Category Archives: Uncategorized

Little Bird Fly

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On a field in Warner Robins, Georgia this Sunday past a group of thirteen 12-year-old girls from Charlotte, North Carolina made a date with destiny. The newly crowned state champion, Rowan County All-Stars were 2 and 0 in the Little League Softball Southeast Regional tournament, set to play the returning championship team from Tennessee, also undefeated in the tournament so far.

Solid, back and forth play from both teams found the score tied, North Carolina at bat in the bottom of the sixth and possibly last, inning with two outs and a runner in scoring position. At bat was my grand-daughter, number 16. Lovingly referred to as ‘the softball warrior,’ she ate, slept and bled softball, playing basketball, volleyball or anything else at a high level to kill the time in between softball seasons.

Living as we did a laundry list of interstate highways apart I seemed to retain the images of our last meeting several years back even in the onslaught of hundreds of social media posts and regular barrages of school portraits and sporting events. She ever remained the small, slender waif with round, rosy cheeks and long, beautiful, brown hair, the apple of her papa’s eye. Watching her team progress through this tournament showed something new, something unexpected.

This wasn’t a child with a bat, a ball and a cherubic smile, but a practiced team player, snagging string-straight liners and making 6-3 putouts with ease. She took practice cuts with the bat as she settled into the batters’ box, ignoring everything around her except the pitcher, 43 feet away. If I was guessing, she never heard the contact but felt it as the ball sailed over the first baseman’s head, landing in fair territory several steps in front of the right fielder. The runner on third had scored well ahead of the fielder’s throw to home and she looked at the crowd gathering around the plate as they and the rest of her team began running towards her, not yet realizing that her hit had won the game.

I stared blankly at my TV as an epiphany began to wash over me. At that moment she would never again be thought of as a child. She had led her team that day, led by example, with singular purpose and fervent resolve. I would forevermore be the student, she was now the teacher. She had flown high up into the clouds and would never be satisfied with the ground again. I chuckle to myself when I think of her older brother’s one word summary of his little sister’s performance, ‘Clutch.’

Just Not Right

Just Not Right

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I am used to getting up early but this was way too early and I was way too alert, something was telling me that things were just not right. Edging off of the bed and listening for any sounds that didn’t fit, the feeling was not going away and the voice in the back of my head was screaming, ‘Get smart, fast and don’t be a victim!’ Behind the partially open bedroom door was a bat, used to break up cat fights back when we had a cat, that would have to do.

As if any more adrenaline was needed, there was the sound of a footstep in the living room. One step through the bedroom door put me, unseen, in the back hall, a corner hiding me from whoever was in the living room but also cutting me off from my only means of escape, the front and back doors to the house. My advantage was that as the intruder came towards the bedroom door he would be silhouetted by the dim blue glow of the wifi router on the curio cabinet, at once highlighting his presence and killing off most of his night vision.

I waited in the darkness listening to his footsteps coming towards me and tried to concentrate on my breathing, I would have to be absolutely silent until the very last second. I saw a faint blue glow that put him astride of the router’s light and when his face began to pass in front of me I swung the bat with everything I had, hitting him on the bridge of the nose and then I slammed him into the wall next to the door frame and we both went down to the floor. I hit him with the bat again but the first shot had been plenty. While I was getting myself together I noticed that the dude had a gun. I wanted to go for the lights but I wanted to know if the guy had any friends first.

The scuffle hadn’t produced any kind of an audience so I guessed it was safe enough to make a little noise and found a roll of strapping tape in a drawer and proceeded to tie the guy up as well as I could until the tape ran out, that would hold for a while until I could get something more permanent worked out.

I went through the house and checked as many doors and windows as possible, everything was locked except the front door, nobody lurking about that I could see. There was a car that didn’t belong, a couple of houses down, next to the street light. I grabbed my laser pointer from the bedroom and an orange from the kitchen counter and me and the bat went for a stroll out the back door.

There were three houses between mine and the corner of the street where the street light was, the first two would give me all of the cover I needed to take care of the light so that I could get closer to that car. There was a trick that we used on the fourth of july to make the fireworks show more enjoyable from our front porch, aiming a laser pointer at the light sensor on top of the street light tricked it into thinking that it was daylight and shutting off, making the pretty lights easier to see, the orange makes the pointer easy to aim and holds it still as long as you want.

