken breaded with rice flour, bone broth. I’m out of veggies, need to buy more. I know, I’ll take some Organifi. I always forget I have that in my mini-fridge.

2:35 – biceps flex x 50; just flexing, nothing intense; I know I am most likely outside of the muscle protein synthesis window.

– Biceps Flex x 30 seconds;

3:40 – Standing Bet Over Row x 50; 4 reams of paper; left side is either weaker, or my form is different.

4:05 – Seated Chair Dips 1 x 25, 1 x 12, 1 x 20; feet on floor; 1st set short ROM, 2nd and 3rd full ROM; no rest between 1st & 2nd set, 2nd was burning so bad I reached mental failure. Final set I wasn’t going to let that stop me, so I dug deep and pushed past, 20 was almost failure physically, maybe had 2 more in me.

– Another ½ serving of BCAAs

12/13/2018 Thursday

I had a rough low blood sugar incident this morning, I wonder if this new monitor I’m using gave me a bad reading or maybe the test strip was defective. I got a high reading upon waking, it kind of surprised me. I took a normal amount of insulin, wondering if I took enough, and two hours later I was crashing hard. I drank a protein shake, then some apple juice, then 2 Halloween sized Twix, then a protein bar. After about 20 minutes or so I was good enough to drive to work. I still have brain fog almost two hours later.

8:40 – Isometric Seated Row (no weight) x 40 seconds; just assumed the seated row position and pressed my elbows into the back of the chair

– Seated Dips x 25; short ROM, feet on floor; just trying to activate the muscles to transport more nutrients in

– Seated Scapular Dips x 50; shoulders rounded forward, looking down,

I am so tired and burned out, I don’t know if I can do any training today. I can’t even think of what I would want to do if I could. I’m going to make a cup of coffee and then at least do some “do anything” moves.

10:35 – Neck Mobility; Torso Mobility;

– Standing Hamstring Stretch; pretty sore and tight from yesterday;

Watched 30 seconds of a Mat Frazier documentary

– Handstand x 30 seconds, had to stop all the blood rushing to my head;

– Handstand pushup x 1½

– Updog Pushups x 50

– Pseudo-pushups x 9; total failure on 10

12/14/2018 Friday

Slept like a rock last night. My back is super grumpy this morning, I’m hoping it will loosen up with some activity.

8:10 – Bench Tuck x 15; just getting the body warmed up; I’m going for a great day today and fitness is a big part of that!

– Seated Bowing x 25; Rounded back Stretch; neither seems to be helping

8:20 – BCAAs – ½ serving; still going for it

8:25 – Supermans x 15; that was interesting, I almost failed on rep 1, I could barely move at all. Pushed through though;

– 100 Pushups App x 25, 30, 20, 15, 40; I did it! Had to dig super deep, watching the Mat Frazier documentary helped a lot, just kept focusing on him about to puke in front of a fan. On the last set I had to pause for 2 full breaths at the top of the movement from like #25 on.

– BCAAs – another ½ serving

Walked to the 7th floor of the tower to get our calendars for 2019, +2 floors to get back to my desk.

10:15 – Bicep Curls x 18 left, 23 right, 8 left; reached failure on all sets

1 minute rest

– Seated Concentration Curls x 8/side; partial reps, not fully extending (the bag handle is too long to get full extension); failure

2 minute rest

– Biceps flex x 30 seconds

The seated curls tell me that the weakness in my left arm is at the bottom portion of the movement.

10:50 – Pushups x 53; medium elbows medium hands; failed at the end, didn’t even try to do #54, just gave out at bottom. Really sucking wind too, had do pause for a breath between each rep after #25

5 minute rest

– Up-dog Tricep extension x 20; first 5 were in sphynx position, the rest were elbows against body; the burn in elbows was insane

I’m off for some free lunch at the departmental Christmas party at Top Golf. Gonna get my calories on!

I Am Building A Life of Fitness!

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Cubicle Prison Workout Week of 12/03/2018

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It looks like this blog has turned into my training journal rather than a general overall online journal. Training is just one aspect of the things I am doing to change my life and prepare for a more successful future and a better today.

12/03/2018 Monday

This morning before I got out of bed I did an up dog stretch inspired by the puppy next to me, then did some torso twists.

