Spring workouts

Soccer at least 2 times/week, Mountain biking once a week.  Gym whenever, avoid elevators...

I bike when the weather is nice.

I also go to the gym at least once a week to do leg training.  I need to keep that up.  I've been lazy with the upper body.

I've found that single-leg exercises really go a long way for balance and strength.

Kicking around the soccer ball; Basketball (1 on 1 and half court games); Football on Sunday afternoons; Shooting a hockey puck around. Been walking a couple miles every few days; trying to get back into running a mile or two. 

Strength/Oly-lifting biased CrossFit

I'm getting started on training for the Double Triple Bypass.  Current schedule is two days a week of lifting (ground squat machine for squats and lunges, straight leg dead lifts, barbell chest press, low row, shoulder lifts, lat pull down, combination curl military press, pushups, planks, bicycles, side crunches on the Roman chair), two days of 1-1.5 rides, and two 3-4 hour rides.  The weekend rides will soon be ramping up to 5+ hours...

Was I stupid to sign up for this ride?

Mike

That 22% is going to hurt...

Before setting the goal for the double triple, I signed up for a bike tour in the Dolomites.  They rejected my bike, so I'm not going, but my buddy still is.  It's 52,000 feet of climbing in 360 miles.  The last two days are nuts:  two climbs up the Stelvio for 9k vert on the second to last day, with the last day being the Motorolo (10.5% average with 4200 vert) followed by the Gavia (8.5% average with 4600 vert).  I'm glad I'm not doing that.

Good luck on your ride.  I'd be spending all of my time trying to lose 20 lbs if I had that in front of me.

Mike

Hectic travel schedule has really broken things up for me.  Tennis, beach runs, swimming/surfing, walking sporting clays and hunting, looking to get some enduro-style moto rides and some skating in but haven't for the spring.  Some MTB, and next week should be back on the local pump track.  Have hit golf balls, but haven't played in a while, and am looking at the schedule...

To avoid being so scattered, even if I keep the same schedule, I'm going to try to block activities by weeks better, to try to get 3+ days/week in of a given activity, if I will do it that week.  That rule does not apply for surfing or dirtbiking, though, since right now any day I can get is pretty valuable for those.

I'm out of shape from resting up my bruised ribs.  Here's my program anyway.

A brief warm up, including some core exercises I got recommended years ago to deal with some damaged obliques and of course the requisite  knuckle push ups, followed by a few basics and some Kata: Naihanchin, Nijushiho, Sankakutobi, Happiken, Bassai, and Seisan.

I usually train in the gym 3 times per week. Lots of mobility work, some plyos, relatively heavy single-leg work plus a mix of core and upper body stuff, and finishing with bike or slideboard intervals. I'm also dabbling in "barefoot" running and adding bike rides. Basically half getting ready for tennis and ultimate season and half finding ways to exercise outside.

Elsbeth 

This weekend was tough.  I was supposed to have Thursday off, but because of crappy weather earlier in the week, moved my rest day to Tuesday.  That meant that I lifted on Wednesday, and a pretty intense Tempo ride Thursday and an endurance ride Friday.  Saturday was my first long climbing day, 15 miles and 3500 feet.  I finished a metric century.  Today, with 3 days of riding and a lifting day since my last rest day, I was pretty much toast.  I've only had one weekend, 3 weeks ago, where I rode back to back long rides as well.  So, needless to say, I was lagging pretty much from the get-go.

When I hit the bottom of Lefthand Canyon, I knew I just didn't have a long climb in me.  Or even the shorter climb to Jamestown.  So I went flat a long, another metric century, but at a significantly faster pace (but still pretty pathetic).

So, I rode half the distance of the double Triple this weekend and less than a quarter of the elevation gain.  Guess I've still got some training to do!  Fortunately, there are still 12 weeks...

Mike

Decided to do P90x last night...lasted 20 minutes before giving up on it. Played 2 hours of touch football and then some soccer today. Did full court basketball and beach volleyball (who doesn't love wearing a wife beater, shorts, and no shoes when its 45 and windy) for a few hours the other night. 

Swimming 3x a week.

Ran our 4th 5K this past Saturday, next one is on the 21st. Back and biceps, core cardio and 1.5 miles walk jog run on the tread mill yesterday , 1.5 mile run this AM and plyo cardio later today or tonight, maybe.

I have the Run Keeper app on my mobile device that tracks all running/racing activities and allows me to listen to my play list at the same time.

DUDE!  Too much yellowtail    (see "what are you drinking section") I love P90X! my wife and I used to do it every day. I really miss the plyo and martial arts cardio workouts. Great stuff and it will get you into shape. Get back out there and give it another try.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tylrwnzl 

Decided to do P90x last night...lasted 20 minutes before giving up on it. Played 2 hours of touch football and then some soccer today. Did full court basketball and beach volleyball (who doesn't love wearing a wife beater, shorts, and no shoes when its 45 and windy) for a few hours the other night. 

Rehab 3x week at PT same workouts at home each day.  Work in weights on parts that aren't broken.  I truly miss running riding and doing my plyo and p90.

