No, I don’t have anything to brag about. But I WAS feeling pretty good and today’s walk: a bit risky and I felt pain at 1.2 miles; I did two super quick (as in 15-20 second) stretch ‘er out breaks which helped.
Agenda: stretch:
Deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234 (all good)
Main set (on the 3 mintues) 3, 3, 3, 3, 4 x 290. All were ok; declined a 5’th rep attempt on the last set as rep 4 I could feel the lumbar start to get recruited into the lift.
Stretch;activate..(felt the left IT side/thigh on the first McKenzie)
walk: 1.5 miles at 14:55; kind of damp.
More PT and finish with a yoga series. One leg chair and one leg tree: MUCH better on the weak leg; undeniable progress.
Personal: 2 years ago, I set up my outdoor pull up bar and introduced my spotter bench press bench a few days later….I already had rubber 45 lb plates and a trap bar.
1 year ago: found out I was eligible for the vaccine…got it 2 days later. Oh happy day!
2 hour main workout: not that much but I tried out a few things:
Full PT prior to deadlifts; most exercises prior to even going outside.
Outside: 50 singles every 10 seconds for pull ups; set of 5 wide, set of 5 chins.
Push ups: 30, 30 sissy (fell off the bar once), 30 feet elevated, 10 deficit
PT outside: knee raises, banded walks, 1 leg stands.
Outside stuff took about 35-40 minutes. PT prior took about 20.
Then inside: deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 low (no belt)
4 inch: 10 x 256
8 inch: 10 x 290. All this took 40 minutes or so. One set every 5 minutes or thereabouts.
Then the experimentation: I used the adjustable bench to try something that was not quite a shoulder press but more than an incline: 10 x 88, 10 x 110 went reasonably smoothly. Decent ROM, but not a shoulder press but less stress on the lumbar.
Nevertheless, the back felt ok and I was able to walk outside a bit.
2:10 worth of working out from 8:30 to 10:40.
Warm up, back work. Included spinal balance, 1 leg bridges
Dead lifts: warm up: 10 x 134, 10 x 184
Transition: 10 x 234
Main set: 5 sets of 3 x 290 with a new one every 3 minutes I suppose these were not “easy”, but they were not hard. I did cinch up that belt though.
PT session 1: standing knee raises, sit to stand on one leg then upstairs
Walk: 16 minutes for 1.1 miles. Felt GREAT for 10 minutes, ok for 3, and last 3, felt minor symptoms but, still, my best yet. I think the dead lifts engage the glutes.
PT again: this time, fire hydrants, banded walks (outside with a new blue band), dead bug, prone knee lfits
Yoga: the old Warrior 2, triangle, pyramid, revolved triangle, reverse warrior, twice on each side.
Then tree: still a struggle on the left, but not as bad as it once was.
Thursday: snow day..caught up on backlog (sort of) and worked out (below)
Friday: went ok; back somewhat sore from shoveling. Ate at the office; went to the Women’s game (almost a 30 point loss)
Saturday: today; worked out ok; lots of back stuff; watched the men win 72-64 over Illinois State; latter team kept itself in the game with 50 percent 3 point shooting but the Braves made 12 more free throws.
Note: back felt ok today.
Workouts: Thursday: lots of back rehab exercises; in between: 15 minute walk on the treadmill and 30 minutes on the bike (1 mile and 10 fake miles)
Friday: weights; pull ups 4 sets of 10, 4 sets of 5 (went well)
push ups: 4 sets of 25 lots of rehab
bench: 3 sets of 5 x 167
rows: 3 sets of 10 each arm (60)
curls: 3 sets of 10
shoulder presses: with belt; 2 sets of 10 x 93, 10 x 98 (much better)
Saturday stretch, deadlifts (10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234, then 5 sets of 3 with 280), rehab, 15 min walk (1.1 miles), rehab, 30 min bike (10 fake miles)
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:
⚠️SUB-VARIANT SURGING—Omicron 2.0 is rising—the #BA2 sublineage of #Omicron has *tripled* in one week, dislodging the old Omicron from total dominance—BA2 now at 3.6% and climbing fast. Expect to be dominant by March. Omicron reinfections are possible. 🧵 https://t.co/amAjDWuN6Zpic.twitter.com/dU8ewDhii1
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.
Well, it ended 60-36 and was never close; it was 31-11 at the half and BU shot 21 percent from the field; finding the right mix has been a struggle. The women played hard but were overmatched.
Yes, I do not feel comfortable going to men’s games at this time. I’d like to see cases back down to early December levels; pity we don’t enforce the mask mandate nor do we have a vaccine mandate for fans, the way that the University of Illinois does.
Yes, I sure wish the government or private entities would enforce mitigation measures but they won’t; the depth of public support just isn’t there. So it is just “protect myself”. So, while I am vaccinated and boosted; I limit what I do based on current conditions. I went to football games but sold my Jan 3 Colts vs Raiders tickets as omicron was in full fury by then.
And basketball games went on hiatus; I recently started back with women’s games.
I teach in a N95.
Workout notes: deadlifts, rehab (clam shell, leg lifts, dead bugs, bridges), 1:02:30 (22 fake miles) on the bike; all at medium intensity.
