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It's been a while since I've updated my P90X progress.

A week ago Tuesday I did the Core Synergistics routine, and it was tougher than I was expecting (considering that the week is labelled "recovery week").

Wednesday I did a pretty solid workout at physical therapy. I think once I got home and ate, I was too tired to do anything, so I'm thinking I missed Kenpo.

Thursday I meant to make up for the Kenpo, but again was tired, so I skipped it as well as the X Stretch routine - which, now that I've actually watched a bit of the video, it looks like it's worthwhile enough to actually do on my "rest" days, even though it's longer than I was anticipating.

Friday, I'm just going to call it laziness, so I didn't do anything then either.

Saturday I think is when started trying to make up lost ground and did two workouts. I did Kenpo X during the day - Lisa was out shopping, and I put on a Kenpo show for Matthew. Apparently Daddy bouncing around throwing punches and kicks is mildly entertaining for him. I think I did another workout in the evening, but I'm having trouble recalling which one.

Sunday I did Yoga X, not wanting to do anything that might interfere with getting back on schedule starting Monday.

Monday, Lisa had an early soccer game so I skipped physical therapy, planning to go Tuesday and Thursday, and in the evening I did the chest, shoulders, and triceps routine. And it left my arms pretty abused by the end of it. I did fewer pushups than in other routines, mainly because there was so much triceps emphasis in this routine that it made the pushups much more difficult. I'm very glad it's going to be a week before I have to do that routine again. I had to modify a lot of the pushups to be able to even do them - especially the one arm pushups (ha!) and the hand-clap pushups - those were both done with my knees on the ground instead of my feet. The slow-motion pushups at the beginning of the routine really took their toll on me.

And right afterwards I did Ab Ripper X. Very difficult. I did fewer reps than when I did it standalone, but a lot more reps than the last time I tried to do it immediately following a workout. The best news is that I've apparently figured out how to fold my yoga mat to make it so my tailbone doesn't hurt any more. Good news is that I had been counting something else wrong - the roll-up v-ups. I had been counting them half as many as the DVD - how i counted, I had done at most 20. But according to the way the DVD counts them, I had done 40. I also had been doing "too many" leg climbs. I assumed I should do 25 of each of those, whereas the DVD only does 12 each. See what I miss by not following the DVD? Regardless, I won't change the way I've been counting them - but instead of striving to get 25, I'll be comfortable doing only 13; because it's a two part move, I don't want to leave the last move half done.

Then I took my day 30 photos. I'm not sure I'm seeing a ton of improvement. I should probably really watch my diet better.

Tuesday, on schedule, I had physical therapy where I did a lot of legs stuff, and then came home and did the Plyometrics. I'm still not squatting as low as I could possibly go during the various squat jumps, but I can at least get through the whole routine and still be able to walk the next day.

Wednesday, I was still feeling the effects of all the triceps work from Monday. I ended up doing Back and Biceps very late - too late to do the Ab Ripper afterwards. This was a pretty challenging day with tons of biceps work, and my new least favorite pullup, the corncob pullup. While holding your chin over the bar in a wide-grip pullup, move your body to the right, then over to the left, back to center, then push away from the bar, then go back towards the bar, and then finally let yourself down. Sweet mercy! (sweat mercy?) I only did five of those. I could've possibly squeezed out one or two more if I got myself off the bar for a few seconds and tried again, but I felt that stopping where I did gave me room to improve next week and the week after that.

Thursday I went again to physical therapy and concentrated on my lower back, leg abductors and adductors, and hamstrings. For good measure I threw in a chest press and pectoral fly, since it had been a couple of days since chest day. I didn't do any of the major leg work I tend to do since I'm doing legs later today. I also didn't do much other core work, because as soon as I got home I ripped through the Ab Ripper routine - 363 core moves. I intended to do Yoga later in the evening, but waking up early after going to bed late the last two days took its toll - I fell asleep early.

