Astreja's Battle Log: Building a Better Valkyrie

[Astreja]

October 4, 2014:  Benchmark day, in preparation for starting a 6-week Warrior challenge.

 

Current weight:  215 pounds (official reading from balance scale at the gym).

 

Workout at local recreation centre:

• 3 x 5 bench press:  Warm-up, empty Olympic bar; 55/65/75 pounds.
  Objective:  Press 100 pounds for 5 reps.
   
• 3 x 5 squats:  Warm-up, empty Olympic bar; 65/85/95 pounds.
  Objective:  Squat 130 pounds for 5 reps.
   
• Deadlift:  3 x 5 with a 50-pound bar.  This is an exercise that gave me some trouble back in the 1990s:  I tried to lift too heavy and hurt my back when the bar unbalanced, so I'll need to research proper form and be merciless in that regard.
  Objective:  Deadlift 70 pounds for 5 reps with good form.

I've been on a ketogenic diet and doing extremely well with it, but now I'm starting to ease the parameters to introduce more vegetables and berries.  Because it'll be important to get sufficient protein and fat, I'm trying to get into the habit of keeping a food record.

 

This challenge will definitely have rest days built in, so I'll use Monday, October 6 as the official start day.  Photos, measurements and workout schedule to follow.

[Astreja]

Got a good workout in this morning at the recreation centre, and made a little bit of progress.

• Squats:  Warm-up, 5 reps with bar; 65, 65, 85 pounds for 5 reps each; 105 for 4 reps.
   
• Bench press:  Warm-up, 8 reps with bar; 55, 65, 75 for 5 reps; 75 for 4 reps.
   
• Deadlift:  2 x 5 with a 50-pound bar, then 1 x 5 with a 60-pound bar.  Lower back is now aware that something is going on back there.

Not concentrating quite as hard on the keto aspect of my diet.  Making sure I get protein fairly soon after the workout.  This morning I resorted to a steak-and-egg breakfast sandwich from a fast food place, discarding the bun.  Nobody seems to know how to cook eggs that taste like eggs; it left a sour taste in my mouth.  (Makes mental note to boil hard-boiled eggs to carry along as an after-workout snack)

[Astreja]

And here it is, the day after Canadian Thanksgiving (second Monday in October).  I took a few liberties with my diet yesterday, but overall didn't go too far overboard on the carbs. Along with roast duck we served wild rice with onions and celery, spiced yams, orange sauce, cranberry sauce, sparkling wine, and vanilla pudding for dessert.  Amazingly I haven't had a craving for more carbs today, which is something new for me.  I've tried to liberalize a strict low-carb diet in the past, but usually it's resulted in me going too far to the opposite extreme and not being able to get back on track.

 

Tonight was my tap dancing class.  I've also been playing around a bit with body-weight exercises to assess muscles and set me up for my next lifting session.  I did a bit of research and am going to experiment with a slightly wider squat stance to wake up the vastus medialis and get it in balance with the vastus lateralis (I've had problems in the past with patellofemoral syndrome, so the way I do squats will be critical as the weight goes up).

[Astreja]

Bringing things up to date this fine Friday morning.

Last Sunday I added a bit of weight to my bench press and got it up to 85 pounds for 5 reps. Squats at 105, but I'm going to be dropping the weight this weekend and trying for better form. Currently doing assisted chin-ups with about 150-160 pounds of assistance, for a net weight load of around 60 pounds (body weight in 215-220 range, usually just a hair above 215).

Went to tap dancing on Tuesday evening. Getting the routines down, but not as coordinated with my left foot because I have to balance on my right (the foot with midfoot and big toe arthritis).

Not having much luck yet with getting up earlier on weekdays. I may have to reinstitute a bedtime challenge and roll back to 12:30 a.m. or even midnight.

Intermittently trying squatting all the way down without weight, usually hanging onto a desk or chair. I did notice that the sore spots in my leg muscles and joints correspond to the areas I need to stretch, and in fact when I do focused stretching of those spots I feel considerably better.

