Can't afford to have the ACL fixed for at least another 6 months so I shelled out for a brace--over $600 for a hinged hunk of metal with some Velcro straps on it!. Skied yesterday for the first time in over a year. The two big areas were completely full, so I went to Skibowl for the first time. Probably a good call anyway. It was cold as hell so I didn't go up to the summit, just worked the middle of the mountain. I'd resolved to limit myself to blue runs, which turned out to be a good call. It turned out that at least one of the runs I was on was green--and that wasn't challenging enough for most of the time. The other problem with it being so damned cold was that the snow was in terrible shape. Icy and hard. Anyway, I was a bit apprehensive about the brace--it really doesn't feel like it does anything--so I was taking it slow. I was able to make some decent warmup runs but nothing very dynamic. I took a fall on the third run of the day and didn't wind up with any pain, but I did get just enough of a twinge to remind me that one knee isn't 100%, so I decided to stay down until I stopped sliding rather than get my skis under me and recover from the fall. I wound up taking one more slow run & by then I was cold and could tell the knee was nearing its limit so I headed home. Wound up taking a 30 minute nap that extended out to 3 hours.
As I mentioned earlier, I'd gotten above 175 although the waistline had only expanded to 34". Started working out again. In addition to skiing, I've already managed one strength workout and two runs this week. Planning to do strength and a run today--planning to. I'd been pounding way too much coffee and not near enough water lately, so I've been working on getting my water consumption up where it should be (and caffeine down) too. But on the other side of the coin once I started exercising and drinking water I started the Hydroxycut. All this chopped me down to, like, 168 pretty quick. The past couple days I haven't done the Hydroxycut because I wasn't drinking enough water, I don't like pills, and I don't like the twitchy, tingly way it makes me feel. Decided to do a couple today to capitalize on the calorie burn from a big workout. Presently holding at 170 with a 33" waist.
God-damn. I'm fuckin' starvin'. I managed to waste the day, screwing around on the computer, doing laundry, cleaning, and exercising. I do have to go out now, though and see what is open today. I've got some errands to run. Anyway, I suppose being hungry is good--I must be burning more calories than I'm taking in, but it seems like if you're doing it right you don't get hungry like this. And the other side of the coin is that I've napped and exercised today and I'm still tired & sore. Crap, I need to make enough money that I can retire and lead a life of sloth.
You saying you worked out made me feel bad, so I worked out today. I WAS HARDCORE I was also frustrated at the amount of fat fuckers at the gym today. So many new-years-resolutions people who won't be there in a month. They're just taking up all the good equipment.
You're right! There's talk of the Y moving to a nicer location (much, much nicer location) about 3x the size of the current gym (we were overcrowded before the fat fuckers showed up). Maybe if enough of them sign up and then leave, the Y will get the funds to move to the new building!
Almost lunch time and I really don't want to do Subway. But I also don't want to get fat, so I guess Round Table, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and even McGrath's Fish House are not on the agenda.
For a bit, I was worried that I was drinking too much. I successfully ramped that back, but I still like a nice cocktail at the end of the day. Last night I had a Manhattan and woke up this morning with mild hangover symptoms. I shall be most disappointed if I can't enjoy a drink on a given night. The cold I thought I'd shaken has also come back to vex me. In spite of my cold, work, and the weather, I've been having some progress with recovering from the holidays. Last week I fit in two runs and one strength training day. Not as good as I'd have liked, but better than it could've been. And I've been doing fairly well at drinking enough water. I've been popping Hydroxycut pills as well and had battled from 175 down to around 168. This morning I was 172. Only thing I can figure (or at least I hope) is that, since I started exercising again, I'm building muscle. Waistline stubbornly holds at around 33". Really trying to be more diligent at snacking throughout the day to maintain metabolism.
Ugh, said the slug. I haven't run this week because it has been cold out and today I don't even feel like doing pushups or crunches or anything. I did manage to get in two naps today, though, so I won't sleep well tonight.
Yer damned if you do and damned if you don't. After a fairly mentally tiring day, I decided I needed to go for a run to "reset" and think some things over. Too much thinking was making me tired. I went out and had a great run--one of the best I've had in a long time. And now I'm too physically tired to think.
