Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

In real life

On my weekly runs around the local lake, it is very gratifying and inspiring to see people of all shapes and sizes (and ages) getting their steps in. It doesn't matter if those steps are rapid or leisurely; what really matters is that they are moving. Kudos to all of them, because I personally know how difficult it can be to keep consistency.

Seeing other exercisers getting after it also motivates me to keep to my schedule. There are no days off! Unless of course there’s an injury, then by all means, please take a day off. An underappreciated aspect of going to commercial gyms - versus working out at home - is the community. Even if you don’t speak to a single soul during the time there, the innate understanding that everyone there is working towards the same thing is very powerful. You don’t dare skip a rep, because others around are aware.

Of course the primary reason I work out at home is the time savings. There’s no waiting for equipment to open up, and it’s practically available at all waking hours. But that’s the thing about being social and out in the community: it takes time and effort. We have to shed some of our selfishness in order to be part of groups. It’s easy to romanticize the lone-wolf individualism in this country, but perhaps it’s prudent to trade away some convenience to get some of the social benefits.

We are tribal animals, after all. Thoreau at Walden Pond can only ever be a phase. If there is this supposed loneliness epidemic going on, the solution is obvious: go outside, meet people in real life. Social media is great only if it leads to gatherings in person. There’s no substitute for live pixels right in front of our eyes, rather than pixels on a screen.

Even just being around people - no chatting, like me running at the lake, is enough of a positive boost!

Get wrecked

Saturday, start of the weekend. I want to get the chores out of the way so I can properly relax later. (I’d easily pass the marshmallow test.) That includes the weekly run around the local lake. I typically do cardio in the afternoon, but due to the summer weather it is more wise to do so in the morning when it is cooler.

Except there’s a problem after running. Perhaps it’s just me, or maybe it is the case for everyone. For the many hours after I run, my heart-rate remains elevated. So much so that it could be two hours later, and I’d be sweating just standing. (Admittedly, I sweat easily.) Higher than normal heart-rate after exercising is fine, but after running I seem to be extra juiced and tired. Maybe my cardio condition is just lackluster.

Which is fine if the plan for the rest of Saturday is to veg out on the couch. Unfortunately I am a normal adult with normal adult responsibilities.. Imagine going to Costco some hours after the morning run and the heart is still pounding out of my chest. And to think back in the schooling days, we’d often run a mile during PE class! Was I equally psyched up in the class periods afterwards?

Of course, at the ripe old age of 38, I obviously don’t recover quite as I used to compared to decades earlier.

I will need more data point on this whole run in the morning thing. Maybe it will get better the more I do it. I’ve only returned to the tracks (so to speak) for about two months. I mean, don’t people say they feel invigorated after cardio to start their day? I’ve not seen it personally thus far…

Put a sleeve on it

My knees are barking the day after a heavy barbell squat session. Perhaps it’s time to give up the facade and get some knee sleeves. I already use elbow sleeves when I bench press to prevent tennis elbow from flaring up. It’s time to wrap the other major joint of the other major limbs.

The hesitancy comes from this macho ego image of dismissing any sort of assistance. That using straps and sleeves will prevent me from developing my body to its full potential. Why shouldn’t my hands be capable of holding onto a multi-plate barbell for multiple deadlift reps without the bar slipping out? I want grip strength of the gods!

Of course that’s not how it works. I have to keep in mind what muscles an exercising is targeting. I cannot let hand grip be the limiting factor for an exercise - deadlift - that’s suppose to work the lower back, hamstrings, and glutes. No matter how awesome your grip strength is, it can never surpass the three aforementioned muscles. It will no doubt be the first point of failure, which is what lifting straps alleviate. I use them all the time.

As we head into the colder months it’s important to maintain warmth at the joints when weightlifting. That’s what sleeves do. Since I’ve started lifting I’ve been able to thankfully squat without any pain, but that seems to be changing as the weight increases on the barbell. The knees have soreness, and the upper back as well (you try putting 255 pounds on your back).

Alright then. Black Friday is coming in a month, time to take advantage and get a pair of knee sleeves. The good neoprene ones are not cheap!

Do you even cardio, bro?

A few days ago I did some cardio on the exercise bike for the first time this year.

Let’s just say I really should incorporate cardio back into my exercise rotation. I’ve been so focused on chasing higher strength numbers that I promised myself to get back to cardio after hitting predetermined weight milestones. (Three plates on the back squat for reps, for example.) Priorities, you know.

Obviously, having solid cardio health can be helpful to adding weight on the barbell. Especially for the squat. Heavy squats for 10 plus reps is incredibly taxing - at least for me, an average man of nature. By the time rep eight comes around, I’m having to take extra time between reps, not because my legs are tired, but to catch my breath.

