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This week was a bit weak (so far)
today only my 2nd workout
But it was a real good one: 1 hour 20 minute ruck march in the heat of the Florida Day!
From 1225 until 1 45.

Pushed me to my limits due to heat.
 
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My workout today was my job. It's about 90° here and I spent all day either swinging a sledgehammer or grinding rail with a bicycle grinder. This miserable thing...
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It's used to grind on the web of the rail. That's the skinny vertical part of the rail. You straddle the top of the rail, hold onto the handlebars, and either squat up and down with your knees or lift up and down with your arms. Either way it sucks...
 
Tonite ( Saturday nite) I went to the gym late.
It was after 11pm when I got there.
Luckily its a 24 hr gym.

It was late but I knew I HAD TO go because if I did'nt there would be no chance even if I exercised Sunday to make the minimum 4 exercises / week it takes to get into shape.
3 a week are enough to maintain, but to build, one needs 4 a week IMHO.

Now yesterday I did a hard 80 minute ruck march and I understand thats like a hard leg day so I wanted to rest those legs and did pure upper body tonite at the gym.
(I have not yet decided what will come tomorrow, either a hard leg/core day or a run or another ruckmarch)

Tonite:

- 3 sets over headhead lat pulls
- 3 sets standing military press
- 2 sets bent over rows
- 3 sets incline bench press
- 2 sets lateral raises
- 2 sets frontal raises.

I had intended to do shoulder shrugs too, but about that time I was staring to run out of gas since all those reps had been to failure.
 
Tonite Sunday:

Did a Ruckmarch w/ 45lbs pack, but it was not like last time during the heat of the day.
I had the distance pegged for a 60 minute ruckmarch but I shaved 5 minutes off it.

Likely due to the cooler weather (85 F ;) ) in the evening hours.
 
snatched a sort-of victory from the jaws of defeat tonite.

So yesterday was my "off" day.
I was in the mood to exercise and felt full of energy but that would have been my 4th day exercising in a row and for someone bouncing back and being middle aged a risky combination.
So I controlled myself and did not exercise yesterday.

But today I come in a bit late form work and was real tired.
I had planned to either do a ruck march or a run or a leg/core workout.

All of which important workouts and all of which what I call "high energy of activation".

I had also eaten a bit much after i came home from work.
On top of that a heavy thunderstorm turned my running/rucking route in a mud fest.. and I could not find the loose short I need for squats.

I was teetering on the brink of just skipping it for many minutes.

But then I though about the difficulty of getting in 4+ workouts in a week if I skipped today.
It would make it impossible to do the right number of exercises since I still needed an off day even if i wanted to exercise every remaining day of the week.

So I did go.
But did a "fun" workout instead at the gym, not what would have been "the plan" but at least it was a workout and as such infinitely better than no exercise.

  • 3 sets overhead lat pulls
  • 2 sets standing military overhead press
  • 2 sets bent over rows
(here is where i forgot to do my bench press but I made up for it later)
  • 2 sets of lateral raises
  • 2 sets of frontal raises
  • 3 sets of shoulder shrugs
  • 2 sets of back extensions (these are not fun but very good for mobility in terrain under load so they were a worthy sub for benchpress)
 
Just got back from a run.
For me this is a monumental transition.
Why/how?

Well at first I was going to go either ruck march ( but it was dark on my route on that dirt road and last time I looked it was closed I was uncertain it would be open again and did not want to walk on the grassy shoulders next to busy evening traffic in the dark) or gym session focused on legs/core.

But I could not think of enough different exercises to do on legs core at the gym to make it a good sessions especially since I already did back extensions yesterday.

So I tried for a light run.

Why is this monmental?

Because basically since the middle of 2020 I had stopped running and during the fits and starts of trying getting back into shape several attempts over past 1.5 years, I had not gotten past the rucking stage.
As I am heavy I felt I needed to strenghten my legs/tendons first.

But today I crossed that threshold.

23 minutes.
Nothing crazy and I was slow.. but still its a significant gate for me.
 
Just got back from a run.
For me this is a monumental transition.
Why/how?

Well at first I was going to go either ruck march ( but it was dark on my route on that dirt road and last time I looked it was closed I was uncertain it would be open again and did not want to walk on the grassy shoulders next to busy evening traffic in the dark) or gym session focused on legs/core.

But I could not think of enough different exercises to do on legs core at the gym to make it a good sessions especially since I already did back extensions yesterday.

So I tried for a light run.

Why is this monmental?

Because basically since the middle of 2020 I had stopped running and during the fits and starts of trying getting back into shape several attempts over past 1.5 years, I had not gotten past the rucking stage.
As I am heavy I felt I needed to strenghten my legs/tendons first.

But today I crossed that threshold.

23 minutes.
Nothing crazy and I was slow.. but still its a significant gate for me.
Good job!
 
