Back in the Swing of Things

Alright, so I recently moved cross country, my shoulder injury has flared back up and the holiday are upon us.

 I don't have a gym yet, and honestly I'm debating about even getting a membership since I have been wanting to put together my own power lifting home gym. I did buy an Olympic barbell from Play It Again Sports recently so now it's just a matter of building my power cage, getting weights and a bench.

That being said, I know I need to get my shoulder stronger and I have to make sure it's ACTUALLY healed this time. This is going to entail me focusing on body-weight workouts and shoulder rehab exercises.

I'm going to use this website as a guide for various body-weight workouts 100 No Equipment Workouts and I'm going to look towards doing actual physical therapy for my shoulder. .. maybe.. if not that then I'll have to come up with some shoulder exercises for at home.

I think that having someone else push me to do physical therapy is a better idea since I don't seem to have the will power to do those mindless tasks at home regularly.

I want to get to the point where I can do crossfit at one of the box gyms around here but again, not to be repetitive, my shoulder needs to be fixed by then.

Statistics wise though, here is where I'm at today.

141.8lbs | 26% BodyFat | 5'4"

Re-Grouping time

So, I'm 3 weeks into another NerdFitness Challenge and I'm getting close to my goal weight.

I really believe I need to start shifting my attention and focus away from weight loss and focus on strength and tone.

I started this weight loss journey 2 years ago at 180lbs. January 2013 I was 176lbs. Today, I'm 148lbs. My original goal was 140lbs which I amended to 135lbs. In the last month the weight loss progress has really slowed down and I think it has to do with me lifting heavier than before.

Honestly I have a bit of a prejudice against that number "135". That's where the BMI scales say I "should" be which  bothers me since they don't take into account ANYTHING about the person other than height, age and weight. As though it's okay for you to fatten up as you age. It's really not!

I'm still eating Paleo, to the point that it kicks my ass every time I have cheese or bread. I was worried for a bit about going out to eat with people while I'm on Paleo. Would they judge me? Would they have to make adjustments for me?  I've found that it really isn't that bad. Namely most of the people I go out to eat with know what I used to look like at 180lbs and see me now, plus most of the places we go out to eat I can find something that is close to Paleo. Don't get cheese on the salad, or dressing or croutons. Get veggies as a side etc.

I have noticed as well that people start conversations with me about my eating habits asking if I have an allergy of some kind. While it's true I was born with a lactose-intolerance, as I grew it has dissipated and I do not have a wheat allergy. What I have noticed is that I am much more energetic without dairy products, without grains and without sugars. I've learned to explain to people that I avoid grains and dairy by choice, which then leads into a health conversation. I'm not really one who likes to talk about what I do or get into the details of why I do something, but it's slowly becoming more of the norm.

The most annoying part is when a co-worker asks what I've done to lose the weight then proceeds to inform me why that won't work for them despite the evidence to the contrary standing right in front of them.

A 300lb man informed me he did not want to lift heavy weights because he doesn't want to get bulky. 1) Bulky is not the first phase of lifting weights, 2) you still have to workout with a plan to get bulky. I ended up walking out of the room and the conversation as the negativity was simply not helpful.

My current bad habits :
Smoking, (5 cigarettes a day), Coffee at work 1-2 cups.

Other than that, it's cleaning my apartment. It is a horrendous mess. Not trash, not food everywhere just empty water cups, clothing places and stuff not put away.

It certainly has started to bother me and I intend to do something about it soon.

Anyways, that's all for now. :)

Pick it up

My goodness!

So I was in a lifting restriction for about 2 months, the shoulder still doesn't feel the best. I'm doing another six week challenge with nerdfitness.com  and I'm focusing on fixing my shoulder as well as cardio.

That being said I haven't figured out how to mentally go to the gym and not do big lifts. Its kinda my thing. I love doing it, pushing myself and I don't know that I could keep myself from those lifts if I do go to the gym.

Sigh

So far this week I've walked seven miles. Seven. Walked.

I have blisters. My friends tell me I'm brilliant, but I walked four miles in cowboy boots. Now I didn't KNOW I was gonna walk four miles.. I just happened to pick the longest trail at the park and didn't realize it till two miles in.

GENIUS! .. Not really.

As a result of cold walking 4 miles, no stretches, my back is tight, calves are tight and my butt is making its own complaints known whenever I go to stand up.

So tonight I'm going to stretch and do body weight exercises. Yep, that's the plan!

Maybe soak my abused feet too so I can stop walking like a penguin. That'd be nice.

