8/18 I feel like I'm living on ibuprofen this week... No headache prior to bed but woke up around 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, head was hurting. Took ibuprofen and went back to bed after eating a little (coleslaw and a banana) to try to get more sleepy. Didn't get up fully til about 10:30, have another headache that feels a little migrainish. I took some excedrin. Morpheus puts me at 65%, and it isn't fully calibrated yet and doesn't have my training data in it. I did some swimming (30 min) for recovery, but my HR monitor didn't really transmit much to either polar or morpheus despite bringing my phone out to the pool area. I just got a polar m430 watch so hopefully I'll catch that in the future (I can monitor with polar from the watch, and transmit to my phone for morpheus; the watch will let me see if the chest strap stops transmitting). I swam slowly for all strokes, a bit faster on breast stroke: freestyle, 2x breast stroke, back stroke, 2x breast stroke. I went in the hot tub for about 7 minutes, and then the steam room for about 5-7 minutes. That steam room is hot! Its just a one-button thing to turn the steam on, on an auto shut-off apparently (I couldn't find anything to shut it off). Moving was very uncomfortable due to the heat after the steam had been on a little while, and I had to breath really slow to minimize how uncomfortably hot it felt breathing in. But staying still and breathing slow wasn't too bad.
8/19 Morpheus has me back up at 89%. I went swimming for 45 minutes in the 120-140 bpm range or so. I discovered that I can't get morpheus to track my swimming. The places I can put the phone are too far away for it to stay connected to the monitor. I used my watch's optical sensor to track HR while in the pool. In the future I'll just connect the chest strap to the watch (optical sensor is ok but a bit laggy). I'll give up on trying to get morpheus aware of that activity (or maybe all activities, and just use the HRV, how I feel, and Polar's estimated training load). 15 minutes in the steam room afterwards. It didn't get as uncomfortable by a long shot. I am not sure whether that is me being more used to it after yesterday, or whether the steam didn't go on for as long (it only stayed on a few minutes at a time today, instead of the whole time).
8/19 addendum I'm also fasting, since dinner last night (finished around 7 pm), though it was a huge meal. I think I'll break it around 7 pm tonight.
8/20-8/25 Got the lazies again, and more headaches in the latter half of the week. 8/26 Heavy Bag (Cardiac output) Had some trouble with the HR monitor. I tried a new chest strap and had the same issues. Not sure why I don't have issues when I'm at Muay Thai, but do when hitting the bag at home. Grip workout (prohands/CoC) Crush 10 xx-hvy Hook 10x x-hvy Finger play 10x each finger, medium tripod 2x10, light trigger 10x xx-hvy thumb press 2x10x x-hvy, 2 buttons power pinch 2x10x heavy, 2 buttons crush 10x xx-heavy coc trainer 8x coc #0.5 6x (left closed all, had longer break was doing planks between CoC exercises) coc #1 4x (left closed all) coc #1.5 5 sec hold (left not closed, right closed and held) finger extension 15x white, 14x green, 12x yellow, 8x blue (could barely move it) Self Care Core exercise for SI joint issue (forgot to do glute medius exercise... oops) 60s plank 40s side plank each side
8/29 45 minutes walking (100-110 bpm) Heavy Bag (cardiac output) Self care Rotator cuff exercise for shoulder injury prevention External rotation at neutral, 3x12x20lb External rotation at 90 degree abduction, 3x12x30lb 60 minute massage on 8/28.
9/8 I've been very bad about exercise lately. I'm trying to get back in it, starting today, but will take it a bit easier overall. I noticed I was dragging a lot at work, probably need to build up to that training load. I have done a few ~20 minute walks, but other than that nothing til today. I had ~250 calories for breakfast and 6g of BCAA after the strength training. I plan to fast through tomorrow night or Monday morning. Strength Training Didn't do tempo, I'm easing back in. Started with the chiropractor stretches. Lying 18kg kettlebell press and hold for 8 leg raises, 10 ankle circles per leg, 2 sets Trapbar deadlift 95x8 warmup 120x4x8 Bench press 65x5, 95x5 warmups 125x28, 125x6 Lat pulldown 400 lb but on pulley, x4x8 Glute medius exercise blue band 2x10 per leg Swimming (for recovery) 23 minutes, 120 bpm avg. Freestyle, breast, back, breast. 20 minutes in the steam room, followed by a cold shower. I hadn't planned on a cold shower, but it felt nice after the steam room so I left it really cold.
