Still Grinding

The shoulder is better but not 100%. At least it didn't wake me up. The Alberta Clipper drove temps down to 11°F, but it promises to reach mid 60s by mid-week. Ah, Spring! As much as I like doing the body-weight work, I need to change things up so I'm cutting back on those staples like push ups, pull ups and crunches. I've tried cutting back on cardio and that didn't really work for me. I got heavier but not in a good way. I didn't get stronger or recover faster. I just felt Bleah.

So I'm keeping the hours worth of cardio where I can. And I'm keeping the basic core weight lifting movements. Which means I'm trimming back on smaller items. Today I skip the mat entirely. No push ups, no crunches, no planks, no pull ups. I'll do some of those things tomorrow. By mid-morning, every working treadmill is occupied, and half of all the ellipticals and cross-trainers. Maybe it's a holiday I didn't hear about? I get on the elliptical for 30 minutes and do Program 1. Then a quick hamstring stretch at the Cage before dropping my gear at the Smith station.

I've got the adjustable bench angled to 30 degrees which is more inclined than I've been doing. Just benching the bar feels okay and I'm hopeful. There is the tiniest bit of discomfort as I add small plates to the bar, but nothing that makes me grit my teeth. I feel pretty good. The Mayor and cronies are all over the DB area and benches. There is only one other adjustable bench there. Worst case scenario is that I plant myself on one of the Inclined Breaker bench stations. Instead, I can stay put in the Smith, and use it for the Reverse Inclined Flye portion of my DB supersets.

Using 20s for the lateral raises and 25s for the reverse flyes feels okay today so like last time, I add reps. Going for reps gives me the benefit of building endurance and strength but not really risking my delicate elbows. I see a gal doing squats I haven't seen in over a year. I used to call her Weighted Vest Gal because she would do all these fast and furious moves (under the guidance of one of the gym trainers) wearing said aforementioned item. She's one of these downright skinny women with a full bosom and not much else. She looks healthy, but she's lost all her muscle.

I pop onto the breaker flat bench behind the Smith and grab a 40 lb barbell to do Rip Skulls. The gym owner and the one guy he trains is at the Smith now. I'm curious so steal a few quick glances while listening to the men talking. Gym Owner has client doing BB Rows in the Smith. Client exclaims how much he likes this exercise. Gym Owner says this is one of his favorite back movements. I feel quite vindicated, but of course it's not like I'm running around telling everyone. Like the Mayor. I can hear the Mayor, I just can't see him. Eventually he lumbers forward in a lint gray polo to chat up another fellow. I see Shaggy too. He's suddenly aged 20 years, wearing odd glasses while his chin-length hair sports dull and lifeless patches. Maybe a bad color job? Even the scruffy beard has gone gray in an odd way. I hope it's not chemo, and I hope it's not contagious.

The Rip Skulls are kind of easy today. Next time I should use the small magnetic discs to add 1.25 lbs per side. 2.5 lbs doesn't sound like a lot until you start doing reps over your face. If that's easy, then I can move to 45 lbs by adding a pair of 2.25 discs to the 40 lb bar. Solid Bars only jump up in 10 lb increments. I use to carry my Rogue screw collars in my gear bag, but that was when the gym actually had a few EZ curl bars. One broke and was never replaced. I suspect someone stole the other one because I haven't seen it in months.

I finish with 30 minutes on the cross-trainer. My toes start to go numb with just 10 minutes to go. I'm really happy that I've gotten my 6+ miles today because once I start working full-time I'll have to give this up. I don't like change especially sudden changes, so I'm trying to get myself used to the idea of having very limited time for exercise. I'm not sure when this will happen, but like my glaucoma, at some point there is inevitability and it just has to be dealt with.

Monday
6.46 total miles

30 min elliptical
Program 1
Calories 290
Miles 2.56

Knee-Ins 50

Smith Inclined Press (30 degree)
12 x Bar (30), 50, 70, 80
25 x 60

DB Laterals s/s Rev Inclined Flyes
20/25 x 12/15, 15/20, 15/20

Rip Skulls
40 lbs x 12 reps x 3

30 x-trainer
Calories 143
Miles 3.90
Average Speed 7.79
Average Pace 7:42
Average Heart Rate 155

Post Orson

Winter Storm Orson was actually worse than Storm Niko, if only because the light fluffy snow was capped with a layer of heavy frozen rain. They call that sleet and it left a hard candy shell on everything including cars, trees and garbage bins. After the snow and rain had come and gone, alerts went out for a High Wind advisory, which in some ways is scarier because you never know which tree will drop a limb or fall over across the road. I shoveled my car out this morning, making good use of the two-hour school delay. My hubs had to go to his office, and then to Boston overnight for an early morning meeting tomorrow. So much for Valentine's Day. I have a red Old Navy T-shirt that says Heartbreaker on it. Maybe I'll wear that tomorrow?