Did something a bit different today. I had a date with a nice lady who likes the outdoors and we went to a small lake and rented a paddleboat. I am not sure how much of a workout moving a paddleboat is, but after nearly an hour of pedaling to turn the paddle wheel my quads were tired and sore.

Yesterday I got around 4 miles of walking on two separate walking paths. It was not really at a strenuous pace but once again it was something different from normal for me.
 
Today, Friday.
yesterday off (my legs had hurt a bit still from the light run yesterday)
Starting to get more serious yet tough...

- 3 sets of squats
- 3 sets of lat pulls
- 2 sets of standing Military press
- 3 sets of incline bench
- 2 sets of rows
- 2 sets of lateral raises
- 2 sets of frontal raises
- 2 sets of shoulder shrugs

I can tell in a couple weeks I might separate upper body days from pulls/core/legs days the way I used to in the past.
This would open the door to more iron pump sessions per week and more focused ones too.
 
Just did my 4th workout for the week.
-a 60 minute fast Ruckmarch with 50 lbs.
 
Most intense workout in over a year, its clear to me that the last 3 weeks have finally gotten me fit enough to exercise hard.

- 3 sets of squats
- 3 sets of lat pulls
- 2 sets of hip adductions
- 2 sets of hip abductions
- 3 sets standing over head military press
- 2 sets of bent over rows
- 3 sets of dumbbell bench press
- 2 sets of dead lifts (light weight and low reps, but its a beginning)
- 2 sets of lateral raises
- 2 sets of frontal raises
- 2 sets per leg of standing single leg weighed calf raises

🏋️‍♂️
 
take care of yourself @Spikedriver - the combo of heat and hard manual labor can be really hard on your body, especially if you get dehydrated, your risk of kidney injury would be more than someone who isn't diabetic, make sure you are drinking a lot of fluid! I really like powerade zero, and drink several of those while outside working.
We've been putting in 8-10 hour days building road, and I've been going to the gym after. I skipped yesterday as we had to drive back to our old place and meet the drivers to get our containers and then pick up a car - then we built some road when we got in.
Went to the gym he day prior for leg day (ugh), and arm/ab day before that. Still doing the treadmill at an incline for 30 mins to burn about 350kcal.
 
skipped out early at the property today, went to the gym around 2pm
30 mins incline training, max 15% (25 mins)
15 mins bike at a level 12
back extensions 15 x 3
shoulder press 10 x 3
bicep curls 10 x 3
triceps extension 10 x 3
ab 20 x 2

Tomorrow I finally go back to work, been off for 3 weeks, should be interesting.
 
Just got back from a short run.
It was short only 22 minutes but a short run is better than no run and promising myself that it will stay short is what helped me get off my butt at 9:30 pm, and out there to begin with .
 
Today was a bit in a hurry but got a good workout anyway.
In order:

- 3 sets of squats
- 3 sets of lat pulls
- 2 sets of standing military press
- 2 sets hip adductions
- 2 sets hip abductions
- 3 sets incline bench press
- 2 sets of rows
- 2 sets of back extensions

I think I forgot the lateral and frontal raises I usually do, since I was in a hurry.
 
Today at work, was full of loaded carries - I hauled 45 pounds bags of rail anchors, one in each hand, up to distances of 300 feet. With dumbbells that isn't that hard, but in a bag it is a real test of my grip strength.

Along with that we pounded those anchors onto the rails all day with sledgehammers. No more cardio workout is needed - if you want to make your lungs burn, swing a sledgehammer hard for 15 minutes straight. Then take a 5 or ten minute break and do it again, for 3 hours. It is a full body workout.
 
Ruckmarch tonite.
So much easier/faster than 4 weeks ago :D
 
Today (Tuesday nite) my first exercise of week 5:

- 3 sets Squats
- 3 sets lat pulls (heavy)
- 2 sets hip aductions (more reps than usual)
- 2 sets hip abduction (more reps than usual)
- 2 sets military standing overhead press (*pulled my right arm triceps during the 2nd set, so had to skip my follow on exercise that involved triceps, so the incline bench press was on schedule but skipped as a result, now drinking some alcohol now as a muscle relaxant, )
- 2 sets rows
- 2 sets lateral raises
- 2 sets frontal raises
- 2 sets shoulder shrugs ( heavy)
- 2 sets back extensions. (more reps than usual)
 
This morning, I went for a six(!) mile walk on a state park trail. There was no terrain to speak of, but six miles was a bit out of my comfort zone. Glad to report that I was able to accomplish it with no undue fatigue...

Wednesday evening I went for a 2.2 mile walk with my daughter
 
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Just now (Friday night) I came back from a run. t was a light run but a run nonetheless.
This has not been a strong week for me in PT and its only my2nd workout.
So I have my work cut out for me Sat/Sun
 
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