Back from Vacation

I didn't do a hell of a lot exercise-wise on vacation, and I did a lot of drinking and smoking, so there you have it.  Pretty fun and a nice break.  I did manage to hit the Cal gym the first morning there and do this:

 

6 x:

6 pushups

10 straight-leg deadlifts (45#)

4 pullups

10 squats (alternating 40# goblet and 20# overhead)

5 40# swings / side

 

I took plenty of breaks, but still left there feeling great.  Got very sore in the middle of my back, on either side of my spine, and backs of legs. 

 

Trying to think of something fun to do today.  I was planning a Tabata session but I forgot my iPod.  I might do one anyway and just keep an eye on the timer. 

BBS

Warmup:

5 snap pushups

5 push-down pullups

10 40# goblet squats

10 20# OH squats

 

pulldown 130# 17

overhead press 60# 13

leg press 280# 13

seated row 80# 12

chest press 100# 10

 

Not much in the way of athletics has been going on lately.  I've been on the scooter a fair amount lately, probably three nights since last Thursday, and even had my first wipeout (very minor).

 

Seated row was very disappointing.  I just felt like I had no snap.  Also had the persistent feeling that I am not really progressing in general, and compared to my last version of this sequence, I'm not, really.  I was kind of undercaffeinated, and it was at lunchtime.  Lame. 

BBS

Warmup:

5 snap pushups (rest at bottom)

5 push-down pullups (form faltered on fifth)

10 40# goblet squats

10 20# OH squats

 

seated row 80# 19

chest press 100# 13

leg press 280# 11

pulldown 130# 9

overhead press 60# 8

 

I was in an incredible rush, so this was a true BBS workout, with no rests to speak of.  Doing it this way is both harder and more satisfying, and, considering that endurance is a perennial problem for me, I may do it this way in the future. 

 

OH squats were a nightmare.  I was leaning forward 15 degrees by number 7.

Fascia and Tabata

Eating:  nothing

Drinking:  some nice old pu'er

Listening:  Give Me Power

 

2 x (5 push-down pullups; 10 goblet squats, 20#; 10 OH squats, 30#? (lightest bar))

 

Tabata incline 15, 9:22 pace

 

Amusingly, as I suspected earlier, the Tabata mp3 I have is in fact 9 reps, not 8. 

 

I read an interesting article by the guy who wrote Born to Run today, thanks to a post on Matt Metzgar's blog.  It resonated, especially considering that my neck and shoulders were almost totally frozen on I think it was Thursday or Friday night.  I have to admit I am totally intrigued by the whole process and I even went ahead and bought Ming Chew's book, which was recommended by one of Matt's commentors.  Really looking forward to trying some of the stretches. 

 

Some notes on the exercises themselves:

• Push-down pullups: grip out, thumbs out, quick up, push down, bounce back up.  On the second set, I put my hands a little wider apart than shoulder width.  Certainly these are at least a little bit easier than ordinary dead hang pullups.  I suppose they helped with shoulder mobility a bit.  I hung before and after each set.  To be honest I don't really understand what this was supposed to accomplish or why it was better for me than normal pullups.
• Goblet squats: dumbbell held vertically to the throat, fairly explosive.  Much like normal squats, although I think it was easier to get deeper.  I should do this with a much, much heavier weight.  A very enjoyable exercise, fun to concentrate on the form and feel the springiness in my legs.
• Overhead squats: I think the bar was 30#, and I held it over my head.  Still very, very hard to keep level and to do a full set.  I kept trying to tip forward (although only at my waist and above; my feet stayed flat on the ground) and my back was very engaged trying to keep the thing over my head.  It seemed like I should be "sitting" more. 
• Tabata: undeniably easier than usual, possibly thanks to the warmups.  I need to pick up the pace a little.  Really noticed how asymmetrical my stride is.  Each of the soles of my feet seems to have a totally different way of striking the ground. 

VT

meaning volume training.  Sort of. 

 

Eating: nothing

Drinking: baozhong

Listening: The Strokes and Love Will Tear Us Apart

 

8 x (6 pushups, 1 dip, 4 pullups)

 

The nice thing about this workout is that I got out of my fucking office and did the whole thing.  I rested a lot in between, but I knew I was going to do that going in.  My pullup form was kind of weak on the last two sets, so I don't think I could have done more.  Good feeling.  Next time maybe I'll try to do 10. 

 

The path to sets (even a single set) of 10 pullups and 20 pushups remains unclear, but at least I am doing something to keep busy while I figure it out. 

