What Was Your Work Out Today?

Back to the gym today.

I took the suggestions I got from @nossmf to heart. I'm sure it's beneficial.

First I walked downtown, stopped at the post office, then met a friend at a coffee shop that doesn't actually serve coffee. I won't go in to that. Walked home, did a few things, and went to the gym instead of the disc golf course.

I added a third set to all my movements. At first I thought I might just add it to some, but I just went ahead and took the time to do 'em all. My goal was 15 reps per set. I added some weight on the second and/or third if those 15 were pretty easy. Some movements just kept the same weight the whole time, and even then I couldn't get 15 reps on the second and/or third set. The day consisted of:

• Ten minute warmup on treadmill at fast walk pace.
• Deadlift on Freemotion machine - Started at the middle weight from last visit, then increased on second set and again on third set. Completed all reps.
• Goblet squats - Started with the same weight from my last visit, and increased weight on third set and completed all reps.
• Dumbbell lunges - Increased weight on third set and completed all reps.
• Chest press machine - Dialed the weight down just a bit from last visit. Could not quite complete all reps on third set.
• Seated row - Started where I left off last visit, increased weight on second set and again on third set. Did not complete reps on third set.
• Pec fly machine - Same weight as last visit, only was able to complete 11 reps on the second set and 7 on the third.
• Lat pull machine - Started where I left off last visit, increased weight on second set. Did not complete reps second or third set.
• Dumbbell curl to overhead press - Started where I left off last visit, increased weight on the third set. I was able (barely) to complete all reps.
• Triceps press on cable machine - Started where I left off last visit, increased weight on the third set. Completed all reps.
• Lat raise machine. Same weight as last visit. Unable to complete reps on second or third set.
• Cool down 15 minutes on treadmill.
• Two sets in the sauna - 18 minutes and 9 minutes with a shave and shower in between.

Adding the third set extended my time on the floor by only 15 minutes. I'm usually resting only 60 seconds between sets. I'm skipping the rest between curls and triceps pull-down because the area I do them is so close together, and they are complimentary.

I felt good after I was done. I am curious how I'll feel tomorrow. I think that even though I pushed myself some, I didn't push so hard I'll be uncomfortable. I'll find out in the morning.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet a friend to celebrate his first day of retirement, and I hope he'll want to go for a six mile loop hike up to a peak that's near his house. It's all on forest ROADS, not trails, so it should be clear. It will be weeks or more likely months before all the trails are cleaned up from the ice storm from a couple weeks ago.

Comments/feedback/ideas welcome.

Climbing, 3 hours.

Good fun. I was stronger than normal. I was good at thuggy, strength based climbs; normally I find them hard, but they've been easier the last few sessions.

@mtaratoot I enjoyed reading your account, think everything looks good. Two minor suggestions:

First, instead of having a hard-rep goal, set a rep-range. For example, instead of "15 reps or bust" where you feel bad if you don't reach target, use "12-15". If you can get 12 reps, keep the weight the same for your next set. If you fail to get 12 reps, drop weight slightly (5-10%) for the next set. If you get 15 for every set, mark your log with a star or plus sign. If you again get 15 the next time you do the same workout, then you are ready to increase the weight for the third workout. Keep changes small...5 lbs for upper body, 10 lbs for lower body. (If you have fractional plates of the 2.5 lb variety, they can be used instead, especially when you start to get heavy.)

Second, some days you will feel like an animal, and the weights feel easy. Other days the exact same weight you know you did last time will feel like a ton of lead. For this reason, any given workout I allow myself to drop the weight used 10-25%, no questions asked, no feeling bad...it was just a day I didn't have "it" in me; next time I may be back to normal again. I will, however, add a small minus sign next to my log notes. If I have to drop the weight in consecutive workouts, I may not have been ready to go to that weight, and will permanently lower my goal weight until I can again earn it back up (see above paragraph how to do that). (Note: by "consecutive workouts" I mean having to lower the weight on the same movement...lowering bench press today and squat tomorrow doesn't trigger, but lowering squats this week and next does.)

👍

When someone first starts or resumes lifting, water weight will increase as part of the healing process, and last for the first few days/weeks of the lifting program. But if you've been faithful to lifting, a single session will rarely cause any appreciable change.

