Getting fit with SwordsMaster

[SwordsMaster]

Not much was done yesterday - stressful day.

Did my morning pushups - 3x sets max effort
In the evening, really late, and due to weird meal schedules only managed 43 pullups in pyramid, with 10 sec break for every rep.

Today, another weird day, couldn't do my morning stuff, so will be doing some pullups and dips in the evening. Over the next few days will be focusing on pelvic realignment exercises, as I have terrible posture when I sit, and my lower back is feeling it...

[SwordsMaster]

Yesterday was a good day - after taking a day off on wednesday:

my 125 morning pushups in 3 sets of max effort,
Then, in the afternoon: 15km cycle
Later: 6x12 pullup sets, 60sec rest
Pyramid dips 1-12 with 5 sec break per rep in previous set.

Most pullups in a single session yet!

[SwordsMaster]

Travelling this week, and it's pouring rain outdoors, so no pull-ups. Doing my morning pushups every day though, and have incorporated some stretching and squatting to compensate for lack of pullups and keep the back moving.

Stretches mostly directed at the soleus, hamstrings, back, shoulders, as these are the areas which suffer most from sitting for too long.

Squats: 3x50 with 60 sec breaks, bodyweight.

I'm really wishing for a kettlebell. 1x16kg could add a very noticeable oomph to my daily exercises.
50kb swings in the mornings would hit most areas that need hitting in addition to the pushups and pullups. Adding a few Turkish get ups would seal the deal.
Unfortunately that'd be the only thing in my suitcase, so for now I'll stick to wishing for it.

[Vladimir]

Oh dear. SM doesn't exercise in the rain? I had my best run time at midnight, after an eight hour shift, during a rainstorm in Panama. No excuses sir!

[SwordsMaster]

Oh dear. SM doesn't exercise in the rain? I had my best run time at midnight, after an eight hour shift, during a rainstorm in Panama. No excuses sir!

I run in the rain in the tropics. In Ireland or Scandinavia I do not.

[Vladimir]

I run in the rain in the tropics. In Ireland or Scandinavia I do not.

Oh, yea. I guess that makes a difference.

[SwordsMaster]

The routine continues - pushups 5 days aweek in the manner described, pullups have been neglected for the past few days as the bar is outdoors and it's been pouring rain. Also I was back in Dublin drowning sorrows pretty much every day of the week.

I did go for a couple of good runs, of 3-5km, and have finally built up the motivation to jog repeatedly during the same week. Diet has gone to the dogs though. Will be trying to make amends.

Been trolling the internet for one of those kettlebells you can fill with sand, but no dice so far...

[tibilicus]

Today's workout and diet.

Woke up at 8am. 250 grams of greek yogurt, berries, grapes, spoon full of penut butter and jam.

Workout 9:15:
Mobility stretches to warm up.
2 minute plank
50 leg raises
weighted crunches

squats
warm up sets ramping up to 150kg box squats for 10. This was max effort so fell back down to 8 reps before finishing with an easier 5 reps where I rested on the box longer before exploding off.
Bulgarian split squats, 8 reps each legs for four sets.
Cable pull throughts 12-16 reps for three.

Lunch was 200 grams of pasta in pesto with 300 grams of chicken.

Afternoon protein shake for 40 grams of protein. Had 5 cookies earlier in the day and developed a teenage female type paranoia so went to the gym for a 40 minute swim.

Tea was two 1/2 ounce burgers, in breaded buns, served with a fried tomato, sauteed potatoes, red onion chutney relish, onions, cheese and ketchup. It was delicious. Turns out I actually worked up quite an appetite from my swim so I had 100 grams of cereal. The chocolate type I robbed off my house mate. I regret nothing.

Bed time meal is 1 scoop of protein powder for 20 grams of protein with a pint of milk. comes to about 35 grams before bed. All in all a happy day.

[SwordsMaster]

Well done, lads. I've been down with a fever for the last couple of days. No exercise.

[Vladimir]

Went for a run today for the first time in months. 20 minutes later I thought I was gonna die. Gotta run every damned day to keep your wind.

Excellent. Months is a long time. Congratulations.

[SwordsMaster]

Apologies for long time with no update, in compensation have a look at this:

Have been on a business trip last week, so barely any exercise aside from the morning pushups. However my diet was almost exclusively beef, black beans and veggies. I have eaten 3.7 kg of beef in the bast 3 days. Testosterone was through the roof.

[SwordsMaster]

Have returned to doing some training this week. Have lost considerable strength after almost 3 weeks of non-training so had to scale back a bit.

