The last time I took 2 days completely off was May 2014.
I am not sure what that says about what I have been doing or what it implies about how much rest I probably need but it’s pretty amazing. It’s also pretty frustrating.
Does it point to my “coast” to the end of the year is going in a dangerous direction? If I add that to the 10lbs I have gained then maybe? Am I being too hard on myself? Should I be concerned that the first time I got to 216 I couldn’t maintain it? Or am I being paranoid and falling into the old trap of more is better not just more? I am not sure, what I do know is that I am cutting back on the calories a bit to stabilize my gains since the muscle I have gained is enough for now. I am fully aware that this coasting I am doing is a poor excuse for working without a plan and I should know from my past experience that working without a plan isn’t working at all and in fact is a recipe for failure. So what to do? I think the 2 days off was an OK thing since I squatted for the first time in a long time last week and I was really quite sore in multiple places. The extra calorie intake isn’t OK, but it’s only down to not paying attention to how much I am grazing on nuts and stuff. An easy fix but I was 216 in October and now it’s only 2 months later and it has gone in the blink of an eye. It’s amazing that it seemed to take forever to get the last few pounds off but feels like a few days and I am back up 10lbs. So sad that it works that way, but it just shows you can’t stop paying attention, not for a day not for a week and certainly not for a month if you want to stay where you are. That said, this coast was probably badly planned. I should have planned to take 2 weeks off with a concrete return to strict calorie counting and food awareness right after since the habit hadn’t quite formed fully yet.
So what now? I am 3 weeks out from year end, what do I need to do to ensure that I am not another 10 lbs heavier in that 3 weeks? Well, I think a return to my fitbit calorie mapping is a good idea, run at maintenance so I am not taxing myself but also not worrying myself. Keep lifting heavy at the gym and when I have to take a forced break for Christmas (where I will probably be doing some sprint / cardio work outside) I can use that time to take a break from the heavy stuff. Then when the new year comes, it will be time to get back into some compound lifting at home to add to the heavy lifts at the gym and to get my body back into the habit of full body workouts rather than the split days that I have been doing. It may be time for me to do another WOD30 or so to try to get back some of the functional fitness type of work and to prevent me from falling into the static gym work that I have been enjoying.
For the record the handstands have happened on 2 occasions already. I am not claiming competence at this time but I didn’t pass out or throw up so I consider that to be ahead of the game at this point. I have to practice a little self belief at this point. What I am doing, given my status, is actually very difficult and will require a great deal of dedication and commitment so I am bound to congratulate myself for even starting. That’s why right now I am awesome! 🙂
The problem at the moment is that I am scared to come out of the handstand, because I am not particularly flexible coming out means I hit the ground with some velocity and being bent in half puts my spine in a very precarious position. I can hold myself up no problem against the wall but any control I think I may have while away from the wall is non existent. I thought I was immobile and stiff right way up, being inverted only seems to make things less mobile.
I have continued work on the front lever and doing dragon falls to try to work on my strength. I hate not being able to do stuff and exposing my weaknesses but if I don’t I will never know how to improve. My weight is up slightly but my % is actually down which makes little sense however I think I have managed to gain some of the muscle back that I lost during the cut because I feel bigger in places and I have been eating at a surplus for about 6 weeks now. That said, I am now back down to eating at maintenance so hopefully that little bit of fat that came with the new muscle will burn off in a hurry.
Unfortunately I am in a boring phase now. My achievements in the gymnastics skills department will be slow I am sure, and my diet being very static isn’t providing any entertainment either. I will try to push on and get my BF% down to under 15%. If I can do that I will truly be at the completion of my physical composition goal. I never thought I would get to 220 again so being there was a bit of a shock. I guess it’s time to see what happens if I push just a little further.
So I have been doing most of what I set out to do, as far as the actual gymnastics skills training I have been doing splits, front lever front planche and handstand practice or rather progressions. I have come to learn that splits hurts as much as the kids say it does and front lever is actually WAY harder than it looks. I am already seeing some improvement on my leg and hip flexibility but when you start out with hamstrings of steel it’s not hard to see some improvements.