Now it's Friday afternoon, and my biceps are pretty sore today. I'm buttoning up the text of this post, and I fully intend to do Back and Legs today, Kenpo and Ab Ripper tomorrow, and at least Yoga if not also X Stretch on Sunday. Or maybe I'll switch Kenpo and Yoga - I haven't decided yet. I'm hoping the sore biceps won't interfere too much with the pullups and chinups I'm supposed to do tonight.

Not much to report - moving along with P90X.

I did that Chest and Back routine again, but started late again and had to skip the Ab Ripper X routine.

Today I did 112 pushups of several varieties - standard, military (elbows in), wide stance, decline, diamond, and dive bombers. I did 20 pull ups (10 each wide and narrow grip), 10 chin ups, and 77 rowing moves, but with heavier weights than last time.

Mental note: sushi is probably not good to have about an hour before a workout. At least not spicy tuna maki with extra wasabi. It didn't come back up, but it definitely didn't taste better the second time around.

And Matthew's surgery is scheduled for 7:30am tomorrow, which means we need to get to the hospital at 6:00am, which means we need to leave by 5:20am to be extra certain we're not late, which means we need to bathe him around 4:30am, which means we need to wake up around 4:00am. Ugh.

And then if I can at all manage it, I need to get myself to physical therapy possibly. But I'd definitely like to make it home for the Plyometrics workout, and of course the Ab Ripper routine to make up for skipping it tonight.

Did I say "Ugh" before?

Double ugh.

I had another late start tonight, so I only did an hours worth of the legs and back routine. And not a solid hour - although I was tempted to skip ahead when I did fewer reps, I instead used the time for a little ballistic stretching.

Because I haven't done this routine before, I really wanted to take it easy on my legs so I'd be able to walk tomorrow when Lisa and I take Matthew to pick out his very first halloween pumpkin!

And because it was so late when I was done with the hour of the legs and back routine, I decided to hold off on the Ab Ripper X routine until tomorrow.

Now I just need to make sure I don't find an excuse to put it off tomorrow :)

The "back" part of the legs and back routine was just several different pull ups and chin ups of varying grip widths. I did about 53 in total, the second set of which I "cheated" a little and let my feet touch the ground at the bottom of the move. But I'm still counting it as 21 chin ups (underhand) and 32 pull ups (overhand). A lot more than I did 5 days ago. And right at what I did a couple of months ago.

The legs part was pretty challenging as I alluded to before - instead of doing about 25 of every move, I did anywhere from 10 to 15 based on how my legs were feeling. I'll see how my legs are tomorrow. My only concern is that I didn't hit my hamstrings as much as my quadriceps, and I think part of the reason I was having issues with my knees a few weeks ago was an imbalance between the major opposing muscle groups of my legs.

If they're sore tomorrow, then I guess I'll know :)

It's been almost a week - but don't think I've been resting on my considerable laurels. I've done several more workouts for my chest, back, shoulders and arms - I've continued my physical therapy - and I've ventured into the Kenpo X and Cardio X workouts.

I've also measured everything that's appropriate to measure, and figured out that if I'm reading (and probably more importantly using) my skinfold calipers correctly, my body composition is in the neighborhood of about 19%. I still suspect it's higher than that, but since I've measured and calculated that number on a couple of separate occasions with slight variations in the measurements of skinfolds, I feel confident that I can at least use that number as a benchmark. Whether it's high or low shouldn't matter as long as it gets lower in the coming weeks.

So the Kenpo X workout is pretty tough - and fairly rough on my knees. I had to take it a little easy on the kicks. I decided to do the kicks because by and large, my knees were feeling pretty good. Fortunately they continued to feel good the next day, confirming that I didn't do anything terribly bad to them.

And then there was the Cardio X routine. I figured that would be a good one to whet my whistle for the other workouts since it touches on the Yoga and even the scary plyometrics workout. This one was very difficult - I nearly got my heart rate up to where it was on my faster run portions of my run/walk routine. Again I avoided any pain the next day even though my quadriceps felt some delayed onset muscle soreness the next day due to some of the jumping.