A hike and a swim.

I planned to go hike with a friend for his first day of retirement. He has to be near home to take care of an elderly dog that needs meds every four hours. I thought we'd do a little six mile loop that goes up a gravel road through the school forest to a local peak. I figured since it's a road, it would be clear from all the storm damage. He decided that he just wanted a day to settle for his first retirement day. Sounded good to me. It was a gorgeous day, and I still wanted to hike, so I was just going to go anyway.

On the way out of my neighborhood, I ran across two friends. She said trails in the local forests weren't bad. I stopped to get mail, dropped a book at the library, and decided that since I'll go out with my friend next week, I'd go to another local trail that has great views but I had left a few weeks ago because even the trailhead was already in a cloud. That day I hiked another area nearby.

That trail is very short. Just a couple miles. I can add more miles in either direction if I want. But I did something different. On the way up, I saw parking at the trailhead down near the bottom. I stopped there to save the gasoline from driving way up to the upper trailhead. It's a nice trail to the top - a little more than eight miles round trip.

I stopped just before the last little loop to the top to eat an orange in case it was too windy up top to stop. It was. I took in some views and kept walking. I saw rain moving in, so instead of stopping in a sheltered area to enjoy a delicious beverage I brought with me to celebrate the first day after January, I just hiked out. It only rained a little bit. Not enough to even pull out my rain gear. But the sun was still shining from an angle, so I got rainbows.

The gym isn't too far out of the way from the trail, so I figured I'd go get a steam. I went in, put on some "swim trunks" and walked out by the pool to the steam. There was only one lane occupied. I wasn't planning to swim, but there was ONLY ONE LANE OCCUPIED. I went back to the locker room, put on my swimming pants and grabbed my gear and got in a half hour swim. I mixed up my strokes, and even realized I'm able to swim a bit better than I used to be able to.

Then it was time for the steam I came for. I waited until my stopwatch said 22:22 and left. I got a quick shower and went the sauna because - why not? I turned the stopwatch back on until it said 31:31, rinsed off, got dressed, and that was it.

I for sure wasn't sore from the weights yesterday, so that's good too.

I'm planning to meet some folks tomorrow morning to do a little mild whitewater. I'll take a canoe. I know the trip organizer paddles an inflatable kayak. I'm not sure who else will be there. It's a very short drive, and even though it's very mild whitewater, the river is beautiful.

Yep. Another good day.

Hiking mid-week is awesome, especially in the winter. It was surprisingly crowded down near the parking area and lower trails. Once I got past the first mile and up into the forest, I saw almost nobody else. I love that. It's what keeps me away on weekends. Unfortunately, there are some people who feel exempt from the rules or entitled in some way and just ignore the signs that tell people that they can't ride their bikes on the unpaved portion of the trails from October until May. Another group felt exempt from the signs up near the top that ask people (and their furry friends) to stay on the trail and explain why. A group of adult women with a bunch of very young girls couldn't be bothered and were not only off trail climbing one of the native oaks but also just running wild across the meadow that is actually a rare and surprisingly fragile habitat. I really dislike people sometimes. There's an easy access from up top, and that's where those folks came from.

shoulders and legs

Canoeing.

I had my first paddle of 2024. It was good to be back on the water!

I got out my whitewater canoe and joined a friend for a nine-mile paddle on a local river. It's no more than Class 2 whitewater. The water was up, but not dangerously so. We had a nice time. We saw the sun. We got some rain. We saw Acorn woodpeckers, squirrels, hooded mergansers, wood ducks, hawks, jays, and lots of trees.

I got a few pictures where we were floating through areas between rapids.







This river doesn't get paddled much. It's been years since I've been. I used to lead a trip there every year on December 25. We would do a longer section starting upstream from where we started today and ending at the same location.

I think there's several reasons it doesn't get much use. First, access is awful. The put-in wasn't bad. There's another access that isn't bad that's about a mile downstream. Then the next place to get out is very difficult. My partner was in an inflatable kayak, and he could get close enough to shore to step out. My canoe wouldn't fit in that eddy. The water was more than waist deep. I was wearing a drysuit, but to try to hop out of the canoe would have capsized it. It took me between five and ten minutes to get to a place I could actually get out.

