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
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
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
Freaky Friday
Slept really good for 10 hours last night, a lot of that time on my back, and my back felt great upon waking. Knee still tender, so I am wearing my copper knee wrap. My outer thigh is tender too, actually. I did overhead press before returning to prison this morning, it felt really good. Slight twinge in my elbow, so I’ll test it with some pushups or chair dips ;after. I may skip legs today, but I’ll do a test with lunges or something to make the determination.
So here’s the breakdown:
Dumbbell Overhead press before work – 15 lb dumbbells – 25 reps
Once back in my cell,
Neck Mobility, shoulder mobility, trunk mobility, calf stretch.
Chair Dip, feet on floor – 30 to test elbow and as a warm up for pushups
Rest
Checked blood sugar – 85, drink 1 serving of AminoLinx
Pushups – 40, reached failure at top of #40, Full ROM
Iso Chest Press for Upper pec – 45 sec, good burn
drink 1 more serving of AminoLinx
Rest
Iso Chest Press for Lower pec – 45 seconds
Chair Dip Feet on Desk – 25; super slow, pause at top, not to failure but epic burn
Delt Raise Purple bands – 30, good form, not failure but epic burn
Alternating Rear Lunge – 25; weak form, quads still weak, definitely harder in jeans that fit
Chair dip feet on Desk – 20; almost failure, super slow
Delt Raise Purple bands – 15, 3 second pause, 10 – serious burn
Checked blood sugar – 85 drink 1 serving of AminoLinx
3:45 Side Plank Dips – 10; slow and controlled, good ROM, felt like blood sugar was dropping again. Checked and it was 72, ate a Butterfinger Bite. Core feels really good.
Have a Great Day!
Lubimûr
Woke up pretty stiff, but nothing out of the ordinary. Considering yesterday it was to be expected. My left outer calf was stiff getting out of the car upon my arrival back to the joint this morning, but it seems to be better ow that I’m more mobile. I really tore down my body yesterday, so I’m not sure what to do today. I’m thinking: Bicycle Crunch for sure, probably Hamstrings too to balance out the quad work I did yesterday. Possibly back and biceps at home tonight.
Neck Mobility / Shoulder Mobility
Hamstring Stretch
Rear Leg Lift – 25
Back Extension on ball – 25
Sitting trunk Twist on ball – 25
– Back popped, felt good
Bicycle Crunch – 60; muscular failure!
– Full extension of legs
– Lots of rotation
– Fast reps, hip flexors burning on 50-60, just as fatigued as abs
Standing Hamstring Curls – 50; reached failure
– Slow reps, right is weaker than left
Chair Dip with feet on desk – 25
Break
It’s been about 30 minutes, and my hamstrings are freaking wasted.
1:02 PM – left knee bothering me again, feels a little swollen, kinda aches. Ankle/top of foot may an issue too.
4:00 PM – Side Leg Lifts – 6, 30; Tough standing on leg that goes 2nd. It was almost muscular failure on standing leg!
6:00 PM Pullups at Home – 3.5, 3.5
Not full ROM, but just enough ROM to not call them partials. I used a different hand position.
I want to try one more set, but I feel like I may be trying to come down with something AGAIN! I did not get enough sleep last night, and what I did get sucked.
6:05 PM – Did 2nd set, 1 short ROM, 1 Full ROM, 1 sloppy short ROM and a sloppy ½.
6:45 Feeling some pain in left Brachialis / Brachiordalis (not sure which, possibly both).
Have a Great Day!
Lubimûr
Man vs. Suburb 