So the Cardio X routine was yesterday, and I took all my measurements yesterday, and I took the dreadful "before" pictures, so that meant I was pretty much obligating myself to start the real, full, and actual P90X routine today.

But first I had physical therapy. And not just normal physical therapy (though maybe that's a good thing). Today was the first day of my "step down" program. Meaning I'm done with the normal program, I just get to use their facilities and their expertise as I do all the stuff I can do at home, except for a few machines and devices that I can't quite replicate. I skipped a few of the recommended exercises since I knew they'd overlap with what I was planning on for the evening. Or the later evening.

Got home, had a quick dinner, watched Heroes, and then got busy. I did about 87 push ups of many varieties, about 15 pull ups and 8 chin ups. Yes, that's fewer than I was doing during the 100 pushups routine, but since these were all different varieties and hit all different parts of my chest and triceps, I think this was probably pretty good for a start. I also did roughly 75 rowing type movements with dumbbells. The weight here is still fairly low, especially since I moved to 2 circuits of this routine, as suggested by the videos.

And to the letter of the law with the P90X program, I went straight to the Ab Ripper X routine afterwards. It's still very hard, I still can't do everything, but I'm still working towards increasing what I'm able to do. But at the end of it, I had performed about 174 'reps' of all the various ab/core exercises combined. Really tough ab/core exercises. So don't scoff at the fact that 174 is only half of the 349 total reps that I could be doing. Supposing I didn't throw up mid-workout from the insane exertion.

Next up tomorrow is plyometrics. I'm a little scared - I just hope I can remember to take it easy on my knees and not catch quite so much air during the routine.

Since I last wrote, I've been doing a bit more of the P90X inspired workouts. I had been hesitant to start full bore into it, primarily due to my persistent knee issues, but also due to the fact that from the reviews I'm reading, I just might not quite be ready for it just yet.

And I recall with painful clarity what would likely happen if I start out with something too much too fast. Every time I take a step.

So I've been kind of noodling around, doing smaller version of the workouts, making sure I don't take off more than I can chew. Where the exercises use only bodyweight, I've been probably doing about a fourth or less of what I'm probably capable of, and very gradually working my way up. Where weights are called for, I've been taking it very light. I've also been avoiding the Plyometrics, the Cardio-X, the Yoga-X, and the Kenpo-X - all to avoid further damaging my knees.

But then I read something that made me change my mind a bit - at least with the Plyometrics, I've read that there are versions presented that have lower impact for those with bad knees.

So it sounds like I have less of an excuse to continue completely avoiding them.

I've done the shoulders and arms workout, basically doing various shoulder presses, biceps curls, and triceps work - but only one complete circuit (including the bonus round!). I've also done the Abs routine, and am slowly adding to the reps I do of each exercise. And I've done the Chest and Back routine again, but again with a very limited number of reps, and only one circuit.

I'll probably continue this approach, and try the other workouts I've been avoiding, and then probably launch into the grueling 6 day a week schedule.

It seems my hundred pushups plan as well as the couple of pyramids I did over the last few months at least has me to the point where I'm not sore after these workouts.

And the physical therapy that I've been doing seems to have adequately prepared my core muscles for the "Ab Ripper X" routine. At least the abbreviated version I'm doing.

I go back to physical therapy Monday so they can check in on the progress of the healing of my knees. They're slowly getting better - I can usually walk without limping, and I seem to be able to get up and down the stairs pretty well. But there's a few movements that seem to still jack up the pain so I'm nearly gasping with the suddenness and sharpness of the pain.

Pretty soon I'm really going to have to stop procrastinating and take some measurements so that I have more than just general "get rid of the fat" goals I can shoot for.

So it seems I'm going to wait a while before I can start running again. At least, I hope it's only a while, and not forever.

I think my biggest problem was being on pain medication for my back while I started becoming a bit of a runner. Naproxen sodium masked the pain of my back, and most likely my knees. And then the prescription ran out, and I didn't feel like being on pain medication anymore, so I stopped taking them. And then the knee pain starts. But instead of being just gradual, it hits me like a ton of bricks. And the knee "damage" probably just started because like with most things exercise related, I did too much too fast.

