Points of progress last week...

[Photos: even a giant handful of spinach can't change the color from the 'beat' contents, annual pine wood derby.]

Last week was 14 since starting back at the weights. Since then I've seen much improvements in strength - and even now after 14 weeks I'm still seeing some little improvement every week or two. (I can see the improvements more easily and accurately because I keep a log. Each day's routines have the numbers from the previous time I did it (usually one week prior).)

Last week included some running again. That was very nice. I ran twice with my wife on a new 2 mile route that initially seemed much longer since it was more out and back compared to the previous route that had loops and repeats. I'm trying to encourage her to bump up to 3 times a week together - it's a hard sell when it's cold or grey or wet or not beautiful out. But, I know where she wants to go and am trying to help her see the big goal - and attain it. (And it draws us together.)

I was also able to do a couple runs by myself: two 5 miles and 8 miles on Sat. The goal has been to run with joy and for fun - and that's been nice. Most of my runs are in the 8:30 range.

The last 7 days saw a weight loss of 7 lbs. This wasn't my intent, but with some heavy burdens comes some stress and anxiousness. For me that ended up being several nights of little sleep as well as a completely sleepless night. And a few missed meals didn't help much - even though I was trying to get some of my house drinks in. I did sleep better last night, but still not where I'd like to be yet.

Eating has been better. I normally eat well, but have a tendency to eat to much and also add some sweets - usually in the form of ice cream or something chocolate. I'm trying to cut back on the foods that I eat that give me pleasure rather than nourishment. The underlying idea there is that eating food for pleasure means I'm not getting it from where it should be coming from. It's probably a deeper thing for me that I can explain here right now. Life continues to be challenging - but God continues to provide Hope, direction and purpose. And more importantly He is giving me an ever increasing unselfish Love.

Today was workout one of week 15. And the every other Monday routine is 6@6. That's 6 sets of 6 reps with 120 seconds of rest in between. Two weeks ago it was completed at 195, so today it was bumped up to 200 - and it was difficult but completed as well. In two weeks it will be 205.

Life continues to be challenging - but God continues to provide Hope, direction and purpose. And more importantly He is giving me an ever increasing unselfish Love.

The two improvements in strength last week were doing pull ups and on the bench press. Tuesday I did 9 pull ups - and I only have two years of history in this log, but I don't see an entry of doing 9 before: so I think it was the first time in about 7 years of doing weight training. Then on Thursday on the pull up ladder, I've been doing a ladder up to 6, but this past Th I added a second rep at 6 before coming back down (1,2,3,4,5,6,6,5,4,3,2,1). I think that also is the first time doing that. That ends up being ~42 pull ups in that routine.

On the heavy bench day - Th, I finally got a second rep on my last set. So, in search of progress and continued improvement, I added another set at 10 lbs more and squeezed out 1 rep and 20 partials. So my heavy day now includes sets at (after warming up with the bar and 135) : 175, 195, 215, 235 and now 245. For this routine I allow 90 seconds of recover between sets and have a limit of 8 reps max (only a factor on the first two sets).

Exercising with my Wife - exposing my heart

It was nice to work out with my wife again today. Last week she was ill and unable to join me on our 'core and legs' routine.

Today we had some extra fun by taking the camera with us. We both took a few pictures of each other working out. Of course not all pictures taken are to be shared ... but, I'll attach a couple here for fun. More than the photos taken today are now the memories we've shared together. [Photos: one of the roses I recently gave her, both of us doing our high jumping (trying to hit our heads on the ceiling).]

We do the normal warm up routine of stretching and some core exercises then start our circuit. Today it was:
- good mornings
- decline sit ups
- jumping (one leg at a time and then both trying to hit our head on the ceiling)
- squats
- leg raises
- L's
- and lastly calve raises

We did two circuits of this. The only thing that I help my wife with is doing the sit ups - lifting her up and letting her do the negative portion of the exercise. She will help me sometimes to - by hitting me in the stomach when I'm doing mine. The rest of the time we are sharing the same space, talking, being playful, teasing, laughing, admiring, ... enjoying our time together.

I like working out alone most of the time - which is good since that's my norm. It allows me to be more intense and not have any inhibitions with someone else around, but it's still nice to work out with someone else once in a while - especially my weekly routine with my wife. When I get to work out with others it's not just about my training but about interactions, sharing, helping, coaching, encouraging .. all the stuff that happens in my own head for myself now gets to be shared and spoken.

If given the chance to exercise with your spouse - take it. Don't get frustrated that you are at different places, don't be impatient, but rather enjoy the time together. Be silly, vulnerable, show a part of you that your spouse may not get to see very often - open your heart and let down your guard. I can only speak from my own recent experience - it's working for us! :-)

Monday - WO with Chris

Monday I got to workout with C.Mac. He's working nights right now, so he just came to the house on his way home ~5:45.

