Core Commit to Health & Fitness 2015, Round One: Jan 5 - Mar 15

ergophobe · January 19, 2015, 02:46:18 AM

A few weeks!?!? Bummer. Sorry to hear that.

15/15 (I know, everyone else is counting days, but sorry).

Three runs - 4, 5, and 6 miles respectively. Now that I'm an office drone, 6 miles is about as much as I feel I can do at lunch time and still feed my face.

I also have built a collection of lifting rocks in the woods behind the new job and did one workout there, plus a 9-mile mt bike ride and a little rockclimbing... not a bad week.

Speaking of rock climbing... President Obama tried to call our house on Wednesday because one of the climbers who has been in the media so much lately was staying in our rental (he's a long-time friend of ours, but his sponsor was paying, so we charged him just like general public ;-)

Unfortunately, the phone did not ring, so I can't say someone spoke to Obama on our house phone. Yet.

[edit: "did" => "did not"]

Rupert · January 19, 2015, 05:34:43 AM

Wow! Those guys are amazing. so impressed. Not for me.

Great week ergophobe. Well done.

gm66 · January 19, 2015, 08:45:10 AM

Nice one Ergo!

3/3, cut down on beer, no fags during week.

Drastic · January 19, 2015, 01:24:09 PM

4/5 gym. trouble sleeping last week and by Friday I was done. (better now)

littleman · January 19, 2015, 04:20:17 PM

Sounds like a great week for you Ergophobe.

>Friday I was done.

I hear you. I usually do two workouts mid-week, and then another two during the weekend. If something goes wrong on the weekend it could derail my target. Saturday was fine, Sunday I went too long without eating and got a splitting headache. I still went to the gym, but my head pounding made it not my best workout.

Week 2 - 4/4

ergophobe · January 19, 2015, 10:31:22 PM

Friend took a picture today at lunch of me at my rock gym. The rocks are not heavy, but I estimate I can lift about half the weight I lift with a barbell... it's hard getting the right selection of weights too. I had a great rock for overhead squats (like in the picture), but it split in two last week, so now all my rocks are too heavy or too light ;-)

gm66 · January 19, 2015, 11:40:11 PM

That pic just makes me nervous, don't drop one of those buggers on yer head!

ergophobe · January 20, 2015, 01:52:54 AM

I don't think it's terribly dangerous in the overall context of things ;-)

When I was a ranger I used to give an evening program called "Staying Alive In Yosemite" and essentially tried to give people some good risk assessment tools. There were quite a few deaths that year and people were freaked out about various fairly traditional activities that weren't really particularly dangerous if people used a little bit of common sense.

I used to put up a slide with the number of deaths from drowning, falling off a cliff and so forth. Then I'd give the stats for death by heart disease and diabetes in America and would say "So remember, inactivities are more dangerous than activities" and show these images

Rumbas · January 20, 2015, 03:36:49 PM

Hehe, that's great Tom. Rock Gym, I like it.

>week 2

3/4.

littleman · January 20, 2015, 04:56:07 PM

>inactivities are more dangerous than activities

Very true.
Yet, the topic reminds me of a point that's been on my mind a lot lately. I think it is important to get one's ego out of the way when exercising and to have sensible goals. I've seen a lot of injuries from people pushing too heavy weight. My personal goal isn't to be as strong as possible, I was stronger when I weighed 100 lbs. more anyway, and it would be difficult to get that strong again without the corresponding size. My goals now are to look good (yeah, vanity), feel good, and maintain as much as I can for the long haul.

My personal rules for avoiding injuries are:
take the time to warmup
keep the rep range above 8
if it feels wrong, avoid it

nffc · January 21, 2015, 09:16:03 PM

>important to get one's ego out of the way

And the older you get the more important it becomes. Lighter weights but really good contraction should be a key aim. If the ego still flares, as it does, then hit the heavy bag, the sickening sound of a punch well thrown will echo throughout the gym.

I spend a lot of time in Asia, every gym has a punchbag, quite rare in the UK.

ergophobe · January 22, 2015, 11:15:10 PM

LM - I think I've mentioned this before, but have you read the Lou Schuler "New Rules of Lifting" series?

The first was a bit of a blockbuster - New Rules of Lifting. But since then there's been (I think) NROL for Women, NROL for Abs, NROL over 50. Even if you're a man under 50 with abs of steel, they're all good, but because each one includes new research and what Lou and Allwyn have learned since the first.

Lou has been a lifter (of course) and fitness journalist for a few decades and reads widely. It's really no-nonsense and it fundamentally changed the way I warm up for things after 20? 30? years of exercising and lifting.

littleman · January 23, 2015, 04:16:43 PM

You did mention him before, I'll give him a read. It sounds like he has a lot to say about long term fitness.

Mackin USA · January 25, 2015, 01:41:01 PM

NFFC I'm very OLD and still have all my EGO, I just can't remember where I put it.

In response to littleman asking for an update:

I'm 0.4 on the Keton Meter which means that I am now in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis

PS: Are we still planning a Savanna Adventure in April ??

jetboy · January 26, 2015, 11:58:31 AM

So, building up to this, as I'm an old bloke.

Week beginning 19/1:
2 (cardio only) gym workouts, 2 swims (462 metres and 858 metres), so 4/5

Start/end weight: 75.9Kg/75.2Kg (aiming for 72.0Kg)
Start/end body fat: 22.2%/19.9%

I expect to need another week to get the swimming up to a mile (1600 metres) per session, and I'll add weights in to the gym sessions then too.