My right shoulder and hip definitely don't like shoveling these days. But I get done what needs to be done. I drive my son to the school bus stop because all the slush and ice make walking down the hill a bit precarious, especially since he's carrying his viola and his backpack. The gym parking lot is virtually totally free of snow and I'm impressed. Management must've contracted with a better snow removal company because usually the lot is icy and only partially plowed. I've forgotten to pack my Bluetooth earbuds today although I have several pairs of wired headphones. But the case on my new iPod makes it difficult to manually adjust the volume so I opt to use my old square iPod with the unevenly wired Sony MDR-J20s.

I can't get on the cross-trainers at first so I do Program 1 on the elliptical for 30 minutes. I'm a space case today, having left my gear bag with my gloves inside my locker. Ugh. I can't do pull ups without gloves to protect my hands, especially the crease where fingers adjoin the palms. My arms are already tired from shoveling so I'm not surprised that pull ups are strenuous. All I'm asking for is more than 31, and I get it so I'm happy enough. Regular push ups don't bother me but I don't want to test my luck by pushing past 80 reps. Crunches and planks are fine too.

I drag the small flat bench over to the Smith, but it's a waste of time. I can bench the bar okay, but add a little weight and my shoulder complains vociferously. It's only 80 lbs and barely more than a dozen reps. So that's a no-go for high reps, low weight flat benching today. I swap out the flat bench for the bigger adjustable inclined bench. At first the warm up feels painful and I wonder how far I'm going to get. But as I add weight, my shoulder seems to settle down. Of course, I'm not pushing my luck here either and let it go with just a single set at 80 lbs. I already know that the DB Raises aren't going to be fun, so like last week, I use both a pair of 20s and 25s to get my delt work done.

Frankenstein is at the DB rack and I stop a good dozen feet behind him to let him put his weights back. At first he's about to drop the 25 pounders in the nearest slot, which is actually where the 15s go, but he pauses a moment and slides the DBs into the correct slot. Good boy! Maybe this Jedhi mind control thing works? Afterwards, he lumbers back to Machine City to finish his workout. I'm glad he's not lingering and staring.

There's a couple of new faces here today. One is wearing a form-fitting spandex long sleeve shirt and leggings. He's got quite the V-taper, like he's wearing a Superman suit. Because he's also wearing a watch cap low over his brow, I'm not sure if he's the blonde bodybuilder dude who usually comes in the evenings, and who I've seen at the local beach occasionally during the summer. There are other guys I recognize from the past few months... no one creepy though, so that's reassuring.

The power goes out and all the machines stop. Well, all the treadmills stop. You can still pedal the cross-trainer and the elliptical even without power, but you lose all your data. A few emergency lights come on. It's enough for the muscle heads to keep pushing weights. After Rip Skulls, I find the cross-trainer I like best and punch in 30 minutes. 7 minutes into it and the power goes out. So there goes my data, but I'm still pedaling... the power comes back on after 5 minutes and I try to adjust by tapping in 26 minutes. 7 minutes into it and that's 0.75 miles to add to my cross-trainer mileage. The treadmill people start running or walking again.

The lady who seems to have had a stroke is in the Stretch Cage. I know she won't be there too long but I don't want to rush her. I sit in the adjacent Torso Twist machine and do a set of 25 reps for each side with minimal weight. That happens to be 30 lbs. My shoulder is tired although not horribly achy by the time I get to my second set of pull ups. I catch myself miscounting and make up for it. Still, I manage to make it to 36 reps, although again, the last 4 are definitely not pretty. I see the Latin Lovebirds in a corner of the gym. He's coaching her on Preacher curls and her long skinny arms look like they need all the help they can get.

I do a quick modified Mat stretch routine to get the kinks out of my shoulders. A tall slender guy drops onto the end of my mat to do some flexibility moves. He's not bad. It's unusual to see younger guys doing that. Usually it's old guys who can barely bend over. I'm hoping the power stays on long enough for me to take a nice hot shower. The gym scale reflects this weekend's over-indulgences: 111.4 lbs. Ugh. It's hard for me to eat proper when my hubs is around because I want to make meals that the entire family enjoys, and he's a meat at every meal kind of guy. Oh well...

