Oct 1 to Oct 7

Yeah, not a great week for training, but a good week for being a dad.

It's about trade-offs and I had to make those this week. I'll have to do the same next week as well. At least the morning routines are going well - I keep playing with different yoga poses for the morning session. 

I wick with helping the shoulders at the end, the abs in the middle and the hips at the start - but I add things like Table Top pose Variation 3 here:

The morning is going well - the evenings are just not going to plan. At all.

 

Sept 23 to 30

 Yeah, this hasn't been a good week for training. 

At all.

Morning sessions are mostly on - I got lazy on Sunday and didn't get it done, but I did get six out of seven days with the morning session done. Hips and back are a little stiff this evening as I write this.

Got lots of reading and work done for my career this week - it's taking a lot out of me, but I've gotten the garage gym readier than it was for winter training and the gym gets extended hours for winter this week as well.

Kettlebell swings in the morning have been cool as well. 

Sept 1 to 22

 

Aye, caramba - the time, she flies!

Sorry to my loyal readers - September is always busy around here and this year seems particularly silly. Overall, the standing and exercise rings have been closed daily. The morning routine - described below - has been hit every day. It's just the Move ring has not been closed to my level of satisfaction so far.

The morning routine was this:

10 minutes of hip mobility, downward dogs, hip work and gastroc and hamstring stretching along with hip extension muscles are all gently stretched.

10 minutes of ab work - flutter legs, one-legged and two-legged, knee tucks, and hollow holds. Some ball work - rolling down hips to ankles, and airplanes and delt flies.

10 minutes of arms and chest - kettlebell swings, overhead presses, bicep curls, lat pulls. 

A nice session, just not a lot of cardio. It's a good session, but it isn't going to get me back to that endless cardio that I'd like for myself. 

With the weather changing, the garage gym needs to be set up for the winter. I have a plan and need to get on it. Put the kayak away, get the floor clear and get myself back to the basics. 

Aug 18 to 31

...and a nice purchase of a used kayak to boot ... 

So I closed all of the rings five times in these fourteen days. I closed two of the three rings almost every day during this same period. 

It's the writing stuff down that is helping me - but it was also having so many things on my mind and keeping me away from the pool or from actually training that killed me. With the turning into a new phase of the year next week, I'm hoping to get walks and be alive in my daily schedule and life.

I did have a few nice swimming sessions these days, but I'm most impressed with the daily focus on mobility and strength in the mornings. That habit is a great one. I really need to make sure that I keep up that habit. 

Morning routine is looking like this these days

10 minutes of mobility - cat-cow stretch, standing warrior, 90/90 stretch, hamstring stretches of various poses and qualities, standing on tiptoe and reaching up.

10 minutes of ab work - ball stretches, ball table pose, ball squats - right down to butt touching heels!. Ball shoulder flies and flat presses along with ball rollouts. 

10 minutes of dumbbell shoulder raises, bicep curls and shoulder presses with bands. Also, rows and face pulls with bands for the back and shoulders. Body weight squats to finish. Usually, three rounds of this take ten minutes. 

Some nice results for my shoulders using this routine daily. As always, I'm a guy so I always want bigger arms and shoulders. I'm also of the opinion I should be able to move and walk without a limp so I keep working on that on the daily. 

I do have a working version of my schedule until the end of January and it looks positive and if I can take advantage of the opportunities it allows, I'll get further along in the fitness journey than I am at present!

Aug 6 to Aug 17

 

Artist's rendition

It has been a minute - I've been enjoying my time to myself. Most of it anyway. Dealing with people who are under the weather at my house these days is a drag - I'd rather be out touring the countryside but I gotta be a nurse.

Shrug. It's part of the wedding vows I made a few years ago, so it gets done. 

I bought a second-hand kayak but have yet to be in it, thanks to a series of rain and thunderstorms. I'm hoping today will be the day I get out there on it. 

I hit every morning session - usually about a half hour of stretching and mobility. It's really been helpful and I really do want to learn a lot more about it. I've been missing swims in the evening, thanks to some new ink I got. Meh, again I think today is the day I go back to swimming. At least any rotator cuff problems have been able to recover. 

...and hiking. I've done a few hiking trips. I'm starting out low distance, but getting about a 25-30 minute session done before the heat or the bugs drive me into the adventure van.

July 5 to Aug 5

 

A throwback to a long time ago

Sorry to my loyal readers - this has been a rather odd month. I finished my side hustle gig the last week of July. It was kind of cool to be able to work full-time from the back of an RV. I did have some recommendations for 2025, but I left them in the journal I finished and they are not handy at this time to share.

Suffice it to say I did not train very much, which disappointed me. Just too many bugs and a forgotten tent that might have worked had I had it present. We got back to civilization on or about the 15th of the month and I was able to get back into the yoga in the mornings, teach, eat a decent meal /get out of the house, mark, teach, nap then swim before working/prepping and then bed on time routine. 

Honestly, getting to bed early and taking up early saved July for me, as it got me to focus on the work at hand. Keeping a journal helped me keep ideas from overwhelming my mind and served as a place to brain dump constantly. 

I am setting goals for 2024-25 at the moment as it is very close to my new years eve. AMong those goals is an increase of basic fitness, mobility and living pain free as much as possible. Swimming is helping as is Yoga - I'd like to think about ASL and getting some sort of Lifeguarding certification as well. We will see what I can get done about that. 

As for fitness, it was the usual:

Morning sessions were about a half hour of

Mobility for the hips and spine opening stretches

Abdominal and hip work including leg kicks, ab crunches, v-sits and the like. Ab wheel rollouts and prone shoulder lifts finish this section off

Then shoulder and upper body band work - bicep curls, shoulder presses with bands, banded lat pulls and shoulder pulls are all here. I even get some bodyweight squats done. 

A nice half-hour of mobility and a bit of strength training. 

The evening is 30-minute swims, lengths of front crawl and breaststroke. In the middle is enough walking ... or should I say sometimes enough walking to get to about 4 kilometres of steps in. 

I really do want to get back to running/jogging/getting onto an elliptical trainer this winter.  And Wrestling. I miss that. And rugby ... sigh. 

June 18 to July 4

 

The view from the yoga mat the other day

I'm sorry loyal readers - the past few weeks have gotten away from me. I'm working with a few people around blogging and realized I hadn't updated this wonderful space for a little while. As always, I will try and do better.

On the whole, these weeks were decent. I've been doing a bit of exhaustion sleeping and having to go to end-of-year events. Both are just participated in and I'm happy to report I got to the end. 

I did set up and have been following a Daily Routine. Up early with the Morning Routine/Yoga being done. 

Yoga was made to have a coffee with, man. These two things go well together. Yoga and coffee, peas and carrots. 

Some swimming, some hiking, some laziness, some travel have made this time period not quite what I needed to get back to limitless cardio. However, these are the things that I need to overcome and keep going.

Morning sessions have been great on the whole. Lots of mobility with some band work. Alll good in the hood. 

I did check my blood pressure and there was a slight rise. Need to get on that, get back in our groove and get it back to the optimal now.