The subject to this diary is a paraphrased Churchill quote.
The first time I took my rings to the park, I was hooked. I had been dabbling in fitness for sometime when I got those tiny little wooden rings, the single page instruction manual completely underselling them. I decided to take them to a little park tucked between a few busy roads. I bogarted the swings for an hour, completely exhausting myself with effort.
I am almost 27 years old. A bit flabby, weak, with a history of picking habits up, trying for a while, and then giving up when things become difficult. This time is different. I have come back from the brink, battled through my apathy, and am now at a place where I want to try. Actually, I need to try, and I need to fail, and when I fail I need to try again. I need to learn humility and perseverance, I am finally ready to commit. I have seen where the other direction takes me, to a life of mediocrity and weakness, moral and physical. No one is born to greatness, some people are just willing to work harder.
Enough dramatization, this journal will help me organize myself, and track my progress. I intend to write entries Monday through Friday, most weekdays, unless I am on vacation.
July 25th, 2011
Mondays are tough for some reason, always have been. No excuses.
I got up at 6am for some joint warmup. On all fours, spinal flexion and extension, then bending left /right, still on all fours. Spine warmup. Stand up, shoulder rolls, elbow rolls, wrist thing which I read once in a pavel book, do those each a couple of times. Touch toes curling down one vertbrate at a time, then up, bend in the thoracic cage, repeat. Gentle left right twists, feet fixed, left right bending, hip circles, then knees, ankles, let us call this the morning joint warmup for brevity.
morning
After warming up the joints, I start the timer. 60 minutes, and start the morning circuit. The latest incarnation looks like:
3x Coach's wrist pushups
3x Superman's, try to hold at maximum extension for a few seconds
3x full back arch, Working really hard on straightening arms, shoulder's over hands, bending in the thoracic spine, keeping core engaged, not there yet. Hold for 5 seconds at top
3x V sits, hold them for a few seconds while doing hip circles to hit the obliques
Move to parallettes
L sit with slow side to side movement of legs, I can hold this for 10-15 seconds
Planche work, right now I can just do a little tuck for maybe 10 seconds
Straddle sit, 10 seconds
Repeat the above series 3 times
Handstand descents on the wall 3x
Then I do these one legged squats, not sure what they are called. Like a lunge, but come down on the knee of the back leg. Before the squat, I swing my leg from the inside, slowly to perpendicular to my body, then rotate the foot downward, bring the leg back behind me, all while standing on the ball of the supporting leg. I reverse the leg swing after the squat.
I do this entire series over and over until the timer goes off.
When the timer goes off, I stretch a bit, shoulders, forearms, loosen the tension.
Breakfast
Big bowel of hempseed and granola with raw milk and two tablespoons nutritional yeast.
work
Every hour I do the following:
5x First knuckle push up
1x 30 second push up
1x 15 second frog balance on hands
3x push ups with legs suspended on back of chair
1x 20 second v sit, trying to raising legs as high I can
1x 10 second standing leg lift while on the ball of the supporting leg, swing to rear leg lift for 10 seconds(each side)
1x 10 second Perpendicular leg lift rotating foot after 5 seconds to parallel to ground(each side)
3x squats, hold the last squat at parallel to ground for 15 seconds
At lunch I also do 45 minutes of cardio and:
3x pull ups, I would like to do dead hang, but my arms have been too beat lately so I do them from standing
3x leg lifts to the bar
3x L sit dips, though I have to admit the L gets a little sloppy during the descent
lunch
16oz low fat cottage cheese
Large salad, probaly 150 grams, with fatty dressing
Gluten free bread and peanut butter to full
evening
After work is no time to rest
60 minutes pole climbing. The pole is about 12 feet high, and I climb the pole, descend as slow as possible, then take a 15-30 second break and repeat.
60 minutes rings. Right now my ring workout is really weak. Yesterday I would do one L sit, followed by 3 crappy pull ups, or 5 body rows. Plenty of room to improve here.
Then I stretch. I hold the following for 15 seconds:
Clasp hands behind back, over shoulder and under shoulder
Clasp hands behind back, both arms under shoulder
Clasp hands in front of body, lift to maximum extension of shoulder girdle
Lizard stretches
Straddle splits + pancake(nowhere near flat)
Pike
Cobbler's pose
Forarm stretches
Quad strech(knees bent to full flexion, feet under butt)
Lay on back and stretch hamstrings, psoas, hip abductors
Plow
Arch
Roll and unroll spine a few times
Grab knees
Ground angels to stretch shoulder girdle
Knees to left and right to stretch lower back
Lastly I decompress my spine on the pull up bar, first hanging, then legs over bar, then a german hang, for about 20-30 seconds.
dinner
Sweet sweet reward. I need to eat a massive dinner to power this workout, I usually go to the coop and have whatever hot food they have prepared. Usually tofu, or seitan, or tempeh, with veggies. I wash it all down with some nonfat yogurt.
Post dinner prehab
30 minutes hand gyroscope