Team 7 - The Long Term Fitness Goals

[Team 7]

For the last two weeks I've been mechanically doing workouts and walking. As you could tell from my final posts in my first thread, Project 1: 30 Days - Foundation Work, I was running out of witty ways to say "business as usual" when doing updates. Sure, it was fun at first when I was trying to find my stride with the schedule; the stumbling around gave me something to talk about on a daily basis. Then things became natural, and in the end it was all mechanical. While I was still doing the schedule, it was done without any thought... no passion. I needed motivation to post again and to tear into the exercises.

 

One bad dream and a looming birthday later, I'm starting another personal log. 162 days (163 minus 1 because on day 163 I will be eating cake)... or 23 weeks and change... or 5 months and change... then the birthday will be here. And in 2021 I have a class reunion to think about, and SHE will be there. The star of my crap dream last night... the motivation that has kicked me into overdrive today. For those of you that have had your heart torn out but moved on in a healthy way and are thinking that revenge is petty, here's the secret of being me: deep down I'm an awful person.

 

But awful doesn't mean inefficient! So let's combine as many things as possible. Note that this log will be concentrating on exercise only, not other aspects of personal development.

 

The diet is the same as in the original foundation-building thread. Things are starting to calm down with the pandemic, and the panic buying of food has wound down a bit. My diet is pretty basic. And I am not body-building, I am going for "functional strength", or whatever the proper wording is for that. Lean muscle?

 

Over the next 5 months and change I'll be exercising according to the following schedule:

 

Morning:

 

    Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday -
        I'll be doing a marathon training schedule. Due to an injury I'm doing April and May as rehab where I will be walking the first month of a 90 day schedule, then doing the first month of the schedule again combining walking and jogging. Then June, July, and August will be game on.

    Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday -
        CORE:
            Seated Twist - 30 to 60 seconds   (this will be switched out with another core exercise in a month)
            Burpees X 10
            Plank - 30 to 60 seconds   (this will be switched out with another core exercise in a month)
            Burpees X 10
            Kneeling Twist - 30 to 60 seconds   (this will be switched out with another core exercise in a month)
            Burpees X 10
            Wood Choppers (left and right X 10)    (this may or may not be switched out with another core exercise in a month, I love this exercise!)
            Burpees X 10
            Bent Knee Wiper   (this will be switched out with another core exercise in a month)
            Burpees X 10
        WRISTS/FOREARMS:
            I use a dumbbell handle with a rope tied to it, and the other end of the rope has a carabiner tied to it. I can then thread the rope through various weight plate combinations to run through a pyramid of weights. I stand and roll the dumbbell handle to wind up the rope and lift the weights, when the weight is to the dumbbell I unroll it. Don't let the weights drop! Unroll it! I do the following pyramid: 5 pounds 15 times, 10 pounds 10 times, 15 pounds 5 times, 10 pounds 10 times, 5 pounds 15 times. I do this after all other exercises that need grip and forearms in general, this wipes them out!
        BUTT:
            Definitely a vanity exercise. I'm not stupid (debatable)... ok I'm not entirely stupid. If you get more than one person complimenting you on a body part, you want to keep it in mind when exercising. I'm going to throw some dead lifts in. Each month I'll look at switching out the exercise for another.

 

Midday:

 

    Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday -
        See the marathon training verbiage in the morning part of the schedule. Walking/jogging can be broken up through the day during the rehab cycle, but the final three months of running must be done all in the same session to build the necessary endurance.

 

    Monday/Wednesday/Friday -

        Just get out and go for a walk on non-marathon days during the work week!

 

Evening:

 

    Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday -
        See the marathon training verbiage in the morning part of the schedule. Walking/jogging can be broken up through the day during the rehab cycle, but the final three months of running must be done all in the same session to build the necessary endurance.

 

    Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday -
        Ladder/pyramid workout with weight plates. Due to a foot injury, I dropped back to the 45 pound max pyramid. The exercises below focus on upper body, but you have to stand to do them! I'll be upping the weights every three weeks. If things work well, and my body doesn't give out before then, I'll be to 100+ pounds by my birthday. The routine listed below is the same as I did in the foundation-building thread, the moves remind me of a lot of things I do when doing manual labor. Getting the weight above and also away from the body happens a lot in the real world, and I want to be able to walk into any real-world "can you give me a hand" situation ready to go. Plus people tend to take a programmer for granted as being weak, and it's HILARIOUS seeing the look on their face when you stack a couple bundles of shingles on a shoulder and climb a ladder while helping them re-shingle their roof!
    