The driver was alone, engrossed in his phone as I walked up on his side of the car, the street light no longer able to alert him of my presence. The bat made easy work of him as well, I pushed him over, drove the car around the block and parked in the easement behind the house. Then it was time to call ‘the Yard Dog.’

What Do You Do For Sports?

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I hate broadcast TV, 20 minutes worth of ads an hour, they never seem to care about the sports I am passionate about, just revenue. Then there is cable sports, cable was supposed to be the answer to broadcast TV because, no advertising. Well, that turned out well. I quit watching football, baseball, basketball, even bowling because of the ‘lets make this sport better for TV’ attitude.

12 years ago a partner and I were hired to video the local Junior A hockey team that was new to town. I was hooked. Let me tell you, there is no more exciting way for me to spend 3 hours than to watch people skate back and forth fighting over a rubber puck. Now I still get on the internet and watch snooker, UK Masters, World Championships, all of the opens, and all because of Ronnie O’Sullivan, I love the Rocket. I also enjoy the Spring Basho, and any tournament that is likely to crown a new Yokozuna, but my abiding love will always be hockey.

The owner of the team has decided to step away from the team and with him goes any hope of another season, that is not acceptable to me or any of the many other die-hard fans. I had to accept the fact that in order to feed my hockey jones I would have to subsist on substandard network feeds from the internet or the infrequent roadtrip to Dallas to watch the Stars from the nosebleeds.

I thought about this and decided that the alternatives were unacceptable. I had to do something. Crowdfunding. It was the single solution that would accomplish all of the goals that were needed. We would have the capital to show the league we were serious and could fund a team for the entire season. We could hire a coach in time to get the right players on the ice. We would be in control of the front office and able to correct the egregious wrongs that were done to season ticket holders in the past. But the most important goal of all, getting our players scouted by college teams. Over the years we have been able to get a large number of our players scholarships at Division I schools. Scholarships that changed their lives for the better in every way possible. This is the point. This is the purpose. The rest is just the mechanics of how to get them there. Altruistic, sure, I can accept that, but if that is what it takes then I will gladly take one for the team, our team.

How far would you go to save your local team?

Day 13- One Golden Answer

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292.8

What if I told you that you could wring all of the fat from your body, maximize your endurance to marathoner proportions and increase your max squat to 1000#, all by doing this one weird thing? Yeah, right. That won’t happen. Not on this planet, not in this lifetime. Fatloss is dependent upon factors such as body type, macro intake, caloric balance, proper amino acid balance, hormones, anaerobic fitness, etc. A continuous, well thought out training regimen carried out over several years might bring you fairly close to your genetic endurance potential. Powerlifting greatness can be built-up over thousands of hours of training spaced out over hundreds of months. There is no easy fix, I know that I did not get this body in a few weeks, it will take at least as much time to fix as it took to break. And I am OK with that.

Body recomposition is not a pipe-dream but it has limits and constraints and most of those involve sticking to the program and following the rules. Carb cycling, paleo, zone, weight watchers, everyone has a new idea, a better idea. There are so many factors to be considered it is no wonder there is so much confusion over which diet is best. It seems that everyone wants you to be on their bus but noone wants to help you determine where you want the bus to go. Sadly we have to decide that for ourselves. What are our goals?

My goals are simple, I want to be able to play with my grandchildren, all six of them, anytime they want to. I don’t want to say, ‘I’m too tired’ or ‘I can’t do that any more.’ I run a mile every day so that I can run a mile if I want to. I lift weights so that if my grandson is going out for football I can hang with him in the gym and bench 200# when it’s my turn. I do pyo so that I can bend and jump and do whatever to keep up with these wonderful guys and girls. I cycle so that they can point to me and say “My papa can ride a hundred miles on a bike!”