8:50 – Hamstring Stretch, Seated; one leg at a time x 2min left, 3min right

Man I have absolutely no desire or motivation to do any training today. I got up at 5:15 and I did not want to, I had to fore myself to turn on the light and not go back to sleep. I am swamped and I just spent an hour in a meeting. I’ll put on the motivational video and just force myself to do something, all the motivational stuff I’m listening too talks about ignoring excuses and how you feel and do it anyway. You never regret it, so here goes …

11:15 – BCAAs; something about taking supplements helps motivate me, I guess it makes me feel more like an athlete. I can do this!

11:20 – 100 Pushups App x 13, 13, 15, 15, 12, 12, 10, 30; hand and elbows narrow; breathing like a raging bull on last set and I don’t freaking care. My right rear shoulder/rotator cuff area feeling tender like I pulled it or something after first set; took the full 2 mi rest, wasn’t sure my shoulder would let me do the final set, but I was very careful and used perfect controlled form; 120 total pushups

– Seated knee ups 5×25/side; did this during pushup rest period;

o movement notes: don’t let leg drift inward, keep it in line with hi joint like you would when you walk. If I move my foot outward while keeping my knee directly in front of hip joint it will work more of the outer flexor(near the problem area)

My back seems to be doing ok so far today. I’ve been playing around with “bowing” (think Japanese greeting), I round my back and bend forward up to the point of feeling the stiffness and discomfort.

1:00 – Bowing x 10 rep warmup, hold for 30 seconds while heating up lunch

– Pseudo-Pushups? (superhuman) x 10; hands even with bottom ribs x 5, hands in line with belly button x 5; no rest; reached failure. These are tough. Make sure to brace feet against wall or something until able to progress further. Shoulder didn’t bother me during the movement, but it really unhappy with me right now.

2:30 – Pec Stretch x 60 seconds; Hurdler stretch x 90 seconds right the left then 30 seconds on right.

3:40 – Glute stretch x 2 min/ side

My back is no longer doing ok. In fact has been getting steadily worse for about an hour and a half and is currently petty bad. It’s taking me back to my pre-therapy days. It is in my hip joint, my IT band, QL, and gluteus medius. It is crazy how bad it hurts, and so suddenly too. I have been sitting today more than I would like.

12/04/2018 Tuesday

My back felt good when I woke up this morning. I know I did sleep on my back for a while which sometimes messes with it, but I didn’t wake up on my back but on my side as usual. I slept on my left side more than my right. I didn’t really stretch my back when I woke up before getting out of bed, nor did I do the up dog I did yesterday. I did however do the Butterfly Stretch for at least three minutes, careful to not over stretch my lower back, and focusing more on a light stretch in my mid and upper back. Don’t know if that’s it, or if it helped in addition to the “bowing” and flexor stretching and training I did yesterday. When I woke up I spent just over an hour praying, meditating, and then reading, but no writing so I was reclined pretty much the whole time so maybe that just allowed my back to wake up and get the juices flowing before putting any stress on it (standing stresses my back, sad … ).

I was thinking about it on my drive in to work, and I’m thinking that my rotator cuff/shoulder pain issue may have stemmed from the move of the day rather than the pushups.

8:40 – Knee Ups x 50/side; good burn; kept knees just barely wider than hip width apart to focus the stress more on the lateral (outer) flexors

9:25 – Calf Stretch x 2 minutes; I’m serious about getting my flexibility back. My inflexibility has really been holding me back and I didn’t even realize it.

10:05 – BCAAs

Just read an article on the “29029” – Endurance Hiking – that is definitely motivating me.

10:50 – Stairs 5 x 8.5 floors, +2; 28 minutes overall; roughly 2 min 51 seconds on set #1,2,&5; 2 min 2 min 27 sec on 3&4; didn’t go for time, just getting back into the swing of things. But still, did 5 sets my first time back in a while! I skipped a step on set #3 & 4. My right knee wants to sway inward (medially) when skipping a step. Not sure what that is all about.

Wanted to start at 10:10, but blood sugar started dropping so had to postpone. Then the warden came to my desk wanting a progress report on a business license, when I gave it to her she got snarky because the sight opens in 10 days and I didn’t work on it while dealing with all the other BS the shitstorm brought into our life. I told her I needed a piece of info that I don’t have, and apparently we are going to have to go find it.

12/05/2018 Wednesday

My calves are crazy tight, loads of lactic acid build up. Didn’t get to sleep until after 10:00 last night, so I waaay overslept, got about somewhere between 6:05-6:10. Time to stretch the calves.