My goal is 3 days of running and 3 days of strength training--alternating--with a rest day. This week I've run twice and did strength training yesterday. After my run I also did some yard work. I laid out moss-killer/fertilizer (note to self: get at least one more 40# bag). Then I raked up the leaves I'd been using as mulch over the flowerbeds and such. Next I raked the gravel driveway a bit to try and improve the drainage. After that I did a little carpentry. I tweaked the bottom edge of the garage door a bit and I got a start on my garden shed. Sadly, I trashed the blade on my power miter, cutting Hardi-plank siding. And even after a liberal dousing in Liquid Wrench, the locknut to replace the blade refused to budge, so I partly chewed and partly burned through the 2x4s I was cutting. (I used salvaged 2x4s, so first I had to pull nails and such from them too.) I got the base done, but I don't have as much usable lumber handy as I'd thought (and actually I need more than I realized too), so tomorrow I'll probably pick up a couple 8' 2x4s for the roof. Now that I look back on it, I actually had a fairly active day, so maybe I'm not worthless and weak for feeling like I just got dragged behind a truck.
Old and slow and weak. I thought I was supposed to run a PFT today, but I think I got my wires crossed and it is next week. But since I haven't exercised in god knows how long, and I'd planned on it anyway, I decided to run one informally. I didn't fail it--not even by the standards for an 18 year old. But I did need to factor in my age to get 1st class. Well, not my age. If I was 27, I'd have still gotten a 1st class. And at 41 you just pretty much have to not be dead. Well that isn't entirely true, I don't think. I think you need to bang out the 3 mile run in 28 minutes. And it took me a little over 26, so that was a little unnerving. And I really need to get my crunches in shape. That's an easy 100 points for most people, and it killed me to get 70 points on them today. I always struggle with the crunches--it's the curse of having a long torso, but I really sucked at it today.
I was blessed with freakishly long legs, so I have the mother-of-all leverage advantage on crunches/situps/etc. However, there was one exercise we did called "flutter kicks". You lie down flat on your back and lift your legs about 6 " off the ground and then lift them to about a 30 degree angle. You alternate...raising and lowering like you're trying to swim on your back. But the whole time your legs can't hit the ground. Your "pivot point" being your ass (as in crunches) but with long legs + a short torso you can imagine how hard this is! Luckily it was not an event on the PT test. BTW pushups will be different now for The Army. You cannot position your hands wider than shoulder width apart - so you can't really "get your chest into it" and also now you have to raise + lower your body a further distance. Other PT changes too, so there will be some growing pains + complaining.
After months off, last week I was fairly diligent about exercising. Then I went waterskiing Sunday. By Sunday night, I felt like I'd been dragged under a bus.
Last week was pretty unproductive. I managed one night of strength training. Don't think I made it out for a run. Combination of busy and feeling under the weather. Geez, Wednesday was both. I had to go meet someone for coffee. Rode the bike and then we sat outdoors. I took the leather off and it was overcast, but still, sitting outside for two hours did a number on me. When I was finally able to wrap up, as soon as I stood up I knew I wouldn't be getting back on the bike at that point. Instead I made for the Jack In The Box next to the Starbucks and got some fluid and calories into me. Obviously I didn't go for a run before work. Just took a necessarily abbreviated run today and if I hustle, I can shower, shave and make it to work in time. Then I should be able to fit in some strength training tomorrow. That puts me on schedule for a full week.
I'm acting the sloth a bit when it comes to running. I love the elliptical, but I'm one uncoordinated mo'fo, so running intervals is very awkward and kills my feet during sprinting. But I told myself when I got down to under 180# I would start running - since not carrying around too much fat wouldn't stress my feet so much. However, it's still HOT AS HELL around here by the time I get off work. I would get heat stroke before I finished my workout. The park isn't open until 7:00 AM (great safe running track) but I'm off to work by then. So in about a month I will resign myself to working some running into my cardio exercise. Nothing major.....1-1/2 miles max, but sprinting every few minutes until my heart is SCREAMING then leveling off.
Haven't been for a run in a couple of weeks. Life gets in the way somewhat, but it doesn't take much for me to talk myself out of a workout, honestly. I worked out 5 nights last week, but only two of them were decently vigorous kickboxing workouts. The other 3 were just "hit the gym for 45 minutes of upper body lifting so I can go home and get loaded."
Well, I'm more or less back on track. Working out regularly. Drinking enough water. So today I added in the Hydroxycut again. Hydroxycut is definitely not a magic bullet. But if you're working out, drinking plenty of water, and eating right, it can give you the additional nudge to burn off a little stored fat. It does make you a bit twitchy, though. The label tells you that you should start out with one pill in the morning and one in the afternoon if you've never used it, before moving up to two and two. Turns out that it should be written such that you ease yourself into it even if you HAVE used it and stopped for any length of time. I was really twitchy this morning. Of course it didn't help that I had the max dose AND some coffee.