BBS

Eating: for some reason I just had some cookies

Drinking: semi-wild baozhong - delicious

Listening:  Gamelan of Central Java 4

 

pulldown 130# 16

overhead press 60# 14

leg press 280# 10

seated row 80# 14

chest press 100# 12

 

hot / cold shower

 

Not a bad workout.  Four hours of sleep left me feeling a little tired, and I had a rough morning and a heavy lunch.  The exercises in general felt better as I went on.  I got a really nice burn out of the seated row, for once, although it was mainly in my arms so it's possible that I'm doing something wrong there.  The lack of upward progress is a little annoying.  I can rationalize it though, as I recall reading somewhere that one should "master the weight" before moving up, so that's what I'm saying to myself that I'm doing.

 

For once, the cold water at the gym was really fucking cold, and it woke me up completely. 

 

I'm going to get out on the scooter and do some laps tonight.  Each lap is .4 miles and has a 45-foot elevation gain.  Macho. 

 

 

Fasting

I (uncharacteristically) fasted for YK and (even more uncharacteristically) had a really easy time with it.  In the past, I've found fasting to be an unbearable hell, with every single second spent thinking about food.  Not this time.  I prepped by eating a bacon double cheeseburger, a bowl of chili and a huge milkshake (made with Vermont ice cream, how was I going to pass that up?) around 2 pm and then a package of prosciutto and a banana (going primal at Duke's sucks) around 5:30.  I then didn't eat until around 8 the next day.  Sure, I was hungry as hell when I actually sat down to eat, and I did take a nap, but otherwise I felt great.  I meditated for about half an hour and scooted (?) a mile and a half, and actually considered going for a little run, although I ran out of time.  The bottom line: it felt good.  This morning, I had planned to take it a step further, not eating until lunch (so like 18 hrs without food) and working out on an empty stomach.  Unfortunately, I was in the office until 2 AM, so I was so dazed when I got in this morning that I wasn't able to motivate to the gym before people started giving me stuff to do. 

 

The funny thing is that I don't really remember why fasting is supposed to be good for you.  At this point it just feels liberating to not be tied to food intake. 

Successful TM Tabata

Eating:  smorgasbord from Duke's

Drinking:  2002 Fu Cha Ju Ailuo (?) cooked

Listening:  How to be Clear

 

5 chinups

Tabata 9:22 pace, 15 incline

5 pullups

 

hot shower, cold shower

 

Close to barfing, but not as close to death as the last one, which I note en passant was over two months ago.  I am working very late (again) and really felt like taking a shower.  I was away from my desk for a grand total of 45 minutes, and that included buying food and watching part of Top Gun at the gym.  ANOTHER GOOD DECISION. 

BBS

Eating: had some cheese and some foul-ass turkey potstickers

Drinking:  the XZH 8582 stuff.  It's good and I'm thinking about buying some.

Listening:  some Satie, something really peppy. 

 

seated row 80# 18

chest press 100# 14

pulldown 130# 9

overhead press 60# 8

leg press 260# 16

 

On the balance, this was not a good one.  Work has really been getting on my nerves lately and I just don't feel that awesome in general.  Not that I'm depressed, just not a lot of energy.  The SR and CP went well, but I think I should have taken a little break at that point, because I totally flailed on the PD and OHP.  At that point I recognized my former minion AK and we had a chat, so I hit the LP rested and did better than expected.  Definitely got some glucose out there, and I will be going up to 280 next week. 

 

I continue to look for entertaining stuff to do in my free time.  I got one of those little 3-wheel scooters for the Monster, because I want her to be able to ski someday, and ended up getting a grownup version for myself too.  It arrived yesterday and I took it for a spin around the block.  I look fucking stupid riding around on it, but I see the thing as a skateboard with training wheels.  As a little kid I always wanted to be able to skateboard, but under the old-model A Feng life approach that meant that I spent lots of time reading skate magazines and almost no time trying to stand up on a skateboard.  Maybe not that much has changed, but I had fun blasting down the hill last night and I look forward to another round tonight, so perhaps someday I'll be able to get around the park on a skateboard without breaking my wrist. 

Quick Trip to the Gym

Facing a long night at the office, and annoyed at myself for not having exercised enough this weekend (although I did do 7 miles with the Monster on the bike!), I ducked out for a short workout and a long shower.

 

6 x (3 pullups, 6 pushups, 5 overhead squats)

5 stepups per side with 60# weight

 

I don't know why I stopped at 6 - felt like I could have done twenty.  Maybe even more if I took breaks.  Got back to the office (where I am still) feeling like a million bucks. 

