Long Wind

History

Swami showed us his, so I’ll show you mine…

I played football from 3rd grade until I was a senior in high school (1979-1980), the only exception was my junior year when I played soccer. I too was a center and being a late bloomer, sat out my senior year. I was about 140 lbs. Not great for a senior. During those years I also had one year of wrestling and summers in the weight room.

During the later part of my high school career and the early part of my college career my father and brother and I would spend time at the Decathlon Club playing racquetball and basketball.

Swami and I became friends up during college. We were in the same fraternity and both of us enjoyed racquetball. That was the winter of 1980 right? Swami had a white boy ‘fro so I know it was a very long time ago.

From 1983 until 1993 I was taking karate during my free time between school and work. I started at about 167 lbs (measuring 8.7% body fat) and ended in the 180’s. I worked my way up to a double black stripped brown belt when I blew a knee. Just before I was getting ready to test for black. I never had surgery, but found no stability in the leg to continue.

Since then I got married, had a kid, got divorced, got depressed, enjoyed food and beer and generally worked my way from a 6 pack in the 80’s to the keg I’m toting about now.

Goal

I don’t really have any sport specific goals. It’d be nice to lose some weight sure, but really I’d like a little more energy at the end of the day. I’d like to be able to concentrate a little better. Also if I could sleep better or more efficiently I would be very happy. Stress release would also be a huge benefit.

As far as measurable goals: I would say 220 lbs and a waist of 40 inches (pre-divorce build) would be a realistic and obtainable first stepping stone. I do not want to bulk up. I want to melt the butter.

Diet

Sorry no rabbit food here. I never really did get that. Lettuce…mmmm…I don’t think so. I will eat just about anything else. I’ve just started to read some of Aitkin’s work. What impresses me was that I heard his autopsy report revealed that he had the heart of a teenager. I would like to cut down on the sugars, corn syrups, caffeine’s, sodium’s etc. OK, OK bread and refined rice are out, pastas and potatoes will be reduced too. I will try to eat more lean meat and fish, but I will not cut out red meat entirely. I will be making a more concerted effort in the fruits and vegetables area. My daughter’s old enough where we no longer need milk higher in fat – so skim is in. Plus I’ll cut malts and ice cream down to a once a week reward.

My alcohol consumption I would classify as minimal. Often I do not have any beer or wine. If I do, it’s not more than one glass or bottle (no cans please) a day. If I go out with a buddy it might be a couple, but it’s a long time since I’ve gotten stupid.

The Plan

The major portion of my workouts will be spinning…or more accurately riding my bike on a set of rollers. I will usually try to ride for at least 40 minutes. I read somewhere that’s when you’re going to start burning the fat.

Also, I will be including Kettlebells as one component of my workout for the next 10 weeks on a trial basis. A lot of what I’m reading is counter to the weight lifting knowledge of yore. Short sets, no more than 5 reps with long rest between seems to be the consensus for gaining strength but not bulk. It’s very confusing to me. Nothing to muscle failure. The recommendation is for one “push” and one “pull”. There are other buzz words I’m trying to understand like “grind” – a very slooow motion lift. Maybe I’ve been away from the magazines too long or maybe this is a whole new culture, I don’t know. In this book the “minimum” is to do “swings” (pull) and “get-ups” (push), two times a week each. Technique for cleans, presses, and snatches are supposed to be practiced initially only a few a day.

I got my first kettlebell (16 kg or 35 lbs) two days ago and did the swing three times for 30 seconds, with 30 second rests. Totally wasted me. I rode the bike first, which probably didn’t help. Yesterday I was sore in the hamstring area and the latissimus area, last night I also became sore in the lower back and abdominal areas. Today I notice some stiffness in the pectoral area. I think there’s an area between my toes that’s not sore. (It’s not a debilitating soreness like in 1991, in case you were wondering Swami) Interesting group of muscles for 90 seconds of actual work.

I’m sorry to report that I don’t really have a baseline. I don’t have access to a gym so no bench, dead and press maxes here. I can do 20 pushups and 50 sit-ups, but it’s a struggle to finish either. How do you put a number on “Bottom of the Barrel?”

#4

Tonight Scoundrel’s #4 was a combination of spin and swing. I rode the rollers for 40 minutes; on every 5 and 10 I pulled 10 one arm alternating swings with each arm using Svetlana the 35 lb kettlebell. After 10 minutes I was sweating bullets to “Give Me Back My Bullets” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.