My back finally felt good enough to hit the gym yesterday. Warmed up on the heavy bag, then did Bench, DB bench and DB bent row.

Drank too much and stayed out too late last night, I'm sure I counteracted all benefits of the workout. Ah well, gotta do it once in a while.

 

I wonder what I'd look like if I didn't drink 5 nights a week and if I got more than 3-5 hours of sleep a night.

 

You'd lose weight ~twice as fast. At least, that's how big of a difference it made for me. No alcohol and a good night of rest every night, compared to the first cycle of weight loss for me with plenty of alcohol and not so much sleep...lost the same amount of weight in 2.5-3 months versus 6.

Though one could argue that there were plenty of other factors involved, and there were, but if you want to get to your goal fast, you need to take out as many variables as you can, right?

I'll be back on the juice eventually. But for now, I'm loving how I look without it.

3K in the pool this morning. Feeling fantastic! Though my form was noticeably off due to exhaustion from yesterday, but I'll get it back.

 

I'm already in pretty good shape. Fluctuate between 160-170lb, and I'm about 5'10 [ok I'm 5'9] I work out quite hard; hit usual slumps here and there though.

Think I need to take a break from working my chest because I may be overdoing it. Was finally putting up 205 in 5x5's with zero help, and the last 3 weeks or so I've been struggling on the 4th and 5th rep of the last two sets. Keep in mind I generally do 200-300 push-ups everyday, and then I work my chest out a second day during the week [though at 185lb, and high reps/sets... will do usually about 6 sets, try to get 10 reps per set though I begin failing at sets 4-6].

I think I'm going to start working my back twice a week now instead for a few weeks.

About to do back right now actually, and then spin afterwards.

 

Agreed! I played competitive lacrosse throughout high school and undergrad, so i'm generally in good shape (6'0 and 175-180lbs) but now that I'm working, I don't want to start packing pounds. I would love to start swimming, as it's a much better workout. The only problem is I have horrible form and I would tire easily. I watched a TED talk last year of a guy who went from not being able to swim 10 meters to doing triathlons, so maybe after a year of building stamina by running, I'll give the pool a shot.

 

I've tried swimming laps before and it was so much harder than I thought. I think the breathing messes me up more than anything. I just wasn't able to get enough air.

 

It's a hell of a work out, definitely. I've been swimming for most of my life and it's still challenging, especially if I decide on a whim to bust out a 1000m in the middle of a workout (my workouts used to include 2x 1000m as well as some kick and stroke training) after not having done it in a while. It's certainly a different type of cardio, but as with other cardios, if you do it enough, you'll be able to develop a good sense of what you're doing and how you're doing it right or wrong. My suggestion, just get in the pool! Keep at it, and stay consistent, and you'll see yourself get better. Some general tips that I've noticed from helping train my friends for races or just exercise in general:

Your fastest position is going to be fully extended right off the wall. Your arms are all the way in front of your head, one hand over the other, and your legs are together and straight. The idea is to get back to this position at some point in your stroke, or something close to it (especially with breast stroke, with freestyle it's going to be with 1 arm forward in the middle of the stroke but you'll be back in this position off the wall, always). See Mr. Phelps:


That black line on the bottom of the pool? That's for you to stare at. So when you're swimming forward, look down...not towards the wall. Don't worry about hitting the wall because there's a T at the end of the lane that will tell you when to turn. This helps you in a couple ways: it keeps you streamlined (see above), and it makes it easier to breathe.

When you breathe, just rotate the head, like you're going to be looking over your shoulder, but you'll be following your stroke. Don't look forward, lift your head, and turn in the middle of that. It's slow, inefficient, and you won't get that full breath of air.

Knees are straight. Straight! If you're swimming freestyle and you're breaking your knees, that's wasted energy! Furthermore, if you're splashing all over the place, that's wasted energy. Legs coming far out of the water? Wasted energy! Keep them right at the surface and keep them strong, they'll save you a lot of shoulder energy in the long run.

Just a few tips to help you if/when you start. As you do it more and more, you'll definitely notice the little things that are killing your form and you'll adjust accordingly.

 

I went from doggy paddle to an oly distance tri, 1 mile swim. Swimming is a skill sport, get the book/DVD called total immersion. A navy diver friend gave me that advice and it was a true gem.

 

Okay, okay... SoCal is back in overseas gym mode. Just did a full dead lift day, and the back is feeeeeling it.

W/U-225x15, then 225x15, 315x5, 315x5, 315x5, 365x4, 365x4, 405x2, 405x1


As far as swimming goes, I was a Scout Swimmer and a safety swimmer in the Corps. Believe me when I say this: It is all about the crawl stroke. Take a breath every 2-3 strokes, and maintain that for your entire swim. Make sure and keep your head DOWN and NEVER. STOP. KICKING. This is the very base of lap swimming. Read the book big_slacker mentioned above and I am sure you can learn much more than my little tidbits.

 

You youngsters make me tired

2 mile run and 30k spin today for me.
75 minutes racquetball yesterday