There are only three things I need in life: food, water, and compliments.

Patsy167 · 23-08-2018 5:22am

caviardreams wrote: »

You could try a podcast or reading a kindle etc. whilst on the crosstrainer - might help the time go quicker if it is just a boredom issue

bluewolf wrote: »

I've recently found watching netflix on it is great

Thanks for the tips! I'll give both of these a shot. The cosstrainers in the gym have TV's and I love podcasts while walking. Good tips!

Patsy167 · 23-08-2018 8:17am

Pull/Back Day

Trap Bar Deadlifts (125kg) - 5x5;3x3
V-Bar Pulldown (120kg) - 5x5
Wide Grip Pulldown (120kg) - 4x6
Single Leg Bulgarian split Squats (25 Kg dumbbells)- 5x5

Some issues with rounding of shoulders on the Trap Bar deadlifts but I noticed much better leg drive on them this morning.

I read that using a visual que is very helpful for the Bulgarian Split squats so I placed a piece of tissue on the ground and concentrated on this during the exercise. Helped massively.

Thought of the day
We should always be asking ourselves: “Is this something that is, or is not, in my control?”

caviardreams · 23-08-2018 1:48pm

Patsy167 wrote: »

I read that using a visual que is very helpful for the Bulgarian Split squats so I placed a piece of tissue on the ground and concentrated on this during the exercise. Helped massively.

I actually find it really helpful to keep looking at the same spot too when doing them - helps me keep my balance.

Did have a really awkward situation a few weeks back though when a girl on the bench beside me started doing hip thrusts facing me and I was looking straight at her whilst doing BSS. I really wanted to say "honestly I am not staring at you, if I look at the ground or to the side I will probably topple over"

:o

Dtp1979 · 23-08-2018 1:49pm

caviardreams wrote: »

I actually find it really helpful to keep looking at the same spot too when doing them - helps me keep my balance.

Did have a really awkward situation a few weeks back though when a girl on the bench beside me started doing hip thrusts facing me and I was looking straight at her whilst doing BSS. I really wanted to say "honestly I am not staring at you, if I look at the ground or to the side I will probably topple over" :o

Just stare into her eyes, to avoid awkwardness

Patsy167 · 23-08-2018 2:37pm

caviardreams wrote: »

I actually find it really helpful to keep looking at the same spot too when doing them - helps me keep my balance.

Did have a really awkward situation a few weeks back though when a girl on the bench beside me started doing hip thrusts facing me and I was looking straight at her whilst doing BSS. I really wanted to say "honestly I am not staring at you, if I look at the ground or to the side I will probably topple over" :o

The next part of the movement I need to nail down is the knee positioning. Some good tips here that I'll try to pay attention to next time - http://southdublinsc.ie/bulgarian-split-squat-technique/

caviardreams · 23-08-2018 3:38pm

Thanks for that - had not seen that video. I actually use a closer stance to the bench than that as I find it targets my quads more (I use it mainly for quads tbh as I find back squats target my glutes a lot more so use BSS to hit my quads a bit more).

Patsy167 · 24-08-2018 9:00am

Push Day

Dumbbell Shoulder press (22.5kg DB's) - 5x5
Russian twists (20kg plate) - 6x10
Dips (BW) - 10 x4
Upright Chest Press Machine - Pin 8 - 4x5
Single-Arm Side Raises - 8kg Dumbell - 3x4

Happy to be back working with Dumbbells for shoulder press. Moved quite smoothly too.

The side raises were humbling. Low weight. May need to drop back the weight even more to get used to these.

Interesting article read
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/24/sauna-benefits.aspx

Thought of the day

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin Powell

Patsy167 · 27-08-2018 9:24am

Pull Day

- Trap Bar Deadlift (125kg) - 5x5;5x3
- Bulgarian Split Squats (25kg DB's) - 3x5
- V-Bar Pulldowns (129.5kg) - 3x5
- Wide Bar Pulldown (120kg) - 2x5

Quick circuit of Single Leg curls and single lying hamstring curls

Progress on the Trap Bar Deadlifts (volume increase to 40 reps) and V-Bar Pulldowns (Weight increase).

Thought of the Day
Success leaves clues

Patsy167 · 28-08-2018 2:56pm

Push Day

- Incline BB Press (30kg DB's) - 5x5;5x3
- Shoulder Press (22.5kgs Db's) - 1x4
- Russian Twists (20kg plate) - 5x10
- Dips (BW) - 5x3

- Can't seem to combine Shoulder press and Bench on the same day.

Food

Made a batch of Chocolate Carrot Protein Brownies

Very Happy with these. Remembered to include Baking Powder. Lovely moist texture and good chocolate taste. Chopped up the to make 20 brownies. Froze in individual bags for work.