BBS

eating: nothing yet; had a bunch of sandwiches for lunch because that's what was free

drinking: YSLLC samples

listening: Gamelan of Central Java 9

 

pulldown 130# 16

overhead press 60# 12

leg press 240# 19

seated row 80# 13

chest press 100# 12

 

This was an excellent experience.  Absolutely raged out on the pulldown and the leg press.  Others were all a good effort too.  Could have done better on the seated row but fatigue was setting in at that point. 

 

This is a good example of a totally rested BBS workout.  I have been too busy lately to get anything else in.  Kind of a shame but what can you do.  I am not complaining.

BBS

Eating: just had a Chop't cobb, with spinach, and just olive oil for the dressing - give myself a gold star

Drinking: 1994 Menghai 8582

Listening: We Are Wolves

 

seated row 80# 16

chest press 100# 10

leg press 240# 14

pulldown 120# 15

overhead press 50# 15

 

That was a five-star workout.  I don't know if I've ever had a better BBS session.  I went up on every exercise, and kept it totally smooth and under control.  On the leg press and pulldown in particular I really felt like I gave it everything I had. 

 

Weights up on pulldown and OH press next time. 

 

Warmed up with very light free weights, cooled down with hot/cold shower, nice and long.

 

I've also been thinking a lot about the bigger picture.  I have been keeping this journal / blog for a full year (as of four days ago).  As far as experiments go, it has been incredibly successful.  I have never felt better in my life.  The blog has been a real encouragement to keep exercising, and to keep exploring different ways to exercise and be healthy.  It's amazing to think that a year ago I had never heard of Mark Sisson, didn't have five fingers, didn't know what HIT was, etc. etc.  It hasn't turned into a real blog, but I think that's fine.  I am cooking one up for translation and tea anyway. 

Sick Circuits

Sick as in unhealthy, not as in awesome, therefore a lighter workout.

 

5 x (3 pullups, 5 front squats, 5 OH presses, 5 OH squats, 4 pushups, 5 deadlifts)

 

Used a 20# bar for everything.  Kept my heels on the ground througout.  Fun.  Starting to feel better. 

Invalid BBS

pulldown 120# 14 (last week's 190 was a typo, should have been 130)

overhead press 50# 15

leg press 220# 14

seated row 80# 12

chest press 100# 8

 

steam (longer than usual), hot shower

 

The idea here was to take it easy on my sick ass, knock down each weight by 10#, and do maybe 15 or more easy reps of each, still until failure but more from exhaustion than from inability to push farther.  Well, I should have dropped the weights more.  In terms of effort, it was probably 90% of last week, and in some cases (probably leg press and seated row) it actually felt harder.  Being sick really (to put it Victorianly) seems to have sapped my strength. 

 

This experiment did, however, make me think that there could be space in my routine for a different kind of exercise to failure - many reps, or very slow reps, of maybe half the weight that I am capable of cranking out 10 normal-speed reps.  Slow, of course, would be much in the original spirit of Body By Science, but I also like the idea of doing 25 reps and then collapsing - kind of like German volume training, maybe. 

Running b/w Sick as a Dog

Just ran 1.5 miles in the Five Fingers.  Felt great.  A little tightness / spazziness in the left ankle but nothing to complain about. 

I have also just missed two days of work thanks to my friend Mr. Flu.  I think it's probably six months to the day since I was laid out for 48 hours in BC, so I guess I was due.  The first signs were on Friday, when I couldn't tolerate the cold portion of my shower, but I didn't pay them any mind and went out normally.  Actually, it's a bit misleading to say normally, because I don't really go out at all since I became a father.  We went over to HS's, had some weed and some cigarettes, and lots of beer and Italian food.  I woke up feeling very achy which I attributed to the pushups etc on Friday.  Saturday afternoon WJ and co had a roof party, and I spent lots of time outside in the kind of shitty windy weather drinking beer and eating gross hotdogs, with the buns.  Now that I think about it, that was some of the worst food I've ever had at a BBQ.  By that time the sour taste in my mouth was kicking in.  That should, in the future, be the signal that it's time to cancel all plans, take a 20-minute hot shower, and drink 100 cups of ginger tea.  But no - I smoked more weed and had some more beer (HS came over).  Despite gargling with GSE and rinsing out my nose, I slept like shit Saturday night (cold sweats, couldn't breathe).  This gave me a lot of sympathy for people who are trapped in the medical system, as well as the epiphany that 19th century invalid literature - for instance, the Magic Mountain - makes sense as descriptions of altered states of consciousness.  Sunday was a wash, but I have been feeling progressively better since then.  Some lessons:

