Some Confessions of a Belly Button Gazer

The trouble with jet lag is not that you feel sleepy all the time. Well, it's partly that, but I have my nice natural sleep aid with me, so that when I sleep at night, I sleep well. The trouble with jet lag is that you are out of touch with your body in so many ways. It's not that you feel ill, it's that you just don't feel.

You don't feel hunger. You are not sure that you are not hungry either. You don't feel your brain working. You are sort of vaguely aware that it is there. But you are not sure that it is all there, you know what I mean? And so you plod along the day as best you can with a major mental handicap.

When my brain fog cleared sufficiently, my first thought was "I have a mid-life crisis!" It may well be that this is true, but it may as well be due to the midriff crisis that I am currently going through. See the thing is, hospital visits and thinking about your aging parents, while taxing enough, is not really a work out in the traditional sense of the word. So, the body never really joined in the party. And believe it or not, at the end of a month I have put one 7lbs of weight. mostly -- you guessed it -- around the midriff. The jeans that was loose when I went to India was not just snug, but was quite the struggle to get into on my return trip!

But this is not the whole of the truth. The truth is much more insidious. (See, using words like "insidious" just makes me feel like I have not lost all of it just yet. So bear with me mmkay?).

The truth is that I have not been working out regularly for two years -- at least. And my body's "get out of jail free card" finally expired. It had been sneaking up on me and if I had not had the time to sit around without internet connection in the hospital room, bored enough to go back and leaf through my old photos, I would not have realized it. The truth is there for all to see-- the slow fluffing up of me. For the record, I am now at the same weight I was (ok one pound shy of) what I was in my pre-work out days nearly seven years ago.

But all is not lost. The body composition is definitely not what it was seven years ago. The strength levels were not what they were seven years ago. Now I can squat about 115 pounds. Far cry from the 12 pound bar that many years ago.
The truth though, is that if I had actually worked out three days a week for all these years like I did in the beginning, I would have been closer to squatting my  bodyweight. But, as Sheldon would say, "Could've, would've, should've, Raj!".

Once this realization hit me I promptly spent a couple of days moping around. I did not go to the gym for the following very viable reasons:

1. I am going to look like a dork with my tummy getting to the gym three minutes ahead of the rest of me.
2. None of my gym pants fit me the way they used to.
3. My hair looks really, really messy and there is nothing I can do about it. (seriously, sometimes it just is that way!)
4. I can't find my water bottle.

When I hit reason number four, I was struck by the ridiculousness of my excuses. Sometimes jet lag is good. If you don't feel hungry when the rest of the world is eating, then you have the gym all to yourself! So, fortified by a bowl of yogurt and grapes, I hit the gym.

Here is what I did:

• Warm up on the elliptical
• Squats: 115 lbs
• Bulgarian squats: 15 lbs
• Low, seated, cable row: 63lbs total (yay! I can use my right arm. Has my elbow finally healed?)
• Bicep curls: 12 lbs per arm (carp mon!)
• Seated, upright flyes: 20 lbs per arm
• Seated, upright chest presses: 20 lbs per arm
• Some stability work -- stiff arm pull downs
• Planks (good old planks)
• Russian twist with dumbell: 35lbs
• Stability ball hamstring work
• Shalabhasan
• 20 minutes on the elliptical-- this would have to be the first ever. Thank you, sound track of Rang de Basanti!

It's a start. Question is, will I manage to make this a regular thing, or am I going to slip back to my slacker ways?

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Workout of the Day -- 28th March 2012

Finally hit the gym after a gap of 20 days, yesterday. 

Worked out the right arm after 4 months. 

Humbling experience! 

WOD: 

Some general warm up,

reverse squats; 

95lbs squats; 

20 lbs Bulgarian squats; 

27.5lbs (per arm) seated low rows; 

10 lbs(per arm) bicep curl on a bosu ball; 

7lbs straight arm pull downs; 

tried the reverse rows, right elbow screamed -- so quit after 3 tries. 

Seated Flyes 

seated chest presses (20lbs per arm). 

