Zen and the lifting of heavy things.

So. Still no lifting because of the shoulder – physio say it’s just muscular imbalance caused by compensating for various breaks and aches over the years. I have some exercises for it, and I’m still doing trapeze, yay, hopefully back to light lifting tomorrow. Tonight I do straps!

So in the meantime I run, a lot. I have a “short course” that I’ve arbitrarily decided is about 3K, and then I turn around and do most of it again for 5K, and then turn around and do it a 3rd time for 7K. The numbers are probably off, but it doesn’t matter. So this week, after Beijing, I’ve done 5, 7, 3, 3. I do 3 on Boot Camp days, because I know Ji is going to work me hard. That’s shaping up for 25K a week, which is decent. And the fat does seem to be coming off! I need to start lifting again to maintain the muscle, but I’m starting to be pleased with how I look and what I can do.

So because I’m back on day crew, I can’t go to bootcamp anymore. Which means doing my own bootcamp/circuit training. Tonight, I went and did the timed hillrun we do on bootcamp test day. 6.52 – 10 seconds slower than last time ,20 seconds faster than the first time. In the pitch dark, after a week of doing nothing, with no-one to push me, that’s acceptable. Hopefully it’ll get better next month. Then some lunges, crunches, stepups. I just don’t push myself anywhere near as hard as Ji does, of course.

Need a workout buddy. I can’t believe those words just left my mouth.

Also, need to go to Hong Kong and get a harness so I can go climbing with the boys on a Monday night. Mmm, climbing again.

jai.

Actually, the boot camp updates are kinda boring even for me. Mind you, I was there I guess.

Today sucked. Cardio. Did I mention how much I hate cardio? Nasty exercise where you run as hard as you can for 15 seconds, take 15 seconds break, then run back to the start for 15 seconds. 15 seconds break, then repeat the whole thing at 30 seconds. 30 seconds out, break for 30 seconds, 30 seconds in, break for 30 seconds. Then 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1m15, 1m30. That’s a killer, right there.  Other than that, eh. Wall sits, jump squats, lunges. Par for the course.

I’m definitely feeling stronger, but I tend to burn out. No endurance. Still, I’d rather go hard at the start and really have trouble finishing than coast.

jai.

Actually, I lie. There was no boot camp today, because I stayed home to make coffee and breakfast in bed for my wife. But after Boot Camp, Ji the boot camp trainer and Olympic Silver Medallist came over to give me a personal routine. Herewith recorded:

DB squats. Easier to load up than the barbell, given that I lack a squat rack, and working arms as well.
DB lunges. Following on from the squats, just a step forward and dropping into the back knee.
DB Rows. A classic!
Kettlebell lift. Done with a dumbell, but Jess and I were just talking about the awesomeness of kettlebell routines the other week. Full body intensity.
Bench press, if I trust the coffee table.
More shoulder raises, but he tweaked my form – makes the exercise harder and more controlled.

Also, a note on sets – Ji reckons anything over 10 reps means it’s too light. One warmup set, then crank the weight so you can only do 8 reps, 2 sets. Apparently that’s the sweet spot for building strength and mass.

So that’s more exercises, but fewer reps, and a bit more intense.

Also, he recommends Cardio. *sigh* Always with the damned cardio. Personal trainers are obsessed, I swear. Skipping and burpees/jumping jacks are a valid replacement for running, so long as I do 100 of them. Tabarnac….

jai.
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Test day!
Last boot camp of every month is test day. Starts with a hill run, then 2 minutes of pushups, 2 minutes of squats, 2 minutes of situps, so we can see improvements every month. In theory.

Shaved 30-40 seconds off the hill run, from 7.10ish to 6.34. Nice! I am not a runner – so not a runner – so that was nice to see.

Pushups, the only other thing worth recording, I managed 32. Last time was 29, but …. I should be well up, given the number of pushups I’ve been doing. I may be a little tired, given that I lifted yesterday, and certainly the hill run does rather stress the CNS, but I was a little disappointed.

Ah well. It’s about sustainable long term trends, not one given test day.

jai.
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Was kicking my arse before I even got out of bed.

And I did something like 50 pushups in the course of boot camp, which I’m sure will leave me in awesome shape for tonight’s 100 pushups session.

Again, the only thing that kept me going was the thought that tomorrow is a rest day.

jai.

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3 times up the damn water tower. Tabarnac. Plus stepups, and the odd sprint, but basically 3 times up the water tower. My legs were shaking after the second time, I barely made it home.

No pushups this morning, I’ll be doing them tonight, when I’ve recovered from boot camp. And then lifting tomorrow morning. Maybe I need to rethink these rest days ….

jai.
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Kicked my arse even worse. Originally I had a rest day scheduled for thursday so it was in between boot camps, and today I was wishing I’d kept that, but then the only thing that kept me going was the thought of a rest day tomorrow. So maybe not Have to keep reminding myself, it’s not about any one day, it’s about trends.

On that note, Skud and I will be commencing the 100 push-up challenge on Monday. I actually did 85 today, but they were split in half by 30 minutes of boot camp, so not exactly clean sets. I’ll be posting progress here, feel free to join us and keep track of your own progress in comments here.

jai.
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Is kicking my arse. But I have a new goal – keeping up with Sam. So that’s handy. In other news, today we ran 2.5 miles and did lots of squats. Yippie-kie-yay.

jai.

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