Month: September 2024

Pull Workout

Today is Friday and that means it’s time for a pull workout. This started with a 500M row at a decent intensity. Nothing crazy, just warming the body up. About 2 minutes 20 seconds.

The first exercise is a deadlift. Again I worked up to 330 pounds which is the most I can get on the hex bar due to the width of my weight plates. Especially the bumper plate I have. 330 pounds is still pretty challenging as I only did 2 reps and it was a challenge. Once I get that up pretty good I will be looking to increase and will need to get at least a couple of skinny 45 pound weight plates.

Next, I did 4 rounds of 12 reps hex bar shoulder shrugs. I am trying to improve the quality of these and holding at the top for 1 – 2 seconds. A little better today but will keep working at it. After that I went right into hex bar rows. I increased weight this week to 140 pounds total. I did 4 rounds of 10 reps.

Now is where intensity picks up. I do both good mornings for lower back into farmers carry. I do these one right after the other with no break. Only about 30 seconds in between rounds. This week I increase weight on each. For good mornings I increased to 175 pounds and farmers carry I increased to 140 pounds for 70 steps. I did 4 complete rounds.

Now comes the HiiT portion of the workout. That first part took about 50 minutes total and the HiiT will be an AMRAP for 20 minutes. This involves a 400M run followed by max pullups and hammer curls. For the hammer curls I did a heavier weight lower reps this week instead of the 60 rep 15 pound version I’ve been doing. I did 35 pounds on each dumbbell for 15 reps each. I completed four rounds total in 20 minutes. Overall not too bad but intensity minutes were lacking. Per the Garmin watch, I hit 50 intensity minutes today. That brings my weekly total to 381 which is less than last week but adequate. I’ll be taking off the next two days while travelling to a college football game. I will get plenty of walking for that as is always the case. See you next week!

Roadwork Thursday

Thursday is run day aka Roadwork! Took a little bit to get going this morning and I had to dig deep. The serious thoughts through my head of taking the day off were real. My legs were pretty sore from the leg workout yesterday and I was groggy from a restless sleep. Every day is a struggle of different varieties.

Once I mustered up the discipline to hit the road I took it slow. I jogged a mile at a fairly slow pace. After that I start pushing and began a run/walk method through mile 2. This involved running at a push pace until I got pretty tired and walking for a short period. Once I got through mile 2 I picked things up further with a one minute run followed by one minute fast pace walk. During the run portions I pushed hard to almost a full sprint, at least the best I can.

After about 45 minutes total I went back to the gym and did a series of leg stretches followed by 2 rounds of `100 lying triceps presses and 60 hammer curls with 15 pound dumbbells. My triceps and biceps were burning pretty good. Finally I did 2 minutes of sit ups. I was able to complete 65 today which was less than the last two sit up sessions in previous days. Overall I hit 93 intensity minutes today bringing my total intensity minutes for the week to 331, more than doubling my weekly goal by Thursday.

Embrace Pain

Do you really want to achieve your goals? Do I really want to achieve my goals? If so, we must embrace the pain. Pain is where growth happens. When we muster every last ounce of everything we have to push that last rep of a push up, it hurts, it sucks, but is so worth it.

Every time I run, it hurts. Especially the first 1/2 mile. It’s painful. My knees are on fire, my ankles hurt, my lungs are feeling it. When that pain hits, push through it. Take a lesson from David Goggin’s, when most people feel that pain, they quit. That is why they will not achieve their goals.

Pain is not just exercise. It’s painful to get out of your comfort zone at work. I have learned to embrace the uncomfortable. I am scared to death to talk in front of people, always have been. I have been worried about people judging me, being critical of me, not accepting me. I have learned to jump in and embrace this pain. I understand that people will be critical. It has pushed me to another level. I have been scared to write a blog. People might not read it or like it, I would say to myself. So what.

It is painful to do anything in life that is outside of your comfort one. But there is no growth in the comfort zone. Muscles build when you reach and go past the pain. Your mind gets smarter and stronger when you push past what you know into some things you are learning for the first time. It is painful to absorb and really try to understand something new. But getting through the pain is absolutely worth it. When you hit the gym, go after the pain. When you try and learn something new, go after the pain and push yourself to absorb everything. When it’s hard, think to yourself that it must be good. Go after that pain every day!

