Making me Even "Cappy" Steven

[cappuccino]

Thanks Mahler.

Well yesterday was a rest day indeed. I did some foam rolling before bed and was really suprised how tight my IT band was after doing essentially nothing but sit all day (unless 3hr budget meetings cause every muscle in my body to tighten up ) and then some standing cooking which then seemed to make my low back all tight.

Rollerblades are at the office....hope to put them on and get going.

however, back to workout A today !

have a nice day, all!

[cappuccino]

Wed May 24th

workout A

mobility warm-up

this week I'm doing 15 reps, but essentially to max...so the weights went up.
1a) 1 leg RDL 25lbs x 15 reps x 2 sets
2a) I,Y, T on swiss ball x 15 reps x 3lb DB

Did ok on the RDLs, paused here and there to gain my balance but felt I kept hips flat during the actual reps. 25lbs really got me. Paired with the IYTs, owiee spinal erectors

2a) 1 leg 1 arm cable row x 15 reps x 30lbs
2b) bulgarian split squat with band on knee x 15 reps x 15lb db

good set, got a better hang of both of these exercises. Paused after #10 on the squats

3) side planks x 10 secs x 8 reps x 2 sets

dang, I could do singles for hours, but these multiple ones KILL ME!

now due some foam rolling....

hard workout...good day...I'm ready for bed!

night night!

[galya]

1 leg one arm cable row About as unilateral as it gets. Is it standing or sitting?

[cappuccino]

Yeah, I'm all uni lateral. Apparently training my uni's to work for themselves instead of letting the other side compensate.

It's a standing row

[cappuccino]

Thurs May 25th

I'm beginning to believe that working on everything that is weak is very taxing to the CNS. Damn these workouts are hard, not the intense kind of hard, but just hard to get through them. It's like making someone scared of spiders to sit in a tank of them so they won't be scared anymore.

And this week is all 15 reps to essentially failure, so I'm feeling like it's a completely different workout than last week, based on where I'm hurting :p But it's apparently getting me in all the right places.

mobility warm-up

workout A
2 sets:
1a) end of range hip extension x 20 5sec hold
1b) push-up plus x 20 x 5 sec hold

2a) 90 degree step-up x 20lb DB x 15 reps
2b) 1-arm cable push x 40lbs x 15 reps

3) dead bug x 20

60 sec ISOs:
lunge
dip plus
inverted row

even the "easy" looking stuff is hard at 20 reps.

Glad tomorrow is mobility day. Roller blade at lunch, I hope!

Feeling stronger, a bit worn out!

[galya]

Work feels like work...hang in there Doing great. I hope you find time to rollerblade tomorrow

[cappuccino]

Yeah, it just feels harder when its focused only on everything that needs work. Or it's interesting how the dead bug exercise is killer, and I'm on my back and using my bodyweight...gets my hip flexors and low abs. Then the first set of 20 reps of 5 sec pauses I have to convince myself to do the second set each time.

But, I'm excited cause I can tell it's hitting all the right places.

supposed to be hot and perhaps some thunderstorms today...maybe a few stair climbs instead.

[cappuccino]

Friday May 26th

Long weekend, wooohoo!

Went in to the office for a couple of hours then came home to nap. I am beat...not sure why. Nap was nice, though.

Met a co-worker and went roller-blading as he was jogging out by the river. Awesome! I think I found my running substitute. Went for about 30mins, really felt it in my glutes...a little in my right low back towards the end. A bit of ankle too, but it was great to be outside and moving! Went for about 35mins...now just need to keep it up.

followed up later with:

mobility warm-up
foam rolling
targeted exercises:
swiss ball hip flexors x 5
in line lunge with rotation x 20
left posterial lunge ab/hip flexor stretch thing x 3 l x 1 r
swiss ball lateral flexion x 30 secs x 2

feelin' good!

[galya]

Now that sounds better I am thinking of buying rollerblades myself for morning fasted cardio. How is it on the knees?

[cappuccino]

Didn't notice it in my knees at all, and it's fun cause you can go fast. However, if you're new to it, be sure to get AND wear knee and wrist pads. After not being on them in quite some time, my knees felt naked without the pads, but I always wear the wrist pads cause it's nice even for a minor bump. Oh, I felt it a bit in my ankle.

Last night I dreamt I was doing a ton of pull-ups, chuckled this morning when I remembered. I think I counted about 12 and just stopped because I got tired of it.

Just did 3 consecutive ones, so the dream was partially correct

[cappuccino]

I might be jumping the gun a bit, but here's my almost 2 week progress. Techinically I have today and tomorrow before I finish week 2, but I took pics anyway.

Can you see a difference?

[cappuccino]

Saturday May 27th

mobility warm-up

Workout A 2 sets each of:
1a) single leg RDL 30lb DB each x 15 reps
1b) I,Y,T on ball 2 sets of 15 with 3lb DBs

2a) 1 leg 1 arm row x 15 x 30-40 lbs
2b) bulgarian split squat with band on knee x 20lb DBs x 15 reps

3) side plank x 10 secs x 8 reps

probably a bit too heavy on the RDLs for stability's sake, but took mini-breaks and finished all the reps. I,Y,T's were good killer as usual, 3lbs each hand surely adds some difficulty

Doing pretty well on the Bulgarians with a band, and even figured out abetter set-up where I have a band for each side of the power cage. Was a little squirly on the 1 leg 1 arm rows, but got it figured out. STarted with 40lbs and then decided that was too heavy, but then as I think I was doing them better, 30lbs seemed to low. Was really working on keeping my knee over my toe and hips facing cable. Much trickier on right leg than left.

good workout! Gotta do some rolling before I can call it quits for the day.

[galya]

All I can say is you're looking great. Where should we be looking for a change in the pics? I might be missing something because I am not looking at the right aspect of change. Your abs strike me to look more defined at the top, at first that's the only difference I see.

[cappuccino]

Oh, I guess it was obvious what I was looking for. I'm doing this corrective phase because my hips are uneven, causing me all sorts of pains. Like a car running out of alignment. My hope is to get symmetrical by training my weak side and loosening up my tight side so both sides work like they are supposed to. It would be really cool if I could run more, but I might have already done too much crunching on my low back to make that much of an option (really really hope sprints will be ok )


So the pics are for a hocus focus on my symmetry

can you tell a difference?

Hopefully in a few months I'll be posting pics where I'm looking for six packs

[Buk]

I can see some improvement in the pictures, but your first seems to maybe have a little subconscious lean in it. I don't think you are normally that crooked. Seeing your shoulders helps, and so do the tighter shorts. There are also better abs in the more recent picture. You should be happy with your progress and stick with Bill!

[galya]

You do look like you are leaning a bit in the old picture. You seem straighter in the new one. Now I have no idea if that's from how you are standing or not.

[russ]

Lookin' great, Cappy! How are you enjoying the corrective program? Is it hard to get used to after TT?

[cappuccino]

The oldest pic is probably one of the most obvious examples of my crookedness, and yeah, it's probably not that evident all day long. What's weird, is that it is ever that obvious. I used to see pics of myself and thought I looked "weird" (especially running pics) but couldn't put words to it.