I’ve Fallen and I Can Get Up

Not sure what it is, but I seem to be on a TGIF kick lately.

One of my favorite shows was Family Matters.

Love that clip, especially two moments: when Urkel adjusts his glasses and the cheer, which I still remember to this day (Give me a V! V! You got yo V, you got yo V!) One of Steve Urkel’s catchphrases was, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

Well, I’ve fallen off the working out horse. Bad. My last workout I documented on my blog was in May. I did a few workouts at home and went on a few runs since, but the only working out I did in June and July was leading worship, lifting my fork or chopsticks to my face, and picking up and carrying an 8lb baby.

While visiting friends, I was holding D2 in an upright position in my left arm. During the conversation, I start to feel wetness on my chest. I figure D2 spit up but when I look down, I see D2 is attempting to nurse through my shirt. My friends laughed, as did I, but when I got home, I had some real reflecting to do.

Although I stayed at the same weight (197), I’d lost significant amounts of muscle. Not to mention the moobs/mitties I was now sporting (sadly, mitties isn’t a cute word for teeny, tiny mittens) that D2 thought she could get milk out of.

Working out can be quite the battle because of what I call the Temple Principle. Jesus said He would tear down the temple and rebuild it in 3 days, which is a 3:1 ratio of building to tearing down time. It took me roughly 9 months of lifting to get to where I was; it took less than 3 to bring me back to where I was a year ago.

Additionally, with my lifestyle, I have to make a concerted effort to exercise. When we had guests from Thailand over, this was the gist of one conversation we had:

Me: I haven’t been to the gym in a while
Guest: What’s a gym?
Me: It’s where I go to exercise.
Guest: Oh, can we go too?
Me: Oh. You have to pay to get in.
Guest: You have to pay to go somewhere to exercise?
Me: Yes.
Guest: It’s pretty cheap, right?
Me: Actually, it’s quite expensive. Like a couple bucks a day.
Guests: Well, I guess that’s not too bad. I mean, you go everyday, right?
Me: Actually…

So yeah, even though I pay for it, working out isn’t a regular part of my day unless I make it.

As I stood on the scale and looked in the mirror, I felt remorse and sadness for a moment, and then I heard a voice in my head: Go, appa, go! No time to feel sorry for myself, it’s time to get back up. Sorry, Urkel – I’ve fallen, but I can get up.

So I headed back to the gym last Friday. I decided to start small (135lb squat, 135lb bench) but it sure didn’t feel small. I did stronglifts workout A and jogged on the treadmill for 10 minutes at 6mph. I want to say it felt great, but it felt terrible.

The next day, I was pretty sore but not terribly so. My brother-in-law and some friends were going to play basketball, so I decided to join in. Turns out, I was the oldest one in the group by far – sporting a wedding ring and bags under my eyes from D2’s sleep patterns immediately makes you an old man in their eyes. I’m in my late 20’s but there is a decidedly visible difference between late and early 20’s when you’re playing sports. Most notably, while the young guns were running up and down the length of the court, I mostly jogged back and forth between the 3-point lines and heaved up ill-advised three pointers that elicited groans.

The following day, I was so sore. Every time I had to move, I had to muster up a bit of courage to do so. Little muscles near my groin that I never knew existed were sore and turns out they play a vital role in walking. I dreaded each and every sneeze because my ab(s) hurt.

It was a terrible few days but the soreness has subsided and it’s time to hit the gym again.

So here’s a cheer for you, my fat and moobs: You don’t want none of Pop. Do ya?! Do ya?! Do Ya?! Do Ya?! Do Ya?! Do Ya?! No, I don’t think so.

Go, Pop, Go!

What motivates you to get back or stay on the horse?

Workout (5.19.10)

My last workout left me pretty sore, so I mixed things up a bit.

Squats: 135×5, 185×5, 235×5, 185×5, 135×10 – my legs felt a little too sore to do 5×5 of 235, so I decided to do a pyramid set.