• Drink your vinegar (I have not been drinking vinegar lately)
  
• Listen to the signs
• Listen to the Wife
  

More Violence

Drinking: 1996 water blue label 7542

 

Hit the bag, then sparred, with BK for about 25-30 minutes

 

5 x (4 pullups (grips different each time), 6 pushups (looking to alternating sides), 10 straight-leg deadlifts

 

Boxing is so much better with someone else.  We went for a much longer time and higher intensity than I usually do.  The bag is so old and crappy that I actually broke the metal ring that it hangs from, causing it to thud to the ground.  The sparring was fun, but because BK a) is shorter than I am (although not by much) and b) ducks down about six inches every time he throws his lead hand, I couldn't really get any openings other than his face, and that was off limits, with good reason.  We are going to get face protectors.  Really fun and a really good workout.

 

The exercises were good too.  On the last two sets of pullups I stopped after 3, rested about 30 seconds, and did the final one.  It made sense at the time because my form was going and I didn't want to go to failure.  The looking to alternate sides thing for the pushups is a nice twist and it lets me check my form (which is perfect, by the way, but then I am doing sets of six, so it fucking better be) on every second rep.  This is a tip from DM via BK. 

Not much to report

Tea comments are going to be a part of this blog again.  So: drinking XZH 2007 8582 replica - very nice, thinking about buying a cake - and testing the 2008 Mengku Zen label competition style, 1.5 gm for 5 minutes.  Very strong qi. 

 

I just went down for a quick swim - 12'.  I felt pretty tired and clumsy after the BBS workout and then working until midnight yesterday.  I did manage a couple laps of crawl, quite the departure from my usual plodding breast stroke.  Hit the steam room (for longer than usual) and took a cold shower after that.

 

I read this today (4. Train Arms With High Frequency).  Found this particularly interesting:

 

Being a relatively small muscle group, arms recover fast and can take it. Performing a full arm day once or twice a week gives them too much recovery for optimal growth. This method keeps the arms more full and vascular all week long, and let's face it…that's pretty much what we're all after anyway.

 

I don't know that keeping my arms full and vascular is what I'm after personally - getting stronger arms is more of my goal - but the point is a good one, and fits with my limited experience.  I've been thinking for a while that BBS is ideal for the legs, less so for the arms, and now the internets are confirming that, so good.  I am going to throw lots of short sets of pushups and pullups into the rotation, making sure that I don't go to failure and that I have at least a full day to recover in between. 

 

 

BBS

seated row 90# 12

chest press 110# 11

leg press 260# 13

pulldown 190# 9

overhead press 60# 7

 

Progress on all fronts!  I feel like Superman.  I did a full no-weight warmup again, including sumo squats.  The OHP felt really easy, so I think I'll progress quickly on that one.  I think the hardest exercise - qualitatively - is now the seated row.  This is kind of weird because I don't recall feeling that way two months ago. 

Sprint Sprint Barf Barf

Ran 1 mile
Tabata sprints in the park

I need to listen to my Tabata mp3 under controlled conditions and count how many work periods it has, because I counted 8 tonight and there was another one left. Despite the title of the post, I am out of practice completely for sprinting and didn't manage the effort that is needed to get the puky feeling. I was very fast on the first two and slow / stumbling thereafter. I was kind of in a weird distracting area of the park too.

Still, it felt good to actually do some sprints.

Success

5 x
 
10 60# deadlifts
8 30# overhead squats
6 pushups
4 pullups
2 dips
 
Steam, hot shower, cold shower.
 
This is the routine for me.  Hard enough to be interesting, easy enough to complete with good form (I think - not sure about lifting heels on the squats).  I certainly stopped to catch my breath a lot (probably after every third set?) but I didn't need to lower weights or reps and I didn't pause during the sets once.  A very good feeling. 
 
One tweak for next time: I should lower weights on the deadlifts to almost nothing until I am sure about my form.  30# or less, I think. 
 
Off to the caf for some food. 