[Astreja]

Well, the weekend was a bit of a washout in terms of working out. I've had a sinus infection that prompted me to go home from work early on Friday, so I went into recovery mode and allowed myself to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday morning.

I now have a local accountability partner, though -- A close friend who wants to participate in a healthier lifestyle, with low carb eating and some exercise.

A few more days and I'll also get my home gym (my study on the 2nd floor) back. Currently it's being used as a temporary bedroom, but we're just about ready to lay the flooring and do the finish trim in my real bedroom. It'll be easier to use my equipment when I don't have to climb over a pile of boxes to get to it.

[Astreja]

A bit of an "aha" moment here at work today. Last night I had a lot of foot and knee pain, so decided not to go to tap dance class to allow the leg to rest. (I actually get 2 weeks off dance class because next Tuesday is Remembrance Day and no classes are running).

Foot was still hurting this morning, but I poked around and discovered that a nerve on the back of my leg is sore all the way down to the foot. Light massage (ouch ouch ouch ouch ahhh...) immediately got rid of the achiness in the foot. A few minutes later, while researching the spelling and meaning of a medical term ("eccentric exercises," more commonly known as "negatives"), I also realized my right hamstring is also incredibly sore. I tried some negative leg curls (this time with OUCH in capital letters) and again my whole leg felt better.

I think something in the back of my leg is getting pinched between two or more other somethings. I also think that there's a lot to be gained by doing negative standing leg curls. To be continued...

(Also gearing up for more low-carb eating after Halloween. For now I've gone back to my Level 1 Challenge simple restrictions of "don't bring sweets to work" but haven't clamped down on starches just yet.)

[Astreja]

Another observation on knee and foot soreness: I discovered a subtle "click" of a tendon or ligament on the inside of the right knee when extending it, and working that point back and forth resulted in immediate improvement in my walking. Also found a sore spot in the arch of the foot, and massaging it makes that feel better, too.

(As an aside, I work in medical transcription and am constantly picking up tidbits of useful information from the doctors for whom I type. Physiatry and neurology are two of my favourite disciplines to transcribe.)

Diet is stable. I found I wasn't enormously hungry this morning, so I just had a glass of milk before heading out to the bus stop, and a yogurt with my 10:00 coffee. Considering another bout of ketogenic low-carb eating to bump my weight down another 5 pounds. Next landmark is 210 pounds.

Did heavy(-ish) lifts at the gym on Saturday morning. DOMS showed up right on schedule on Sunday afternoon -- For me, it's usually about 28-30 hours between workouts and muscle-related aches. Saturday seems to have driven the back and triceps muscles hard, which is a good thing. Have also used my home chinup bar for negatives a couple of times in the last few days, so that may be part of it.

[Astreja]

Battle log for last Saturday (November 15, 2014):

 

Bench press, on machine:

• Warm-up, 50 pounds, 1 x 12
• 70 pounds, 1 x 8
• 90 pounds, 1 x 5
• 100 pounds, 1 x 5 (Target weight and reps for current challenge, but want to repeat on free-weight bar to make it official).

Squats, with bar:

• Warm-up with empty 45-pound bar, 1 x 6
• 65 pounds, 1 x 6
• 75 pounds, 1 x 5
• 85 pounds, 1 x 3

Deadlift, with pre-loaded short bar:

• 80 pounds, 6 lifts

Assisted chin-ups, on machine:

• 130-pound assist (85 pounds of own weight), 1 x 5
• 120-pound assist (95 pounds of own weight), 1 x 1

[Astreja]

Battle log for Saturday, November 22, 2014:

 

Bench press, on machine:

• 70 pounds, 1 x 10
  
• 80 pounds, 1 x 7
  
• 100 pounds, 1 x 5
  
• 110 pounds, 1 x 5 (10-pound increase since last week).
  

