04/26/2011 Yes, I am in love with a man now.

My Meals.

Getting out of bed this morning was like rolling out of bed after an all night bender that ends up at some late night eating spot, where you end up eating so much greasy crap that the first sensation you have in the morning is wanting to vomit, followed immediately by a re-tasting of the early morning meal via gas, or even worse regurgitation.   In a word getting out of bed, I really had to roll out of bed. 

After a quick walk with Benny just under 2.0 miles I went to the gym to do a little Mountain.  I started with a 5 minute warm up most of it with the Incline set to 10, and the Résistance at 40.  I kept it simple; when I started my first increase I lowered the incline to 6 and raised the resistance to 50.  I worked my way up to level 90 by the start of the 5^th increase.  At that point I kept the resistance at 90, and raised the incline incrementally until I reached 20.  On the final third of Mountain I raised the resistance to 100 and reduced the incline to 6, to go through a similar progression to the one I had just completed.  

I kept the incline at 20, and reduced the resistance to 70.  I went for a minute and then raised the resistance by 10 after 1 minute until I reached 100.  When I got back to the top I went for 2 minutes.  After the two minutes at the top I reduced the resistance back to 80, and worked my way by the minute back to 100.  This time at the top I went for 3 minutes.

When the third visit to the top was finished I reduced the incline and the resistance to recover, and I did a series of sprints.  Here is the entire workout.

My legs today felt like lead.  Somehow I was able to get a deep tissue massage with some guy named Bao.  I wasn’t thrilled that it was guy, I’m as straight as a razors edge, but something about another guy using his limbs to apply pressure to my body with lotion or oil just creeps me out a bit.  If that’s your fancy fantastic, but it’s just not my cup of slippery friction joy. 

I made an exception today because I REALLY needed one.  Bao is a stocky Asian guy, who likes to warn you about on coming pain by saying “This is going to sting”.  I think I heard him say that once a minute for the entire hour.  I was like a big obese puppet in his hands.  He would apply pressure somewhere and of course some other part of my body would twitch, or I would have to relieve the pain by fidgeting my legs.  At one point the “stinging” was so intense that I started laughing, I didn’t know how else to respond.  I think crying at that point would have sent the wrong message.

I think I could have been in his top 5 tightest clients (yeah I know how that sounds), I could hear him laughing in response to my reactions.  I didn’t mind, because if he had given me sympathy, I might have curled up into a little ball. 

An hour after he started I felt as if I had gone 12 rounds with Floyd Mayweather, I could have fallen asleep right on the table.  Getting off the table I felt 20 lbs lighter, I can’t believe how incredible you can feel after being assaulted by elbows, thumbs, palms, and knuckles.  He did mention that if I’m going to stay on this fitness course that I should do it at least twice a month, his explanation was that as I lose weight, I’ll have waste products from the fat cells that need to be released.  He said that my body would do this naturally but it could take up to 6 weeks for it to leave my system.  I don’t know how factual his statements are, but I do know as sore as I was, afterwards I felt better. 

My session with Ali went better today than any of the sessions last week.  I think it is in large part to the release that I felt from the deep tissue massage.  I warmed up before the session on the Arc Trainer with a Miracle Mile.  I set the incline to 0, and the resistance to 30.  It took me 15 minutes and 34 seconds to get to a mile. 

No boxing was involved today, all gym work.  The first exercise he had me do was a kind of squat and shoulder press using the bar from a bench press.  I would squat and press, and then skip to the other side of my body and repeat.  This was done for a minute.  Right after Ali had me do a chop and squat with the medicine ball 20 reps on each side of my body.  This was followed by a lunge holding a 25lb plate above my head; I had to 10 reps per side.  This circuit was repeated a second time.

We then moved into using the TRX and doing assisted sit ups.  The TRX allowed me to use my arms to get over the “hump”, the point at which my gut pushes my body back down.  I did the sit ups for a minute.  We then moved to the free motion cable machine, and I did a tug of war type row for 1 minute on each side of my body.  This was followed by a squat and shoulder row.  Again I did this for a minute.  Following the rows, I went back to the TRX sit ups for another minute.

He then had me do a quick cycle of upright rows with a 35lb plate, then front raises with 5lb dumbbells, a rotator cuff exercise, and finally a shoulder press.  At the end I was back at the free motion cable machine, where I had to do a lunge and side raise with the cables.  I did 10 reps per each side of my body.  The rest of the workout continued in this fashion.

Ali got a little flustered because I was anticipating what was next, and he clearly likes to keep things fresh so I am focused on the present exercise and not what happens next.  I like to know what’s impending so I can move right into the next exercise.  There was about another 15 minutes of jumping from machines, back to the TRX, then free weights, and then I had to do Mountain Climbers and jumps over the bench. 

The last exercise he had me do was to hold a squat position against the wall, and then do shoulder presses with no weight.  I was thinking no biggy.  After the 1^st 30 seconds my left hand started to twitch.  I think he thought I was struggling so initially he let me off with only 45 seconds.  I got bitter and told him if we don’t do it for a minute then it’s not worth doing, so I did it again for a minute.  It was a long minute.  Who knew shoulder presses without any weight could be so painful?

I finished the evening by doing another Miracle Mile on the Arc Trainer, then just went ahead and rounded out the clock to 30 minutes.  See chart here.

I can’t believe that I’m into my third week of being home.  The deep tissue massage was desperately needed by my body; as a result I am feeling significantly better than I did when I first woke up.  The workout with Ali is the proof.  Had I attempted that same workout yesterday, I think I might have given up.  Regular visits to a massage therapist I think are going to be necessary costs in order me to maintain what I’ve started.