Zig,

Here's a pushup variation you can do on the floor that will add resistance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0au...be_gdata_player

There are two ways you can do staggered pushups. One is by alternating arms with each repetition. The other is by performing two sets, alternating arms with each set.

There's a little trial-and-error involved in finding the best arm position. If you decide to try it, focus on finding the right position at first, count reps later.

Sam

Wednesday 7-Mar-12
Walked 7 minutes (felt like butt, so cut it short and ditched gym today)

Thursday 8-Mar-12
Walked 15 min in morning
Took nice 60 min walk in afternoon (full sunbeam! )

Sam, thank you for all this info! I've tried to be inventive with the limited resources we have, but have come up with blanks for several things, and you're helping so much for me to fill in those blanks, and work productively.

I did try staggered pushups today, and had trouble figuring out if I was doing them correctly. I need to re-scrutinize the video. The way I ended up doing them, one arm (now I forget if it was the arm shifted further out or the one kept closer in) used a LOT of deltoid, much more than I'm used to, which felt weird.

But I enjoyed trying something new, and feel the effects already in biceps and across upper back.

Here's the total of what I did today:

• warmed up on ET for 10 minutes
• did 12 right-angle knee pushups to warm up
• angled knee pushups: tried to stagger my hands, but also was on a bench that restricted how far apart my hands could be---probably floor will be better, I'll just have to suck it up and get down there for these I think; I did 8 with each configuration (total of 16) but that was with a lot of messing around and trying to remember what I saw in the video (need to watch it again)
• did 160# on leg press to warm up for squats (20 times)
• with 8# handweights on each side, I did 4 squats hands at sides, 4 squats hands between knees, and 4 squats hands up close to chest; this went very well, so I repeated the whole shebang, for a total of 24 squats--a new record for me!
• pullups: warmed up with 15 of them at 90#, then was only able to do 5 good ones at 180#. My arms and upper body aren't progressing anywhere near as fast as my legs. Not surprising, I guess. But I did feel that it was too much warming up on this one. Next time I'll try a little more weight on warming up, and fewer number of them.
• plankish: I achieved the position 6 times again (last was HARD!); each was held for 3 full seconds (I could hear the clock ticking) except the 2nd one which was only 2 seconds, and the 5th one which was 4 seconds. Improvement! So that's a total of 18 seconds. Next time I do this, maybe I'll try to do 2 at 3 seconds each, and 3 at 4 seconds each. That'll be only 5 times, but slightly longer seconds during 3 of those 5 times. Or some other similar distribution with the goal of doing a similar total of seconds, distributed to get used to holding the position longer. This is fun, too, as even if I'm not really doing it, I'm getting better at whatever I'm doing, and pretty fast!

I thought I would try doing more reps for warming up, which I did. I got this idea from a few sessions I had a few months ago, where I set myself up a circuit, and did it twice. I noticed those times that the 2nd time around the circuit, I could often do more weight and/or reps to get me to failure than the first time around. At the time, I thought it was because I still hadn't gotten my brain fully on track to recognize that failure is not when it starts hurting (the brain part of failure is the hardest for me). But I wondered recently if it might not (also) have been a result of having already warmed up the muscles quite well using them to what I called failure a few minutes before?


Although today on most exercises doing more movement-specific warm up seemed to help the actual exercise, today on pullups, it didn't work as well. On the other hand, this could be because I was tired from having done the pushups. I did them in the reverse order of what I usually do, which I think helped the pushups (maybe, but I may have been doing them really wrong) but hindered the pullups.

Today I felt blugh again, and when Dad slept through our gym date, I was going to bag it. Again. (I really felt like butt on Wednesday; not today, though, just blughy, which is not nearly as bad as butty, fyi ).