Monday
6.75 miles est

30 min elliptical
Program 1
Calories 289
Miles 2.56

HGPU 35
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 80
Crunches 3 x 50
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s

Smith Flat Bench
Bar x 15
80 x 15 right shoulder
Smith Inclined Bench
Bar x 16 hands placed shoulder width
50 x 13 slight discomfort
60 x 13 less discomfort
70 x 12 okay / gym lights go out
80 x 13 shoulder ok

DB Laterals s/s Rev Inclined Flys
20/25 lbs x 12/15 reps x 3 sets

Rip Skulls
40 lbs x 12 x 3

30 min x-trainer + 7 min
Calories 125 +
Miles 3.46 + .73 = 4.19 miles
Average Speed 7.97
Average Pace 7:31

Torso Twist
2 x 30 lbs x 25

HGPU 36

Taking Gainz Where I Can

The weather people have been banging the drum about a monster storm roiling in from the Atlantic. After school activities got cancelled and we all braced ourselves for the ensuing panic. A Winter Weather Advisory was issued for 1 pm today until 7 am tomorrow. At 1 pm, it was cold and the air was damp. Occasionally, a bitter gust would shake trees. The AccuWeather phone app showed a complete disconnect between reality and forecast when it announced "wintry mix starting in 1 minute" at 3 pm. But readings for Carmel NY showed only cloudy skies with no precipitation slated until 5 pm. At 5, we saw some drizzle although my son and I had seen a rare snow flake or two throughout the day. Still, I'm glad that kung fu got cancelled and we're all home now.

I got to the gym a bit late because I wanted to drop off my Amazon return to the UPS store. I hadn't realized that as soon as UPS scans the prepaid label, Amazon is notified and I get credited for the return! For most every other time I've returned items (to a non-Amazon seller), I've had to pay for return shipping myself (LLBean offers return labels but takes $6.50 from your refund) or walk it into a store (Land's End returns at Sears in the Mall), and I usually only get an email weeks later confirming a credit to my account. Yes, Amazon has created an amazing online retail structure that is just a little scary in its efficiency.

The gym is really crowded for a Monday morning, as if school had been totally cancelled, which it wasn't. Not even early dismissal. Perhaps college boys don't have to return to school yet? I get on the wonkier cross-trainer for 30 minutes. My left hip and knee are out of sorts today. And there's a twinge in my right shoulder. I might've slept funny. Or maybe it's the weather? For the first 20 minutes, my left foot aches slightly in arch. Weird. Once it relaxes and settles, my right foot starts to tingle at the ball joint, and then my toes go numb with only 4 minutes to go. Ugh!

Once I get to the Stretch Cage, I start to question my confidence. Did I really get to 39, or just barely make it to 29? I get to 36, but struggle with the last rep. Okay, that's a half. It seems more and more likely that I actually did make it to 39 reps last week. But why? I have cut back on cardio. Usually that just makes me bulk faster. But I've also started adding Hindu push ups to my core warm up. My lats and rear delts have been unusually sore on the days following Hindu push ups, and it's rare for me to get sore these days. I'm not really doing anything else differently, but I have noticed that I'm a lot hungrier. Especially right before getting to the gym. I'm so used to working out on just a cup of coffee (with sugar and half'n half), that it seems odd to realize I actually used to eat oatmeal for breakfast. And not just oatmeal, but oatmeal with an egg and maple syrup. I might have to start that again...

Knowing that my shoulder isn't 100 percent makes me add different push ups to my core warm up. I have to pause at rep 40, and again at rep 45 for Hindus. But I add T-push ups and One-Leg push ups afterwards. The One-Legs are really easy so I put them at the end, when I'm tired. Only a few sets of Smith Inclined Benching because shoulders are delicate. I see The Mayor, but I can't actually hear him. Maybe he's finally learned to use his "inside voice"? Delt and tricep work are routine. I've got an eye on the clock because I'm trying to leave by 1 pm just in case the weather folks were right.

This means I skip the 2nd round of cardio even though all the ellipticals are finally vacant. But I do get in another set of pull ups. Ugh! I'm starting to rely on kipping a little at the end. Not good. But I do make it to 37 reps. I don't usually kip because it's a movement born of desperation and fatigue. (I know it counts in CrossFit, but I'm not a CFer so I don't want to make a habit of it.) Then a quick Mat stretch, down and dirty. The Mayor is chatting with RealEstate Girl the entire time. I can't imagine what he talks about, and I've never been interested enough to listen. I see a few other regulars like Chatty Guy (but without Venus) and Shaggy. No one really worth looking at. Oh well... Tomorrow's a Pull Day, and I dread them. Absolutely dread those RDLs because nothing takes your breath away like that. Maybe I should cut my reps? Twelve per set is a lot, right?

Monday Workout

30 min x-trainer
Calories 132
Miles 3.44

HGPU 36.5
Knee-Ins 50
Hindu Push Ups 50
Crunches 3 x 50
T-Push Ups 25
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s
Side Planks 2 x 60s
One-Leg Push Ups 2 x 25

Smith Inclined Bench
12 x Bar (30), 50, 70, 80 lbs
60 lbs x 25

DB Laterals s/s Rev Flyers
25 lbs x 12/15 x 3

Rip Skulls
40 lbs x 12 x 3

HGPU 37