My strength is up, I was able to bench with the straight bar on the incline bench last week without any issue which means that the chiropractor has actually helped my shoulder issue via my neck which is completely counter-intuitive to me but it really seems to be working. It is a little disconcerting to have such flexibility and mobility in my neck after being bound up for so long, I am sore some days from doing very normal tasks and my neck is making a lot more cracking noises than it used to as the bones move around like (I assume) they are supposed to. I have to admit I haven’t actually kicked up into handstand yet, I am working towards that slowly doing all the progressions first to make sure my body knows what it is supposed to do the right way. It’s easy to think of doing things right, it’s another thing to execute a foreign movement correctly without any practice. I have not been sleeping that well, this is not a surprise since my sleep is often my least carefully attended to part of my health. In fact, I have been so tired the last week or so I am going to take a vacation day to try and get some extra sleep and rest taken care of.
So, numbers. I am benching 5 a side on the chest machine which is deceptively easy. 8 a side on the leg press (it won’t take any more). I can comfortably do 3 a side on the military press machine but the barbell press itself I am only up to almost 2 a side which for me is a little low. Pullups are not increasing, I think I may tiring myself out doing pullups last but I am struggling to 7 most days. Then again I am still doing 8-10 sets each time. I have been doing a lot of very heavy laying pullovers for chest, something that overstretched my triceps last time and I am still sore from however I think that the pullovers plus the dip machine have enabled me to put some much needed size on my chest. Ă‚Â I have modified a bench and bar to do assisted front lever / falling tower type work. It hurts a lot but did open my eyes to the fact front lever is far more abs than I would have imagined. I thought the back strength would have been the weak point. I think I was wrong…
In other news I am binging on Dr Who, to the exclusion of everything except the new season of The Vampire Diaries which is barely surviving the loss of Nina Dobrev in my opinion. We have Bubble Guppies Live tonight with our darling daughter who has also started skating and is currently the fastest in her class. The fact it is still just walking on ice isn’t the point. 🙂 She is the fastest ice walker out there! Gymnastics is going very well I was surprised by some of my girls the past week or so getting success on some very challenging skills. They grow up so fast, and now they are starting to have things click which is amazing to see.
So the next few days should see me finally getting inverted, attempting to work on my balance with parellettes and hopefully getting some rest. Wish me luck.
I have been out of the gym for literally years, at home doing barbell related and bootcamp / HIIT / WOD style workouts.
I loved having enough equipment at home that I could easily do my deadlifting, squatting and other Oly lifting stuff and that I was creative enough to make wallballs, parallettes and other items to help with the stuff I needed. Also building what eventually turned out to be 6 pullup stations around the house was a help since pullups revolutionized my workouts ever since P90X. However, there is nothing like the variety of a gym. It’s like goin gto a buffet when you have been home cooking for a year, there is so much variety and the access is so easy it’s really hard not to get addicted to it. LA Fitness gave us a great deal as I wrote earlier and I have been going quite regularly recently because I find that I am able to do more fo what I need to more easily. I still like to to my deadlifting and my oly lifting at home, I don’t usually enjoy seeing people doing cleans or snatches at the gym so I don’t do it. Also there are no appropriately sized kettlebells at the gym so if I am wanting to do a KB workout I have to stay home.
So that brings me to my current workout scheme that has settled into a smooth groove for the time being. Although there have been only 2 days off in the last 45 I did have a week vacation in there too. My philosophy for the next month or so now that I have come off my cut and am taking some time to stabilize is to keep the workouts a bit lighter and to watch what my weight does. I will probably do another strength push towards the end of the year to get my lifts back up as long as my shoulder stops bothering me. But here is my current deal, not including the bootcamp workouts I occasionally do with the kids and also not taking into account the KB or Oly lifting days. (At home version in brackets for reference)
Chest – Bench and Flys (Same at home, but add pushups and DB pullovers)
Back – Deadlifts (light), Pullups (Same at home but more DL and weighted vest pullups)
Legs – Squats (light), leg press, extensions, hamstring machine (Squats, weighted lunges, extensions.)
