I gave up running because, as usual, I was crushing my ankles and knees, but I started doing forced marches instead since they're easier on my body. I've ramped up from 25 to ~50lbs (22.5kg) now, and can even shuffle-run for short periods to make a traffic light or whatever with no problem.
The 6.5km (~4mi) forced march is in the morning before breakfast with nothing in me but black coffee. This makes it harder than you would think. I'm making the distance in about 50 minutes right now, including down time for a set each of pull-ups and dips, and hope to hit 66lbs (30kg) by next month while keeping the same time. This will be about 28 - 30% of my body weight by then.
Combine the morning march with 3-4 days of endurance lifting and an odd evening march, and you'll spend all day with random cramps just like me.
I'm looking at a ruck sack instead of my backpack to ease the pressure on my lower back and get the weight up higher. That should make the treck less painful. I'm handling the winter with a motorcycle face mask and several layers of sweats, which I sweat completely through every day.
Since I haven't done any real power lifting this year, my lifts are down by 30-40%. I'll fix that in the spring. I want to drop this gut first. Since I'm not losing any real muscle size, I figure I can wait.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Out of Shape but Not Giving Up
I was sick for a couple of months with an ENT infection that wouldn't go away, then I ripped my hamstring and had to take another three months off. I ended the summer overweight and weak.
I've started lifting again, but focusing on warm-up + 3x10 instead of my normal 6x6. I'm also doing 6km forced marches in the morning with an 18kg pack on an empty stomach. That's burning the fat off pretty well.
Halloween wrecked me, though, and I had to take an entire day off to recover from the hangover.
Yes, that's me making an ass out of myself.
I've started lifting again, but focusing on warm-up + 3x10 instead of my normal 6x6. I'm also doing 6km forced marches in the morning with an 18kg pack on an empty stomach. That's burning the fat off pretty well.
Halloween wrecked me, though, and I had to take an entire day off to recover from the hangover.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Why Squats Rule, and a New Workout
It's been four months since my last blog on this site. The amount of time is excessive mainly because I stopped working out in February and for most of March. I got my chest up to 48 inches before I stopped working out, then went on an extended rest period. I lost 40kg off of most of my lifts during the break and my waist got up to 43 inches (from 40.5 in November).
We ended our gym contract and hd trouble finding something good enough for home use, but we eventually got it.
We bought 140kg of weights and mats for the floor. We were ready to go. The problem was time. We just didn't seem to have more than 45 minutes to work out. That's not much of a seesion, so we had to make them counts. Here's our new plan:
A 6-day rotating schedule over a 7-day week. There are no schedules days off. We can take one or two a week if we think we are over-training. The nature of the rotation helps ensure that we don't lose the same workout every week.
Day 1
Morning: 30 minute core workout with planks, supermans, and other core exercises.
Evening: 40-minute chest workout featuring the straight and inclined chest press.
Day 2
Morning: 30-minute kickboxing workout
Evening: 40-minute back workout with BB rows, deadlift/shrugs, and pull-ups
Day 3
Morning: 30-minute callisthenic workout with push-ups, scissor kicks, squat jumps, and the like.
Evening: 40-minute shoulder workout with seated BBpresses and Arnold DB presses.
Day 4
Morning: 30-minute jiujitsu workout on a mat.
Evening: 40-minute chest workout with DB straight and inclined presses
Day 5
Morning: 30-minute endurance stairs workout carrying weights up and down my front stairs in pyramids
Evening: 40-minute back workout with DB rows, deadlift/shrugs, and pull-ups
Day 6
Morning: 30-minute kickboxing workout
Evening: 40-minute leg workout with squats, cleans, and the like.
Other daily activities:
Workday: Two 15-minute biking sessions going and coming to work.
Saturday: Some extra jiujitsu
Sunday: A forced march with weight.
Needless to say, we're exhausted. Sometimes we don't have time for the full workouts, but we try. For example, we only had about 15 minutes for lifting yesterday, so I just did squats. I figure if you're going to only do one leg exercise, that would be it.
I did five sets of 6-8 reps, with my ass just about hitting the floor. My thighs hit my claves, anyway. The weights were:
40kg
70kg
90kg
110kg
125kg
The funny thing is ... I don't have any knee pain now. Before I started lifting, my knees were shit. I couldn't walk around without problems. If I made a hard right turn, my knee would collapse and I'd go down on the floor like a sack of potatoes. When I started doing squats, I died. I did them the recommended way, stopping at 90 degrees (sometimes not even to there), but mt knees screamed every day.
Now that I drop to the bottom, I don't have knee pain. I only wore braces for that last, heaviest set. Isn't that odd?
Anyway, that one exercise ruined my legs for today. Real muscle soreness. Squats are great that way!
We ended our gym contract and hd trouble finding something good enough for home use, but we eventually got it.
We bought 140kg of weights and mats for the floor. We were ready to go. The problem was time. We just didn't seem to have more than 45 minutes to work out. That's not much of a seesion, so we had to make them counts. Here's our new plan:
A 6-day rotating schedule over a 7-day week. There are no schedules days off. We can take one or two a week if we think we are over-training. The nature of the rotation helps ensure that we don't lose the same workout every week.
Day 1
Morning: 30 minute core workout with planks, supermans, and other core exercises.
Evening: 40-minute chest workout featuring the straight and inclined chest press.
Day 2
Morning: 30-minute kickboxing workout
Evening: 40-minute back workout with BB rows, deadlift/shrugs, and pull-ups
Day 3
Morning: 30-minute callisthenic workout with push-ups, scissor kicks, squat jumps, and the like.
Evening: 40-minute shoulder workout with seated BBpresses and Arnold DB presses.
Day 4
Morning: 30-minute jiujitsu workout on a mat.
Evening: 40-minute chest workout with DB straight and inclined presses
Day 5
Morning: 30-minute endurance stairs workout carrying weights up and down my front stairs in pyramids
Evening: 40-minute back workout with DB rows, deadlift/shrugs, and pull-ups
Day 6
Morning: 30-minute kickboxing workout
Evening: 40-minute leg workout with squats, cleans, and the like.
Other daily activities:
Workday: Two 15-minute biking sessions going and coming to work.
Saturday: Some extra jiujitsu
Sunday: A forced march with weight.
Needless to say, we're exhausted. Sometimes we don't have time for the full workouts, but we try. For example, we only had about 15 minutes for lifting yesterday, so I just did squats. I figure if you're going to only do one leg exercise, that would be it.
I did five sets of 6-8 reps, with my ass just about hitting the floor. My thighs hit my claves, anyway. The weights were:
40kg
70kg
90kg
110kg
125kg
The funny thing is ... I don't have any knee pain now. Before I started lifting, my knees were shit. I couldn't walk around without problems. If I made a hard right turn, my knee would collapse and I'd go down on the floor like a sack of potatoes. When I started doing squats, I died. I did them the recommended way, stopping at 90 degrees (sometimes not even to there), but mt knees screamed every day.
Now that I drop to the bottom, I don't have knee pain. I only wore braces for that last, heaviest set. Isn't that odd?
Anyway, that one exercise ruined my legs for today. Real muscle soreness. Squats are great that way!
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