UGHHHHH!! I didn’t even think about autographing, so sorry! Glad you had fun.
Isn’t it funny gaming with other guys playing strong, muscular characters and realizing you’re in way better shape than anyone else? Also, how do you manage to eat enough during all the gaming? That was my downfall.
Oh, and don’t worry about my post in my thread, that was before I saw this.
[quote]cavalier wrote:
UGHHHHH!! I didn’t even think about autographing, so sorry! Glad you had fun.
Isn’t it funny gaming with other guys playing strong, muscular characters and realizing you’re in way better shape than anyone else? Also, how do you manage to eat enough during all the gaming? That was my downfall.
Oh, and don’t worry about my post in my thread, that was before I saw this.
[/quote]
My old group, with Bob, Billy Joe and the rest (those are the two who set me up with my wife) was a group of martial artists who also played D&D together from time to time.
I always played mages though. 
At least at the low end my stomach is making quick progress. My mid-week work-out is just the ab roller. But at first it was 4 reps and pain for a week. This morning I did 9 reps and I’m fine now. Even am going with my wife on her train to do 5 k program (we are still in the various walk/run stages). Gives me something useful to do at 5:00 a.m.
I love the ab roller. But it can make you ache for a week the first few times out. In middle school I played D&D. I was always a Paladin. And to really get geeky, I was on the chess team as well.
I need to be doing ab roll outs.
Nice work E.
what is it with Judo guys and gaming- seen it all over with judo types.
ab rollouts are the most fun ever.
Everybody I ever gamed with was a complete non-athelete. Only exercise was lifting pizza to the mouth. I figured gaming was a way of taking on some kind of athletic persona.
We were a bunch of 20 somethings who wouldn’t let teenagers in our group - too immature. Oh, the irony.
[quote]ecogenx wrote:
I love the ab roller. But it can make you ache for a week the first few times out. In middle school I played D&D. I was always a Paladin. And to really get geeky, I was on the chess team as well.[/quote]
I was president of the BYU chess team one year. I should note that is not the same as captain of the team (which was someone else).
I started D&D about 1974 or so. No one I knew had played it in middle school
[quote]cavalier wrote:
Everybody I ever gamed with was a complete non-athelete. Only exercise was lifting pizza to the mouth. I figured gaming was a way of taking on some kind of athletic persona.
We were a bunch of 20 somethings who wouldn’t let teenagers in our group - too immature. Oh, the irony.[/quote]
It seems strange now, but I couldn’t see why anyone who wasn’t physically active would find D&D fun at all.
[quote]kmcnyc wrote:
Nice work E.
what is it with Judo guys and gaming- seen it all over with judo types.
ab rollouts are the most fun ever.[/quote]
Good question about Judo.
But all the Judo guys get kind of banged up and don’t heal fast enough to keep working out at some point. Guess they play D&D to make up for the lack of exercise?
Up to 10 ab rollers this morning, after the get up at 5:00 to work on my wife’s “from couch to 5k” program with her.
A little sore. Ah well.
4th of July we went out of town, as always, but I made my lifts today. Held even or improved. Next week-end …
Well, the rec center will be really, actually, finally finished on Tuesday. Worked out with what was available.
I’ve decided I want a cable weight system for myself, at the house, with 300 lb on the weight stack. Even designed a way to do that for the price of 150 lb system.
Next week should be better.
Good, bad and ugly.
So busy at work, haven’t lifted for too long, the new rec center near the house has no cable weight machine, arghh.
But I was up to 18 kneeling ab roller reps Tues morning. 18 in a single set. I’m almost ready to try doing them from standing again.
I need to be back to real lifting though.
I hit 19 ab roller reps this week. I could feel how weak the rest of me was getting in comparison.
Finally made it out to the rec center. Got a good workout–I’ll post numbers and such. I’ve lost some ground, but not as much as I had been afraid of. I’m turning 56 this year and it makes me think.
Then looked at a horse with my wife. Anything you can’t pick up and throw, you can’t really trust …
Ok. So I finally made it out to the refurbished recreation center.
Leg Press … 410 x 9 (down from 445 … the new machine at this location is the same as the one where I had to drive across town).
Fly … 130 x 9.
Rear Delt (a fly, but the other direction) … 130 x 8
Row … 170 x 9. I need to rethink my rows. I want to put my back into them, I’m getting less isolation that way.
Pull down … 190 x 8 (down from 215).
Overhead press … 110 x 9
Back … 290 x 9 (up from 245 x 12 … same machine, more adjustments possible, more weight than the old one).
Rotary Torso … 170 x 9
Triceps Cable … 150 x 9 (down from 165)
Rope Curl … start that next week.
So, what turned out to be a lay-off of about a month+ cost me some strength, but not as much as I was afraid it would.
I’ve got ten exercises, enough to make a full work out without CNS overload.
I’m still sore this morning.
Next, improve my diet. I’ve gone from my “official” weight of 189 (and usually less) to around 201 to 203, which is just too much. For personal reasons I wanted to move it to 198 for a while, but I’ve consistently been over that.
I need to start shooting for 189, maybe 179, again.
Work is still a tumult. 50+ hour works, but getting a lot done.
Funny moment came when a guy followed me to the rotary torso machine. We are about the same age, I’d put his body fat at 5%. He moved the weight down to 40 lbs and made a positive comment about my set.
Maybe I’ll take an ibuprofen and quit typing here.
Hmm, think I’m going to switch out to cable/rope rows instead. Or maybe a facepull instead of the rows. Have to think about it.
http://www.cybexintl.com/products/strength/11111/intro.aspx (and use the left hand column of links) for the Cybex line they installed, in case anyone cares.