Shoulders / traps – Military press, flys, barbell shrugs, cleans (Cleans, snatch, Power clean and KB at home due to ceiling height)
Arms – Curls and close grip bench, dips and preacher curls (close bench and dip station dips plus Oly bar curls.)
It’s super basic, my rep counts are somewhere in the region of 12-15 sets of each pyramiding up in weight and down in reps. I do tend to do quite high rep counts compared to most people, it’s just how I have always done things. For bench for instance it’s not unusual for me to do 120+ reps for a session and for arms and shoulders it can go a lot higher. Unless I am specifically doing 1RM or very low rep high weight counts my workouts are usually like this.
So that’s it for now. For the next 4 week or so things may be a bit boring, I will keep posting my WOD workouts for the girls at gym and also any off plan work I do that’s interesting. And for what it’s worth, it has been 3 weeks since I stopped cutting and went to Cuba and my weight is almost identical. I posted a 224 @ 17.0% this morning.
I had a lot of really positive feedback yesterday from my progress pics on Reddit. By the way in the 3rd picture I actually have pinkeye, it’s not my Rock impersonation. I also got some of the same questions that I get from people in and around my life when they notice the changes in my appearance and I wanted to post the progress pics here and also the response for the age old questions of “How do I start” and “I’m scared, how do I do this”
First, the pictures are above. They are in chronological order and although I was heavier in the middle picture I believed I had made progress because I was so much stronger and working out regularly on route to my 1000lb club goal. The last picture is recent and although I am still a handful of pounds away from my goal and a few % points above where I would like to be I thought the 50lb loss deserved celebrating. The facts for the first and last pictures is as follows:
274 vs 224 lbs
30% fat vs 18% fat
415lbs bench vs 325lbs bench
Fat vs Fit 🙂
The first thing that you have to do is make a decision. Not a decision that you can go back on but a final decision to change.
Second you need to set your larger goal. Your larger goal is nothing to do with losing weight or any of the challenges you have, your larger goal is to be honest, true and faithful to yourself. If you can commit to being honest with yourself and not accepting the old excuses then you are on your way.
Third, stop listening to yourself, you are only confusing the issue.
There is a voice inside your head that wants to derail you. You can either try to change the voice then change your life or you can simply stop paying attention to it until it starts to help you not hurt you. You are smart enough to know the right thing to do but that voice always finds a way around it.
What is better? Food you make at home from simple ingredients or fast food? You already know the answer. What is better, spending an hour watching a tv show or 30 minutes working out and 30 minutes making your food for tomorrow? Same hour, different results. What would you think of someone feeding a can of coke to a baby? Why would you treat your body with any less importance? Six months from now you will be 6 months older, but will you be different? That’s the big question. If you really want your life to change then you have to make some changes in your life. Here they are:
1. Find 30 minutes every day to exercise. Walking is not exercise. If you want to count walking it had better be up and down a flight of stairs.
2. Drink only water and if you have to, coffee.
3. Eat food with one ingredient. If it has more than one ingredient, you don’t need to go near it.
4. That means lean protein, fruits and veg, nuts and seeds (in moderation) and if you want to, a little dairy.
Understand that when it comes to fat loss everyone wants a magic pill or fix. That’s why the diet pill industry is doing so well. Well, here it is. Your body creates a substance that forces your body to store calories as body fat. How would you like to turn that process off? It’s not magic, it’s insulin. Eat less sugar and grains and your weight will come off.
Lead by example for your child. What you do will mould who she becomes. Kids learn directly from their parents in EVERY aspect. Be a good role model for yourself, for her and for the people around you who will eventually come to you and ask how you did it.
But do it now. You didn’t start six months ago, if you had, you wouldn’t be reading this.
I am scared (performance or execution / life or athletics) what do I need to do?
Back to the voices. The problem with most people (as Tony Horton expounds during P90X Chest and Back) is that they stop what exercise they are doing before they should because something inside them tells them they can’t do any more, or it’s too painful to do more. The fact is that you need to use that voice not as an absolute but as a starting point. Exercise is funny like that, when your mind tells you that you have done enough, that is the point at which the real work and the real benefit begins. Failure to go beyond that point means you may as well just kick back with a can of coke and watch your DVDs from the couch. That tipping point is the gateway to fitness and health and in order to breach the beachhead you need to shut up and get to work.