        Routine:  Stand up from a squat lifting the plate from the floor. Curl the plate to your chest. Do a standing skull crusher. Bring the plate back down and do a left and right kettle bell ribbon. Do a left and right wood chopper. Bring the plate back to your chest and twist and bend at the waist to the left, then front, then right. Then do two lunges, one with each leg, thrusting the plate out in front of you. Then squat back down, touching the plate to the floor, which returns you to the starting position. The ladder/pyramid for this is using the following plates and reps:

 

        Do the routine above with 5 pounds, 25 times. This makes for a nice warm up.
        Do the routine above with 15 pounds, 20 times.
        Do the routine above with 25 pounds, 15 times.
        Do the routine above with 35 pounds, 10 times.
        Do the routine above with 45 pounds, 5 times.
        Do the routine above with 35 pounds, 10 times.
        Do the routine above with 25 pounds, 15 times.
        Do the routine above with 15 pounds, 20 times.
        Do the routine above with 5 pounds, 25 times. This make for a nice cool down.
        
        As I said, every three weeks the weight for each step will go up.

       

I WON'T BE DOING DAILY UPDATES! Let's be honest, after the first few weeks of a new schedule, there are few surprises to talk about. And the schedule above has been already tweaked over a month already. Instead, I'll be doing regular weekly updates to let you know I am still alive if nothing else. If anyone has a question, comment, criticism, whatever, I'll try to answer it. If something important comes up during the week or I am blessed with a sudden burst of enlightenment in regards to something somewhere along the line that can't wait until the normal update, I'll post it.

 

I plan on riding this challenge up to my birthday, then beyond (hence the "Long Term" wording in the goals). Like I mentioned above, I have a reunion coming up next year. So I need to keep the exercise going. If just to see the look on a certain someone's face... yep, I'm petty.

And a final tidbit, I typed this by typing CORRECTLY. Fingers in the home position, moving the correct fingers to the correct keys. It took FOREVER! But learning to type is a long-time goal, and I need to get off my sorry butt and do it. See 2020... Time to be better than 2019!

 

Oh, and a final FINAL tidbit, the name "Team 7" refers to the Wildstorm (not DC) military specialists team, and not the Naruto team or anime or whatever that is!

[Team 7]

The pain in my foot got me to thinking. Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday being set for walking is all well and good, but some additional rehab would be beneficial. I can go the walking distance easily enough in the morning before work, and then I have the rest of the day open. I'm going to throw in some Tai Chi. It's great for stretching in general, but it also works the feet as you go from one movement to another. Walking and then stopping somewhat abruptly may not be beneficial if I don't roll and stretch the foot afterwards. An additional bonus, it is great for balance. I recently came across posts by @Mad Hatter showing her work perfecting her balance doing a handstand, and she inspired me to think beyond the limited exercises I have posted. I used to be able to do a handstand as a kid a long long LONG time ago, it would be fun to be able to do it again. Or I'll be bouncing myself off the floor, walls, and furniture. Probably the latter.

 

Thanks to everyone on this site for posting their unique fitness goals, you definitely inspire others to branch out and try new things!

[Mad Hatter]

Yay for handstands! Perfecting is a big word hahaha, more like endless struggling. 😛And yes you will fall. A lot. So I'd recommend moving the furniture out of the way. 😉

 

Can I just say that while your marathon goal is very admirable, I'd be very cautious about putting timelines on recovery. Recovery is notoriously finicky, and a setback because of pushing just a little too hard too soon would suck.

[Team 7]

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Can I just say that while your marathon goal is very admirable, I'd be very cautious about putting timelines on recovery. Recovery is notoriously finicky, and a setback because of pushing just a little too hard too soon would suck.

