Our Physical Fitness

Mannahnin said:

Was out late dancing Saturday night, couldn't get up early enough to hit the gym before book club in the morning and was feeling too tired afterward, but by 6pm I was feeling restless and motivated enough to haul my butt off the couch.

Did a little elliptical warm up and noticed my calves were definitely sore from dancing and my quads felt it a bit too, but I was determined to do some leg work and still got in three good sets of leg press + calf raises. Also a few sets of dumbbell bench and of triceps extensions. That should leave me fresh enough to do some other muscle groups after work tonight.

Click to expand...

Made it! Did a little elliptical (and recently increased the level/resistance), then sets of dumbbell inclined curls with drop sets, dumbbell skull crushers/pullovers, and lateral raises.

Been pretty solid on my daily PT exercises this past week (missed one day, I think) and I've got PT after work, so that's nice. No gym tonight, most likely, as I've got a big family dinner.

Legs, and the tweak finally seems gone. Probably best legs so far.

Back, and I threw a set of 45 + Dips on the narrow bars, and it was a success.

Which is good, because Physio tomorrow and I didn't want to have to tell her.

Good leg day.

Physio went well. She came to the same conclusion I had, probably a tear in rotator cuff. Super something. Other muscles essentially lock up in defense of the torn guy, and now need to be stretched individually.

We will get there.

Been a while since I've checked in! I'm carrying on with my two full body workouts/week. Looking over my logs, I haven't missed one since March 20. I'm going to continue with this routine until June 15, and then probably take a week off and change it up.

I've also been doing something new this past week: an isometric contraction routine to strengthen the elbows (and hopefully add some arm size). I simply press one hand against the other (contracting the triceps of the top hand and the biceps of the bottom) as hard as I can for 30 seconds. I do 3 sets for each arm, one round each at 3 elbow angles: about 120°, 90° and 60°. With a 1 minute rest between rounds, it takes 5 minutes total. I do this twice a day, skipping the evening one on days I workout.

I'm going to do this for 1 month and see if it improves my arm strength and adds any size. I measured my arm as 15" on the dot last week, will measure again on June 15.

Not a perfect experiment as I'm still doing my regular routine, but I've already regained all arm size I lost on vacation, so I'm not expecting much more growth. I'd say if they grow 1/4"+ it's definitely due to the isometrics.

Made it today. Flex Friday!



Picked up my Daggerheart box set too!

Got there myself. Typical things, 45 on Dips, progressive increases on bench to 200, nothing else too fancy.

If I am feeling good tomorrow I'll do something likely over the weekend.

My intercostal muscle injury is healed enough that my physio guy okayed me to start lifting a bit heavier this week. I’m very weak. Cest la vie.

No weekend Gym, too much actually work.

Chest and Tricep today was good. Back to 65s on Incline Press, 200 on Bench, and 45 on Dips.

On Friday I'll go back to 70s Dips.

Tue/Thur I am going to add some of my Physio stretches.

Next month I need to commit to diet and core and cardio.

The past week I was down with a cold and stayed out of the gym, but got back in on Sunday and yesterday morning.

Felt weak between aftereffects of the cold and still being down weight, but Sunday managed three sets of dumbbell flies, three of inclined dumbbell curls with drop sets, and three of dumbbell skull crushers/pullovers.

Yesterday I did three sets of cable rows, where I'm still able to do as much weight as I used to (so maybe I should push those harder), three sets of seated dumbbell lateral raises with drop sets. Those I usually do standing, but I typically feel significant back engagement, and I was hoping to avoid that. I couldn't do quite as much weight, but I felt them much less in my back, so it seems like a good tweak for better isolation. And capped with three good heavy sets of leg press + calf raises, after which I could barely walk for a good ten minutes, so I was very satisfied with that work. I also kept my form tight and avoided rolling up at all and any pressure on my lower back, so that felt like a definite win.

I've also been keeping consistent on my daily PT exercises, though that's a struggle at times. So that feels good too.