- 8 scoops of Chocolate cookies whey protein
- 1kg Carrots
- 750g Muesili
- 750g Oats
- 200g Wheat Bran
- 1.5 litre Buttermilk
- 100g Cocoa Powder

Spices - Ginger, Cinamon, Mixed Spice

Patsy167 · 05-10-2019 6:36am

Hello Everyone,

Just thought I would post an update on my log. Hopefully to share some tips on what has been working for me over the past while. I've not posted in months but have been following many of the logs on here

FOOD

- Buying a separate freezer has been a game changer. I prepare all food for the week in one batch at the weekend.
- A typical days food will be 1kg brocolli, 1 can of tomatoes, 5 cans of sardines, 3 bags of popcorn, 2 scoops of protein powder, 3 mini bags of haribo and a few buiscuits with yogurt and oats

GYM

Still following a Push/Pull/Legs split but I have been doing a lot more swimming lately using the centre snorkel. I cannot speak highly enough of the snorkel. It is easily the best money I have spent in the past year. It makes swimming so much more enjoyable, no more gasping for air!

Quotes

"If it is to be; it is up to me"

"The cause of all pain/suffering/unhappiness is when you believe you are not enough/need to change/ be more."

"Observe the world as it is; not as you wish it to be"

Upcoming Plans

I've signed up for the 11km Run a muck event early in 2020. I've never been a fan of running so this will be a new challenge. Looking forward to preparing for it over the winter as I will be starting from a low base

Patsy167 · 08-06-2020 6:01pm

Going to give this log another go...

Have been working from home and I'll need to be cut out of the house if I don't start doing something more meaningful than a daily walk.

Looking back at some of the exercises, I can only dream of being able to do them now. I'll be starting from the floor on this so the only way is up.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt

Work begins...tomorrow.

Dtp1979 · 08-06-2020 6:59pm

Can’t believe your log is 2 years old.

Patsy167 · 09-06-2020 9:06am

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Can’t believe your log is 2 years old.

Funny you should mention that. It was the first thing I spotted when I logged in to make the above post. I was sure I started it the back-end of last year. Old age must be catching up with me already:)

Patsy167 · 09-06-2020 9:16am

Got the ball rolling this morning...Outdoors in the park, they have a great selection of exercise equipment dotted around the perimeter.

Turned up bright and early to catch the sunrise.

My plan is to do a full body workout every other day.

This morning:

Push-ups - 3x5 (Wide grip)

Dips on parallel dip station - 3x3 - Looking forward to working on stabilizing these. There was all sorts of swinging and bending doing these this morning. Good thing only the birds and bees were out early to spot my sloppy form!

Single leg split squats - 5 x 5 - I tried to vary the distance of my leading leg each time to get every part of the leg doing some work. Stabilisation was suspect but that is to be expected.

Very happy to have the show on the road.

Back reading quotes as well. I ordered "The daily Stoic" from Amazon recently and some of the wisdom from Marcus Aurelius stops you in your tracks. Really look forward to reading the daily lesson from it.

Here's some recent West Coat Stoicism - Not taken from the book.

"You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened.. or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fcuk on." Tupac Shakur

Patsy167 · 10-06-2020 8:53am

Had planned to go for my usual walk around the park this morning but decided to jump on the outdoor crosstrainer in the park for 30 mins instead. It has zero resistance and doesn't move the needle one bit in terms of fitness but a nice change nonetheless. Listened to a few podcasts while I was on it and its nice to be in one spot to look around at the park waking up.

No ill effects from yesterdays sloppy form workout either so very pleased with that.

How did Jesus get in such good shape?

He used a Cross-Trainer!

...I'll get my coat:pac:

Quote of the day An all time favorite lesson that I regularly go back to....

"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?

So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?

Patsy167 · 11-06-2020 2:30pm

Focus for the day was "The negative is the rep"

Dips - 5,4,3,3 - Tried to use the mental queue of "a piece of string coming from the crown of my head" to maintain a tall posture on these. Definitely helped. Plenty of form points to work on, will try to focus in on one or two each session to progress.

Bulgarian Split squats - Have a massive love/hate relationship with these. When I find my groove with them, I get every muscle firing. To take the balance issue out of the equation for the moment, I tied a band around a nearby pole. Pulling on the band worked a treat. Very happy.

Green band bent over rows (Single arm) - Need to look up some band exercises that target the back. Had no access to a pull up bar so I did some rows with the green band but the range of motion I was using was tiny - about 15cm from the start position to end. maybe I was doing something wrong with the setup.

Overall I enjoyed that. Wet and windy start to the day outside, combined with some soreness from the session two days ago, I was going to skip it but decided to plough on.