8:00 – Calf Stretch x 2 min;

I think I am going to put a couple of reams of paper in a cloth bag I’m keeping at work to use for biceps curls, or whatever else I might need a single dumbbell for. I don’t want to bring a dumbbell up here or bring my bands back because I don’t know when/if the bottom is going to fall out on my employment. That’s why the bag is up here, I think I can fit pretty much everything that I still have here that is personal in this bag.

8:45 – Stairs x 2, just a quick “get up and move” thing. Got to keep moving.

– Biceps Curl x 15; 2 reams of paper, 1 second pause at top. It turns out that a ream of paper weighs 5 lbs, and I have a little extra in the bag, so I am probably curling 12 pounds. Look out Dwayne Johnson, here I come!!

“They are sending me all of this stuff, but I just don’t have time for it so I’m sending it to you. I know you are trying to meet a deadline and don’t have time for it either, you’ll just have to make the time.” Awesome! And not sending it to the team, just me.

10:40 – Neck Mobility Drills, Seated Torso Twists, Seated Elbows to Knees alternating (basically just a torso twist with a “twist” HA!); I haven’t done my neck mobility in a few days and I can already feel it stiffening up on me. When this happens it is important not to do too great of a range of motion. This is more about just moving and keeping things mobile than increasing flexibility.

– Biceps Curls x 0, time to deal with another crisis…

Let’s try this again

11:50 – Biceps curls x 30, close to failure, x 19, failure; added 4 cans of coke to the bag; on second set could only do partial reps with left arm, it’s harder because my finger still hasn’t healed completely.

I don’t think I mentioned that I took the splint off on Sunday to start getting movement back. The swelling has gone down about 90% since taking it off. It still feels a little jacked up if I’m not careful of it.

12:00 – 200 Squats App x 9, 12, 9, 9, 12; took full min rest; did second set feet narrow, the rest were shoulder width;

– Biceps Curls x 18, fail on 19, x 17, fail on 18; left arm failed sooner but still did partials

12/06/2018 Thursday

My calves are fried! Man are they stiff and sore from Tuesday. I’m about to stretch them to start the day off right. My right bicep, in the pit of my elbow, is really lactic acidy too. It is really tender when I try to straighten it out after it’s been in a bent position. Managed to wake up at 4:50 this morning. I took a new way to work today, didn’t save any time but at least it didn’t take any longer either. Heard something interesting today when listening to a morning motivation video: “all of your self-talk is affirmations”. True or not, it does bring to light the importance of paying attention to what’s going on in my head, because these thoughts can certainly turn into beliefs. With all that being said, Let the games begin!!

7:55 – Stretch Calves x 2 min 30 sec; I must start stretching my Achilles tendon specifically. I was having trouble getting a good stretch on my lower calves and I’m sure Achilles stiffness is the reason. This is most likely the weak link in my flat foot squats too.

– Seated Knee Raises x 30/side; focus on only using the flexors, not the abs or ql.

9:10 – Stretch Back of Knees x 2 min; standing with toes elevated so as to not stretch lower back too much

It is cloudy and dreary outside, and I am tired from the week, both the mental fatigue from the rind and the physical from pushing my body harder this week. So I have zero motivation to do anything. My brain is adamant that I could use a recovery day, and I have so much work to do too. I’m trying to argue against it but my heart isn’t in it. I’m going to psych myself up and at least do the Squat App.

10:45 – Neck Mobility Drills

– GMB Move of the Day: Bridge; I only did the first variation which is not using my hands because I’m not risking injury to my shoulder. I’m giving it the week off after the Monday issue.

11:25 – 200 Squats App x 10, 14, 10, 10, 14; feet shoulder width (almost);

According to an article on Bodybuilding.com the proper foot placement is shoulder width, feet angled out about 45°, Focus on keeping the Heel, inner ball and out ball of the foot all glued to the floor. Do Not let the knees bow inward, outward isn’t as bad but try to avoid it. Another article said it’s ok for knees to extend beyond toes because all bodies are different, and also to not look up or even straight ahead, bend the hips first, and stand at attention between reps. Another thing I just uncovered – and may relate to why I’m having the issues I am with my problem area – is that my hip rotators (not the abductors like the gluteus medius) are weak. A recommended exercise is to lie on your back, place a resistance band around your lower leg or ankle, bend your knee and hip at 90°, and move (pull) the foot medially without moving the knee. Then switch the band around and do it laterally.