I know, free weights would have been more hard core, but they don’t have them, so …
Solid workout. Failed on my leg press (did not make all my reps), but had spent almost 14 hours at the State Fair walking the day before.
Felt really good, all in all. Adjusted a little to get proper form. Looking forward to 21 wheels of doom (kneeling ab rollers) on Tuesday morning.
Got another good workout in. Form cleaning up.
Then I went to a party. One of the younger guys, a P.A. (Physician’s Assistant) is also a competitive powerlifter working out twice a week down in Dallas with a westside group. I was impressed.
So … how has the reboot gone …
Leg Press 410 lb x 9 … 415 x 8 … 420lb x 9 this week (still working to get back to my PR of 425)
Fly 130 x9 … 135 x9 … this week 140 x 9. The single set to pretty much failure method seems to work for me.
Rear Delt 130 x 8 … 135 x 9 … 140 x 9 this week.
Row 170 x 9 but was actually using my lats/full back (not staying put) so I reduced the weight and tucked my chin to the pad to hold myself in place
… 155 x10 … 160lb x10 this week.
Pull down 190 x8 but bad form, 195 and failed, to 185 x 10 this week.
Overhead Press 110 x9 … 115 x 9 … 120 x 9.
Back machine 290 bl x9 … 295 x 10 … 300 x 10
Rotary torso 170 x 9 … 195 x9 … 180 x 9 (both sides).
At which point I have CNS failure and really can’t lift any more.
This week a took a break and read. I think I might have been able to do more but was out of time.
One thing that has made a huge difference for me is faster lift times.
When I started it was a nautilus place and I was doing the standard 2 seconds up, 2 second hold, four seconds down.
I’d plateau in about the middle of the weight stack.
Got married, we join the YMCA, same experience.
I got grossly out of shape. 265lb or so (I’m only 5’5" – well, I was 5’ 6" then). Went back, 20lb on a machine was about my max.
I went back to train three times a week, adding reps each workout (the 8 to 12 rep pattern, increase weight when you hit 12 reps). We were at a gym that had babysitting, which made lifting possible for me.
Then things got hectic and I was down to lifting once a week.
But, I found I could make progress on just lifting once a week.
The real breakthrough was on a rotary torso machine, I really hated it, though I used it for static calve holds while I was rotating. I remember thinking “I’ll never get past half the weight stack on this thing” and looking down and realizing I was ten pounds from the max. I eventually was doing it with weight plates tacked on to it.
I injured my shoulders with bag work. I went a year and a half, maybe more before I finally saw a doctor about it (Just did not work my arms/shoulders that time). Better posture, lost some weight and my rotator cuffs were cured. Sheesh.
Lost more weight, started judo. Developed a different kind of shoulder pain. Found out that was “referred” pain from rotator cuff inflammation. My arms/shoulders were no where near as strong as the rest of me and I was really abusing them when I worked out. Eventually had to quit Judo. Wife insisted I quit until I healed up. I started the stretches and rehab exercises.
Started up Wado Ryu. Really different from Shotokan, as they work from the balls of their feet instead of their heels. Great guys where I worked out. Shoulders really got better. We moved. Daughter’s tourette’s problems got worse, I couldn’t take the two nights a week off I was down to. Though I did win the AAU state championship brown belt sparring, 35+ while in my 50s. By a 5 to one point margin (2.5 to .5) in the final round. That was a rush.
Without the Judo for motivation it was harder to lift. Without some martial arts motivation it got harder.
Finally am to where I lift for lifting’s sake, so to speak.
One thing that did help is I ran into a guy who was kind of HIT, but not really. Actually paid him for some consult training time. Funny thing was I figured out what I needed preparing for the consult, told him thank you, keep the money, catch you later.
What I need for progress is faster lifts. I don’t know why, but my body responds better (at least for gaining strength) by lifting faster than the 2-2-4. I’m closer to 1-pause-1.5/2 on a lift. But it is enough to get me to the top of the weight stacks on the Cybex machines (or has been. The new leg press has a lot more weight to go, I’m curious to see just how far I can get – I’d love to top that one out).
I’ll be at the top of the new back machine, with the extra weight available in a week or so. Expect to get there with the rest of the machines, except maybe that leg press (I was well past the max on the old machine at that location, but it topped at 375 or so, though they had one of these at the rec center further from home I was using).
I’m thinking of getting a sand bag and using bags of rice in it. Trying to get a mid-week workout on the off-cycle/off-muscles (the ones that I’m not hitting enough on this work-out but that I have CNS failure on).
What gets me where I’m going is lifting once a week, pretty much to failure or close, steady improvement (five pounds a week more on each until I get near my limits, then an extra 2.5 lbs a week). If my body weight were more stable I’d probably do more body weight.
This last Tuesday I tried standing ab rollers (which we call “wheels of doom” at my house, in honor of an old post by Skidmark many name changes ago). Got to seven. When I kneel I get full body extension, right now standing I can only go from toe touching to the push-up position on the ab roller and back again. I got to 20 reps kneeling, which is close to my boredom limit with a single set. Standing I’m trying to decide if I can get the rest of the upperbody strength necessary to do full extensions or if toe touch to push-up position on an ab roller is enough to make progress on.
Ok, a wordy post. I’ve come a long way. My upper body strength still is not where I want it to be. I’m really thinking I need something more for my arms, just not sure what or how to work it in. Maybe I’ll get a sandbag and start putting bags of rice in it. Maybe two. One for curls and one for bench pressing or something similar from the floor.
Any thoughts or suggestions welcome.