Quote of the day

"You can have results or excuses, but you can't have both"

Alf Veedersane · 11-06-2020 3:07pm

Rows something like this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VtLxvPDGYlE

Or

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AjS7Zdj_Mr0

Or for single arm

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UHOCFcbaqYE

Patsy167 · 11-06-2020 3:59pm

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Rows something like this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VtLxvPDGYlE

Or

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AjS7Zdj_Mr0

Or for single arm

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UHOCFcbaqYE

Wow, Thank You! Appreciate you taking time to post these.

Alf Veedersane · 11-06-2020 4:08pm

Patsy167 wrote: »

Wow, Thank You! Appreciate you taking time to post these.

No problem. Some of the band exercises take a bit of practice.

Dominic Munnelly, in the last 2 links, has a load of videos for different exercises with bands of a kettlebell...the basic stuff that people might have at their disposal while gyms are closed.

Patsy167 · 11-06-2020 4:19pm

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

No problem. Some of the band exercises take a bit of practice.

Dominic Munnelly, in the last 2 links, has a load of videos for different exercises with bands of a kettlebell...the basic stuff that people might have at their disposal while gyms are closed.

Cheers for the heads-up on the Dominic Munnelly videos. I like the content he puts out. Some learning needed on the bands for sure. I have to switch my mindset from thinking that they are a direct replacement for dumbells, barbells or machines. I find you have to be more switched on when using them to make sure the correct muscles are doing the work and the tension is not dropping off. No harm learning a new skill though. Useful to have in the toolbox in the long run.

Alf Veedersane · 11-06-2020 4:27pm

Patsy167 wrote: »

Cheers for the heads-up on the Dominic Munnelly videos. I like the content he puts out. Some learning needed on the bands for sure. I have to switch my mindset from thinking that they are a direct replacement for dumbells, barbells or machines. I find you have to be more switched on when using them to make sure the correct muscles are doing the work and the tension is not dropping off. No harm learning a new skill though. Useful to have in the toolbox in the long run.

Does require a bit of thinking about the mechanics needed to get the training effect you'd get with weights.

If you have a solid upright to wrap the band around, you can do the equivalent of pulldowns (a vertical pulling exercise)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zrnyNYvo6cI

Patsy167 · 14-06-2020 11:15am

Sunday, 14th June

Aim for the session was to keep everything tight. Tried pushing air to the base of stomach for all exercises

Got a nice little circuit going moving between the outdoor exercise equipment in the park. 4 x rounds of the following:

Bulgarian split squats x 5

Dips on parallel bars x 5

Pushups x 5

Single leg squats using green band x 5

Lat pulldowns using purple band (Cheers Alf!) x5

Happy with the above. Stability was much better. Single leg squats with the green band were a nice find from Youtube. Plenty scope to increase difficulty so I hope to keep them in the routines. Focus for the coming week will be fixing my posture on the off days with a few band exercises.

Delivery of Vanilla protein powder arrived at the weekend at very happy with it. Fairly subtle taste, so it will mix well with anything. Went for isolate, rather than concentrate which seems to give me stomach issues.

Quote of the day
"Life is a reality to be experienced, not a problem to solve"

Patsy167 · 16-06-2020 4:37pm

Tuesday, 16th June

Aim for the session was to focus on driving up through the heel on leg exercises and pull down and back on the pulling exercises

Lovely morning out. The mild nights throw my sleep off so I was expecting to be below par for this one when I was planning it out last night. An extra spoon of coffee beforehand leveled the playing field.

4 rounds of the following:

5 x dips - I'm being very conservative with these. Not going to push near failure as I want to be able to do them long term. Usually I develop shoulder pain from them after a couple of sessions and they disappear from the program for months. Known weakness on my Right-hand side and sloppy form being the culprtit.

5x single leg Squats with green band. These are a great find. Driving the healin and standing up by pushing backwards gives the hamstrings and glutes good engagement

5x single leg skater squats - Need to check out a form guide for these. I was hoping they would be more quad dominant but my knee seemed to be doing most of the work.

5 x lat pulldowns with purple band. I doubled over the band and altered my grip for these so that 5 reps targeted the bottom half of the rep and the other 5 reps targeted the top part of the rep.

5 x wide grip pushups

5 x seated rows with green band.

I was a bit distracted during the session for some reason today. kept pulling out my phone searching for the perfect song on YouTube. Strange. Not usually like that. I can often be slow to get going but once I find my groove, I tend to get into a flow rather than stopping and starting.

Counted my blessings for the fine weather this morning though. Some of the longest days of the year at the moment and it is a pleasure to be outdoors and have the equipment available in the park.