My Food

4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C1.6
1 can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10
16 oz. 2% milk(260 cal.)P16F10C24
total=630 cal. P 46.5 F 32.2 C 35.6

lunch
pork tacos
total=1164 cal. P 98 F 46.4 C 73

popcorn
corn(260 cal.)P8F3C50
oil(120 cal.)P0F14C0
total=380 cal. P 8 F 17 C 50

dinner
tuna salad
4 oz. spinach(28 cal.)(P3.2F.4C4
2 cans tuna, drained(180 cal.)P40F2C0
total=208 cal. P 43.2 F 2.4 C 4
daily totals 2382 P 195.7 F 98 C 162.6

My Workout

1 mile run
100 single unders
back squats 5×5@165#

When you think about taking a few days off of a workout regimen, take a look at this study to see the effects of atrophy in only two weeks. The rehab conditioning they speak of is aerobic, no clue what the results would be if resistance training had been added to the rehab workload. As you can see, the difference between 2 or 3 days recovery time and two weeks without a workout is very small indeed.

Your workout
walk 1 mile
25 single unders
10 burpees

Day 12- Ritual Is Becoming Routine

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294.8

Biotin, also known as Vitamin H, is a cofactor essential for the synthesis and oxydation of fatty acids in the human body. Storage of fat for energy and the breakdown of fat for use in the muscles depends on biotin.

Produced by bacteria in the intestinal tract, biotin is also found in foods, notably carrots, romaine lettuce, swiss chard and tomatoes. Almonds, bananas, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, egg yolk, milk, mushrooms, oat meal, onions, peanuts, raspberries, soy, and walnuts are also good sources.

Yesterday I didn’t eat nearly enough but I think I kept the majority of the protein to the early/middle part of the day and the carbs later, which should work well. By varying the food I eat all of the timeI am trying to make eating an adventure rather than a chore.

My Food

1 cup cottage cheese(240 cal.)P26F10C8

lunch
pork tacos (1264 cal.)P100.7F49.4C94

dinner salad
1 cucumber(32cal.)P1.6F.4C5.8
4 oz. spinach(28 cal.)P3.2F0C4
4 tbsp. thousand island dressing(180 cal.)P0F14C12
total=240 cal. P 4.8 F 14.4 C 21.8
1744 cal. P=131.5 F=73.8 C=125.8

My workout

1.2 mile run
100 single unders

your workout:
walk 1 mile
25 single unders
walking lunges 10 each side

Day 11- The Importance Of Coaching

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295.6

If you are like me and don’t go to a gym that has a coach that can give you pointers when you work out, take video and save it for later. You can always watch yourself do the work and then find a video of someone teaching the movement and you can compare and see where you can improve. I have been working on getting my back squat up to 200#(90kg.) for 5 sets of 5. I feel this is an achievable short term goal. For a long time my progress was halted by the fact that I did not have a squat rack and I could only manage about 150# front squatting in the racked position. Unracking the weight put unacceptable strain on my wrists. I finally installed a sort of squat rack on the side of the house and have been able to increase the load now. My new limiting factors are from errors in form and recovery time vs. detraining atrophy. From the video I took the other day I can see that I have corrected for the most part rounding of the back at the bottom of the squat and a tendency to butt wink occasionally. I still however keep way too much weight in the front of my feet, you can tell this by watching the bar path as I go down each time. Things to work on means more reasons to workout again, practice, practice, practice!

A word about shoes. When you workout, especially if you are running or moving your feet side to side a lot, it is incredibly important that your shoes fit correctly. I am as guilty as the next guy of buying the cheapest tennie-runners out there for normal wear, but when I workout, I have good quality, well-fitting shoes. If I am shuffling down the road and my shoe starts moving around on my foot and my toes are trying to keep my feet in the same place all the time I am setting myself up for injury. Stop. Right. There. No excuse in the world is good enough in that situation.

My first pair of workout shoes were Inov8 bareXF-210’s. I scoured the inter webs for weeks looking for the perfect shoe, mainly because I have enormous, extra wide, size 15 feet. They turned out to be the only shoes available in my size but I did have a choice of colors, hideous green or dayglo pink. I love me some green shoes. I can wear out a $13 pair of WalMart’s fine footwear in about 3 months but these shoes soldiered on for three years solid. They still get to do some duty when I run in the morning, there is something to be said for minimalist shoes when you run on concrete. Before I put the green meanies out to pasture I made my most significant footwear purchase to date. The ultimate workout shoe of it’s time. Reebok CrossFit Nano 3.0’s. Also in a hideous color, ‘Rope Burn Red’ this time, because of the size. I kid you not, it’s like having Cadillac’s on your feet, the shoes feel so good. They cost enough, I will probably be buried in them, lol. just get shoes that fit you, that’s all I’m saying, the whole purpose of shoes are to protect your feet and good shoes do just that.

