What Was Your Work Out Today?

nossmf

Cardio: Treadmill, incline walk - 560 calories

AnnPT77

Around an hour or two of this:



. . . which is shoveling, wheelbarrowing, and raking A57 limestone on the path at the rowing club. Neither of these anonymized people is me, because I was the one taking the photo (for our members-only social media page).

Tonight I rowed a little bit, but only maybe 1.5k in a recreational single to take one of our current-year learn-to-row participants through her skills test for full regular membership. (She passed.)

J72FIT

Strength
Warm-up
Swings - 5x15x24k

Work
HSPU - 3x3
Chin - 2x5 (4 sec hold bottom 4 sec hold top)
Dead - 2x5x156lbs
Wheel - 1x10
Carry - 2x60s (1L1R) 32k
Walk - 1.5 mi

psychod787

Full body rdl 4x12, leg curls 4x12, medium grip lat pulls 4x10-12, seated row 4x 10-12, high pulls 2x 15-20, cable curls and tricep push down 2x15-20 super set. Walked 12000 steps and desk cycle 1hr at 12.5mph pace.

nossmf

Friday

Weights: Upper Body - Hypertrophy

Incline Bench Press 4x10
DB Bench Press 3x10
BB Row 4x10 (2 sets pronated, 2 sets supinated)
Pulldown 3x10 (1 set each hands over, under, neutral-grip)
Machine Reverse Fly 3x10
Machine Lat Raise 3x10
DB Shrugs 3x10
Preacher Curl 3x10 (3-second negatives)
Cable Pushdown 3x10 (5-second negatives)
Perloff Press 3x15sec

*****

Saturday

Weights: Lower Body

Squat 4x10
Rack Pull 4x10
Leg Press <<superset> Leg Press Calf Raise 4x10
Seated Leg Curl 4x10
Cable Crunch 4x10, 15, 20, 25

drmwc

I spent the week diving in Kinlochbervie, in a very remote bit of North West Scotland. It was lovely.

The diving was fairly standard UK hard boat fare; 2 dives a day for 6 days. (30 metres max; 1 hour max). I was pretty dived up by the end, my buoyancy, trim and air consumption were good. I got a hole in my neoprene neck seal. I tried repairing it with Black Witch, which was unsuccessful. Fortunately, if I doubled it over carefully it was dry enough. The water was 12C, so a major leak would have been painful.

I got quite a lot of walking in over the week; the best being a 9 mile one to Sandwood Bay.

It rained every day; the coldest air temperature was 6C. I think there was a heatwave in London.

mtaratoot

drmwc wrote: »

I got a hole in my neoprene neck seal. I tried repairing it with Black Witch, which was unsuccessful. Fortunately, if I doubled it over carefully it was dry enough. The water was 12C, so a major leak would have been painful.

I don't know if they sell Tear Aid in the UK. If so, it probably would have made an adequate field repair. Toss some in your kit.

I've used vulcanizing bike tube patches for latex seals in a pinch, but more for paddling suits than dive suits. Risk of failure when diving has different consequences. If it's just for ONE day, we have duct taped people into their neck seals. Works for the day, but then the seal has to be replaced.

If you had a scrap of neoprene, you could have used aqua seal or similar adhesive to make a semi-permanent repair. They now sell very tiny tubes of the stuff for single-use applications like this.

SafariGalNYC

Swam in the Atlantic 🌊 an hour .. 🏊‍♀️

AnnPT77

Was scheduled to row yesterday, coached row. The sometimes-pinched nerve in my right shoulder was tweaking (I think from raking the gravel the other day?), so I didn't. I coxed instead, so all the 4 rowers in the quad could concentrate on technique/coaching. Normally bow rower would need to steer, and in a coxed boat, the coxswain steers. I didn't even help carry the boat, sensible for once. For me, the extra rest day was a good plan.

