TimovieMan improves his ankle mobility

[TimovieMan]

In my previous challenge, I had sleep goals, train goals, eat goals and work goals.

 

But now the Summer of Sports has really kicked off. Roland Garros has finished, Euro 2020 started, soon it'll be Wimbledon, then the Tour de France and finally the Olympic Games. That's a LOT of sports, but I'll mostly be watching and generally be a couch potato for this challenge.

Sports analysis programs during Euro 2020 mostly last until half past midnight, so the sleep goals are out the window.

When I'm not working, there's a football game on, so I won't be doing a whole lot of training.

Intermittent fasting is practically second nature again, so no need for that to be in the challenge. And for my own sanity I won't be logging my calories any more.

As for work, in a couple of weeks I can go to the office every other week again, so that'll hopefully take care of itself then.

 

So what's left?

 

 

Daily mini-workouts!!!

 

 

I failed in continuing with the mini-workouts during the last challenge, so how do I kickstart that? By making it the only challenge this time around. I kinda HAVE to do them then, don't I? 😅

 

And since I can't do a deep squat without lifting my heels, why not work on ankle mobility while I'm at it?

 

I was inspired last week by two videos that @Athena posted, so I'll steal that idea and make it part of my challenge now. It's these two:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

So what do I do?

 

 

 

Finish each day with a mini-workout!

 

- Wrist mobility exercise

- Ankle mobility exercise

- DailyDare exercise

- burpee AMRAP

- plank hold

 

 

That's it.

 

 

 

Pretty much.

 

 

[Shello]

That's a lot going on!  Smart move to keep the goals simple!   Your wrists and ankles will be supple indeed! 

 

[TimovieMan]

The challenge may be very different from the last one, but there's one thing that's not going to change: music!

 

Here's a song from an album that's always been a good way to get me going. When feeling slowish in the morning, listen to Andrew W.K.'s opening album. You'll be fired up in no time, and be ready to tackle the day. Or at least to party. Hard. 😅

 

[deftona]

I love the mini workout idea! Following! 

[Elastigirl]

I've found that ankle and wrist mobility work  is  a big payoff in strength and mobility

[TimovieMan]

I had been neglecting the DailyDare exercises since Friday, so the "mini-workout" last night wasn't actually all that "mini"...

 

- 2 wrist exercises

- 2 ankle exercises

- 50 get-ups (DailyDare)

- 40 plank crunches (DailyDare)

- 60 seconds toe taps (DailyDare)

- 50 squat hold side bends (DailyDare)

- 30 seconds knee-to-elbow crunches (DailyDare)

- 40 windmills (DailyDare)

- 10 burpees

- 1'20" plank hold

 

The wrist exercises actually hurt, which is why I never really pushed them in the past. This time it's to the pain!

 

 

 

 

 

The song for today is one that I discovered through the YouTube recommendations, back when I first found out about Lord of the Lost. It's darkwave again, but I quite like the genre.

The singer resembles John Travolta at certain points in the video clip, too. 🙃

It's German band "Blutengel" with "You Walk Away".

 

[Rookie]

Great challenge! Following along

 

I actually know if the Party Hard song because Mr.R loves it lol

[KeysMcGee]

Legit challenge. Am following (now that I've figured out how to follow posts  )

[Harriet]

Mini workouts or bust! Death before dishonour! You can do it!

[Chesire]

following!

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

Definitely going to try out those wrist and ankle workouts! (especially because I also struggle to keep my heels grounded during squats)

 

Love the laser focus of your challenge this time around. Following!

[TimovieMan]

I did the thing!

No DailyDare workout this time, because I'd done it the day before (shortly after it was posted) and the new one wasn't up yet. Even if two are up by the time I'm doing the workout, I'll restrict myself to just one, to avoid this very situation from happening again.

 

- 2 wrist exercises

- 2 ankle exercises

- 10 burpees

- 1'30" plank hold

 

 

Here's an Indian folk metal song about fighting depression and mental illness. I *think* I learned about this group here on the forums three years ago, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I love the song (that flute!) and the message and wanted to share...