My body does not want to be 160# or less, with a 30" waist. I was getting back into a pretty good regimen and then I crashed. And on top of not exercising for a week or two, last weekend my brain demanded cookies. Like, insane compulsion. Had to go to the store and buy a pack of Oreos and some Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough. I ate 1/3 of the Oreos while the cookies were baking and then almost finished off the cookies. Finished them off for breakfast and polished off the Oreos over the next 2 days. Then today my body decided "Fuck it. I don't want Wheaties for breakfast, I want McDonald's." Packed on 12# in about a week. Oh, and you know what I want now? Izzy's all you can eat buffet. I'm still not terribly out of shape, but I am again a bit softer than I'd like. Time to suffer again. That said, it is weird. I haven't packed on that much weight in so little time since my days as a college wrestler.
I got fat while I was stuck in Wisconsin this winter. When I got back, I got down around fighting trim, but then I got busy with Life. Holding on the fat side of 165# but soft. And the waistline is up to a "fat" 33", up from 32". ("Fat", meaning I suck my gut in as much as I can when I measure.) Went out for a run tonight. Of course now I didn't get any stuff done today, I've got around 150 e-mails (mostly junk, but I've still got to deal with it), I need to do bookkeeping and I've got to redo Mom's probate court paperwork. You work out and you're tired and sore from working out. You don't work out and you're tired and sore from muscle atrophy and laziness. I guess I might as well be tired and sore and have a nice body.
Managing a run a week. That is 1/6 of my ideal workout schedule. Today's "run" had a lot more walking than I'd like too.
Last week I managed two runs in a week. They weren't very impressive runs. Between being out of shape, continuing to fight a stubborn summer cold, working lots, and getting a dental implant, I've been fairly wiped out. But I'm getting back in the game. This week I'm hoping to get back up to three runs and fit in at least one day of strength training.
Since Sunday I managed 3 three mile-plus runs (with a bit of walking mixed into them) and one day of strength training. However, if I start my workout week from Wednesday, I can manage to have three runs and two strength days. Still softer than I should be, especially around the waist, but weight isn't terrible. And waistline isn't abysmal. Especially for [shudder] "a man my age."
Somehow I wound up taking a couple months off of working out. While I've been getting soft, oddly enough I hadn't been gaining much weight. Actually the waistline wasn't increasing much, but with some time off around Christmas and New Years Eve I've had no excuse to skip exercising. Man, I got weak. The reason I haven't been gaining weight is that I've lost muscle. In the couple weeks since I started working out again I've put on 3 pounds. And when I started back up, even my easiest routine was exhausting. I shoot for 6 days of exercise: 3 running, 3 strength, with a day off. I say "shoot" because traditionally, fitting in 3-4 days is an accomplishment. But last week I managed 3 runs and 2 strength days. This cycle I'm on course to get in 6 days. That said, years ago I picked up one of those ab wheels. Nothing fancy--basically a 5" wagon wheel with a handle through it. Then you kneel and roll forward and back with your upper body weight on it. I stopped using it because I thought it was hokey. Recently I heard that it was, possibly, the best ab exercise equipment you can have so I poked around and dug it out. It is absolute torture. Part of the reason I didn't do three days of strength training last week is that my abs were still screaming from the damned roller wheel.
I realize this post I'm responding to is over a year old, but...out of curiosity, how tall are you? 'Cuz being 160 with a 30" waist seems like that would be impossible for many men to pull off and not look like a human greyhound. And the typical Marine built that I think you're going for is anything but.
5'9", 5'10". I was under 160 out in Hawaii and it was possibly the best shape I've been in a long time. Right now I'm awfully close to 170.
It all depends on frame size (generally). Your muscle/fat can only attach to the bones that nature placed as the framework, which are unchangeable. I'm not including myself because I'm a genetic anomaly, with a lower body frame disproportionately large compared to my upper body frame. I could get down to super low bodyfat and always have a large diameter waist because my hips and legs are designed for a man six inches taller. :santa_sad: Our Loving Creator dropped the ball with me on many levels. :santa_angry:
I can imagine the ab wheel is indeed a good workout. I've never used one, but many of the best ab exercises I've come across replicate that motion in some form. Six days a week is a good goal, but I find life often gets in the way. My goal these days is three really hard workouts that combine strength with cardio, then adding less rigorous physical activity on the other days, like a brisk walk, stair climbing, etc. I believe you've mentioned having a dog, so exercising him/her probably gives you a decent baseline for low cardio. Anyway, good luck!
I don't know how you guys feel about yoga, but if one of the obstacles to exercise is "It's raining/snowing/sleeting and I can't get to the gym," there's a fantastic online program for just $18 a month: www.yogaglo.com There's absolutely no structure (though you can track your practice if you want): You can take as many/few classes as you have time for, ranging from 5-90 minutes. The meditation classes are like listening to paint dry (yes, listening), IMO, but the rest is worthwhile.
