Sept 22 to 28

 

Another week of mobility and not very much fitness. Morning sessions are going well at least. And that Rugby World Cup final was excellent. Not the outcome I wanted, but ya know ... second in the world is pretty good. 

Having the Blue Jays win the AL East the next day was pretty awesome too. 

Anyway, morning sessions were like this:

10 minutes of mobility - baby pose, downward dog, dog leg stretches, 90/90 stretches, frog pose. Push ups. Large ball mobility on the hips

10 minutes of ab work - swimming leg kicks, BJJ pummelling, clam hip opening stretch, WGS, runners stretches, piriformis stretch, QL stretches as well. Lying chest press, chest flies.

10-15 minutes of Hip CARS, push ups BW squats, dumb bell burls, cobra curls, overhead presses, delt raises, cool stuff like that. Kettlebell swings to raise the HR.

It's just been in the evenings I get home and just need to stop. I understand this is getting in the way of my goals and that I need to get myself moving. I know it, I just ... don't. At least I didn't this week.

I did get back to voracious reading, finishing a book in a day on Saturday. And ... got all of the things done that help me keep my job done as well. So ... good on me there. 

Sept 14 to 21

 

The workout in the mornings and collapse in the evenings routine continued this week. I did stretch out (See what I did there) the morning sessions a bit this week, knowing that would happen. 

The weekend is another thing altogether collapsing. But - in my defence, Canada made it to the Rugby World Cup finals, so we all good. 

Morning sessions looked like this:

8-10 minutes WGS, hip extensions, push ups, 90/90 stretches - I'm trying to get the ankle off of the mat with these now as well. Downward dog to cobra pose.

8-10 minutes ab work - swimmers kicks, seated ab tucks, push ups, planks, clamshell and side to side ab tucks, BJJ leg pummelling. Supine dumb bell flies and presses

10-15 minutes dumb bell curls, cobra curls, overhead presses. Standing hip CARS with my supercool big piece of ABS pipe. Kettlebell swings or fan bike. 

I do recall that my children naming all of my piece of equipment a long time ago. For example, the punching bag was named Roger. I didn't tell them why until much later, after they had read Lord of the Flies. I wonder if they would be so kind as to name the super cool ABS pipe. Or ... or ... hear me out, I offer the youngest the opportunity to name said super cool thingy as he wasn't old enough to participate in the earlier days.

Sept 7 to 14

Can YOU tell the difference? Maybe it's Maybelline!

There were some positives -mostly work related - to this week, and some real slap in the forehead, thumb in the eye kind of things going on this week. I did it to myself, but it happened. <<le sigh>>

At least the morning sessions continued - I added some light cardio to the last fifteen minutes this week:

8-10 minutes hip and chest mobility - WGS, push ups, 90/90 stretch, downward dog to cobra, baby pose, basic hip and back and shoulder stretching

8-10 minutes abs, push ups, swimming kicks, lying knee rotations, dead bugs, hydrant stretches, clam shell stretches, BJJ leg pummelling, supine ground db flies

10-15 minutes, starting with 2-3 minutes on the air bike or kettle bell swings, then lateral DB raises, "cobra" db curls, overhead presses, hip opening stuff with a PVC pipe that I will now call "pole stretching". I'm doing this last part as AMRAP. I find this part rather helpful and sweaty.

After this, of course I get in the house and make coffee, breakfasts and lunches. The lunches are as always apples, carrots and hummus, prunes, some cheese. 

Breakfasts are tending towards ham and eggs. I'm trying to get protein in and make sure the caffeine levels are rising before driving to work. 

It is the evenings that are the issue - this week I was trying to get everyone out for a swim, but decided to be an idiot. When I am an idiot, everything stops until I can apologize and then this week, not even then. I did hear back about the x-ray to the knee and it wasn't a happy message. The ultra sounds might be just worse, but we will find out this week. 

Sept 1 to 6

 

A week of transition, of trying to find my rhythm has been ...meh, oddly frustrating at times. With a return to a much regulated schedule, just "working out whenever" has gone by the wayside. So this week was fitting workouts into someone else's ideas for me - which lead to me showing up to a public pool and finding it closed early. I'm not sure who does that, but man, that was a drag.

Morning sessions were done every day this week. See if you can spot something added:

8-10 minutes 90/90 stretches, baby and frog pose, WGS, hip opening stuff form YT University and physiotherapists. Push ups, downward dog to cobra pose.

