<p>“Doctors are not really trained to be very good at diet and exercise stuff.”</p>
<p>DH’s doc is a runner. He gave DH two thumbs up, “I cannot believe this - very few patients followed my exercise prescription and lost as much weight as you did!” (H shed about 30 lb). My doctor got a bit alarmed that I lost weight, “Have you noticed anything unusual? Have you felt ill Lost appetite?” Ill? Not really… Only if I ran 15 miles without drinking any water, I guess… Lost appetite? I have to hide food from myself, because I’m always on a “seefood diet” - I see food, I eat it!</p>
<p>Rest day for me. My legs are somewhat sore from getting back into running after the break. Just some “dryland fun” with my favorite 15-lb weights.</p>
<p>Yeah. I’m sure it is very frustrating for the docs. Just like the quit smoking support they offer, they probably see an infinitesimally small success rate among their patients.</p>
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<p>That’s the reaction I got from my doc when I told him I had lost 55 pounds. He started trying to figure out what was wrong with me!</p>
<p>I-dad “They actually have a lot of the strength and conditioning coaches from Mike Boyle’s circle doing training and pushing for these changes. The standing long jump is an interesting choice. Done properly, it’s just an explosive deadlift or kettlebell swing – all hip hinge.”</p>
<p>Friends with kids at the various academies and one whose kid went straight to basic training have mentioned that the military is a lot more focused on conditioning with a concerted effort to not injure kids through improper/too intense/too much in the way of exercises.</p>
<p>Went down to the locker room to change for tennis. Two things: one of my new tech shirts had a thread come out - I remembered tossing a comforter cover into the washing machine this week - it has velcro on it - I’ll have to remember to do sheets separately from my tech stuff in the future. The other thing is that I forgot to wear my tennis shoes.</p>
<p>Fortunately I use cross-trainers for running and they’re almost always in my bag so I’ll play tennis in those.</p>
<p>Did a little martial arts practice at home this morning. Punches, chops, blocks and kicks. I haven’t done those in a long time. It’s nice to have the fitness to do those things. Looks like tennis indoors today - it’s 62 degrees, cloudy and the wind is blowing at 17 MPH - I can play tennis in this weather but I’d rather not - we’re basically in indoor season mode now.</p>
<p>Another beautiful day here…can you believe it??? Did intervals on the recumbent for 45 minutes and then did pushups on the Smith bar. Felt good. Planning on another walk outside this afternoon. I hope this weather lasts a bit longer! Starting back on weight loss mode…in 5 lb increments! H reminded me that we will be heading to Mexico at the end of January. Yikes! That should be enough motivation for me!</p>
<p>They are like pro sports teams. Injuring a guy and putting him out of commission with a training injury is the LAST thing they want to do.</p>
<p>[Charlie</a> Weingraff](<a href=“http://charlieweingroff.com/]Charlie”>http://charlieweingroff.com/) is an interesting guy. He’s a top sports physical therapist/trainer who was the trainer for the Philly 76ers basketball team for a while and now is the lead PT/trainer for the Marine Corps special ops at Camp Lejune. Cutting edge guy and definitely in the new school as far as minimizing training injury. Most of his stuff is way over my head, but he’s the kind of guy that is having an impact on the military. Reducing downtime from training injuries is an easy sell to the brass.</p>
<p>As an ol’ (formerly) fat guy, I pay attention when top trainers say an exercise has too much injury risk. If Marine special ops and NBA players are getting injured too often doing something, what chance do I have of coming through unscathed?</p>
<p>Two sets of tennis - 2.5 hours, split sets - 6-7 (2), 7-6 (2). That’s as even as you can get. It was grueling tennis (2.5 hours is a long time for two sets). First time that I’ve seen the other guy get tired after a point (it happened a few times). One of those 25 to 30 shot rallies where you’re hitting the ball hard and doing a lot of running.</p>
<p>I was still experimenting with my new racquet setup. I hit out more on my serve and hit harder backhands. In general, players with one-handed backhands prefer smaller racquets and those with two-handed backhands prefer bigger racquets. I went bigger at the beginning of the summer to have a better chance on mi****s and for the additional power on larger frames. It has been a very long adjustment period and I’ve been hitting more defensively for five months but today I was more offensive with my backhand hitting harder on flat and topspin shots and getting more depth on slices. I was also trying to hit harder on my forehand side which resulted in more errors - that was okay, I’m trying to up the level of my game.</p>
<p>I could have used a bottle of Gatorade on the court as I got hungry a few times. I had 750 calories for breakfast which probably wasn’t enough for 2.5 hours of tennis.</p>
<p>Just checking in. I’ve been reading, somewhat sporadically, but (obviously) not posting. I’m doing a fair amount of walking, but haven’t been to the gym in a few weeks – mostly because I don’t have one at the moment. I have been really keeping tabs on what I eat, though, so the good news is I haven’t gained weight.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your race, idad! Love the photo – and no smiley face for your head! :)</p>