C'est la vie.

My physical therapist seems to be helping me work through the recovery, but it still seems slow.

But that certainly leaves my upper body free for abuse.

So I started doing a little something inspired by P90X, and a fairly decent follow on to my recent spate of push ups and chin ups. I can't really launch into the full P90X program due to my knee issues. For now.

It's been a few weeks (already?!) since I even did my pyramids, so I took it a little easy and did a few each of standard push ups, military push ups (narrower hand position with elbows tucked in next to the body), wide push ups, decline push ups, diamond push ups, and dive bomber push ups. Everything but the standard was a nice challenge, because I had never done them - and honestly I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do them, because I knew that a few of them were tougher than the standard. Yet another reason why I didn't do very many.

I also did a few each of wide grip, overhand pull ups, regular chin ups, and close grip overhand pull ups. Again a fun challenge - I had never done the overhand variety, and thought they'd be substantially harder and possibly out of my reach. But they weren't :)

I also did a few latissimus dorsi, rhomboid, and rear deltoid lifts with light dumbbells.

I'll probably be a little sore from this for the next few days. But maybe not too bad.

As far as my knees, I'll be taking it really easy, alternating compression (from cho-pat straps) and icing, and some easy stretching and very light leg extensions and leg curls.

Ok, physical therapy is getting really hard. First the usual stuff - marching bridges, leg lifts, etc. Then I had to do two sets of these horrible, torturous crab walks, wherein my ankles are connected to each other with an elastic tube and I'm supposed to walk sideways all the way across the physical therapy center. And back. Twice. I'm not sure which muscles it is that this really kills me on, but they hurt. If in fact they're still there. I'm not sure, but I may have worked them right off of my body. Ok, they're the tensor fasciæ latæ, and they hurt. A lot. And then this other thing I think my physical therapist invented on the spot to continue the torture - this crazy walking with legs bent, ankles attached with elastic, and wide, sweeping steps.

To top that off, then I had to work on the slide board. The thing that makes you make a motion like you're skiing, skating, or rollerblading. Several minutes worth. Twice. Guess what muscle this motion tends to work? That's right. Same ones as that crazy crab walk. Then these ludicrous walking lunges all the way across the physical therapy center. And back. But while down in the lunge position, hold a medicine ball out at arms' length and twist my torso 90º both ways.

And maybe some other stuff, but I'm too tired to remember it.

Then I get home, eat some dinner, check a little email, and I guess I wasn't feeling beat up enough, so I decided to do my next set of pyramids. 1-2-3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3-2-1. Total of 42 chin ups, 126 push ups, and 210 sit ups. All with really good form, except for maybe about 8-10 of the chin ups where I cheated a little.

If all of the above isn't enough, I'm thinking that if I'm still able to walk tomorrow, I'm going to do 9 sets of the jog/walk intervals from the 5K for beginners running plan, instead of the 8.

This is just insane. Someone needs to put a stop to this.

So, I was true to my word, and did some pyramids today.

I had done the 100 push ups (and 100 chin ups) thing for about 8 weeks. I made some progress, but it felt like I was stalling. So I did something different.

The routine is essentially this: 1 chin up, 3 push ups, and 5 crunches. Then multiply everything by 2: 2 chin ups, 6 push ups, and 10 crunches. Then by 3: 3, 9, and 15. And so on, until I've done 6 chin ups, 18 push ups, and 30 crunches. Then work my way back down: 5 chin ups, 15 push ups, 25 crunches. And so on. By the time I'm all finished, I've done 36 chin ups, 108 push ups, and 180 crunches.

This is the routine where I used to be able to work my way up to 10, 30, and 50, for a total of 100, 300, and 500. I'm not quite there yet.

But there are some good notes.

1) I was really concentrating on form. Powering through the 40 consecutive push ups had me cheating a bit - I wasn't going all the way down and having my chest touch the floor. Now I am. I've already mentioned how I've cheated on the chin ups - this time I bent my knees and didn't let my feet touch the floor (until near the very end).