Squats, with bar:

• Warm-up with empty 45-pound bar, 1 x 5
  
• 75 pounds, 1 x 5
  
• 95 pounds, 1 x 3 (10-pound increase since last week)
  

Deadlift, now using Olympic bar:

• 95 pounds, 1 lift
  
• 105 pounds, 2 lifts
  
• 125 pounds, 2 lifts  (matched all-time best from 1996, but with much better form)
  

Assisted chin-ups, on machine:

• 120-pound assist (95 pounds of own weight), 2 x 2, 1 x 1
  

[Astreja]

A quick update before a very, very busy weekend: I'm going on a band road trip tomorrow morning and may not get to the gym till Sunday.

Have traced the leg problems down to a snarky left gastrocnemius, which may have gotten twisted or pulled while I was running about the house doing renovations and cleanups. Stretching it and trying to pump blood back into it, with varying degrees of success. Right leg is doing very well with the heavy lifting; in fact, the knee is stable and not sore, and the many-times-sprained ankle is getting a bit more flexible.

[Astreja]

Battle log for Saturday, November 29, 2014:

 

Bench press, on bar:

• 65 pounds, 1 x 10
• 95 pounds 1 x 2, 1 x 1, 1 x 0

Squats, with bar:

• 65 pounds, 1 x 8
• 85 pounds, 1 x 6
• 95 pounds, 1 x 4 (1-rep increase since last week)

Deadlift, Olympic bar:

• 95 pounds, 3 lifts
• 115 pounds, 3 lifts

Assisted chin-ups, on machine:

• Warm-up:  130-pound assist, 1 x 5
• 120-pound assist:  1 x 4, 1 x 3 (increase of 5 reps over last attempt)

Scale weight:  216 pounds.

[Astreja]

Battle log for Sunday, December 7, 2014:

 

Bench press, on bar:

• 65 pounds, 1 x 10
  
• 85 pounds, 2 x 5
  
• 95 pounds 1 x 2, 1 x 1 (same as last week's maximums)
  

Squats, with bar:

• 65 pounds, 1 x 10
  
• 85 pounds, 1 x 6
  
• 95 pounds, 1 x 5 (1-rep increase since last week)
  

Deadlift, Olympic bar:

• 95 pounds, 6 lifts
  
• 115 pounds, 2 lifts
  

Assisted chin-ups, on machine:

• Warm-up:  130-pound assist, 1 x 5
  
• 120-pound assist:  2 x 2
  

Scale weight:  218 pounds.

[Astreja]

Battle log for Sunday, December 14, 2014:

 

Bench press, on machine:

• 80 pounds 1 x 8
  
• 90 pounds, 2 x 5
  

Squats, with bar:

• 75 pounds, 1 x 10 (new warm-up weight
  
• 95 pounds, 2 x 5 (did second set at last week's top weight)
  

Deadlift, Olympic bar:

• 95 pounds, 3 lifts
  
• 115 pounds, 3 lifts
  
• 125 pounds, 1 lift.  Still exercising caution at the top end of the weight range.
  

Assisted chin-ups, on machine:

• 120-pound assist:  1 x 4, 1 x 3 (increase of 3 reps from last week)
  
• 110-pound assist (lifting about 105 pounds of own weight):  2 negatives, no regular reps.
  

Scale weight:  216 pounds.

 

The 10-week tap dance class is now over, but I've been practising a few steps while waiting at the bus stop.  I've also reorganized my study (which I had been using as a temporary bedroom due to renovations) and have easy access to my recumbent bike and other fitness gear again.

[Astreja]

Battle log for Monday, December 22, 2014 (end of Warriors challenge)

 

Bench press:

• Warm-up, on machine:  70 pounds, 2 x 10
  
• Barbell:  95 pounds, 1 x 2 (with spotter)
  

Squats:

• Warm-up set on squat machine (35-pound plate plus unknown weight for machine)
  
• With barbell, 95 pounds, 1 x 3
  
• With barbell, 125 pounds, 1 x 5 (challenge goal achieved)
  

Deadlift, Olympic bar:

• 115 pounds, 1 lift
  
• 125 pounds, 1 lift
  
• 135 pounds, 1 lift.  Lifetime 1RM for this exercise.
  

