The Power of Video

My son and I started off the workout with our standard 15 minutes on the recumbent bike, followed by 30 minutes on the treadmill. Most people would say Done, but I'm trying to get my son used to harder, more varied workouts. But even I have to admit that the pull ups were tough! I asked my son to extend his arms a tad more, and warned him that this would make it more difficult. It did. But he still did more than most people in my gym. I honestly have never seen anyone graduate from the Assisted Pull Up machine to doing actual pull ups by themselves.

We agreed to get push ups and core out of the way so we could focus on the Push portion of our routine. Also, the Smith was in use by a guy doing Squats in it. I don't see that very often. Usually guys will do chest or shoulders, but not usually legs in the Smith. My son doesn't like how shaky the left side of the machine is. It is a bit unnerving because it also rattles. But at least it doesn't stick and add drag to the bar! My son matches me for reps until we get to 80 lbs. Then he's stuck at 8, while I knock out 12, and then another set at 90. It's not the heaviest I've ever gone, but it's doable. He rolls his eyes when I tell him 65 lbs with as many reps as he can get, preferably 20, but anything over 12 is great. He gets to 10, pauses then another 5, pauses and then proceeds slowly until he can count 20. Yaaaay!

I let him go off on his own to the Lateral Raise machine and the Leg Press. He comes back while I'm between sets during my DB super sets. Someone is on the Leg Press so I show him how to use the Hack Squat with just the bar and no plates. He does a dozen and then happily notes that the Leg Press is now available. He'd rather do the Leg Press machine because the Hack Squat is a lot harder.

Last are Rip Skulls. I caution my son about positioning the bar over his mouth or throat as he bends his elbows. I'd rather he accidentally bonk his forehead than break his teeth, or catch himself in the throat! It's hard to know the position of your own limbs sometimes. I whip out my phone and start videotaping him so he can see what he's doing. He's aware that I'm recording, and maybe because he's more self-conscious, he actually corrects his form so that his hands come close to his forehead before dropping down behind his head. Perfect. I also show him the magnetic 2.5 lb discs.

We're kind of pooped afterwards, but still do our stretches. My shoulders and back have been knotty lately, mostly because I'm not able to do the same sort of stretches anymore with these abbreviated foam pads. Ugh. Meanwhile, our dog seems a tiny bit better. I've been giving him a tiny dose of CBD oil on ciabatta toast, and oddly, he seems less leaky. His appetite is still off — he doesn't touch his medicated breakfast until mid-afternoon, and his back legs shake and occasionally fail. The King Kanine CBD oil I ordered arrived in the mail today. A therapeutic dose (2.6 ml) is much larger than what I've been giving (0.8 ml) him, and this oil can interfere with prescribed medications. I usually try to give him his toast after he's eaten breakfast and several hours have passed. I probably won't attempt an actual therapeutic dose just yet... maybe work up to it in small increments?

Today, my son and I went to see Crazy Rich Asians. It was quite a spectacle! I might have to watch it again, if only because it's so hard to catch all the details of the sumptuous decor and exhilarating scenery. I've never seen Singapore except in airline commercials. Even my son enjoyed it. And of course, I'm fans of Constance Wu (Fresh off the Boat), Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger), Nick Santos (Super Store), and an Easter Egg with barely recognizable Harry Shum Jr (Glee)...


Pushy Monday

15 recumbent bike
Level 1
Calories 61
Miles 1.68
AHR 106

30 treadmill
Incline 10% Speed 3
Calories 264
Miles 1.49
AHR 115-216 (ridiculous)

HGPU 15, 15, 15, 11.5 (56.)
M pull ups 6, 5, 4, 4 (19)

Push Ups 60
M push ups 35

Bicycles 50
Crunches 30/20
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Smith Inclined Bench
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12
80 x 12, m8
90 x 12
65 x 20m, 25

M Lateral Machine
30 x 12 x 3
(Hack Squat bar only 12)
M Leg Press
110 x 12 x3

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes
20lbs x 12/15reps x 3 sets

Rip Skulls
35 x 12 x 3
M20 x 12, 25 x 12 x 2

Stretch

Ho Hum Monday

I find it harder and harder to get excited about going to the gym, but at least my son is good company. Meaning, he's a good sport and willing to do what I ask of him. Every now and then he'll timidly ask to do something. He never usually asks for anything. We do the recumbent bike and then the treadmill because it's Monday and neither of us is feeling too energetic. "Why is it so crowded?" he asks me. "Probably because it's Monday and every feels guilty about the weekend." "Ah," he says with a knowing look.

Part of my personal frustration is knowing that I've lost strength in the 8 weeks I've been limited to non-strenuous exercise. Part of it is that being 58 years old, it's a lot harder to regain what's been lost, especially since I felt I was barely maintaining what I had to begin with! The only positive thing to have happened is due to changed parameters: instead of doing one long set of pull ups, I break it down into multiple smaller sets. So in total, I've actually done twice the amount I used to do. Yaaay for tiny victories!

