Today has been one of those "Twilight Zone" days, that I have maybe once every 10 years. Now that I have gone to riding that wagon for the long haul, maybe they will come more frequently. I have a feeling that they will.
Anyway, onto to the gist of the matter. A number of events at work today, came together in my favor BIG TIME. Can't, and won't go into the details, but suffice it to say things improved 500% in a matter of one morning. So I'll leave that at that.
I wrote about "pinging" my back last week during a very intense set of hamstring curls on my weight machine. Now Mon, Wed, and Fri have usually been strength work days, but I made a decision to leave the weight bench alone for a few weeks. I have instead chosen to work on doing Pilates, Tai Chi, and something else called the 5 Tibetan Rites which is an intense stretching/isometric strength routine. The pig iron by the weight bench is not going anywhere.
I decided I need to work intensively on my abdominal "core" muscle structure, and bring it to the same conditioned level as my arms and legs. My biceps, triceps, delts, lats, quads, hamstrings, and calves are all at least 100% stronger than they were a year ago. My total body muscle mass has increased by about 10%, and my body fat % has decreased by a similar amount. However, the lower back and abs in the front are still sadly puny. Hence the switch-over.
Aerobic cardio will still continue 2 to 3 times a week on Tues, Thurs, and maybe Saturdays. I don't think I will venture back into the hard core anaerobic development and expansion zone again until spring or early summer.
So it is all a loose plan of sorts. Here is what is neat. Living out in the remote forest boondocks, nowhere near a city of any size (I like it that way), the closest instructor is maybe a two hour drive away in Memphis or Nashville. Not an option. So I have been learning from books and videos. Both pretty expensive in their own right, but the best for where I'm at. So I have a stack of a few books, and a few DVD's bought.
Continuing on, I thought to myself, "I sure wish a TV channel had this sort of thing". So I flipped on the Dish Network satellite system, and started looking through the channel line-up. I get maybe 400 to 500 channels on my system, and only have about 150 of them actively displayed on my guide. Well, lo and behold, I found a channel that I had a subscription to, but did not know I had. It's called Lime TV, and at 6 PM two shows came on. One on TaiChi with a master instructor, and another on Pilates. Same deal. Looking further, these shows are on every day, and are part of a long term set of instructional programs.
How about that I thought. So I went to the Lime.com website, and got a schedule of the shows I was interested in. Now I have a hard disk to DVD TV recorder that I can program, and can set the Dish box to record these shows any time. They will play, and record while I am at work.
So HOT DOG!! I can now make my own set of complete instructional DVD's without paying a gazillion dollars extra, by just using the stuff I already have. I can even edit out the commericals quickly and easily. This is just too weird I tell you. Synchronicity.
Very strange sometimes, on how everything just comes together for ones benefit all at the same time. It is like the universe today said, "Let's give ole' Neil a break today, shall we?" And I see it, and recognize it, and hope maybe tomorrow will even be better.
Be well.
Neil
Anyway, onto to the gist of the matter. A number of events at work today, came together in my favor BIG TIME. Can't, and won't go into the details, but suffice it to say things improved 500% in a matter of one morning. So I'll leave that at that.
I wrote about "pinging" my back last week during a very intense set of hamstring curls on my weight machine. Now Mon, Wed, and Fri have usually been strength work days, but I made a decision to leave the weight bench alone for a few weeks. I have instead chosen to work on doing Pilates, Tai Chi, and something else called the 5 Tibetan Rites which is an intense stretching/isometric strength routine. The pig iron by the weight bench is not going anywhere.
I decided I need to work intensively on my abdominal "core" muscle structure, and bring it to the same conditioned level as my arms and legs. My biceps, triceps, delts, lats, quads, hamstrings, and calves are all at least 100% stronger than they were a year ago. My total body muscle mass has increased by about 10%, and my body fat % has decreased by a similar amount. However, the lower back and abs in the front are still sadly puny. Hence the switch-over.
Aerobic cardio will still continue 2 to 3 times a week on Tues, Thurs, and maybe Saturdays. I don't think I will venture back into the hard core anaerobic development and expansion zone again until spring or early summer.
So it is all a loose plan of sorts. Here is what is neat. Living out in the remote forest boondocks, nowhere near a city of any size (I like it that way), the closest instructor is maybe a two hour drive away in Memphis or Nashville. Not an option. So I have been learning from books and videos. Both pretty expensive in their own right, but the best for where I'm at. So I have a stack of a few books, and a few DVD's bought.
Continuing on, I thought to myself, "I sure wish a TV channel had this sort of thing". So I flipped on the Dish Network satellite system, and started looking through the channel line-up. I get maybe 400 to 500 channels on my system, and only have about 150 of them actively displayed on my guide. Well, lo and behold, I found a channel that I had a subscription to, but did not know I had. It's called Lime TV, and at 6 PM two shows came on. One on TaiChi with a master instructor, and another on Pilates. Same deal. Looking further, these shows are on every day, and are part of a long term set of instructional programs.
How about that I thought. So I went to the Lime.com website, and got a schedule of the shows I was interested in. Now I have a hard disk to DVD TV recorder that I can program, and can set the Dish box to record these shows any time. They will play, and record while I am at work.
So HOT DOG!! I can now make my own set of complete instructional DVD's without paying a gazillion dollars extra, by just using the stuff I already have. I can even edit out the commericals quickly and easily. This is just too weird I tell you. Synchronicity.
Very strange sometimes, on how everything just comes together for ones benefit all at the same time. It is like the universe today said, "Let's give ole' Neil a break today, shall we?" And I see it, and recognize it, and hope maybe tomorrow will even be better.
Be well.
Neil
Control the Mind
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