Congrats to all of you working towards your 1st unassisted pull-up. It’s a wonderful exercise for your upper body. Keep working hard.
I never place or win any race, but I love competing. In the SF Bay Area, there are just a lot of great older runners. I have better success both in my age group and overall when I compete in local obstacle races.
Yesterday, I got my full workout in and then ran 3.7 miles back to my vacation spot, at elevation. Slow, very slow. I was “kaput” when I got back. I haven’t even looked at today’s programmed workout.
If you’re inclined and have some extra time, take a look at the older masters athletes competing at the CrossFit Games, which started today. These folks are the best at CF. The older athletes (35-60+) and teens compete Wednesday thru Friday. And then give way for the top young adults.
Today’s workout included deadlifts for the strength portion. And then a 30-min HIIT of rowing (3,000 meters total), pull-ups, wall balls and, ugh, burpee box jump overs, which is a burpee then jumping up on a box and over and repeat. I was supposed to finish in 30 minutes, but continued a few minutes after to finish the 3rd and final round.
I was watching one of the elite CF’ers today who deadlifted 500+ lbs (after squatting a ton of weight first), but weighed only 170 lbs. So Michael’s son deadlifting triple+ his weight at a weight of 150 lbs. is WOW! Also, bench pressing roughly 2x his weight is impressive too.
Thank you for pull-up encouragement. I appreciate your understanding of the hurdle. I’ve had men chuckle and say “You’re training to do ONE?!” Grrrrrr…
Around five years ago, I had trained & could do one on my 50th birthday, but then life pushed me around, I fell into a slump, and stopped lifting or working out.
Back at it, and thankful for this thread, bc it’s helping me keep going.
I was even entertaining the ridiculous idea of taking up running again. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid!!!
@sushiritto , “I remember when…” - ain’t that the truth. At a month shy of 65, I’m not quite doing what I did in my 20’s and 30’s, lol. But hey, life is all about change. It’s how you embrace the change and meet the challenges head on that’s important. We can remain fit and strong throughout our lives by embracing change and adapting.
And what’s interesting about my son is that if you look at him, he’s not big. He doesn’t lift for hypertrophy. But his muscle density is ridiculous. And my daughter is no slouch either. She’s not a “weight lifter” per se and is more so a resistance loaded functional movement aficionado. But when I watch her do Turkish get ups with 40 lb dumbbells, rotating step back lunges with a 60 lb sandbag, or picture perfect TRX inverted pikes, she amazes me. And then when she and my son decide to play together with sparring pads and gloves, well, they scare me just a little bit, lol.
@Midwest67 , pull ups are HARD. And for the men who chuckle at the thought of you training to achieve one, well it starts with one and then grows from there. I’d like to see how many these “manly men” could really do with strict form, a full extension and full engagement of the lats, lower traps and scapular muscles.
I’ve had some wonderful runs while on vacation. Cape Town, San Antonio, Las Vegas, etc. I think my favorite was when my daughter was 10 and we ran together through Hyde Park in London. We saw a whole group of uniformed soldiers riding their horses. It was magical. If we hadn’t gotten out of bed early to run, we would have missed that!
@Midwest67 Getting your 1st unassisted pull-up is an amazing personal achievement. Please don’t let these men deter you from your goal. And I think they’re being foolish to think that a pull-up is somehow easy. As Michael said, pull-ups are hard. I’m sure I’m not breaking any news when I say that most maybe even nearly all gym goers can’t do an unassisted pull-up at full extension of the arms. Young and old(er). Many think they have a pull-up or even multiple pull-ups are actually cheating by not starting the upward motion from “full hang.” Keep on pulling.
Off to a good start this morning. Did not make it back to the gym last night, but got the workout in this morning, so I am on track with doing 2 of the PN workouts a week. The workouts seem to stick to the 5 rounds of two exercises - this morning was planks and walking spiderman; ab press and bodyweight squats; bowler squats and supine knee to knee pull in. My complaint in the past was that the workouts were too easy, but I’m really pushing the minimize the amount of rest between sets and it’s making a big difference. “Quick” 2.3 miles on the treadmill to finish the workout. Tomorrow will likely be a rest day in anticipation of running Saturday.
@sabaray I’ll throw out to you another CF catch phrase that I’ve learned. “Intensity gets results.” The caveat being it’s relative to each person’s physiological and psychological makeup. We’re all built differently. It sounds like you’re ready to increase the weight and intensity of your exercises.
Thursday is typically a rest day for me, but I’m getting that guilty feeling inside. I’m contemplating going to the gym today. But if I do, I’m not quite sure what I’d do. The local CF class exercise today is a combo of running and pull-ups and I think I’ve pretty much covered that the last 2 days. :-??
The platform for workouts offers multiple modifications for each exercise. I subbed in a Pilates ab sequence for the lower ab sequence this morning and that was a good option. I’ll see what tomorrow’s workout looks like, and then Monday it will be an entirely new schedule with alternating days of upper/lower body. I’m sure that will be a challenge.
I normally do Pilates classes on equipment (reformer, tower, Cadillac). I’m at our vacation place for July and August and only have access to Pilates mat classes. I’ve been surprised at how much I’m enjoying these classes–been going twice a week. I’ve seen improvement, which is good motivation to continue.
Fasting blood work this morning, so no workout. Couldn’t even have black coffee, which is cruel and unusual punishment as far as I am concerned. No workout, as planned. I might get something in later but I’m really going to try and get that rest day in.
In hopes of getting my running mojo back, I ordered some new shoes which arrived yesterday. Back to the tried and true Brooks - got the Adrenaline 18 and the Transcend 5. No one tell Mr. Sabaray how much running shoes cost.
I admire your commitment to getting that run in, ML - for me, if it doesn’t happen in the morning, it’s probably not going to.
Not too many things in life better than a new pair of shoes.
I also miss my coffee (and eating) when doing blood tests.
Squats and muscle-ups (a pull-up to bar at waist level) for strength work. The HIIT was combo of deadlifts, toes-to-bar (hang from bar, bring toes up to bar) and box jumps. The name of the exercise is called “drag race,” but at 11 mins, more like “tortoise race” for me.
I took a break from my desk to lift tonight. (ugh, work is so stressful this week!)
My new bands arrived, and yes, it felt good to get a wee little extra help from the addition of a small band to my existing band for chin-up assists.
I’m going to be able to add a smidge of weight next round to my overhead dumbbell presses, & the progress makes me happy.
Shoulders, upper arms, and upper back look more muscular to me – which is VERY encouraging, because I feel like I started lifting not very long ago and my routine is so very simple and basic (nothing like @sushiritto !)
I almost bought a pair of running shoes tonight, but decided to hold off until I feel much more convinced I’ll actually go.
