Motley Health's Fitness and Weight Loss Community

This evening I decided that it was time to start weight training again. I cannot remember the last time I did some weight training - according to this journal it was in April, just over 8 months ago. A shockingly long rest period!

Anyway, I headed off to the garage about an hour ago, and spent the first half hour attempting to make some room for training. Where as before my garage was kept clear of junk, over the last 8 months anything and everything seems to have been tipped in there. Boxes, dining chairs, garden chairs, an old kettle, carpet, carpet underlay, an old CRT monitor, some boxed of old toys, and even the box that the kitchen sink came in. I kid you not. The old sink was fortunately taken to the tip in the summer!

Once I had tidied, I prepared to get to work. That is when disaster struck. I had forgotten how much weight the bar could hold before tipping over. I removed 20kg from the right side, placed it on the floor, and then watched as the 7 foot bar tipped up, and the left end slide along before crashing through a shelf and breaking about 4 old Stella glasses (kept for parties) in the process. I did not inspect the damage any further for fear of what else I would find.

Also tonight, I realized that I have gotten weak. I am no longer at all strong. I am an utter wimp. I just want to make that clear before posting my workout, so that you do not have to!

After reading the various celeb workouts over on the main part of this website, I decided to try to follow one. However, me being me, I could not decide, so I did my usual routine. I was going to do the Bond workout, then I decided that the Batman workout would be better, but in the end I opted for a random assortment of exercises, and even made a couple up! I'll come to that in a moment.

My workout this evening:

Seated Shoulder Press:
20*10kg warmup
10*20kg
8*30kg
6*30kg

OK, so how am I doing? Once again I have hit some stumbling blocks. I managed to catch another bad cold, and that stopped me doing my new circuit training. I also spent a long weekend stuffing my face with chicken soup and chocolate to make myself better. The chocolate was purely to aid mental recovery!

I am still walking home from the railway station everyday as part of my Credit Crunch Fitness Plan. Total savings are about £200 each month (no bus, no morning coffee, cheaper breakfast, cheaper lunches, no kung-fu, less petrol). All adds up.

But there is good news! Yesterday I hopped on the scales after my wife decided to weigh herself, and I was surprised - actually shocked - to see that I had lost more weight. Not sure what the cause is though. I weighed myself again today, to make sure that last night was not just a freaky glitch, and I still weigh 95.2kg.

I think that the reason maybe a combination of diet and walking. As said, I am still walking about 45 minutes everyday working day. But also, I am on a wheat free diet. I spoke to a doc the other week, and he thinks that I have a wheat intolerance, so advised me to give up wheat to SIX MONTHS!!! I happen to think that that is a bit excessive. This means no bread, no pizza, no doughnuts, no cakes, no biscuits. Practically nothing. So my new daily eating regime is more or less:

Breakfast - porridge with raisins and honey / maple syrup
Lunch - jacket potato with some sort of chicken/meat stew on top
Supper - soup
Snacks - lots of chocolate "energy bars".

It has been over a week since I did my first 300 workout circuit, as I managed to get another cold during the week that lasted until today. I was still feeling a bit run down today, but felt I had to do something.

I decided on a different approach tonight, to do 400 exercises in total, adding star jumps (jumping jacks) to the press ups, squats and sit ups. Also, I decided to do sets of 10 reps, with each circuit more intensive that last time, but with longer rest periods.

I did the first two circuits (80 exercises) of star jumps, squats, press ups and sit-ups and a relatively gentle pace. For the next circuits I started increasing the intensity, by adding jumps to the squats, and attempting claps on the press ups (all I actually managed was to get my hands a few cm off the floor).

I did 9 sets like this, and then on the 10th, as I was still feeling like I had some energy, I decided to work harder and to failure on the last set. So for the last set I completed, in quick succession, 70 star jumps, 50 squats (without jumps) 15 press ups and 25 sit-ups.

In total I managed to do 520 exercises, a massive 120 over the objective for the night! Well done me.

Although I am not actually trying to build my biceps, they have responded a little from the press ups (although surely mostly triceps?), which is why have have added a pic. Maybe I will add some curls into the workout later. There is a dummbell sitting under the bed unused.....

I plan to do the same again next time, hopefully in a couple of days. Maybe I will aim for 600!

