I’ll be getting back up again tomorrow.

Cheers!
Daniel

I kept up the good form and did as many as I could and ended up at a whopping: 20 pushups. 

I’m pretty disappointed. Part of me wants to blame the shoulder and chest weight lifting I did earlier Monday afternoon, but I’m not sure I would have achieved a higher number. 

In any case, I’ll stick with 20 for the basis of this challenge. 

Anybody else doing this challenge?

Pushups are part of my exercise routine that I’ve been all too happy to ignore — along with pullups. When I was training in Judo several years ago I could do pushups until the cows came home. Now, however, I have no clue how many I can do.

After work today I’ll do the initial test to see how many good-form pushups I can do at the beginning. Care to join me on this little challenge?

My ankle is sprained pretty good, so I decided against my usual cardio today. The walk to the gym alone would have been enough to aggrevate it. 

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be back in the workout saddle again.

I did 20 minutes on the exercise bike, burning just over 200 calories and “riding” 5.64 miles on medium resistance/intensity.

I was at a local discount book store and picked up a copy of “Cover Model Workout“ because it was a good price and I’m always interested in reading different philosophies on fitness.

In this book, Owen McKibbin, the author, talked about how he gives himself the mental – and physical – advantage over others by taking mundane, everyday tasks and views them as a way to steal workouts in the least likely of circumstances:

When you fit in a workout even though all the odds are against you, you’ve stolen one. Say you don’t have any exercise scheduled but you find yourself with time to kill and decide to lace up your shoes and do 20 minutes of sprints. That’s stealing one…

…Say I arrive at a hotel with no time to hit the health spa. Instead of tipping the bellboy, I walk up the stairwell to the top floor, bags and all. Then I take the elevator down and go back up the stairs again…

… You should always be looking for ways to steal a workout.

Now, it’s easy to dismiss McKibbin’s advice because when you think about it, his job is to work out. I mean, he is after all the person to appear on the most covers of Men’s Health magazine.

But there’s a bunch of research to back up what McKibbin suggests. For example, in the June 2008 issue of Men’s Health magazine, on page 48, it says that according to Danish researchers:

When men were asked to park close to buildings, take the elevator instead of the stairs, and walk less in general, their triglyceride levels went up 18 percent in 2 weeks. The explanation is NEAT (nonexercise activity thermogenesis), which consists of all the ways we expend energy without actually exercising.

Take walking out of the NEAT equation and you’ll not only gain weight, but also accumulate more triglycerides in your bloodstream says the study author, Rikke Krogh-Madsen, M.D. So look to the men in the study and then do the opposite: Take the farthest parking spot you find, hoof it up the stairs, and squeeze in extra steps whenever possible.

I’ve also read that, forgive me if the percentage is a bit off, about 70 percent of the average male’s caloric burn comes from everyday activities.

So that’s it! That’s what I meant when I said I’ve had to resort to stealing workouts the past week or so due to the number of wild fires burning in the area.

Cheers!

Daniel

The local newspaper published this update earlier this morning:

Bay Area Air Quality Management has declared a third straight unhealthy air day and is recommending people forgo outdoor activities and undue exertion today because of the poor air quality.

The warning is expected to be lessened to moderate on Saturday when only unusually sensitive people should avoid undue exertion.

Santa Rosa is expected to hit a high of 87 downtown today, with winds picking up to about 20 miles an hour in the afternoon after early morning breezes.

But those winds are not expected to be heavy enough to clear out the thick smoke that has been hovering for days as thousands of acres in Northern California burn.

Source: The Press Democrat

I’ve tried going to the gym regardless, however, nearly all of the machines were in use, as local were forced to take their workouts indoors. Since I only have lunch breaks to hit the gym most days, I’ve taken to “stealing workouts” whenever I can by doing everyday activities differently. What do I mean by “stealing workouts”? I’ll post more about that later on. 

Here’s a map of the local fires. The town I work in is located just about underneath the “128″ sign on the map, just north of my hometown of Santa Rosa. 

In any case, I’ve also taken the opportunity to try and eat better and manage my portions. While I slipped up hanging out with friends last night – having a Sam Adams and two Cokes – I do still feel healthier. Maybe early tomorrow morning I’ll go for a bike ride with the kids before the smoke thickens. 

Cheers! 

Daniel

As mentioned previously, school is out for the summer so every piece of cardio equipment was in use by out-of-school teenagers. In any case, today was a shorter, but still very good workout:

• Neutral grip pulldown on the Lat machine. Two sets of 8 reps @ 80 lbs.
• Rowing machine, targeting middle and lower back muscles:
  Both arms at once: Two sets of 8 reps @ 100 lbs.
  Each arm individually: one set of 8 reps @ 100 lbs.
• Lat/shoulder pulldown – like a reverse military press. Two sets of 8 reps @ 100 lbs
• Biceps pulldown on the Lat machine – Two sets of 8 reps @ 80 lbs.
• Calf extensions – Two sets of 10 reps @110 lbs.
• Leg press – Two sets of 10 reps @ 180 lbs.
• Triceps cable pulldown – Two sets of 10 reps @ 100 lbs

• Cardio – “My” usual elliptical machines were either in use or out of order so I had to use one of the other ones, off to the side. I used the “Hills” program on this machine and, phew!, it whooped my ass! 10 minutes on the elliptical machine, with the resistance gradually increasing from 11-16. Burned 140 calories.
• Neutral grip pulldown on the Lat machine. Two sets of 8 reps @ 80 lbs.
• Rowing machine, targeting middle and lower back muscles: 
  Both arms at once: Two sets of 8 reps @ 100 lbs.
  Each arm individually: one set of 8 reps @ 100 lbs.
• Lat/shoulder pulldown – like a reverse military press. Two sets of 8 reps @ 100 lbs
• Biceps pulldown on the Lat machine – Two sets of 8 reps @ 80 lbs.
• Calf extensions –  Two sets of 10 reps @110 lbs.
• Leg press – Two sets of 10 reps @ 180 lbs.
• Triceps cable pulldown – Two sets of 10 reps @ 100 lbs

The local high school is out for the summer, so the gym is quite busier than usual, with kids too busy listening to their iPods and trying to look good. I may have to switch to hitting the gym in the early mornings instead.

Cheers!

Daniel