9/9 Skipped exercise. I got a pretty gnarly headache a few hours after swimming on the 8th, and figured I'd rest a bit. 9/10 Didn't end up fasting on the 8th/9th. Fasted from after dinner on the 9th to lunch on the 11th. Got a migraine, didn't exercise. 9/11 45 minute walk (2 mph, on treadmill). Not sure why, but my HR stayed between 130 & 140 for this. Its usually around 110 when walking. (1.5 miles walked) I checked a few times when not exercising, my HR was in its normal range, so not sure what was going on. 9/12 55 minute walk (2 mph, on treadmill), avg HR was ~110. ~1.9 miles walked. Heavy bag (cardiac output) My head was feeling off earlier today, and it started hurting again sporadically during this, so I stopped early after 20 minutes.
Oh, also: Self care Rotator cuff exercise for shoulder injury prevention External rotation at neutral, 3x12x20lb External rotation at 90 degree abduction, 3x12x30lb
9/13 30 minute walk, 110 avg bpm 9/15 Strength Training Rolling/chiro exercises. Leg lifts 8, 10 ankle circles, 2 sets, 18kg bell Following tempo pattern for the rest: Trapbar deadlift 8x95 lb 125x4x8 Bench 85x8 125x8, 105x6, 85x7, 85x6 Lat pulldowns 200x4x8 Hip flexor stretch. Glute medius blue band 10x per leg 2 sets 9/17 Heavy Bag (Cardiac Output) 9/20 40 minute walk (108 bpm avg), 45 minute walk (112 bpm avg)
9/21 55 minutes walking (2 mph), 108 bpm avg 9/22 Strength Training (well, conditioning with tempo method) Chiro exercises/rolling 8 Leg raises with 10 ankle circles per leg while pressing and holding 18kg bell 2 sets Tempo: Trapbar deadlift 8x95lb (not quite tempo, warmup) 4x8x125 Bench press 8x85 (warmup) 8x2x105 8x95 7x90 Lat pulldown 4x8x200lb (per plate, but on pulley) Neck plank on wall Glute medius exercise with blue band and foam roller, 2 sets of 10 per side Grip training (prohands/CoC) Crush 10 xx-hvy Hook 10x x-hvy Finger play 10x each finger, medium tripod 2x10, light trigger 10x xx-hvy thumb press 2x10x x-hvy, 2 buttons power pinch 2x10x heavy, 2 buttons crush 10x xx-heavy coc trainer 8x (left struggled but did close all) coc #0.5 6x (left couldn't close any but the first) coc #1 4x (left closed none) coc #1.5 5 sec hold (left not closed, right closed and held) finger extension 15x white, 14x green, 12x yellow, 8x blue (could barely move it) Heavy Bag (Cardiac output) Swimming (recovery) 15 minutes in the steam room afterwards, then a cold shower. 9/24 Jump-rope & Heavy bag (higher intensity) 2 3-minute rounds of jump-rope with 30 seconds rest in between, though I probably rested about 30 seconds or more during each round for breath/catching my feet/etc. 3 3-minute rounds on the heavy bag with 60 seconds rest between rounds.
9/27 Walking Hills (1 hour, cardiac output, 137 avg bpm) 9/30 Walking Hills (1.5 hours, cardiac output, 134 avg bpm) 10/2 Walking, 2mph treadmill, 111 avg bpm, 34 minutes 10/6 Strength Training (didn't do tempo) My right shoulder has been bugging me, trainer spent a while working on muscles around it, applying strong pressure while I moved my arm in various ways. It helped a lot, he suggested I get a massage focused on the areas around it. The medial delt is what hurts, but he worked on the subscap, pec, and a couple other things I forget. 10 leg raises/10 ankle circles, 18kg bell, 2 sets Trapbar deadlift 125x5, 175x5, 225x3x5 1/2 kneeling single arm row 200 x 12 220x2x12 Neck plank on wall glute medius exercise with blue band and foam roller, 10x2 per leg 10/8 Walking Hills (1 hour, cardiac output, 136 avg bpm) 10/11 Walking, 2mph treadmill, 103 avg bpm, 30 minutes. I noticed today that my calves are losing the hard definition they got from all the jump-rope I had been doing when I was going to Muay Thai regularly. Its now been about 6 weeks since I last went... I do want to get back to going. My schedule has shifted a bit due to lack of discipline (staying up late reading or playing games), and I could force it to work, but I don't. Anyway, in an attempt to exercise more regularly & work on my basic endurance & conditioning, I'm going to start trying to do: - Regular jumping. One thing that holds me back with the jump-rope is that after the first minute or so, I start catching my feet a ton as I get more tired, giving me longer breaks. For now I'm going to jump in 30 second sets, with no rope (but still mimicking the hand motion). - More regular bag work at higher intensity. I don't like to wrap up & glove up if I'm just doing a short bit (which is all mental, I know, but still there), so I end up not doing any. I'll do more bare-hand sessions (palm strikes, chops, elbows, roundhouse kicks, knees, teeps). Today I did: 4 30-second sets of jumping, taking probably 30-60 seconds between sets (not timed). 5 minutes on the heavy bag, bare handed. This took very little time; I want to do this a little bit like that most days, and at least one day with higher volume of jumping & bag work. I'll also try to walk at work more often (the 2mph treadmill desk), preferably 30-60+ minutes a day, 2.5 hours+ a week. I will keep doing cardiac output, preferably at least 2x per week, and strength training 1x/week.