2) This feels good. Granted, I had been doing a greater number of both chin ups and push ups with the 100 push ups program, but my form was sloppy and I was getting tired and discouraged.

3) A little more about that form. I had realized a week or two ago that it is entirely possible that I had been doing crunches and working only my rectus abdominals, and not my transverse abdominals (which seem so important to help mitigate my back pain). Now that I know how to engage my transverse abdominals, I'm concentrating on doing exactly that throughout the range of motion for the crunches.

So I figure I'll do these for a little while and work my way up.

Todays routine, for brevity in notation, looked like this: 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1 (OK, maybe not so brief). Next time I'll probably repeat the 6 set (1-2-3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3-2-1) and work back down, for a total of 42 chin ups, 126 push ups, and 210 sit ups. And the next time I'll go up to 7. Or so I hope.

Will I keep at these until I hit the old mark? I'm not sure yet. I guess it depends on how I feel as I go along. This may just be a week, or a few weeks, or possibly more. I'm still kind of itching to hit some real weights again.

I'm not sure if it's funny or sad - I make a concerted effort over the course of about a month to get caught up and current on posting my workout progress to my blog - and no sooner than I do, but I start lagging behind again. I think I'm leaning more towards sad.

Speaking of sad, there was my performance on chin ups and push ups on Monday. I was finishing up week 5 for push ups, and week 1 (but the hardest column!) for chin ups.

Push ups: 16 then 16 then 14 then 14 then 12 then 12 then 10 then maxed out at 7. Rested about 30 seconds between sets, for a total of 101 in about 6 minutes. I think I was supposed to max out at 35 on the last set. Hah!

Chin ups: 15 then 11 then 9 then 9 then 9, but just barely. Rested about 2 minutes between sets, for a total of 53 in about 10 minutes. The jump from day 2 to day 3 in week 1, column 3 for push ups was definitely doable. Not so much for the chin ups. My progress with these seems to really have slowed down, so I'll just repeat this week. I think. Unless I decide to do something else.

The chart for this "week" (starting with an exhaustion test and a chin up day repeat and a LOT of rest in between) looks like this:

Tuesday I went again to physical therapy. It wasn't so bad today - I had a substitute sadist instead of my regular one. I'm sorry, I think I actually meant to say therapist there. My mistake. At least I could still walk afterwards.

Wednesday it was back to my regular sadist, and then later in the evening it was time for the repeat of week 5 for push ups, and week 1 for chin ups. Thanks to the roll-ins on the swiss ball, and a lot of other really tough core exercises (or at least, that's the excuse I'm going with) the push ups seemed unattainable tonight.

Push ups: 35 then 28 then 25 then 22 then maxed out at 17. Rested about 60 seconds between sets for a total of 127 in about 7 minutes or so. I just checked, and I did better than I did last time I attempted this set. I still collapsed - or at least nearly collapsed - several times near the tail ends of the latter sets. But I at least hit the rest of the targets, minus the max set.

Chin ups: 10 then 10 then 8 then 6 then maxed out at 8. Rested about 60 seconds between sets for a total of 42 in about 6 minutes. Not too shabby, but then again this was a lot fewer to shoot for than I had done on Monday. And I got a bit more than the last time I attempted this day. So that's progress - a little, which is better than none.

But it seems like my forward progress is stalling, and I'm getting a little discouraged.

August 27:

Back to the physical therapist today. Today they did something to my back - it felt like they were trying to dislocate my shoulder blade. But it sounds more painful than it was - it was primarily just a weird feeling. They also had me do a bunch of shoulder stuff, and some triceps stuff. Which I'm hoping won't get too much in the way of...

Push ups: Week 5, column 2, day 2. 17 then 17 then 16 then 16 then 14 then 14 then 12 then maxed out at 20. Rested about 45 seconds between sets for a total of 126 in about 7 minutes, give or take.