Squats- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

My Food:

4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C1.6
1 can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10

16oz. 2% milk(244 cal.)P16.2F9.6C24.6
total= 614 cal. P 46.7 F 30.8 C 36.2

lunch salad

4 oz. spinach(28 cal.)P3.2F0C4
1 cup cottage cheese(240 cal.)P26F10C8
1 can tuna(90 cal.)P20F1C0
2 Tbs. ranch dressing(260 cal.)P0F28C2
total= 618 cal. P 31.2 F 39 C 14

dinner

6 oz. chicken thigh(354 cal.)P43.9F18.5C0
1/2 cup rice(320 cal.)P6F0C72
sweet chili sauce(100 cal.)P0F0C25
total= 774 cal. P 49.9 F 18.5 C 97

My Workout

1 mile run
Back squat 5×5 @160#
100 singleunders
Hang-clean reverse pyramid EMOM ‘Every Minute On the Minute’
10@95#-9@100#-8@105#-7@110#-6@115#-5@120#-4@125#-3@130#-2@135#-1@140#

If you are following along with the getting started workouts I post, your workout today is:
1 mile walk
25 single unders with the jump rope, I know it sounds monotonous but you will soon be able to tear through all 25 without stopping, it really gets your heart racing, that’s the exact effect we are after, chasing VO2max.

Day 10- Knowledge Is Power

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296.6

Muscle fibers and how to maintain them

We have two kinds of muscles involved in physical movement, fast twitch and slow twitch. Put simply muscles we use for strength and muscles we use for endurance. Slow twitch, or endurance muscles, rely on our cardiovascular system, fuel and oxygen in the blood keep them working. To train endurance, these muscles are stressed over and over so that the number of blood vessels or capillarity is increased and the efficiency of the actual transfer of oxygen and fuel to the muscle fibers is increased. With fast twitch muscles, adaptation occurs once a stimulus or load on the muscles is so great that all muscles of a given group are recruited for the movement. These muscles grow in size as a response. This is a really simplified explanation but I will go into detail later. Basically when it comes to training, bodybuilders don’t run and marathoners don’t deadlift.

So what does that have to do with anything? Being older, my body reacts to stimuli a lot slower than it used to. I recover a lot slower and I need more time for muscle growth to catch up. The thing is, the body will still atrophy at the same rate unless you exercise regularly. In order to keep the type I muscles healthy, cardio has to be done on a very regular basis. Training the type II muscles has to be done as well but scheduled around an extended recovery schedule. A regular endurance program should keep the type I system at a high level of fitness and at the same time optimize the pathways that will lead to growth in type II muscles whose training is properly adapted for effective recovery.

HIIT(High Intensity Interval Training) should be ideal as it tries to operate at or close to VO2max, the limit of the bodies ability to supply oxygen to the muscles. At 40% of VO2max, you would have to workout for 2 hours or longer to get the same stimulus as you would by working out at 100% of VO2max for 15 minutes. The thing is, very few people can get to VO2max much less maintain it for any appreciable amount of time, but the closer you get the better. When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile, he didn’t train by running the mile over and over, he did it by running a series of 10 sub-minute quarter miles every day for months. At the end he was able to mimic his stride and cadence in the quarter for four consecutive quarters, and become the premier miler of his time.

My food:

Breakfast Rellenos

4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C1.6
1 can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10
4 oz. queso fresco(353 cal.)P22.8F27.4C0
4 Anaheim peppers(21cal.)P4.5F.45C21.3
total= 744 cal. P 57.8 F 49 C 32.9

Roast chilies whole under broiler, turning once. Slit longways and seed, reserve, do not remove stems. Finely crumble cheese into eggs and tomatoes, scramble egg mixture as desired. Stuff peppers fully with egg mixture, enjoy!