We had a newer rower in the boat, her first time in a quad with experienced rowers - kind of trial by fire, a coached row! She was having trouble, catching crabs. (That's what we call it when a person's oar gets sucked into the water, heading under the hull, and potentially the handle jerks them, hits them or worse.) We worked on that a bit while the 2 singles out with us were distant (usually ahead, which is humbling), and when the coach was concentrating on them. She improved, and I think everyone was satisfied with the row. We like helping new folks progress.

I got in some extra steps, though, because I went to Lamafest. That's exactly what it sounds like: An event with many llamas, competing. In the spoiler, a llama that knows it's a supermodel.

Today, my more usual rest day: Flat out nada.

nicsflyingcircus

So went to the beach this holiday (in the US) weekend. Once we parked the car at the condo Thursday night after grabbing some supplies and dinner, it didn't move again until this morning when we got in the road home. Averaged about 14k steps F/S/Su, including a good bit of sandy ones, lol. Walked to grab coffee in the morning, walked to dinner/activities in the evening, lounged in the sun like a lizard, went for walks in the beach, got battered around by the salty sea (was red flags the first two full days, okay to get in but a wee bit rough). Just enjoyed my renewed fitness levels.

nossmf

Upper Body - Power

Bench Press 5x5
Cable Row 5x5
BB Decline Press 5x5
Machine High Row 5x5
Seated BB OHP 3x10
Preacher Curl 3x10, 8, 6
Cable Pushdown 3x10
Cable Woodchoppers (Low, Mid, High) 3x10

nossmf

Incline treadmill walk - 1 hour

Doing my best to observe the wisdom of @annpt77 who suggested cardio doesn't HAVE to be maximum effort to gain benefit, especially for lifters. Feels weird to complete a cardio session where I was able to breathe through my nose the entire time and not start huffing and puffing, but the cardio tracker said my heart got some benefit from the situation and I did burn calories towards losing weight, so we'll keep doing this a couple times a week for the foreseeable future.

nicsflyingcircus

Seated leg press 1x12 (160lbs), 2x12 (150lbs)
Seated calf raise 3x12 (120lbs)
Seated leg curl 2x12, 1x12 (120lbs)
Leg extension 2x12, 1x9 (85lbs)
Hip adduction 2x12, 1x7 (155lbs)
Hip abduction 1x12 (155lbs), 2x12 (150lbs)
Torso rotation 2x12 (110lbs) both sides
Abdominal 3x12 (120lbs)

drmwc

mtaratoot wrote: »

drmwc wrote: »

I got a hole in my neoprene neck seal. I tried repairing it with Black Witch, which was unsuccessful. Fortunately, if I doubled it over carefully it was dry enough. The water was 12C, so a major leak would have been painful.

I don't know if they sell Tear Aid in the UK. If so, it probably would have made an adequate field repair. Toss some in your kit.

I've used vulcanizing bike tube patches for latex seals in a pinch, but more for paddling suits than dive suits. Risk of failure when diving has different consequences. If it's just for ONE day, we have duct taped people into their neck seals. Works for the day, but then the seal has to be replaced.

If you had a scrap of neoprene, you could have used aqua seal or similar adhesive to make a semi-permanent repair. They now sell very tiny tubes of the stuff for single-use applications like this.

Black Witch is a specific neoprene glue, so was probably the best option for this seal. I thought Aqua Sure was more for latex seals. I probably should have gaffa taped it as well as glued it.

This suit is my back-up; main suit is getting repaired and I should have it back soon.

Sunday
Climbing. A quick session, as a friend called and I ended up going to the cinema I the evening. 80 minutes, so around 40-50 minutes climbing post warm-up. I was OK, I got one v4 and a bunch of powerful v3s in my anti-style.

The film was Black Dog, a recent Chinese one. I enjoyed it.

Monday
Climbing, 3 hours. Decent. I only got one v4, again in my anti-style. It was a jump-up start; then balance to get the start holds; then a twisty jump to get two left fingers into a pocket; then a left-right leg shuffle to jump to get right hand on a bad sloper. Then it was a few more moves of thuggy overhang power to top out. Good fun.

