The Core

I would say that in South Africa the small to mid sized truck (which we call a bakkie down here) is the back bone of the economy, the larger more robust bakkies (Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux and the VW Amarok) are still heavily sought after but their prices make them out of reach for the majority of the working population.

One of my go-to healthy meal options when I am in a bit of a rush with not much to spend in the kitchen is roasted veg with feta and steak. The local supermarket does the veg in a simple ready to go bag.

Butternut, Baby marrow, Red onion, Red/Green pepper and Rosemary - in the oven for 40 minutes then when it's fresh out of the oven crumble feta and toss it through... then a medium sirloin steak.

This is also valid for the 80's and 90's - 1981 baby here 

<goes to find friends at the usual hangout spot>
"What's going on?"
"Nothing."
"Alright, cool."
<continues hanging out with friends at said hangout spot, making lasting memories>

But now it's:

<messages friends on social media>
"What's going on?"
"Nothing."
"Alright, cool."
<continues sitting home, alone, depressed, eating out of boredom, while doom-scrolling on social media>

That's a lot of volume! 19 sets per exercise sounds like a big mental load as much as physical.

Are you doing all those straight through?

I have modified slightly as I was struggling to much on my heavier weights - I pretty much warm up on the 10KG / 14KG sets and then go straight to 18KG and go up in similar fashion!

I've seen a lot of horror stories with muscles and tendons being torn so I am still not hitting my PBs across all exercises - I can feel I have another 5% - 10% across all exercises but I am conciously not hitting them until I feel comfortable to do so..

https://www.theonion.com/chinese-factory-worker-cant-believe-the-sh##-he-makes-f-1819567885

From the article;

"Last week, I took testimony from several young female workers from Shenzhen who said they were locked in a work room for 18 straight hours making inflatable Frisbees," Gao said. "Finally, the girls joined hands on the factory floor and began to chant, 'No more insane flying toys for Western pigs!' They quickly lost their jobs and were ostracized by their families, but the incident was a testament to China's growing disillusionment with producing needless crap for fat-a## foreigners."

Speaking of rep ranges.... 2016 and 2021 research papers show that for most regular people, high reps can lead to similar gains in hypertrophy and maybe even strength differences are not that great.

Of course, actual strength athletes training to hit a 1-rep-max have to train for that and thus need to lift heavy with low reps, but for most people, especially those who are relatively untrained, even 25 reps will result in gains as long as it is done to exhaustion. That can get pretty tedious working in those rep ranges though.

I have my own rep range;

Yesterdays target was the chest

Dumbbell benchpress

• Warm up - very light weight 6KG - 3 sets of 20 reps
• 10KG - 3 sets of 10 reps
• 14KG - 3 sets of 10 reps
• 16KG - 3 sets of 10 reps
• 20KG - 2 sets of 8 reps
• 24KG - 1 set of 8 reps
• 26KG - 1 set of 8 reps
• 30KG - 1 set of 6 reps
• 36KG (my max) - 1 set of 3 reps
• 16KG till failure

No science, just what works for me - it was recommended by my brother-in-laws brother

I then did an incline dumbbell press and then dumbbell raises - similar sort of pyramid setup

Then a chest finisher with dumbbell benchpress and dumbbell raises using 8KG weights, 6 reps alternating between the two exercises until I couldn't do anymore.

Note* I could probably hit 40 or even 42KG (on the benchpress) and do 2 or 3 reps but I've seen some nasty injuries which I want to avoid at all costs! People just pusing to hard because they think they have to!
Note** Stiff shoulders, chest and arms today - plenty of protein and water to repair and rebuild the chest area

The guy who wrote that article was on it early. It says it was posted on October 17, 2023 

I'll stop your right there Ergo, I'm not a runner I hold my hand up high and wear that badge with pride  But I love hiking and Cape Town being set on a peninsula with the main plateau of the Table Mountain national park being well over 200million years old there are hundreds and hundreds of trails/hikes of all degrees of difficulty being catered for.

One of my favourite locations is where my in-laws live. A small and very quiet coastal town about 80 miles from Cape Town called Bettys Bay, the Harold Porter botanical gardens there have three or four hikes and mountain trails which are breath taking, on one of the moderate hikes (one or two challenging ladder climbs) you are rewarded with a secluded waterfall where you can swim and relax in the ancient caves before heading back down taking in the fynbos and being careful to avoid the baboon troops that live on the mountainside up there.