Monday is more circuit like: short rests, changing from one exercise to another, moderate weights with higher reps. The routine is basically four circuits:
- bench and dips
- decline and dips
- incline and butterflies
- three different triceps exercises
It's a good routine and gets the blood pumping and lungs working. He's bigger than me, so body weight exercises like dips are tough, but that didn't stop him!

After a good workout it was inside for a house drink: "What color do you want?", was the question. He likes purple, so I opted for a 'beat' base. So into the Vita-mix went beat, spinach, almond, flax seed, pear, protein powder, yogurt and soy milk. It's a good nutritious earthy tasting drink that I think helps recovery when taken shortly (with in 30-45 minutes) after a good work out. As it turns out, this one wasn't as good tasting as the "Green" drink I made for him last time (not a complaint, just an observation). I guess that's because this was both a 'Green' and 'Violet' drink - its just that the beat has a stronger color (and flavor) than the spinach. But none the less, he finished his drink before leaving!

Then the next day - he got a call mid-morning, something he's been waiting hoping for .. to be chosen. Congratulations C.Mac!!

Birds Everywhere...

I'm not sure why, but there were about 4 days this past week when our neighborhood was "FULL" of Robins. Going out side in the morning you would hear the birds and see them, everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of them. It was very neat.

I don't recall them collecting in our neighborhood in previous years. They're gone now. I'm not sure where they came from or were heading, but it was very cool to have them for those few days! :-)

To sit out side in the morning when it's quit and so many birds are talking ... it was quite spectacular. A very neat memory.

Trivia: "One Robin can eat as much as 14 feet of earthworms in one day!" - http://www.northrup.org/photos/robin/

Blink blink ... 10 Days later

Thankfully my exercise, even at a lower priority than in the past, is still at a higher priority than Blogging has been. So, I'm into week 14 now, with 7 sessions in those 10 days. (Not all at my normal time, but squeezed in at different times.)

Week 13 had no running or cycling, but I did get all 5 weight routines in. On the 25th I was able to do the 6@6 bench routine at 195 (two weeks before it was 185). Next Monday I'll try it at 200 or 205.

On my heavy routine I saw one extra repetition, from 3 to 4 reps @ 225. This week I'll try to get 4 again and that help me to lock in the improvement by having it two weeks in a row. It's not unusual to see a little variation here and there, but if I can keep the improvements from week to week then they usually stick. I look for improvements every 1 - 2 weeks.

Some of the other points of improvements:

• The pull up ladder is still up to 6.
• First time of doing 9 pull ups.
  
• I did 57 sit ups in 60 seconds.
• My heavy punching bag is now ripping and will soon have to be replaced.
• A few other exercises I've bumped the weight up 10 lbs.

All in all - I am still logging improvements in strength.

12 Weeks and Still having Progress

The body is truly amazing: how it heals, fights off disease, how stress often causes physical side-effects, how good nutrition impacts it, how lack of sleep impacts it, ... and on and on it would go to list the amazing things in these bodies of ours.

In the span of a life, 12 weeks is a very short time. For me it's about 5 thousandths of 1 percent (0.005%) of my life. What is amazing is how significantly the body can change in such a short time: my body today is significantly different physically from what it was just 12 weeks ago. And that still with not always getting enough rest, living in high stress, making my body deal with nutritional and nutritionally dead foods.

What has been consistent is working out each week with weights: 5 different routines, with three focuses, targeting the same muscles on M-Th and T-Fr but with different types of routines on each day. This has been enough change to keep progress in the routine. Typically the reps aren't changing much, but the weights do. Some of the core and body weight exercises have higher reps as strength increases to keep the load and intensity high: where it needs to be to continue to improve. Recover times change from zero to a maximum of 120 seconds with most being 30 seconds.

How different would your body and life be if you have been putting off some health related goals and decide to make a commitment towards discipline for 5 thousandths of one percent (0.005%) of your life? And what's cool is that things will be different once you get there - things that wouldn't be if you hadn't started.

Some people exercise to look good; some to feel good; some to cover up flaws; some to increase strengths; some because the have to; and some do it because it's part of who they are. Me .. I think it's a part of who I am, part of the genetic make up that God put in me when he breathed the breath of life into me those ever growing number of years ago.

Studies show that people of all ages benefit from strength training. This is a known fact. It's not all about getting big muscles, but rather enjoying life longer. If you started today, by April 15th your body, health, quality of life, sleep, nutrition, ... could be drastically different. I encourage you to take a 12 week challenge - for your lifes sake.