"TLFC" exercise and accountability support!

Cardio: Treadmill - 1 hour incline (2.96 miles, 731 calories, 1868 feet climb)

Analysis: Previous treadmill incline hills I did ten minute hills, keeping a moderate pace of 3.0mph while adding one degree of incline every minute, from 6-15. After ten minutes, reset and repeat, total of six hills. By comparison, today I did fifteen minute hills, starting at a brisk walking pace of 3.5mph and 6 degrees incline, added one degree incline and lowering 0.1mph every minute until I reached 20 degrees by 2.1mph. Reset and repeat, four total hills. Even with slower pace, the increasing incline really had it in for me, as I was sweating like a pig, totally out of breath, and my calorie burn leaped. When I got done I felt like I used to back in the day running 5k's even though I walked the entire time. More experimenting in the future, as these treadmills go all the way up to 30 degrees.

Food: Lunch - spaghetti, Dinner - homemade French dip sandwiches with baked fries

Life: Ran into an old gym mate changing to start his workout while I was post-shower. He's also been dealing with elbow pain, but where I quit lifting cold turkey for 3 months (only 55 more days til I hit the iron again, not that I'm counting), he opted to slice his weights lifted in half or lower and use both an elbow brace and wrist wraps to help offset his lack of grip but keep lifting. His arm still hurts him, where mine is feeling MUCH better, even allowing me to shake a hand without wincing and helping carry groceries into the house. Looks like I may have made the smart decision to take a lifting break. I'm already starting to think about my routine when I resume, whether keep my PPL-Full 4x day split from before or swap to a PHUL setup, even though my legs really do not need additional work. Either way, the weights lifted are gonna have to be light as a baby when I resume, and I can look forward to DOMS again after rarely feeling it for the last decade, lol.

@nossmf I experienced some elbow pain and backed off the lifting with moves that seemed to aggravate it (Upright rows for instance is one I recall) It got better but still will rear its painful head from time to time. I hope you can get back to lifting again soon!

I am really inspired by your incline walks and I think I will give your method a go in the next few days!

Cowboy boots are FOR SURE distinctive! I am in Vermont so noone really wears them and we would definitely all know it was you coming

Hey @ninerbuff do you use any apps to track exercises, weight, sets and reps? I'd like to start progressive overload, instead of eyeballing weight thinking "yes I think this is the right weight to fail from 8-12 reps"

Cardio: Elliptical - 1hr hills (603 calories)

Food: Lunch - taco salad, Dinner - soy chicken strips with buttered egg noodles

Progress Tracking: @clairrob I'm another old-school pen-and-pencil kind of guy. When you first start doing a new exercise, the first time is often a guessing game about how much weight to use, even if you've been lifting for over a decade like me but are adding a brand new, never-before-tried lift, or swapping in a lift you've done but not for a while. So that first workout may not be the most "productive" in terms of maximizing effort, but it's huge towards setting you up for future success. As far as choosing when to increase the weight, using your example, I would wait until I could lift the weight for the full 12 reps in consecutive workouts before going up. A single workout isn't proof you've mastered that weight...you may simply have had extra energy one day, and next week you're back to "normal."

Cardio: Treadmill - 1hr variable speed hills (static incline at 15 degrees) (768 calories, 3.2 miles, 1947 feet elevation climbed)

Analysis: My usual treadmills were all in use when I got to the gym, so jumped on a different brand. Turns out not all treadmills are built the same, as this one was capped at 15 degrees incline, meaning I couldn't do my desired variable-incline hills. I instead changed on the fly to doing variable-speed "hills" where I kept the incline the same and only went faster/slower to adjust intensity.

Food: Lunch - Pizza Hut pizza, Dinner - Valentine's Date Night (wagering at Olive Garden where I usually get the salmon)

Life: My waist has grown notably slimmer over the last few weeks, to the point where I actually cannot use most of my belts since their tightest notch isn't tight enough for the new me. That's the good news. The bad news is my upper arms are shrinking as well, as evidenced by the way some of my shirts now are starting to hang loose instead of me filling the arms completely. Even a coworker who also enjoys lifting has noticed the difference. I'm sure some of the size loss is fat and/or water, but my fear is the inevitable loss of unused muscle as well, despite staying active and trying to up my protein from my old standard non-lifting day levels. Here's hoping I don't lose too much between now and April when I can resume lifting.

Life 2: That same coworker is in the middle of a bulking phase, so we were comparing how radically different our diets are, him over 3k calories while I'm typically hovering around 1700 for now. In talking about how he eats, along with the tons of energy he has for lifting, I am so looking forward to April from a dietary standpoint as well, when I shift away from intentionally trying to lose to either maintaining or even *gasp* trying a slow bulk, which for me would be around 2500 calories.