 

Yeah, in regards to the marathon goal, I do have it in the back of my head that my goal may be unrealistic. The injury is only a few weeks old and has improved many-fold, so I am still operating on guy-logic that I can beat it. I've had so many other injuries before that I've gotten past by hard work and sheer force of will (and a dash of stupidity) that I like to think it will work for this as well. But I am older, so that factors in as well...

 

I'll be taking it slow, and evaluating as I go to keep from doing any permanent damage. Thanks for your concern and having the guts to give me realistic advice, I've always relied on others to tell me the hard truths and keep me from doing stupid things! Much appreciated!  😊

[Mad Hatter]

I'm all for doing stupid things! 😄But rather without getting (re)injured. Hopefully it won't take long for you to heal!

[Team 7]

Weekly recap...

 

I'm doing my weekly recaps Saturday mornings after the scheduled items are marked off. For me, Sunday is the start of a brand new "this is going to be better" week (spoiler: it never is). As most of us know, Monday through Friday are the days of non-stop activity. Saturday for me is usually a day of errands and outside chores and catching up from the week and the official wind-down. In other words, the perfect day to recap.

 

I officially started this personal challenge on Wednesday morning, 4/8. I found some motivators to get me back to attacking exercises and posting how things were going. But let's stay away from talking about the unhealthy motivators and list the healthy ones!

 

Music! - Believe it or not in the previous month long challenge I did, I didn't listen to music while exercising. Sure, there were the occasional "I'm pissed at the world and am going to spend the day blaring music" incidents, I mean who hasn't been there? But there was never music lists structured to get the blood pumping, or to help calm things down. I put together some playlists of music for the plate exercises, specialty exercises, walking, and Tai Chi. They work great at setting the mood, and helping determine how much more time the session has. Or I just put the list on repeat and let the Tai Chi relaxation take me away...

 

Turn off the TV! - Coronavirus news is depressing! Political sniping is ridiculous! Grand-standing egos and lying and opinions on the same subject 24/7 (or is it 25/8... days are kind of blending together anymore) are redundant and irritating and redundant! And also redundant! I've limited myself to morning and evening local and world news. If something horrendous happens, I'm guessing it won't immediately affect me where I am and I'll hear all about it between 6AM and 7AM, and 6PM and 7PM. I just want facts and data, not opinion and bickering and overall childishness stretching on for hours and hours. The radio is now my friend! Weird Al was right on pretty much every album when he sings about how much TV sucks!

 

Talk to someone at least once per day! - Text, phone, Skype, Zoom if I want hackers to take a visual tour of my immediate personal space... It's funny, once upon a time I would go for a week's vacation and not talk to anyone for days on end, then the following Saturday after a marathon of Criminal Minds and watching the dozenth depraved f#%& commit some messed up murder spree, I'd think to myself that I need to go interact with people to reconnect with humanity. Just going to the store to get a sub was a break from the self-induced cabin fever. Now, with everything that is going on, I am feeling reinvigorated when I talk to people more regularly. Once the world clown car 180's from its current course to suckage, I'll need to continue this crazy concept of regular human interaction, just *gasp* in person!

 

Now let's get to recapping the exercises...

 

Core - It's funny how you can do a previous month of core exercises, get to where you are feeling pretty good when you finish, then switch out with new exercises and find the small group of muscles that was missed in the past month. Definitely feeling the new core exercises. I like the standard unmoving plank. Such a fundamental exercise, yet I never really got into it before. Now that it will be a regular for a month, it'll be interesting to see how long I can hold it.

 

Wrists/Forearms - I used to do this same exercise a long time ago when there was a girl... alright, doing this for me now... focus... When I did this exercise before, I used the same weights but less reps in the pyramid steps. I still have a lot of that strength I built up before, but having upped the reps for this schedule was a good decision. This is the exercise I knew from experience to save for LAST in the morning, because my forearms are Jello and my grip is shot when I am finished. Can't argue with the results though! The last time I did this I did it every morning, and never gave the needed day in between to allow for growth. Yup, this is a vanity exercise. It'll be interesting to see what happens this time.