12:20 – Curtsey Squats x 10; my right hip does not like these anymore. I can tell that these are going to help when backpacking though. I feel the pump right where my hips start burning/giving up when we are on the trail.

12/07/2018 Friday

7:35 – GMB Move of the Day: Peacock Squat – looks a lot like the curtsey squat to me, although the torso seems to twist rather than trying to keep it facing forward. The third variation keeps the rear foot floating off the ground, can’t really do it on the right leg, not sure if it’s balance, flexibility or strength I am struggling with. I’ll need to do more to figure it out.

While putting on my socks today I could really feel some tightness/soreness from the curtsey squats I did yesterday. Both biceps have some lactic acid build up as well. I can feel those micro-tears. I’m torn about what I will do today for training. I’m wearing jeans so that makes squats kind of tough, my biceps are sore even when not flexing them – I could still work them again to see how that plays out, might make for a rough weekend though; that leaves stairs, or possibly pushups. I was planning to give my shoulder the entire week off, but it hasn’t been bothering me at all. I have babied it all week. I think I’ll do some rotator cuff stretches and recovery movements to see how it feels, and if it feels ok maybe I’ll try out a few pushups to test the water.

8:30 – Shoulder Circles (mobility warmups); stretching Rotator Cuffs x 40 seconds per stretch; It is very apparent that I need to work on my flexibility here as much as, or possibly even more than, the rest of my body. They are less flexible than my hamstrings I think, if that is possible.

– Rotator cuff exercise x 25; left side has greater range of motion.

– Pushups x 15; narrow hands an elbows; no pain during movement, I’ll wait and see if any soreness develops. I definitely felt week doing the movement, probably from those pseudo-pushups I did the other day

10:30 – Neck Mobility

10:45 – Pseudo-Pushups x 26; hands close, at bottom of rib cage, thought about going to 30, but wasn’t too sure about my shoulder, 30 would have been failure I’m sure. I can really feel this is my front delts. I’m going to try a couple even lower.

– Could only do 1 with hands at belly button, big fat 0 if I try lower. Just tried a second time and nada. Tried to just balance and move my feet up the wall but couldn’t do it. Don’t know if it is my form, technique or strength holding me back. I opted not to do the Pushup App because I thought doing a lot of reps might put more wear and tear on the joint even if it was under less strain. The next round of the App looks like it will be beyond my abilities currently.

11:10 – time to sneak in some knee ups x 50/side; very focused, not allowing other muscles to flex, trying to relax every other muscle group especially torso muscles.

The warden is in a mood today. It is crunch time and my coworker has stayed home with her sick kid. I get it, I would too. Family first. However she has already missed A LOT of time this year being out sick or home with a sick kid, and she has had a very poor attitude about the amount of work we have had dumped on us. The warden thinks she’s making up a lot of these illnesses, an she is pissed. The thing is, since my coworker isn’t here, that means we are all slackers; nobody is working hard enough. I kind of understand where the warden is coming from though, because she files the returns after my coworker prepares them, and my coworker has been getting it all to the warden right at the deadline, which means she is basically screwing the warden over because now she has to do everything all at once instead of having it trickle in to handle as it comes at a more realistic pace.

11:25 – The warden just went downstairs for lunch

– Piston Squats x 10; these were partials, didn’t even make it 90°; figured out that I need to hinge at the hip more.

– Windshield Wipers x 20; really good form; did a few with my butt against a file cabinet so my legs couldn’t wander; figure out how to breathe properly too – inhale at top of movement then exhale while lowering and raising back to top, inhale and repeat to other side.

Oooh, just in time, the boss is back.

11:50 – Pseudo-Pushups x 8; hands at belly button! Very close to failure, maybe had one more in me but I almost fell forward onto my face. I went into the stairwell to do them while heating up my lunch. It’s a good thing I did too, I had to grunt and force my breath to get them out.

12:35 – Iso-Pec Squeeze x 30 seconds; really good, focused and intense. I was surprised, got as close to cramping as I’ve ever been able to.

Man My biceps are fried! They are getting more tender as the day goes on.