This is something I wish someone had told me in simple terms when I was younger. Instead I learned it from coaches who drove us into the ground on the rugby pitch, drilling us with merciless laps, sprints and piggybacks up tall grassy hills. It was those experiences and the results gained that drove into me the importance of doing what you are told, no matter how hard, no matter how painful it is, you will always succeed if you just do the work. There is a whole industry built around this theory, shirts, advertising campaigns, soft drinks, power drinks, protein bars, and almost everything else that can benefit from being tied to being healthy promotes pushing yourself to the limit. But it’s not the limit that you need to worry about, it’s your brain that you should be wary of.
For those who are not fortunate enough to have competed in athletics when younger, or sadly, those kids nowadays who get “participation trophies” won’t get to understand the requirement to going beyond the pain (read: discomfort) barrier in order to get their reward. Sports nowadays have been reduced to participation events with no winners and (god forbid) no losers. Unfortunately in a world where everyone is treated that way, everyone loses. Call me competitive, I don’t consider it an insult, in fact I think a competitive nature should be fostered and worn like a badge of pride. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE has the ability to compete, but only if they are encouraged to and shown the rewards of success and are allowed to feel the sting of defeat.
The sting that for most people comes from seeing themselves in the mirror after years of neglect, even months in the gym failing to pass that point of improvement, giving up because it’s just too hard. The frustration of plateau, which for most people comes after a few weeks of going from zero to something but never pushing beyond. They are the people who have learned to “listen to their body” which they translate as a get out of jail free card for their efforts. So what do you do?
Get someone to push you. Get someone to yell at you for once. Have someone tell you that you aren’t trying hard enough. Get someone to force you beyond your comfort zone and do something you can actually be proud of. Stop listening to that whining lazy voice in your head and just do the work.
Just do the work. Give yourself something to achieve and don’t give up. Set a goal that scares you and then achieve it. Then set another unbelievable goal and hit that too. Find out where your total exhaustion lies. Discover where your absolute boundary is, when your body, not your mind gives up. Spend time there, enjoy the journey and be amazed at the destination. It doesn’t matter if it is 10 chinups or 500 pushups, it doesn’t matter if it is running a mile without stopping or doing a sub 3 minute Fran pick something, write it down, take it with you to the gym, to the park, to your basement and don’t stop until you finish. I promise you from the bottom of my heart you won’t regret it. Then, do it again tomorrow.
Maybe you find this a little too out there… Maybe it’s too “hardcore”. Let me be honest, you probably wouldn’t know hardcore if it ran you over with it’s car. This isn’t hardcore, this is self improvement. It’s something I wish I could teach everyone, and it’s something I strive to teach my girls at gym because it’s not just about fitness, pushing past that limit will improve every aspect of your life and every aspect of your future. But don’t take my word for it, give it a shot and let me know how it goes for you. But remember, don’t listen to that voice in your head, it’s just trying to hold you back.
For me, things are status quo. No lifting records or goals, just some kettlebells added to my regular routine and a sense of comfort and happiness with my situation in the gym. This has included an addition of the bootcamp at gymnastics which gives me a little added activity 3x a week which so far has made me very sore but determined to continue. For the record here are the workouts for this week not including the plan for tonight. The kids seem to be enjoying and completing the workouts but since its only 30 minutes that shouldn’t be a surprise. They do look a little tired after though…
Monday Bootcamp
x2
10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side hold
10 pullups
x2
20 shoulder crunch
20 leg up crunch
10 full situp double twist
10 side crunch
10 hanging leg raise
x2
20 Air squats
20 step back lunge front kick
20 belt kicks
20 front lunge
10 pullups
x2
20 shoulder touch
20 hip touch
10 spider each side
10 knee to elbow each
10 knee to opposite elbow each
x2
20 single leg knee raise
20 super skaters
30 second chair pose
20 side lunge
10 pullups
10 pushup step out
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
Wednesday Legs and abs
(Taken from Liza and Elissa return)
Sets of 10, single legs are EACH LEG
shoulder crunch
Hands down in and out
crunchy frog
hands down bicycles F and B
full situp
Squat
front lunge
pop squat
back lunge
super skater no alternate
vsnaps
hands up in and out
crunchy frog
hands up bicycles F and B
Rainbows
Russian twists
Pop squat
Sissy squats
super skater alternate
1 leg toes touch knee lift
Full squat to floor
vsnap + pushup
crunch + full situp + vsnap
Side crunch + power crunch + side crunch
GET BOXES
laying feet on box hip lifts 10 and hold for 10
Up and down single leg up 10 each side
HIps fully extended hold with leg lift pulse 10 each side
Standing hip flexor burn
bent lift
straight lift
bent extend
circles
following are front and side consecutive no rest.
