Jan 22 to 29

 

I'll keep this brief: this was a good week and a bad week. 

Let me explain:

I did swim a lot - by myself and with my dependant, It made my rotator cuff get bungled up - but life goes on. By Thursday my left shoulder was really hurting, so I cut off the swimming and then went to work on doing some training to help it out. Lots of work with bands and kettlebells. 

I also lengthened the cardio/HIIT sessions to 40 minutes this week. I don't see them getting longer - but I do see myself doing some wrestling with Chuck, by Wrestling dummy. All I really need is to keep my heart rate up for at least 40 minutes. It really doesn't matter how I do that. Wrestling with Chuck seems to be another fun way.

Daily yoga sessions in the morning, except for Sunday for some unknown reason. I got the session done, just not "early early". I did manage to get some recovery done this week as well. 

I picked up an electronic pump for the inflatable watercraft this week - it's made my plans for the spring and summer a lot more fun. When the inflatables get in the water quicker, life is better for me.

Today's workout:

4 minutes on the elliptical

2 minutes Kettlebell swings and cleans with 16-kilo bell

90 seconds step-ups onto my inflatable paddleboard (this was so cool)

2 minutes on arms only with the fan bike

30 seconds rest

I got that done for five rounds tonight in 40 minutes. Closed all my rings and I was a happy person.

Jan 15 to 21

IYKYK

 Man, I had to turn off a rugby game to write this - there is some random game online I was watching and it just made this post unreadable. So that's off until I get this done.

This week was a sold A- for me. I closed the rings every day except for last Sunday. I was so sore from the week of training I had to take a day off and use it as a rest day. Today is the following Sunday and I'd like to do something similar, but rather than spend it in bed all day as I did last week, I'd like to have a "Low-impact day". That is no HIIT training, so jumping or sprinting, but just keeping myself moving, slow and low as they say.

The week was otherwise good for training, which is sort of the point of this blog. I did also start to replace my morning meal with a smoothie made at home. Nothing special - almond milk, frozen fruit and a scoop of protein powder. I didn't invent it, so don't blow me up on social media for it. But I'm finding that I'm rather hungry when I get home from work so I'll have to figure something out for that. In any case, life is good.

The swims - I did three swimming workouts this week. I'm also finding that I come out of the water a lot happier than when I went in. Funny how that works- but I totally stole that line from this guy.

HITT workouts are pretty much the same - battle ropes when no one is home, lots of kettlebell work and some elliptical and fan bike each round. Swimming workouts use snorkel and hand paddles - mainly breaststroke and front crawl. Yoga/stretching sessions are really helping, too.

What is interesting is I'm seeing some of the guys I've played rugby with posts from their BJJ/Wrestling clubs they are now in for off-season/training for life. The same guys that used to make fun of me for doing the exact same thing. Sigh. Ah well, I'll get back to Wrestling soon. Need to make my body fitter and more flexible. 

While I was poking around on the internet for the link above, I found this trailer. Check out minute 1:23 of the trailer:

Jan 9 to 14

 

Can you guess what movie was on the iMac yesterday?

The winter has arrived here, so I spent more time in my garage gym than I normally would in a week. Still, things worked out well for me this week. 

Need a trim

Every morning had a mobility/yoga/stretching session. On Saturday, the morning session was a half hour long and helped get the hips to move nicely for the day. I did notice that when I was getting groceries, I was one of the younger people in the grocery store and I was also one of the very few men that wasn't limping. 

Again, I used to limp, I used to be in pain with every step. Thanks to the stretching/mobility work I do every day, that isn't the case at the moment. I am very grateful for that.

I did get to the pool once this week and had a nice quick swim. I really do enjoy the swims, but the weather messed with me this week. I've also recognized the need for that gym membership might be worth it as long as I bring my son to swim. If not, I should / may be directing my money somewhere else. I'll have to think about this a bit more this week. I'm not doing anything until the spring.

The HIIT sessions got a bit longer this week, with Monday and Wednesday's workouts reaching 40 minutes. I moved up the Move ring and still got it closed this week as a result. I may move that ring up another notch and see if I mess it up.  I was using the elliptical, a sandbag, kettlebells, dumbbells and the fan bike to get my heart rate up and keep it up.

I did the Polar App fitness test with the Heart Rate monitor this morning. Not sure of just how accurate it is, but at least it is recognizing that my fitness is at least getting better.  I'm still only at Moderate, but a win is a win. When I recover from all of the stupid crap of the last few years, I've promised myself a cool treat. It's a when not an "if" - I really am grateful I'm investing in myself at the moment. 

As James Clear says: "Master the art of showing up." ... Which I've reworded as "Do the work now, the pretty comes later." ... this morning, not sure which I prefer. 

Dec 31 to Jan 8

This was a good period of time for me. I closed the rings every day - lots of fitness and exercise.  I had trouble on Jan 7th with getting to sleep, but I got to sleep in, so I got out of bed at 10am. The rest of this time, I went to sleep on time and got up early to get my early morning sessions done. 

No, that was not a typo. It is possible for me to sleep in.

We did lots of fun staycation things - made it to Niagara Falls for example. Lots of fun things. I had planned on more, but there were enough people being idiots around here I just didn't want to add to it. I was grateful for the time to rest, work out and just be around my kids.

Workouts were generally without the battle ropes - too loud. The new gym and new gym equipment are all working well otherwise. 

What. A. Doofus.

An average workout looked like this:

5 min elliptical warm-up

12 or 16-kilo bell - two-handed swings x 20

Kettlebell cleans and presses - 20 on each side

one or two exercises with light dumbbells for deltoids and arms

Battle ropes for 90 -120 seconds if possible. They are noisy, so I don't like using them, depending on the time of day.

90-120 seconds of arms-only fan bike. This is harder than it sounds.

2-3 minutes on the elliptical trainer. 

I would do that four or five times, depending on the day. Getting out to the 35-40 minute times. Need just a smidgen longer - 45 minutes would be just about the maximum I'd do that workout. Not quite there yet, but I'll get there soon. 

I did take Jan 8th as a rest day - got the yoga/stretching session done in the morning, then took it easy for the day. Had a massage and got ready for the return to work tomorrow.