Month: January 2019

Prison Cubicle Workout Week of 1/14/2019

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I’m not going to be as consistent recording my activity level this week, it is truly the week from hell.

01/14/2019

10:30 – Neck Mobility Drills

10:47 – BCAAs + Protein Powder + NOS + ACV

10:55 – Handstand Press x 6, x 2; 90 second rest; total failure on both, couldn’t lock out on rep 6, made it up past ½ way though, and kept trying to push higher for about 4 seconds; touched head to floor on rep 2 of 2nd set and couldn’t budge an inch; had to stop for blood sugar, 61 mg/dl.

11:05 – Lunch: Brussel Sprouts, onions and sausage;

01/15/2019 Tuesday Payday!

Payday! Been here since 6:55, worked 7:25 – 5:45 yesterday, no lunch. F this, I’m taking some pump time!

8:25 – BCAAs + NOS Preworkout + ACV + protein powder

8:35 – 100 Pushups App x 14, 14, 15, 15, 14, 14, 10, 10, 50; failure, was only supposed to do 44, and wasn’t sure I’d be able to. Before I started it I thought to myself “I can do as many as I can and then pause to finish out the reps.” No need. I almost couldn’t lock out on #50, and did not go back down after that either.

01/16/2019 Wednesday

10:20 – BCAAs + Protein Powder + NOS + ACV

10:30 – Yoga Pushups x 150!; failure, really focused on keeping glutes and lower back relaxed so they didn’t assist, except the

– Sphynx Tricep Extension x 10; close to fail, maybe 12 or maybe maybe 15, not likely though. Elbows in line with mid-ribs; no rest after pushups

Warden keeps coming by my desk, something’s changed in her attitude, not good. Very uptight, she came by while I was typing the above; going to have to keep typing to a minimum.

12:30 – BCAAs + NOS;

12:40 – Sphynx Tricep Extensions x 25; had to stop several times but total reps was my goal, try not to flex lower back or glutes

– Stiff Leg Dead Lifts – 92; not full ROM, torso to parallel, arch in back, not returning to fully upright

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

pRISON cUBICLE Workout Week of 01/07/2019

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01/07/2019 Monday

Goals for today: Squats, Scapula, triceps

10:35 – Seated Scapular Dips x 50; just warming up.

11:00 BCAAs

11:30 – Squats x 86 (I think); walked down 2 floors, then back up and back down, then squats; started out at parallel, then went below after around 25 reps; started to approach failure, there’s a chance I could have made it 100 (15 more reps), maybe.

– Sphynx Stretch for 30 seconds

– Sphynx Triceps Extensions x 35; couldn’t take the burn in my elbows; walk back up 2 floors

These were all done with no rest.

12:05 – Toe Touch 2 x 25; 30 second rest; feet shoulder width (or more), round back, pause at bottom rather than top, explode up quickly;

Lunch: Brussel sprouts with onions, sausage, and turkey stock

4:05 – Seated Scapular Dips x 100; feet on floor;

– BCAAs – ½ serving, wait 5 minutes

– Squats x 50; same as before, this time skipped a step coming up both times. Wanted to do triceps too but blood sugar is dropping.

Going to eat the rest of my luch.

01/08/2019 Tuesday

Goals for Today: Squat App, Back

8:40 – Torso Twists

– 200 Squats App x 16, 19, 15, 13, 22; Narrow feet (hip width, maybe a tiny bit less); But well below parallel, close to heels on most reps.

I changed the daily goal from shoulders to back since I will be working from home this afternoon because I can’t do back at work.

10:30 – Neck Mobility Drills

01/09/2018 Wednesday

Goals for Today: Stairs, Shoulders

I may do something else other than stairs. I need to do them badly because I haven’t been training on the stairs and I am backpacking Little Bugaboo in Oklahoma on the 25th. But I say am so completely drowning in work, that I hate to take the 25 minutes it takes to do the stairs. I’d rather do a bunch of 2 minute moves throughout the day. IDK, I’ll play it by ear.

I am also torn with whether to do shoulders or pushups today. I haven’t done pushups at all this week, and shoulders get worked when I do pushups and back, which I did yesterday. I almost completed the Day 1 for the Pull up App. I did 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, but the last one is supposed to be 3. I am still curling my knees up when doing them though, and I can’t do most of the pullups without doing that, which means I’m using other muscles to cheat myself up. I don’t think I’ll move on to day two until I can do it without “cheating”.

My coworker is coughing her lungs out, an she has a fever. Her husband is home with a fever from an inner ear infection, and her 7 year old has influenza A. oh the joy. I’ve already had 3000 mg of Vit C + noni extract, and it’s not even 10 AM.

9:50 – Neck Mobility

– BCAAs + NOS Blast Preworkout + ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar)

10:05 – Handstand Press x 5, 3, 2, 90 second rest between sets; absolute failure on each one. On first set I didn’t think I could even descend after rep 5, came down a little fast, but I got that extra eccentric contraction in!

10:45 – Pushups x 43; almost failure; Narrow hands, shoulda done wide, my triceps and shoulders just started shutting down.