foot on floor lift x10
foot on box lift x 10
As is customary this time of year I am starting to get the feeling that I should be doing more HIIT and a little less static BB type work. The cure for this feeling last time was 30WOD where I did the Crossfit Ark WOD every day for 30 days. It was such a blur that I can’t even remember how it was, but I will bet it was at the very least a good break from whatever I was doing. It was August of last year when this took hold, but this morning in the car as we were driving to work I was thinking how nice it would be to finish off my cut early and get down to the sub 240’s before June and spend summer at my correct weight. With the way my diet is now and the way my body is feeling I think this is a perfect solution. The question I am sure you are asking is why? What is the driving force for this? Well, I seem to have 2 kinds of workout methodologies at work here. The HIIT method with high tempo heart pounding lighter weights is great for summer especially since I can be outside and have lots of space to work out, whereas the more static Body Building approach with heavy weights, shorter rep counts and isolated bodyparts is better for the winter when I have less room and can pack on a little weight to help with the heavier lifts. The problem is that I can never seem to get these two to play well together. In that vein, then, it’s time for 30WOD2. As a comparison I will show you my last 5 workouts and the last 5 workouts from CrossfitĂ‚Â Ark and you will notice immediately what looks to be more fun… I’m not saying what I do on a regular basis is boring, but there is a limit to what you can do when you are framing within that lifting type. Plus last time I never really claimed victory over the free handstand…. That’s all I have to say about that.
So IĂ‚Â have a dilemma to face. Do I finish my 26 day Body Beast snip that I was doing or switch straight into 30WOD2 today…
Simon Vs Crossfit
1. Squats, seated extensions, short range hamstring curls
2. T25 Alpha Total Body Circuit
3. Barbell inverted rowsĂ‚Â and chinups – 175 reps
4. Arms -Ă‚Â Barbell curls with db finish. CLose grip bench with free dip finish – 180 reps
5. Shoulders with KB – Clean and press, upright row, front raise – 130 reps
1. Shoulder Press (2-2-2-2-2)
Perform 2 shoulder press every 3 min for 5 sets
score heaviest set
Metcon (Time)
21-15-9
Power Snatch @ 115#/75#
Pull-ups
2.Ă‚Â For Time
800m run
100 Air Squats
100 Burpees
100 Walking Lunges
800m run
30 min time cap
3.Ă‚Â Skill
Spend time 10 minutes accumulating time in a hanging L-sit on the rope.
Metcon
15 min AMRAP
2 Rope Climbs
3 Power Cleans @ 165#/115#
30 Sit-ups
I’m down about 10lbs total. I am sitting right at 252 but should be down in the 240s by the weekend. It’s not easy but not really that hard either thanks to my complete lack of appetite. I am planning on another 10 this month to get me sub-240 and I should start to look like that picture over there —> again. Nothing much to report regarding the workouts other than I have snuck kettlebells back into the system to replace some of the cardio. I feel the KB workouts are so much more beneficial as HIIT and as cardio workouts than what I do the other days and while the other workouts are good coordination and agility based, KB work is grinding out high HR work.