BBS plus

pulldown 120# 15

overhead press 50# 15

seated row 90# 10

chest press 110# 8

leg press 260# 12

 

As a warm-up, I did very light weights, 10 reps of each of the upper body plus ten very wide stance squats with the bar; another change is that I rested slightly longer (about one minute) between exercises.  Both are definitely going to be part of the plan going forward.  It felt like they made a big difference in terms of how panicked I got during the actual workout - I was calmer throughout.  Very disappointed with the chest press, but that may be a result of accidentally going to failure on pushups last week.  I am not going to drop the pushups, maybe just do one set of ten and then sets of five next time, or something like 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.  As for weights, I don't see how I can't go up on PD and OHP, even if they were done first.  LP was a pleasant surprise - I can smell 300.  Next week, LP should go between the two groups of upper body exercises. 

 

I NEED TO DO SOME SPRINTS.  Fuck.  I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. 

Some Kind of Cross-Fit Type Thing

only easier.  I wanted to spar today, but BK has actually had to seek medical attention because of his last sparring experience, so he nixed it.  So I thought: some repetitive, low-weight lifting plus a swim is in order.

 

This was the plan:

 

5 x 4 pullups (different grip each time), 5 OH squats (20#), 10 pushups, 10 deadlifts (50#), 5 dips, swim

 

The reality: on round 3, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to do another set of 10 pushups, so I dropped to 5.  I also realized that I wasn't going to be able to do 5 dips, so I dropped to 1.  Man, do I suck at dips.  I did a penalty set of 5 pushups, 1 dip at the end and I could barely do it - I actually tried to do an extra dip and totally failed.

 

The pullups were surprisingly easy.  I did one set each of pullups, switched grip left, switched grip right, parallel grip, and chinups.  The OH squats were fun too, although i can't even remotely do them without my heels coming up.  The deadlifts were not straight-leg but true deadlifts, also fun. 

 

As for the swim, on lap two I could feel the tape that holds my toenail to my toe starting to detach.  I got some kind of soft tape by mistake.  I suspended the swimming and did 5 rounds of holding my breath underwater for a count of 10.  I got the panic reaction twice but on the final round I stayed under to a count of 16.  Then I spent 5 minutes in the hot tub. 

 

It was liberating lifting weights even though it's a violation of BBS.  I completely get off on doing pullups (makes me want to rock climb, then I remember that rock climbing scares the living shit out of me) and I feel all-around great now.

Back to BBS

Compare to this.

 

seated row 90# 9

chest press 110# 10

pulldown 120# 11

overhead press 50# 8

leg press 240# 14

 

steam, hot shower, cold shower

 

Purchase of BBS for my little sister, plus Matt Metzgar's timely observations, plus the fact that I worked very intensely today, planned to work out earlier in the day, and had half an hour before I had to leave for the ball game, inspired me to give the formal BBS workout another try.  It was a fantastic workout and I am so glad that I made the time.  My impressions vis-a-vis EF, discussed previously I think, were borne out - I feel that very pleasant "drained" feeling much more acutely than with EF.  I am considering a stretch of BBS intermixed with "easier" lifting, like circuits, kind of like what Mark Sisson just proposed - 5 x 5s on Friday or something like that.  I need to get back into sprinting, particularly Tabata sprinting.

 

So, back to the actual workout.  My numbers dropped by one on the SR and CP and were up by one on the others.  I am frankly very surprised by the consistency.  In this workout, however, I made a point of breathing through the nose, and my motions were much smoother and slower than they were a month ago, so I think the EF interlude had the desired effect of increasing "control".  In fact, I think the drops on the first two exercises are probably due to lack of warmup alone - a month ago, I led off with three minutes on the rower.  Next time, I plan to do a full circuit of 10-12 reps at a much, much lower weight as a warmup. 

boxing again

Ran into BK in the gym.  The two of us spent about 40 minutes alternately hitting the heavy bag, while listening to music.  Fun.  I kept gloves on the whole time.  Hitting really hard (for me) is getting more and more effortless.

 

I'm tired and very spacy now. 

EF again

pulldown 90/15 110/8 130/6
overhead press 20/15 40/8 60/6
seated row 60/15 80/8 100/2
chest press 70/15 90/7 110/2
leg press 200/15 240/8 280/5

 hot shower, cold shower

 An interesting little experiment on the effect of order.  I went up on everything except the seated row, that and I kind of choked on the chest press.  Subjectively, SR and PD feel the closest to one another - they have a similar effect on forearms and biceps, I think.  The only other things I did differently today were 1) smoke approximately ten cigarettes over the weekend and 2) deliberately breathed through my nose (per Matt Metzgar, also here) for at least the first two sets of each exercise.  Again, subjectively, the sets felt MUCH easier, way less panicked spazzing at the end of each set. 

 Almost blacked out (browned out?) at 3pt on Friday, but that is a tale for another time.