Long post alert
So here I was, 42, and the Corona Virus gets real. The last 20ish years have been a bit abysmal in terms of fitness and really taking care of my health.
After some self reflection I decided I’m going to come out of this thing a better person than I went into it.
Gyms closed, no problem, I’m not really a big fan. Have always been more into sports than pushing weight. Even during the last decades I’ve always been quasi doing something, hockey, golf, baseball, squash, something. Just never consistently since I was around 20.
So I dusted off the elliptical that had been doubling as a clothing rack since a month after I purchased it a little over 8 years ago.
30 mins a day about 5 days a week on interval training setting. After a couple weeks I had slowly increased the difficulty and was happy I was just doing something.
I got cocky and followed my wife in a 5 exercise downward ladder. Starting at 10 each then 9 and down to 1. Pushups, lunges, crunches, planks and squats. I got down to 5 and I thought I was going to die. Did the pushups on my knees, and there was no going past the 5th set. The next 3 days were torture. But I kept on the elliptical and worked through the seemingly unrelenting soreness.
The next week I started following a push up program another friend of mine was doing. 7 weeks to 100 pushups by Steve Speirs. 3 times a week, 15 mins a day, 1 min rest between sets. No way I can do this.
The thought of doing 1 pushup at that point was almost as daunting as 100. At about 275lbs I just couldn’t imagine it.
Day 1 saw me do a total of 7 pushups over 5 sets, and push up 2 on set 5 was like getting to the top of Everest. And from that day on it’s been akin to a bit of an addiction.
Fast forward 5 weeks and 2 days of failed attempts then repeating those days to completion and I just finished my first 7 set day 6 6 10 10 6 6 20
About 2 weeks in I started adding...now day 1 3 and 5 is pushups, body squats and bicycle crunches. All at the same rep and set counts.
Day 2 4 and 6 is not off days anymore and I’m into reverse planks, lunges (these have been a real bitch) and bicycle crunches again. Starting at lower numbers on the lunges and doing 5 x 30 second reverse planks.
Along with this I do a stretching routine after the daily workout, which is a hodgepodge of yoga stretches and some other stuff I’ve found for my lower back. I also can’t help myself and usually push out an extra few sets of 10 pushups every day.
The elliptical is just not keeping my attention but I’ve been doing a ton of walking. Looking to buy a bike to get the cardio going more.
The next big step is diet, I haven’t really touched it at all as I was focused on the activity routine first. I’m down around 8 lbs currently. But a lot of weight shifting so the number doesn’t concern me as much.
Looking forward to following the posts and seeing how far this can take me.
To all of my chubby, old brethren out there, it’s tough, but you can likely do more than you think....just start doing it!!
So here I was, 42, and the Corona Virus gets real. The last 20ish years have been a bit abysmal in terms of fitness and really taking care of my health.
After some self reflection I decided I’m going to come out of this thing a better person than I went into it.
Gyms closed, no problem, I’m not really a big fan. Have always been more into sports than pushing weight. Even during the last decades I’ve always been quasi doing something, hockey, golf, baseball, squash, something. Just never consistently since I was around 20.
So I dusted off the elliptical that had been doubling as a clothing rack since a month after I purchased it a little over 8 years ago.
30 mins a day about 5 days a week on interval training setting. After a couple weeks I had slowly increased the difficulty and was happy I was just doing something.
I got cocky and followed my wife in a 5 exercise downward ladder. Starting at 10 each then 9 and down to 1. Pushups, lunges, crunches, planks and squats. I got down to 5 and I thought I was going to die. Did the pushups on my knees, and there was no going past the 5th set. The next 3 days were torture. But I kept on the elliptical and worked through the seemingly unrelenting soreness.
The next week I started following a push up program another friend of mine was doing. 7 weeks to 100 pushups by Steve Speirs. 3 times a week, 15 mins a day, 1 min rest between sets. No way I can do this.
The thought of doing 1 pushup at that point was almost as daunting as 100. At about 275lbs I just couldn’t imagine it.
Day 1 saw me do a total of 7 pushups over 5 sets, and push up 2 on set 5 was like getting to the top of Everest. And from that day on it’s been akin to a bit of an addiction.
Fast forward 5 weeks and 2 days of failed attempts then repeating those days to completion and I just finished my first 7 set day 6 6 10 10 6 6 20
About 2 weeks in I started adding...now day 1 3 and 5 is pushups, body squats and bicycle crunches. All at the same rep and set counts.
Day 2 4 and 6 is not off days anymore and I’m into reverse planks, lunges (these have been a real bitch) and bicycle crunches again. Starting at lower numbers on the lunges and doing 5 x 30 second reverse planks.
Along with this I do a stretching routine after the daily workout, which is a hodgepodge of yoga stretches and some other stuff I’ve found for my lower back. I also can’t help myself and usually push out an extra few sets of 10 pushups every day.
The elliptical is just not keeping my attention but I’ve been doing a ton of walking. Looking to buy a bike to get the cardio going more.
The next big step is diet, I haven’t really touched it at all as I was focused on the activity routine first. I’m down around 8 lbs currently. But a lot of weight shifting so the number doesn’t concern me as much.
Looking forward to following the posts and seeing how far this can take me.
To all of my chubby, old brethren out there, it’s tough, but you can likely do more than you think....just start doing it!!