3:35 – Pushups x 61; Wide hands and elbows; total failure. Wasn’t sure I would get rep 60, but managed to squeeze it out and then somehow got 1 more. I was going for more than that, but everything just quit coming down from #61.

– Wall Handstand x 24 seconds; maybe failure, I got the sensation I was about to collapse onto my head, like my muscles would give me no warning. I did push away from the wall near the end and free handstand for about 2 or 3 seconds.

1/10/2019 Thursday

Greatness isn’t for the chosen few. It’s for the few who choose

Goals: Squats, Hamstrings

9:05 – Seated Knee Raises x 50/side; knees wide to focus more on inner flexors; good burn

– BCAAs + ACV

10/05 – Wall Handstand x 45; actually held handstand for 4 seconds before falling, kicked back up to wall immediately

– Squats x 100!!!; normal stance, but to heel (at least as close as my flexibility will allow)

1/11/2019 Friday

7:45 – BCAAs

– 200 Squats App x 19,22, 16, 16, 24; narrow feet, butt to heels; oh man that was tougher than I thought it would be! Legs are quaking, sucking wind.

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Revisiting My Why

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01/04/2019 Friday

Once sanity returned I reminded myself that the whole Prison Cube Workout was never intended to make me a fitness model or a crossfit athlete. It was to prevent the inevitable that occurs with the overly sedentary cube life. This was more about how you can stay (more) healthy and mobile, reduce the risk of heart attacks, and get people thinking more about holding companies that promote “a culture of health” accountable. I.E. the more people doing it, the greater the voice in favor of it, and therefore the greater the movement (HA! No pun intended), and the less power the slave drivers have to keep them from leaving their chair or working out for lunch for fear of being fired. We are always made to feel as if we aren’t working hard enough, no matter how hard you actually do work.

I had to remind myself that my movement rebellion began to seriously take shape once I started reading about things like “Sitting is the new Smoking”, and “Standing is the New Sitting”, reading how research is showing just 2 minutes of exercise every 30 minutes can stave off and even reverse so many issue of sedentariness. So that was my initial purpose, just to give myself hope and perhaps even attract others to the cause. Let the corporate overlords know that we may be shackled to our cubes, sacrificing our hobbies and home life – but we aren’t going down without a fight. We don’t have to sacrifice our health any longer, we can fight off the ravages of sedentariness even if we are chained to our monitors. Then as the movement grows, people may demand options to address the other areas of life that are being place on the corporate alter for sacrifice.

I don’t suppose any of this really addresses why I am so compelled to get in really good shape. I thought about it more over the weekend, and while I was afraid my true underlying purpose was pure vanity (just so I could have a great body because I want to look hot), it turns out that’s not the case. I thought it through, and I am just as motivated – more so even – by watching videos of people working out hard as I am people with great aesthetics. I realized that I am not willing to sacrifice performance or function for aesthetics, but at the same time I don’t want to sacrifice aesthetics for performance. I want a balance of the two. I realize that means I will never achieve an elite level of other, but who cares? I have no delusions of being a pro in either arena.

1/10/2019 Thursday

I believe I have come up with at least one of the answers to “why?”. It is because I want success being the norm, I want to rise above the mundane, I want to see just how much I can achieve, and this is something I have almost complete control over. I don’t hae to depend on anyone else to achieve it, and I am not at the mercy of others – with the exception of my current situation and the demands placed on my time.

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Cubicle Prison Training week of 1/2/2019

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I did do some workouts over the break, some of them pretty freaking intense. I did a personal best breakthrough on the handstand pushups: 1 x 5, 1 x 3, 1 x 2. All were to failure. I was about 20 inches from the wall, and discovered I need to have my hands slightly further than shoulder width apart.

1/2/2019 Wednesday

1:00 – BCAAs (1/2 serving)

1:05 – 200 Squat App x 15, 18, 26, 18, 1 min rest; standard width, below parallel; walked down two floors, did squats, then back up.

01/03/2019 Thursday

10:00 – calf stretches, twisting torso stretches

10:35 – Neck Mobility Drills

– BCAAs

11:00 – Shoulder Mobility Drills, Shoulder stretch

– Handstand Pushups 1 x 4, 1 x 3, 1 x 2, 1 x 1; I set a goal of 10 total; 1st set failed coming up on 5, so technically hit 4.5, 60 sec rest; 2nd set failed at bottom of 3rd rep, 90 sec rest; 3rd set failed coming up on #3, 30 sec rest; barely got 1 out, made it up but couldn’t come back down.

o All sets hair touched floor, hands about 18 inches from wall, struggled on all failed reps, held for at least 3 seconds before admitting failure.

11:44 – Pushups, wide grip x 55; I was very close to failure, having to dig deeep and really want it and then I lost my focus, sort of like running before I caught the ball. I started thinking about the reps in front of me.

5 min rest

Sphynx Stretch x 30 sec, Updog Stretch x 30 sec, UpDog triceps extension x 28; failed on 29, couldn’t budge an inch; elbows slightly lower than nipples

11:55 – Lunch – polish sausage and Brussel sprouts

4:20 – Chair Dips x 50; short ROM, feet on floor.

