My back got better much quicker than I was expecting, which is good. I went to half a kung-fu lesson last night, not wanting to over do it, but I was OK. This evening I did a quick weight training session. Did my staple 5 exercises: shoulder press (3 sets of 8, 30kg), bench press (3 sets of 6-8, 50kg), bent over rows (1 set of 20, 20kg), barbell curls (3 sets of 10, 20kg), then tricep extensions, using 15kg. Just 1 set I think.

I went really light on the bent over rows, just in case that was how I hurt my back. On shoulder press, bench press and curls I varied the speed of reps, adding some slow reps, and with bench press adding some very slow lowering (negatives).

Oh, another thing I did tonight was some hanging exercises. Pull ups are my biggest problem (mainly due to being overweight) and I also feel that my spine feels a bit compressed after shoulder presses, so now after a set of shoulder presses, and also sometimes after bench presses, I just hang on to the pull up bar for as long as I can. It is not long, usually just count to 10. The aim is to increase my grip strength as well as to stretch out the muscles, as hopefully this will help both my back and my pull ups, when I eventually lose some weight!

Feel nicely pumped now. After the workout I made a protein drink. I got some Wieder chocolate flavoured muscle drink. Hopefully it will help. Also taking other supplements, such as multivitamins, zinc, garlic and also glucosamine and chondroitin tablets to help with my wrist and ankle injuries.

Last night I also bought the Chow Gar 36 section, 2 person fighting form on DVD, so this should aid my learning of this complicated form! I hope to have a busy Christmas running, weight training and practising kung-fu, so time for bed for some much needed rest.