<p>I bought one after CJane mentioned it. I have an ankle injury, so I’m not doing heavy duty workouts–just some walking. I’ve been wearing the Fitbit to track calories burned, which it does. It also tracks steps/mileage. There’s no information about heart rate, which I really like to know when I’m working hard. I also found that the Fitbit instructions (which are online) are not particularly informative. I think I prefer my Polar HRM, but I haven’t figured out all of the ins and outs of using the Fitbit.</p>
<p>Ran 4 miles this morning and returned to hot yoga this afternoon after a 2 week break. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but it’s still a tough 90 minutes. </p>
<p>I must have responded to a job ad while I was drinking or something. Have a phone interview tomorrow for a job in a place no one would EVER move to. I answer these ads in the off chance they woukd let me commute, but this place would take about 2 days to get to. The nearest city is Sioux Falls, SD, and it’s not close. Not happening.</p>
<p>One of those days where I let grass-cutting and wallpaper-scraping be my exercise. I am able to go up and down the stepstool without wincing or being sore the next day, so that’s something. :)</p>
<p>MOWC–I have read that jobs are going begging in ND and SD. Good ones. Nobody wants to relocate there…something about the winters, I think. :D</p>
<p>Don’t underestimate what a great thing that is! Being able to climb up on a stool or ladder with a little degree of athleticism at my rapidly advancing age is one of the real concrete benefits of no longer being an ol’ fat guy. That’s real world payoff for exercise and fitness and a payoff that will only gain more value as we age.</p>
<p>New Rules of Lifting for Abs tonight while I was roasting a pork loin out on the Weber. These front foot elevated split squats are wearing me out. They just never get easy.</p>
<p>For planks today, I did a variation of Stuart McGill’s stir the pot: plank with the elbows on the stability ball. Then, roll the ball forward away from the body. Then, while extended, roll it first to the left, then to the right, then back to center, and finally back towards the body. Good lord, that makes the abs burn. The good news is that I never used to be able to even do it.</p>
<p>I’m not completely sold on the value of trying to track calories burned, for a few reasons:</p>
<p>a) I don’t think there is any way to track calories accurately. Every device I own, including heart rate monitors, gives a different number. And, nobody on the face of the earth seems to know how many calories weight lifting burns.</p>
<p>b) The vast majority of the calories burned each day are just from keeping the blood pumping and organs working, independent of any exercise. According to the formulas, I would burn 1600 calories a day lying in bed. Thus, it’s a mistake to overestimate the value of exercise calories.</p>
<p>c) Even if you could accurately measure calories burned from activity, the body is just full of “feedback loop” mechanisms to adjust calorie burn. So, it’s a mistake to assume that burning more calories with exercise necessarily means that you will burn more calories overall.</p>
<p>d) I’m afraid that people will use their exercise calories as a rationalization to eat more. We see it all the time with the advice to eat extra calories on workout days. I’ve never once looked at the calories I burn exercising. I figure the small amount I burn working out (above and beyond just lying in bed) is a bonus.</p>
<p>e) Having said that, I do think exercise is vitally important to successful weight loss and maintenance. There’s real value in re-imagining yourself as a “fit” person. I’m not even sure you can successfully lose significant weight without that re-imagining taking place on some level. I also think that high intensity exercise may have some kind of impact on hormonal balance and the “feedback loops” that control hunger and metabolism.</p>
<p>I would have ran on my treadmill, too, but I got home sooo late because of the downtown traffic etc., I skipped running. Ugh. Just weights, monster walks, glute exercises, some experimentation with DH’s kettlebell (confirmed - yup, I need a lighter one for my stuff).</p>
<p>Last night, Mike Boyle posted this short YouTube clip of a squat exercise for people with knee pain. It’s a simple split squat, but with the shin bone kept vertical instead of going forward as sometimes happens doing lunges. He comments that this type of split squat often allows squatting without knee pain and is his go-to squat for geezers and/or athletes complaining of knee pain.</p>
<p>The short video shows him demonstrating the bodyweight split squat with his front leg up against a chair to keep it from moving forward.</p>
<p>I started out unable to do a split squat because of a dicey knee (and a too much body weight). I have been doing split squats for 18 months now and have no knee issues at all. This is a great exercise for strengthening the muscles that stabiize the knee. Expect the front of the thighs above the knee to get serious workout! You can add dumbbells or kettlebells to this later, but it’s a fantastic exercise with no weight at all.</p>
<p>Seems like that formula is part of how the Fitbit tracks calories burned. I also agree with your other points about measuring calories burned–for me, the Fitbit an expensive pedometer. Also, the gizmo is a way that I can (given my injury) see how much I’ve done in terms of walking and try to do a little more.</p>
H reminded me that we will be heading to Mexico at the end of January. Yikes! That should be enough motivation for me!</p>
Bookmarked.</p>