I'm training and keeping it under control

I'm back on track.  Friday and Saturday (while travelling), I made it to the gym. Sunday was travel. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I've gotten up early and made it to the gym. Not massive workouts but a good foundation. Today, ten minutes of machines, 20 minutes on the eliptical, then five on the stair climber. I do the eliptical with two minutes slow, one minute very fast.

Plus, I made it to class Monday and Tuesday night. I'd say I'm doing about 75% to 80% of what I should do in class.

As part of this, I'm not spending some much time worrying about my little aches and pains.  I'm cutting down on time at the chiropractor and in the jacuzzi and focusing more on exercising and stretching.  I am falling back on aspirin and ibuprofin (I'm drinking lots of water) as a way of being less distracted by the problems.  Also, having less swelling help. The picture is of my medicine cabinet.

My goal simply is to be at 100% by the end of May, 190lbs, back  to dingo 4 x 25 pushups,  10 pullups, and working through class doing 100% at full intensity.  Ambitious but also important to my health and well-being. Stay tuned.  Thursday night is my first bugo class in awhile which is a humbling reality check of what sort of shape I'm really in.

Getting it Together - What Percent am I at?

I'm off to a good start on my comeback trail.  I'm working out daily and I made it through class last night.  While some people talk about percentage as a level of effort or against their own abilities, I've often though of percentage in terms of performing everything asked for in class.

Realistically, I was at 75% meaning that I didn't do every pushup cleanly, hit every roundhouse hard and high, do my top speed on every drill get 100% of my leg lifts up properly, or do every drill to its fullest. Like I said, I was at 75%.  At this time last year, as I finished up cycle, I would say that I was at 110%. I did everything in class with full energy plus  a full set of katas before class and extras afterwards. To be more specific, I was having shoulder problems so except for pushups, I was over a 100%.  I was in pushup avoidance mode so except at the prechecks and Power Weekend, I limited my pushups to keep the shoulder problems at bay.

Looking forward, I would like to be at 100% by the end of May.

Right now, I've decided to rely on an old friend to help me move forward. My old training partner Mo (as someone put int).  Mo means Motrin which is one of a number of NSAIDs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.  The best-known and most popular of course is aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid. Aspirin has three effects: minor pain-killer, reduces swelling, and fever reduction (analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and  antipyretic respectively). It's also a antiplatelet to thin the blood.

The three most popular NSAIDs:
Aspirin
Ibuprofen
Naproxen

In my next post, I'll figure out all the commercial names for these active ingredients, distinguish them from tylenol and paracetamol and from steroid-based drugs.  I'm doing this as an exercise in improving my understanding of what I'm putting into my body (btw, the aspirin is really helping my back!).

BBat50 is on the comeback trail!

I'm determined to get back in top shape. Recently, I've become a little heavy and am regularly having trouble keeping up in class. It's time to reverse the tend of the last six months and get back in fighting shape.  Here's what happened followed by what I'm going to do about  it.

What happened? At this time last year, I was finishing cycle for my second degree which meant that I was in great shape. I ran an under 14 minute two mile and was ready to happily spar with anyone.  Following that, I had to readjust my time trying to catch up with some family and work commitments.  Also, I had some ailments so I backed off pushups since my shoulder ached.  Fast forward to October when I signed up for ten week late Monday night jistu class. While cool, it interfered with my training schedule. I skipped the Monday class and the jistu class was no aerobically intense. And since it kept me out late, I tended to start missing Tuesday as well. In December, my back problems got worse and everytime I ran, I pulled my right calf muscle. Something about my hips being out of alignment.  And this is pretty much how things stood all last quarter except there were more back problems, some travel, some illness, and lots of work.

So, May 2010, I was a 33" waist and 189 pounds. Today I'm around 200 and having trouble fitting in 34's,this is  not good.

Starting Friday, I try to work out everyday. I'm cutting way back on chiropractor visits since they consume time and seem to be too much of a short-term fix. I'll try just stretching and exercising through it. if that doesn't work, I'll go visit an orthopedist and get his view. I'll also try to make it to a yoga class or two each week.   On some days, I'll try to even work out twice. Today for instnace, I made it to the gym in the morning and should make a 5 pm class. To avoid overdoing it, I just did a little cardio this morning and did muscle groups that won't leave me too sore for class (pulls, stretches, a little eliptical).  Another way to get more time is stop trying to get to the office at 8. I can work out in the morning and come in at 9 and that'll probably work fine.

So, BBat50 is back trying to get back at 190 by the end of the quarter. More importantly, I want to get in shape so that I can enjoy bugo again and stop huffing my way pathetically through it.  June is particularly hard since there is lots of travel.