The Real Life Fitness Journal

As hard as I tried to stay dilegent over the holidays, I’m weak.  Since the beginning of December, there have been parties every single weekend, and usually one on Fri, and another on Sat.  I tried to select parties that would not push my temptations too far, but it didn’t really matter … I’m weak.  Between the drinking and the fabulous food, any gains I’ve made in the last couple months have been quickly wiped away.

I had lost 5 lbs and was starting to see physical results … not so much anymore.  I guess I’ll be one of those people that has to make a New Years resolution to get in shape … so much for starting early.

Best of luck to the rest of ya.

It’s now time to get down to business.  The first few weeks were used to go through the various machines to get an idea of a training program that will work … we now have one.  I’m going to be doing a 3-day split workout.  Upper body / lower body / core … repeat … Sunday off.  I’m going to try and get at least 45m of cardio in a day …  preferably squash, as sitting on a treadmill or bike bores the crap out of me.

Only hinderance may be my left shoulder.  It’s getting sore again and the ROM seems limited.  I’ve slacked off my daily stretches and hopefully that’ll go away once I get back on that again.

i’ve met with a trainer a few times now, and we’ve set up regular sessions of Mon / Fri for a month.  The major focus has been on the shoulders … getting them down, back and relaxed.  It requires quite a bit of focus to keep them in the right position, but it is getting easier and easier.  Each exercise also requires a little focus to keep the core tight and often when i focus too much on my shoulders (or whatever exercise we are on), i drop into a bit of a hunch … kind of hard sometimes to keep all things in-line at all times.

We played around with the ball a bit with some more core stability.  We did one where I sit on the ball and feet aren’t touching the ground, but also keeping my back straight up (as it is quite easy to lean back and maintain the balance).  Moved on to one where I am on all fours on the ball and then pull one knee off and pushing it straight back.  I think I will try one hand and one knee when I work on this at home.  My trainer also showed me one where you stand up on the ball … little bit advanced for me, but I tried it anyway … oh, and failed horribly    He told me his friend would just jump on the ball and squeeze it between his feet to get the balance … figured I’d try that … OOOPS … bounced right off the ball and landed on my back.  I kind of expected an epic failure so I didn’t hurt myself (although the potential for serious injury is definately there).

My trainer says he’s impressed with my balance.  Not sure how much of that is motivational BS, but i’ll take it.  i’m really enjoying this and having a trainer to talk me through stuff definately helps with the motivation.  Doing all the exercises with a goal of posture is more exciting for me than always trying to get to the next weight.  I think that will keep me motivated a lot longer than otherwise.

As it is always recommended for a first session, we start off pretty slow.

The first exercises consisted of balance training.  First on a large dome, then on to a balance board.   I’ve done similar training in the past for my knee rehab, so I wasn’t too bad at it, although I did have trouble with the balance board that was shaped like a skateboard …

Next came the shoulder exercises, which is probably my biggest problem right now.  We worked on getting the shoulders back and down with some simple rows.  Then came the rotator cuffs … I have very limited mobility hear, so it didn’t take much work for me to feel the pull.

We moved on to some simple quad exercises, with my back against a ball, which is against the wall.  This exercises was done twice and rotated in with the shoulder exercises.

The session ended with some core training of the transversus (lower ab area).  This took some time to figure out how to “engage” them without tightening the abs.  It required some focused breathing and keeping my back on the ground.  It looks easy if you watch someone else do it, but figuring out how to get the right muscles working takes quite a bit of focus.

The entire session lasted just over an hour.  Didn’t really break a sweat, but that wasn’t the goal, either.  I will have two more sessions next week.  I had to ask for “homework”, which I was a bit disappointed that I had to do.  I will be trying to do all these exercises every day, but I don’t have all the equipment at home, so there will be a few that will be left out, unless I manage to make to the gym over the weekend.

Today I had the priviledge of participating in a stress test.  The one that they ran me through is called the Bruce Protocol Treadmill Stress Test and follows the guidelines below.

Each stage is 3 minutes long and you simply go as long as you can.  I maxed out into the 5th interval (just after the 12m mark).  The incline is really hard to run on, so you are better off to try and speed walk for as long as you can.  I was informed that getting into the 12m mark is considered really good and better than average … good start, I suppose.

My blood pressure stayed pretty even throughout the test and my end result was 60%.  Peak athletes are between 70-90%.  The results don’t mean that much to me, so I will have to go back and ask some more questions.  All the stuff I’ve read up on have the results in ml/kg/min …