Thought of the day - Heard a guy talk about "The project Management triangle" on a podcast. Need to google it later. Had heard of the marketing example used before but never knew there are other examples.

Patsy167 · 19-06-2020 9:09am

Thursday 18th June

Aim for the session was to see what my 70-80% max volume was for each of the current exercises I'm doing. Each set was 5 reps. I wanted to see how many sets I could do before they started to feel like a grind or form was compromised

Dips - 7 sets

Pulldowns - 5 sets

Seated rows - 6 sets

Bicep curls - 4 sets

Single leg skater squats - 4 sets

Single leg split squats - 5 sets

Single leg squat with Green band - 5 sets

Happy with the above, all things considered. Form on the dips is improving, or at least I am quicker to spot and correct when form does start to slip.

Thought of the day

"Do Your job"

Patsy167 · 20-06-2020 11:26am

Saturday 20th June

Aim for the day was to do be upper body focused with lots of volume. Kept in mind to "Just keep moving" after a few stop-start sessions recently. The plan was to split the volume over tons of sets with 5 reps per set.

That went well. I've been compensating for poor sleep recently by ramping up food and coffee which is not ideal but it is amazing how much energy I have with a feed of carbs on-board.

Got through the following (adding up total reps over all sets):

Dips - Total of 32 reps

Wide-grip push ups - 24

knee raises - 25

single leg skater squat - 20

bicep curls - 24

Seated rows - 30

Patsy167 · 22-06-2020 9:27am

Monday 22nd June

Still doing the full body workouts every other day. I've decided to have a different focus for each day through - sort of an A or B approach.

Today was lower body focused - so more reps on the leg exercises

Nothing major to report. Usual mix of exercises as above posts. Highlight from the session was probably the progression on the single leg skater squats. Can feel quads and glutes firing, rather than my knees creaking! Trying to focus on driving up through the heal and sitting my upper body weight over the leg doing the work.

Food

Made a large batch of overnight oats at the weekend - Chocolate - orange and ginger flavored. Homemade so I can eat twice as much!

Note to self - I have always been interested in the psychology aspect of nutrition. I really need to stop annoying myself and finally look into doing some sort of certification or course on it as it is a genuine hobby that I enjoy learning about. Basic principle is that "if you gave 50 people an empty shopping basket and asked them to fill it with healthy food, 49 people would know what to put in it" so the problem is clearly not a knowledge problem.

I am 100% guilty of this behavior too. I know that when I go off track with food, it usually traces back to being caused by increased stress or an idle mind.

Alf Veedersane · 22-06-2020 10:20am

Patsy167 wrote: »

Basic principle is that "if you gave 50 people an empty shopping basket and asked them to fill it with healthy food, 49 people would know what to put in it" so the problem is clearly not a knowledge problem.

I don't know if I agree with that entirely. From people I have worked with to people starting threads here, there is both an absence of knowledge and a general lack of confusion over what the "right" food is. You see it all the time..."I've got 5 stone to lose so I'm doing keto. Does anyone have a food plan". Or I'm doing keto because I have a load of weight to lose. Or "I've lots of weight to lose so I've cut out carbs". And often it's not sustainable for them, which has nothing really to do with whether or not keto is sustainable.

People demonise foods. They demonise carbs. They demonise sugar. They demonise fat. Lots of foods are held up as 'bad foods' but in most cases, it's the dose that makes the poison. Is bread bad? No. Too much bread isn't great.

There's a fundamental lack of understanding and people come onto the nutrition and diet sub forum asking about good/bad foods. I don't blame them....there are so many people promoting a host of different nutritional approaches that people's heads are spinning because they don't know what is right.

I would venture that people would largely know what foods they shouldn't have in their basket or at least that they shouldn't have as much in it. I would also venture that a lot of those people would also remove foods that are not inherently unhealthy (carbs).

Patsy167 · 22-06-2020 6:15pm

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I don't know if I agree with that entirely. From people I have worked with to people starting threads here, there is both an absence of knowledge and a general lack of confusion over what the "right" food is. You see it all the time..."I've got 5 stone to lose so I'm doing keto. Does anyone have a food plan". Or I'm doing keto because I have a load of weight to lose. Or "I've lots of weight to lose so I've cut out carbs". And often it's not sustainable for them, which has nothing really to do with whether or not keto is sustainable.

People demonise foods. They demonise carbs. They demonise sugar. They demonise fat. Lots of foods are held up as 'bad foods' but in most cases, it's the dose that makes the poison. Is bread bad? No. Too much bread isn't great.

There's a fundamental lack of understanding and people come onto the nutrition and diet sub forum asking about good/bad foods. I don't blame them....there are so many people promoting a host of different nutritional approaches that people's heads are spinning because they don't know what is right.

