Shaping the body; adjusting the mind

[jaja]

Last day of vacation. I felt the anxiety creeping in and decided to spend the afternoon at the local climbing gym for a bouldering session. I opened with a grip workout.

• False grip pull-ups: 3x5
• Four fingered pull-ups: 3x5
• Finger board pull-ups, with pause at the top: 3x3
• Shoulder pushdowns on wooden balls: 3x5

The actual bouldering session went fairly good, I can feel some progress! However there're still a lot of problems I can't even take because I lack the strength (not to mention the technique).

[Pat (pogo69)]

18 hours ago, jaja said:

So…I’ve spent a whole week hiking on the Italian Dolomites with a group of strangers.

...

Here's a short album, in case someone wants to see few pictures.

Beautiful!  You are a lucky man, to have access to such majestic beauty.

A race in the Dolomites, the Lavaredo Ultra Trail, is another on my "wish list".  A (very lucky) friend of mine got selected in the ballot for this year's race, but alas it was cancelled along with pretty much everything else this year.

18 hours ago, jaja said:

They were not easy, though: on average we covered ascensions of 800mt a day and the longest one was 1600mt, to reach the top of Mount Civetta, at 3200mt above sea level!

That is a LOT of elevation gain!  Especially with the altitude.

18 hours ago, jaja said:

What was shocking to me was witnessing a fellow hiker, a 73yo man, walking those steep slopes like he was 40 years younger!

Feeling this.  See it all the time in the ultra trail running world.  It is amazing what a body can do, in the latter years, when it has been conditioned for decades preceding.

18 hours ago, jaja said:

There’s a trend among certain fitness circles of deeming cardio as a waste of time, but this is far from the truth. Strength is important, but you’re not fit if your endurance sucks. I need to address this.

This has been a recurring theme, to varying extents, for decades.  As with all things, "fitness" is subjective and specific.  Endurance is a tough aspect to tackle for most, because there are elements that cannot be effectively trained without committing a significant amount of time.

One can improve many of the parameters of endurance fitness, with shorter (and generally harder) sessions.  But without a decent "base" (requiring long sessions of "easy" effort), that fitness will all fall apart as the efforts' duration increase.

Obviously, it is impossible to improve everything at once.  Hence, prioritisation and periodisation.

[jaja]

Yesterday:

• Wall HF stretch
• Wall quad stretch
• Bolster piriformis stretch
• Ankle mobilization

Despite not having stretched at all during the past week, I found my body quite mobile. Of course tension was present, but of a different kind. In my HF I didn't feel adhesions as I usually do, just a general feeling of tissue toughness. Also, my piriformis muscles were softer than usual. This was a surprise because at the beginning of my vacation it was giving me some annoyances during the hikes. I suspect this improvement is due simply to not having sat that much and kept moving daily.

 

Today:

• One ring chin-ups: 4x10
  • Felt the fatigue from the other day
• Arch body holds: 3x8
  • Getting stronger here!
• Knee raises: 3x6
  • I liked the control I had here, but I got tired pretty quickly
• Ring muscle-up transitions
  • I just experimented a bit, trying to figure out my weak links
• Ring dips, arms rotated at the top: 3x8
  • Same as knee raises: more control than usual, but less overall strength

[jaja]

• Phus-ups: 3x20
  • So. Much. Fatigue
• Diamond push-ups: 3x15
• Pike push-ups: 3x10

A ~5k run, first in quite a few years, took 20 minutes. I wasn't pushing to my limits and was quite happy with the result. I'll feel it tomorrow in the calves, since I ran wearing my KSOs. Only real downside: blisters. What I didn't get by 7 days of hiking, I got by 20 minutes of running. I blame my cotton socks. Next time I'm gonna run without them, maybe throwing baby powder in the mix.

[Pat (pogo69)]

27 minutes ago, jaja said:

A ~5k run, first in quite a few years, took 20 minutes.

Holy crap!  That is pretty quick.  Very quick for totally out of practise.

Bugger about the blisters.  Do you wear Injinji socks?  Never heard of anyone getting blisters with them, especially over only 5km.

