Level 6

Okay, I realize I'm horrible at this blogging thing. It is either feast or famine. But I had a pretty good day on Friday and wanted to write about it.

 First off, we are having a biggest loser contest at the gym, and so far I'm ahead. In the past seven weeks I've dropped 26 pounds (most of it occurring in five weeks time.) That's great. It puts me down 74 pounds overall.

 Second, we had level testing at Fire House Fitness. Our trainer, Jason Muir, has six levels of fitness he would like to get everyone through. Just because you hit these levels doesn't mean you are done, but he gives you a special deal when you pass the last level and show you are committed to working out. I took my level six test on Friday.

 All levels start with a static squat. For level one it is 60 seconds. It goes up in 30 second intervals for each level until level five, then you jump up to a four minute squat. Level six it jumps another minute to five minutes. Sometime during the past few weeks I had kind of pulled one of my gluteus minor muscles and it has put a bit of a strain on my lower back. I haven't been able to do a five minute squat since then. I really just had to go to my happy place and power through it, but mission accomplished.

I was the only person going for level six at 5:30 a.m. so everyone else had started their run by the time I was done. For the lower levels you run around the block, which is around .5 miles. You then move up to a run down the street that is about .8 miles. Then one to two of those runs for level five. Finally you do a combination of the other two and run 1.5-1.75 (I'm not sure of the exact length, I just know it is over 1.5 miles.) Running has never been my strong point, but in the past two weeks it has gotten much easier. I'm not sure if it the extra 10 pounds coming off, or what. I ran about 1.25 miles without taking a break, and finished up with only one 30 second walk. My runs in earlier tests (the .8 mile run) usually took me just over eight minutes. This one that was twice the length took me 14:23 seconds. I was quite proud of that.

 We then moved into the thing I dreaded the most, the "3 minute drill". This is one of those things that doesn't seem like a big deal until you try it, and are told you have two chances to get through it without stopping or you fail. This entire drill is done in the push up position with your hands on a medicine ball. You start out with 30 seconds of mountain climbers, then 30 seconds of V hops (jumping both feet up to one side of the ball, back to the starting point, then up to the other side of the ball.) You then do 30 seconds of straight hops, just jumping both feet forward and apart, to both feet back at the starting position and together. By this time my "hops" felt like they were only moving about four-five inches at a time, very small. You then go back to 30 seconds of mountain climbers, and finish with a one minute plank, 30 seconds with your left leg in the air, and 30 seconds with your right foot in the air. The plank almost finished me because I was so unstable I almost fell over (which would have meant starting over.)

 I finished that and was told not to stop, but to run over to the TRX system for the final test. For those unfamiliar with the TRX, it looks like truck tie downs, but hangs from a bolt in the wall, and has two handles. For the final test we do a TRX 3 ab combo. This was the first exercise I ever did at FHF, and it almost convinced me not to come back! You shorten the handles so they hang between six and ten inches off the ground, and put your feet into the handles. You get in push up position, and start off with 15 pikes (basically raising your butt straight up into the air), then without stopping you switch to 15 pendulums (keeping your upper body straight and moving your legs side to side using your obliques.) Then without stopping you move into 15 peddles (you bring your knees up to your chest one at a time, this is almost like a small one legged pike with a bent knee.) Then you move into the collapsing on the floor in exhaustion exercise, which technically isn't an exercise, but nice none the less.

 At this time I realized that everyone I had thought had left the gym had really been hanging around in the front area out of site, and come back in to cheer me on after the trainers started yelling at me not to wuss out. I got a big hug from the trainers, well the ones who aren't averse to immense amounts of sweat, and will eventually get to sign the wall as a graduate. I'm pretty proud of this accomplishment, but have to keep going. I've got about another 45 pounds to lose to get back to what I weighed when I got married 16 years ago. Wish me luck!

Fun with the TRX

I had to run into the gym this morning, I'm taking part in a body transformation challenge, and one of my friends was showing someone else how they had done a fancy push-up with the TRX. My friend probably weighs 80 pounds, so not as scary for her. I mentioned to Jason, my trainer, how I wanted to try it, but didn't think the TRX was rated that high. He told me that he had done it, and he out weighs me by 30 pounds. I thought I'd give it a try.

He walked into the office to register someone else for the challenge, and I did it. One of the other trainers was in the office and could see me and she got excited. Jason stuck his head out and asked me to stick around for a second. I had no idea why. He then asked if he could film me doing it. This time I didn't get the full push-up done. It felt like the bands were squeezing my shoulders, and my arms were below my chest, so I couldn't use my pecs. It does make a pretty good picture though n

I would like it noted that I was using extensive safety equipment. That mat underneath me is almost half an inch thick!

Thank goodness it's Friday, too bad it's April Fools Day.

Ah Friday, the beginning of the weekend, and more importantly the end of the work week.

