Another health and fitness thread anyone?

Now hold on boys, I wear the gray hair with pride. I raised 3 daughters and I earned every one of them gray hairs. 'Sides, at my age I really don't care what color they are. The main thing is I still have hair!!

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I hit 40 this summer and am finding more greys all the time

 

I'm a silver fox and proud of it.

 

Don’t ever lose that attitude. Age is a convenient excuse to become lazy. Will your body change yup, so what keep moving.

Shaving your head has many advantages one being nobody knows how grey your hair is. Until your eyebrows start to grey….


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I'm finally starting to get a few more grays on my chin whiskers, but the head is holding strong. Now, my forehead may be growing slightly larger as the years pass, and my hair isn't quite as lush as it used to be, but I'm doing pretty well, all things considered! Most of my friends I grew up with are wearing hats unless they're sleeping or shaving the whole thing entirely. So I'm going to consider it a win.

Today I decided to up the ante on the stair climber and do a bunch of Tabata sprints, and holy crap! I set the speed at around 115 steps per minute and did 20 seconds with no handles, 10 seconds rest, then repeat for 8 rounds of that. 1-minute recovery, then another 8 sets. My calves were on FIRE, but damn, it felt good when I was done. I ran a little short on time after that, but I did squeeze in some decent back/shoulder exercises before I left the gym.

My weight still is not moving and it's starting to piss me off. Just means I need to work harder I guess.

 

Broke a little yesterday as it was my daughter's bday. Pizza. Brownies. Time to walk it off on today's scouting trip. I may walk in circles for hours just to burn off the blubber.

 

If you have hair and over 40, do a happy dance. I started shaving my head when I was 31. Two of my three kids have never seen me with hair. Most of my early 40s friends are already on at least one daily prescription for something, overweight, and drink too much. I will take no hair and otherwise very healthy over hair and prescription drugs.

Today's workout needed a new challenge so I added the jump rope and swapped out the reverse lunges for step-ups on a 20" box. I did two sets of jump rope and assault bike sprints for 30 seconds each as part of the warm up, including the main part, done as a leg-murdering, lung-gasping workout. Only rested between exercises for as long as it took to move to the next station and grab the weight.

Jump Rope 3 x 30 seconds
GHR 3 x 6 @BW
Front Squats 3 x 6 @135lbs
KB Single-Leg Deadlift 3 x 8/leg @35lbs
KB Step-ups 3 x 8/leg @35lbs
KB Swings 3 x1 12 @100lbs
TRX Single-leg Squat 3 x 8/leg @BW
Calf Press 3 x 12 @100lbs
Assault Bike Sprint 3 x 30 seconds

 

I'm well into my 40's now and definitely felt a change from my 30's. Slowly losing a little hair and got about 25% of it is gray. I really don't want to be bald yet, but who knows it could be in my future.

I got great news today that I don't have to get surgery! Just recommend stretching and exercise to build my core. I already started that 2 weeks ago, and will continue for the rest of my life.

I'm feeling decent enough that I'm going to try and ride my mountain bike this afternoon. Excited to finally ride!

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Random thought for today:

I've had asthma since I was a kid. I don't recall exactly when I was diagnosed, but somewhere around 10 would be my guess. I was also a fat kid and ate like total crap (we called it husky back then). When I was younger, the doctors called it exercise-induced asthma so I would wheeze and have flare-ups when I ran, played sports, etc. They also told me it was triggered by allergies, so I spent years getting allergy shots each week, which never helped anything. Nobody ever told me to eat better and exercise. Just take your medicine and come get your shots.

In my early 20s, I was put on a new drug called Advair, which effectively kept my asthma at bay. It was a miracle! I rarely needed a rescue inhaler, which is what people think of when they make fun of the nerds sucking on their inhalers. Think Goonies.

Over many years I switched to several different types of asthma medicines based on cost and insurance coverage, finally ending on Symbicort. This is a combination of corticosteroids and bronchodilators and worked well to keep me "normal". I would generally only need my albuterol if I was sick with something like an upper respiratory illness or really getting some hard exercise in. But, I was also afraid to travel or go anywhere without my rescue inhaler because I would have flare-ups from time to time.

I tried weening myself off the drugs several times, and inevitably the wheezing and chest tightness would return after a couple of days off the medication, so I would relent get back on it. Because it cost so much money, I was only taking half of my recommended dose so I could stretch it out for longer periods of time. At $200 or more for a 30-day supply, this stuff was not cheap. And taking half of the prescribed dose actually seemed to work just fine for me.

Six months ago, when I decided to cut out most "bad" stuff from my diet and really focus on an excercise regimine, I also decided I was going to try getting rid of the medication again. This time it stuck, and I've been medicine-free for 6 months with zero symptoms, issues, or side effects. I do a tremendous amount of cardio each week, often spiking my heart rate well into the "red" without any breathing issues. Every once in a blue moon I will feel just a slight twinge of tightness in my chest and think about grabbing the albuterol, but I've resisted that urge so far. Eventually, it passes and I'm fine.

