Victory!

Yesterday started much like any other day: woke up, got mostly ready, took the dog out, ate breakfast, took the dog out again, finished getting ready, forgot to put on a belt, didn't notice until about 3 hours later. The finish to the day wasn't foreshadowed in the slightest. In fact, with having two separate Thanksgiving celebrations, I completely expected to have a setback. After work, and working out, I hit the scale, got it balanced and literally, aloud, asked it, "Really?!" I hopped off, reset it, tried again. Really. Really, really. At the start of week 48, I finally achieved my goal weight. The one I set back in January.

Thanks to the injured Achilles, the wet floor in the locker room, and the workout -- which I'm teasing again and will describe a bit later -- I did not get to jump for joy. Instead, I went to find Trainer Dean to tell him the good news, but alas he was nowhere to be found. So I headed home wondering what the next step is. First and foremost, I need to add some more calories to my diet to make sure I don't lose any more weight. After that, I'm going to talk to a nutritionist to get help with making a maintenance diet. Ok, enough with the bragging, how about that workout?

1. Deadlift, 225 lbs - Rep scheme 21, 15, 9
2. Wall-walkers - Rep scheme 9, 6, 3

Of note, that's not a tutorial video, but does contain two people demonstrating the concept.

For me, yesterday was a heavy day. For those that have been at it, they probably would have finished that workout in under 5 minutes. I, however, am not very good at deadlifts and 225 lbs is a heavy weight for me. The wall walkers were kinda fun. I just knew I looked like a ninja doing them. 43 minutes 19 seconds later, I could barely stand, my back and abs were completely dead, and I was done. That was a great heavy day. Maybe over 75% of my max deadlift wasn't good for such a long workout, but how else will I get stronger? Really, I probably should have gone with 60% of my max for that.

My rosy feelings toward that could be related to the victory mentioned above. Summary time. 48 weeks, 34 pounds lost, using the tried-and-true techniques of exercise and eating less. Hit up the blog archives to see the actual diet I used and many more workouts that I used along the way.

Joining in on the fun

Wow, it seems like it was just yesterday that I was blogging about my injury and fun stuff like that, but it was actually two days ago. My shoulders are still quite shot from the workout I mentioned at the end of the post. It really was too much weight to do so many push presses, but I got stubborn...and 45 minutes later I finished it. The only problem related to the achilles was with rowing. Oddly enough, it was the little board you push against that was causing the issue. Occasionally my heel about hit that and hurt a bit. Other than that, it was a thoroughly exhausting experience. One that didn't really prepare me for the interesting experience of yesterday's workout.

During the usual communications between my wife and I, she indicated wanted to workout with me. After I told her of my plan for it to be a "core day" she was still up for it, so I was mentally perusing my notebook of workouts to choose one that wouldn't have too steep of a learning curve. After I gave up on that, Trainer Dean provided a nice one for us. One that require a little teaching before we started, but it was doable!

Core Workout #3

21-15-9 rep scheme, for time, of:

1. Overhead Squat
2. Russian Kettle bell Swings
3. Knees-to-Elbows

With the workout listed to the right, I got the opportunity to teach some of the exercises Dean's taught me. Now, I'm certainly not a great teacher, but I had an absolutely giggly star pupil. My wife is an overhead squat natural. She even managed one rep, out of one attempt, to get the bar. I was ever so impressed, such that I bragged about her to Dean after I'd finished my workout and stretching. Kettle bell swings went just about as quick, though I had to do them at the same time as her for the giggles to subside. She rocked the 25 lb kettle bell easily. A natural. On to the actual workout impressions.

This one really hit the upper abs hard, possibly a bit harder than it should b/c I was doing the knees-to-elbows slightly wrong. Really, the first set of overhead squats was cake. Kettle bells wind me as they're supposed to. And those knees-to-elbows were rough. Then second and third sets just sucked, as they were supposed to. With the abs rather destroyed from the first round, overhead squats we much harder. The kettle bell swings are just a torture device anyway but didn't really present much more than a breathing and grip challenge. I think that's their point though, so they were effective. All-in-all, it was a great core workout. I finished in 19:19.

Oh yeah, updates. We're in week 48 and the weight is steadily 1 lb. away from the goal. Maybe today will be different? Doubt it. But I will be much more diligent about the diet starting next week if I don't get it by the end of the week. I have a plan!