Chin ups: Week 1, column 3, day 2. 12 then 12 then 10 (these are getting pretty tough) then 9 (yeah, not too many more, but then I still) maxed out at 8. Barely. Rested about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 51 in about 8 minutes.

And then I noticed that I'm somehow out of Ensure™ bottles, which I was using as a post-workout protein shake. I was pretty sure I had some left. So, it appears that someone absconded with them. It totally couldn't have been me that took the last one and forgot about it. So I had to resort to some yogurt, which - now I'm not sure if it's the brand, or what, but - didn't taste all that great.

August 28:

Physical therapy today. My physical therapist is a sadist. The first half wasn't so bad, pretty much the standard stuff - treadmill, arm bike, stretches, light abs, shoulder, and gluteal work. But then I had to be in a pushup stance and walk my hands up onto a step and then back down. 30 times. And if that wasn't bad enough, then I had to hold a plank on a stability ball for 30 seconds. Twice. And then a set of stability ball roll-ins - uh, it says on that page that they're an "advanced" exercise? Sheesh. Let's not forget that just the day before, I did some triceps pulldowns in physical therapy and then went home to do 126 pushups. And boy, are my arms tired. No desire, motivation, or energy to do absolutely anything at home afterwards.

August 25:

Went to the physical therapist again. They're really tearing up my shoulders and back. Which is good, because that's what they've determined I need help with. I still had a lot of back pain from my work day - the CTA, my stupid Herman Miller Aeron chair (how this thing is supposed to be comfortable I'll never know), adjusting my desk, trying to sit with good posture, and then the CTA ride home all did a number on me.

So about that chair. I used to only slouch at my desk, reclined in my chair, etc. But that's bad. Even though it feels so good. So I'm forcing myself to keep my chair upright, legs and hips at around 90 degree angles - but something's not quite right. It feels bad, even though the Aeron chair is supposedly one of the most ergonomic chairs out there. I guess. Sure doesn't seem at all comfortable to me. Then, I realize that my desk is too high. So I brought in some allen wrenches to lower my desk. Did that, and now my arms are at a more appropriate angle.

But now there's another problem. My monitor height. Which is easy enough to fix, but the issue there is that it's a giant 30" monitor - so it's hard to get it to a height that feels right for the majority of the things on my screen.

It's pretty pathetic - nice chair, decent desk, nice monitor, but it feels like hell on my body.

At any rate, after physical therapy, I thought I'd be feeling pretty beat up - especially with the work on my core muscles (including my lower back) - but it's actually a little energizing. So energizing, in fact, that I felt really ready to jump right into...

Push ups: Week 5, column 2, day 1. 35 then 28 (oh wow, these are really hard today) then 20. I collapsed about 4 times near the end of the last set. Each time I collapsed, I rested at most 2 seconds, and did another 2 before collapsing again. I have no idea why I couldn't do these today. 80 in the course of about 4 minutes. This is the worst I've failed in ... well, ever. It was my triceps that gave out. I think I'll give 5-2-2 a try on Wednesday. But I'm thinking I'll likely have to redo this week.

Chin ups: Week 1, column 3, day 1. 10 then 10 then 8 then 6 then maxed out at 7. Rested about 60 seconds between sets for a total of 41 in about 6 minutes. Fairly tough, but I did it. And hit the target, even on the max out set.

Then I went back and did another set of 20 pushups. Which amazingly enough felt OK. I didn't quite max out, but stopped a few shy of it. Then I typed up most of this entry (starting from the push ups section - not quite the whole thing :) and then did another set of 30. So now I suppose that 130 in about 30 minutes, or so. I forget when exactly I started. After another brief rest and after I chugged down a protein shake, I briefly considered doing some more. But I thought I was pushing my luck.

BTW, it occurs to me that a few (or more?) days ago I mentioned something about "Oh, I don't need to do any ab work since blah blah blah" and yet here I am complaining about the abuse my transverse abdominal muscles are taking at the hands of the physical therapist. Suffice it to say that the crunches I was doing hardly hit all of my abs. Especially not the ones that are apparently weak. I'm doing little more than tensing the muscles and doing some leg lifts, and that's enough to make me sore.