My folks couldn't watch the youngest today, and my wife had to work this morning, so I took half a day of vacation. Since I didn't have to worry about catching the train this morning, I decided to hit the 6 a.m. class at the gym. I love to go to the gym in the morning, it wakes me up and gets me ready for the day. You start the day with all the wonderful endorphins. I hate to go to the gym in the morning, because you get your buttocks handed to you.

This morning we focused on our abs, and did 12 different ab exercises in a row to start off. We then went for a run, and I knocked over two minutes of my time from the last run. (We don't run quite a mile, but it's close.) We then hit the burnout phase of the workout and I had to throw 100 round house kicks, and do 100 walking lunges. That sucked.

On a side note, last night at the gym I flipped a tractor tire that weighs about 650 pounds. That made me feel good, and impressed our trainer.

Since I was so awake, I've done a ton (almost literally) of laundry, washed the dishes, and been a jungle gym for the youngest.



Here you see him trying to climb, and then either try to sit or lay on our headboard. The only way to reach such heights? Climb Dad's legs.

When I got home from the gym I did have to deal with my children trying to play practical jokes on each other. The oldest daughter slipped her iPod under the oldest door with a creepy message on it. So he tried to get her by taping down the sprayer on the kitchen faucet (the funny thing about that is he did get his other sister when he was trying to wash a spoon for her.) Then it turned into bickering and arguing about who was going to get each other. I finally had to threaten to get involved unless they got ready for school. Seemed to work for me, but my wife is pulling out her hair.

I might have to update this later, "if" I get involved in the April Fool's Day.

Current events

I've been reading through my blog, and realized that I don't talk about much besides the gym, which is okay. Then I thought about the reason, and realized my wife posts all the scoops on her blog (link opens in a new window).

Last night we went and had our follow up appointment at the U. Jason has officially been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. We are now seeing if there are any other programs that can help him, the U gave us some recommendation. I'll keep you posted.

If you want info on the family. Check out my wife's blog.

Anyway, I'm still recovering from my Saturday workout. We did a heavy leg workout, and my legs still hurt!

I'm "back" in action

Okay, forgive the stupid pun, but I couldn't resist.

As you know last week I was experiencing back problems, and after sitting in my desk chair for 9 hours on Thursday, and feeling the pain, I did something I thought I would never do. I called a chiropractor. Now I have nothing against chiropractors, but I've always been skeptical. I happen to know someone who runs an office for a chiropractor, so I called and set up an appointment. Below is how my adventure went.

My wife had to drop me off, and go pick up our son. So I went in and talked with the chiropractor, and had some x-rays taken. Then they had me lay on a table, and hooked up the electro-stimulus machine (I'm not sure what it is really called.) I laid on the table for 20 minutes while my back muscles were stimulated, with an ice sheet on my back. I'm not sure that ice sheet sufficiently describes the experience. My back felt as if the chiropractor was Darth Vader, and I was Han Solo, and they were trying to freeze me in carbonite. The main difference was the Empire was in a recession, so they didn't have a full-body freezer and had to do it a bit at a time.

My wife showed up again, as they asked me to stand up and move to the next room. I felt really good, so I pushed up off the table, and quickly laid back down. They had somehow frozen my back into the most painful position it could be in. It took me about 5 minutes to walk 20 feet, and I was miserable. I got on an upright device, and they pivoted me down until I was horizontal. The chiropractor had my wife look at the heels of my feet as I lay there. There were not level, they were about 1.5 inches out of level, and the chiropractor told her that was one of the reasons my back hurt. He did some work on me, and brought them back into level. (I hope my use of carpentry terms makes sense, it's the only way I can describe it.)

He raised me up, and I thought I was done, but my back still hurt. He had me sit in a chair, and popped, I mean aligned my neck. That felt great, but again not much for my back. He had me stand up, and move to another room where the real magic would take place. I laid down, on my side this time, and my back was aligned. By this I mean that a 200 pound man climbed up on me, and focused all of his weight and strength on one of my arms, and one of my legs. It was great! He used the shampoo technique, it was align, reverse, repeat. My back felt so much better. I was a little bit tender still, but it was livable. I went back in the next day, and had the same experience, but this time the ice sheet didn't freeze me in pain.

Well, long-story short, I am down up and around, and have just a little tenderness in my back. I went to the gym last night for the first time since the chiropractor. My back was a little sore after, but I iced it, and it feels fine this morning.

As for how the gym is going, my wife wanted me to post this picture to show my progress. The picture on the left is me in 2006, the first day of work in a new office (I found it on our corporate intranet yesterday,) the picture on the right is a self portrait from yesterday. In between these two pictures I put on about 15 pounds, so in the second picture I'm only about five pounds lighter than the first picture. I think that I've slimmed down noticeably, but then again I'm biased!