Building Discipline

I saw this today and wanted to write about it. The person who is willing to get up every single day and go to the gym and get their exercise in even if: it’s too hot, it’s too cold, it’s raining, it’s snowing, I didn’t sleep well, I didn’t sleep long enough, I don’t feel like it, the car broke down, the kids are crying, I had nightmares, I overate, in under ate, my stomach hurts, my leg hurts, I have a headache, etc.

Even if all of those things are plotting against you and giving you every reason to not exercise today. Even if all of those things are present and you are still willing to go to the gym and do it, that build some high level discipline. For me, it seems that every day there is something that isn’t right but I still do it. Even if there is limited time. Even if my workout wasn’t great but I did what I can do the best I could, that is better than not doing it. That is better than sitting on the sofa and doing nothing.

I will tell you that I’ve gotten myself to the point that it is not negotiable. I will do it regardless of circumstance. For a long time I didn’t have a home gym. I did push ups and sit ups. I didn’t have equipment, I ran or walked. There is literally no excuse that can stop me. Yes, even if I am sick. Oh by the way, I swear exercise keeps me from being sick.

This all took a lot of time and this discipline is starting to drift in to other areas of my life. I’ve been wanting to write a blog post for a long time, now I am doing it. Regardless if anyone reads it. Regardless if anyone pays attention or even if I make some mistakes and my grammar isn’t the best. I do it for myself. It’s the discipline I am building. I want to write a book and will do it. I am working every day on it. It may take a long time but I will do it. I must be disciplined enough to do it. There are barriers everywhere and there are critics everywhere. If you are a critic of what I do, I do not care. You may like me or not, it doesn’t matter. I do not do any of this for you, I do it for me. Discipline is the act of getting something done regardless of circumstances or barriers. I encourage everyone to go after discipline. Do not expect immediate results. Do not expect it to be easy. Do not expect it to happen overnight. Stay with it consistently and you will get there.

Last 2 days

Yesterday I performed a run of 3.1 miles for a total of 78 intensity minutes. I did not have a good sleep the night before and it showed in my run. I actually did a run / walk. I was able to get through it and well exceeded my weekly intensity goal of 150 by Tuesday again. After my run I performed a series of leg stretches and did 100 triceps extension and 60 hammer curls with 15 pound dumbbells. After that I completed 70 sit us with the ab mat.

Today is Wednesday and it is leg day. I did my normal band routine and then squats. I worked my way up to 275 pound squats and I think I got a little deeper than last week but not where I want to be. I think if I keep working at it I will get deep within a couple of months. Once that happens I will increase weight to 300 or more pounds.

After squats I did a 20 minute AMRAP involving a 400M run followed by Romanian Deadlifts with 12 pounds, 24 walking lunges, and 45 calf raises with 80 pounds. I was able to complete 3.5 rounds. On the last round I just finished the run portion but didn’t have time to complete the other exercises.

After that, I put on a 20 pound weight vest and walked 1.10 miles at a pretty good pace. Overall intensity minutes today were 78 and that brings my total for the week to 238. Not too bad and I will continue working at it.

Motivation & Discipline

This is something that took me a long time to learn but wanted to share my thoughts. I always thought that motivation was the most important thing. I would say to myself “I have to get motivated to workout”. I would talk about internal motivation vs. external motivation. Some people need external motivation to workout whereas others are internally motivated.

I observe that many people will get motivated to workout. Perhaps it’s the new year and the person makes a resolution to workout. They are motivated by that. They will begin January 1st with a goal of getting in better shape or losing weight. I also observe that many of them will stop after a short time and revert back. Why is that? I guess the motivation wears off.

What I learned is that discipline is more important than motivation. Motivation is good for some time but discipline will carry you through. For me, I learned how to become disciplined and make exercise a part of my life. It has become part of my daily routine. I became disciplined by incorporating daily habits. It may start small, very small. Like doing a couple of pushups or going for a walk. It was a mindset shift. Something that I made a deliberate decision for.

One day I decided that exercise would just become part of what I do and who I am. Why is this important? Because motivation is good to give you a boost and get you going but when motivation subsides, discipline will carry you through.