10/13 Strength Training Blue dimples on pecs Lying KB press and hold (18kg), 8 leg raises 10 ankle circles, 2 sets per leg Black resistance band hip flexion/extension 10 per leg Blue dimples anterior tib dorsi/planter Blue dimples glutes Cage squats for warmup, knee bothered me Blue dimples near my knee Cage squats, felt fine now 3 sets of: Goblet squat 20kgx8, 24kgx2x8 Resistance band pull apart 15x High plank with hip abduction (15) I haven't been fasting for a while now... but am starting to do it again. Stopped eating around midnight on the 13th. 10/14 Walking Hills (Cardiac Output), 1 hour, 137 avg bpm 10/15 Walking on treadmill, 2mph, 52 minutes, 109 avg bpm Short higher intensity workout: 4 sets of 30 seconds of jumping (no rope, a little under 2 jumps per second... the 4 sets of 30s is probably more jumping than I actually manage in 3 minutes of jump-rope, due to running out of breath, muscle fatigue, and catching the rope on my feet. I can actually jump consistently for 30s rounds; I'm working on building up muscle endurance & cardiovascular endurance) ~9.5 minutes on the heavy bag after that, throwing fairly hard, took a few short breaks to breath a bit. Ungloved, so: chops, forearm strikes, elbow strikes, palm strikes, knees, kicks. Still haven't eaten, not sure how long I'll fast. Probably at least through tomorrow morning (which would be ~57 hours), but maybe I'll keep going. Have felt fine so far, aside from a few hunger pangs, including during exercise.
I haven't been training much at all the past 2 weeks. I was traveling for a wedding all of last weekend, and missed strength training yesterday due to not feeling well (which had to do with eating a TON of junk on Friday night). I have done some jumping nearly daily, anywhere from ~60 to ~320. I want to get to where I can do 300 in a row without stopping, which would be about how many I estimate I'd do during a 3-minute jump-rope round if I didn't catch the rope on my feet (a little under 2 jumps per second). Right now I can do about 200 in a row before my calves give out, jumping at around 2 jumps per second or a little less. (Faster than I'd usually skip rope.) 10/22 50 minutes walking, 2mph on treadmill, 117 avg bpm 10/28 75 minutes walking hills for cardiac output, 138 avg bpm. 26 minutes hitting the heavy bag, 159 avg bpm. Mostly round kicks, some teeps, knees & elbows. (Elbows both tore open on my psoriasis pretty quick so I had to stop using them, didn't glove up so no punches.) Stopped & rested for a small bit whenever I hit the red zone (~170 bpm). I should get back to doing grip workouts at least weekly. I should do one later today, we'll see if I actually get to it.