Some other stability work.

a little mad "running" on the elliptical. 

I am glad I went!

Was hoping to go back to the gym tonight to soak in their hot tub-- chlorine smelling, but ohhhh soooo good to the muscles. But, I don't think there is going to be time for that... Oh well....

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Heavy push -- workout

Today's.

Warm up : 4.5 mins on the elliptical + 28 lb ass to grass (ATG) squats
Squats: 78lbs, 8*3 (can increase weight, only felt something in the third set, 7th or 8th push)
Single arm dumbbell chest press: 20 lbs, 8*3 (this was tough work, esply since I could feel my midsection working hard to keep the balance -- good one!)
Dips: 8*3. Perhaps ready for the feet elevated version?
Military press: 25lbs bar, 8*3. The last couple of reps in each set was a bit of work, so tried 35lbs for the last set. Managed 4, but the elbows did flare out. I think I did have too narrow a grip on this one.. Hmm...
Push ups: today was just not a floor push up day. Had terrible ROM, so changed to push up from an elevated bench.
Obliques (V-seated twists) with 5Kg medicine ball: 7*3 (each side).

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My work out today -- bit of an anti-climax

For a long time now, I have been thinking of trying split workouts rather than full body 3 days, 1 hour each. Today I finally had some time to work out and was so excited to try one out. Like a kid in a carnival, I was all so antsy last night.

I am trying to do the heavy/light push/pull split instead of the traditional body part split, because I do believe in working the body holistically instead of part by part. One example of such a workout is in Krista's page (the routine 2): http://www.stumptuous.com/workout-5

I used Varsha Tiwary's (wholesomeoptions.blogspot.com) idea from her comments on my earlier post on workouts.

Today was my heavy pull day (well sort of):

Deadlifts: 55lbs 3*8
Romanian DLs: 55lbs, 3*8
Bent over rows: 45lbs: 3*8
Hanging leg lifts (knees bent) 6,6,6

It was done in 15 minutes! I did not even need much rest in between (definitely no 1 minute rests for sure!). Did not feel like work at all, so I skipped the cooling off as well. Obviously the weights were too low! At the end of it I felt like I could still lift a whole lot more. The only thing that was uncomfortable was my hand when I was doing the hanging leg lifts. Calluses were forming right there as I hung from the bar. Perhaps I need a better padded glove, because although I have enough fat in the body, my feet, hands, elbows and knees are skeletal in their paucity of the much needed padding material. But the hanging leg raises are an interesting challenge. I think I will enjoy those the most in the upcoming heavy pull days!

I think next time, I will try increasing the weight by about 20 lbs more for the DLs and perhaps 5 or 10 more for the rows. (PS: two pesarattus and a glass of milk is too much for this workout! Giggle!)

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A good week

This week, for the first time since May, I actually managed to work out 3 times a week. In fact, ever since mid 2009, my workouts have been very irregular, so I have not progressed much in my strength training. Last year, life threw a crazy curve ball that made my stress levels shoot up. That coupled with the fact that I am an easy prey for cortisol, I really put on some fluff on the lower abs. To top it all, in June this year a minor accident left me with 3 herniated discs in the neck and put me on about 4 months of prescription anti inflammatories and physio therapy. So, from working out about 3 or 4 times a week in 2009, I dropped to 2 or 3 times a month and skipped one month altogether. Some good did come of all this. The blood work showed that I was low on Vit D -- not really surprising since I don't exactly spend 12 hour days in the sunlight. The MRI showed not just 3 herniated discs in the neck, but also 3 degenerated discs. Aha! I was wondering when my bad computer habits will finally come back to haunt me. They have. Every time I slouched in front of the computer, the pinched nerve would shock my arm. Like a dog on shock collar I was made very well aware of my bad posture at work and have been forced to sit up straight.

The inflammation has finally subsided and I hope at least for the rest of this month I can get in a couple more work outs. So far I have managed 4 workouts this month!!