I would venture that people would largely know what foods they shouldn't have in their basket or at least that they shouldn't have as much in it. I would also venture that a lot of those people would also remove foods that are not inherently unhealthy (carbs).

Interesting to hear your thoughts on this. In general, I would of thought the issue for most people is adherence, rather than knowledge. I could be wrong though as the sample of people I have in mind would be in quite a narrow range.

I think a massively overlooked part in general weight control is portion size. I know I am very guilty of this myself. If a food is "healthy" or "lower calorie", I will unconsciously eat more of it, undoing the benefit when trying to maintain energy balance

I read it on here a few months back...it may well have been you who posted it, but often times, the best diet advice would be to implement a fair few reps of "Fork Put-downs"

Alf Veedersane · 22-06-2020 10:47pm

Patsy167 wrote: »

Interesting to hear your thoughts on this. In general, I would of thought the issue for most people is adherence, rather than knowledge. I could be wrong though as the sample of people I have in mind would be in quite a narrow range.

I think a massively overlooked part in general weight control is portion size. I know I am very guilty of this myself. If a food is "healthy" or "lower calorie", I will unconsciously eat more of it, undoing the benefit when trying to maintain energy balance

I read it on here a few months back...it may well have been you who posted it, but often times, the best diet advice would be to implement a fair few reps of "Fork Put-downs"

It wasn't me who said the 'fork put-downs' line. It's a fair point in some cases but its not always as binary as someone eating too much with no discipline.

There are a raft of reasons that contribute. Awareness is one. I think people would have a fairly good idea of what should be in a shopping basket but there are a lot of different messages being put out there saying X, Y or Z is the right way to eat and that can often be restrictive. That's where adherence comes in.

People do keto/paleo/low carb/plant based because they think it's the right thing and it's not the right thing for them and wind up thinking they have failed because the right thing didnt work for them. But it was never the right thing for them and that's why they couldn't sustain it in the longer term.

I'm not pretending to know what I'm talking about. Its psychology...its not my forte. But I do find it interesting and I do try dig into it in what I do in work. So I'm only speculating but I do think there are a raft of reasons and not many of them are simple, binary reasons like a lot of people that have never been in that position think they are.

Patsy167 · 24-06-2020 9:05am

Wednesday, 24th June

Workouts won't be changing much so I'm going to just keep a log of what went well and needs improvement as reminders to myself to look back on.

Went well:

- Single leg skater squats - Very happy with these this morning. I changed technique to drive up and backwards, rather than leaning forward.

Needs work:

Felt some inner shoulder pain on the first set of dips so need to keep an eye on that. Might drop them for a week to give the shoulders an extended break.

Thought of the day

"Keep your identity small"

Patsy167 · 26-06-2020 11:11am

Friday, 26th June

Looking back over my posts from the past few weeks, I can see that I enjoy the bodyweight exercises a lot more than using the bands. The obvious reason for this is that the bands require more effort, but will also produce better results. I'm in this game for the long haul though and my only fitness aim at the minute is general long term health so I may be ditching the bands and stick with what I enjoy/fancy for each session.

All bodyweight today

5 sets of 5 reps of each of the following:

Bodyweight rows
Single leg squats
Dips
Wide grip push ups
knee raises
single leg split squats

That went well. I added in the knee raises as a distraction to keep momentum going between exercises and not stopping and messing on my phone.

Areas going well:
For general health, I used to go for a lunchtime walk when in the office, but now that I am WFH, they seem to have fallen away. I started doing Joe DeFrancos Limber 11 routine on the lawn outside over luch to compensate. The frog stretches, Iron crosses, and rocking/roll-outs feel great for the back and posture. Caught a glimpse of my posture in the reflection of a car window the other day and it was not pretty!

For improvement:
- Need to focus on getting the bigger muscles doing the all of the work during the exercises. I notice my forearms are tensed way too tight during all exercises and are the limiting factor/burning out. Might try thumbless grip for a few of the pulling movements.

Alf Veedersane · 26-06-2020 11:39am

Patsy167 wrote: »

[
For improvement:
- Need to focus on getting the bigger muscles doing the all of the work during the exercises. I notice my forearms are tensed way too tight during all exercises and are the limiting factor/burning out. Might try thumbless grip for a few of the pulling movements.

Not that everyone can expect the same results and it depends on the load but I found that when I was going heavier on pulling exercises, particularly weighted pull ups, I ended up with bad elbow pain.

The reason being that I was bringing my forearm muscles into it too much and overloading them and the tendon took too much load (I wasn't keeping my wrist as straight as should be towards the end of sets trying to eke out a rep or two more).