Even so, did a pyramid pullup ladder yesterday with a max rep set of 8, and 5x sets of dips for max reps (max rep set 22) for a total of 74. Did planks in between exercises (1.5min front, 1 min each side)

Have been really watching the diet this week, cut out all white carbs, meals are mostly vegetables, protein and legumes with the occasional white carbs included after workouts and saturdays.

Been doing that for a week, and definitely feel lighter, and digestion is going much smoother even though it has not transpired in any weight change yet. Have cut down on alcohol too, limiting all the junk to just saturdays as I'm not really ready to give it up completely. The aim is to go down 10kg to 81 before NY. Ambitious, I know. Will need new clothes for Christmas!

[Strike For The South]

herniated disc

shit

[SwordsMaster]

herniated disc

shit

Oh man, that's horrible. A friend had a similar injury. Lots of fun pain pills, no?

[Rhyfelwyr]

I am so frustrated... I haven't trained for two weeks and won't be able to train again for a good few weeks.

I moved to a new gym a few months back, it's so much better and my lifts were shooting up. I've got some nice stretch marks around the traps/shoulders area because of it.... now all I can do is eat to maintain my weight (hovering between 200-205lbs).

EDIT: I think I mean lats, not traps, got the stretch marks on the upper arm where it meets the torso.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I got myself a new apartment finally, and i have the space to set up a little cross-fit zone for myself. I'm thinking a decent sized mat, a bench, a set of free weights, a pull up bar, and maybe a heavy bag. Thoughts?

I'm a big believer in low weight, high reps, and because of a serious injury to my left leg a few years ago i can't really run, hoping a cross-fit style of workout can offset that.

I'd ditch the weights, personally, but that's me.

If you have a leg ingury, have you considered taking up swimming? Just being in the water is cardio and it will help build up your leg muscles so you can run on the bad leg for longer without doing yourself a mischief.

Just looking for a pool here in Exeter myself, so intending to practice what I preach.

[Vladimir]

Swimming is the best, but more than 10 minutes in the water and the chlorine starts to feel like acid on my scar tissue. Been awhile though, so i should probably give it another shot.

You might want to check on different types of pools. I don't know the details but some pool systems don't rely so much on chlorine. I'm sure indoor pools use less as well.

The thing that stops me from swimming more is how chlorine affects my eyes; that, and the water needs to be warm enough.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Swimming is the best, but more than 10 minutes in the water and the chlorine starts to feel like acid on my scar tissue. Been awhile though, so i should probably give it another shot.

Hmm

You said you had a leg injury. Could you get some sort of sock, or something?

[Strike For The South]

Oh man, that's horrible. A friend had a similar injury. Lots of fun pain pills, no?

Nothing yet, I have to wait a couple weeks to see the physio again.

Hurts like a son of a bitch though. I haven't even attempted any exercise lately.

[SwordsMaster]

Nothing yet, I have to wait a couple weeks to see the physio again.

Hurts like a son of a bitch though. I haven't even attempted any exercise lately.

A good physio can really make a difference here - including long-term consequences.

GC: That sounds like quite an ordeal, man.

Even scar tissue should eventually be able to withstand chlorine and salt water. Perhaps there is a sock, as PVC mentioned, or a cream you can use. Have you tried using vaseline? There are also special fats that are hydrophobic and will keep your scar tissue hydrated.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I dunno, that's a good question. It was crushed by a Humvee, so the whole thing is a mess of scars and such.

@Strike, i hope it gets better soon man.

Isn't this exactly the sort of thing you have the VA for?

As SwordsMaster says, you should eventually recover, but in the meantime there should be something they can do for you.

Strike - ouh, maximum sympathy.

I second the Physio, and possibly a good Chiropractor, as they can tell you all sorts of otherworldly things about your spine and your posture that can prevent this happening again.

While we're having a grump, my old hip injury form when I was lost overnight on the moors made itself felt for the first time in a while today - so the weather's turning. We'll see how the morning run goes tomorrow.

[Vladimir]

I ate a pizza. It was good.

[SwordsMaster]

RESURRECTION!!!

And so the After Christmas Workout begins. After throwing in the towel on the whole fitness thing last summer - too many weddings, and travel to count, Christmas offered the opportunity to start anew. Not for free of course. These are the results of my 1st week of january medical:

Height: 5.11'' / 179cm
Weight: 209 lb / 94kg
Cholesterol: 6, of which HDL 0.97, LDL 4.93
30% Body fat

Not good. I have proposed that in 3 months I should lose 8kg/ 17lb, and lower my total cholesterol while increasing HDL to somewhere around 2.0. Also, want to go back to under 15% bodyfat.