Let that sink in: from the start of the pandemic until now, 1 out of every 345 people in our metro area have died of COVID. And deaths are ticking up.
The county, bless their hearts, are tying. They now feature daily (including weekends) walk in clinics and testing. I really comment the effort.
But as of right now we are at about 350 new cases a day and something like 2-3 deaths a day on the average. Omicron isn’t likely to lower the death toll because, while it is more mild than delta on a case by case basis, it spreads much more easily and what it lacks in morbidity and mortality it makes up for by spreading easier. So while it is safer on an individual level, given that you have covid, it is more deadly on the community level.
If you think of it as Russian roulette: yes, you get to play with more empty chambers, but far more people are playing.
Schools: I am getting sick of the SCHOOLS MUST REMAIN OPEN being touted by politicians, so-called “experts” and “blue check” pundits.
Seriously, this is better than going online for a few weeks (IF conditions warrant)?
The CDC they are screwing up..not so much on the science but with communication. Their “5 days” isolation is very misunderstood; it is if you are asymptomatic OR if your results are “resolving” AND you are fever-free. The public absolutely sucks at conditional statements.
And they have to watch what they say: pointing out that 75 percent of the COVID deaths come from those who have at least 4 comorbidity factors is being interpreted as “it is ok if the disabled die”, which it is NOT what they are trying to say. But it was a bad way to say it.
Bottom line: if we know who is most vulnerable, we can get better at protecting them.
Today, @CDCDirector said: "The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least 4 comorbidities. So really these are people who were unwell to begin with and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron."
Tension in society Yes, people knowingly go out there with COVID; that is documented. And around here, I’d say less than half of the people wear a mask. Given the sky high case rates, it is a good idea to assume that at least 1/5 of the people you see have COVID and to protect yourself.
And I’ve noticed this: we have an indoor mask mandate and when you to into the Riverplex, they remind you to put one on. But when you get upstairs, most have taken them off. So, I’m done for a while, at least until this spike is down.
Then I’ve notice that the Riverplex is doing a membership drive. Some don’t go because they have a mask mandate. Others (like me) stopped going because it isn’t enforced in the upper areas, at all.
And I understand why: it gets tiresome to tell adults to do what they should be doing, especially when they revert the very second they aren’t being monitored. We are a nation of toddlers. And I don’t miss their company.
Workout notes
Yesterday: pull ups (-4 F) 5-5-10-10-5-5-5-5-5-5 outside with rehab push ups: 3 sets of 25 on the floor (touch the chest), 1 set of 5-floor, 5-step 1, 5 step 2, 5 step 1, 5 floor.
bench press: 8 x 135, 5, 5 x 150 Swiss), 5 x 150 straight bar (went fine)
curls: 3 sets of 10 rows (single arm) 3 sets of 10 shoulder presses: 10 x 93, 10 x 103, 10 x 103 (ok)
rehab.
Today: 30 minutes bike AFTER:
10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 (no belt) 3, 3, 3, 3, 5 x 260 (belt); went fine, zero pain.
Note: I added a hole to my belt; evidently I am just slightly too fat for Titan’s XL belt (34-41, though my pants are 36..should have gone with 38-45 XXL) And by using a weight plate instead of a hammer on the screw, I cut my finger.
Yes, omicron has arrived but right now, the dominant strain is still delta and we are at 18.36 percent positivity (as of 29 December). We are getting creamed.
Yeah, we sold our NFL tickets; can’t risk it at my age and with my elderly wife.
I know that the CDC is catching heat; the argument is that they are recommending something that people might actually follow rather than something safer that they won’t.
“It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate,” CDC Director Walensky says on why the CDC shortened the isolation period from 10 days to 5 days if you’re asymptomatic. Our full interview: pic.twitter.com/rO7blPFiPj
I can’t defend everything they recommended; for example my wife followed their “vaccinated adults don’t need to mask” and ended up with a breakthrough that required BAM treatment (late July).
But some of what they said “back when” was reasonable advice at the time. Example: the older variants of covid required a larger dose (viral load) to infect, so cloth masks did provide some protection..and they still do a decent job of filtering droplets released by the wearer.
But sure, now that delta came a long, you need a better mask (NK-95, KF-94) for personal protection.
I admit that I’ve become a bit bitter. Last year, I was whiny about being toward the back of the vaccination line.
Now, my anger is mostly at the COVIDIOTS who won’t get the shot, now with those who won’t mask in indoor public places and institutions who won’t create and enforce vaccine mandates.
Yes, it does turn out that outdoor stuff wasn’t that bad, but one needs consistency when one makes recommendations. Liberals were downright hypocritical at the time and, well, why would a conservative trust what we say?
There is a ton of blame to go around.
But there are those doing things right.
Workout notes
Pull ups were harder than usual: weight gain? Cold? (29 F)
push ups: 30 sissy, walk 10 (hard), 10 deficit, 10 legs up the steps (touch the chest).
Deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224, 10 x 244 (all low); technique is improving a bit. Felt slight back tingles and decided to end with the 10 x 244; it was the best I’ve done at 10 reps and 244 is more than what I could do in Jan, 2020.
Life of an old goat 