Let me try and explain through an analogy. The NFL football is having a bad season and at some point during the season, they fire the head coach and hire an interim football coach. Almost always, the team does better with the interim coach then they did with the previous coach. Why? Because it was a change seen for the positive. The new coach comes in with a fire, intensity, and gets everyone motivated to do well. It’s the honeymoon phase if you will.

However, at some point the motivation wears off and the team reverts back to a normal routine. The normal routine is based on the discipline they all have to continue to excel. If there has been a lack of discipline, the team will revert back to this. When all motivation wears off and adversity hits, we fall back to our habits. If our habits are not satisfactory, will not be satisfactory. If our discipline and work we put in is outstanding, we will eventually become outstanding. The teams that ultimately have the best discipline, the best habits, will be the teams that succeed. Of course, great players help also. But usually the great players are great because of the discipline they have in their habits, their work ethic, their mindset to be great.

For exercise and fitness, I am not trying to win gold medals or win competitions. I am trying to be as healthy and strong as I can for as long as I can. I envision myself as that 90 year old man who is out there running and lifting and still being able to function well with my family. It’s not motivation that carries me, it’s my daily habits, discipline that I have built into my daily life that carries me. There are days when I am absolutely not motivated, days I do not want to get out of bed, days that I am just not feeling it. On those days especially, it is my discipline that carries me. Perhaps it wasn’t the best workout, perhaps I just went through the motions, perhaps I lifted light or ran slow or even walked slow. But I did it anyway. I accomplished it even in my worst. Even with that, I take solace in knowing I did better than laying around all days. I did something. Discipline did that, motivation did not.

I encourage everyone to consider building habits. Start small, stay consistent, but do something and build on it. There is a saying in football “get 1% better every day”. That is the mindset needed. Start at 0% and work at it. Walk 10 feet farther tomorrow than you did today. Start with no weights and build up to very light weights. Move your arms, shoulders, abs, legs, back, chest a little bit and build on it. Ultimately discipline is the key to success in anything we do.

Discipline is hard, it requires a person to dig deep and find what works for them. I have learned about myself and what it takes for me to accomplish these things. Each person must find what works for them. And this discipline carries through for me in all other aspects of my life. Whether it’s work, spending time with family, writing a blog post, or writing a book. Motivation will be a start but discipline will get you through. It takes time a relentless effort. It is so hard but it is so worth it. Have a great day!

Friday & Monday

I wasn’t able to submit a post on Friday so I will recap it here. I will also discuss this morning’s workout.

Friday was a pull workout, I did pretty well. I was able to hit 86 intensity minutes. That workout started with a 400M run warmup followed by deadlifts. I worked up from 120 to 330 pounds for the deadlift. That is the max I can get on my hex bar. Even then the weight about falls off when I put it down. The problem is one of my 45 pound weights are bumper weight plates and they are really fat. I need to get a couple more thin 45 pound weights. I will be doing that soon.

I then did hex bar shoulder shrugs at 185 pounds followed by 3 sets of hex bar rows at 120 pounds. I then did 1 20 minute AMRAP which each et involved 400M run, max pull ups, and 60 rep hammer curls with 15 pounds. I was able to complete 4 rounds.

The weekend was off for working out as I was travelling for a college football game to watch my son play. I will be doing that for the entire football season. So I probably won’t get back into weekend workouts again until January.

This morning was a push workout. I first did a 500M row for warmup, did some stretching with bands primarily targeting the chest. I then did bench press working up from 135 pounds to 255 pounds. It felt pretty good overall.

Next I completed dumbbell should press working up from 25 pounds each dumbbell to 40 pounds each dumbbell. It’s the 12-10-8-6-24 routine. I took very little rest in between. Just long enough to switch weight. I did 24 consecutive reps with 25 pounds each dumbbell for the last set. My shoulders were burning pretty good at the end.

Next, I performed skull crushers with the bar starting at 55 pounds working up to 85 pounds. Again this was the 12-10-8-6-24 routine with the only rest to switch weights. I did 24 consecutive reps with 45 pounds at the end.