[jaja]

14 hours ago, Pat (pogo69) said:

Bugger about the blisters.  Do you wear Injinji socks?  Never heard of anyone getting blisters with them, especially over only 5km.

I wear the standard Vibram socks, which are made of cotton. Are injinji socks made of a better material?

--------

Today my calves are bothering me, as expected, but not too much. Movement is the best way to cure doms, as far as I know, so I decided to hit the gym for a quick session.

• Deadlift: 1x3x130kg + 1x5x117,5kg
  • No real improvement, but I'm happy about how it felt
• Chin-ups (chest to sky): 3x8
  • Really felt the fatigue. I've been doing chin-ups and pull-ups basically the whole week. However, I did a far enough job here
• Overhead press: 1x4x45kg + 1x6x42,5kg + 1x7x40kg
  • Last time I had nasty sensations in my lower spine after the exercise, they lasted for several days. So today I forced myself to perform the lift with strict form, which resulted in a slight loss of performance. However, this could also have been affected by the pike push-ups I did yesterday.

[jaja]

Spent the whole afternoon at the local climbing gym. Warmup, 2h of bouldering and 3h of climbing. Grip is still a limiting factor in a lot of things. I'm beyond tired now.

[Kit_L]

Grip strength is something I know about. The one arm hangs you are doing in the gym is one of the absolute best ways to improve your grip strength, and your strength is improving. But great grip strength takes years to acquire. The other way is to actually practice your two-arm and one-arm hangs from real pieces of rock in the bouldering gym. The variety of the things you will be hanging off, including finger-only holds, will make you a grip strength three-dimensional – you cannot get this kind of strength using normal strength training equipment. Don't worry, it takes time, and you are getting there.

[Kit_L]

I was dictating the post above, and auto-correct had changed what I said ("grip strength is something...") to "great strength is something...". I have amended the post!

[Pat (pogo69)]

On 8/29/2020 at 12:42 AM, jaja said:

wear the standard Vibram socks, which are made of cotton. Are injinji socks made of a better material?

I didn't know Vibram made socks?  Never seen them here.

The Injinis are definitely different, because they are synthetic, not cotton.  Moisture wicking material, would guess some kind of poly + lycra blend.  They also make wool blend socks for the colder weather.

[jaja]

Yesterday:

• Tricep push-ups: 3x5
• Push-ups: 3x28
  • First set incredibly easy, last set incredibly hard

 

Today:

• One ring chin-ups: 1x11 + 2x10
• Arch body holds: 3x8
  • Getting better at those!
• Knee raises: 3x6
• Ring dips, arms twisted at the top: 2x9 + 1x8
• Ring pec stretch
• Kettlebell press: 2x5

[jaja]

• Ankle mobilization
• Wall HF stretch
• Wall quad stretch
• Tailor pose stretch
• Passive back bend on baby whale, enhanced version
• Wall pec minor stretch
• Scalenes stretch
• Lumbar stretch

 

Haven't been stretching in a while and it definitely felt like it.

[jaja]

Spent the afternoon climbing boulders at the local gym. I’m getting better, which is nice. My grip is also improving and this makes me feel more competent even outside the climbing space.

My body is gaining back the tightness it had before the vacation, meaning it’s at least partially caused by my lifestyle.

Yoga nidra via frustrating at the moment. Almost always there’s some mental tension (manifesting primarily in the jaw and eyes) I can’t seem to dissolve. As a result full relaxation gets hindered.

[jaja]

Sunday was nice, I did a short hike (via ferrata) with some of the people I met this summer. The trail was rather easy, but offered quite a scenery. However I've been noticing bad sensations in my right knee. Fatigue/weakness/instability. I really don't know what to do with this problem, only thing that seems to mitigate it are squats and deadlift. As soon as I stop for more than a week (which is a short time), it gets worse.

[jaja]

Super short training session, this morning:

• Deadlift: 1x2x130kg + 1x5x117,5kg
  • Failed the 3rd rep, felt weaker than last time. This is what I get from neglecting training.
• Chin-ups (chest to sky): 1x8 + 2x7
  • Sub-par performance even here

[jaja]

• Low Bar Squat: 3x8x100kg
• Bent over row: 3x7x55kg
• Pull-ups: 3x6

[jaja]

Bouldering, today! I'm getting better, but I was quite tired due to yesterday's training and the poor sleep I had last night.

