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I had a great 15 mile ride yesterday. I don’t know if all guys are like me, but when I see an exceptionally attractive woman (and I am talking once or twice a year when I say exceptionally), something interesting happens.  Like yesterday, I was pushing it, sweating like crazy on the cart part, and just after I crossed the street and made a right turn on the path there she was..  time slowed down.. "Oh Yeah" by Yello started to play in my head.. The breeze made waves in her dark hair, and I could see every striation in her amazing brown shoulders.  Her big brown eyes looked straight ahead as I said, "What’s up, beautiful?" ..well actually it came out more like Barney Rubble saying "Helloooooo," but I could tell that she was impressed.  She was probably thinking, "I had better not say anything or I will ruin the mood," and "if he is that sexy in my peripheral vision, I dare not look directly at him."  Yeah, that was it.  I just smiled and didn’t look back as she stopped her red golf cart and looked longingly back at me as I rode away… probably.  I didn’t look back, so she could have.

Anyway, I got up at 445a and was moving slow, so I didn’t get into the gym until 5:30, but I did get my chect, tricep, shoulder, abs workout done!  Woo hooo!  My diet is back on track too after a weekend of junk food debauchery.

TH

I just realized something really cool about the new "members who inspire me" feature.  It raises the bar on your intensity.  If someone says that you inspire them, and then you read why they are inspired by you, all of the sudden you have a little extra pressure to keep that example going.  I have been feeling very uninspired after laying off of the weight training to allow my bicep and shoulders heal.  I have been riding every other day.. not running at all.  And then I read why I inspire someone. "Dedicated and motivated, even in the face of adversity."  Oh crap.  I have not been that over the past couple of weeks.  I’ll be getting my ass out on my bike tonight!!  Thanks Xercisegrl.  One more good reason to get out there.

And if there is someone that inspires you.. TELL THEM.  They might need that.

That’s what one of the trainers at the gym is fond of saying if he sees me with a cross look on my face.  I am not one of those people that can hide how I feel.. no poker face.  And when I put my mind to doing X reps with X weight, and get absolutely pissed off if I can’t do it!  Lately the source of my disappointment has been a little pain in my left shoulder and a little pain in my right bicep/forearm - and not good pain.  Those two are keeping me from working as hard as I want to, and thus, the unhappy face.

I just read some pretty interesting stuff about chest development in the bodybuilding.com newsletter.  Apparently the incline bench press is not necessary and puts a lot of pressure on your delts.  Flat and declined are the way to go according to the article in the newsletter.  Pretty interesting.  Also a good explanation of what high rep-low load does as opposed to high load-low reps.  You might already know that stuff, but it was interesting to me.

TH

The weekend was a classic battle between Bad Steve and Good Steve.  I really do feel like I have that little devil Steve, angel Steve on my shoulders, just like in the cartoons. I took Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off because I really felt like I needed to heal.  I had been hitting it pretty hard at the gym, and then with all of the moving, my body needed to rebuild.  The plan was to get into the gym at 5:00 AM Sunday.

Bad Steve showed up Sunday morning when my alarm went off and convinced me that I should just sleep in.  Throughout the rest of the day, I ate cherry chocolate ice cream (twice), some oreos, and just basically reverted back to the was I ate 3 years ago.  It felt good to be bad.  Tasted good too.

On a good note, Good Steve was able to get my on my bike for a 10 mile ride on REALLY hilly terrain.  It was a good fast ride.  I even got a "DANG!" from a woman driving a golf cart as I passed her.  That helped me pick up my pace and keep it up.  Good Steve is back on duty full time today.  Got up at 4:30 AM and did biceps, legs, and back and went pretty heavy.  It feels SOOO good to be sore!

Bad Steve is thinking about asking for a pork rind from one of my co-workers.  Not sure if everyone on here would be familiar with pork rinds.  I think they are deep fried pork fat.  They are sooooo good!  But I will not let Bad Steve prevail today.

TH

Yep, it arrived at 4:30 AM.  Everything seems really off kilter now that I live in a different neighborhood, 2 miles from the where I lived last week.  I got to the gym on time, but was NOT feelin’ it, dragging myself through each exercise.  I did the whole workout and probably did it as well as I would have any other day, but I was feeling the pain of hauling stuff for 3 days, all day. Socializing was just not gonna happen. Ha ha!  I was all focus, no shooting the sheezy.

I have noticed that the early morning crew at the Snap where I work out is kind of unique, in that almost all of them have had a period of time when they were without the full use of their bodies.  A friend and I were talking about how much you appreciate being able to workout out when you have had to go through a period of not being able to use your whole body, or when you have not had the strength to walk, let alone run.  I heard several "amen’s" from around the gym.  It turns out, the dawn patrol includes cancer survivors coming back from chemo. an osteoporosis patient with an operation on the way next month, a guy who suffered through a kidney ailment, at least one bypass, and of course me with my heart thing.  It seems that having one’s health taken away really does light a fire under that person to stay in shape.

So if you are healthy, and haven’t ever had to fight your way back from poor health, think about what that would be like.  Imagine walking 50 feet and having to sit down to rest.  Imagine having the feeling that your life is fragile and your future uncertain to the point at which you think in days and weeks not years.  I’m not sure if it’s one of those things that you can tell people and have them get, but being on a healthy fitness plan is VITAL…  Not just good.  Not just important.  Literally, vital.

With that in mind, I am gonna get my buns back on the gym tomorrow morning, and try to have a smile on my face this time!    I’m even going to stop and talk a little bit, because that it vital too.  Have a great day!

TH

I didn’t get up and go to the gym today.  Ended up hitting the bed too late last night, and I was pretty wiped out from moving.