Here's today's workout:

squats: 68lbs, 12*3
chest press (dumbells): 15 lbs, 12*3
one arm rows: 25 lbs, 9*3
flyes: 10lbs, 12*3
lat pull downs: 25 lbs, 12*3
tricep push down: 15lbs, 12*3
bicep curls (barbell): 25 lbs:, 12*3
tricep dips: 10, 12, 12
deadlifts: 55lbs, 10*3
Abs: some plank work with leg movement
jumping jack -- about 50 or so.

So far so good. Remains to be seen if I will keep up my postural corrections at work. I hope I do. And I hope I do it without the shock collar!

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There is Yoga and then there is Bikram Yoga

Starting in my 5th grade, we had a regular yoga period in our school which was devoted to learning both the theory and practice of yoga. Our teacher, who we affectionately called Yogi, was excellent. I am still reaping the benefits of the training I received back then in Ashtanga Yoga. Ashtanga Yoga really is a holistic discipline that has to do with more than just asanas. For a brief introdution to Ashtanga Yoga go here.

For someone trained in that discipline, it is a bit difficult to come to terms with most other forms of yoga prevalent today. In fact, the very term yoga today is used to denote only one branch of yoga -the branch that deals with better strength and flexibility. Basiaclly, just the asana bit of the 8-part discipline that is yoga. In Ashtanga Yoga every asana is held for at least a minute and you push yourself, just to the point where you are at the limit of your comfort. Slowly, you find yourself getting stronger and stronger and more flexible. Most importantly, you truly learn to listen to your body and in his words "still your mind". This, I found, was extremely useful to me when I took up strength training. It allows me to bring a focus that I find is extremely essential to make sure that you never lose form when you are lifting -- even if it means that you don't lift impressive amounts of weight.

Here is a video of some ashtanga yoga poses. This is how it was taught to us when we were kids. Slow and steady, working in installments until we finally got to the final stage of every asana. Every asana had a complementary asana that immediately followed it in order to make sure that you "worked out" the opposite set of muscles. For example, sarvangasan was followed by matsyasan. But most important of all, there was no pressure. No need to top the class. No competition. He managed to get permission for a bunch of us who were very interested in learning more, to skip morning assembly everyday to learn advanced asanas, pranayama, kriyas and meditation. At the ripe old age of 10, I found I needed the meditation to get rid of my stress! Don't ask! Such was life as a school kid for me. In my teens I had already developed lower back stiffness and pain. He made a specific list of asanas for me. He did this for everyone who needed something addressed. One kid had what we used to call "soda buddi kannadi" (really thick glasses for short sightedness). In an year or so of trataka and specifically designed kriyas and asanas, the kid went from wearing those glasses to almost plain glass thickness.

My gym holds some yoga classes, but they are not nearly as satisfying as having spent the morning assembly hour with our Yogi. Most of these classes can sort of be classified as vinyasa yoga, where you are constantly moving. This was such a constrast to the atmosphere of my childhood yoga classes where the Yogi first demonstrated the asana and then guided you step by step to the final stage without so much talking! One of the most important thing in ashtanga yoga is something that sounds so deceptively simple: to relax all muscles other than the ones you are working. Sounds easy, but it really is not. It requires complete concentration and some time to get there. In fact, by experience I found that unless I meditated in every asana, I was unable to stop thinking about the discomfort in my body and therefore unable to really relax my other muscles. Truly a mind-matter exercise. In contrast, vinyasa yoga never really gets that far mentally, for me.

Last weekend I tried Bikram Yoga for the first time ever. All I knew about this was that it was yoga done in a warm environment. Wrong! It is asanas done in a hot environment. 104F (40C) hot! Uncomfortably hot. An environment where your heart rate shoots up so high that you feel like your heart is about to rip out of your chest wall and shoot out to the front of the class. And the sweat! Oh the sweat! Now I have experience with cardio workouts where I have felt exactly like I described here and lived to realize that such a thing as your heart ripping out of your chest cavity is unlikely to happen. Even in these cases, I have never sweated as much as I did in this class. That presented a problem. Sweating at that rate rids your body of all kinds of electrolytes. The asanas themselves were not something I had not seen before, but the blast of heat that emanates from your torso when you bend your head down can immobilize you for an instant. The heat, the sweating and the movement, all of it together made me almost pass out. Thankfully for me, the instructor caught on to the situation and offered me some gatorade. Now I normally don't do sports drink. Not even after a long cardio workout, so I instinctively declined. But he offered me a second time and through all the heat induced fog in my brain, I realized that this time was different. This time I really needed that drink. So I took it and as per the instructions of the instructor, I lay down. It took a while for the heart to calm down, but I did recover to do a few more asanas before the class ended.

