I Am SORE

I am SORE from my calves to my shoulder blades. I am SORE front to back and side to side! This is almost laughable. I've been swimming and such twice a week for a two or more months. I only added a very few exercises yesterday, most with no extra weight and one with ridiculously light weight. But I feel like I had a marathon work out session.

I guess that just shows the effectiveness of a few well chosen exercises and swimming! I almost hate to think about how I'll feel tomorrow. Usually the soreness is worst on the second day after a workout. It'll be interesting to see how my currently under-trained forty-seven year old body responds.

Four Hour Body, Aqua Walking and Swimming

So, I pulled The 4-Hour Body ( T4HB ) off my shelf last night. I am going to get into the best shape of my life. However, I must deal with the reality of my various chronic injuries and physical limitations. T4HB focuses on finding and doing the minimum work necessary to achieve the maximum results. It also has extensive sections on rehabilitation, correct muscular imbalances and healing "permanent" injuries.

Today I added a few exercises to my routine. Over the last two or three months I've just been going straight to the pool as I noted yesterday. I started out with the what Tim Ferriss recommends as the two most effective ab exercises which for his Six Minute Abs routine and the simple version of the Perfect Posterior routine.

1. Myotatic Crunch 1 x 10
2. The Cat Vomit Exercise 1 x 10
3. Two-legged Glute Activation Raises 1 x 20
4. Flying Dogs 1 x 15 per side
5. Kettlebell Swings
• Point A 5 x 22 lb. dumbbell
• Point B 5 x 22 lb. dumbbell
• Swings 5 x 22 lb. dumbbell
• Swings 20,20,10 x 30 lb dumbbell

Then I head for the therapy pool and the lap pool. I repeated the same workout in the pool as I did yesterday. I was already a bit sore after yesterday. I'm completely wasted now. I just want to eat and go to sleep, but it is way too early.

Swimming

It has been a long time since I posted. I started having some serious pain in my left hip around Halloween 2012. Sharp, stabbing pain. I could be walking along fine and all of a sudden PAIN! Pain so intense I would nearly fall down.

Fast forward to January 2013. I finally decide to go to the doctor. I have Xrays, an MRI the works. All they see is evidence of arthritis. I go to physical therapy. The exercises I do for my hip set off some severe back pain, pain even worse than my hip. I have some deteriorating disks in my lumbar spine. I miss a lot of work. I finally get in to see a spine specialist. He wants to do epidural steroid injections but he's about to go on vacation. I have an MRI of my spine and start taking oral steroids.

Spine doctor gets back from vacation two weeks later. My back feels enough better that I decline the epidural steroid injections. Also I've been going to the heated therapy pool at Furman University. In the therapy pool I spend 20-30 minutes walking then another 20 minutes doing mobility exercises for my lower body and treading water. When I first started going to the pool I was limping and walking all hunched over like a really, really old man. Now, my hip still hurts but I'm walking like a normal person. I even started swimming laps in the lap pool a few weeks ago.

Today I walked in the therapy pool for 20 minutes.

• Five minutes walking forward
• Five minutes walking backward
• Five minutes walking sideways
• Five minutes walking sideways crossing one foot front then back

Followed by ten minutes of mobility exercise. Then treading water 4 x 90 seconds on and 30 seconds rest. After that I swam 22 lengths of the lap pool which is about  three tenths of a mile. I repeated the following four times

• kick board one length
• freestyle one length
• breast stroke one length
• freestyle one length
• back stroke one length

That was twenty lengths. I finished off with two fast, for me, freestyle lengths. I'm beat and sore tonight. Last week was the 2nd annual Running Nerds 5K. I ran the first one for my 46 birthday in 2012. This year I can't run. This Friday is the Swamp Rabbit 5K which I ran with Laura and Miles last year. This year I can't run but Laura, Gabby, Isaiah and Miles are going to run it. I'm just going to keep on swimming and maybe start walking again.

I had been swimming and working out in the therapy pool only twice a week on Saturday and Sunday as I thought those were the only days the therapy pool was open to the public. As it turns out it is open to the public after 530pm during the week. Just this week I went on a Wednesday after work. I'm going to stick with three days a week for a while then maybe move up to four days a week of swimming.

Miles Does His First CrossFit Kids WOD

Miles Does His First CrossFit Kids WOD

3x or 5:00

5 walking lunges => bear crawl => 1 beginner rope climb => basic dot drill x 10 => broad jump => 5 super-slow squats


With no precise directions, I just had him bear crawl back the distance he did the walking lunges. I also assumed the lunges were five per leg. We don't have a rope climb setup so I had him do 10 bodyweight reverse rows. He did five broad jumps as one seemed kinda' silly. How slow is a super-slow squat? I had him do 3 seconds down and 3 seconds up. Miles complete three rounds.