Even pulling doors open was spread needed to drop pulling exercises for 2 months).

Just since you referenced forearms being brought into an exercise too much

Patsy167 · 26-06-2020 4:27pm

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Not that everyone can expect the same results and it depends on the load but I found that when I was going heavier on pulling exercises, particularly weighted pull ups, I ended up with bad elbow pain.

The reason being that I was bringing my forearm muscles into it too much and overloading them and the tendon took too much load (I wasn't keeping my wrist as straight as should be towards the end of sets trying to eke out a rep or two more).

Even pulling doors open was spread needed to drop pulling exercises for 2 months).

Just since you referenced forearms being brought into an exercise too much

Thanks for the input, it's sparked a thought. I'm no stranger to elbow pain in the past also. When I was serious about pull-ups, I used straps and they worked wonders. I used them for almost every exercise. They were a real treat for Farmers walks as I have been blessed with particularly wirey forearms. Might see if I still have the straps in the cupboard and go back to what's worked in the past

Alf Veedersane · 26-06-2020 4:56pm

Patsy167 wrote: »

Thanks for the input, it's sparked a thought. I'm no stranger to elbow pain in the past also. When I was serious about pull-ups, I used straps and they worked wonders. I used them for almost every exercise. They were a real treat for Farmers walks as I have been blessed with particularly wirey forearms. Might see if I still have the straps in the cupboard and go back to what's worked in the past

It was something that came about as a result of a couple of months of it. Tried straps to alleviate it and they helped but was too late at that stage so give them a try

Patsy167 · 29-06-2020 7:58am

Monday, 29th June

Was meant to be done yesterday but I decided to take the day off. Aim for the session was 50 reps on the dips. Both Achilles were on fire for the past few days which is far from ideal. I suspect the single leg squats (where I sit down with the non-working foot extending out in front are the culprit) so I'm going to drop them for a while and see if they recover.

Full body workout:

Dips - 10 sets of 5 reps - Very happy with that. I notice that I am very slow to get into a groove on these. Sets 7-10 felt the easiest and with the best form which doesn't seem to make sense.

knee raises - 3 x 15

single leg squats - I think these are still called single leg squats. (using green band - Driving back and standing up with the band under the foot).

50 reps of various forms of pulls with the green band wrapped around a pole. Adjusted the pull point of the band each time - roughly the aim was to mimic the following:

Seated row - 4 x 5
Lat pull-down - Wide - 4x5
V-bar pulldown - 4 x 5

Areas going well:
Wrapped the green band around my wrists a few times and focused on driving through elbows for the pulling movements

For improvement:
- Increase Time under tension

Patsy167 · 01-07-2020 9:59am

Wednesday, 1st July

Aim for the session was to keep it simple - Big, Basic movements.

Full body workout:

Vertical Push - Dips - 8 x 5
Horizontal Push - Push-ups - 3 x 8

Vertical Pull - V-Bar Pulldown (...trying to mimic these by using a green band. I wrap it around the dip bars, grasp it close to the bar, and pull myself up. It looks a bit clumsy as my starting position is me sitting on the ground but it does the job, I can feel the right muscles working). 4 x 5

Horizontal Pull - Seated row - 3 x 8 (...same as above, trying to mimic these by using a green band. I wrap it around the pole, wrap the band around my wrists a few times (to reduce the problem of poor grip strength/forearms burning out). Try to focus on squeezing shoulder blades and driving with elbows

Hamstrings and glutes focused - single leg squats - (using green band - Driving back and standing up with the band under the foot). - 3x8
Quad focused - Split squats - 3 x 8

Areas going well:
Thinking of dips as a vertical push movement rather than tilting forward really helped the shoulders. Triceps doing most of the work so no inner shoulder pain.

For improvement:
- Might need to look at adding a lower body / hip-hinge movement.
- Split squats are starting to outlive their usefulness. need to progress something on them - speed, tempo, resistance, or reps

Thought of the day
"No black or white thinking - Have everything in life on a grey scale"

Patsy167 · 03-07-2020 9:26am

Friday, 3rd July

Aim for the session was again to keep it simple - Big, Basic movements.

No Pull work today.

Vertical Push - Dips - 8,5,5,4,4,4 - 30 reps total.
Horizontal Push - Push-ups - 4 x 10 in total - 2 sets of each of Regular & wide grip

Hamstrings and glutes focused - single leg squats - (using green band - Driving back and standing up with the band under the foot). - 5x8

30 mins of swimming in the pool.

Areas going well:
Swimming is back! Delighted to be back in the pool. I'm a beginner swimmer. Before the enforced break from the pool, my form/technique was non-existent so I had nothing to lose from being away from the pool. Downloaded a few cheat sheets on swimming over the past few days and tried out a few of the visual queues in the pool today. Primary focus being on using the arms as giant paddles and keeping elbows high in the water.

