Adarq.org

i just started growing my beard back in, too. gonna keep it trim this time around but i look so young cleanshaven, or at least young enough that all the ambassadors i met the other night looked surprised when my boss (who's the CEO and knows all the ambassadors and other senior muckety-mucks in this city pretty well) introduced me as a director. it was funny to watch their facial expressions go from blank being-introduced-to-nothing-person-who-i-won't-ever-have-to-remember to eyebrows-up-oh-i-see-okay-then-slight-head-tilt.

SORENESS: VMOs, esp R
ACHES/INJURIES: none
MENTAL STATE: good

warm up

- circuit of jump rope x 60s + joint circles + sprinty stuff

reactive/explosive

- MR half tuck x 15,15,15

- broad jump x 5,5
found the empty room (i.e. "aerobic studio"), alhamdulillah. no measurement for these, felt in calves/soleus pretty strongly on the landings.

- one-step RVJ x 3,3

strength

- handstand practice x 5 mins
mostly just kicking up against the wall and holding for 10-20s, periodically trying to kick off. got one free hold of 5s.

- pull up ladder x 2+4+6+4+2 (+4 chin ups)

- TTB x 6,6

- walking lunge x 50,50
first set steps too short, all quad. second set longer steps, better.

stretch

now THIS is a workout i can get behind. was fun to do, i feel great now. will not be mad if the only thing i get better at while i'm here is gymnastic stuff, if i can also stay in reasonable shape and get a few jumps and jumpy-type things in. it's okay to hit the hamster wheel on a lot of stuff.

a bit late to the party but...

new notation because i'm going to break workouts into sections and it'll help me keep track of what i do when. would be great to have a script that would transfer these from a spreadsheet to posting format. would make it easier to sort and count what i've been doing. for example, after a month, how many cardio chunks have i done and what total volume of different types of cardio have i done? nbd, but in case one of the coders on here is feeling bored...

also i'm going to stop tracking weight. it doesn't matter, i'm not trying to gain or lose, and unless i see major mirror changes i don't care.

SORENESS: glutes a little
ACHES/INJURIES: head a little but it went away during warm up
MENTAL STATE: good, tired

warm up

- row x 1000m, joint circles, walking sprint-style crap

reactive/explosive

- SL pogo x 10,10,10/leg

- near-ME SVJ x 5,5,5
felt strongly in the VMOs, especially on landing, weird

strength

- circuit x 2
-- DB OHP 20s x 5
-- BSS @ 2:1:2 x 10L
-- pull up x 5
-- BSS @ 2:1:2 x 10R
easing into things still

cardio/finisher

- jump rope x 5 mins
4-5 mistakes, one of which turned into an extended (~30s) break. the gym's jump rope is really heavy so this gassed my hands and shoulders. next time will do 10 sets of 60/60 or something and try to make no mistakes.

stretch

WEIGHT: ???
SORENESS: glutes a little
ACHES/INJURIES: none
MENTAL STATE: good

- warm up
row x 1 min; joint circles; row x 1 min; walking sprint mobility stuff

- row x 2000m in 8:25.6
humbling. got this only in the second attempt; went out WAY too hard in the first attempt, ~1:45 pace, knew by 500m that i would not be able to finish. stopped, rested a bit, regrouped, and tried again a bit more modestly. had a negative split (4:20/4:05), which is good. but man i have a lot to learn about the rower.

- card circuit x 9
-- push ups
-- leg lowers
gassed, meant to do a full rummy hand (13 cards) but just ran out of steam on the push ups.

- stretch

thinking about new goals for pakistan. dunking, jumping, and sprinting are going to have to take a back seat for the next while because i won't have easy access to a court or track. i don't really want to switch to full-on strength training, although that's tempting, because i think i'm still going to be on the road a lot and want to be able to feel like i'm working toward something even then. and i've neglected aerobic training for many years. so instead, i think it makes more sense to pick some more aerobic or "fitness"-type goals.

here are some possibilities:

- C2 tests: 500m in 1:29 (baseline 1:41) and 2000m in 6:59 (baseline 8:25.6)
interestingly, i'm much closer to a respectable time on the 500m than 2000m.

- deck of cards workout for time: clubs=air squats; diamonds=push ups; hearts=leg lowers; spades=band pull-aparts (would need a baseline for this, no idea how long it would take, push ups would be the limiting factor)

- double unders x 200 for time; single unders x 30 mins for turns; criss-cross double unders x 10

- burpees x 5 mins for reps

- turkish get ups (or sandbag get ups if/when i can fix myself up a sandbag) x 10 mins for reps

- pull ups for reps

- army physical fitness test for score (perfect 300 is 77 push ups, 82 sit ups, two-mile run in 13:18)

any other thoughts? it really helps to have goals or targets, if i'm aimless then training tends to slacken. none of the above does much for power, limit strength, explosiveness, or speed. thoughts about what i could do in limited space on those fronts? adarq in particular, i'm curious what you found helpful back in your vert days that didn't involve ME RVJ. box jumps and depth jumps come to mind, but those are hard to progress, really. if there's some way to measure vert i could add SVJ to the mix? at least try to let it not regress too far?

when i'm in islamabad i should be able to continue doing barbell/dumbbell work, but as i said i think i'll be on the road a fair amount. met with boss today and he's already planning for me to go to karachi and lahore in the next month or so.

lol yep i bet cutting cigars helps with breathing.

the last vid you posted is private.

fwiw, my extremely limited personal experience of dry needling (n=1 session) was startlingly positive, and i have a couple of friends who got it also to good effect. my extremely limited person experience of acupuncture (n=1 session) was negative: the dude must have hit a nerve in my toe or something because for a while there it felt like a good portion of my foot was on fire. never again.

but when what you're talking about is movement-specific pain, i'm with acole. the problem is likely not going to be solved permanently by dry needling, and it's definitely not going to be solved by acupuncture.

side note: the scientific evidence for acupuncture as a discipline (placing needles along some apparently very specific locations) is weak relative to placebo (placing needles sort of haphazardly but in the same manner). but the placebo effect is there for a lot of people and can be powerful enough on its own to justify treatment, depending on the problem being addressed. studies aren't all of musculoskeletal pain; acupuncture is also used to treat, say, digestion issues.