8-10 ab work - swimmers kicks, BJJ leg pummelling, prone 90/90 stretches, push ups

10-15 minutes shoulder work - lateral DB raises, DB meels, bicep curls, overhead presses, 3 minutes on the spin bike, hip CARS with PVC pipe, push ups. Wrist rolling, depending on time

It got a little longer, with plans on just a little longer getting close to the end of September. Just need a little sweat going at the start of the day. 

I swum three times this week, and lo, the rings were closed three times thins week. I think the Venn diagram is a circle there, Sir. 

Aug 24 to Aug 31

preventing this is what got in the way of training this week

A little bragging before I post this week - I've kept this blog alive for fifteen years as of this week. Check it out for yourself here.  

I may have to write about what this blog has brought to my life along with journalling, but that is for another time. 

Well this has been the week of two efforts, to be frank.

Week started off well - morning routine every day this week, but the evening sessions in the second half of the week, not so much. First three days, closed all rings, last three days, closed two every day.

Swimming in an outdoor pool was interesting, but not nearly as much fun as indoor swimming with the lack of idiots in the pool. It was weird. People are weird.  

Morning sessions these days are the usual, except for the last fifteen minutes. I've started to end the sessions with 12 kilo KB swings, Dumb bell/banded work for shoulders and chest along with standing hip work from the physio and various other health care professionals. All good.

What happened in the evenings in the second half of the week? I had to be a control rod for my family - keeping things calm is key this time of year. Absorb energy so that the whole thing doesn't Chernobyl, ya know what I mean?

Aug 18 to 23

 

This was about it for us this August.

This week was a semi-planned out vacation few days that was nice until people ruined it. We booked a few days away in the RV - I wanted to hang out out by the beach and just be chill. Hardly any people about on the Monday and Tuesday, but that got so bad on Wednesday we left half way through Thursday.

Love the place, not the people. Lesson learned and I expanded my knowledge of RV life. 

The four days we were away, not much happened - even the morning sessions were slept through and sometimes ignored. Some walks, some stretching, not very much of either.

Frankly, just yeah. 

I got back into it on Friday - morning session completed by 8 am - ish and a pool swim done to finish off my rings by 6pm. Lots of activity for the day, lots of work on the keyboard, just lots done. 

I have noticed a distinct difference swimming in a 25m pool to a 50m pool. I seem slower in a 50 m pool - like I know I'm moving, but it is like I am not moving. Sigh. I get the work done, the pretty comes later. 

In the Saturday evening pool session, got to Zone Two and Three for about 10 minutes - which is cool. Again, had to spend the first few laps getting all the private pool kids noodles and toys out of the lanes. Whatever, at least they let me swim in peace ofter they left.

Morning session these mornings were added to:

8- 10 minutes shoulders and hips - 90/90 stretches, push ups, downward dogs to frog pose, baby pose, etc, etc

8-10 minutes abs - dead bugs, doggie stretches, hip extensions, swimming legs, BJJ pummelling, etc etc

5-8 minutes - KB swings - one handed and two handed, standing hip opening stuff from physio and NFL kicker dude previously posted on this blog, banded arm curls, banded overhead presses. Forearm work.

Aug 12 to 17

 

Yeah, this week is about walking that tightrope between risk and reward. I finished my rings five times- which is great progress. The risk is injury and I'm just flirting with that at the moment. 

Hips, of course and shoulders. I got out on a walk this morning and did some sprints on a nicely damp grassy soccer field with bare feet and got my HR to hit 145 bpm for about 3 minutes. That's a nice comeback to reality for me. In the three minutes after the workout, my HR recovery was 27 BPM, which "isn't bad", at least according to ChatGPT. 

Not quite what I'm shooting for, but at least that is something nicer than "Get off the couch, you sausage". 

Morning sessions were done all days this week - Usually about 25-30 minutes of the usual:

10 or so minutes of Downward dog, push ups, WGS, baby pose, 90/90 stretches and the like. 

10 or so minutes of ab work - dead bugs, swimmers kicks, knee crossings, clam shells and that sort of thing. Started using the poles to do leg swings and shoulder stretches too.

5-10 minutes of shoulder and arms - curls, overhead presses. Standing delt raises, hammer curls and that sort of thing. 

All in all, not bad. On the swim on Sunday afternoon, felt the rotator cuff being cranky and popping in and out, which was both creepy and interesting. I ended the workout shortly after that. No reason to fall off the rope and end up as street pizza, thanks. I'd rather just take the "w" and get on with life. 

The nice thing about the walks is I get a chance to think about life after vacation and have a generally good idea about what an average day in November is going to look like. That is one of the very few benefits of a job like mine - I can predict with reliability what the next sixteen Tuesdays will be like in terms of where I will be and when. Makes planning fitness a lot easier.