With so many people out there plunging head first into NaNoWriMo, I know that a novel isn’t in my future. Instead, I plan to follow up with the Daily Blog Challenge – succinctly labeled DBloC.
The idea is a daily post, for all of Nobember. I know that I have neglected my blogs like my garden this sommer. Lucky for me, the garden flourished anyway – but my blogs have been locked in a dark negative airspace, weezing for breath.
I plan to fix that, and use the momentum to continue through.
I can’t promise that all posts will be quality, but I will do my best. I plan to give freelance writing a try.
Today’s topic? Exercise.
I recently got a hold of an excellent resource by Pavel’s crew called “Convict Conditioning.”
Despite the name, it is chalked full of great instruction on something I feel is the long-lost art of a bygone age – body weight conditioning. Imagine, you can get your health back by nothing more than your body, a chair, and a pullup bar.
You start off at the very beginning, despite how good you think you are. The reasoning is simple; you want to build up your joints and ligaments, (as well as muscle,) in increments. Sure, you might be able to bang off a straight pushup, but without the proper conditioning, could you do a one-arm pushup for 3 sets of 50 pushups?
The regime predicated on time you would have to burn serving your sentence. It makes perfect sense, you have nothing but time, so do it properly.
Weigh in today was 209.5 lbs (at 5’7″!)
I did 2 sets of exercises today, wall pushups, and knee tucks.
The wall pushups proved to be straight forward. Lean into the wall, slowly lower yourself until your head is touching the wall, pause one second, then push up over 1 second until you are back where you started. I thought the pace was difficult to maintain, but by concentrating on form, I also found the exercise surprisingly effective.
The knee tucks proved more difficult. Perhaps it is the spare donuts on my side, or my back is weak, but I was hard pressed on that exercise. You sit on the edge of a chair, lean back, the lift your feet a couple inches off the floor. Then you slowly exhale and bring your knees to your chest. Hold a second, then inhale and bring your feet to the starting position. All of this while tensing your abdominal muscles. (My spare keg was proving to be resistant to sucking it in. (That six-pack had better start pulling its weight soon, or else!)
With nothing more that a wall, and 35 minutes of time, I was panting, sweating, and sore. Looks like the simple exercise works.
I plan to exercise at this level for a month to build up the strength. This is for the long haul – so what I do now will pay off later. The best part? I won’t break the bank with equipment either! Imagine that!
Pushups
Wall pushups
Warm up – 10 reps
Set 1: 50 reps
Set 2: 40 reps
Set 3: 50 reps
Notes: was shaky while doing this, arms started feeling it. Form was good, surprisingly effective exercise.
Leg Raises
Knee tucks
Warm up set: 6 reps
Set 1: 8 reps
Set 2: 12 reps
Set 3: 12 reps
Notes: this exercise was a bit hard, due to skipped heartbeats from crunching stomach. I found it hard to tense abdomen muscles. My back also hurt, limiting my reps. Perhaps as The muscles get stronger, it will get easier.