I'm really glad I went, though. I still don't like going by myself---that is, until I get there and can avoid distraction by almost all other humans (usually no one is there when I go); I can focus solely on myself, which is nice. And it was today---I talked to myself when I was trying to figure out body part logistics/mechanics (pretty funny at times---boobs can provide comic relief! ), and even gave myself some faint praise after I did pullups (even though I didn't make it to 6 full reps) and after I did all those squats. (The progress with squats is really good---I'm still pleased with myself! I've lost 35 lbs, which makes a big difference, but even so, having just recently already made a personal best on them, then adding the handweights and a couple weeks later making another personal best by 150% of reps ... well, I'm proud of that. I also think it's indicative of my body wanting me to use it in these ways---strenuous as for lifting and sprinting days, and leisurely as for the long strolls I take. The morning walks are okay, but usually I'm too sleep and grumpy to appreciate them, and just count the minutes down till I can have some tea and breakfast).

Zig,

I went back and looked at some of your earlier logs, and for pullups you got the most work done (160# x 12) when you just did 80# x 6 as a warm-up. I think you're right, 90# x15 is too much.

(Looking at my own logs, I seem to do best if I warm-up with ~60% of the exercise weight for 6 reps. YMMV.)

Sam

Monday 12-Mar-12

I did the following:

• 12 minutes warm up on ET
• 4 30-second sprints, resting 2.5 min. between each
• 5 minutes of cooling down on ET
• my plankish business: 3 times, each held for 5 seconds; but I think my asinine is hiked up in the air, so I'll consult the video again. And since this is only plankish, I might not even worry about it for now
• stretching

Afterwards, I felt really good, so of course second guessed myself as to whether I'd done enough, worked hard enough, etc. But today (Tuesday) my quadriceps on both legs are VERY SORE, and my calves are starting to feel sore, too. We'll see how squats go tomorrow.

I think on Friday I'll add a 5th sprint. Well, I guess I'll see how I feel. Right now, in hindsight, I think I could have done another yesterday. So I'd like to push myself more on Friday.

Okay, thanks for pointing this out, Sam. I will adjust that warmup tomorrow when I go to lift weights. Also, thanks for illustrating for me a use of my gym journal that seems obvious but (obviously) didn't occur to me---looking back to see how I've performed in the past, and compare that to the recent session. lol I have no idea why that didn't occur to me---blind spot, I guess. Thank you!

I'll have to revise this tomorrow if necessary, as I left the paper where I wrote stuff down---somewhere. Either at the gym or out in the car.

Today I did the following:

• Warmed up on ET for 5 minutes. I got very impatient, and just couldn't tolerate anymore.
• Warmed up for pullups by doing 80# 10 times. I forgot to write down the above advice on reps, so now I see that I did too many.
• Pullups--160# 12 times?? Can't remember, will revise when I find that paper.
• Warmed up for squats by doing 160# 10 times? Don't remember reps, but the poundage is correct.
• Did 30 (THIRTY!!) squats today, holding 8# handweights in each hand, with hands going outside knees for all of them. I'm very proud.
• Warmed up for pushups with the usual on-knees-all-right-angles, 10 times.
• Did those staggered hands pushups. I watched the video again, and googled for a couple others. I did 6 on each side, which was my goal, and then did 6 more with hands in normal position. Well pleased! That's also a new record for me.
• Strolled around for about 1-2 minutes
• Did plankish, which is basically getting into the position as well as I can, though my asinine might be a little high in the air, but I'm just not going to worry about that right now. I got into the position 3 times, and held each for 10 seconds. I'm improving! I feel it in my back, too! oooohhhh,,.....sore..... hope I don't regret it tomorrow.

The last almost week, I've been reducing protein a bit, to try to fully achieve ketosis. I think I never did before now. I started last Thursday, but didn't do very well (it's not easy, in terms of mindset), but the last couple days have been very good. I can really tell the difference. My theory is that being much more fully ketoadapted (vs. relying on GNG for glucose) gives me more energy so I can do more stuff at the gym. I've never studied any exercise physiology, so will have to look into that this summer when I have more time. I hope I remember!

ETA: I forgot to mention that today I finally remmebered the advice in Art & Science of LC to drink salty broth before exercise. I didn't have broth, so I just dumped 1/4 tsp salt into my water bottle, along with 1/8 tsp no-salt, and some Mg drops. I drank 1/2 of it on the drive to the gym (~10 oz) and the other half guzzled when I was done. Both times it HIT THE SPOT! Must remember to do that, or use broth for the salt. Felt SO much better when I'd had that.