What happens to the person who did lift, now doesn’t but wants to start again? The process here is not like the new person who can be scared off by technical approaches or too much work. This person generally knows what it takes to succeed physically but may not have the knowledge to produce a workout system designed to orient them towards their goal whatever that may be. Let’s assume someone has 4 days to work out plus one extra day that will be a choice of either cardio or yoga. For those 4 days you will need to hit every body part, which naturally lends itself to bodyweight and compound movements. There needs to be an orientation towards what the final goal will be which is olympic / barbell lifting, kettlebell work, HIIT WOD type workouts and agility/speed workouts (depending on the focus). For arguments sake let’s take an athlete who wants to be able to perform specific tumbling moves, let’s say from back layout full to standing back tuck full or front 1 1/2 (Rudi) or in fact anything from Barani to Rudi Randi and Adolph. Any of these things require not just great technical skill but also a good strength foundation with lots of core strength and explosive strength through the hips.
So what kind of moves are we familiar with that require fast explosive hip movements? Well, clean and snatch come to mind. Also kettlebell swings and one arm kettlebell movements of any kind are well suited to this kind of development. Add some explosive sprint / weighted sprints / sled push type work and you have a recipe for successful support of the skill training.
Specifically let’s address the 5 day rotation which will give us 2 rest days in a week. I am not a fan of using the 7 day model but since most people have jobs that solidify their availability then we have to work around that. Ă‚Â Here are the 4 days.
Each day is split into 2 parts Crossfit style with a Strength portion and a conditioning or HIIT portion. We want to keep in mind the individual probably doesn’t want to spend an hour a day on this.
Day 1 – Strength – Legs, HIIT – Varied Jumps and wallballs (leg centric)
Day 2 – Strength – Shoulders, HIIT – Cleans and presses (shoulder / trap centric)
Day 3 – Strength – Back (Deads), HIIT – Pullups, Kettlebell swings, Turkish Get Ups
Day 4 – Strength – Chest (Bench), HIIT – Plyo / agility / sprints
Day 5 – Yoga / Cardio / Core specific work
2 rounds to load up to the final benchmarks and use the load up weeks as deload weeks where necessary.
Day 1 – Strength – Legs, HIIT – Varied Jumps and wallballs (leg centric)
Warmup 5×10 air squats plus 5×10 walking lunges
Air squats with 20lb collar 5×10 (20 calf raise for rest) – Will transition to barbell squats front and back
Front lunge 5×10 with 20lb collar (60s calf raise hold for rest) – Will transition to static barbell split squat
Back Lunge 5×10 with 20lb collar (Rest in 90 degree horse stance or half mid splits) – Replaced by hamstring curls or stiff leg DL
HIIT
Max effort long jumps tabata timed (4 minutes)
24″ box jumps tabata timed (4 minutes)
Full depth wallball 20lb 7×7
or
5 rounds of:
10x max effort long jumps
10x 24″ box jump
10 wallball @20lb
So I am thinking about switching the weights up a bit for the time being.
I feel like my rep count is sufficiently high that I can split a 1 day deadlift program into 3 separate movements and still hit around the same rep count (90-150 most days). The point would be to work some accessory movements knowing that I am not going to be producing a 1 or 3 RM performance at all at the moment. What I would aim for is 50-70% max output on the main lift and then probably 5×5 at 80% on the accessory movements. It 2would break down something like this with some changes to the accessory movements over time.
Deadlift day becomes 7×5 DL, Good Mornings, bent rows
Cardio
Chest day becomes 7×5 Bench, flys, triceps
Cardio
Squat day becomes 7×5 Squat, leg extensions, hamstring curls
Cardio
OLY day becomes 7×5 cleans, snatch, OHP or cleans, front squat, DB OHP
That gives me a 4 day weight program and a 3 day cardio program which is fine for cutting. I will need to change the accessory movements, these are off the top of my head. 35 movements on each item for a total of 105 movements total.
Which brings me to my cut. It’s been not too painful but the results are also not too impressive. I am down about 4lbs in 2 weeks but the recomp is much better that it sounds.
There are 2 additional factors here, I gave up the CE stack I was using due to joint dryness which I think was the cause of my pain and also I started creatine which should add around 3-5lbs of water weight.