 

Butt - Let's be honest, the weight plate exercises end up with 145 squats. The walking works the glutes. I'm not sure what the deadlifts are going to add in regard to this part of the anatomy, but deadlifts are good for other areas (the back!). Like I said, I'm not going for bulk, so I am keeping this light with just 110 pounds (2 45s and 2 10s) and 25 reps. After the previous month of the weight plates and walking, I'm not really all that sore from three days of this. I'll run this for the month, if I don't feel this more I'll up the weight. I may not get anything from it for the butt, but it is good for the back.

 

Plate exercises - This hasn't really changed from the past challenge in terms of "aha!" moments. I noticed a slight twinge in my foot when the weight shifts from side to side causing pressure on the side of the foot, but the actual foot steps themselves for the moves are pretty much forward and back, and that doesn't seem to aggravate anything. Stepping back 10 pounds from where I ended before to assess how my foot was going to feel was a good move.

 

Walking - This is the one I was most focused on. This week, while I didn't start this challenge until Wednesday, I did do the Tuesday distance after posting this new challenge thread just to get the schedule started. Tuesday 4 miles, Thursday 3 miles, Saturday 5 miles. In an effort to rehab, I moved away from the route I did in the last challenge and elected for a more level area to walk. I noticed that there was a difference between walking on paved running tracks and sidewalks where I would feel no pain, and walking on grass/fields where the foot can sink into the wet ground or the ground was a little uneven and the shifting would cause some pain. I started alternating miles, the first mile paved, the next on the grass next to the paved area, the next paved, etc. I want to strengthen my foot and also work and stretch it. I'll be honest, the damn thing hurt at the end of each session, but seemed to recover in a few hours afterwards. We'll just have to see.

 

Tai Chi - This was added because on the walking days I am able to knock out the miles pretty quick, so far in the mornings after waking up. Doing Tai Chi has been a good stretch of my foot and everything else. I don't have a set time per day or length of time for this, this is a feel-good exercise for rehab and balance. I enjoy it, so it will be easy to jump to during off times in the day. The balance will come in handy for other things. I plan on being able to do a handstand someday soon!

 

The diet is good, no temptations taking me off track. I'm a creature of habit (and pretty much non-existent taste buds), so I don't really crave foods I shouldn't be eating. To be well rounded, I'm doing some reading, some tech work, some sketching, and some archery. And typing like a normal person to someday look like I know what I am doing! This took forever to type! I plan on emerging from this isolation cocoon an improved person!

 

Here's to everyone on Nerd Fitness and their continued health! Remember that when things get you down to reach out to the community of friends that we have here for support and inspiration!

[//Min]

Cheering you on!!! You're going to meet your goals!!! RAWR! You're going to show them who's boss!!

[Team 7]

Thanks //Min! Hopefully we can all channel our inner butt-kicker and show the world what we are capable of!

 

Weekly recap...

 

It was a good week fitness wise. The diet remains on track, of course when a greasy burger can make me sick as a dog it isn't tough to stay away from them and other no-nos. Though I do fondly remember bacon-cheese burgers... give me a minute to weep silently in requiem...

 

Ok, let's quash that trip down memory lane and get back to the task at hand. My foot is feeling great. Well, it is feeling normal (which is great) when I walk on paved or (more importantly) on grass/uneven ground. This past week's walking schedule: Sunday 3 miles, Tuesday 4 miles, Thursday 3 miles, and this Saturday morning 6 miles in 7.5 inches of snow. Yeah, walking outside this morning was definitely a "What the hell??!?" moment. I'll be logging some more footwork as I shovel out. Anyway, I don't feel a twinge to remind me to take it easy until I run for more than a minute or so. And even that is a twinge, not drop-to-the-ground pain like when I first dragged myself home after the original injury. I'm not running on a schedule, the only time I run now is when I am walking a rambunctious dog and they get excited. Even then I'm mindful to take it easy, just to see how it feels and how long it holds. I still have the rest of April to work it and evaluate, and May to also rehab. I won't push it, I have long term goals and overall not permanently messing up my mobility is way more important!