After the gym yesterday, my mid/lower back was sore and protesting. Today it's fine.

After the gym yesterday, the rest of me was fine. Today, quads, calves, biceps and TRICEPS are sore. Especially triceps. Oh, and apparently there's a muscle under each armpit that has decided to protest as well!

Tomorrow the plan is to do sprints. Right now, I could not do them. Will see how tomorrow goes. I think I'll try even if I don't "feel" like it, since I'm trying to stretch myself.

Gym today (Friday 16-Mar-12):

• Warmed up on elliptical for 11 minutes. As the time progressed, my legs got more and more tired. I decided not to do sprints today.
• Plankish---achieved the position 4 times, and held respectively: 15 seconds, 15 seconds, 15 seconds, and 20 seconds. This goes better when I haven't lost my breath, I think. Also, today I worked on keeping my asinine down.
• "Cooled down" by strolling around gym for about 3 minutes, chatting with Dad.
• Stretching (feels so good, as usual).
• Went for 30 minute walk with Mom.
• Did 4 mini-sprints during the walk, each around 10 seconds only, with untimed rest between. My legs were tired. My heels were sore afterward.

Again, today I drank some Na/K/Mg water before and after the gym. Refreshing, but I don't want to retain water, so I'm being vigilant. Water retention shows up first for me in my left ankle, and in the bases of my left fingers. So far so good.

Now for a good night's sleep!

Wow, I didn't realize almost 10 days had passed since I posted here. I've recorded activity in MyPlan, so will need to update this journal, but it's bedtime, so not now.

I'm supposed to lift weights tomorrow. Right now, I sure don't feel like it! But a good night of sleep will hopefully fix that.

Gym today was a "get back into the swing of things" day.

I did:

1. Warm up on elliptical for 6:45 min. (got bored, so got off early, need to figure out how to get in a good 10 min warmup without succumbing to boredom)
2. Plankish---I achieved the position twice, gasping for breath in between. The first time, I held it for 18 seconds, and the second time I held it for 15 seconds.
3. Squats---I used the 2 8-lb dumbbells. I did 8 squats each holding dumbbels outside legs, in between legs, and up at chest level. Then I did 8 more outside legs. Total = 32 squats with the extra weight.
4. I did pullups. This time instead of sitting, I kneeled (on a pillow, I'm too heavy to be comfortable kneeling directly on the floor). I warmed up with 6 reps at 90 lbs, then did 8 reps at 160 lbs.
5. Pushups---warmed up on knees with legs/butt/back at 90 degree angles, doing 6 pushups. Then I got into my normal slanted knee pusups and did 6 or 8, can't remember.
6. Cooled down for 7 min. on ET
7. Stretched and self-congratulated for however long (didn't measure the time).

It was definitely a tame session, though I did make myself huff and puff (and sweat). But with allergies and not sleeping well, I just didn't want to do more. But I'm glad I did this today. I think this would be a reasonable "minimum" to set, and even allow myself just the 5 minutes warming up. This is doable even when I feel like butt (not sick though---I think that's probably a time to take a break and get well first; but feeling like butt is common enough with me that I need a "bare minimums" regimen so at least I get my asinine to do **something**).

50 minute walk in full on sunshine (unless I walked under a tree and thus through its shadow)

Update from 3-April-12--Today's gym work included the following, in order:

1. warm up on ET for ~6 minutes
2. perpendicular joint pushups--6 to warm up
3. angled knee pushups: 6 each with arms regular, and staggered, so a total of 18
4. squats (no warm up)--carrying 2 8# dumbbells, I did 12 each with arms outside knees, inside knees, and up at chest, for total of 36
5. Plankish: I achieved the position and held it for 3 sets of 18 seconds each
6. 3 minutes of cooling down on the ET
7. stretching

Friday 20-Apr-12:

90 minutes of walking and playing with 2 love-nephews aged ~3.5 and ~1.75