Next year, aiming for CST, TacFit, and Rings One seminars, instead :) There's nothing like learning directly from the experts.
But today, a much more modest target. A TacFit Commando, high intensity session later today. Letting the digestion rest until this evening, given last night's high protein and fat fest.
And a RESET style loping jog, just now, to shake things out and keep the blood pressure unclenched.
Not exactly a trail, but horsey fun, nonetheless.
It's all a package deal. Active exercise gets the most focus, usually prescribed by someone else. But you have to find what works for yourself - there are just too many variables of your physiology, work duties, stress levels, diet, etc. to use anyone else's program as anything but a guide. If I could, I'd get to my goals by doing pure strength training, alone. But the qualities I'm tracking - and you can't honestly improve without tracking - only get better by attending to aerobic loping, Tabata intervals, low starch and sodium eating, and loads of sleep. Your mileage will vary, as it should.
Or "6 Exercises Done Tabata Style -- Need I Say More?"
I was first introduced to the Tabata protocol -- 20 seconds of active work, 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times -- by Steve Maxwell, gentleman and grueling taskmaster/trainer extraordinaire, so I already knew that peaceful smokey feeling. And today was supposed to be more an intro to the 6 exercises for the introductory level, with tomorrow, Day 4, being the push it session.
Feeling mighty smoked, nonetheless. Mayhap the 20 minute jog beforehand had something to do with that.
In TacFit Commando (TFC), you keep track of the number of reps of each exercise you do per the 8 rounds, and watch to see how they change over time. The lowest number is what you record for each of the 6 exercises, and when the sum reaches 40, it's an indication that you may want to kick it up a notch. Tonight's sum was 27: 6, 5, 6, 1, 6, 3.
The system overall is much more than this, including mobility warmup, active yoga-based cooldown, and a unique 4-day cycle. All designed specifically to prepare you over 9 months for tactical fitness: very active burst work, in any plane of motion, including functional endurance. Based on movements and needs of law enforcement, military, fire and first responder folk. No equipment needed. Recovery and careful cycling in an upward spiral built in.
I can tell my bod will need more loosening; the warmup and cooldown, extensive as they are, are challenging in themselves. Yin and Yang, but my own physiology is hankering for a bit more Yin :)
Luckily, there's plenty of that on hand: the RESET material, plus the Intu-Flow joint mobility that I've been doing for some time. Lots of unkinking, unbinding, and redistributing of bloodflow and nutrients. Extra TLC for TFC.
Next steps:
Following the protocol, esPECially the low/light/medium/high intensity wave
Improving technique with the unfamiliar movements, by chaining them together in a FlowFit-style routine, and practicing them -- gently and at near zero intensity -- on non "working" days
Continuing with my running for stress decompression and BP control, but sensibly integrating it with TFCMDO
Not entirely sure why I've become a CARB DEVOURING MONSTER this past week, but it's time to stuff Mr. S. Tarch Hyde back into the shadows.
Ingredients:
organic salad greens, prewashed and packaged
1 tin of sardines packed in mustard
a few ringlets of purple onions
handful of organic walnuts
vinaigrette of Udo's Choice Oil, balsamic vinegar, a goodly squirt of organic Dijon mustard, ground pepper, and a few shakes of Italian Seasoning
Pretty much zero prep time, no carbs to speak of, and muy high in protein and omega-3s (from the fish, the nuts, and the oil).
To go lower on the sodium (the sardines have about 500 mg), substitute a hardboiled egg or two and don't add salt.
Morning routine, replete with vitamin D, wind in the hair, hugs and sunshine:
22 minute park walk with the pups, kids, and my honey
30 min garage treadmill session, moderate program with RESET loping, HR 116-130s
BP still doing alright -- no longer in the hypertensive range, though I'd still like it lower. So next steps will be losing another 5-10 lbs, and carefully adding another activity layer to the running foundation, all while carefully monitoring BP, energy levels, injury proofing, etc.
Decided to use the VFFs to combine a doggie walk, runnin' with the younguns, and an outdoor run -- 3 birds with one stone, at 130 bpm.
Treadmill running works different muscles than regular running, doesn't it?
And VFF running the way I'd been doing it, trying to emulate The Great Ali as I floated like a butterfly on my forefeet, is different from regular running.
And so is doing side shuffles to mix things up -- and our little pup doesn't do running at daddy speeds.
Lots of springing in place.