[jaja]

Yesterday:

• Push-ups: 3x27
• Triceps push-ups: 3x8

 

Today:

• Wall HF stretch
• Wall quad stretch

 

• Pike push-ups: 3x10
• One ting chin-ups: 3x10
• Ring dips, arms twisted at the top: 3x9
  • Soooo hard! I'm neglecting these way too much

[jaja]

• Deadlift: 1x3x130kg + 1x5x117,5kg
  • For the first time the discomfort in my right knee didn't disappear after the DL. It actually bothered me a little bit more, right after. I don't know how to interpret this. On the bright side, I felt stronger than last time.
• Overhead press: 1x4x45kg + 1x6x42,5kg + 1x7x40kg
  • Not bad, considering I haven't been training the movement all that much. Also, yesterday I did the pike push-up.

[jaja]

I've never lived my life this wildly before. I go out almost every night, I meet new people, I show myself as honestly as I can. I'm networking hard because I need new opportunities and I'm hanging out with this girl who has a hugely beneficial influence on me. She's not my type, physically, and maybe that's the reason why I'm still hesitant to start a relationship. But she's growing on me and I'm allowing myself to just go with the flow. Every moment we're together is an exercise in vulnerability. We are brutally honest, open…we keep pushing each other outside our comfort zone, but in a playful way. I'm having fun. Last Saturday night I ended up performing a traditional Salentinian dance, barefoot, among a bunch of newly met folks. And I don't like dancing, nor I am from Salento. I was not comfortable, yet I had a blast.

Only downside is sleep, I'm at constant loss. I'm also drinking a bit too much for my taste (I like social drinking). I still manage to find time to train, albeit it's a bit difficult. This week I train at home mostly and last Saturday I went for a hike with some friends: 1600mt ascent in around 3h30min. Quite a feat!

Today I lifted some weights:

• Chin-ups (chest to sky): 3x8
• Deadlift: 1x4x130kg + 1x5x117,5kg
• Overhead press: 1x6x45kg + 1x7x42,5kg + 1x8x40kg

Despite the lack of sleep, I pulled off a shockingly good performance, considered the infrequent training of the last month. I had decent strength, excellent form and even less muscle soreness afterwards. I think this has something to do with me being overall more relaxed than usual. I feel less tension in my body, even though I haven't stretched in a while and even my yoga nidra practice has been inconsistent lately.

Interesting times.

[jaja]

Spent the weekend with in a mountain cabin with a couple of friends. We did a lot of climbing and I managed to conquer my first 6a, which was unexpected! Bouldering was way harder, though. It's a completely different feeling from what you get at the indoor gym.

[Pat (pogo69)]

On 9/26/2020 at 1:43 AM, jaja said:

I'm having fun

Best post quote that I have seen in your log for... possibly ever.

On 9/26/2020 at 1:43 AM, jaja said:

1600mt ascent in around 3h30min. Quite a feat!

It is, indeed!

[Kit_L]

On 9/26/2020 at 1:43 AM, jaja said:

I'm having fun

I second Pogo's comment: keep going!

As for you thought "She's not my type, physically" — reflect on this, please. Real friendship is a much sounder basis for any kind of relationship than ideas about types. This is just a thought, too!

[jaja]

22 hours ago, Kit_L said:

As for you thought "She's not my type, physically" — reflect on this, please. Real friendship is a much sounder basis for any kind of relationship than ideas about types. This is just a thought, too!

True, but what's bothering me at the moment is the lack of sexual attraction. It's something new to me. To feel this good with a person, to be romantic with her…and still feel no primal desire.

[Kit_L]

Probably better to take this one off-line, but to lie next to this person naked, without your usual pre-conceptions, might just open up a whole new world for you. Humans are so completely ruled by their conceptual perspectives, all of them pre-formed! Try the 'let's see what this can be like', with a completely open mind, for a change. Could be revolutionary.