 

The core... the waist is slimmed down, the abs are more defined. At the beginning of the last challenge I did the standard body measurements as an easy way to do a "before and after" evaluation, and I have lost three inches off the waist since starting the first challenge at the beginning of March. The burgeoning muffin top I had gotten used to seeing over the last decade-plus is pretty much gone, thankfully. I'm going to start thinking of some more ab specific exercises for May to build on the success in this area. But I will give credit where credit is due: the exercises are great and have toned and started to build things up (particularly around the chest and shoulders thanks to the plates) and the walking/hiking from the first challenge melted some fat, but it is definitely the cleaned-up and consistent diet that has made the bulk of the improvements. I also noticed over the past month and a half that my skin seems to be better off from I'm guessing the increased hydration and ton of cucumbers I've been eating. The reason I can state the diet as being key is because I have done exercises for months on end before without the diet and never got close to the results I am seeing now. Back then I'd build muscle in the targeted areas (which melted away quickly after stopping the exercises), but the muffin top never budged as long as the garbage-diet remained.

 

The deadlifts... meh... I will continue them for April, but I'm going to up the weight to 150lbs. For those of you wondering my body weight is now 172lbs, so 150lbs is considered novice level (or well below... always was an underachiever). I'm not body-building, so I have no shame in taking it slow! Hopefully my back is getting something out of it. Back issues run in my family, so the plate exercises that stretch it in different ways with weight and the deadlifts are pushing any eventual back failures further into the future. I guess this is a GOOD example of kicking the can down the road!

 

I'm upping the plate exercises by 10 pounds for each tier of the pyramid, so for example the minimum tier will go from 5 pounds to 15 pounds, and the maximum tier will go from 45 to 55 pounds. Not much to say about this routine, I'm seeing great results but there have been no surprising revelations to report. It seems to be good for the upper body, yay.

 

The Tai Chi is definitely an exercise I'm enjoying and will look to incorporate it permanently going forward. I turn on my Tai Chi music mix and just start the moves and the next thing I know time has flown by. The stretching and relaxation are worth it all by themselves, but the balance improvements are icing on the cake. I started working on doing a handstand, and I'm sure that it has been hilarious to watch from a minimum safe distance of ten feet. I'm becoming an expert at the frog stand and tentatively raising and lowering each leg. Oh well, we all started somewhere, right? The wrists/forearms exercises are hopefully going to contribute something to this endeavor.

 

I'm hoping we get some consistent better weather soon (~70 degrees one day and snow a few days later? Seriously??!?), because I want to eventually take all of the exercises outside permanently. I live far out in the middle of nowhere where cinder trucks fear to tread, so there is no one to point and laugh when I do this stuff at home. But even if there were, the hell with them, right? It's the results that speak volumes.

I'm going to end things with this thread. I've come to two realizations that have been a month and a half in the making. First, I think I've reached a great place fitness-wise. When I was younger I grew into a plateau weight of approximately 165lbs. I spent decades at that weight, never able to go up without exercising, and when I stopped exercising I'd go back down to that weight. I made it down to 169lbs over the last month and a half for the first time in 20 years. Now I am creeping back up. I'm guessing the hard-headed "you gotta want it" attitude I approached this with and the hard work of rigorously sticking to the diet and exercise burned off a lot of garbage I ate and drank over the past almost 20 years of a stressful job and now I'm building back up with the muscle I'm seeing in the upper body and legs. Getting away fitness-wise from people patting me on the head and telling me they are sure I'll do better next time when things go wrong instead of helping me actually stick to the schedule definitely helped. Success has become addictive, and I'm going to continue. I'm thankful to have made it back to where I started before stress eating and drinking empty calories got me to where I was. And now I'm thankful to be able to look forward to what's ahead. My goal is to make 179lbs my new normal.

 

I've been reading a lot of other people's posts that generate a lot of conversation. Which brings me to my second realization... wow my posts suck. Not just when I post these challenge logs but when I post everywhere on this site. I post long winded overly detailed things that use a lot of words to ultimately convey so little, and usually my words are poorly chosen anyway. My posts are not fun to read. I see people use memes and GIFs and such to dress them up and those are fun and creative! I am definitely not built for posting my thoughts (i.e. ramblings) and am going to end this.

 

I hope this post finds everyone healthy and happy. Have a great week everyone, and ultimately have a great fitness journey! Good luck to everyone!

[//Min]

Big hugs. I hope you keep moving towards your goals.