Chinese for lunch

1/2 cup rice(90 cal.)P6F0C72
1/2 tsp. Turmeric
1/2 onion(32 cal.)P.7F0C7.8
10 oz. chicken thigh(590 cal.)P73F30.8C0
2 Jalapeño peppers(8 cal.)P0F0C2
2 tbs. peanut butter(180 cal.)P7F16C6
2 tsp. coconut oil(80 cal.)P0F10C0
1.5 oz. sunflower kernels(250cal.)P10F21C7.5
total=1230 cal. P 96.7 F 77.5 C 95.3 2 portions/660 now

Rest of chinese for dinner

1 can Dr. Pepper(150 cal.)P0F0C40

My workout

1 mile walk
100 single-unders

 

For those following along:

one mile walk for warm-up

25 single jumps with jump rope

 

Day 9- Motivation

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297.4

Motivation is so much more than ‘I want to.’ Motivation is doing, it is taking the action, it is moving forward. Motivation is a habit. To always act with motivation makes you a force, it makes you powerful. One interpretation of Newton’s first law is that once moving it takes more energy to stop than it does to keep going.

I  f I allow myself to think about something too long I will end up not doing it. This has been proven by me over and over. I truly believe that no one can change another persons thoughts and actions but by small, subtle pushes in the right direction, I can change the way I think about and do things. Sometimes I have to trick myself.

One morning I woke up and was going to go for a run and was sitting on the end of the bed and caught myself thinking about running. I realized that the more I sat there the less likely it was that I would ever get out there and run. instead of sitting still I began to get ready, putting on socks and shorts, finding a t-shirt, putting my shoes on, grabbing my stop watch. Now, even though i was still thinking instead of running, my little ruse had allowed me to be in a position to simply walk outside and start running. It worked. Many times since then, when I don’t really feel like working out, I will get dressed to work out and more often than not, I go on out there and get my sweat on.

Motivation is where you find it. More often than not, it is right there inside you.

So what are all of the extra numbers about in the food lists? The protein, fat and carbohydrate numbers or PFC’s are what are referred to as macronutrients. When you zoom out on what you are eating, say in an entire week instead of just one meal, you can get a good idea of where your calories are coming from. Once you know that it can be easier to make small changes that will add up down the road. For instance, I notice that I use a lot of oil when I make eggs. I use the oil to keep the eggs from sticking, to a teflon pan! I eat eggs about 5 times a week, using no oil saves me 200 calories and 23.5 grams of fat a week. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but if that becomes a habit, I consume over 10,000 calories less a year, that’s 3 pounds or 12 chocolate milkshakes.

Small changes over time make a big difference as you can see. Changing the way that we look at what we eat and making little tweaks here and there will bring us closer to the goals we seek. Does the notebook begin to make more sense now?

I am going to start making up recipe cards for some of my favorite meals. That way I can concentrate more of the calorie and macro information in one spot and spend less time writing everything down and figuring it out over and over. But until then:

Breakfast
4 eggs(320 cal.)P28F21.2C0
14g. coconut oil(40 cal.)P0F4.7C0
1 Can tomatoes and chilies(50 cal.)P2.5F0C10
Total=410 cal. macros P30.5 F 24.9 C 10

Lunch salad
9 oz. imitation crab(330 cal.)P18F4.5C54
4 oz. spinach(28 cal.)P3.2F0C4
green apple vinaigrette dressing(399 cal.)P.3F35.5C4.9
total=757 cal. macros P 21.5 F 35.5 C 62.9

chicken and rice
7 oz. chicken thigh meat(413 cal.)P52.7F21.7C0
1 1/2 cup rice, boiled(90 cal.)P6F0C72
sweet chili sauce (300 cal.)P0F0C75
total=803 cal. macros P 58.7 F 21.7 C 147

My Workout

Jump rope 100 singles
Push mowing 2 hrs.

Your workout
If you want to get to wearing out that new jump rope, walk a mile to warm up and try doing 25 single jumps today. Jumping rope is a very complex movement that happens so quickly that to do it well you have to use muscle memory, that is the body needs to be able to do it without thinking. This takes practice. It feels like it will take forever to learn, it will not, trust me.

If you have questions you would like to ask or a blog topic you would like me to take a stab at, feel free to message me.

P.S. The CrossFit Games are now streaming live on YouTube, check these people out, they leave it ALL on the field.

Day 8- Rest And Reflection

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298.2

It has been a week, one whole week. We have started new habits. Weighing ourselves every morning and writing down the number in a notebook. Writing down what we eat, everything that we eat. Now it’s time to find out why we do that.

As I said, the weight number is pretty much useless except in an empirical sense. We track our weight simply to be aware of it, writing it down makes us accountable to do it every day.

