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