For improvement:
- More volume!

Thought of the day
"It’s that line in the movie Fight Club: “You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in
the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet.”"

Patsy167 · 06-07-2020 9:29am

Monday, 6th July

Very basic today. Had much more planned but just felt like alternating between these two when I got started. Tried to focus on form.

Item Description Reps & Weights
1 Dips 8x 5 BW
2 Green Band single-leg squats 5 x 7 Resistance Band - Green

Swimming - Tried out the "zipper switch" drill for the focus of the session. In and out in 15 mins. Going to really try and crack on with the high elbow catch technique for the coming weeks. Shoulder issue is a limiting factor but no excuse. I'll consciously work on shoulder technique and mobility.

Thought of the day

Don't be in such a rush to get back to normal. Consciously think about everything you are adding back in. Ask yourself, How can I get back to better?

Patsy167 · 08-07-2020 9:36am

Wednesday, 8th July

Enjoyed the basics the last day so decided to keep it going today

Item Description Reps & Weights
1 Dips 8 x 5 BW
2 Green Band single-leg squats 5 x 7 Resistance Band - Green

Swimming - Trying to use performance / visual cues to get the high elbow pattern. Using the "wide parallels" visual helps to keep the technique consistent.

Going well:
- Giving up the single leg squat (variation where I was sitting down with the non working leading out in front) has resolved the issue I was having with feeling my achilles

Thought of the day

"Proper training can change your default habits.

Train yourself to give up anger, and you won’t be angry at every fresh slight. Train yourself to avoid
gossip, and you won’t get pulled into it. Train yourself on any habit, and you’ll be able to unconsciously
go to that habit in trying times.

Think about which behaviors you’d like to be able to default to if you could. How many of them have
you practiced only once? Let today be twice."

Patsy167 · 10-07-2020 8:04am

Friday, 10th July

1 pull movement /2 push / 1 leg

Item Description Reps & Weights
2 x push movements
A Dips 5,5,5,4,3,3,3
B Push ups - 10, 10, 6, 6

1 pull movement
a Seated Green band row - Hands together - narrow grip.

1 leg
A Green Band single-leg squats 6,4,5,6,4 Resistance Band - Green

Swimming - focus for today was to graze the water with fingertips. Aimed at having the elbow lead in the recovering arm.

Going well:
- Some days if I don't feel like being disciplined with sets/rep schemes, I will use a mental hack of "just keep depositing into the bank". I think it is borrowed from the "Greasing the grove method". General idea is that the volume builds up by never going to failure. Kept switching between exercises and chipped away at a decent amount of overall volume.

Thought of the day

"One person, on doing well by others, immediately accounts the expected favor in return. Another
is not so quick, but still considers the person a debtor and knows the favor. A third kind of
person acts as if not conscious of the deed, rather like a vine producing a cluster of grapes
without making further demands, like a horse after its race, or a dog after its walk, or a bee after
making its honey. Such a person, having done a good deed, won’t go shouting from rooftops but
simply moves on to the next deed just like the vine produces another bunch of grapes in the right
season.”

Patsy167 · 13-07-2020 12:12pm

Monday, 13th July

Aim for the session - 40 reps of each exercise

1 pull movement /2 push / 1 leg

Item Description Reps & Weights
2 x push movements
A Dips 8,5,5,5,3,3,3
B Push ups - 15,10,10

1 pull movement
a Seated Green band row - Hands together - narrow grip. - 3x10

1 leg
A Green Band single-leg squats 6,8,5,6,4 Resistance Band - Green

Swimming - focus for today was to focus all attention on the recovering arm. Try to have forearm dangling from elbow and form a sharkfin with elbow. Postal box entry of fingers to water

Going well:
- Packing shoulders on the dips is really helping to improve form.

Thought of the day

"Contribution - Start where you are. Start small."

Patsy167 · 15-07-2020 7:56am

Wednesday, 15th July

Simple session today - 40 reps of resistance band single leg squats / 40 Dips

Food / Weight:

I weighed myself for the first time in two months this morning. I have gained 25 pounds since my last weigh in! I have been focusing on putting on some weight but that pace of weight gain is definitely not sustainable. Not overly concerned though. I should have the discipline to correct course and reign in the weight gain to something more sensible. The inability of my body to convert cake to muscle is frustrating :-)

Thought of the day

"Leave the party when you are still having fun."

Patsy167 · 20-07-2020 5:40pm

Monday, 20th July

Simple session today - 40 reps of resistance band single leg squats / 40 Dips.

