<p>Hah. That’s so kind of you, but what I’m doing couldn’t be described as sprinting under even the most generous definition! :)</p>
<p>I’ve been using 60 second intervals because I can get an instant 60 second stopwatch on my heart rate monitor by pressing the “Recovery” button, so it’s been an easy way to time a jogging interval. As my legs adapt, I’ll start adjusting those to suit the terrain – maybe going 2 minutes in a couple places, a little less than 1 minute in others. </p>
<p>The dirt trails in the park have the longest sustained stretches of relatively flat terrain.</p>
<p>Lovely, lovely day! Gorgeous weather. 14 miles, 1 hr 49 min. Felt good enough to stop by the store for some grocery shopping after the run. Now off to shower, and then my jihad on weeds will begin!!</p>
<p>Ran 3 miles yesterday (not getting to 14 anytime soon) and just got back from the YMCA and weight machines. The assisted dip and pullups are easier when you lose weight.</p>
<p>Big accomplishment. I haven’t done an unassisted chin-up since I was in my 20s.</p>
<p>BTW, my son asked me about a problem: he said that there must be something wrong because he could do more than 50 bench presses with 2x22.5 pounds. I told him that very few people do those kinds of reps in one set with that amount of weight and that most do ten or twelve reps. He thinks that there’s something wrong with his body putting out energy. He’s pretty stubborn about stuff like that so I just said that nobody worries about that sort of thing.</p>
<p>He also discovered that pound for pound, weight machines are way easier than free weights.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I could do that or not. The limiting factor would be lactic burn, the same as trying to do long intervals on the Airdyne. Not a strength challenge, but taxing the ability to supply oxygen to the muscles. It’s gotta take a over a minute to do 50 reps.</p>
<p>I’m currently using 2 x 35 lbs, which has gone from a struggle to moderately strong and a bit faster. Ideally, I’d like to get to 12 good fast strong reps before bumping up to 2 x 40 pounds. Those are still pretty big jumps. My limiting factor is still getting the weigths into position and back down afterwards.</p>
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<p>Yep. Free weights require using your muscles (and central nervous system) to stabilize the weight in three dimensions. That’s a very different challenge than pushing against a resistance that can only move in one plane.</p>
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<p>I’ve been working on it since Christmas time, when I got a chin up bar and the TRX-style suspension trainer for inverted rows. I started out all gung ho working on chinups every day and quickly realized that was making me sore, sore, sore. Since then, I’ve just been doing just the work in the NROL4ABS workouts, which include some flavor of inverted rows, rows, lat pulldowns, or chinups in every workout. So, three days a week since Christmas. When I went down to 40 pounds of band assistance the other day, I had a sneaking suspicion that I might be able to do one. A lot of that is me learning to use all the big muscles of the upper body and not just the arms.</p>
<p>Went back out to the gym this afternoon to do a CrossFit workout.</p>
<p>5 rounds for time:
400 meter run
25 KB Swings (30 pound)</p>
<p>19:16</p>
<p>We have a course mapped out in our parking lot that we used to run the 400s. Then we did the swings right in front of the front door. It was a little warm, but a great day to do an outdoor workout like that :)</p>
<p>Awesome. I don’t know how you have the patience for that long. I get really antsy at about the one hour mark. I guess you just have to get in the zone.</p>
<p>I am very careful with pullups. I do five or six at a certain weight, work my way to ten and then drop ten pounds of assistance. Pullups were a contributor to my tennis elbow last year as there’s a considerable amount of stress on the forearm in that move.</p>
<p>I was invited for tennis tomorrow so tomorrow will be a tiring day.</p>
<p>I picked up a pair of jeans today at size 36 - I was able to wear these when I got down here before but I didn’t have enough confidence that I could keep the weight off so held off on buying them. So I’m more confident today that I can keep it off. I also put together a before and after picture which I will add to over time.</p>
<p>Yay, BC. Nothing like fitting in a new pair of thermometer jeans!</p>
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<p>Yes, pullups are good in small doses. The chinup version, with the hands facing your body, is supposed be easier on the shouders. Also, a coaching cue is to keep the shoulders “packed” – pulling he shoulder blades down and in or “away from the ears” as Zuzanna says. That’s been a big part of my learning to engage the big muscles of the upper back.</p>
<p>A terrific video showing a drill to learn the proper shoulder position, just ignore all the physical therapy lingo and focus on the actual drill. Note that the “model” is the same woman doing the single leg deadlift above:</p>
<p>The thing I like about her videos is that the form and technique is impeccable. That’s perfect form for a turkish get up, with 62 pounds of weight.</p>
<p>Of course, she is one of the top kettlebell instructors in the country, but it’s nice to see YouTubes of exercises done right rather than the typical sloppy stuff.</p>
<p>Of course, if your suits and dress shirts fit you at that weight with low exercise, they may not fit you at that weight when you exercise, because your body proportions may be different from what suit and dress shirt companies assume that the typical American man has.</p>
<p>E.g. 160 pounds with a 40" chest and 34" waist is a fairly normal suit and dress shirt size, although it seems that many dress shirts are even more generous in the abdomen than that. But 160 pounds with a 42" chest and 31" waist will be hard to find a non-custom suit and dress shirt that is within reasonable alteration range.</p>
<p>The chin up version is easier in general, since it allows more muscles to get into the act. You should be able to do more chin ups than pull ups (palms facing away), or with greater added weight or less assistance weight.</p>
<p>I have a lot of my old shirts too in vary neck and sleeve sizes. I’ve not bothered to take them out.</p>
<p>My smallest suits were in European cut. The next larger sizes were not generous in the waist. The mid-size suits may have been. I never had a lot of chest or arm strength until I worked with heavy weights when I was older. It might be a problem or it might not be; we’ll see if and when I get there. There may also be some material in those old suits to let out or take in.</p>
<p>The pollen levels yesterday were very bad and they feel the same way today. It’s a beautiful sight to see all of the trees budding and the various shades of yellow, green and red but it’s rough on my eyes.</p>
<p>I didn’t notice much difference early on, but the chinup version felt a little more uncomfortable. I had a bit of a “sticking point” in one elbow with that version.</p>
<p>Then, I did two months of NROL4A chinups with a mixed grip – one hand palm in, one palm out, switching hands from set to set. For six weeks now, I’ve only been doing the chin up version, so I’ve kind of lost my point of comparison. I’ll have to do a set up pullups (palm out) and see how they feel now.</p>