AnnPT77

Back to rowing again yesterday, bow of the quad, the rest of the boat was newer rowers (last year/this year learn-to-row). We went around 700m further than usual, about 7.5k, because my quad-parking skills were so poor yesterday that I had to make a second pass to dock cleanly . Shoulder was fine, so the extra rest day Saturday seems to have been a good plan.

Today, just a physical therapy session. They have me doing strength (focused on the shoulder/scapular movement) and core. ii

nossmf wrote: »

Incline treadmill walk - 1 hour

Doing my best to observe the wisdom of @annpt77 who suggested cardio doesn't HAVE to be maximum effort to gain benefit, especially for lifters. Feels weird to complete a cardio session where I was able to breathe through my nose the entire time and not start huffing and puffing, but the cardio tracker said my heart got some benefit from the situation and I did burn calories towards losing weight, so we'll keep doing this a couple times a week for the foreseeable future.

LOL!

I know you've been doing this a bit already, @nossmf. Do you feel like it's been long enough that you have a sense of whether it's good or not-so-good from the perspective of your overall fitness/health goals and general happiness?

As background, I'd observe that people who seriously train a cardiovascular (CV) sport generally do a good lot of work at that kind of intensity, and a much smaller proportion of work at higher intensity, although the specific mix changes over the course of a periodized plan. The different intensities build different dimensions of cardiovascular fitness.

I don't get why some people act as if "go hard all the time" is the right approach to CV fitness. The best analogy I can come up with - though quite imperfect - is that it'd be like doing every strength workout to literal failure all the time, which I think all serious people would consider a poor strategy.

For weight loss or general fitness that includes non-CV priorities, the accumulated fatigue from all-max-effort cardio is generally unhelpful IMO, too, for all-day net calorie burn, and big-picture recovery.

That's all theory (or n=1 experience from me), so I'm sincerely curious about how it feels for you, in your context. I'd like to think I'm capable of learning.

nossmf

Your question gave me pause to look back over the course of my athletic career...

...as a youth playing intramural sports, EVERYTHING was always done at 100% effort, because I was a kid with unlimited energy to burn...

...as a teenager in school track & cross country, cardio was always done at 100% effort, because coach and peer pressure said to...

...when I first picked up the iron game 15 years ago, cardio became a "bad word" to be avoided at all cost, because the lifting magazines at the time said to...

...twice while lifting I got injured badly enough to need time away from weights to recover, and during both times I did cardio only, again at 100% effort (well, after accounting for age, maybe 80%-90% effort)...

I've never really had a time when cardio was a part of my routine at a mild level, it's always been either 100% effort or 0% effort. Max CV not only required a significant amount of energy during the moment, but also left me worn and weaker for the better part of the day after. (Even the DOMS following a max-effort lifting day caused stiffness and mild pain in one or more muscles, but I still felt otherwise normal and ready to tackle the day.) The one brief period I tried to mix both lifting and CV into a weekly routine I still went all-out during CV (albeit with short sessions), and my lifting usually felt like it suffered, especially anything leg-related.

You'd think somebody as intellectually-minded as myself would have grasped onto the significance of this, but nope, I was still subconsciously channeling the lessons from decades ago when my track coach would berate any of us who weren't giving it absolutely everything we had.

Looking back now, I'm not sure how much of my thinking was a result of a bad coach, and how much was me trying to prove to myself I am strong enough to meet expectations of a guy who stopped thinking about me decades ago. (Falls right in line with trying to get the muscular physique today that I wished I had back then when all the girls ignored me. Go ahead and psycho-analyze that to death, I know I have.)

Regardless, we now have my current reality, where for the past three weeks I have merged this steady-state low-intensity CV with my normal lifting regimen. And the net affect to my lifting has been: zero. Nothing. I'm completing the same reps, with the same weights, as I did before I reintroduced the incline treadmill walking. Even on leg day.

What has adding the CV done for me overall health/fitness goals and general happiness? The OCD in me likes the increased routine of hitting the gym every workday at the same time each day, rather than taking days off. My wife has been grumping me at me that I needed to take care of my heart now that I'm nearing 50, and the fact my father's been hospitalized twice with heart issues in the last year seems plenty reason to do something myself while I still can. And the glutton in me appreciates the extra calories I get to eat each day while still losing weight, lol.