Update - :(

So I was doing very good going to the gym quite consistently despite my lack of updates on this particular blog. Even set a deadlift personal record of 135lbs. Thursday I woke up with a twinge in my shoulder. I thought it was just tight from working out so I just massaged it and kept going. Friday it was worse and my arm was a bit numb. It felt better Saturday and I had already scheduled a work out with my friend at the Gym. I knew my shoulder was hurt and figured "Hey, I can do a workout without using my shoulder". Apparently, no I can't. I did assisted chinups, bicep curls, dips and heavy bag work. Even running made my shoulder hurt! Sunday it was much worse. I haven't been back to the Gym since Saturday and I'm grumpy. harumph. The shoulder still hurts and in fact is getting a bit worse. Thankfully, I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning bright and early with a sports medicine doctor. I'm not naive enough to think he'll fix it right away but hopefully he can identify the issue and give me a plan to work through it. I must admit it's certainly a struggle to keep up the good eating and frankly making sure I'm eating enough. Gotta keep my metabolism up so I keep losing weight. This incident really strikes the chord on my whole fear of not meeting my goals thing. I feel as though I've fallen short of my goals in life already and exercising, losing weight was one goal I could hold on to. Now it feels like between my ankles and my shoulder it's slipping away. I know it's a bit fatalistic, but at the same time I've never been an optimist. Here's to what tomorrow brings.

Upper Body Day

Alright, Today was upper body day.

Yesterday was a poor day, I had intended to do body weight exercises as my active rest day however I apparently do not have the necessary discipline yet to actually work out at home :(

My plan is this:

Monday: Deadlift Day
Deadlifts
Hyper Extensions
Back Rows
Lat Pull Down
Any other back related exercises that suits my fancy.

Tuesday: Active Rest Day
Body Weight Exercises primarily
Situps
Crunches
Planks
Pushups
Negative Pullups

Wednesday: BenchPress Day/Upper Body
Bench Press
Shoulder Press
Reverse Flys (Might move this to Monday)
Lateral Shoulder Raises
Bicep Curls


Tuesday: Active Rest Day
Body Weight Exercises primarily
Situps
Crunches
Planks
Pushups
Negative Pullups

Friday: Squat Day
Squats
(I need to research accessory movements for squats)

So that's the plan.

Here's what I did today after arguing with myself and cutting my workout short. harumph.

3/13/2013	Sets	Reps	Wt	Wt Count	Total #
Bench Press	1	10	45		450
	2	10	65		1300
	1	9	75		675
	4	3	85		1020
Shrugs	1	15	50		750
	2	12	70		1680
	2	12	80		1920
Tricep Press	1	12	25		300
	1	10	25		250
	1	10	27.5		275
	1	9	27.5		247.5
Reverse Fly	2	15	2.5		150
Front Delt Raise	2	15	2.5		150
DB Shoulder Press	1	12	10		240
	1	15	10		300

Total Weight 9707.5 #

Catch-up

Alright, Saturday I went to Title Boxing Club for a "Power Hour". Honestly the worst class I've been to by far. Not because of the workout, but because of the personnel. Definitely won't be going back there. Sunday was my full rest day so that's why there was not post there. Today I was late, bad cramps this morning so it was harder than usual to get moving. However I wasn't about to miss deadlift day. booyah!!! Deadlift 1 10 45 Deadlift 1 10 95 Deadlift 2 10 105 Deadlift 1 5 125 Deadlift 1 5 135 Sumo Deadlift High Pull 1 10 45 Sumo Deadlift High Pull 1 10 55 Sumo Deadlift High Pull 1 8 55 Rows 1 10 25 Rows 1 10 35 Rows 1 8 35 Rows 1 8 40 Hyper Extensions 1 10 0 Hyper Extensions 1 10 10 Decline Situps 1 10 0 Total # 7,540

Steady As She Goes

I'm going to run out of clever post titles here soon...

Anyways I made it to the gym today, I did not go to Crossfit. I'm having issues getting to sleep in time to wake up rested enough at 5:00am for Crossfit.

Here's how I did :) I'll fix the formatting later. This is a copy of the post I put on my NerdFitness Challenge thread.


I tried to focus more on my shoulders and upper body. I'm noticing they seem to be lacking.
(These numbers are per arm)
Alternating Dumbbell Press 1 10 10
Alternating Dumbbell Press 3 15 10
Dumbbell Press 1 15 10
Dumbbell Press 2 15 12.5
Dumbbell Press 1 12 15
Dumbbell Press 1 10 15
Dumbbell Press 3 6 20
Bicep Dumbbell Curl 1 15 10
Bicep Dumbbell Curl 1 10 10
Bicep Dumbbell Curl 1 8 10
Bicep Dumbbell Hammer Curl 1 8 12.5

Squat 1 10 45
Squat 1 8 65
Squat 3 10 65
Pinch Plate High Pull 3 10 25
Incline Benchpress 1 12 45
Incline Benchpress 1 10 45
Incline Benchpress 1 7 45 (Failure on the 8th)
Dumbbell Shrugs Forward Rotation (# per arm) 1 15 15
Dumbbell Shrugs Reverse Rotation 1 15 15
Dumbbell Shrugs Forward Rotation 1 12 20
Dumbbell Shrugs Reverse Rotation 1 12 20

Standing Obliques (each side) 2 15 25

Seated Pullups 1 10
Seated Pullups 1 5

Total Weight Lifted 12,725#  (Note, all dumbbells workouts I multiplied by two since I was holding two dumbbells with the listed weight.)