Tonight I decided that it was time I took a new approach to my attempts at getting fit. As I have stopped kung-fu for now, I need to increase my body weight training. I walk a few miles every day during the week, and cannot run on my dodgy ankle at the moment, so some home circuit training is the answer.

This evening I decided that rather than just simply do 100 press ups, I would do an equal number of squats and sit-ups too.

It was a very tiring workout, but I split it up into bite size chunks, and updated my Facebook status as I went, which provided some encouragement, of sorts, from friends that were online. Actually the most common comments were along the lines of "don't think you stand a cat in hell's chance of doing the 300 haha" and, after doing my first 100; "You would have been 2/3 of the way there if you didn't stop to tell us all your progress!".

I started at 10.15pm, with 25 press ups, and finished at 11.08pm, with an impressive 15 press ups. I obviously took a lot of rests in between sets. The squats were relatively easy, the sit ups harder, and the press ups a killer near the end. But I did better than usual on the press ups. If anything, giving myself more time to recover, by doing sit ups and squats, must have helped.

But I got there in the end. And the workout is attached for all to marvel at!

My fitness plan went pear shaped, again. Last week my dodgy ankle flared up again, and that has put an end to my running home from the station. However, I am still walking everyday - 2.7 miles, or 45-50 minutes. The walk is tiring, and by time I get home I am all sweaty and my legs feel pretty tired too. Anyway, to supplement my walking, and also to try to make up for the fact that I am not going kung-fu, I have started my daily 100 press up challenge again.

I did this challenge last year, I think, or it could have been the end of 2006 thinking about it. Anyway, I did 100 yesterday, but admit only managed 30 today. My 100 involved doing 1 set of 20, followed by 6 sets of 10, and then as many as I could before failing each time, until I got to 100. The 100th was a single press up, as I failed on 99. It was tough, but enjoyable!

Also, I promised my wife that I would do some sun salutations with her too. And September is apparently "Yoga Month", so I really should give it a go. Never done a sun salutation, but they look like a good way to exercise. My wife "does 100's" every Sunday in her Ashtanga yoga class. She says that it is the hardest yoga that she has ever done - so it must be good!

Here is a bit more about the Sun Salutation, plus a YouTube Yoga clip

After studying Chow Gar since 2003 (I think) I have decided to take a 4 month break from the martial arts school. Various reasons led me to this decision, but basically a combination of work worries (many redundancies already, and more to come), the fact that I had been struggling to fin the time to balance fatherhood, work, web design and kung-fu, and also my old ankle injury seems to be playing up again.

I hoe to focus on running and weight training for fitness for the next 4 months. The last time I went to the club, last week, I felt that my fitness levels had improved as a result of the running. So, a home fitness plan is in order.

I guess that at the back of my mind, is the question - in the new year, will I want to return? Only time will tell. I feel that my kung-fu learning had stagnated as a result of my less frequent classes, all my fault really.

Oh, gotta go to work, bye.

Tonight I had a good 1 1/2 hour martial arts session, and it felt good. The running home has improved my fitness slightly, I had more energy in class - well, at least for the first 45 minutes - and generally felt good. Still knackered by the end, but that is to be expected.

I walked home from the station yesterday - I thought that it was Monday (a kung-fu night) so did not pack my running clothes. Only on the way into work I realised that it was in fact Tuesday! But I still walked home, saving £1.30 bus fare, and getting a little fitter - so the credit crunch fitness plan is still on track!

Been busy recently. Too much to do. Managed to run home from the station 3 times. Also walked home once. Today my right ankle got very sore, the one that I broke in 2006. Still struggling to lose weight. Need more sleep. Been following the Olympics, and blogging it too. Inspirational.

Today I almost did not run home. I got changed into my tracksuit bottoms and t-shirt at work, and then hopped on the train. My wife called to say that we needed to do some shopping in Tesco, and that she could pick me up at the station. I agreed, but by the time we got to Tesco I was feeling really tired, and just did not fancy running at all. I wanted to just get in the car and curl up on the sofa.

I have finally increased my exercise. I have started what I am calling my credit crunch health and fitness plan. I am doing the following to save money and get fit at the same time:

1. In the morning, I buy a single bus ticket to the station, rather than a return.
2. I am no longer having my morning Medium Black Americano from Starbucks.
3. I am eating a smaller breakfast - usually sausage sandwich
4. I am running home from the railway station.