Another reason, I think, is that the whitewater is pretty mild. For people seeking big rapids, this isn't the place. That said, the whitewater is enough that people without skills to navigate it would have trouble - to say the least. There's also always the possibility of a log jam to portage around. Most of the time, the river is far away from any road. I think that's nice. It's in an interesting geologic setting. Much of it is twists and turns with a steep rocky slope on the outside of the bends, almost like a canyon wall. On the opposite side is a riparian gallery forest that floods annually. There are native oak trees all the way to the shore.

We paddled under two large trees spanning the river that eventually will be issues. One sooner than the other. There were other places where there was some wood in the river, but there was always a clean line through. We had no portages.

We stopped for lunch along the shore where there's a land trust property I sometimes hike on. Super bonus - there was a picnic table! How fun. I'll post another club trip for a weekend so people who still work can go. We had sun and rain. We had cool but not cold temperatures. I only had one layer of thermal underwear under my drysuit. I stayed warm enough. I hate to be too hot, but one more layer might have been fine. I had finger-less neoprene gloves that I swapped out for full gloves at lunch. After that I couldn't use the camera on my phone. I also put on a helmet liner. Then I stayed nice and comfy.

It really is a nice river. I bet the fish would bite if I had a rod and reel.

Heavy snow storm overnight lasting until about 3pm today, finally stopped long enough for me to go outside and shovel the drive so I can get to church tomorrow. Thick, heavy, solid, wet snow about 8-9 inches deep, got both cardio and a strength workout in at once. Took well over an hour to clear, and while normally I only report half my time on MFP, this time I think the calorie burn was accurate!

Stuck to stationary bike again so I could work on catching up on watching my visual journaling tutorial videos. (I'm behind already in a year-long series, and it's only February!)

Same ol' 15k + 3' CD, around 40 minutes, 110W average including the CD, 74% Z3 (right up to the border of Z4, but not over) so moderate intensity steady state.

Thinking I'll call that enough for today, watch some more videos.

Upper Power

Bench Press 5x5
Cable Row 5x5
Machine Decline Press 5x5
Machine High Row 5x5
Seated BB OHP 5x5
Cable Woodchoppers 3x10 (High, Cross, Low)

mtaratoot wrote: »

A couple dives to clean things in the aquarium.

Your post made me think of the book Remarkably Bright Creatures--I read and loved it this past summer (one of the main characters is retired and works at an aquarium; the other protagonist is in an exhibit in the aquarium).

Lower Power

Rack Pull 5x5
BB Hip Thrust 5x5
One-Leg Press 5x5 <superset> Leg Press Calf Extend 5x15
Roman Chair Knee-Ups 4x20

"Four-S" workout.

It had been long enough, and even though it was a nice day I went to the gym for a strength workout. It was mostly productive, although there were a few movements I opted not to do a third set. It's fine.

I hadn't planned to swim, but before I went down from the workout floor, I looked through the windows at the pool to see only a single lane occupied. Well, I can't pass that up, so I put on my swimming pants and went out. My favorite lane was still open - still only one other person in the pool. I didn't warm up in the steam because I didn't think the empty pool would last. I was right - five minutes after I started, the pool was full and people were waiting. Bonus. I swam about a half hour and 50 lengths - 1250 yards. I think it may have been more; I try to count, and sometimes the number in my head is higher than what my device says.

Twenty minutes in the steam was oh so relaxing.

Then a shower & shave and ten minutes in the sauna.

I was thinking "Four S", but now I see there were six: Strength, Swim, Steam, Shave, Shower, Sauna. Number seven would have been going to the grocery for some needed Shopping mostly for dried beans and produce.

nossmf wrote: »

*snort* You just reminded me of going through military basic training, where the drill sergeant would wake us up at an ungodly hour and proclaim we had three minutes to "*beep*, shower and shave" before getting into marching formation outside to begin the day.

I try to get that first thing done in the morning....

I had fun telling friends yesterday I did the "Four-S" workout. When I described it, one said, "Steam, shower and sauna - that's the workout for me." I also really enjoyed my swim, and I actually enjoyed PART of my strength workout.

Two walks, one 15 min and one 30 min, morning and afternoon. The outside temp was 70 degrees.