Overhead Press: 125 4×5, 1×4 – So close!

Cleans: 125 2×5 – just for fun and some cardio

Deadlift: 220×5

Chinups: 3/3/3

Planks: 3 x 1min

Cardio: Walked 2 miles in 30 minutes at work

Workout (5.18.10)

Today, I had a culinary epiphany, which I’ll share about tomorrow. Suffice to say that I really needed to go the gym tonight. Stronglifts is still going well, and I’m pretty much back where I was prior to my ankle injury. Now I just need to eat better (read: less) or throw in more cardio to get down to my target weight. 😛

Squats: 235 5×5

Bench Press: 175 5×5

Inverted Rows: 10/10/10

Pushups: 37/27/22

Reverse Crunches: 3 x 12

Cardio: Walked 2 miles in 30 minutes at work, 10 minutes on elliptical at gym.

Mid-week Weigh in: 197

Workout (5.12.10)

Alright, time to break up these food posts with a workout log. I’m still keeping up with the stronglifts program, and although I’m getting stronger, all this BBQing is making sure I don’t lose any weight. So I decided to add in cardio to my workouts. Even with 15 minutes of cardio, the entire workout takes no more than an hour.

Squats: 235 5×5 – I’m more or less at my peak for squats. I refuse to be spotted for squats, simply because I’m not too fond of a man’s junk being so close to my butt, but that’s just me…so I’ll probably stay at 235 for a while.

Overhead Press: 120 5×5 – Now that these are getting tougher, I look like I’m taking the dump to end all dumps when I’m doing these.

Deadlift: 215×5

Chinups: 3/3/3

Planks: 3 x 1min

Cardio: Arc Trainer + Treadmill for 15 minutes and calculated calories burned: 200

Midweek Weigh-In: 196lbs. And that’s after having gone to the gym regularly the last few weeks. 😛

Workout (5.10.10)

Another week, another workout log. 🙂

Squats: 230 5×5

Bench Press: 170 5×5

Inverted Rows: 10/10/10

Pushups: 36/26/21

Reverse Crunches: 3 x 12

Cardio: Arc Trainer + Treadmill for 15 minutes and calculated calories burned: 150

Workout (5.7.10)

Squats: 225 5×5

Overhead Press: 115 5×5 – if at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again…

Deadlift: 210×5

Chinups: 3/3/3

Planks: 3 x 1min

Workout (5.5.10)

Squats: 135 5×5 – felt pretty miserable today so I decided to go light on the squats

Bench Press: 165 5×5

Pushups: 35/25/20

Inverted Rows: 10/10/9

Reverse Crunches: 3 x 12

Workout (5.3.10)

One good week deserves another! I’ve got a BBQ coming up this weekend so it’s imperative I get in good shape for meat intake of upwards of 3lbs 😛

Squats: 210 5×5

Overhead Press: 115 5×3, 4, 4 – Couldn’t crank out the last rep on the last 2 sets. 😦 For the stronglifts program, you retry the weight 3 separate times, if you still can’t do it, you deload by 10%

Deadlift: 205×5

Chinups: 3/3/3 – I figured out that these are really hard b/c I gained 10lbs since I did these in January 😛

Planks: 3 x 1min

Sorry for the boring posts today. I’m in training all week for work, so I should be back with some posts on BBQ and a chayote squash recipe next week. Be blessed! 🙂

Workout (5.1.10)

5 workouts in one week?!?! Go, Pop, Go!

Squats: 205 5×5

Bench Press: 160 5×5

Pushups: 34/24/19

Inverted Rows: 10/10/9

Reverse Crunches: 3 x 12

Workout (4.30.10)

Got back from my trip and headed straight to the gym – otherwise, I would’ve gone straight to a nap. 😛

Squats: 200 5×5

Overhead Press: 110 5×5

Deadlift: 200×5

Chinups: 3/3/3 – these are getting really hard…I figured out why on 5.3.10.

Planks: 3 x 1min