Born Again Gym Rat: The Exercise Cure

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The Exercise Cure

After standing in line for over two hours yesterday, my left hip was out of sorts. I'm not sure why, but it hurt to walk, and once we got inside the church to pay our respects, the hip felt even worse. Resting it didn't improve matters and it was just as creaky this morning when I took the dog for a walk. I had already planned to modify my workout so I took advantage of the empty Step Mill when I got to the gym. 15 minutes became 20 minutes. The hip hurt at first, but loosened up and eventually normalized. Cured! I had the Step Mill set to a pace of 6, which is faster than LISS (3) but not quite running up the stairs. It took me a good 15 minutes to even feel warm, and I had my blue hoodie zipped up! I see workman traipsing through the gym so I guess the new A/C has been installed in the exercise room. People must be on vacation the last week before most schools start. I only see a handful of regulars like Shaggy, Maroon, The Mayor, Ollie, Big Glasses Dude and PonyTail.

I'm not doing any HIIT or LISS this week. I'm also not eating properly either since my son is home and I have to feed him reasonable lunches. This inadvertently leads to snacking on my part. The scale tells me that I'm heavier (111 lbs today), but I can also see it in the mirror. However, I'm not unhappy about being stronger, or at least feeling stronger. Today I add another set of hammer grip pull ups. That makes three sets of 12 reps. I discover that it's the pull ups that are making my abs sore because I'm curling my legs to my chest to keep from swaying. I also accidentally increased my planks, going from 90 seconds to 120 seconds on two out of three sets because I wasn't really paying attention. I still can't do the Bird Dog with a straight lower leg. Balance is everything, and makes the move feel a bit like yoga. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Dand, or Hindu Push Up. But usually the butt is higher,
like in a Downward Dog position

Push ups took more time than expected as I'm trying a new version. Actually, the first set was just 50 Regular push ups. The second set was 25 Dive-Bomber push ups. That's probably the most Dive-Bombers I've ever done in one set. The third set was a new movement called Hindu Push Ups (or Dand in martial arts). It looks like a Dive-Bomber, but isn't. The key difference is that the Dive-Bomber has you roll back into the start position with your shoulders pushing, and the Hindu keeps your arms straight while your back is arched. Then your hips actually pull you back into a Downward Dog position. It's not as hard on the shoulders, and stretches the upper back. I only do 20 of those, fairly slowly. I'm pretty sure I can do more. Maybe on Friday.

Dive Bomber: note the bent elbows
from position 4 to position 5.

I do another set of hammer pull ups before getting on the Precor for 30 minutes of Performance Program #3. I only make 2.68 miles even though I'm pedaling like crazy. I see Shaggy approach the meek new member on the treadmill. He's literally inches from her face talking to her as she walks, while he stands on the side rail of her machine. She's small, middle-aged but not in bad shape. If she doesn't already know him, then this is either flattering, or creepy. Her body language doesn't suggest intimacy. People who are obviously dating don't get this close at the gym. I'm thinking Shaggy has personal boundary issues, and I'm really glad he's not my problem.

Tomorrow I'm going to whack the Nexersys machine again. I want to see how my hands hold up to a twice weekly session now that I've been practicing my hand-wrapping (yes, that's what I did in front of the TV last night). Friday, I'll do cardio and whole body again. I think I'm actually more tired from this workout than my previous HIIT cardio and weights. Go figure.

Wednesday Whole Body Workout