Sleep:

Trying a few hacks for improving sleep latley. More self-experimenting to see what works as it is an area that needs to improve massively.

Main area of focus has been sticking to a routine

Supplements:
- Probiotic "Bio cultures complex supplement"
- 5-HTP

Foods:
Bananas
Milk kefir from the Polish shop
Kiwis (Unbelievably effective)

Habits:

A shower before bed has been a game changer. I heard someone on a podcast mention that it can be used as a form of mindfulness which caught my attention. I know how effective the meditation apps are but I can't seem to get any sort of reliable pattern established with these so I was looking for alternatives.

Thought of the day

"Hard decision; easy life"

Patsy167 · 24-07-2020 5:56pm

Friday, 24th July

Outdoor exercise equipment in a new park:

1. Single leg squats with green band - 3, 3, 3, 3
2. Pull Ups - 3, 3, 3, 3
3. Dips - 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Going well: Really like using the Greasing the grove method for the bodyweight exercises. Not going close to failure on any. It allows me to focus on maintaining good form and the volume slowly builds up

For improvement: The bright early mornings are starting to disappear a little so I may look into joining a gym in August to make sure I keep the momentum going and not let the dark mornings as an excuse.

Thought of the day

"Do your job"

Patsy167 · 27-07-2020 9:39am

Monday, 27th July

Aim for today was nothing to do with the physical workout. Challenge was to see if I could show up on a dark, wet morning outdoors, take my soaking and maintain a level head - not getting angry, sulking, or moping around. Outdoor exercise equipment in the park before sunrise:

1. Single leg squats with green band - 3, 3, 3, 3
2. Pull Ups - 3, 3, 3, 3
3. Dips - 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Going well: Very satisfying to get through that. Nothing to do with the workout performance, but the motivation and discipline for doing it. I've been reading Stoicism for months now but I've been more talk than action. I knew from reading the weather yesterday that it would be cold, wet, and miserable early this morning. My schedule allowed to move the workout to later in the day but I figured this would be a good chance to practice some voluntary discomfort. Took a good soaking, but maintained a level head all the way through it. Pull up bars, dip bars, and bands were a mess, couldn't get any good grip but I kept reminding myself of the principle of "Amor Fati". As a physical workout, it was massively ineffective but the mental benefit of building callouses on the mind will stick with me. I'll be able to tap back into this in the future.

Thought of the day

"Oh, the mission got canceled? Good… We can focus on another one.
Didn’t get the new high-speed gear we wanted? Good… We can keep it simple.
Didn’t get promoted? Good… More time to get better.
Didn’t get funded? Good… We own more of the company.
Didn’t get the job you wanted? Good… Go out, gain more experience, and build a better resume.
Got injured? Good… Needed a break from training.
Got tapped out? Good… It’s better to tap out in training than tap out on the street.
Got beat? Good… We learned.
Unexpected problems? Good… We have to figure out a solutions"

Patsy167 · 29-07-2020 10:11am

Wednesday, 29th July

1. Single leg squats with green band - 3, 3, 3, 3
2. Pull Ups - 3, 3, 3, 3
3. Dips - 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Enjoyed that - I find that keeping moving between each sets is very important. Because the sets are so low in volume, the sessions can seem like a marathon but after a round or two I get into a rhythm.

Going well: Dips - Don't want to jinx these but this is by far the most consistent run I have had with Dips. Packing shoulders and pinning shoulder blades back and down seems to be the key for me.

Room for improvement: Need to be more mindful of where I am gripping the bands when using them. The set up and bracing required to get into position takes a long time on the Banded squats so I don't want to sell myself short by "cheating" by gripping the band too high up. I will often start sets and realise the resistance is way too light.

Thought of the day

"Slow is smooth; Smooth is fast"

Patsy167 · 31-07-2020 9:05am

Friday, 31st July

1. Single leg squats with green band - 3, 3, 3, 3
2. Pull Ups - 3, 3, 3, 3
3. Dips - 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

What a morning! Waves of warm air all before the sun made an appearance. If I closed my eyes, it felt like Spain!

Seem to have conflicting thoughts on these workouts. I love consistency but some days I wonder if I am fooling myself by not following the progressive overload principle. Using bands and bodyweight exercises only does make it difficult to measure progress but I don't want to use that as an excuse. I might try having a different focus for each day - strength, volume, tempo, technique to see if that is something I enjoy. All things considered though, I am happy with the run I'm on. Keeping a bit in the tank so that I can be in good shape for the next workout is important for me. Don't enjoy having any lasting DOMS or niggles after workouts.

Thought of the day

"Beyonce wasn't built in a day!"

There are only three things I need in life: food, water, and compliments.

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