We log all of our food intake for a different reason. Eating healthy is a good habit and most all good habits are learned behavior. Food logging lets us step back and look at patterns in our diet, things that could change as well as the things that we are doing right.

If you have been following the little workouts that I post on the bottom of the blog each day you could be feeling better and maybe even sleeping better than when you started. I assume that anyone that is doing this has no equipment what so ever and I program the workout just that way. From this week forward, small investments in equipment will pay huge dividends. I am not nor will I in the future sell anything at all. I will recommend certain items, only those items that will bring great results with a very small investment. My first such recommendation is getting a jump rope.

Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 7.12.04 PM

There it is, $6 with tax. That is your workout today, go get a jumprope. It is the last you will ever see of that six dollars too because if you stay with me we are going to wear that sucker out. I have said this before and I will say it again, “I am no expert!” But I know a heck of a lot of them. I would like to introduce you to Buddy Lee, the Micheal Jordan of the jumprope…

Just because there is no workout today does not mean there will be no need to write in your notebook today. As an exercise, make a list of each food item that you ate last week, you don’t have to duplicate anything, just note the unique items. Now make a new folder on your desktop and name it “Food”. Go to this website, I like this one because they make you a label…

http://www.calorieking.com/

Type in the name of the food from your list and click a quantity that would make it easiest to figure out the calories that you consumed, ounce, each, whatever. When you click the quantity it makes you a label that has all of the nutrition info for that particular food. Take a screenshot of each label, rename it with the name of the food and save it to your folder. This will save a bunch of typing later.

You now have a fitness notebook that you are recording your daily weight, food and workouts in. If you have been thorough you are on track to build on some really good habits. Also this week, start writing down the calories in your food each day just as I have been doing here. This is your new habit that you are starting this week. And you have a brand new jump rope.

Breakfast
3 eggs(240 cal.)
2 oz. Queso Fresca(160 cal.)
5 Corn tortillas(250 cal.)
2 tsp. coconut oil(80 cal.)
16 oz. 2% milk(244 cal.)
total=924 cal.

This is what these screenshots can look like, just name them so you can find them and put them all in a folder so you have them when you need them.

1 extra large egg:

Screen Shot 2015-07-21 at 7.51.42 AM

Lunch Salad
6 oz. Imitation crab(220 cal.)
4 oz. spinach leaves(28 cal.)
1/2 medium onion(32 cal.)
4 Tbs. Thousand island(180 cal.)
total= 460 cal.

Stuffed peppers
2 Anaheim peppers, seeded(30 cal.)
3 oz. imitation crab(110 cal.)
1/2 cup cottage cheese(120 cal.)
1/2 onion, diced(32 cal.)
1 oz. sunflower kernels(165 cal.)
total= 457 cal.)

Today is my rest day as well, I am feeling the squats in my inner thighs, I may modify my idea of squatting 3 times a week, we’ll see.  Please send me questions if you have any, I will do my best to get you the best answers that I can.

Day 7- Limits, Expectations and Goals

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300.2

Limits, Expectations and Goals

Let’s talk for a moment about limits. I know that I am getting older, I get it, I don’t like it but I know that there is nothing that I can do about it.  I take that back, I can’t stop getting older but I can change the definition of aging as it pertains to me.  ‘Old people can’t’, ‘People your age shouldn’t’, these are artificial restraints that may apply to some, but do not necessarily define me.  I don’t view life and a continuous, inexorable crawl towards the grave.  Life is for living and for the living.  I don’t view limits as absolutes, I see them as challenges.

My expectations likewise are constantly changing.  As I grow I see new opportunities every day. Things around me change and I try to change with them.  To resist change is to be left behind.  I like to think of change as adaptation, of better fitting in with new surroundings.

I try to set realistic goals.  Goals that can be reached maybe not today or tomorrow but within reasonable times.  Time is on our side if we learn how to use it as a tool instead of an impediment.  When we were younger we thought, “I can’t wait to be older,” because age was a limiting factor in the way we viewed what could make us happy.  Now we wish we were younger, I wish I would just make up my mind.