I also want to note here that I am having some pain since stopping the heavy Millennium cycle. I have found that cardio is aggravating my back and hips and is a great source of pain for me. So I am back with the daily stretching but to be honest I feel a lot more delicate since I started cardio again. My knees are painful when coming downstairs, even when I sit for a few minutes they hurt. I am hoping that in another week or so they will be getting used to it otherwise it’s out with the cardio and back to the HIIT instead. I have been doing a lot of dancing and bootcamp cardio type Xbox workouts including Insanity and P90X, whatever is free basically.
The numbers are far from impressive but here you go. Today was a little off, I think I have some hydration issues. If the creatine has added 3-5lbs then it’s possible I am down up to 9lbs which would be fine.
Weight-Fat-Water-Muscle-Rating-BMR-Age-Bone Mass-Visceral Fat
Still a way to go but getting the hang of the workouts and keeping reminding myself to cut the calories a bit means a slow road. But then again slow is how you keep it off #fatlogic…
In reality, I need to focus more and eat less. Next week should show more of an improvement.
It’s been almost a fortnight of my cut and nothing much is happening but I am good with that. I have learned over the years that my body is like an oil tanker in the ocean, you can turn it any way you want just don’t expect it to react very quickly. In the distant past (as with many people I presume) I would get discouraged with my lack of (specifically) weight loss after a couple of weeks and give up only to realize the following week that I was then losing. By that time it was too late and the damage was done. I have learned that a couple of weeks of strict diet and training is what it takes to lay the foundation for change. My weight is about the same but I feel better already. Although I wouldn’t recommend 12 days without a break to very many people, I know that at the moment my body is OK with it. It’s not been very hard training compared to my Millennium project so to me it feels like rest. That said, I managed to fit my DL, cleans, squat and bench into a 7 day rotation with 3Ă‚Â days of cardio. I have been spending time with my old friends Tony (P90X Plyo) and Shaun T (Insanity) and it’s been a lot of fun. And a lot of pain. My cardio was way off optimal but I am managing to struggle through the workouts sweating profusely, swearing like a sailor and once again being faced with my body’s lack of cooperation but it’s working. I am invigorated by the Xbox setup and the built in challenges that have me marginally ahead of my age group which is somewhere between dinosaur and cro-magnon man.
I have been unable to shake the cold I have had for about 2 weeks now too. I had to take off Thursday and Friday from work with fever, coughing, shortness of breath and nausea so I am eagerly awaiting the return of my health that should give me a boost. As for the numbers, the weight has not changed and in the next couple of days I should have my new scale stats to run against what I was. Like I tell my girls at gymnastics, it’s all about moving forwards, sometimes at a sprint sometimes at a crawl but moving…
Speaking of the gym, I wanted to colour this blog a little with some more personal touches. I think the P90X blog has run it’s course and for a general fitness writer (such that I am) maybe some extra depth into my activities and interests is warranted. I am thinking of moving the blog to a new address, but I can’t really think of a catchy subdomain. I will probably just move it to fitness.iamcanadian.org or something else equally vanilla. Suggestions are welcome of course. Maybe I can invest in another domain if a name really grabs me but since I already have fulltimefitness.caĂ‚Â which was for me and sweetphysique.ca which was for Nicole I probably have picked over what was available.
Gymnastics.
The girls are coming along, most have started to reclaim some of the skills that they “lost” before the break but since I don’t believe in “losing” skills lets just say that they are back on track mentally and are able to perform their skills again. It’s time for floor routines, they have to pick music and get to work on both their floor and beam routines soon since we only have 4 months to competition. My athlete with the broken leg should be back training lightly this week or next so the group should be back into the groove. My next job is to make sure that my level 6 athletes stay with their level 6 skills and my 2 level 4s have a shot at moving up if they can do the work in time. Level 6 is pretty easy to get into as long as you have the core skills they require such as kip on bars, handstand on beam, flight element on beam, 3 element tumbling plus a front tuck on floor and a decent vault. Once they have the basics they can add an almost unlimited amount of skills to their routines. It’s an exciting time, but nervy too with some girls still on the edge of having their basics ready.
The last time I took 2 days completely off was May 2014.