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Week after Thanksgiving 2018

/ lubimur / Leave a comment

Had a pretty great Thanksgiving break, as well as a great Thanksgiving Day. I smoked the turkey and it was the best one I’ve done so far. I also decided to bring back my broccoli casserole but without using the frankensoup. Decided I wanted to have mom come to my house instead of us going over there, and it was so much better. My floorplan is just more open, so you can be in the kitchen cooking and still not be isolated from the rest of the family. It’s also easier to just spread out, everything is less crowded. Plus, mom can stay as long as she feels like, and I don’t have the guilty feeling I get when we all pack up and leave her house.

Didn’t work out at all over the holiday, but I did a lot of stuff around the house. I got the old (extremely raggedy and embarrassing) wooden patio cover torn off and replaced it with clear plastic panels that allow in plenty of light now. Rearranged furniture in two rooms, set up a new are for my house plants – I’m debating whether or not to just get rid of them. They don’t do much for the décor, and they are one more thing that requires maintenance – something not conducive to my goal of simplifying and streamlining my life so I have more time for the things that are truly important. That is after all what I mean by Man vs Suburb, taking back the truly important and fighting against the constant busyness that is robbing us of our quality of life – resisting the shackles our society is constantly trying to enslave us with.

11/26/2018 Monday

Woke up at 5:15 and was struggling with some anxiety. I think it may have to do with the whole job situation: wondering if this will be the week, feeling unconfident about my ability to bounce back, worrying about what I will do, not feeling ready to face it, etc, etc,

8:00 – Calf stretch x 1 minute, then bend forward with knees locked to stretch back of knees for 1 minute.

9:35 – Seated Scapula Dips x 19; chair move and messed up my flow

My back is starting to hurt. Sitting in this f*ing chair is destroying my body. My back was stiff and sore over the weekend too, but it was a different kind of soreness. This is actual pain, like injury pain. Time for some supermans.

9:55 – Seated Back Extensions x 20; didn’t seem to help like the superman does, but the boss keeps walking to my coworker’s cube so I am unable to prostrate myself on the floor and do the superman.

Pushup position Bird Dog x 10, not alternating. This seemed to work better than the extensions

Stairs 2 x 2 floors; skip every other stair. This is what I will do to train for the next back pack trip, I think.

I am really struggling with motivation. I wonder if I am letting the precariousness of my situation affect my resolve, not wanting to be seen as a slacker because I am taking a moment to take care of myself rather than grinding away. I am having a hard time getting into my usual mindset of not caring what other people think. I think I just need to remind myself that whatever is going to happen is going to happen regardless of whether I’m training or not. It’s not like by not working out I am changing anything.

10:25 – Neck Mobility Drills; Seated Torso Twists; Shoulder mobility Drills, including Rotator Cuff;

I a painfully aware of how goofy I look doing these. Nobody else even considers the benefit of being constantly mobile. They seem to think they are just fine, oblivious to the fact that stints and hip replacements are not supposed to be the norm.

10:54 – Was planning to follow up my mobility drills with the pushup app, but our VP is in my bosses office with the door closed, and I don’t want to be panting and sweating should they need to see me.

11:45 – Pushups x 30; wide hands and elbows. Still tired, no motivation. As soon as I finished, my boss and coworker made it back from the cafeteria. Goof thing I did a rush job.

1:50 – Stairs 2 x 2, every other step;

Pushup App x 16, 20, 13, and that’s it. The boss just dropped another project on me. It would be nice to be able to finish just one before I have to stop and give a new one my immediate attention. You watch, tomorrow she’ll want to know why I’m not done with the nightmare freaking project I started last week.

OK, maybe I overreacted a bit, that only took me about 45 minutes. It’s 2:43 so I’ll go ahead and finish out the remaining two sets of 13, 18 with 90 second rests

11/27/2018 Tuesday

I am feeling better today mentally. I took a restoril last night and was asleep by 8:30 – 8:45, and slept until 5:45 this morning. It’s a tough thing trying to figure out how to get enough sleep getting up so early, when just going to bed earlier leaves things undone and necessary relationships neglected. Work in progress I suppose.

7:25 – Shoulder Mobility Drills, get coffee, triceps flex x 10 warmup

Pushup App x 17, 20, 15, 15, 19; that last one was tough, I was definitely approaching failure. May need to start utilizing the 2 min rest between sets instead of 90 seconds, it’s getting hard. If not that, then I may need to switch hand and elbow positions from narrow to medium or wide. Wide is definitely easier. DANG, forgot my BCAAs again! Guess I’ll take them not, can’t hurt. Just took a look at the next App workout, the sets will = 100 reps. It looks tough.

