Healthy Habits

capnmike

capnmike

I wanted to say a sincere thanks to ChicagoGuy for starting this thread early last year, and also to everyone to participated in this thread throughout the year, sharing successes, failures, grand plans, and small wins. This thread helped make 2020 bearable for me.

mborden good luck with Dry January! I was going to say "see you on the other side" but that's not true - see you any day you want.

It's just after New Year's....we've all been here before:

www.theonion.com

Jogger Clearly On First Run Of Plan To Turn Life Around

CHICAGO—Taking note of the man’s beat-up tennis shoes, sweat-drenched shirt, and ill-fitting pair of sweatpants as he made his way down the sidewalk, witnesses reported Tuesday that area jogger Dan Andreychuk was clearly out on his very first run of a plan to turn his life around. “He just...
www.theonion.com www.theonion.com
 
ChicagoGuy

ChicagoGuy

I started a new job, so decided I probably shouldn’t play fast and loose with my schedule just yet...switched from afternoon workouts to mornings.

I don’t know if it’s because I have more energy & stamina in the afternoon or if it’s because I’ve been working out before I’ve had my coffee, or maybe both, but I’ve been absolutely murdered by workouts that should be totally doable for me. This morning was the first time since we got the Peloton that I couldn’t keep up with the instructor’s cadence and resistance ranges.
 
sameasiteverwas

sameasiteverwas

ChicagoGuy said:
I started a new job, so decided I probably shouldn’t play fast and loose with my schedule just yet...switched from afternoon workouts to mornings.

I don’t know if it’s because I have more energy & stamina in the afternoon or if it’s because I’ve been working out before I’ve had my coffee, or maybe both, but I’ve been absolutely murdered by workouts that should be totally doable for me. This morning was the first time since we got the Peloton that I couldn’t keep up with the instructor’s cadence and resistance ranges.
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my guess is that, at least in part, your muscles, tendons, etc are much tighter in the morning than in the afternoon. and that could be amplified by the cold weather. if you're not already doing a stretching routine, that should help somewhat. and maybe some light calisthenics just to get the blood flowing and muscles opening, as well?
 
ChicagoGuy

ChicagoGuy

sameasiteverwas said:
my guess is that, at least in part, your muscles, tendons, etc are much tighter in the morning than in the afternoon. and that could be amplified by the cold weather. if you're not already doing a stretching routine, that should help somewhat. and maybe some light calisthenics just to get the blood flowing and muscles opening, as well?
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Before I jump into a full class, I always start with an easy 5-minute warm-up class to get the blood pumping. I also stretch after I finish, but I never thought of stretching BEFORE I get on the bike. Gonna give that a shot!

And coffee. Plan on getting some caffeine into my system before I work out tomorrow.
 
sameasiteverwas

sameasiteverwas

ChicagoGuy said:
Before I jump into a full class, I always start with a 5-minute warm-up class to get the blood pumping. I also stretch after I finish, but I never thought of stretching BEFORE I get on the bike. Gonna give that a shot!

And coffee. Plan on getting some caffeine into my system before I work out tomorrow.
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when I used to run, if I didn't do a full routine of leg stretching, I'd basically get maybe half-way before conking out. so hopefully that helps. and coffee should help too.
 
stupac2

stupac2

My company's president moved to Vermont last year, but left behind all his stuff, including a Water Rower in the office. I finally asked if I could bring it home and he said sure, I can use it until he comes back to get all his stuff (date TBD). I did 2km on it before putting it into my car and it feels sooo good. I know there are some posts on using a rower upthread, I'll need to check them out.

But I'm glad I finally have a reasonable way to get some exercise at home. Losing my bike commute has just been brutal, and replacing it with something that requires leaving the house has been hard with two small children.
 
iong516

iong516

Happy to say my drinking cheat day went great, and I’m not feeling like it’s thrown me off of my goals at all or changed frequency or intensity of cravings except for the days leading up to the cheat day I dipped into beer related threads more and read a few untappd reviews. This year I’m open to cheat days on my and my gf’s bdays, one over the xmas/nye season, and entertaining maybe one audible if I see philly friends or go to VT or something, but maybe if I take an audible I’d cancel my bday or Xmas cheat days? I don’t want to get too loose and come up with reasons to expand cheat day allowances, so letting that wash around in my mind. Overall happy with how things have been going and rarely feeling like I’m white knuckling anything.
 