Haven't really been doing any exercise lately. Not even walking on the treadmill while I work, and I missed several strength training sessions that I usually do weekly. I did strength train this past Saturday, and am really sore from it (I guess due to missing sessions). But, I do want to be getting back to martial arts & exercise. One issue is my right shoulder--it has gotten worse. I am seeing a PT about it in a few weeks. I also got the idea that I could start biking to work... One of my motivations for that is if I'm already spending 90-100 minutes commuting in my car (though its more like 60-70 if I'm doing it off-peak hours, though that means I wouldn't be able to get to muay thai or anything else that day as I'd be arriving late & leaving around 7:30 or 8 pm, after all classes are over), finding time for 60+ minutes of cardio exercise (beyond 2mph on the treadmill while working, which is the fastest the desk treadmills go, which only gets me to ~110 bpm heartrate) is hard. Doing muay thai helps, but adds ~3 hours for a 1 hour class (leave early enough from work to get there in traffic & do warmup/chiropractor exercises/etc, class for 60-75 minutes, then changing & driving home another 40+ minutes). So I had this bright idea that I'd try biking to be able to get more exercise without too much extra time sacrificed. My wife thinks I'm nuts, and that it is going to be a lot more time, and that I should just hit my office gym (which is well equipped) while at work. And that I'm going to be cold/wet/miserable if I try to do this in bad weather. I figure with the right gear it won't be so bad; I have coworkers (though from Canada, so more used to the cold probably) who bike commute about the same distance in any weather, even when it is below 0 C out/snowing/etc. The only time they avoid bike commute is if its really icy. The ride back at night is probably a bit less safe in terms of cars, but with bike lights & a helmet light (strongly recommended by co-workers for biking at night), it sounds fine to me. Guess I'll see. If it takes me ~110-130 minutes to bike (round trip), plus time for bike maintenance & an extra shower & change (I figure I can just rinse off after getting to work, do a full shower after biking home), that is maybe 2.5 hours spent, vs the ~1.5 hours spent if I drive. So sacrificing an hour to get 2 hours of exercise. Add in bike maintenance time, and occasional long delays (if I have a flat or other bike issue), and maybe its sacrificing 1.25 hours for ~ 2 hours of exercise. Still not horrible on time efficiency. Once I build up enough to bike frequently I could also bike to muay thai/whatever after work, and then bike home. That would be about as much time as the car, or a bit more (I have more traffic to deal with in the car, especially on the way there). But anyway, it would be a LOT more opportunity to get in cardio exercise, probably more efficient time-wise than trying to get in cardio separately from the commute. So I went out and got a bike & a bunch of gear (I'm impulsive like that), and then nearly died of exhaustion riding it 1 mile home. Of course, that 1 mile was all uphill. Well, flat for a bit, then 86 feet up, then flat/down a bit, then ~65 feet up over a very short stretch. I think it didn't help that I haven't been keeping up on cardio very much lately. And also that I did a bunch of deadlifting the day before and was pretty sore. I think riding mostly on flat surfaces wouldn't be so bad though. The commute to work is ~11.3 miles (18.2 km) if I stick to mostly bike paths. It has ~1.75 miles getting to the bike path (along city/suburban streets), ~2.5 miles at the end on city streets, and only a couple street crossings on the bike path, and a small portion (< 1/4 mile) having to go back on regular streets for a gap in the bike path. The only part that isn't fairly flat is the last bit by my house, where it is a ~140 ft climb over a very short distance (or downhill, on my way out to work). I figure if I'm unable to do that 140 ft climb at the end, I can always just walk my bike up the hill. Luckily there is a place with large amounts of free parking about halfway down this route, so I could drive my car & park, then bike ~5.5 miles to work & back over mostly flat terrain. That drive isn't so bad even with traffic as it is usually the 2nd half of my drive that is very bad with traffic closer to the city... 20-40 minutes (40 for worst traffic), but I think usually closer to 20-30. And that spot is on the path back from either muay thai or the MMA gym I've been eyeing. I'll start out biking around a little on the weekend/holidays, and then start with the shorter bike ride from that free parking lot. Maybe I'll drive down to that free lot with my bike and do the round-trip commute on a weekend to see what it is like.
It sounds like a good option for extra cardio if you get along with it. I've done commuting by bicycle and on wet days it can be miserable, extra time getting changed/cleaned when you get to work can add up. I'm not sure what it's like by you, but here the road is dominated by cars/buses, which put me off it most, feeling like you spend your whole time trying to avoid being knocked by cars. Sunny days it's nice though.