But hear me now and believe me later, mark my words, as God is my witness, I WILL BE in the gym tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM SHARP!  Shoulders, core, chest, and triceps, you are not leaving that gym until you are screamin’ for mercy.  We are going to go heavy and we are going to complete every rep of every set with proper form.  And by the time we leave, I’ll be lucky if I can reach up high enough to return the spray bottle to it’s place on top of the paper towel dispenser.  I am NOT KIDDING AROUND.  

Oh, and as for biceps, back, and all of you leg muscles, I appreciated your efforts over the weekend.  Could not have done it without you.  But your little vacation is OVER on Thursday.  Seriously, your ass is mine!!  …it actually is mine… literally… anyway, we’re going to work until I am walking like a drunken sailor on shore leave.  The pain train is chugging your way, and you don’t have to get on, because it IS on!  

And to my digestive tract, I know that you like a little comfort food every now and then, maybe a cookie or a piece of candy.  You can kiss that goodbye!..because the mouth is included in the digestive tract, but anyway, you are not going to see that crapola gurgling it’s way down the esophagus any time soon.  Oh, and the same goes for beer.  It just ain’t happening.  I will not have all of those muscles working so hard only to have you undermining them by storing fat.  We are gonna make meat, so we are gonna eat meat.. and other protein.

There.  I think we are all on the same page.  I will see you all in the mirror tomorrow morning at 4:30 right before we hit the shower!

One more thing.  Brain?  What were you thinking when you came up with this idea?!?

While working out at the gym some times I catch myself and think, "when you break this down, I am paying money to be allowed into a building to do work (by the scientific definition) that really doesn’t accomplish anything."  It is kind of like simulated moving, picking things up and putting them down, the only difference being that you are putting things down exactly where you picked them up. Can you imagine what people from hundreds or thousands of years ago would think of this?!?  

I thought about that a lot over the weekend, because my family and I decided that we could move ourselves into our new house.  No movers, just us.  I have no idea what made us think that we could do that.  Perhaps it was the fact that we were only moving 2 miles away that gave us the confidence to try to do it all ourselves.  Regardless, we did it.  Saturday and Sunday were a blur of lifting heavy things, walking with them, and putting them down.  My 17-year-old son and I did all of the lifting.  And there was one point at which he had kind of a melt down, and I was doing the heavy lifting by myself.  It was the real deal.  And this was one workout that I was going to finish.  There was no room for going lighter, and no option for knocking off early.  If it was in out house, I lifted it.

So I didn’t hit the gym Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, but I did realize why I go to the gym, why I pick up heavy weights and put them down again, and run on a high-tech hamster wheel.  Strength and endurance are so valuable.  One never knows then they will be called into action for "the real thing," but it is good to know that they are there when I need them.  Just having the ability to do the work that I did over the weekend is such a gift, so rather than cursing the load that I was carrying, I found myself thanking God for the ability to carry it.

TH

First of all, I am an introvert.  If you saw me somewhere, and didn’t know me, you would probably think I was a snob.  So it has taken me a while to open up and get to know the people I workout with at 5:15 in the morning, but now that I do know them, if gives me one more reason to drag myself out of bed at 4:30.  I know that at least one of the "early morning crew" (some of whom get to the gym at 4:00 AM!) will be there.

I got a reminder of that this morning when I got to the gym, and only one guy was there, this other introvert who does crossfit-type stuff and always looks like he is in pain.  We struck up a conversation for the first time, even though we had worked out in the same gym at the same time for months!  So there is one more friend at the gym.  On more reason to crawl out of bed.

When I ran into another one of the early morning crew in the parking lot as I was leaving at 6:30, we joked around a little, and he said, "I will see you early tomorrow!"  I said, "Okay, I’ll see ya!" so that means I am gonna be up again tomorrow.

It doesn’t sound like a big deal to know some people at the gym will miss you if you aren’t there, but I have an ongoing battle.  I open my eyes at 4:15 every morning and begin the argument:

"Today would be a good rest day.  I need to rest"
"Rest!?!  I haven’t worked legs/biceps/back in 4 days!"
"Yeah, but I have a big day at work today.  I don’t want to be too tired"
"I am not going to be tired!  I am always more awake after my workout!"
"One day of sleeping in ’til 6:30 won’t hurt"
"But Mike, Ralph, Susan, Michelle, Maria, Chonda, and everyone else will be in there.  There is no reason for me not to be."

This continues until I get in the shower.  Then I am committed.

So if you are having trouble getting motivated, join the closest gym that you can, and get to know some people.  That will help keep you on track.

TH

So when the new year started, I decided to blow up my BodySpace.  I think I was just getting too "in" to myself.  I felt like I was taking pictures of myself and posting them, hoping for words of approval from other people… I just wasn’t feeling like that was healthy.  (Just to be clear, that is what I was doing.  That’s certainly not what everyone here does.)

The good news is that I never stopped working out.  I am in the gym every morning at 5:15ish, following the Snap Fitness Hyperstrike workout plan, and really seeing gains.  Biking up hills is easier than ever, and my cardiologist says that my heart function is now almost normal!  On interesting piece of doctor’s orders that I received: "DON’T STOP EXERCISING."  That put a smile on my face.

As far as progress, I know I have a lot more definition, but I am not sure that I have gained any size.  I’ll update measurements soon, just to see.

One thing that I have come to realize about fitness is that, at least for me, it is a long, long marathon.  Nothing happens overnight.  …And not much happens over a month.  But put a few months together, and amazing things can happen.  

So why am I posting again?  Honestly, I think I am starting to annoy people on twitter and facebook with my posting about being up at 5AM and in the gym.  (Twitter: Steve_Wms)

TH