8:05 – Mobility Drill – GMB Moe of the Day: Bear Walk; forward, back, and twisting. Not very far or for very long, the purpose was just too explore body movement, and try to get my mindset back to being a kid just having fun.

I know this is jacked up, but I just spent the last hour going through my photos of Eagle Rock Loop so I could upload them to the cloud. I don’t actually feel too bad about it considering I get here at 7 and don’t leave until 4:30. That is part of the reason I am getting up early after all, so I can handle my business. I need to do this because I have had an SD card die on me earlier this year, and I may have lost l some father/daughter day photos. I have these pics on my work laptop but need to get them someplace else in case the inevitable happens sooner rather than later. You know the corporate think that it is best to fire someone on a Friday.

9:35 – Stiff Leg Deadlifts x 50; great form; focus is really thrusting my hips forward explosively, I think this engages the glutes more maximally. It’s harder to use just the hamstrings when going for speed coming up. I’ve noticed that I really need to keep a pretty deep arch in my back if I don’t want my lower back to hurt when doing the movement. I have a back appointment today, so I’ll ask Jesus about it.

Torso twist x 10/side; just to loosen things up a bit after the deadlifts.

Flat Foot Squatting x 2 min; kept changing my foot position, couldn’t get comfortable.

Stair Jumps x 10; went to the stairwell and jumped up onto the highest stair I could, which was only the third one up. I could jump over two. Back was not feeling it at all, but by number 6 I was able to land somewhat decently.

Just got a text from the guys, they want to plan another backpacking trip for last weekend in January, this time in Oklahoma. WTH, right? First backpack trip at 52 year old. Bring it On!!

My back is pretty worn out from my session, so I am probably done with training for the day.

11/28/2018 Wednesday

8:00 – GMB Movement of the day: Jumping with focus on soft landing. Did a few of each variation jump straight u[, turn in midair trying to land on the same line I started from, and long jumping), then had to refocus remembering
that I was supposed to be concentrating on how my body felt doing the motions, not how well or how many times I could do them. So I did a few more of each variation being more mindful. Stopped because of that stupid rapid heartbeat thing, I am positive it’s
from dehydration. My blood sugar spike to 370 mg/dl in the middle of the night, took a huge shot of insulin, and it was 342 mg/dl when I woke up this morning. So I took another huge shot of insulin. I wasn’t’ sure if my blood sugar was getting low or if
it was dehydration. Blood sugar is 105 mg/dl right now. Time to drink me some water!

I am sleepy as hell. I took another Restoril last night and slept 8.5 hours. Maybe it is having lasting effects, I’m not going to take one tonight. I took it last night because I wanted to go to bed early, but My daughter and her boyfriend
had rented “Crazy Rich Asians” and started watching while I was finishing my dinner, and I got sucked in. Didn’t wake up until 6:00 this morning.

8:30 – 200 Squats App x 6, 8, 5, 5, 8, 1 min rest between all sets except between the 5 rep sets, just 30 seconds. Total # 32 reps. Feet barely hip width apart, knees straight forward, butt to heels. Really feel it in
my quads, hard to emphasize glutes with feet so close together, but it was the least hard on my lower back pain. It took about 10 minutes.

8:40 – 200 Squats App x 6, 8, 5, 5, 10, 1 min rest; feet shoulder width, thighs just below parallel. 34 total reps.

11:40 – Seated Scap Dips x 75; so close to failure, couldn’t complete full ROM; hands in line with hip joint;

<![if !supportLists]>- Seated Knee Raises x 25/ side; slow and controlled to ensure only flexors were working;

– 200 Squats App x 10, 10, 7, 7, 11; shoulder width; I can really feel it in the crease of my leg the wider I get. Not sure what that’s about. Knees kind of want to flair out to the sides too. However if I point my toes way out to the sides, it isn’t as bad. I did notice that the harder I flex my abs during the movement the easier it is to engage my glutes.