Back when I started going to the gym there was a sign posted on one of the walls titled, “Benchmark Movements.”  There were things listed there that most of the people in the gym could do some if not all of.  I could not do any of them. I was too fat or too out of shape or too inflexible.  Always some reason and that bothered me.  It still does.  These things are some of my goals.  Pistol squats, pull-ups, double unders, hand stand pushups, all of these things that fit people should be able to do.  These things are going to be addressed in upcoming installments, they are achievable goals.

Using What We Learn About Ourselves

My workout today involved two concepts, moving explosively and moving with strength.  The first part of the work is a variation of a CrossFit ‘girl’ workout called Grace.  A classic rX Grace is a 135# barbell floor to locked out overhead, 30 times for time.  My best PR is 9:10.  I haven’t done Grace or any Oly lifting in a while so to get the benefit without potential for injury I’m doing 1/2 Grace, rX weight, 15 reps for time.  That is the explosive movement portion.

Overall strength is expressed in the squat.  It uses the most amount of muscle you can recruit in a single, compound movement.  One of the first ‘programs’ I followed when I started training myself is called 5×5.  5 Basic lifts, 3 per day, 3 times a week using a linear progression.  Each time you do an exercise you add 5 pounds more than you lifted the last time, easy.  If you are 25.  My squat stalled out at 175# and I stopped for a time rather than risk injury.  This is smart.

I am starting this series of lifts again but this time I am going to allow for a longer period of recovery by altering the progression.  Instead adding 5 pounds each time I squat I am going to a weekly progression.  Starting today at 20# off of my last weight of 175#, Monday will be 155#, Wednesday will be 160# and Friday 162#.  The following week, Monday will go down to 160#, Wednesday 165# and Friday 167#.  This will allow me to progress at 5# a week and really modify the recovery process.  My thinking is this, by allowing the recovery to catch up to increased stress more adaptation or growth of new tissue can occur as body resources that were used for recovery are freed up.

Do not attempt anything like this yourself, yet. The workouts I post are ones that I have personally done, I only record them here to document my progress.  There is a substantial learning curve both physically and mentally involved in doing this sort of workout.  I have been doing CrossFit for four years on a daily basis, I have done several versions of Grace at least 8 times and have been coached in the specific movement many hours by professionals, thanks John.  The weight that I am using in the squat was worked up to over a seven week period by squatting three times a week, you simply cannot jump into a weight like that without getting hurt.  I personally have hurt myself weightlifting, using too much weight while doing a movement that I did not understand.  It took three weeks to recover from that injury and I was very lucky.  I would not wish that amount of pain on anyone, please be careful.

WORKOUT
1/2 Grace

135# Barbell Floor to Overhead 15 Reps for time 4:36

Back Squat

155# 5 sets of 5 reps

FOOD
Eggs and Chorizo with Cheese
3 eggs(216 cal.)
4 oz. chorizo(285 cal.)
2 oz. queso fresca(160 cal.)
16 oz. 2% milk(244 cal.)
total=905 cal.

Post Workout Recovery drink
2 granny smith apples(206 cal.)
1/2 cantaloupe(75 cal.)
1 cup water
total=281 cal.
Recovery Protein
1 can tuna, drained(90 cal.)

This combination supplies 74.3 g. carbohydrates and 20 g. protein to aid in recovery.  Recovery drinks/foods need to be consumed within 1/2 hour of the end of the workout for maximum effectiveness.  Do not forget to hydrate before, during and after your workout.  This particular smoothie has a lot of fiber in it.  Metabolizing this amount of fiber may take additional fluid, keep this in mind during the day and drink some extra water to compensate.

Lunch Salad
4 oz. spinach(28 cal.)
5 oz. cucumber(16 cal.)
1 avocado(180 cal.)
1 oz. sunflower seeds(165 cal.)
2 Tsb. thousand island dressing(90 cal.)
total=479 cal.

Dinner
Chicken and peppers(447 cal.)

For those of us just starting out, today’s workout is:
1/2 mile walk, this is the warm up, then
Burpees-Stand up straight with hands at your side. Get down into the pushup position and then get back up and clap your hands over head, that’s one.
3 sets of 10 Burpees

Links:
Grace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydeCu7W1VRc
Burpee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhJ3nQH-y9M
5×5 System in all it’s glory: http://stronglifts.com/5×5/

If you have any questions please ask, I would be happy to answer them if I can, or suggest someone who is smarter and better looking than I am to give you the answer you are looking for.