I have no idea if this will last forever but for now, I'm enjoying being in my 40's with a full head of not-gray hair and zero daily medications of any sort.

 

This is great news. I watched part of a show the other day hosted by a neurologist and a psychologist. Both brilliant. The psychologist had a lot of mental health problems growing up and was placed on a lot of meds. He was also heavier. He started a new high fat/protein diet and eliminated sugars to try and lose weight. His mental health rapidly improved and he has since gone on to do a lot of awesome stuff for people suffering from mental health that have tried everything and failed.

In my opinion our gut biome health and inflammation reduction via a proper diet is the next step in treating the entire person. I'm sure the pharmaceutical companies won't be happy.

 

Exercise is the only thing that comes close to a cure-all. I have personal training client that I have been working with her for six years. She has lost 150lbs and gotten off all medicine except for one last BP medication. Her doctor has told her he may take her off of that at the end of the year if she continues to show sustained improvement. One of her meds was for asthma. We used to have to pause workouts for her to use an inhaler. But, that hasn’t been a problem in three years. In her mid-50s, she is 15 lbs away from being what she weighed in college.

 

That's awesome to hear Justin! I hope it sticks for you also. The problem with today and even back then, if you told a kid that all he has to do is eat right and exercise, I bet 99 percent would fight it and not do it. So a easy button was created, with medicine. I too feel so much better with my current age and wish I did this at a much earlier in life. I feel like I'm close to the best shape of my life also and going to keep pushing for more!

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The problem is that with kids, the parents need to be on board. The kid will do it if the parents get with the same program and make them stick to it. Doctors told my parents I needed to lose weight, but they never helped me do it. And the old food pyramid with breads and pastas on the bottom that they gave my mom certainly didn't help anything.

That's one of the big things I'm trying to instill in my kids at a young age - eating healthy and being in good physical shape. My oldest boy just started to hit puberty, and he's growing like a weed and eating everything in sight. It's hard to get him not to eat junk all day, and it costs a lot more money, but I'm committed to not letting him go down the same path I did. Life is a heck of a lot easier when you do it right from a young age.

 

I have always been a "big dude". 6'3 which somehow shrunk to 6'2 and 250+ lbs and 24 inch shoulder to shoulder and just thick. I started my journey months back thanks to Justin and have loved it. Besides losing weight I'm jumping higher, breathing better, and pushing harder than I have in years. Now... That is all well and good and I do not bring it up to get kudos. I bring it up because my daughter who is me through and through FINALLY said ok dad I'll try it. So today is day 2 of her journey. I love having a buddy to talk about it with. Let's face it guys, Diets don't work, pills are BS and everything else is a gimmick. You need a mind set change. One that makes you understand what you need and subsequently "want". Food should be fuel and sometimes a treat. Workouts are a must. If you are not moving forward you are inevitably moving backwards towards death. I'm no internet hero, plenty of you know me IRL and are bored of hearing this. It's a lifestyle. Get balanced calorically. Drink water. Sweat everyday ya sissy Mary.
Sorry guys, I needed to get that out there.

Who wants to hit the gym

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Walked 3.5 miles scouting. Cooled down and then ran 2miles.

 

Well I got back on the bike! No idea what ride number I'm at. But it felt so good to be riding and with some good friends. The ride wasn't anything special, mostly just a shake down to see how I feel. Back did great, had a couple little spikes of pain, but nothing I couldn't handle. Time to start pushing up the miles again, got 3 weeks to make up for.

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Wearing the 20lb weight vest again today. I am loving doing this workout with that on. Pace was a couple of minutes slower than last week. Didn't sleep well last night.

6 rounds in 44 minutes
1 min sprint on rower
1 min sprint on bike
150 yard sled drag @90lbs

 

Pre work workout. Legs, pullups, heavy bag, abs. 20min at a fast pace. About an hr later I could feel a major carb craving coming on even after I ate. I was thinking of what horrible snacks I could eat when I said the heck with it and ate a spoonful of honey. After about 10min I felt the cravings go away. That was close to an all out assault on M and Ms!

 

Today was 30 min on stair climber - new PB of 215 flights. My general routine is to start at a moderate pace and increase throughout my workout until I end on what's pretty much a sprint. The last week I've focused on starting at a slightly higher "base" and ramping up my intensity earlier in the workout. So now I'm starting at around 105 steps/minute and ending at around 135. I try to do the majority of my workout at 120-125 steps/minute.

I followed that up with a 35-minute leg session. Leg press, leg kickbacks, leg extensions (Got 215 one-rep max today), leg curls, glute-ham raises, single leg deadlifts.

Fortunately I saw my weight drop about 2 lbs this morning, which was encouraging! I'd been flat for a week or so before that.

 

my work out this morning was putting my daughter on the potty 10 times "I have to go potty" 2 seconds later "all done" 2 seconds later "I have to go potty" "all done" annnnnd repeat over and over

Don't worry I lift with my legs so the back is safe