I started working out, using the classic 3 day split (legs, pulls, pushes), and added an ab session to every day, as well as some interval sprints. I HATE endurance-cardio, but I do have a muddy race coming up in June, Hell and Back in Ireland if anyone is interested, but that will be a whole other kettle of fish, and i will start training in April for that with more endurance-focused training.

So, given the goals above, anyone have any pointers? Any good experiences with changing cholesterol levels, any tips on going down the bodyfat ladder quicker? I travel a lot, so food choices are limited, but timing is flexible.

Strike, GC, everyone else! Help me get some life expectancy on!

[SwordsMaster]

Thanks GC! I'm actually not at all opposed to bodyweight workouts, quite the opposite! Specially with my travelling schedule, anything I can do in my hotel room/hotel parking lot allows me extra flexibility.

What kind of volumes would you be looking at? Would you do full body workouts every time? Every day?

[Crazed Rabbit]

Re: losing fat, I assume you know your TDEE and that to lose 1 lb/week (~0.5 kg) you need to eat 500 kCal under your TDEE per day. I'd also recommend trying to eat at least 2g protein per kg of body weight when trying to lose weight to maintain the maximum muscle mass/strength.

I think the classic 3 day split you mentioned is good.

For abs, I like using ab rollers. They look like a gimmick but they are actually effective and they work your abs fully extended.

For body weight leg exercises, I recommend looking into pistol squats.

CR

[SwordsMaster]

Thanks lads,

Been trapped in airports for the past couple of days - UK weather (I know, I know, 'it's raining in England, what a surprise!'), but hoping to get back on the training horse tomorrow after I get 20 hours of sleep or so.

I might go back to my old ways and do 75 Kettlebell swings before breakfast in the mornings. Warms you up for the day. Ab rollers are an interesting idea, since most hotel gyms would have them also. I do a lot of swiss ball crunches (not that you can tell mind you), and try to destabilise by holding weight in one hand or another, raising one leg off the ground, and things like that.

As far as lifts go, I focus on squats on leg day, and deadlifts and pullups on back day. My grip is weak at the moment - too long out of training and that is becoming limiting with pulls. On chest day I do dips, flys, and shoulder presses at a few different inclinations, and the hit the triceps if they're not worn out. Not a huge fan of the traditional bench press as I feel it stresses the front delt much more than the chest, and I don't need the shoulder injury.

For intervals, I have started doing sprints at the gym's basketball court - so I'd do 4 lengths, rest 20 sec, and repeat 4 times. The idea is to shorten the resting periods to 10 sec, and then go 6 lengths per 'block'. I want to get to about 20 sec of all out exercsise to 10 sec rest kind of ratio.

When I'm in hotel gyms, I find the rowing machine is the best for this kind of breakdown as it allows you to pre-set the timers and intervals and there is no build-up period as on a treadmill, you just go. I imagine stationary bikes would work also.

Diet is the hardest to be honest. I was never a huge fan of fast-food, so that's ok, but I do love bread, cheese, and red meat. I realise I need to cut down, but it's easier said than done. I'm hoping the exercise will mean i don't need to cut things out altogether. We shall observe.

Thanks for the replies, and keep them coming!

[Rhyfelwyr]

I've noticed that doing press ups with a backpack full of weights gives me a great chest pump after it so it must be working the muscles well- maybe something to try if you don't have access to a gym.

[Strike For The South]

Fiber and Fish Oil for the cholesterol.

As for losing weight. No refined sugar, no alcohol (lol), lots of water, breads in the morning (if at all)

[SwordsMaster]

Fiber and Fish Oil for the cholesterol.

As for losing weight. No refined sugar, no alcohol (lol), lots of water, breads in the morning (if at all)

Damn. Alcohol is pretty much the main thing keeping me going... I'm not huge on breads anyway, but refined sugar is hard to avoid. Not because I have a massive sweet tooth, but because they put it in damn near everything!

Fish oil is a good idea - didn't think of that.

Thanks Strike! I'll post some pictures of progress in a couple of weeks.

[SwordsMaster]

Gawd! It's hard to stick to a routine... 3 countries in 2 weeks, and very few opportunities for healthy eating. Been feeding on pork, mostly, and tried to accompany with veggies or roasted potatoes when available, but this was, at best, not productive, and at worst counter-productive.

Workouts have been down to 100 or so pushups a day, and as many squats, plus a couple of minutes of planks. Not great...