I'm just having to learn to ignore the inner voice telling me each time I get on that treadmill, "you did this intensity easy enough last week, why don't we tweak it up just a *tiny* amount this time". I likely will do so at some point, but if I were to allow that voice to hold sway every time, before you know it I'd be back at 100%, stressing a heart I'm not sure is ready for it and jeopardizing my time in the weight room, where my exercise passion lies.

AnnPT77

That was really thoughtful and thought-provoking, @nossmf. Thank you for writing so honestly.

I'm so pleased to hear that this level of cardio is fitting into your life well, not detracting from your lifting priority, and offering the potential for better heart health long term. That sounds perfect.

In terms of CV development, particularly what I'd call CV base (the longer, low-intensity work, which is where we start), 3 weeks is still fairly early times. Base does take patience, and IME some level of continuing time investment to maintain.

I think you will find that your body can tell you when it's time to increase intensity a bit - not necessarily every workout, but sometimes. As you get fitter, X duration at Y incline and Z pace will gradually get easier and easier. If you are monitoring heart rate - I don't know whether you are - your heart rate will become lower for that exercise dosage. (If you don't monitor heart rate, you can use "Rate of Perceived Exertion" (RPE) scales similarly as a guide.)

This is a random decent-ish example for anyone reading who's not familiar with the RPE scale concept. I'm not particularly boosting this site or this version, just illustrating what it is. Personally, as a CV-focused person, I use HR, but RPE can give good results, in some ways or cases maybe better.

As that lower HR or RPE happens, that's a time to perhaps increase some variable (to keep around the same HR range or approximate RPE for the main proportion of CV work), and eventually maybe start to gradually mix in some shorter bits of higher intensity. That can be some type of intervals for part of a workout, or short sprints at lower duration, or something like that. A "side dish" or "dessert" portion of higher intensity develops different CV dimensions than the "main-meal" lower intensity base work does. Because your priority is lifting, it will be important to increase CV dosage cautiously.

IMO, cardio for fitness and health should never need to detract from your lifting performance or recovery, at the proper dosage. If you wanted to utterly maximize CV capability (such as for performance in a CV sport), and still maintain high performance lifting . . . well, that's a different question, probably one of those "pick a priority" things, I think. Elites in complex sports - combinations of strength and CV challenge - need to find the right balance for their sport: That's a pretty specialized, nuanced thing.

Again, thanks for your honest and interesting reply.

nossmf

Incline treadmill walk - 1 hour

For the past two months, I had to be at work uber-early and had to workout after work, which shuffled my workout days to different days of the week. Now that I'm back to being able to workout before work again, I was faced with the decision of whether to revert to my old lifting schedule (MWF) or keep the new (MThF/Sa). I ultimately decided to keep the new, since Wednesday is too soon after Monday to have a second upper-body day, and I've been spoiled keeping leg day on Fri/Sat when I have the time to hit the hot tub after lifting.

nossmf

LOL, @annpt77, when I opened your spoiler and saw "Borg" my geek mind immediately went Star Trek-mode and eagerly looked for some type of "fighting off a drone: Level 1" or "fending off a cube, Level 10" scenarios.

I'd guess these incline walks have been at around RPE 4-5; started at 5, now edging downward to more of a 4. Sounds like when things drop to a 3 it may be time to edge the incline up slightly. (I'd rather play with the incline than the speed to keep the impact to my knees negligible, and I'm already at the max duration I want to spend.)

nicsflyingcircus

Incline press 3x12 (50lbs)
Chest press 3x12(60lbs)
Decline press 2x11, 1x7 (60lbs)
Shoulder press 3x12 (60lbs)
Pectoral fly 3x12 (50lbs)
Triceps press 3x12 (100lbs)
Lateral raise 3x12 (25lbs) single arm
Abdominal crunch 3x12 (125lbs)