Today I get my son to do a few more pull ups than he did on Friday. His form isn't great, but neither is mine. He's not dropping into a full extension. Instead, he's pulling up from bent arms. He kips the last two reps. Still, he's is pulling his entire body weight and that counts. When he's older, stronger and more confident, I might ask him to do a few full reps. But not right now. He's working the proper muscles and not straining his elbows and forearms so I'm good with that. Today I also manage to get a few more pull ups. But unlike my son, I'm panting at the end of each set. My son is not. He complains about being tired, but he's doesn't appear winded. I suspect he doesn't really know what tired is, but maybe I'm biased?

Push ups and core follow. Some people might be done by now, but I'm just feeling warmed up. We see a woman at the Smith with 45s on the bar. However, she's stripping the plates off and looks like she's done! Yaaay. I like the Smith for the safety factor. Because I'm not tall or big, I worry about being able to properly spot my son should he start to falter during a set. He's not moving all that much weight, but since I'm his mom, I do worry. He tells me that 90 lbs is heavy and only gets 6 reps. When I ask, he tells me that he feels it not only in his arms and shoulders, but across his chest as well. Finally! I get 12 and add another 10 lbs. Next week I'll try 110 lbs since that's close enough to my body weight, but I may have him try sets of 5-6 reps at 90. We both finish with 25 reps at 50 lbs. That seemed awfully easy. How about 25 reps at 60 lbs next time? He looks slightly worried, but I assure him he'll be fine. I'm pushing, but just a little at a time. It's hard to know just where the edge is until you shove up against it.

My son likes the Lateral Raise Machine and does 3 sets there, and then asks if he can do something with legs. "Like the Leg Press?" While I don't do them, I let him do a few sets at a fairly light weight. He's a thick boy with large thighs, which makes buying him pants a challenge as he's only average height for his age. I've known men with big ill-proportioned thighs and they had terrible self-esteem issues. While I don't discourage my son from Leg exercises, my feeling is that all the different cardio movements we do are enough for the summer. He's already struggling with stiffness in his hips and getting thicker won't help that at all.

I do my DB supersets with a pair of 15 pounders. At some point I hope to feel strong enough to up the weights back to 20 and 25s, but that's probably not going to be anytime soon. Especially since I'm thinking I'm having cataract-stent surgery for my right eye in September. I see the eye doc tomorrow to check my pressures and discuss options and schedules. I ask my son if he wants to wait around until I finish or do something. He's content to stare at his phone.

I give him the choice of Bench Dips or Skull Crushers. He winces and says Skull Crushers. Because he's new at this, and considerably weaker, I tell him to grab the 20 lb solid BB. I grab the 30. Next week I'll also grab the magnetic discs. He has a little trouble getting coordinated with the 3-part move. I tell him that if his hands go numb or he feels he can't hold onto the bar any longer, to just drop the bar past his head as it'll only be a few inches off the matted floor. He's fine. At no point during any of our exercises does he look tired. He's probably a lot stronger than he thinks, so I'm constantly testing and pushing, but just a little.

Wednesday we'll be more focused on Pulling, so that's back and biceps. I won't give him any bicep exercises until he stops telling me that his arms are tired. What would be the point? Last night my husband noticed how much bigger my son seems when he's standing next to me. I notice it when I hug him goodnight, because my chin has slowly slid from the top of his head to his ear, his shoulder, and now, just below. Sigh. I hope he'll at least be average height. Short guys have a harder time and life is already difficult.

Monday Blahs
(M=my son; L=me)

15 recumbent bike
Level 1
Calories 60
Miles 1.45
Average Heart Rate 98 (WTH?)

30 treadmill
Incline 10% Speed 3
Calories 268
Miles 1.51
Average Heart Rate 117 / maximum HR 137
HGPU 20, 15, 15, 8 (58)
M pull ups 10, 7, 6 (23)
L Push Ups 20 + 10 + 10
M 20 + 10
Bicycles 50
Crunches 30/20
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

Smith Flat Bench
Bar (30) x 15
50 x 12
70 x 12 

90 x 6M, L12
M 80 x 8
L100 x 12
50 x 25

M Lateral Machine
35lbs x 12 reps x 3
Leg Press Machine
90lbs x 12 x 3

L DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flyes
15lbs x 12/15 x 3 sets

L Rip Skulls
30 x 12 x 3
M Rip Skulls
20 x 12 x 3

Stretch

After the Fourth

We decided to see the new Jurassic World movie at the first showing on Tuesday. The theater was surprisingly temperate. It's usually icy cold, but we're lucky that it was open at all. Some car hit a utility pole late Monday afternoon and took out power lines all the way past the shopping center. We're pretty sure the driver was "distracted" because road conditions were good. Power got restored to that area in a few hours. We've been fine so far although reports of outages and brownouts from the prolonged intense heat are stressing the grid. The movie was entertaining, but I wish there was more interaction between Owen and Blue. Of course, (spoiler alert!) I'm sure there's going to be a sequel since Blue opted to run off into the hills of civilization, rather than board a caged freighter to a protected sanctuary. Well. at least Claire flees dinosaurs in sensible shoes this time.

I'd planned to take my son to the gym on Wednesday July 4th since the gym only closes for Christmas and Easter. On holidays, the gym will close early around 3 pm, more than enough time for most gym rats to get their cardio done. However, we had too much prep to do since we'd invited a few families to come eat with us, have their kids run around our lawn with water guns, balloons and the hose, and then we'd all set off to the lake to set off supermarket fireworks, aka glorified sparklers. Because NYS prohibits real fireworks unless you've got that special license.

A gym rat like me doesn't let scheduling snafus get in the way of a good workout though. My son and his friends swam a lot yesterday so he was tired when I got him up this morning. I'd made an appointment with his pediatrician because I wasn't entirely satisfied with the dermatologist we saw almost two weeks ago. The little bubble bumps on his knees turn out to be molluscum contagiousum, a type of contagious viral wart that spreads easily among kids. The dermatologist says it'll go away by itself, otherwise he'd have to resort to freezing them off. At home, I tell my son to apply tea tree oil to keep them from spreading down his leg. But underneath the bubbles, there's rough red skin. The bubbles are shrinking but the red skin is spreading in patches behind his knee. My son says it doesn't itch. The derm seems not to have noticed this. Weird. The pediatrician says no signs that it's bacterial or viral, so probably just eczema. She prescribes a cortisone cream to reduce it's spread. Of course, the CVS doesn't have it in stock and needs to order it. Of course...

We get to the gym around noon. The Mayor is on the treadmill with SquareJaw. I can't believe I can hear him all the way across the gym. At least until I put on my headphones. My son and I pedal the recumbent bike and then walk the treadmill while plugged in. Once we're done with cardio, we turn off the tunes. The gym has pop music blaring in the background. I'm okay with the latest Shawn Mendez, but rap stuff definitely annoys me. There's still no replacement for the big blue mats so we retreat to the classroom after my son does his pull ups. He gets 6 today and I'm happy for him. He just rubs his forearms. He's tired from all the swimming yesterday so opts to do regular push ups instead of T push ups. I'm fine with it. We do core and both feel how shaky we are holding our positions.

Today is a Push Day. He's concerned that he's too tired to do this. I tell him: just 3 exercises, just 3 sets per exercise. Not so bad. He chooses to do the flat breaker bench with just the bar even though the Smith is available. He doesn't like how the noisy pulley needs servicing on that machine. I have to slow him down because he knocks out two sets of 12 reps back to back. Yes, this is probably too light but there's other exercises to be done. I show him how to do DB Laterals with 10 lbs. I'm worried it's too heavy because he's not familiar with this movement. He tries it, and again with 5 lb DBs but doesn't feel it in his deltoids. Instead, the base of his neck, the traps are stressed. I move him to the Lateral Machine. We add weight incrementally from 10 lbs because he's still not feeling it where he should. Finally, he moves the pin to 30 lbs and says now it feels right. Hmmm...

Last, I show him Rip Skulls with a 20 lb bar and only have him do 6 reps per set. He says this is much more a shoulder exercise than the other movements. But he also feels it in his triceps. Good! I've had friends tells me that they only let their boys do cardio and body weight (push ups and crunches) exercises because they don't want to impact the long bones. I'm not having my son squat or even use heavy weight, so I'm not all that concerned. He's got nearly 40 lbs on me and is just overall bigger than I am. I'm pretty sure he can handle the exercises I'm having him do, without any adverse effect on his growth plates. In boys, those continue to grow from ages 16-21, depending on the individual.

We stretch out afterwards and then I go shower. This will be the first time in 4 weeks that I've showered without sealing the water out of my eye, not that I plan to get water in it. I've stopped administering the post-surgical drops although I'm still using the glaucoma drops, because I don't know if the surgery has had the desired effect of lowering my IOP. I go back to my eye doc next Tuesday. My eye still feels a tad weird, as if the lid was a bit tight and interfering with my vision. How often do you feel as if your eyelids were just a size too small? Weird, right?

Tomorrow will be cardio, and a Pull Day: lat pull downs, seated cable rows, and maybe some light DB curls, or not. The gym scale tells me 110.4 lbs, which is better than I expect. But of course, at this point my stomach is growling at me and I can't wait to suck down a Fair Life milk shake in the car.

Post-Fourth July Thursday

15 Recumbent Bike
Manual Level 1
Calories 64
Miles 1.96
Average Heart Rate 106 (63%)

30 Treadmill
5% Incline
Speed 3
Calories 190
Miles 1.49
Average Heart Rate 117 (70%) / max rate 135 (80%)

Max pull ups 6
Max push ups 20

Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Elbow Plank 60s
Bicycles 50
Crunches 30/20

Max Flat Bench
45 lbs (bar) x 12 x 3

Max DB Laterals
10 lbs x 6
5lbs x 12
Max Lateral Machine
12 x 10, 20, 30 lbs

Max Rip Skull
20lbs x 6 reps x 3 sets

Stretch