Month: February 2022

Respite?

Well, what is going right:

COVID is down locally; now about 50 cases per day.

So, tonight, I’ll mask up and go to a men’s basketball game.

The academic year: ok, so far.

Glute: well, it hurt..well, the pain migrated to below the hip, on the side of the leg. BUT I seem to have found stuff that helps. Stay tuned.

Workout notes no cyling for a while.

Friday: pull ups (2 sets of 10 singles, 10, then 6 sets of 5, including wide grip and chins), push ups 25 flat (before pull ups), 30 sissy, 30 feet elevated, 15 deficit.

bench: 3 sets of 5 x 166, single with 184

rows: 3 sets of 10 single arm

curls 3 sets of 10

shoulder: 10 x 99, 10 x 104 (questionable ROM, 10 x 93 (better ROM)

Saturday: deadlifts, rehab and yoga
rehab included fire hydrants, clam shell, banded walks, dead buts, twist crunches, side leg lifts etc and yoga poses including Frog pose. (I keep my upper body higher and on a level with my butt..kind of resting on my elbows.) (source)

Headstand: 1:40 worth (not hard); did some sun salutes, warrior 2-triangle, pyramid, reverse warrior series, trees, and single leg Romanian deads (weightless)

I really felt some release.

Deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234, then sets of the 3 minutes
280 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 4 (didn’t want to press my luck with a 5’th rep)

Note: deadlifts were first; rehab and yoga/stretching came later.

Whack a mole with variants

Cases are falling; the indoor mask mandate (which is often not followed here) will go away on Feb. 28; our society is “over covid.”

But COVID is not over us:

And so the careless (and the immuno-compromised) will discover this; some the hard way. The medical profession is already weakened by burned out nurses and doctors…so …and those who want open, unmasked schools, might find that the increasingly understaffed schools don’t have enough healthy staff to stay open.

And so it goes…enjoy the lull (relative lull, anyway) while it lasts.

Me: N-95, KN-95 and KF-94 masks, choosy about things (no being unmasked indoors around strangers) and I’ll withdraw from large gatherings when local cases/infection rates are high.

We are all Florida now.

Workout notes pull ups, push ups, rehab, deadlifts. Glute pain: much reduced but still there.

I started with 25 push ups, 40 single pull ups outside (10 seconds), set of 10, set of 5 wide, 5 chin ups, 30 sissy push ups, inside for 25 more, then 2 sets of chest-tap push ups.

Deads; 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234, then 10 x 280 high.

Digging back out.

Yes, we are still paying the price for the December/January wave, but things are much better …there will be less death in the near future.

And I am thinking about going to men’s basketball games again, with KN-95 of course.

Workout notes: I’ve had to cut back on the cycling; I think that I increased intensity and duration too quickly. So, it might be a warm up, rehab, short (30 minute) type of thing. I don’t feel that bad this evening.

And I am getting about a mile of walking every day, just going to and from work a couple of times. It isn’t much but I might deliberately extend this when the snow finally leaves.

Today, it was 16 minutes (5 miles), rehab with banded walks, etc., then 30 more minutes. (10 miles).

Too much?

I added cycling and the piriformis is achy again…too much, too soon? I was doing ok with 30 minute sessions so perhaps retreat to those. Sigh…

That is the glute story.

Other: well, weights weren’t that bad.

pull ups: 10 F sets of 5 and 10, one set of 10 singles, enough to get to 60 ok reps. Ok, some of the later reps sucked…attitude, cold, etc.

push ups and rehab: 4 sets of 25

bench press: 4, 5, 6 x 161 hips down

rows: 3 sets of 10 x 60 each arm

curls: 3 sets of 10

seated shoulder: 3 sets of 10 x 99

BU Women win!

In what has been a hard luck season with injuries and transfers, it was nice to see the team beat Evansville by 10.

I feel safe going to these; now where I feel safe enough to watch the men play at some point…maybe the game after next?

Workout: slacked..though I did some academic work this morning. 15 minutes, 30 minutes of rehab (clam shell, banded walks, some one legged forward bends) then 1 hour for 25 total fake miles (ok, perhaps 27?), all at medium intensity

Who is wrong?

I think Bill Maher gets some important things right. But he is spectacularly wrong here:

Yes, some are more vulnerable to COVID than others; in fact, I tell my students that I have to take precautions that might not make sense for them.

But…with his take on what President Biden said about the vaccines: the vaccines DID have 90-95 percent efficacy with respect to getting infected..PRE DELTA. New variants came along, and now, the efficacy with respect to infection appears to be 50 percent or so, though efficacy with respect to death is about 95 percent.

Now his swipe at the hypocrisy of leaders and politicians (bipartisan): ok, THAT was well deserved.

Maher also seems to discount morbidity; even if you are young, COVID can cause conditions that can become chronic. This country will need a lot of oxygen tanks in the near future.