Just signed up for a sprint triathlon on June 2.  Objectively it's not a huge endeavor I suppose.  But my fitness reality is perhaps similar to many middle aged city dwelling Americans - largely office based desk bound job, home life revolving around young children and their activities, weekends more so, and by the time the day is done the parents are exhausted and hungry enough to eat whatever processed junk is readily obtainable before collapsing onto the couch.  Rinse and repeat.  And the abdominal protuberance grows. Don't get me wrong - I love my life and my family, but it's really easy to turn into a fat sack of crap with this lifestyle.

I've been better with general eating habits and fitness since the beginning of the year, owing largely to a late March Park City trip I wanted to enjoy.  I bike, run, do some bodyweight exercises 4-5 days per week - kind of a modified (read: easier) Primal Blueprint workout.  I'm bored as hell with the fitness aspects of it.  Monotonous and directionless.  And I'm always just a few days of sloth and several handfuls of Easter candy away from saying eff it and going full on blob.  

Anyway, I've always wanted to complete even a baby triathlon.  Maybe it's from cycling a lot years ago when life was different.  I want to find out how bad it hurts.  But mostly, I just want to have some sort of goal that's near enough to remain prominent, thus discouraging eating/exercise cheating, but yet attainable with some effort.

I know the course pretty well.  Open lake swim, bike and run are rolling hills on good asphalt and the setting is rural by metro Atlanta standards.  Just under 8 weeks away . . . should be fun.

Maybe I need to try one of those. I did Chest and Back and hated it. I broke my right wrist about three years ago and stupidly tried to push through it instead of going to the doctor. According to the MRI I ended up refracturing it and damaging a tendon too. It makes it difficult to do push-ups because it makes the wrist swell up from some of the residual damage thats still there. 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finndog 

DUDE!  Too much yellowtail    (see "what are you drinking section") I love P90X! my wife and I used to do it every day. I really miss the plyo and martial arts cardio workouts. Great stuff and it will get you into shape. Get back out there and give it another try.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tylrwnzl 

Decided to do P90x last night...lasted 20 minutes before giving up on it. Played 2 hours of touch football and then some soccer today. Did full court basketball and beach volleyball (who doesn't love wearing a wife beater, shorts, and no shoes when its 45 and windy) for a few hours the other night. 

 

I have nerve impingement in my forearm (teres pronator syndrome) and have to be careful with my wrists and forearms. I had a lot of problems with pushups as well. I bought a pair of the push up bars and focus on keeping the wrists perfectly straight and instead of keeping your hands straight (perpendicular to your body) do them with your hands slightly angled up. It will take a lot of strain off them.  It may not work for you but I would give it a try.  these are $9 at amazon

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finndog 

I have nerve impingement in my forearm (teres pronator syndrome) and have to be careful with my wrists and forearms. I had a lot of problems with pushups as well. I bought a pair of the push up bars and focus on keeping the wrists perfectly straight and instead of keeping your hands straight (perpendicular to your body) do them with your hands slightly angled up. It will take a lot of strain off them.  It may not work for you but I would give it a try.  these are $9 at amazon

 

The proper set up for push ups is important. I see  lot of people who say they have shoulder/elbow/wrist issues so they can't do good push ups.

It's always improper set up.

The hands need to be slightly turned out,this sets the shoulders back where they need to be. The elbows need to be tight to the body,do not let them flare out.

As you descend  to the bottom let your body move foreward so that your forearms remain perfectly vertical. And always full range of motion,chest to the deck and locked out on top.

Went for a 7 mile hike this afternoon. 

good job,  now just keep away from that yellowtail.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by tylrwnzl 

Maybe I need to try one of those. I did Chest and Back and hated it. I broke my right wrist about three years ago and stupidly tried to push through it instead of going to the doctor. According to the MRI I ended up refracturing it and damaging a tendon too. It makes it difficult to do push-ups because it makes the wrist swell up from some of the residual damage thats still there. 
 

 

I have a bum wrist too.  Do knuckle push-ups. Do them on the first two (that's index finger and middle finger) knuckles, not the last three (unless you want to get a boxer's fracture the next time you punch someonething).  It's tempting to do them on the last three, as these three seem to line up, but do them on the first two as it positions your bones in a better alignment.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by loboskis 

The proper set up for push ups is important. I see  lot of people who say they have shoulder/elbow/wrist issues so they can't do good push ups.

It's always improper set up.

The hands need to be slightly turned out,this sets the shoulders back where they need to be. The elbows need to be tight to the body,do not let them flare out.

As you descend  to the bottom let your body move foreward so that your forearms remain perfectly vertical. And always full range of motion,chest to the deck and locked out on top.

 

Often. Not always. I do agree that setup is important, but for some people that's not enough. Usually it's people with a history of injury to the wrist or shoulder. In some cases they need handles for a while while they build stability in the shoulders. In other cases it's been more permanent. I've also had a few clients for whom pushups just couldn't be done without pain. But you are right - for most people, they can be done. And I definitely see a lot of bad pushups before I correct it. I actually co-wrote an article for t-nation.com about pushups: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_best_damn_pushups_article_period. 

I'm still skiing   

Lots of gardening to do. 

I will probably get back into west african drum & dance, I disappeared from my usual classes once the ski season started. 

1 set of tennis, some handball, basketball, and street hockey tonight. According to my Nike+ chip ran a little over 3 miles in the process.