Finally

I have finally hit a little rhythm with good workouts in the past week or two.

My sister and I bought a package of free visits to a bunch of gyms in NYC. It was 60 bucks and we have over 100 gyms to attend. It is a bit of a racket for sure, as in I could probably just show up at these gyms and say I am interested and they would give me a week to try it out. However included in the package are fencing lessons, free bowling, gymnastics, karate stuff, etc. I would probably pay $60 just to jump from a trampoline into a foam pit.

The first gym I went to coincided with a visit to Columbia University. It was on a roof top on the upper west side that overlooked the river and had a great view of the skyline. I did a warm up and then launched into 3 of these sets of exercises with like a minute or two rest between:

5 KB clean and jerks @ 35
20 mountain climbers
10 push!ups
16 walking KB swings
6 pull ups
10 squats with a 45lb sand bag
10 clean the sand bag to shoulder

I did some lat pull downs and some DB presses to fill out the upper body work and some reverse lunges from defecit and hamstrign curls to finish out the lower body work.

Next was Crunch! I haven't been to a mainstream gym in a long time. It was quite refreshing. Towels, tons of space, full boxing area with gloves, nice locker rooms, etc. I hit the bag for a while, which I haven't done in 6 months. I did some deadlifts for the first time in ages at a whopping 205. Elevated rear leg lunges at about 35. Next I cranked the treadmill up to 10, ran for a 1/4 mile and then hopped off to do 10 burpees. Finished with some push presses and some pull ups.

Third was some stupid little gym near NYU dental school which has cheap emergency dental work that I needed cause a filling fell out. I hit the bag for a while and then did this circuit a few times:

10 airplane pushups
10 step ups, 10 side step ups
10 med ball slams


I missed a couple but this post is like 3 weeks late.

Im having trouble posting with any regularity. A 9 to 5 really promotes good blogging.

Ho-Hum

Looking back on my posts from this summer, I lament losing access to such an amazing gym. Reading the diversity of exercises that I was doing makes me really cherish the time I spent at TPS and I would push anyone in the Somerville/Medford area to get there immediately.

Ultimate was fun on Monday. I felt alright, but my lower back has been rebelling against my renewed interest in an active lifestyle. It makes it hard to get low and cut. Other than that and some terrible decisions I played well. My quads still get abnormally sore the day after a workout. Not like a diffusive soreness, but a soreness local to where I had my pulls/tears. Im trying to work it by rolling on the PVC.

I'm not sure how to get my back in shape except to keep plowing forward. I think the stress on it has come from basketball, especially trying to keep huge guys out of the pain. I get assigned big, strong dudes almost every game. On Tuesday I played 2 v 2 against some old guy and this guy who was built like Zach Randolph. The old guy sucked so he just kept feeding this dude in the paint. Luckily his shirt was freshly laundered cause I had my face buried in it for 25 minutes as I tried unsuccessfully to stop a huge guy with above average post moves from scoring. We lost. I had a series during the next game, 3 v 3, where I got 4 offensive rebounds in a row and missed all the put backs. For all that I am playing a ot better. I am also getting some handshakes when I arrive. One kid said, after I apologized for playing terrible for one game, "but you got that hustle, I wish I had that shit". He addressed it as if hustle was a pull up jumper or a crossover.

Making the transition back to an active lifestyle

I had a busy week. Tuesday and Wednesday I played basketball. Thursday I worked out. Working out means mostly doing crossfit work. Clap pushups, mountain climbers, cleans, step ups, pull ups, all in a row.

I played some snow goaltimate on Saturday which was very fun.

I played basketball today. I had a bad first couple games, but game back with two good games including the...wait for it...game winner! I should just stop now cause I am guaranteed to suck next time out. The dude in the last game wore me out. He wasn't all that big, but I bet he was cut out of some sort of metal or stone. He tired out at the end, but my team kind of lost it and we ended up 2-2. Whatev's, it is fun, and I get a lot of "good hustle" comments, which is all they can really say after I do things like launch 3 balls that hit off the top of the square, never hit rim, and ricochets over everyone and right out of bounds. I swear I had a good game though and they actually chose me over some other dude when there were 7 of us for a 3 v 3.

My plan is to play some outdoor pickup tonight. Not sure if I will make it. Fingers crossed.