But long cardio session are so boring, no matter if we now have unlimited Internet videos to keep us entertained. Given the choice between cardio and leg day, the latter will always win out for me.

In this current dopamine hamster wheel world of ours, where fast rewards gets rewarded, weightlifting can be very additive indeed. Especially when you first start out. Every new week you’re adding more weight to the bar, or doing more reps than the last. The first time I moved my own bodyweight in pounds on an exercise was like the floodgates opening to a gush of new possibilities. You want to keep going and going until the next milestone, then the next.

What I am trying to avoid is turning weightlifting into my entire personality. It’s tough, because the rabbit hole - as with any other hobby - is deep. I have to remind myself that this is all towards keeping a fit body for as long as possible. Once you get past a certain weight number, anything more is for the ego. At some point I will simply maintain, rather than chase.

Two more months of dry

It is official: I have two more months of Accutane treatment remaining. A blinding light at the end a very dry tunnel. I cannot wait to stop applying lip balm every two hours, and regain the ability to comfortably go outside when it’s sunny. Trading seven long months of monk life for acne-free skin for (hopefully) the rest of life is a fantastic deal.

It was two months ago - month three of Accutane when I largely stopped getting new acne. After that momentous occasion, it’s just a matter of getting enough overall dosage. They use my body weight to calculate, and that’s how we determined there’s 60 more days of medication to go. My understanding is insufficient dosage can lead to relapsing.

I actually don’t mind the lengthy medication period. I am essentially getting pure cocaine-grade retinol, which is fantastic for skin rejuvenation. Those over-the-counter retinol creams might as well be snake oil when compared to isotretinoin. If the side-effects weren’t so severe (and they really warn you against getting/causing pregnant), and the fact you need a prescription, I’d probably take low dose Accutane for the rest of life.

But, normal life must go on. Soon as I am off the drug, I shall add running back to my exercise regiment (I run outside, obviously). My cardio endurance has definitely deteriorated during this Accutane period. I’d run out of breath doing heavy squats before my leg muscles give out. That’s not ideal: you always want the muscle being worked on to be the limiting factor.

Here’s to a swift next two months.

Save the elbows

I recently added a barbell back squat to my weightlifting routine, and I couldn’t figure out why the inside of my elbows were sore afterwards. Kind of doesn’t make sense for parts of the arm to sore for what is a lower body exercise, right?

At first the soreness only occurred after a session, so I figured it was simply delayed onset muscle soreness. Those typically go away with enough squatting sessions in the log book. Well, wrong. During today’s workout, the inner elbows started to hurt during my warmup set. The general rule of thumb is: if something hurts during the exercise, then it needs to be addressed immediately.

Intuitively, I moved my grip on the bar further outwards. Because if the elbows are hurting during the squat movement, then it’s got to be the position that I am putting them in. And what do you know: it absolutely worked. Zero elbow pain on my working sets simply by widening my grip. I guess how well(?) our limbs can contort is highly individualized.

I’m just glad I don’t have to give up the barbell squat movement entirely. Like I had to do for the upright row, because it was hurting my shoulder. Once you get past a certain weight point, it’s difficult to progressively overload the lower body using dumbbells. Holding a 100 pounder to perform a goblet squat is not feasible, because my grip would give out way before my leg muscles do.

The price of protein

I shop at Whole Foods because I’m buying produce for just myself. So what if the stuff there is more expensive than less prestigious(?) grocery chains? I alone can’t possible eat enough food for the extra cost at Whole Food to add up significantly. Besides, as an Amazon Prime member with an Amazon Prime Chase Visa card, I get 5 percent cash back. (Spend money to make money, am I right?)

If I were grocery shopping for a family, that changes everything. No more organic eggs from free-range chickens. No more organic milk from grass-fed cows. Paying for pre-cut fruits would be an insult to the ancestors. Food for the family will be purchased as cheaply per weight as possible.

I recently noticed how vastly more expensive beef and fish is compared to chicken and pork. Pork chops are something like three times less expensive per pound compared to the cheapest cut of steaks. As a frequent lifter of weights, I need to eat a lot of protein. Because I only shop for me - and lucky enough to make decent money - I have no qualms springing for the more pricey steaks and salmon. If this were me 10 years ago (read: much poorer), it would be chicken and pig meats only. Cows are a delicacy.

Same is true if I had a family to feed: fish and cows are very occasional treats only!

While I do lament not starting weightlifting in my twenties, at least in my thirties I don’t have to resort to chicken and rice for my staple nutrition. A gram of protein is a gram of protein for sure, but I much rather eat salmon sashimi than pan-fried chicken thighs (bone out, of course).