1/4/2019 Friday

Working my ass off today, hell weeks are in full swing, all the data is available, plus the additional work of Quarter end and Year end, Plus the project of building returns for the subsidiary I’ll be filing for now.

I am really physically fatigued. Just tried to do a few chair dips just to get the juices flowing, and it was pretty much a no go. I’m going to have to BCAA and pre-workout up just to do some basic mobility movements. Yikes! I haven’t gotten up before 6:30 since starting back to work either, and I could take a nap right now. The warden brought in some chik-fil-a breakfast this morning, and that isn’t helping either.

Creatine, Glutamine, Beta Alanine, & aminos is Mat Frazier’s pre-workout shake. Post workout – milk, spinach, whey protein. He is fairly sensitive to stimulants (like me).

12:40 – Neck Mobility; Shoulder Mobility

– BCAAs + Body Fortress NOS Blast; note: I use a tiny amount of the NOS, like 1/10 of a scoop;

12:50 – Yoga Pushups x 150!!; Oh 5h1t, that was nuts, 1st time ever I’ve hit that number! That wasn’t failure either. Form was great, but wasn’t bad or sloppy either. I think it may have to do with the hand positioning, Hands were at least directly under my elbows, maybe a hair wider. This really seem to focus on my upper pecs. I also stopped at the top of every 20 reps or so to experiment with hand position.

5 min rest (to type the above)

1:00 – Chair Dips x 65; not failure, but close; good burn; short ROM, feet on floor;

10 min rest

– Calf Raises, Single Leg x 50; took 3 sets for left leg, 2 for right; just pushed to failure each time;

– Chair Dips x 50; great burn

Lunch: ham and yellow squash

01/05/2019 Saturday

Got in a kickin workout

10:00 – 20 Pullups App x 2, 1, 3, 3; I did chin-ups, not pullups, I alternate;

– Dumbbell Curls 15lbs x 56; good mental focus, failure; I imagined being in a competition and the person in 1st place did 50 reps;

– Dumbbell rows – 15lbs x 51; same as above, but not to failure;

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr

Still Not Sure Why

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01/0/2019 Thursday

One thing I know for sure is, I want to exercise. I want to be healthy, I want to be in shape. I am sitting here completely overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be done this month, particularly the next 14 days, and I am struggling to justify doing any training. I am resentful. I have reached a point where there are some days that a little 3 minute blip isn’t going to be enough. I have made good progress, I feel stronger, and I can feel my muscles starting to grow. I can also feel that I need to do more warmup in order to do the push I need to keep progressing. That’s the thing, if I just wanted to stay fit and mobile, then I could do a little something throughout the day, which was the original intent. But I want more! I may not know why, but dang I want to push myself. I want to walk the stairs because I’ll be backpacking in Oklahoma the last weekend of this month, and I want to be better prepared than I have been on previous excursions. I want to get to the point that I can realistically do the Rim to Rim. I want to continue feeling strong like I do right now, or even stronger.

Maybe I just want to train so badly right now because I hate what I do? I mean, I am looking at a potentially insurmountable mountain of work. And there is no reward for putting all of the overtime it is going to take to get it accomplished. Hell, I still may not even have a job next month, forget about being recognized for the effort. Or compensated for sacrificing my home life for it.

No, I don’t think it’s that. I’ve had some good recovery downtime and I can feel it in my muscles that they will be growing soon. They are tight, and get the pumped effect with minimal effort. It feels so good to be there. So why not just do the prison cube maintenance during the day and then get in intense workouts when I’m at home? Because the workload takes everything out of me both mentally and physically. I don’t even have the mental resolve to do my dinner dishes after work. I just want to go to bed after dinner. Plus I’m required to spend so much of my day here, there isn’t enough actual time away from prison to do it. Also, now that I am 52, I don’t have the same energy I had at 30 (shocker right?). So trying to get in better shape while trying to have a life working all these hours just isn’t feasible, I have to sacrifice something. My 30 year old coworker has no problem working late every night and then making time for his hobbies in his off time. He requires less sleep, rest and recovery than I do. I don’t want to sacrifice something just so work can get even more of me than it currently gets. It already gets too much, and now it is demanding even more. No, just no.

OK, end rant. I am not a victim here, I need to start practicing my internal locus of control. What is the solution? Spread it out. Go ahead and continue with the just move stuff throughout the day, but at some point (maybe when the warden goes to get lunch) do something hardcore. Instead of the Pushup app just do pushups to failure, maybe do it twice with a 1 minute rest. Then the rest of the day just drop and do a quick 10. Triceps are easy, updog triceps extensions are very challenging so they don’t take long to reach failure. So really the real challenge are the Pushup and Squat apps, and stair training. I can fry my shoulders in 5 minutes doing handstand pushups, I can do squats to failure. I just need to have one muscle group that is the target, make sure I hit that one with max intensity once or twice, then supplement with cubicle movements, plus add variety for the other groups like hamstrings, glutes, calves, or whatever that aren’t the target focus over the course of the entire day. Not ideal, but workable. Not the best tasting lemonade, but it beats the hell out of straight lemons.

Have a Great Day!

Lubimûr