– Triceps Flex x 25; good deep flex

I just took a walk outside, it is beautiful. It’s 68 degrees, the sun is shining, the wind is blowing. Part of the frustration I feel is that there are so many things I want to give my attention to, so many things that are necessary for good mental, physical, and spiritual health, but if I attend to those needs then I fall farther and farther behind in my work. So instead I spend days taking little 5-7 minute breaks throughout the day to do some exercise at my desk and then get right back to it for 9 hours a day, feeling guilty for doing it all the while. I actually got myself to do it today by reminding myself that I may not even be working here in 3 days, that’s what working myself like a rented mule has gotten me. The take away is this, take the time for the breaks. If there is no time to do this because it means either neglecting your family or missing your deadline if you do take the time, then seriously, find something else. That’s the situation I’ve found myself in, and it’s the reason I began getting my resume together and preparing to job hunt even before the shitstorm hit. For now the solution is to get up and come in earlier to meet my deadline. The kids are still asleep when I leave anyway so I’m not really neglecting them.

2:10 – Supermans x 15 while still outside. I did a little meditating while out there and my back started really aching, but the supermans made it feel so much better. On a side note, My hamstrings are kind of sore from yesterday.

I had either an “aha” moment or a “duh” moment, probably some weird form of both together at once, but it was that the prison cube workout isn’t realistic for hitting my overall goal of 6 pounds of muscle by next fall. It can help, and it can certainly help keep my body fat from increasing as I do gain muscle, but I don’t have the luxury of pushing hard enough to do it without weights. I’m not saying it is impossible to accomplish, I’m saying my situation won’t allow for it. I would have to go to muscular failure every time I do an exercise, and doing that requires some serious heavy breathing and sweating.

11/29/2018 Thursday

8:35 – GMB Movement of the day: The Monkey, 3 variations. I was tough enough that the first couple of times I did the movement I didn’t focus on breathing or how my body felt or anything. I definitely wasn’t having fun with it, I was trying to do it properly when I should have just been doing it the way that felt the most natural so I could evaluate my motions.

11:45 – Neck Mobility Drills, Shoulder Mobility Drills

– 100 Pushups App x 10, 10, 13, 13, 9, 10, 35; didn’t reach failure, but was breathing too loud. took full 2 minutes between sets. 110 total pushups!

The boss went to lunch with a friend so that gave me the opportunity I needed. She’s in a weird mood today. Was yesterday too for that matter, kind of standoff-ish. She asked me to call a state to verify a sales tax question. When I finally got someone on the line, I asked them and got an answer. When I told her what they said, she told me that is wrong. That our last auditor from said state said something different. Then she acted annoyed with me like I didn’t make the call and said “I guess we still don’t have an answer then.” WTF? I asked someone from the state, got an answer, and you’re acting like I’m not doing my job? Why am I even calling them if you already know the answer anyway??

12:20 – Pushups x 41; reached failure! All of the reps today have been close hands and elbows.

11/30/2018 Friday

I feel like I want to do pushups again today. I felt nice and swole last night, But no soreness or tenderness today (so far). I think I am going to hold off on the GMB 12 Days of Movement move of the day until after the warden gets here, that way I can get more returns done before she gets in and it looks like I’ve been grinding longer. Part of the game dontcha know, managing perceptions. It matters more than actual accomplishments. It’s absurd. On the upside I’m not getting fired today, and probably will make it to the end of the year, based on the way things are moving right now.

Just checked my blood sugar and it’s at 71, I think I will just do a quick round of pushups so I can create a need for the protein I am about to take. Scratch that, warden just called to have me empty out a cube for the auditor, and she is almost here.

9:00 – BCAAs; I remembered!

9:20 – Up Dog Pushups x 75; first 15 hands and elbows close, elbows really not liking that, last 60 hands and elbows wide; good burn but not close to failure, I’m just freaking roasting. Damn that felt good.

The boss treated us to lunch on the company dime. All part of the moral boosting team building thing. She tries to take us once per month. I guess I should note that the warden isn’t the problem per se, she is as over stressed and over worked as we are, but that’s the problem. There is just too much, unrealistic expectations and all that. As a person she’s great. Prior to this year I would occasionally go on interviews just to see if anyone was going to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse, but I always let them know up front that I wasn’t in a bad situation, I was just keeping my options open. It’s this year that things have gotten so bad, and steadily worse.

2:25 – GMB 12 Days of Movement Move of the Day: Cartwheel; discovered my flexibility has gotten pretty bad. I can do a mediocre cartwheel if I just go for it and don’t really try to be in control with my movement, but if I do try, it is pathetic. This brings to light something I have always believed since my early twenties, even when I was into lifting weights twice/day, it’s that flexibility is the most important aspect of fitness in regard to aging. My how I’ve lost my way. Guess what new goal just got added to my priority list.

On a side note, those up dog pushups really helped my back today.

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr