Not quite enough time

The dog trainer came to the house at 9:30 to pick up the runaway to give him a playdate with calmer dogs. It's a bit reminiscent of (well, I was going to use Cesar Milan but I'm reading controversial things about the former Dog Whisperer) the calm pack approach to fearful dogs.

This meant I didn't get to the gym until late morning. There's a different crowd by that point. Unfortunately, that includes The Mayor who only got louder as he inched closer. I cut my workout short. Not just because I don't like being around someone so boisterous that I can't help but hear them through my headphones, but because I had things to do before the runaway dog returned.

The other dog stayed home, keeping guard in the living room window. He's normally the more outgoing of the two, but lately he's been acting spooked. Hopefully, we'll figure this out. He has his playdate training session next week. Meanwhile, I got them licensed by the county so I could apply for Bark Park passes. The pups need a safe enclosed area to run around like looneys and it's not my unfenced yard.

Intervals on the elliptical went well considering my quads are the teensiest bit sore. Most of my effort went into shoulder stretches and warmups, although I did a set of pushups as well. I stopped myself at 25, not because I got tired, but because I figured that was probably enough. Not the best form with feet shoulders width apart and my elbows splayed out, but my face is grazing the floormat and at least my elbows don't click or hurt in this position.

After the Zumba class, there's a yoga stretch class in the Aerobic room so I do my core exercises in the tiny mat space by the storage room. I'm never tempted to join this class or any class. Because I'd rather do my own thing at my own pace. With my music on and no one talking. I skip Rip Skulls and V-bar Tricep Press Downs. I skip the 2nd cardio session. And I skip Mat Stretches. Because I still have things to do... but at least I got my shoulders worked out.

Another Friday Shoulders Plus

30 + 5 cd elliptical
Program Intervals
Miles 2.93
Calories 329
HR 143-198 (105, 86, 95)

Cage Stretch
Mid-Band Pulls 15
High-Band Pulls 15

Elbow Plank 60s
Crunches 60/60
Bicycles 60
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Slow Push Ups 25

T, Y & I Raises Inclined Bench
5 lbs x 15 reps x 3 sets

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flys
20 lbs x 12/20 reps x 3 sets
20/25 lbs x 12/20 reps x 3 sets

Shoulder Thursday

The thermometer in my car read 16F this morning as my son and I waited for the school bus. In two days, temps are forecast to reach into the low 60s. January in the Northeast! I have alpaca wool socks on inside my boots. Of course, I won't be wearing that when I work out at the gym. I'm giving the NB sneakers one last chance before I officially retire them. Unfortunately, my right foot continues to hurt as I pedal the elliptical with the pinky toe on the verge of numbness. It's not just my warped foot. I know it's this sneaker because I don't have as bad a reaction with my other shoes. Too bad though since my left foot is perfectly comfortable. Ugh.

I'm tired, as usual. The gym seems very empty with only a half dozen members scattered throughout. It's not peak time yet when all the treadmills become occupied. I'm tired and I'm never social in the morning, pulling my hoodie over my eyes and clicking the volume up on my earbuds. I don't want to hear the old guys screaming their conversations across empty stationery bikes.

After 28 minutes all I can think about is how hungry I am. Ugh. But at least I'm warm. And in a much better mood. My heart rate never dips though, and I suspect that it's not really that my heart rate drops, but rather that the HR monitor loses my pulse and only records every other beat. This sounds like a much more reasonable explanation as to why the HR might show 88 bpm and then 180 within a few seconds of each other.

Today is Shoulder Day and I've decided to skip Side Planks and replace them with a few pushups. The problem with Side Planks is that they put a lot of stress on body parts that aren't meant to be stressed, like feet and knees. The closest I've gotten to actual pushups in a long while are the four "staggered arm" pushups I do at the beginning of my "end of the workout Mat Stretch." Today, after crunches and other ab exercises, I do a set of pushups, only to find my left wrist clicking. It's very distracting since I don't remember it ever doing that before. Of course, I'm trying to use "perfect form" with my elbows tucked in. Like a lot of people, my joints don't want to comply with "perfect form." (Elbows are much happier splayed out 45 degrees from the body.) A few pushups don't make my head feel like it's going to explode unlike doing 50 or 60.

In the free weight area, I only have access to the big adjustable bench since the smaller one is in the Smith machine. I don't want to navigate through the maze of equipment to swap one bench out for another. The gym is getting more crowded with many people making good on New Year's resolutions, especially folks who have been MIA for most of the year. I do my T, Y & I on an incline. Then I do my DB supersets. The free weight area gets really crowded. Like the tide, there is ebb and flow. Eventually, people leave to do other exercises.

I do another round of cardio before a quick mat stretch. After showering, I massage and stretch my foot. When I run my fingers down the first metatarsal, there's a vaguely painful sensation akin to a small knot in my foot. I'm able to bend my smaller toes back a bit more than before but the big toe, still bruised, is too tender to attempt to manipulate that way. I know it should because the other foot has no problems doing that. Still, there's movement so that's encouraging!

When I get home, I wear the toe-spreader sock for a few 30-minute sessions. Sometimes I try and point my foot while wearing this sock. A slight cramping in the sole of the foot tells me that the stretch is working, or at least that's what Dr. McClanahan says. The right foot has trouble bending at its "knuckle" but there's progress. I just need to be patient and persistent. However, proper footwear appears to be critical because no matter how much I massage and stretch, spending all day in the wrong shoes will be counterproductive.

Tomorrow is Cardio Friday. I might add Walking Lunges back into the routine. Because I'm bored. And being bored always leads to trouble. A little variety goes a long way to alleviate boredom which is the ultimate motivation killer. My motivation though is purely narcissistic: I'd like to look fabulous for my 60th birthday.

Thursday Shoulders Plus

30 + 5 cd elliptical
Program 3
Miles 2.88
Calories 322
HR 162-197 (135)

Cage Stretch
Mid-Band Pulls 15
High-Band Pulls 15

Elbow Plank 60s
Crunches 60/60
Horizontal Scissors 60
Bicycles 60
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
12 Pushups (left wrist clicking)

T, Y & I Raises Inclined Bench
5 lbs x 15 reps x 3 sets

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flys
20 lbs x 12/20 reps x 3 sets
20/25 lbs x 12/20 reps x 3 sets

V-bar Tricep Press Down
20 lbs x 12
30 x 12
40 x 12

20 elliptical + 5cd
Program 3
Miles 2.09
Calories 236
HR 165-196 (85)

Quick Stretch

Adaptations

There's a cold front swooping down from the arctic regions so temps will fall overnight. I've already made a few fires in the woodstove just to keep our house a tad cozier than the 61F the thermostat is set for. I don't really want to dig out my down winter coats just yet. Daytime highs should peak in the 50s. That's not winter coat weather yet.

The gym seems solemn and deserted but that's only because I've arrived between shifts. The early morning crowd has already left but the seniors haven't arrived yet to take their place. Overcast skies match perfectly with the new gray paint on the walls. A different fellow is hoisting ladders across the gym floor today. A short stout woman is complaining to the hapless front desk fellow who is trying to get the Nexersys to boot up. The power light suggests that the machine is on, but the screen remains black.

In better days past... 

I tell them that the Gym Owner had repaired it but it's probably down for the count and headed to the rubbish heap. She tells me that she had offered to buy it from the gym last year. Then she tells me that the Nexersys company still sells this model and replacement parts for it. Hmmm. That's not my experience, but okay... I'm not going to argue with her. I just felt bad for the fellow who was lost in the midst of this conversation. He's actually retired (having suffered a heart attack a few years back) and only comes in occasionally to help out.

I'm tired but I still select the Intervals program on the elliptical. Ten minutes into my program, a woman gets on the adjacent machine. Sometimes she pedals very hard, pumping her arms in a flat-out run, and other times she's alternating her arms in an imaginary shoulder press. She's not actually carrying DBs like another woman who is quite animated on the treadmill, swinging her arms and marching while holding little pink plastic weights. There are quite a few women who just walk. And chat. Really loudly. I guess it's better than being stationary, but new studies indicate that if you want to preserve your mental acuity into old age, busting a sweat and not taking a leisurely stroll is what you need to do.

"Moderately intense exercise" is the key to producing BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a critical element to rewiring and retaining memory functions, according to a 2013 article in Harvard Men's Health Watch. And doing it once or twice a week isn't enough. The recommended "dosage" is 30 minutes 5 times a week. I'm not sure if this applies to women as well since we all know that men and women differ significantly in many physiological responses. Also not answered is whether doing moderately strenuous exercise for an hour 3 times a week has the same effect as 30 minutes 5 times a week. (Is it total duration, i.e., 180 minutes vs 150 minutes, or is it regular intervals of intensity that's needed?)

Contrary to popular belief, it's not just getting more blood to the brain or increased oxygenation that's responsible for clearing "brain fog." Areas of the brain such as the hippocampus are actually activated during exercise. The hippocampus is responsible for regulating emotions, motivation, memory, and learning. Some studies indicate that exercise prevents age-related hippocampus shrinkage!

After my initial cardio exercise, I stretch and remember to whip out that long rubber strip from my time at physical therapy for a shoulder labral tear some years ago. I do mid- and high-band pulls at the Stretch Cage before marching off to the Aerobics Room. It's empty and freezing cold! I'm so bored with the Core routine that I've combined the legs-up crunches and knees bent crunches so that it's basically one long set of 120 reps.

In the free weight area, I sit at a flat bench to do the dreaded DB Shoulder Presses superset with DB Alternating Front Raises. Even with a mere 10 lbs, the Should Press is unpleasant and my right delt twinges in protest. The Adjustable Inclined Bench is useful for the Reverse Inclined DB Flys that immediately follow DB Laterals. I'm getting 20 reps on the Reverse Flys so I should consider increasing the weight on that exercise. A young woman I've seen doing pull-ups and kicking the body bag is on the next bench. Another fellow is on the opposite side of me. Damn it's getting crowded in here! Just as I finish my last set of flys, big goofy Loud Goatee grabs a bench and smacks it down in the space between me and the kickboxing gal.

Well, never mind that she and I were using that space to perform DB Laterals, and then she was doing DB Split Squats with her back leg on a bench. Yep, some dudes are totally clueless. My cue to exit and find an elliptical to do my last 20 plus minutes of cardio.

I get home, the dog has pooped on wee-wee pads in the hallway and I'm thinking okay, maybe he's hungry now. He eats most of a hard-boiled egg but gets weirded out by the sounds my radiators make and is no longer interested in eating. Try again later. I can tell he's listening to the distant roar of the oil burner in the basement. I can hear and feel it too, but it's not like in the month the dog's been here that the house has ever been silent. Yesterday, my son asked me if dogs can have autism. Hmm...

Dreary Thursday Shoulders Plus

30 + 5 cd elliptical
Program Intervals
Miles 2.95
Calories 333
HR 131-207 (87, 95)

Cage Stretch
Mid-Band Pulls 15
High-Band Pulls 15

Elbow Plank 60s
Crunches 60/60
Horizontal Scissors 60
Bicycles 60
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

DB Shoulder Press s/s Alt Front Raises
10 lbs x 12 reps x 3 sets

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

20 elliptical + 5cd
Program 3
Miles 2.09
Calories 235
HR 140-195 (79, 97)

Quick Stretch

Super Quick And Done

I had a super quick workout today because the chimney sweep was due to arrive at my house anywhere between 10 am and noon. It's been several years since we last had the chimney cleaned and inspected. Firewood burns every year in our old wood stove. Our thermostat is set to 63F and the heat kicks on regardless of the season if temps fall low enough. No, we're not one of those households that keeps the heat turned off until October 31. (Only cheapass landlords do that in my book.) As it is, the fuel oil company wanted to send a delivery tomorrow but I still have half a tank so we can wait a few weeks.

I'm cold when I start, but always happily (and thoroughly) warmed by the end of 30 plus minutes. My legs are slightly sore. They feel heavy on the elliptical, and my hamstrings are tender when I'm in the Stretch Cage. It must be yesterday's Smith RDLs because nothing else would've stressed those muscles. Hard to imagine that increasing the weight by 10 lbs would have such an effect! I skip pull-ups (did two sets yesterday) and side planks. My hips feel out of sorts and there's no reason to exacerbate minor discomfort.

There are no inclined benches in the DB area so I use one of the breaker inclined benches. It's a bit more cumbersome, and in the middle of it all, Shiny Shoes wanders through putting weights and plates away, straightening up equipment and realigning the benches. Which is fine, except I'm using that particular one and if he'd just get out of the way, I'd be able to finish my set. Ugh. And that's all I have time for if I want to shower and get home with a few minutes to spare.

The chimney guy shows up a half-hour later and tells me that my chimneys are pretty clean. He pulls apart the metal chimney jutting out of my wood stove and shows me a slight amount of creosote lining it. We go into the basement to check on the oil burner and its flue pipe. Looks good. He spots a large dark green frog in my sump pit. Oh jeeze! There's no way the critter can get out and neither of us wants it to die in there. I retrieve my son's butterfly net and he captures the lucky amphibian to release outside the basement.

My firewood is old and well-seasoned. He's not exactly sure how much better or worse the kiln-dried supermarket firewood is. All of it is better than burning green, newly cut wood. Neither of us knows if seasoned wood has a different chemical breakdown from kiln-dried wood.

Then he tells me that he'll just charge me for the trip out there since he doesn't have to clamber up the roof to look at the chimney. That's $100 instead of $235. And perhaps, to justify the fee, he pulls apart the top of the woodstove because it makes a weird noise when the flue is closed. "That's not aligned right," and then he shoves his hand into the top of the stove and fidgets with it until the flap seats where it's supposed to be.

"Do you have the owner's manual?"
"Somewhere."

It's true. I have all my owner's manuals, but this stove is over 20 years old so the manual is most likely buried behind 20 years of manuals and warranties to newer appliances. He looks online although neither of us is certain as to who the manufacturer is. Meanwhile, we are being dive-bombed by brazen chickadees and tufted titmouse birds on their way to the feeder newly filled with black-oil sunflower seeds. The nutty suet is okay. The sunflower seeds make them crazy happy.

Thursday Shoulders Plus

30 + 5 cd elliptical
Program 1
Miles 2.89
Calories 323
HR 143-188 (79, 87, 93)

Cage Stretch

Elbow Plank 60s
Crunches 60/60
Bicycles 60
Horizontal Scissors 60
Skip (hips) Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

DB Shoulder Press s/s Front Raises
10 lbs x 12 reps x 2

DB Laterals s/s Rev Incl Flys
20lbs x 12/16 reps x 3 sets

Skip Stretch