7:00 AMRAP
5 deadlifts, unloaded-10#
60-yard run

Miles used a 10 pound bar w/ two 5 pound plates for his deadlifts.  I guestimated the 60 yard run. He completed four full rounds and 5 additional reps of deadlifts. I'm proud of my boy! His face was red like a true Crossfitter when he finished!

Mobility, Walking, C25K

I never did get around to doing the Prasara Yoga cool down routine I should have done after my last Lift Heavy Things workout. Yesterday I did my scheduled IntuFlow joint mobility workout. That twenty-three minute routine based on making circles with body parts from your head down to your feet is quite invigorating. I also went for a thirty-four minute, two and a half kilometer walk. For the day I walked in excess of 9K steps. I misplaced my pedometer later in the evening so I'm not sure of the exact total.

Today is a running day. I started with normal combination of an IntuFlow warm up routine and FitSugar's active running warm up routine. Also as usual I added some extra leg swings and toe raises. With my body completely warm I started Couch to Five K Week Four Day Two.

miles/yards km/metres

Stage Distance Time Pace WU 381 metres 5:00 13:05 1 413 metres 3:00 7:15 1R 137 metres 1:30 10:54 2 701 metres 5:00 7:07 2R 182 metres 2:30 13:41 3 394 metres 3:00 7:36 3R 113 metres 1:30 13:15 4 679 metres 5:00 7:21 4R 205 metres 2:30 12:08 CD 355 metres 5:00 14:03 Total 2.83 km 24:00 8:28 inc WU/CD 3.57 km 34:00 9:31

Calories burned: 329

Calories burned (including warm up): 453

This was just a small improvement over my last run, eight seconds per kilometer faster. Including the warm and cool down walking my pace was actually one second per kilometer slower. I should try and keep my walking pace up around 5km/hr for all the warm up, recovery and cool down walking. I finished with twenty minutes of Prasara Yoga. I held each posture of the cool down routine for forty-five seconds. I'm slowly, slowly getting better with the rabbit, kneeling arm thread, and pigeon poses which are the most challenging for me. Tomorrow is another recovery day. I'll do more yoga and walk.

Day Off and then Lift Heavy Things

Today's workout began with nine minute Intu-Flow warmup routine from The Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss. I followed that with the following giant set warm up. I did two sets of five reps each. The brief warm up giant set came from Turbulence Training.

• Lying Hip Extensions
• Knee Push Ups
• Stability Ball Leg Curls

I then did two circuits of the following exercise which are from the Primal Blueprint Fitness Lift Heavy Things program. I rested for thirty to sixty seconds between exercises.

1. Knee Push Ups 30, 27
2. 2 Leg Assisted Pull Ups 20, 20
3. Assisted Squats 50, 50
4. Elevated Jack Knife 25, 25
5. Knee-Hand Plank & Side Planks 65-45L-45R,  65-40R-40L (seconds)

Knee push ups first set 20+7+3=30, 17+6+4. Pull ups 20 straight, 13+7. squats 50 straight, 50 straight. EJK 25 straight. 21+4=25 ( mental fatigue more than physical ). Total time 34 minutes plus 4 minutes for the giant set warm up. going to have to skip the Prasara Yoga cool down for now. Miles and I are going to a Furman Football game. Got to shower and jet!

IntuFlow, C25K, Prasara Yoga

I don't seem to be able to post regularly even though I'm working out regularly. Two days ago I did my normal IntuFlow recovery routine. It was a nice twenty-four minute joint mobility program. It always makes me feel better and I hope it is really improving my mobility.

Yesterday I started my warm up at home with a brief IntuFlow routine. A bit later I continued warming up with FitSugar's active warmup for running outside Master Kim's while my son was in Tae Kwon Do class. I did some extra leg swings and toe raises on the curb, too. Then off to run Week Four Day One of the Couch to 5K running program.

miles/yards km/metres

Stage Distance Time Pace WU 408 metres 5:00 12:14 1 412 metres 3:00 7:16 1R 101 metres 1:30 14:47 2 682 metres 5:00 7:19 2R 204 metres 2:30 12:14 3 405 metres 3:00 7:23 3R 115 metres 1:30 12:56 4 657 metres 5:00 7:36 4R 203 metres 2:30 12:16 CD 376 metres 5:00 13:15 Total 2.78 km 24:00 8:36 inc WU/CD 3.57 km 34:00 9:30

Calories burned: 328

Calories burned (including warm up): 453

Even though this was a significant increase in interval lengths, overall distance and time my average pace was almost a minute per KM faster than last time! I'm quite proud of myself especially since I'm only running once every four days. The extra recovery time and recovery routines I've plugged into my program seem to be working. Once I got home I cooled down with eighteen minutes of Prasara Yoga.

Today was recovery only. I did a sixteen minute Prasara Yoga recovery routine. I can actually get fully into all but one of the postures in this routine as opposed to the cool down routine. I have trouble with at least three, maybe four of the postures in the cool down routine.