Assisted chin-ups, on machine:

• 120-pound assist:  2 x 2
  

Also did 5 minutes on a cardio machine (recumbent elliptical).

[Astreja]

I'm working with my recumbent bike again, trying to get my legs moving with more fluidity.  I did 20 minutes on Sunday (Dec 28) and again on Tuesday night.  Tried on Monday night as well, but my left calf cramped up so badly I could only do about a minute and a half.  Keeping the intensity down, speed up, and my portable music player close at hand.

[Astreja]

The January/February 2015 challenge starts tomorrow.  I did some preliminary work on the reading front today, finishing chapter 2 of A Guide to the Good Life and also reading about half of a PDF sample of the meditation book Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana.  I like what I've seen so far and may be ordering a copy of the book.

 

No particular exercising today.  We had some snow on Friday night, so I did a lot of shovelling yesterday and decided to let my arms and legs rest.

[Astreja]

Challenge, Day 1:

• 20 minutes on recumbent bike, low intensity; then, because a couple of favourite songs were coming up on my MP3 player, I played around for a few minutes more, dancing to the music.
• Did a few minutes (not sure how many; probably 5-10 minutes) seated in a chair, attempting mindfulness meditation.  About halfway through the session I felt an odd aching pain in my left arm.  I have no idea what it was, because the arm isn't injured.  Studied it for a minute or so and it vanished again.
• Read Chapter 2 of A Guide to the Good Life and another chapter of the meditation book preview.
• Registered for the Pilates course, which is starting this coming Saturday morning.

[Astreja]

Challenge, Day 2:

• Exercise today consisted of a long walk around most of an IKEA store (or as I like to call it, "That Weird Swedish Place." )  It wasn't all that fast a walk, but all in all it was probably at least half a mile.  At home I did some wall push-ups and some slow negative push-ups with knees on mat; a set of lunges; and experimented with a bit of mat work (Cobra, leg lifts, downward-facing dog, and plank).
• Read Chapter 3 of A Guide to the Good Life.
• About 10-15 minutes of meditation.  Among other things, i found myself wondering how the brain generates stories that are totally unlike anything from our own experience:  As my focus wavered near the end of the session I "heard," in a dream-like way, a male voice philosophizing about something or other.  (Unfortunately I can't remember the comments themselves or even the topic of the comments, but they didn't sound at all familiar.)

[Astreja]

Challenge, Day 3:

• Did 23 minutes on the recumbent bike, including 2 minutes at level 3.
• Meditated for 10 minutes (didn't count the conversation with my cat Frey Kittehson or the initial settling-in).  Pondered the question of where anger manifests in my body as I occasionally get very tense, for instance when I hear an upsetting news story.  Worked a lot with trying to get my spine in good alignment, as it kept slumping down and forward and I had to keep adjusting it.
• Read chapter 4 of A Guide to the Good Life.  I'm now out of the history section and into practical applications of Stoic thought, and chapter 4 is about cultivating joy via negative visualization and contemplation of impermanence

Community band practices have now resumed and my time on Wednesdays and Thursdays is now at a premium, so I did the bike before I went out to rehearsal and the meditation and reading after I came home.  I think the meditation is having a positive effect on my sight reading:  Tidying up my mind and working on concentration exercises seems to create larger contiguous chunks of brain-time, making it easier to read through difficult sequences of notes.  Either that, or I magically jumped half a clarinet grade during the holidays.

[Muscle Professor]

Awesome job on the challenge this far! Keep pushing your limits.

