Fitness Update

Hi guys!

I’ve got some exciting announcements to make, but I’ll save them for tomorrow.  For today, I’d like to check back in and discuss how things have been going in the fitness realm.

In a word: great.

I’m down 12 pounds since Christmas time.  That’s quite a bit faster than I intended; I set my daily calorie target in MyFitnessPal for a 1.5 lb/week loss, but what can I say?  Most days I’ve been coming in below that target, and I’ve been PTing quite a lot as well.  So instead I’m doing a bit more that 2 lb/week.  I’ll take that.  🙂

I’m also getting my pace back.  If you recall it’s been over a year since I was running consistently.  I’ve been taking it slow, because heel pain has started flaring up again, predominantly in my right heel.  So I’ll run and then take a couple days off, keeping it to shorter distances.  I found last week that running two days in a row produced…poor results.  🙁  Anyway, before my various injuries, my fastest 5k time (that I can recall) was 23:48.  I’ve got myself down to 26:26 now.  Not awesome, but not too far off my previous peak.  So that’s going well.

I’m also slowly getting better at boxing and jujitsu, and that’s wicked fun.  The guys at the gym are like, “Dude, you’re really slimming down!”  Yes.  Yes I am.

I’ve also been lifting, of course.  I brought my weights way down, to work my way back into it again, and I’ve been using the 5×5 strategy.  For transparency’s sake, here’s what I was lifting in my latest workouts:

• Bench: 185 lbs
• Squat: 225 lbs
• Deadlift: 235 lbs
• Overhead Press: 115 lbs
• Standing Barbell Row: 130 lbs

I also do pull-ups during each session (at least 5 sets of 5, assisted with a band so I can get more reps in), and vigorously punch my heavy bag in between each set to keep my heart rate up.

Now, I agree those squat and deadlift weights are pretty bad.  In my defense, over the years I had almost completely neglected squat work, and never did any work on dead lifts at all until 2015 before I got injured.  Now, that’s a piss-poor defense, but there it is.  Still, I don’t find squatting 225 lbs particularly challenging (way back halfway through in High School, as a scrawny little guy, I maxed 260 lbs; I’m certain I can do that and more now).  The deadlift is tougher, but still I’m nowhere near failure while lifting that weight.  But as I said, I started light so as to not hurt myself and to focus on technique.

The 5×5 plan is to increase by 5 lbs each week, so very quickly I’ll be up to respectable weights in those areas.

That said, I am concerned by my lack of Power Rack as my squat weight gets larger and larger.  Losing it with 225 lbs would be bad enough without something to catch the bar.  Losing it with 300+ in six months’ time without a bar could be catastrophic.  I’m also going to have to get more plates: I have 310 lbs of plates now, but that will become insufficient before long.  So looks like I need to save up for new toys.

Poor me.

So that’s what’s up in the fitness realm.  Writing update, and announcements, in the next post.