I got around to trying the bike commute yesterday. It was rough--I've really let my fitness level slip for the past few months. Not that I was that fit to begin with, but I feel like I was probably the most fit I've been either ever or in a very long time. It took me about 40 minutes to bike 5.5 miles or so (I drove part of the way & took my bike the rest of the way). I had to take a break part-way through it. Even with the ~6 minute break, I averaged 160 bpm for heart-rate. While riding I was hovering generally between 160 & 170. Riding back took a bit longer (~45 min), I had to take a 5 minute break and another shorter break towards the end, and was up in my red zone (over 170 bpm) for about 40% of the ride. I started seeing a PT about my shoulder. She thinks it is rotator cuff tendinitis. She said I can go back to punching my heavy bag but to ramp up slowly to see how the shoulder does. E.g., 2-3 minutes, see how my shoulder is the next day. I can keep ramping time up from there so long as the shoulder feels ok the next day. She thinks I'll be able to get back to Muay Thai in mid-January. While I'm rehabbing the shoulder I'm going to start exercising more again. I massively reduced exercise a few months ago, mostly due to wanting to spend the time reading/video gaming. I kept out of Muay Thai due to both the shoulder & my timing (let my schedule slip to sleeping in, couldn't make Muay Thai work with my work schedule when that happens). I am finishing up the big book series I've been reading voraciously (~35 full length books, 400-900 pages each. 55 total stories, but a bunch were short stories). I feel like I need to find a good balance I can maintain, between giving my leisure time to exercise vs other activities. Though as my wife notes, I tend to do things to the extreme. E.g., all time spent reading/gaming, or major time spent exercising, vs balancing them. I think I have trouble finding a balanced approach... I get excited about something and don't want to give up time from that to do other stuff. Training myself to be a bit more disciplined and keep up with other things would be helpful for me. I will try to do a couple rounds of bagwork tomorrow (one punching, the others kicking only) and get some video of it for my bagwork thread.
I did a bit of jumping (~60 jumps) then 2 rounds on the heavy bag (one punching/elbows, one kicking/knees, videos in my bagwork thread). I was also thinking some more about how to ramp my fitness level back up. The past two days at work were rough, I didn't get much done. I was pretty exhausted from biking I think; spending 40% of the ride in my 90%+ HR zone is too much for me I think. I think I mentioned in a prior post how my work productivity had been suffering a bit and how much of a difference I noticed when I greatly scaled back on exercise. I need to ramp up more slowly instead of just diving in, if I want to be able to have energy to work effectively. I figure if I can get fit enough that the commute is keeping me in the 130-150 BPM range, that would probably be fine; I found 60-90+ minutes of that doesn't exhaust me so much, huge difference compared to 90 minutes of 160-180 BPM. I do have a gym with stationary bikes at work--I can build stamina in the 130-150 BPM range on those, and start getting my legs more used to biking. I can also do shorter rides on the weekend. I may also be able to find a place to park closer to work and bike from, maybe only 2.5-3 miles instead of 5.5. Though that would add enough time to my day to get that close (traffic is worse closer to work) that I may not, and just stick to stationary bike for now. I figure I can re-evaluate in a few weeks or a month, based on my HR riding around on the weekends. I also need to start taking my HRV/morpheus recovery score again in the mornings. I think that will be helpful, along with Polar's training load, to avoid overloading myself. Posting the bike HR graphs from Weds the 28th (forgot to start monitor until maybe 1/3rd mile into the ride, forgot to stop monitor for ~10 min after arriving at work on the way in).
Strength Training, ~1 hour The PT for my shoulder said I should feel free to tell my trainer to give me a lot of back exercise. We did single arm cable rows (half-kneeling, heavyish at 240 lb on the plates, but its the pulley so not actually that heavy), shoulder adduction with a moderate-thickness black resistance band (from overhead to arms out to the sides), bent over dumbbell rows (tried to use a bar but my big belly gets in the way of the full range of motion). We also did step-ups & swiss ball leg curls.
40 minutes on a stationary bike, 136 avg bpm. Sitting forward on it properly still hurts a bit (sore from the bike saddle when I rode a little under 2 hours a week ago). So it seems I can build up both my seat-area resilience to discomfort (I'm guessing after a couple weeks of regular biking that soreness goes away) and build up leg muscle stamina & my generic cardiovascular health. I have forgotten to get my HRV in the mornings, I'll try to remember to start tomorrow morning.
30 minutes on a stationary bike (137 bpm avg). For some reason it feels harder to do cycling than other cardio at similar heart rates... Did a quick plank (30s) and side planks (20s), and some finger extensions with white, green, and yellow bands. I should start doing planks regularly... I've been doing the shoulder PT exercises daily, though I haven't been keeping up with some minimal back exercises from my chiropractor.
Strength Training Single arm cable rows (1/2 kneeling), resistance band pull-aparts, bent over rows, step-ups.