 

[TimovieMan]

- 3 wrist exercises

- 3 ankle exercises

- 50 side leg extensions (DailyDare)

- 12 burpees

- 1'45" plank hold

 

The wrist and ankle exercises still hurt. I'm far too rigid. I should have started these ages ago... 😏

 

 

Yesterday I picked an Indian song, so why not pick an African song today? Here's Salif Keita with 'Tomorrow', a song that got my attention for being used in what I considered the strongest scene in the movie 'Ali' with Will Smith. Fitting use of a piece of music in film has always been a good way to get me to like a song, or even to like a song more. This is one of those cases. I remember seeing the film at the cinema, and looking for this song immediately afterwards. Consequently, this was #44 on my last list and will definitely be a top 100 song on the next...

 

The scene this is used in is this one. It's basically the point in the film just before the Rumble in the Jungle where Ali realizes that this fight is bigger than just a fight for the heavyweight championship, and that he's more than just a boxer but a symbol of hope for an entire country (or even continent). Powerful stuff, gets me every time...

[Rurik Harrgath]

Love me some bulletproof ankles.  I usually try to get my knees at the same time because of all the nasty mileage I've wracked up on them over the years too!

[TimovieMan]

Last Sunday my laptop went on the fritz. I feared a faulty motherboard, but still brought it in for repair on Monday.

Yesterday around noon, I got called that it was indeed the motherboard and that the laptop was thus beyond repair.

 

Since I had half-expected that, I had spent some time looking for a new laptop. One with solid gaming possibilities but still moderately priced.

When I went to recover my broken laptop (mainly to retrieve my hard disks), I asked if they could get one of the two most interesting laptops I'd found. They could.

Not two hours later, I got the call that they already had it on stock. So I immediately went and got it... 😇

 

Long story short: my laptop broke down and within four hours of getting the news that it was irreparable, I already had a new one. 😅

 

Spent most of the match between the Netherlands and Austria removing the bloatware and setting it up properly, and now it's fully up and running. 😁

 

And after it was set up, I did the mini-workout:

 

- 3 wrist exercises

- 3 ankle exercises

- 30 roll-ups (DailyDare)

- 11 burpees

- 1'00" plank hold

 

Slight change of form (forearms both straight ahead instead of diagonally towards each other) during the plank hold made it a lot harder, hence the shorter length. And the DailyDare roll-ups probably didn't help either. 😏

 

 

 

Song for today is 'Cornflake Girl' by Tori Amos.

I actually got to know this song back in high school. It was one of the favourite songs of a teacher of mine. When he played it for the class, I took a liking to it. It's been on every list I've made...

 

[deftona]

Do you like anything else by her? I love Tori Amos ❤️ 

[TimovieMan]

31 minutes ago, deftona said:

Do you like anything else by her? I love Tori Amos ❤️ 

I'm not that well-versed in her discography. There are quite a few artists that I like but where I never really dug into their albums, and therefore mostly know singles that had a lot of radio play or that had video clips in the '90s, and Tori Amos is one of those artists.

 

I like almost all the songs I know (Tear in Your Hand, Crucify, Winter, Silent All These Years and Hey Jupiter), but that's all limited to '90s stuff.

 

I did love her MTV Unplugged session (which actually opened with Cornflake Girl as I recall)...

 

Got a good "jumping in" point?

[deftona]

19 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

Got a good "jumping in" point?

 

Boys for Pele is a fantastic album.

[Harriet]

22 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

I actually got to know this song back in high school. It was one of the favourite songs of a teacher of mine. When he played it for the class, I took a liking to it. It's been on every list I've made...

 

Even the genre specific playlists? Rap? Metal? It's on your metal list, isn't it.

[WhiteGhost]

On 6/15/2021 at 4:22 AM, TimovieMan said:

Wrist mobility exercise

I like you mini workout ideas.  I have lost quite a bit of wrist mobility over the years and I should probably do something like this to keep things from getting too bad.

 

Following to see how it works out

[TimovieMan]

On 6/19/2021 at 6:38 PM, Harriet said:

Even the genre specific playlists? Rap? Metal? It's on your metal list, isn't it.

Oh God, no. I don't bother with genre specific playlists. There's far too many genre-bending stuff on my playlist, and my OCD would constantly make me go back-and-forth between including songs on just ONE list per song - and then arguing with myself which list - and including them on all lists that fit. And in the latter case it would make me go plain overboard and make far too many overly detailed genre lists. 😱

Just a top-list for everything is good enough... 😅

 

Cornflake Girl was #62 on my 2004 Top 100, #74 on my 2005 Top 100, #47 on my 2006 Top 100 and #209 on my 2016 Top 300.