Yoga, Sprinting and Kettlebells

Yesterday, Sunday 20121007, was a recovery day. I did a brief, sixteen minute Prasara Yoga routine. I also went for a forty-one minute, 3.20KM walk. Total steps for the day 8443.

After a 14 minute warm up with an Intu-Flow routine combined with FitSugar's active warm up for running, today's workout had two main components: sprinting and kettlebell swings. Before getting started started with the sprints I walked between 500M and 600M. The temperature is about 50^°F so I felt the extra warm up was needed.

6 intervals 50M sprinting at 50% speed with 50M walking

6 intervals of 50M sprinting at 80-90% speed with 100M walking

I ran on the football field at Mauldin Middle School while my #1 son, Isaiah, was at his Tae Kwon Do class. By the time I finished running and walking back to my car it was time for me to drive around the corner and pick him up. The combined warmup walk, intervals and walk back to the car was 26 minutes and I covered 1.90KM. After picking up Isaiah, I then stopped to fill up the car's gas tank and drove on home.

When I got home I proceed to do kettlebell swings. First a quick warm up.

5 touch and go reps with 20 pounds at Point A

5 touch and go reps with 20 pounds at Point B

5 reps with 20 pounds full swings

Then on to the work sets.

3 sets of 25 reps with 20 pounds full swings 

Some explanation would probably be helpful. Point A is on the ground a few inches in front of and midway between the toes with feet at shoulder width. Point B is roughly inline with and midway between the heels again with feet at shoulder width. I've seen video of Crossfitters raising the kettlebell straight above their heads on swings but I stop around shoulder height as suggested by Tim Ferriss. Swings only took eight minutes for warm up and work sets. I cooled down with my normal Prasara Yoga routine. With holds of 40 seconds in each pose the yoga took about nineteen minutes. Tomorrow is an Intu-Flow recovery routine day and Wednesday will be Week Four Day One of Couch-to-5K.

Hills Hurt but Couches Kill

The last two Saturdays I stayed in bed reading until 1030 or later reading. This morning I got up at 0600, cooked breakfast and took one of our cars to get an oil change. While the oil was being changed I went for a run, C25K Week Three Day Three. Part of the run was a long, painful hill climb. But I remembered: Hills Hurt but Couches Kill.

miles/yards km/metres

Stage Distance Time Pace WU 396 metres 5:00 12:37 1 196 metres 1:30 7:38 1R 116 metres 1:30 12:54 2 389 metres 3:00 7:42 2R 218 metres 3:00 13:44 3 213 metres 1:30 7:01 3R 125 metres 1:30 11:57 4 412 metres 3:00 7:16 4R 241 metres 3:00 12:26 CD 335 metres 5:01 14:59 Total 1.91 km 18:00 9:24 inc WU/CD 2.64 km 28:02 10:35

Calories burned: 240

Calories burned (including warm up): 364

Before I left home I did an Intu-Flow warm up. After I dropped the car off I did the FitSugar active warm up before starting my run. My run was slightly faster today than Week Three Day Two and much faster than this same workout earlier in the year. Once I got home I did a Prasara Yoga cool down.

Yesterday, I didn't post but I did do an Intu-Flow recovery routine. Tomorrow is a Prasara recovery routine.

20121004 Lift Heavy Things

Today's workout began with nine minute Intu-Flow warmup routine from The Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss. I followed that with the following giant set warm up as I need to be particularly careful to get fully warmed up and loosened up before tackling any real work. I did two sets of five reps each. The brief warm up giant set came from Turbulence Training.

• Lying Hip Extensions
• Knee Push Ups
• Stability Ball Leg Curls

I then did two circuits of the following exercise which are from the Primal Blueprint Fitness Lift Heavy Things program. I rested for thirty to sixty seconds between exercises.

1. Knee Push Ups 26, 20
2. 2 Leg Assisted Pull Ups 20, 20
3. Assisted Squats 40, 40
4. Elevated Jack Knife 25, 25
5. Knee-Hand Plank & Side Planks 60-35R-35L,  60-39L-40R (seconds)

Total time on calisthenics was thirty-four minutes but I again I increased my reps, or time in the case of planks, on each exercise. Push ups were a little better. I still had to take  two quick arm shaking breaks to make it threw my sets. Pull ups only one break per set at 15 rep mark. Squats great improvement. Forty reps per set no leg shaking, just brief pause at the top a couple of times, like 1 or 2 seconds max.

Elevated jack knives first set paused at 20 reps to shake arms and hands out before banging out the last five reps. Second set paused at 19 reps.Planks I equaled my times on the first set. Second set I improved my side plank times by 4 seconds on the left side and 5 seconds on the right side. Now to cool down with some Prasara Yoga. Eighteen minutes total, forty seconds per pose. Slowly getting more flexible. Tomorrow is C25K Week Three Day Three.

20121003 Prasara Yoga Recovery

Fifteen minute Prasara Yoga recovery routine. Tomorrow is primal blueprint fitness lift heavy things bodyweight workout. Can't wait!