Stakem

Stakem

Tômester
I got a random desire to buy olympic rings.

Mostly because of the instability factor to make movements harder such as pullups, rows and pushups. But it will also give me a way to do dips which I havent done in forever.

Lately, instead of doing pullups/chinups on my power rack bars, ive been jumping up and doing them on the steel beam in my basement. When I do them there, its kinda like a mountain climbing grip strength test as only my fingertips are on the beam to do the pullups and just getting 1-2 is a real bugger.

Anyone else clown around with gymnastic rings? I think some folks do an entire routine with them. I need a noob intro
 
stupac2

stupac2

Stakem said:
Let me start off by saying:
1. I am not a runner.
2. Cardio is not my focus.

If you are doing daily runs of 45-75 minutes, I see no reason why you couldnt work up to doing the same time/frequency on a rower. Yes, it is a little more taxing on a larger percentage of muscle groups of your body, but it is also a lower impact on your joints.

If you are looking for a plan/guidance to follow on using a rower there is no better source that im aware of than the Pete plan found here: https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/beginner-training/

That is the beginner program to follow that ramps you up to do a 10k race but also includes interval work. If beginner is too easy, follow the original Pete plan.

Concept2 has an online log book where you can track all your sessions, I highly recommend it. They also issue the users challenges on a monthly to quarterly basis that are fun to get involved in.

Waterrower on facebook use to post a workout of the day that would be something like intervals of rowing mixed with things like burpees, air squats, lunges, etc if that is something that interests you.

I am no longer interested in wrecking myself doing rowing marathons like I have in the past, instead I use the rower 2-3 times per week for either steady state sessions of 20-30 minutes or HIIT for 14-17 minutes. Its my “rest/recovery” method between my heavy weight lifting days.
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Looking into this now, what does the training diary look like? I don't see a link anywhere on the pages but it mentions it throughout.
 
stupac2

stupac2

Stakem said:
concept2’s training log can be found here:

Concept2 Logbook

log.concept2.com log.concept2.com
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I didn't feel like signing in so I just googled around and found one that seems fine. I'll need to figure out what the heck to record, and how to use the monitor thingie to actually get data off of it. I should maybe figure that out before doing the intervals tomorrow.

Oh, yeah, I wasn't intending to do this, but rowed 5k today. So I guess I'm starting Pete's plan. Last time I tried to row was Saturday and after ~2k my quad started cramping and I shut it down. Used yesterday as a rest day, I guess it was enough. We'll see if I can keep with it, but I'm hoping to be able to do all 5. It might get trickier when that means rowing for more than ~20-ish minutes a day, I'll need to figure out a time I can actually get out of childcare consistently.
 
mborden

mborden

stupac2 said:
I didn't feel like signing in so I just googled around and found one that seems fine. I'll need to figure out what the heck to record, and how to use the monitor thingie to actually get data off of it. I should maybe figure that out before doing the intervals tomorrow.

Oh, yeah, I wasn't intending to do this, but rowed 5k today. So I guess I'm starting Pete's plan. Last time I tried to row was Saturday and after ~2k my quad started cramping and I shut it down. Used yesterday as a rest day, I guess it was enough. We'll see if I can keep with it, but I'm hoping to be able to do all 5. It might get trickier when that means rowing for more than ~20-ish minutes a day, I'll need to figure out a time I can actually get out of childcare consistently.
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With a Concept2 rower there's an app called ErgData that connects to the rower via Bluetooth and automatically uploads it to the Concept2 Logbook. With a water rower it probably has it's own ecosystem. You can manually add entries to the Concept2 logbook but that can be a pain and will probably make you less likely to do it. Assuming that this is your water rower, it looks like there are a few digital app options at the following link, but they all seem to come with some baggage (i.e. does Water Rower Connect REALLY only keep data locally?)