The drop in the last list is probably related to me listening to these lists far too often. Hearing certain songs too regularly can sometimes start hurting my appreciation. A situation I will hopefully remedy with a Top 2000 as that will take a good long while before it repeats again... 😊

 

 

 

 

In other news, I didn't do the mini-workouts on Friday and Saturday because the weekends are always going to be harder on that front. I do these workouts right before going to bed, and during the weekend that either means I'd do them far too late or I'd be far too tired to do anything anymore. Or both.

 

But today is a work day, so I did the workout last night. And it was a bit longer since I had accumulated two additional DailyDare exercises. 😊

 

- 3 wrist mobility exercises

- 3 ankle mobility exercises

- 2 minutes of scissor chops (DailyDare)

- 2 minutes of half jacks (DailyDare)

- 40 split lunges (DailyDare)

- 11 burpees

- 1'10" plank hold

 

Doing 5 (knee) finger push ups during the wrist mobility exercises is hurting my burpees - the push up part there gets a LOT harder... 😏

The half jacks and split lunges didn't help either. Jumping up wasn't all that energetic any more... 🙃

 

 

 

For my next list, Tori Amos' "Cornflake Girl" is looking to be in the top 150 again.

There are other songs on my list that have been in freefall because of overexposure. The main example is Deep Purple's "Child in Time" which went from #7 to #9 to #12 to #114.

But there's one that dropped even more spectacularly. System of a Down's "Chop Suey" went from #10 to #19 to #52 to not making the Top 300!

It's looking to end up somewhere between #150 and #750 on the next list. 🤪

 

[TimovieMan]

Weekly weigh-in

 

Weight: 99.1 kg (+0.1 kg)

Body fat: 27.9% (+0.5%)

Visceral fat: 12%

 

Blood pressure: 142/101 (+5/+4)

 

 

I'm blaming the slight increase to the heavy eating last Saturday and Sunday morning, to the overeating on fries this Friday evening (because the kids had leftovers that I ate), and to the general lack of activity during the week, courtesy of Euro 2020.

No heavy eating days this week, though, so I should be back down again next week.

 

 

The missus also bought a new fancy Tanita scale this week, which measures a whole lot more things than our other scale did. It's still only measuring by me just standing on the scale, so the accuracy isn't going to be all that spectacular either, but it's more data to look for trends so that's good, right? It's also measuring me 0.2 kg heavier, but with lower fat mass, so from now on I'll have to compare to this data instead.

 

*New* benchmark

 

Weight: 99.30 kg (+0.2 kg)

Body fat: 24.8% (-3.1%) 🤨

Muscle mass: 71.05 kg

Muscle quality: 61 MQ

Bone mass: 3.7 kg

Visceral fat: 10% (-2%) 🙃

Body water: 50.3%

BMR: 2211 kcal

Metabolic age: 48 years 😱

 

 

 

 

Since I didn't post over the weekend, I'll post another song today.

I'll remain within the Tori Amos category as this is a Belgian artist that somewhat reminds me of her. And not just me, because she was described in the press as "The Belgian Tori Amos" when she was just starting out. I guess that's bound to happen when you have a female singer-songwriter that focuses on piano and vocals? 😅

She's called An Pierlé, and the following song ("Mud Stories") is what introduced me to her. Fun fact: she uses an ergonomic sitting ball to sit on when she plays the piano. Even on stage. 😊

 

I was going to post the official video clip, but the sound quality in the video above is far better.

[KeysMcGee]

1 hour ago, TimovieMan said:

 

She's called An Pierlé, and the following song ("Mud Stories") is what introduced me to her. Fun fact: she uses an ergonomic sitting ball to sit on when she plays the piano. Even on stage. 😊

 

 

Ergonomic sitting ball for the piano you say? Hm...

 

...but then I'm like "I'd miss out on the handy music book storage that my bench provides." Either that or get into a scale run and fall off the thing.

[TimovieMan]

31 minutes ago, theflyingaccountant said:

Ergonomic sitting ball for the piano you say? Hm...

Not kidding!

   

[Harriet]

6 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Cornflake Girl was #62 on my 2004 Top 100, #74 on my 2005 Top 100, #47 on my 2006 Top 100 and #209 on my 2016 Top 300.

The drop in the last list is probably related to me listening to these lists far too often. Hearing certain songs too regularly can sometimes start hurting my appreciation. A situation I will hopefully remedy with a Top 2000 as that will take a good long while before it repeats again... 😊

 

 

Ah yes. What you need to do is 'lose' the song for ten years, then rediscover it to great joy and excessive listening once again.