Eating after a workout

So yeah, a couple points to add that I actually know a little bit about (instead of just making it up) (although I imagine UA and lots of others could amplify on them):

Your sore arms are because the exercises create microscopic tears in the muscles. Then your body takes protein and other nutrients and uses them to repair the damaged muscles--only stronger than before, so they won't get injured the same way again.

Two things to keep in mind:
1) This is why you don't do the same strength exercises every day. If you overdo it the muscles don't have time to recover and they just get more and more beat down. That's why I do my strength training every other day. If I wanted to do it 6 days a week I'd alternate muscle groups--do chest and arms M,W,F and legs T,R,S.

2) The other thing is that your body can adapt to exercises so they become less effective. I'm not sure the physics behind this but I suspect that your other muscles learn how to "cheat" and come to the aid of the muscle you're trying to build--so instead of building your bicep, for example, you wind up using your shoulders and lats a lot more. So if you ever get in a rut and stop seeing progress, you need to take a couple days off if you're an old fart like me or mix it up by finding another exercise to do that targets that muscle.

Wow, my "lower yourself as slowly as possible" has gone from 1 second to 3. Not much at all, but it's just crazy that I feel some improvement every time.

I've switched to bikes instead of running for a bit, since they work a similar muscle group as squats, from what I can figure out, and I need that part of my legs to get stronger. Still working on pushups (still shit), situps are better (50 at a time vs like 30 before), so overall I feel some improvement and that makes me insanely happy

Did gymnastics on Tuesday, had to rest since then because my knees didn't like the jumping I did.
Going back to the gym tomorrow. Cartwheels still look like shit, but handstands are better.

I thought it would be a good idea to study while on a stationary bike. Ok, problem. TKO can hyperfocus and study for a long time. At one hour in, the machine decided to go to "Cool Down" mode since apparently they're programmed to go for an hour.

Good thing it did that, too. I had gone for 11 miles and burned over 350 calories.

^thats the best way to use an exercise bike, those things can be excruciating

Llumnissa is kicking my ass we're doing daily workouts, pretty much. My legs and butt are gonna get so fit, it'll be like...

I wouldn't worry too much about the calorie readout on cardio machines. It's based on some arbitrary calculation based on weight and difficulty level, at least on the ones I've used. Do I believe the nearly 1200 calories the machines tell me I can burn off in 90 minutes? Not really.

Woah, a month without an update? Well, I'm still working out. AND!

I GOT A BUMP!!

Took me a YEAR to get that shit and have it kinda visible outside of a workout. Whew.

I forget how long it's been since I did a workout. Been thinking about it seriously, though.

I've been rationalizing that, between working on the house and having a job that involves physical labor, I didn't need to work out, and in fact I dropped several pounds initially.

But my body is adapting to the new level of activity and starting to pack on fat again, so it is time to hit the road and the pullup bar.

Woah, been a while since I updated, eh? Well, Taekwondo is going GREAT. I'm 3/5 of the way to yellow belt.
I suck at sparring. I am terrible, awful, indescribably bad. But it's fun!

So um... other than that 4x/week, not much else going on. Legs look great.

Squat kicks

If it's any consolation, my Muay Thai instructor is nudging me in the direction of the intermediate/sparring class now that I've got several months of experience with the technique. Didn't sound like a huge deal until one of the other students started describing it to me. Apparently, the class is 2 hours long, starts with a 2.5 mile run, and you don't do any actual sparring until the very end.

We'll see how much of that turns out to be the case.

HA! Preaching to the choir! That was my big beef with The Army. When I first joined at 28 or so I was in okay shape (working construction) but had never done a "pushup" in my life. Thus, I was catching hell in the PT area. I could run and do situps just fine. Other exercise who knows? They can't test you on anything but PU, SU, and the 2 mile run anyway.

Anyway at the time, The Army was all about pushups. You mess up, you did pushups. During PT, more pushups. A "recovery day" was out of the question. Long story short, my muscles were constantly tore down because 20 or 30 pushups to me was total "muscle failure" while for someone with a lot of upper body strength it was just a warm-up.

Thus, I barely made progress alll the way thru AIT (job training) because we were still under control of the Drill Sergeants who could do a gazillion pushups and expected you to do the same. I barely did the minimum push ups even after 9 months in school....basically one year since joining The Army, adding on basic training time. I could max my sit ups and run, but barely squeeze out enough pushups.

Now fast forward to the real Army. We did PT three times a week....so we had a recovery day. My push up score SOARED and within about a year I could almost get a max score! I even earned the PT excellence patch for scoring above 290 out 0f a possible 300.

Moral(s) of the story? Don't work dog-shit out of the same muscles every single day. More is NOT better.

Second lesson, not every person is at the same level. I could do sit ups all day, but would I expect another person to have this ability? Not hardly.

Third lesson, you get psychologically burned out doing PT too often. I gets to be a grind. A day off has you chomping at the bit ready to go after your day off, and you get more out of it.

Luckily (for the new generation of soldiers) they have finally got scientific and totally revamped their PT approach. Guaranteed in a few years of doing things smarter, the average soldier will be hell on wheels.

As for your rep question earlier, yes, a year ago I was flexing and got nothing. Now I has a little bump

Taekwondo works practically every muscle group. We'll focus on punches one day and kicks on the next day. Situps/crunches one day, pushups the next day. I feel everything getting stronger and it's awesome!

I'm also one stripe and one testing away from yellow belt!

Taekwondo, in the federation I joined, is NOT about aerobics. It's about power, speed, and precision.
It's also about a lot of ab work.
I can hold hollow position now

Which I couldn't do a month ago. The idea is to keep your back in a curve so you make a kind of boat. Your back shouldn't arch, and mine always did, until I started boot camp, err I mean Taekwondo.

So far, I've learned front kicks, side kicks, hook kicks, and turning round kicks. Knife hand strike, reverse punch, lead punch, back stance, front stance, horse stance, high block, low block, inner and outer forearm blocks, and combinations of all the above.
I've gone from zero girly pushups to 15 and I'm almost ready to do them for real. They time white belts at 2-3 sets of 40 seconds of crunches. I can usually get 40-45 in every set.

Sparring is still dismal but I'm getting the hang of the basics. I think.
I told my instructor I'd come back and spar him when I got my black belt, way forever from now. :dig: I'm gonna regret it.
He'll be a 5th degree by then, and he's already one of the best 4th degrees in our federation.

Go for it! You can 2.5 standing on your head as long as it's not at too fast a pace until you build up to it. Old-ass soldiers run this far all the time.

Knowing there is sparring at the end will motivate you!

Muy Thai is pretty kick-ass. It's a very practical martial art.
There's a Krav Maga place down the street (Israeli combat based) but at almost 50? Maybe if I were 30.

I would jump all over some Krav Maga if I could find a good place.

Sadly, the closest I can seem to come in Omaha is a more conventional sort of school where one of the instructors once went to a fucking seminar or something so they could put "Krav Maga" in the window, right next to "Sport Tae Kwon Do! Youth programs available!".



Is it so much to ask that I get private lessons from a hot Israeli chick?!?

Yes, it's called "survival" and we evolved this way. Here's the premise:
in nature food is very hard to get. Our bodies evolved to save every calorie we can, so our bodies figure out a way to do things as efficiently (conserving energy) as they can. That's why you have to keep upping the ante whether in physical improvement.

Anywho don't get made UA, but like I said before, I live right near a Krav Maga place. Hot Israeli chicks? Not according to their website.