Low E

Last night’s PT was definitely a low-energy affair. I was hoping for a heavy duty PT, but by the time I got around to it, it was late, the coffee wore off ( 🙂 ) and I just really didn’t have “it” together.

Nonetheless, I really felt the need to do something. So, I did, and I’m glad I did. Sometimes, it’s important to do, and sometimes, you have to listen to yourself. There have been plenty of times that my mind and body said “no,” so I didn’t. And I think that was appropriate. This time, my mind and body and spirit said, “you bettah, but don’t push it,” so I listened. I didn’t feel my strongest, I was out of breath very quickly, but I pushed on without going so hard it was traumatic.

When do you get to where you know you whether to go on or not? I don’t know. I just know how to listen most of the time. So I got some stuff done, and I’m glad I did.

Sunday

It was a very basic session, starting again with the EZ-Curl bar loaded with 157 lbs. I started just doing a couple of Yates rows, and put it down immediately. Caught my breath, and went for an easy 10 reps, then hefted it up and did a few overhead jerks. Put it down. Caught my breath; did a couple power curls (yes, curls). “Power curls?” I’m calling that “curls with a little momentum.” So I used some extra swing to get the bar up to a fully curled position.

Back down for some more Yates rows. Then, I didn’t feel like doing any more heavy jerks, so I switched to my faithful middle sized kettlebell (24 kg) and did two sets of 10 (each side) easy-does-it long cycle clean and jerks (LCCJ). And that was it for the resistance training that day.

I finished by doing my usual course of torso yogic-style stretches (cobra, cat stretch), hip splits, that sort of thing.

Diet: slow carb day (Saturday was high carb)
Music: The Asteroids Galaxy Tour Pandora channel

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Sweat Soiree

Today’s little soiree of sweat was a near repeat of last time. Enjoyable, so I kicked it up a notch.

Wednesday

First, I threw on a couple of 5.5 lb plates onto the EZ-Curl bar, for a total of 157 lbs. Then did 10 or so Yates rows followed by a clean leading to 5 or so overhead jerks.

Next set was about the same, except I did a couple of clean and jerks after the Yates rows, before settling into the plain ol’ overhead jerks.

Then I went outside to the back yard and did a simple 10 sets of 16 two-hand kettlebell swings (for a total of 160, natch). This time seemed very easy, as I concentrated on “breathing the weights out,” using the Systema “leading with the breath.” This means I would start a forceful out-breath just a hair’s breadth before the start of the swing, from the “hike the ball” position to the top of the swing. It was a little odd, in the sense that I was focused on the breath more than the lift per se, and the weight sort of rose on its own. Which was nice.

Feelin’ good…

Diet: “slow carb” day; I later carbed out a bit when I went out to dinner (for an unintended mid-week carb spike)
Music: none

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Just A-Swingin’

Feeling pretty exhilarated right–good PT session. I haven’t posted in a while…mostly just kettlebell swings, some overhead work, and a few sets of deadlifts. I’m trying to keep from bulking, which I tend to do too easily. But I do want to gain strength and lose some flab, so that’s what I’ve been working on.

I’ve been using a sort of carbohydrate cycling form of eating, similar to a cyclic ketogenic diet (CKD), but less severe. What Tim Ferriss is calling a “slow-carb” diet. What he does is basically allot 2/3 or so of your plate to plants, 1/3 to meats and eggs. About 1/2 of your plants are of your typical good, colorful veggies, and 1/2 or so are high-protein beans. If you don’t get enough beans, eat more meat. Avoid anything white (except cauliflower), and/or in the starch and sugar range. Do that for six days of the week, with a carb binge day for the seventh day.

That’s it.

Pretty simple, though I’ve not been as good at keeping to it as I could be. But I’m getting better every week. I do feel the difference, as far as strength, and general “good” feelings. I’d fallen into a sugar/hi-carb pit for a while. Now I’m back into way better eating.

Sunday
For today’s light workout, I started with Yates pulls with my EZ curl bar, loaded with 135 lbs. Then up overhead for jerks, and bounced around to clean and jerks, and overhead squats. After a round of that, I added two 5.5 lb plates (they’re metric) for 146 lbs. Then played with the thing again, doing various things including all the above plus regular squats. Not a heavy weight, that, but it felt good without undo strain.

Then back to my current staple, the two-handed kettlebell swing. Simple. I did six rounds of 15 swings, then four of 20 swings with my middle bell (Wilson–24 kg) for a total of 170 swings. Then a bit of cooldown and stretching.

And I feel great! Goodly breathing and sweating, but not dead.

Diet: low carb day (yesterday was the carb binge day, what I’m calling the “high insulin day”)
Music: Pandora channels–Medeski, Martin & Wood, Femi Kuti (why do I like African music so much? Oh, well…), and The Asteroids Galaxy Tour (been listening to them A LOT lately. The music is exciting and interesting, and I love the chick’s voice)

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