Ramping It Up

My son and I went to the gym Wednesday morning. He asks if we can do the Step Mill, and I agree, once we warm up with 30 minutes on the treadmill. He likes to watch YouTube videos on his phone while not quite running. He eventually ramps up his speed. I glance over and it's at 3.5. I'm doing my leisurely 5% incline and speed 3 brisk walk. I put my hands on the heart rate sensor and it immediately jumps to over 200! What the hell? It drops immediately down to 109. I'm not sure what's going on, but for the duration of the "run" it stays between 109 and 118. I'm okay with that. Then we do 15 minutes on the Step Mill. My son is still watching his phone.

We're both sweating when time is up and we head to the Stretch Cage. I see other people with their kids. Again, fathers and sons and mothers and daughters. I see a few regulars look over at me and my son. The Mayor is there with Square Jaw, but he doesn't have his son in tow. The Mayor spends most of his time, when he has his son, gabbing with his cronies, as if his son didn't even exist. His kid probably has better things to do this summer.

I get him to do pull ups with his body straightened. His hands are still a bit closer than shoulders width but I'm only going to correct one aspect at a time. I tell him that he only needs to do one, but he knocks out his 5. For a big kid, that's pretty good. He's not one of those skinny, wiry boys like a lot of his friends. He's got definite mass, and if he ever got mad enough to punch you, it would hurt. But he's not that kind of boy. When he's done, I have to fight the urge to do some pull ups myself. It's been 3 weeks since my eye surgery but it seems like years now. Except my eyes itch.

He has trouble with the leg stretches in the Stretch Cage. When he was little, he was much more flexible. I don't think it's his thickness. I think it's lack of practice. Even in his kung fu class, he's not as flexible as I think he could be. But I'm extremely flexible, so perhaps I have unreasonable expectations. Of course, there's a NYTimes book review of a Japanese guide to doing splits at any age and stiffness, and of course, instructional YouTube videos (in Japanese). I'm sure American versions exist if I look hard enough.

We go to the Mats to do push ups. He gets his 20 done, but his back is not ramrod straight so I know his core needs work. In a way, it's good that I haven't been cleared to do these movements because no one wants to be shown up by their mother. Seriously. When he can do a clean 20 push ups, I'll try having him do T-push ups, or spiderman planks. He's shown me that he already knows what they are at home so this shouldn't be too hard. It's just getting him to do it for more than 5 reps. We do elbow planks and bird dogs. When we start side planks, he suggests we do the hard part first. Great idea! We start with the top leg extended for 15 seconds, then keep our legs together for the remaining 45 seconds. So much easier that way. Which means I'm going to extend the leg up time to 30 seconds.

Monday he developed a throbbing headache. Today he's better. The Smith is free and there's an Inclined Bench so I show him how to set up for Inclined Presses. Friday I plan to show him how to bench at the flat Breaker bench to change things up slightly. I get him to do sets of 12 at 50 lbs. He's okay with it, but his arms are tired. Arms are his weak link. And that's actually why I don't waste time doing "arm exercises"... except for Rip Skulls. I may have my son try that.

I try to show him two more movements at the Smith: RDLs and RG BB Rows. He has a hard time understanding how to make his body do what I want: keeping his back straight and bending at the hip, pulling up straight without pulling his shoulders into a shrug, clenching his butt and thrusting his hips out slightly. He doesn't know where he should feel it because it's his arms that are tired. We add two light plates to the bar because pulling with a bit of weight feels different than pulling an empty bar. It's worse with the Reverse Grip Barbell Rows. Eventually, I have him do the rows with an overhand grip. His inclination is to stand up which makes it more of an Upright Row. Not what I want him to do. He's a little frustrated, but I tell him good job and we move on to the Seated Cable Rows. He knows how to do this.

I still haven't figured out how to do 5 lb increments on this new system so we just jump in 10 lb increments. I tell my son that he can stop at 6 or 8 if it's hard. He knocks out 12. Because he really doesn't know how strong he is. I stick to the 3 set plan so that he doesn't get too tired before we're finished. He keeps asking me where he should be feeling it, and I touch his lats and back. He says that only his arms are tired. Yep. We're going to keep increasing the weight each time until we get to the set where he can only do 6-8 reps. That might not be until the end of next week but I'm in no hurry.

I'm not a Squat or Leg Press person so we do Walking Lunges in the empty classroom. I'm looking for easy to do, full body movements. His stride is longer than mine so he makes it across quicker. Back and forth. Whoa! I can actually feel my hamstrings and quads tire doing this! (We can add DBs if this becomes too easy, but I always like to start with just the form.) Then we go back to the big Mats and stretch. It's here that my son tells me that he has issues with sitting flat on the floor with his legs splayed out. His left glute gets painful in this position and he attributes it to the surgery he had when he was 3 years old. The doctors had to operate to drain an abscess, which was hidden on the side of his butt crack. It turned out to be vancomycin-resistant staph. He was in the hospital for 2 weeks.

I suspect he contracted it because tots always scratch their butts, but this particular time, he'd been sitting in a wading pool that my hubs had just purchased. It was a blistering summer and my hubs didn't want to go down to the lake with our son. But like a lot of men, my hubs saw no need to clean the little plastic pool before filling it with water. Straight out of the box and onto the lawn. No doubt with dust and dirt from whatever factory it was manufactured in. I wash everything before use, before wearing. Try it on and it fits? Okay, take the tags off and toss it in the wash. New towels? Into the wash! New pots, cups, water bottles? Wash first! These instructions are actually printed on the damn labels.

The only thing I can think of is the piriformis stretch to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve bundle that originates in the lower back and runs under the glute muscles. So we do that. And we do a lot of leg and hip stretches. My son is unsure on how to bend at the hips. Like many people, a toe-touch stretch results in him having a rounded back. Not good, not safe. He asks me how to do more hip stretches to loosen this all-important joint. We do two more movements, then proceed to shoulder rolls and extensions. Done. Thursday I promised he could sleep in. Because it's summer vacation.

Wednesday with Max

30 treadmill
Speed 3
Incline 5%
Calories 188
Miles 1.47
Ft climbed 384
Average Heart Rate 113 / max HR 216!

15 Step Mill
Total steps 551
Floors 34
Calories 86

Max pull ups 5
Max push ups 20

Elbow Plank 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s

Max Smith Inclined Press
Bar x 12
50 x 12 x 3
Max Smith RDL
50 x 12 x 3
Max Smith BB Rows
50 x 15
Max Seated Cable Rows
12 x 40
12 x 50
12 x 60

Lunges
2 x 20
Max 2 x 16