Workout notes

some slight shoulder soreness…I wonder…seems to coincide with doing too many “to the floor” push-ups. Glute: tingles still there, though I did feel a pop and some relief last night..and I noticed that when I stretch the back in different ways, the pain is relieved or alternately, reproduced. So there is an interplay with the lower back.

Today: light stretching, deadlifts:

10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234 (latter was more work than I had anticipated ..but no back pain, at all)

then 3 sets of 5 with 280, new set every 3 minutes, used a belt. These were ok, but were work. I had some in the tank when I finished, but..maybe next week, IF all goes well, seek a 4’th rep. on set 5?

In defense of the anti-vaxxers …

Before you think I’ve lost my mind:

  1. I am vaccinated and boosted..and I wear the best mask I can when around others or indoors.
  2. I am in favor of mask AND vaccine mandates; the reason for the latter will be clear when I finish this post.

Now that being said, what I am I talking about?

Imagine your social pool being, say, highly religious people or people who are deeply skeptical of THE GOVERNMENT.

Then add to that some of the ridiculous stuff that comes from the left. Add to that the changing official CDC advice (yes, I know, the virus changed, we know more, etc.)

Add to that the polarization and just how unpleasant the left can be.

Then add to that: openly advocating for vaccines and/or mitigation measures can mean all but certain ostracization from friends, family and neighbors…when THAT is your world…

Bucking the trend is very difficult, and possibly life changing.

Would I have been able to do it?

And that leads me to mandates: IF the vaccine is required for the job…”well, I am sorry I got the jab but I need the job…”
It gives people social cover to get the shot.

Brrr…

Just getting caught up; due to a snowstorm we had classes online on Wednesday and Thursday; back to “normal” today. So, I went to my office in my sweats (short walk).

The snow was deep enough to get inside my tall boots; snow on the rug was from my socks.

Tonight: made a women’s game; hardly anyone there. Indiana State got so many second chance points; they raced to a 30-14 lead though Bradley cut it to 7 at the half.

But alas..back to a 65-47 lead going into the 4’th and the final ended 83-63. Rough year.

Yes, I hate cold weather, but the work..well. slowdown gave me time to relearn stuff and I enjoyed the math and interacting with students.

COVID 19

Down to 100 new cases a day…deaths were from the previous surge, including 2 in my age group and 4 in my spouse’s.

Workout notes first, note my Ned Flanders like neighbor used his snow blower to clear off part of our driveway and to do most of the sidewalk on the street! That is so sweet…really. I shoveled some more and it did set off the glute…though the cold, slippery walking didn’t help either. But the spinal twist stretch before bed helps, a LOT.

Shoulder: mostly ok.

Note: I’ve returned to the naproxen as it does take away a LOT of the body-ache.

Now about the workouts:

Wednesday: weights…it was COLD…managed 8 reps on the pull up bar; called it quits. strong wind, blowing snow..ugh.

Still got rehab and 4 sets of 25 push ups
bench press: 5 x 154, 5 x 154, 5 x 159, 1 x 181 (hips down); most I’ve done since April.

dead lift: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234 then 8 inch: 10 x 270

Thursday 1:02 for 22 fake miles; 10 min medium then 15 reps of 1 hard, 1 easy, 4 reps of 1 easy, 4 medium, then finish medium, followed by a ton of rehab (clamshell, banded walks)

Friday Upper body: 4 sets of 5 singles, set of 10 (gloveless), sets of 5/5 singles to get to 50 reps, then 2 sets of 5 chins.

Inside: rehab and 4 sets of 25 push ups

bench: 3 sets of 5 x 161 hips down, 3 sets of 10 rows (60 each arm)

3 sets of 10 curls, 3 sets of 10 x 99 shoulder (better depth)

Heavy snow on the way

10-15 inches expected.

Covid is dropping rapidly; still a high rate but the trend is in the right direction:

The last time we saw numbers like these: Hospital, Dec 8. Peoria: early December. Things are getting better.

Workout notes: 5 mile (fake) cycle, some rehab (with bands), 20 mile (fake) afterward.

How: 2.5-2.5-0 warm up, 0-17-3 afterward.

Adios to January 2022

I did not dream that we’d still be masked up, but it is necessary. Oh yes:

Yes, deaths..mostly from the previous surge. But ..at the store today, only one wasn’t wearing a mask. How about that?

Today’s workout:

pull ups (not that bad) 2 sets of 10 singles, 2 sets of 10, 4 sets of 5 including 2 wide, 2 chins

push ups: 30 sissy, 30 feet elevated, 15 deficit, 25 regular

stretches

bench: 10 x 134, 5 x 154, 5 x 154 both easy (butt on the bench this time; hips cramped a bit…need to work on flexibility)

rows: 3 sets of 10 each arm with 60

curls: 3 sets of 10

shoulder: 3 sets of 10 x 99 (so so)