Exerbabble for 2-24-6

Focus. Priorities. Entry FIRST. I’ve done my preliminary rounds, as in checked my notes and my emails, but without replies. Well, I had only one email in my gmail, and it took two seconds to reply to, so I did. Left all the email in my yahoo for later (as in, after I finish writing) so I have something to look forward to. Otherwise I’ll have all those thoughts in my head, and be anticipating replies, when I’d be better served just writing now with a clear head, firing out replies, and then turning off my LCD to do something else.

For doing a light cram-session on Tuesday to study for the first Lifetime Wellness test, I got an 89. I’m amused greatly. I should do better in the second unit as it’s more stuff I’m interested in. It’s only a two-credit course, ya know.

Teach redeemed himself in my eyes. I don’t understand the point of having us do twenty-reps in weight training for our first set. (I have him for both classes, don’t get confused.) Today in class, he was talking about how you use high weight, low reps for muscle strength, and low weight, high reps for muscle endurance. This is about as true as it gets.

He did say that fat guys who work out become fat guys (with muscle), and would be better served spending more time on a treadmill. He has a point which I can’t deny, but I don’t think it’s wise to discourage people from picking up a weight. He said the rise in basal metabolism (amount of energy your muscles burn by doing “nothing”) is overrated. Perhaps.

He mentioned guys with big bellies who do sit-ups, how that won’t reduce the amount of fat in the area. Good boy. No such thing as targeting fat loss. Where fat comes off is based on genetic body composition and percentage of fat on the body. Some people just place it in different areas.

Supposedly with most diets, if you don’t exercise, you lose weight not by dropping fat, but by losing some of your muscle mass. Some, I wouldn’t doubt it. Remember, muscle weighs more than fat.

We’re apparently doing exercise testing on Tuesday. Given how low a bodyweight I have, the weight I’ll have to do for the exercises will be a piece of cake. On Monday, we’ll be learning the last of “new exercises” in weight training. I’ll just do those single sets and nothing else, as I won’t have a rest day before Wednesday. Oh well, whatcha gunna do? I’ve been feeling a lot better since I got into this current cycle. No nagging soreness or pains, no injuries. My energy level is pretty good.

I decided to start doing a five-minute cardio warm-up. I knew I’d be leading off with overhead squats, so I knew I couldn’t just throw my body into that with my heartrate at resting. Regardless of what effect it has on performance, it’s better for my heart.

Anyway, today’s workout:

Form is getting better with overhead squat, but it’s going to take at least another month before I add weight. When I push up with my legs, my arms seem to lose a little bit. As I get used to the exercise, I’ll get better at “remembering” to hold the weight up steady. Krista Smash wrote that you should have the weight a little bit “back”, I remember what her pictures looked like.

Obviously everyone should find what’s most comfortable for them, but when I try to move the bar behind me slightly, I feel discomfort in my upper and lower back (..but not in the middle, hence not just saying “my back”). So I just do what’s most comfortable. Once I get my form down, then I’ll work on range of motion. I probably won’t be going all the way down to the floor once I start adding weight, but for just the bar I should be able to have good range of motion. Good for flexibility, ya know. You don’t realize how inflexible you are unti you try things and you notice, “Wow, my body can’t move that way!”

I’m only ten pounds away from (back) squatting my own weight. Maybe next week. Maybe the week after. I could try to hit my normal 3×8 next week. Have I mentioned my quads are exploding?

I wanted to do overhead press first, as my arms were already fatigued from overhead squats. Reason I did overhead squats first was that if I had done overhead press first, I wouldn’t have had the endurance left to hold the damn weight up. *taps head* A method to my madness. So I did the same bench press routine I did last week, not wanting to exhaust my triceps. It was kind of nice doing those three sets, and not feeling too much of a strain.

Notice that I didn’t do anything else after the overhead press. I thought about doing some laying cuban rotations, but by the time I finished, goddamn, I was done. Overhead presses always seem to take so much more energy than anything else. Triceps and shoulder already tired, I did one rep on the third set and said to myself, “Shit, my arms are dead, I need to lower the weight.” So I did. I focused on range of motion, going all the way down to my chest, then back up. That’s a long way back up. I don’t really care that the reps aren’t consistent, what matters is that my arms were one rep short of failure each time. I pushed them as far as I could. That’s all anyone can ask for.

I showered nakie, towel-dried my hair a little bit, finger-combed it, and relaxed in the sauna for a bit. I like how the sauna finishes drying my hair. Not completely, but it holds my curls? I know what I mean.

The diner was still crowded when I got there, but as I predicted, it cleared out by the time I left. I had my favorite waitress. She’s young, she’s cute, she does not have distracting cleavage, she gets my orders right, she’s responsive, she normally seems in a good mood. She’s on top of her shit. That entirely set my mood for feeling comfortable enough to relax, journal a bit, and read. I finished the chapter on perfectionism. *nods*

Came home. Tuggified. I’m proud of myself. Getting back into tugging (ie: foreskin restoration) was a good idea. I am the Savior of Foreskin, after all. Deciding to lower the so-called required hours a day makes it easier to follow. I don’t even really have required hours. I just make myself pee and tug immediately after I come home from school. Then no matter what I end up doing for the rest of the day, I can know, “Look at what I’m doing for my penis. BE ALL YOU CAN BE, INJURED ONE!” And deciding to give myself one day a week off was a brilliant idea, as it prevents the skin from becoming fatigued. My fauxskin is only as healthy as the skin cells that are dividing.

Remember kids, the foreskin technically doesn’t exist. It’s just a region on a continuous piece of skin that happens to fold over itself to protect the glans; the foreskin is not a separate organ.

Anyway, I do believe I’m done for now. OH. Have I mentioned how much I love these socks? SO COMFY.