Somehow, a sports injury was unexpected

To start with, how's about a little progress update. Since last time, I made it up to 8.5mph for my mile runs, the knee was feeling great, the feet were a little blistered, and my weight was still stuck 1 pound from my goal. I set some new personal records: 115 lb overhead squat, 140 lb front squat, and 160 lb back squat. I invented a sort of hybrid between a kipping pullup and a butterfly pullup, completely because I was simply trying to string together a few kipping pullups. It was going great until I strained my achilles. It happened in the final ¹/₁₀^th of a mile in a workout. In 3 steps it went from fine to STOP!. Naturally, I was left with a sore foot and questions as to what sort of working out I could do while it recovered.

That night, I iced my heel for 4 rounds of 20 minutes with a 10 minute break between each round. That sucked and I was such a baby about it. I even used crutches to navigate the house. The next day, I decided I should go to the doctor (mistake). He said that I "probably" strained one of the ligaments in my foot and prescribed for me: Aleve. Great work doc. So that didn't help and wasted lots of time and a few copays. Fret not, for there was hope:

Enter the all-powerful Todd, aka another one of the trainers at the gym. He recommended a few things: warm up the muscle with biking or the elliptical if it would allow, stretch it very gently (stopping if there is any pain or discomfort), and use the foam roller on the lower calf, called the Soleus. After literally 15 minutes, I could hardly tell I'd hurt it. Praise be to Todd...and other bad puns were made after that. I found him the next day to thank him profusely for such valuable advice.

Next bit of advice, there are very few exercises that needed avoiding with the achilles issue. In summary, avoid anything that requires you to push off with your toes/ball of the foot. So no running, no box jumps, no burpees, etc. But really, that eliminates very few exercises. So how about some workouts that can be done with an annoyed achilles?

Fran

For time, 21-15-9 reps, for time of:

1. Thrusters at 95 lbs.
2. Pullups

The first one is "Fran", listed in the tip box. That one was difficult, mostly because I kept getting my hands out of position, placing them in position to do a front squat. Well, and the relative heavy weight I was using for the thrusters. Of course, the ever present worry of hurting my achilles kept me on my toes heels. Given how much of the leg exercising world is "push through your heels," as long as I did it right or even moderately right, the heel was just fine. I experienced no issues whatsoever with the achilles. The blisters on my hands are a different story. That many pullups are killer on the hands.

Push Press tutorial.

Today's workout is shaping up to be another nice one for the achilles. Rounds of 20-15-10-5 of 135 lb Push Press with a 300m row preceding each round; all for time. It'll be another day of remembering to push with the heels. Should something go wrong with it, I'll post an update to this.

When routines attack! (Changes to the routine)

Let's start with the usual smattering of updates. It's now start of week 45. I'm a single pound away from my goal. Since last update, I've had a nice break down at the lovely beaches of Orange Beach. It was cool for the beach; the water was cool but bearable. The population of jellyfish was not. So I got lots of time playing in the sand, and enjoyed some nice heated-pool swimming. Also, 4th anniversary celebrations took place, so there was nice (read: fatty/tasty) food consumed for a good portion of that week. With all that, the fact that I didn't lose ground is a major victory to me. Also, in an attempt to toughen my feet up and allow my knee to get used to running more, I'm running every workout day, increasing the speed by 0.5 mph each week. I hit 8 mph yesterday for the first time.

On to the more interesting stuffs. So last training session, I walked in and Trainer Dean had a big grin on his face. That always translates into an interesting (read: exhausting) time. Imagine, if you will, a burpee with a barbell in your hands for it. That'd be a pushup on the bar, then either a Clean & Jerk or Snatch. Today was the Clean & Jerk version.

The workout, counting number of reps for score: Power Clean & Jerk down into a pushup on the bar, 10 minutes. Follow that up with a mile sprint on the fan bike. The pushup, thankfully, was the easy part. Clean & Jerks are always an exhausting endeavor, and putting a time constraint on them didn't help. I managed 23 reps in the alloted time. Then the evil bike of doom loomed soon...other double 'o' words would be great here... Moving on, the fan bike was unkind. 3 minutes and 5 seconds of frantic breathing later, I was done. Back tired, legs tired, arms tired, and even the abs weren't happy. Great workout.

If you've only got 15 minutes to completely exhaust yourself and hit all those major muscle groups, try this. You'll hate it, but only because of the effectiveness. I'm probably gonna try the Snatch version today.