I haven’t written a recollection in a while.
The days weren’t that different and most of what I recollected was what I watched or listened to and I didn’t want to write a blog on that kind of a thing so my interest wavered and then the habit broke down.I thought I’d write on now though on two things. One, exercise and diet. I’m overweight, it’s my understanding that’s not healthy, so I’m eating better, starting to lose weight, feeling better as a result. But here’s the downside. I bought a bunch of weights on a Black Friday sale and I’d been eating big too and as a result I was feeling great about deadlifts, seeing a lot of progress. Then I thought I should slim down, but without the calories the lifting suffers, has hit a wall really. That’s a bummer but a cost I’m okay with paying. I’ll get to a weight I like to be at then reprioritize lifting in my diet by eating bigger and getting a little heavier while also getting stronger. I’m a mix of at peace and stoked.
I discovered the weight loss curve had begun to set a ceiling on the lifting curve a few days ago when what should have been a reasonable weight increase for five reps felt herculean at one rep and a second was impossible. After some reflection I’ve decided to experiment with deadlifting every day. If you know anything about weightlifting you might say this is a terrible, terrible idea and you may well be right, I’ll find out. I think it’s worth trying though as it’s my understanding that there are a couple of studies that go like this: lifter A lifts three times a week for, let’s say, a total of 30 reps, 10 per day, and 7200 pounds total volume lifted. Lifter B’s weekly totals are the same - 30 reps, 7200 pounds - and so are the specific weights lifted, but lifter B spreads that over 6 days a week. Lifter B does as well or better than lifter A after 15 weeks. So in my case, the volume is a little higher this way because warm up lifts count for the weekly total and I feel like I just have to warm up some on deadlift, but it’s a total volume comparable with some beginner programs. So I dropped the weight 30 pounds from the failure day, when I just did 1 rep, and I’m doing that new weight for just 1 rep after warm up, 5 days a week. At least that’s the goal, we’ll see if I keep it. I just did it once, tonight. Felt good.
I’m also doing 10 minutes on the exercise bike and one other non-deadlift exercise a day. We’ll see how that goes. I figure it’ll help me get out into the garage more and just moving around more often. If I stick to it it’ll mean about equal time spent exercising per week but spread out more and I like because I like how it feels, and it also will mean lower intensity per workout which is fine by me - I don’t need to feel like I hit it hard, I can get into that mentality but if anything I dislike the after effects of that more than I like the fun of occupying that headspace, and less of those aftereffects is more compatible with work and parenting anyway. So we’ll see how it goes. I’m into the idea anyway. Honestly even if it’s not as effective as the kind of lifting I was doing, if it’s fun I’ll take that tradeoff, I’m planning to be physically active forever and it’s not like I’m competing as an athlete.
I want to talk later about getting frostnip and pushing cars out of the snow but I’m already over ten minutes here so I’m gonna stop. Might also talk later about my garage and hand tools too, and also might not!