Could use some liniment, and a Mr. Han laying on of hands to the old calf.
For a HR of 130-135, that's about 20-21 strokes per minute, with attention to decent form throughout, at about a 2'20" pace per 500 meters.
The emphasis is on the HR, not comparing race paces, though.
Will study whether 30-35 minutes at that HR is comparable to the same while jogging on a treadmill; I'll know if with a total daily exercise duration of 1 hour, my "fitness factors" are optimized.
Not competitive racing speed and short split times, but
Blood pressure
Body weight
Neutralized stress hormones (i.e. freedom from freak shows)
Mental resilience
Memory and learning
Plus, there are just enough variables to pulling a perfect stroke to keep you coming back for more, seeking that synchronous total body pull. Nowhere near as ridiculous as golf, thankfully.
Another morning session with Xeno at the Iron Oarsman. Not the most death-defying MetCon workout I've ever had, but spent most of the 45 min class close to my max HR, and definitely felt gassed in the last few minutes. Xeno managed to keep the session balanced between warmup, technique focus, interesting intervals, and getting delicately smoked.
Really liked the 10 or so minutes afterwards, just "paddling" (probably because of what ended immediately before). Went from 17 strokes/min up to a more comfortable 20, feeling the coordinated whole body ease of it; HR was in the 140's, so even that was technically high intensity cardio. Am sure I could learn to throttle it back, probably by having less water in the WaterRower's tank for resistance. How do you gauge how much water to put in the tank?
Got to try the Concept2; gotta admit, it felt nice, probably due setting it on a lower dialed-down resistance, plus the rounder handle cross section. But my Xeno model WaterRower is on its way, and it's definitely more pleasant in its liquid swoosh, what I'd imagine a scull on the water sounds like. The chain sound isn't unpleasant on the C2, neither is its soft airfan whir, which may actually be quieter than the water moving away from the WR's tank paddles. But the C2 is definitely more gym equipment in construction and feel, and would not fit our home. And I refuse to row a fan-based machine in the garage.WaterRower's website lacks robustness, compared to C2's. It's focused, but doesn't feel as full and inviting, like you could learn everything you wanted about indoor rowing from it, short of having a machine. I hope the company does well in other areas, because I'd hate to lose mechanical support down the road if its lesser Internet presence causes it to tank.Certainly am hoping that Xeno's efforts can create a viable meeting ground to fill that niche...and that WR will come around.C2 is the standard for competitive indoor rowing ranking. There are ways to offer something similar for WR; these should be learned from, not copied. The most unoccupied niche seems to be fitness for the new rowing enthusiast focused on other things besides competing.Look at pedometers; there's an immediate thrill from seeing those steps really add up. A walk around the block adds hundreds of steps to your daily total, typically shooting for the magic 10,000 mark. The meters rowed statistic functions similarly, like today's session + the 10-ish minute paddling: 13,018 meters. You can rack up the meters, time rowed, HR and time, torque, and stroke rate, or any combination. Offhand, meters rowed feels the most tasty, with the HR + time being a close second in terms of sensibleness. Just like walking/treadmill cardio for fitness, and the pedometer + HR & time.Online logging definitely adds something, tho'. Especially with new or virtual friends/training colleagues.Hey, hear that sucking sound? That's the whirlpool of communal, tribal proof and competition calling.It's a frakkin' siren call, is what it is. An easy Charybdis to fall into and get lost. It can be surprisingly hard to resist the pull of a thankless, seemingly left-field niche, filled with the earnest young and young at heart, training and competing in extremis. With hundreds of years of cachet and tradition. That describes rowing, sailing, and most traditional martial arts (guilty as charged). Remember why we came here:
Alternate continuous session cardio to cross train with walking/jogging/running
Joint sparing, even at high intensity levels
Quiet, doable at any hour without waking family
Potentially meditative, or soothing
Fits in within the home decor (only not an issue if you are Single with a capital "S")
Still planning on doing 1 hr most days of cardio...would like it to be 30 min of moderate walking/jogging/running, and 30 minutes of moderate rowing. And 20-ish minutes twice weekly of high intensity rowing (plus strength training).