[Astreja]

Challenge, Day 4:

• Got in from rehearsal at 10:30 p.m. and then spent about an hour dealing with kitchen stuff, including processing some sprouted wheat for a bread recipe I wanted to try.  (Couldn't leave the sprouts any longer, as they'd had a growth spurt while I was out this evening and I had to grind them before they got any bigger.)  Upside is that the dough is now fermenting and ripening, and can be baked tomorrow.  Here's hoping that it tastes good, too.
• A couple of simple exercises:  3 sets of slow wall push-ups and 3 sets of squats with my body weight:  Between 10-15 reps for each set.
• Chunky-style meditation:  5 minutes with cat , and 10 without cat.  I had a bunched-up throw filling in the small of my back, which made it easier to sit in a relaxed manner.  Whenever I got stuck I just went back to observing my breath, and it was a simple and logical way to get back on track.  This must be the "develop good habits" part of the meditation training:  Just keep doing the right things and eventually they'll be second nature.
• Read Chapter 5 of A Guide to the Good Life.  Today's topic:  Focusing efforts only on things that you can actually control, and setting internal goals rather than external ones if the situation that isn't 100% controllable.

[Astreja]

Challenge, Day 5:

• Rode the bike for 20 minutes and then did some slow shoulder exercises with dumbbells.
• 10 minutes of meditation, but posture left a bit to be desired.  Not bad at getting back on track when my mind wandered, but "soft" focus rather than intensity.  Interesting things come up when sitting:  Today it was a memory of the smell of pipe tobacco, which reminded me of a now-deceased uncle I haven't seen for nearly 30 years.
• Read Chapter 6 of A Guide to the Good Life, "Fatalism."  Apparently the Stoics were fatalistic about things that had already happened (and which couldn't be changed), and about the present moment, but not about the future.

Got a phone call from the recreation centre where I'm taking the Pilates course.  The instructor is ill (probably the flu that's going around) and so the first class has been postponed until next Saturday.  Class will be extended another week to make up for tomorrow, but I'll have to come up with an alternate plan for exercising.

[Astreja]

Challenge, Day 6:

• For meditation I did something a bit different:  I did two things that demanded high focus for long periods of time and tried to stay present and mindful. The first involved baking:  I was making sprouted wheat bread and had to knead the dough for 20 minutes, folding it in upon itself to activate the gluten.  The second was a sewing project that involved appliquéing a large dragon print from an old shirt onto a piece of black denim.  (When it's done, it'll probably be a wall hanging or get framed.)  I had to carefully trace the outlines of the dragon with a machine embroidery stitch, following all kinds of weird curves.
• Read Chapter 7 of A Guide to the Good Life.  Today's topic was self-denial, practised occasionally to toughen up against adversity, to develop self-control and willpower, or to increase enjoyment of something by not giving in to every craving.
• The Xtreme Bread Knead-o-Thon also counts as my workout for the day.  My arms and shoulders have had quite enough of that for a while.

[Astreja]

Challenge, Day 7:

• Did 20 minutes on the recumbent bike.  I felt my calves trying to cramp, so I kept the intensity low and kept pedalling gently.  It didn't get much better, but it didn't develop into full-blown cramps.
• Meditated for nearly 15 minutes.  Fewer random thoughts wandered in tonight, and I was able to acknowledge their presence and then refocus.  I seem to do best concentrating on a steady sound, because I can keep my attention on it but not get involved in analyzing it.
• Read chapter 8 of A Guide to the Good Life, which is about meditation.  In the Stoic sense, this means analyzing (either in realtime or at the end of the day) how we dealt with situations -- Ideally with reason and a degree of detachment, rather than being at the mercy of our emotions.

I also did a lot of up-and-down-the-stairs functional exercise, as we were working on renovations this afternoon and I made a lot of trips to the basement workshop to cut wood.

 

My sprouted-wheat bread got baked last night.  *meh* It's okay, but it wasn't the droid recipe I was looking for.

[Astreja]

Challenge, Day 8:

• Did an assortment of short exercises:  About a minute on the balance board; 3 sets of wall push-ups, going very slowly; 3 attempts on the chin-up bar (mostly trying to activate the back muscles for 20-30 seconds, as I'm not yet light enough to lift my own weight; assorted stretches at work.
• 10 minutes meditation.  For some reason I kept seeing a vivid metallic green-blue.  Also had a startling image of someone I had cut out of my life nearly 15 years ago:  Age had caught up to him, and "he" was no longer there.   Not sure what this signifies.
• Read Chapter 9 of A Guide to the Good Life.