WaterRower Digital

WaterRower Digital
www.waterrower.com www.waterrower.com

In a perfect world all of this would have an open API/data format that was easily transferable buuuut it's far from a perfect world.
 
mborden

mborden

The wife and I are officially 1/3 of the way through dry January. So far, so good. I think quarantine leads to lack of social drinking opportunities, which helps. We went to a socially distanced backyard thing on Saturday and I bought a few of those Athletic Brewing NA beers just to be a cool kid. They weren't bad but they weren't amazing and I think I'm ok with sticking to seltzer water and kombucha for the rest of the month. I've dropped a few pounds (8ish) without much extra exercise (which needs to be more incorporated very soon) and I've noticed a few other positive health outcomes so that's groovy. I realized that I haven't really missed it that much beyond an occasional after work "I REALLY NEED A BEER" moment, which makes me realize that was really my calorie kryptonite, as that never stopped at just one beer. Back in my mid-20's when I dropped ~80 lbs I used to only allow myself to drink one day a week and I'm realizing that maybe going back to that sort of cadence after dry January wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
 
stupac2

stupac2

mborden said:
With a Concept2 rower there's an app called ErgData that connects to the rower via Bluetooth and automatically uploads it to the Concept2 Logbook. With a water rower it probably has it's own ecosystem. You can manually add entries to the Concept2 logbook but that can be a pain and will probably make you less likely to do it. Assuming that this is your water rower, it looks like there are a few digital app options at the following link, but they all seem to come with some baggage (i.e. does Water Rower Connect REALLY only keep data locally?)

WaterRower Digital

WaterRower Digital
www.waterrower.com www.waterrower.com

In a perfect world all of this would have an open API/data format that was easily transferable buuuut it's far from a perfect world.
Click to expand...
Yeah I don't really care enough about all that, this is mostly a "what week am I on again?" thing, as well as some motivation to keep with it. A google doc is fine for me.
 
ChicagoGuy

ChicagoGuy

capnmike said:
Winter makes me want to quit all healthy habits, drink BA stouts and BW daily, and eat all the meat/pasta/pizza dishes.
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This was me from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. I’m now simultaneously working to get back on the low-carb regimen, cut down on the snacking, kick the sweet tooth, and get back in the exercise habit. The biggest thing working in my favor right now is the fact that my desk is next to the bike and really far from the kitchen.
 
ChicagoGuy

ChicagoGuy

sameasiteverwas said:
my guess is that, at least in part, your muscles, tendons, etc are much tighter in the morning than in the afternoon. and that could be amplified by the cold weather. if you're not already doing a stretching routine, that should help somewhat. and maybe some light calisthenics just to get the blood flowing and muscles opening, as well?
Click to expand...
You weren't kidding about muscles and tendons and whatnot being tighter in the morning. Normally when I do toe touches, I can wrap my fingers over my toes and touch the balls of me feet, but this morning I could barely get to my ankles. So I just hung there in toe touch mode feeling the tension in my hamstrings, and slowly my fingers got closer and closer to the floor until I was able to stretch normally. Then stretched out the quads and calves, and finally got on the bike and went nuts - just missed a PR.

In summary - very good call on stretching before working out in the morning.
 
TripleSixHoppia

TripleSixHoppia

ChicagoGuy said:
You weren't kidding about muscles and tendons and whatnot being tighter in the morning.
Click to expand...

A major part of this is going to be hydration level. Drink something that has a little salt and sugar in it and you'll feel much better. You can drink a mini Gatorade or something similar.
----------------

Covid hit your boy hard, I pretty much drank and ate the entire lock down / WFH periods. 4 weeks ago I weighed in at 263lbs and I decided to change. I'm back on a timed eating schedule and lower carb. 4 weeks and I'm down 10lbs as of this morning. Trying to get to the high 230s before I coast for a few months. After that I'll make another step down.
 
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capnmike

capnmike

Posting this here, because these are my people, moreso than the running thread....

I took a tumble while running last night. Thankfully, it wasn't a slip on an icy spot/droplike a ton of bricks. I tripped on a peaked/broken spot in the sidewalk, and so far, I've been able to recover and get my feet back under me.

This time, I got a step or two more in but could not recover, so I fell from my halfway-there forward-leaning stumble position. Pretty happy with how it went, actually - didn't land on head/knees/elbow bones/wrists - I pretty much landed on my right forearm (meaty part). Obviously, the ideal would've been to do a dive-roll and keep right on going without missing a beat (lol), I'd put this at about 90% positive (very few options were better, many options were worse).

I've got a little bruise on my right forearm, but the worst of it is a tiny muscle in my upper back that is used for breathing/reaching/twisting/everything.

Also, since I wasn't hurt, I realllllly hope someone happened to be going by on the other side of the street or looking out the window - I have this light-up running vest where you can choose any color solid, or choose a cycling pattern of all colors (I call it mobile party mode, and have threatened numerous times to wear it trick-or-treating with my son next year) - had that going, and that probably would've been pretty funny to see go down :)
 
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