Why? To keep weight in check (more about food choices, but no question 70 min total/day of cardio helped), bp under control without meds (so far, so good!), and stress relieved. Plus hopefully all those other wonderful fringe benefits -- mainstream benefits, really: longevity, emotional stability, anti-aging, dementia risk chop down, brain neuron growth and complexity increase, improved learning and memory, antioxidant production. And so on.Competition is nowhere in there.But tracking numbers and comparing some can help keep the motivation up.Then there's Daniel Pink's Third Drive.Which is what a bit different from what I'm talking about just above; it's about the intrinsic value of the activity itself, as opposed to a reward you chase, or a punishment you avoid. Rowing, you can really find a groove, the groove, pretty easily, if you're not intent on "hammering it." That's a nice place to be -- stay awhile, then maybe play with things a little. Then it can seem fun to cruise towards certain target goals, as opposed to being driven by them.That is the dog, with the rest being the tail.
On my march back towards a more well-rounded (yet clearly effective) exercise regimen, I've added indoor rowing -- aka erging -- into my schedule. Once or twice a week, for 45 minutes, courtesy of Xeno Muller in the video above. He leads a class of us, on the WaterRower, and his energy is infectious (which coming from a physician is saying something).
For me, weight control, stress neutralization, and BP management go hand-in-hand with continuous session aerobic exercise -- hence, the old treadmill in the garage getting 6 day a week use, 30-40 moderate intensity minutes per session. That, plus Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution eating habits (an Amazon.com affiliate link, but I'm following that regimen myself, feel free to find it separately if you like), has so far kept my weight to within a pound of 200 lbs -- which for my 6'2" frame, I haven't weighed since college.
But the next step is to add two higher intensity, shorter session days, while keeping the total days/week at 6. And something other than running faster or harder had a certain joint sparing appeal.
My 220-age max heart rate is estimated at 175. Today's workout, where I really pulled for the first time like I had a purpose, pushed it to over 181. Not that rowing is about maxing out, but it just goes to show how you can get your heart really going with what is essentially a zero impact activity.
I'm basing my strategy on John Ratey's outline in Spark [another affiliate link], which touts exercise first and foremost for brain health: 4 days/wk of moderate cardio, 2 days/wk of high intensity but briefer cardio, and on those 2 days some strength training. Dr. Gundry's book gives some interesting counter arguments for a more genteel yet focused regimen, emphasizing not too long but slow cardio + occasional sprints + strength training. Like the Taoists, trying to avoid burning yourself up (along with your muscle mass).
Will continue to evolve. Oscillating now, to find that exercise sweet spot. So far, with the weight, cortisol, and BP behaving, that seems to be brisk walking/jogging most days, plus rowing.
Post the 10k mark, most of those were getting long overdue shoes and clothes (translation: the every 5th year or so shopping trip with the wife to do it right).
But the base was the 30 minute treadmill power walk + run. And the 15-20 minute dog walk with da kids. And a ditto length walk with the pupster when waiting for the kids. Coulda journaled in the parking lot, but his baby browns would not be denied. Hard to write, too, with his paws on the back of my head.
Anyway.
In the span of just under a month, I've dropped about 17 lbs, and 30 mm Hg of blood pressure points. While simultaneously neutralizing a periodic, 3 AM freakout fest -- sweats and flushing, no rapid heart rate, didn't dare clock my BP -- and regaining some semblance of a mental middle path.
Brief, heavy strength training sessions didn't help. Numerous short walks throughout the day that added up to 10,000 steps didn't help counteract the lifting. And breathing exercises did not make the sweats go away, which I did not expect at all.
Straight cardio did. 30-40 minutes, morning and night. Good old, "folks were doing this stuff in the '70s" straight cardio.
The weight loss didn't hurt the blood pressure. But I'd already dropped some weight, and the BP didn't budge until I dusted off the treadmill.
There are some awfully darned good reasons for cardio to neutralize stress, drop weight, and reduce blood pressure. John Ratey goes into them, in his book, Spark -- to him, exercise is worthy because of the awetacular good it does for your brain; its benefits for your heart and muscles are secondary.
But bottom line, it's about finding what works, for you as an individual.
It could just have easily been strength lifts with mega weights, or kendo 4 nights a week, or hot yoga, or circuit training at Curves. For me, it was clearly, unequivocally, long session cardio, 6 days a week. The stress neutralization was palpable within 48 hours, and the BP started dropping within 10-14 days. Months of my previous regimen did nothing, for the things I was trying to correct.
There are a number of very strong, very fit individuals out there, who at least publicly disdain aerobics in favor of innovative strength endurance routines. Someday, I hope to count myself among them (minus the disdain).
But for now, I'm sticking with what has worked with a frakkin' shout.