Finally I did a 20 minute AMRAP which included 400M run followed by 15 pushups with the perfect pushup, 10 dips on the dip station, and 40 cable crunch with a heavy band over my rack. I completed 4 rounds.

Overall a good workout. I felt pretty good throughout but did get winded during my 400M runs but made it through. My sleep score was 81 so I had a decent sleep.

I will tell you I am a firm believer in strength training as it makes me feel pretty good and really sets up my day. I am feeling stronger and it keeps me young. Even though I am 60 years old I think this weight training is the key to staying young and allowing me to go hard consistently at work and at life. This helps me not only physically but also mentally.

Tomorrow is a run day so I will check back in after that. Have a great day!

Thursday – Run & Walk

Tuesday’s, Thursday’s, and Saturday’s are my run days. I have always struggled with running longer distances. To me longer distances are anything more than a 1/2 mile. Today I ran 3.27 miles. I try to get at least 3 miles and sometimes run 6 or 7 miles on Saturday.

I ran one half marathon in my life and a handful of 5K’s. I would like to run another half marathon and I am thinking of targeting one early next year so will start training more heavily for that in December.

After my run today I completed a series of leg stretches. I learned from a running coach a long time ago to not perform cold stretched before a run. A mistake I use to make. I basically do a walk to run warm up and sometimes will do 500 meters on the rower to warm up. After my leg stretches, I did one round of 100 rep triceps press followed by 60 reps of hammer curl. Both are done with 15 pounds dumbbells. I then finished with 66 reps of sit ups in 2 minutes.

Later in the day I walked 1.08 miles at a decent pace just to get some sun and take a break from work. My total intensity minutes for the day is 108 per the Garmin watch which brings my weekly total to 377. The week starts on Monday. I am well over the 150 minute intensity goal for the week set by Garmin. Decent week so far and I will keep at it and pick it up tomorrow morning with a Pull day.

Wednesday Fitness – Leg Day

I haven’t been sleeping well. I have a bout of poison ivy and my sleep scores have not been good. Last night was 46. It took everything I had to get up and out of bed at 4:30 am this morning. Very challenging but I did it.

I started my workout with bands tied around my knees and I did 100 reps spreading my knees against the resistance of the bands. Next, I placed the yoga ball between my knees and did 100 reps pressing against the ball. I then moved to the back of my bike and tied my ankles with the bands, placed the ball between my knees and did 100 reps spreading my ankles against the resistance.

I used a different band wrapped around the leg of the work bench in my garage and did 100 reps extending me left leg to the side against the resistance. I repeated the same with the right leg. I then repeated the same with left leg this time pushing my leg directly back against the resistance. I repeated with the right leg.

I used a band with Velcro straps wrapped around both ankles and did 98 reps walking side to side. After this I moved to squats. Again focusing on deeper squats. My first set was 135 pounds for 8 reps. I increased weight to 185 pounds and did 3 RFQ which means rounds for quality. I did 5 reps each set. I finished with one more set of 8 reps at 135 pounds.

I then did a 20 minute AMRAP consisting of 400M run followed by 10 Romanian Deadlifts for hamstrings, 24 walking lunges, and 45 calf raises with 80 pounds. I was able to complete almost 4 rounds. The last round I just finished the run when time expired. Overall, I got it done but because of the poor sleep quality I felt pretty sluggish and was challenged to complete. Tonight, I will try and get a better night sleep and prepare for a good run tomorrow. Have a good day everyone!

Tuesday – Run

Today I hit 97 intensity minutes per my Garmin watch. That brings my weekly total to 190 between Monday and Tuesday when the weekly goal is 150. So that is good.

The weather was a little better today at 65 degrees, still a little muggy. I ran 3.59 miles. I am not a good runner. Had to walk in some spots. No matter how much I work at it I still struggle to get a good pace. I will keep working at it.

After my run I did a series of leg stretches followed by 2 rounds of 100 reps of lying triceps extension and 60 hammer curls with 15 pound dumbbells. This is the first time doing more than 1 set so I am building up here. I also did 73 sit ups with the ab mat in 2:00.

Overall, I did get a pretty good intensity number and am pushing. I would like to run another half marathon. I am targeting next March/April for this so will begin training probably around December.