Bottom line, it was a very interesting experience. Not in the same class as my childhood yoga classes, but it certainly reduced the tension and ache in my shoulder. I got back and read about Bikram Yoga and this is what I found. It is the same set of 26 asanas every time. The teacher usually yells in the class -- drill sergeant style and you ofcourse, you sweat bucket loads. Bikram Choudhury the self-styled guru started his first school of Bikram Yoga in San Francisco, CA. The wiki article on him states that he "won the National India Yoga Championship four consecutive years in his teens". Now that brings me back to Ashtanga Yoga and our Yogi. Whatever happened to the spirit of yoga?

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Pump it LOUDER!

Three days every week, I work out. I don't run on the treadmill, cycle or walk, I train with weights. That is, if I don't get called to attend meetings that I can't get out of or have to travel for work. One and a half years ago, I started with a 12lb bar and two 6lb and 3lb weights for some of the other exercises . Back then, when the instructor (and presumably the rest of the class) where doing 15 or so squats per set, I managed to groan out .. oh.. say.. 7, may be? Now, I have slipped a 3lb weight on to my 12lb bar and use two 8lb and 5lb weights for most other things and can aaaaaaalmost do as many rounds of each exercise that the instructor does, while still maintaining my form. Managed to drop about 4 dress sizes and about 9lbs (if that is important -- can't say that I don't get a kick out of looking more like my earlier self). And I am happy as can be. Just the thought that I have manged to stick to something that is good for me (health wise) for so long is thrilling enough, not to mention all those endorphins that are supposedly being released during/after a workout.

I went through the first 9 months or so without breathing a word about my new obsession to anyone, with the exception of my sisters of course. They are always in on anything that I am upto. What if I jinx it and don't get to see the inside of a "class room" for the rest of my life? During this period I read a lot about eating right and different techniques and forms for exercises (www.exrx.net is a real good source). Then I "outed" myself to a few casual acquaintances to see if that had any effect on the tenacity of my purpose. Then, sometime last semester, I even got brave enough to mention it to my secretary at work (only because she commented on how I looked, though). And lo and behold! now I am blogging about it! (can you see the crossed fingers and toes?). Success indeed. I will be keeping an alert eye out for any signs from the cosmos that my weight training days are over.

So today, I even managed to juggle yet another meeting with The Class (like The City -- there is only one!) by cutting out (VERY grudgingly) 15 minutes of my workout time (bye bye abs!) . I think the instructor had some personal vendetta to settle with her arms today -- or may be she was just really beefing up for some special purpose. Either way, she killed the arms today. I was too preoccupied watching the time to count the sets or keep tabs on the exercises but I think we did about 20 straight rows, 5 minutes worth of flyes (that does not sound like a lot -- but you try it!!) A bunch of chest presses and what someone in class calls "skull-crushes" . Basically, you lie on your back and lift the bar up (gripping it shoulder width apart) and then, bend your elbows and bring the bar down somewhere over your forehead (depends on how long your arms are). Then some clean-up presses. The woman does not know to count in less than 10s. Some bicep curls and oh I cannot remember what else. Anyhow, my arms were mush and I had a hard time holding the shower in my hand.

For this "term", my goal is to work on my abs and hopefully lower body strength as well. I don't mean to only work my abs or lower body, but to put most of the effort there, so I can shake it out of a zone of complacency.
So, I say to myself
"Shake it, shake it, shake it girl
Make sure you don't break it, girl" and "Pump it LOUDER!!! Pump it LOUDER!!"