I was sore the next day, so I skipped the kettlebell.

August 21:

Went back to the physical therapist today, they beat up my shoulders and transverse abdominals again. But that's OK - I obviously need the work. Since, you know, they diagnosed that I needed it - what with their poking, pulling, yanking, and torturing. Hopefully my sore shoulders don't interfere too much with my...

Push ups: exhaustion test... I did 40. And a half. But no halvsies. So 40. Which means I don't get to stay in column 3 for the next week - I'm in column two. I think I'll shoot for going through week 5, column 2, and then doing another exhaustion test to make sure I can get into column 3, and then go from there. I'm almost glad I petered out after 40 - had I done that last one where my triceps gave out, I'd have to start with 40 for my first set. Uh, hello? I could just barely do 40! Then I'm supposed to rest a measly 60 seconds and turn around and do another 32? I don't think so.

For chin ups, I'm going straight into week 1, column 3, since it's the target number is the same number as the last time around - just a different amount of rest between sets. So long as by "different", I mean less. Like, half. So without further adieu...

Chin ups: 10 then 10 then 8 then 6 then maxed out at 4. I think. I know I counted to 5 on the last set, but once again I don't remember if that was the last full chin up, or the last one I was attempting (and of course, subsequently failed to achieve). I'm still on the shorter door. At least I am fully aware of and fully admit to my cheating. I'll repeat this day to have it back in sync with push ups.

I'm also strongly considering resting 3 days. For one, I'm not sure when on Saturday I'll find a little time for my workout - we've got a day commitment out in the far west/northwest suburbs, and then we're having a babysitter over to let us have a night out - which we haven't been able to do since a month or so ago, which was the night we misjudged Matthew's antigrump capacity and had to run out of a restaurant with our food in to go boxes and a screaming infant in tow.

August 18:

Push ups: 30 then 22 then 22 then 20 then maxed out at 29. Wow. Rested about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 123 in about 11 minutes. I somehow had it in me to squeeze out the 29 max out set. Boy am I tired. But not too tired to do...

Chin ups: 10 then 8 then 8 then 5 then maxed out at 7, I think. Rested about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 38 in about 10 minutes. Again, these were from the shorter door, so I think I was cheating a little. I recall counting to 8 on the last one, but I think I only got halfway up on 8, so that's why I've got it as 7.

The chart for this week:

August 19:

Three kettlebell circuits. I'm thinking I really need to start thinking about buying a heavier kettlebell. But then I think that I'm certainly sweating, huffing, and puffing by the time I'm done with this one. Do I really need to push myself that much harder? Also, I've only done this (3 circuits) about once a week. I really think I should let me body get used to this increased activity gradually, because I really think I touched on overtraining there for a bit while I had split the chin ups and push ups onto their own days.

August 20:

I finally got myself to a physical therapist. Turns out that in addition to my previously diagnosed sciatica (compression of the sciatic nerve which causes some hip/pelvis/low back pain on my left side and an occasional shooting sensation down my shin - go figure) I also have a hip deflection. Or rotation. Or something. I don't recall. Also, some of my core muscles are a lot weaker than perhaps they ought to be. Like the gluteal meads, transverse abdominals, mid and rear deltoids, and who knows what else. So the therapist put me through some torture, er I mean strength, tests, and had me do some simple exercises which left me a little sore afterwards, and a little tired. Also the fact that Lisa and I took Matthew to the doctor in the morning, which meant that I had to wake up early. And of course the night before I had to stay up late doing all the normal evening things. So I didn't have much sleep. So I was pretty tired by the time the evening rolled around, so I completely skipped my push ups and chin ups. Which makes me sad.

August 15:

I almost skipped today. I went to see the doctor, taking public transportation, and the bus was really crowded. Which made me stand the whole way. Which made my back hurt a lot more. Which is a little ironic, since I was going to the doctor to help alleviate my back pain. We also had another nanny interview, which made me not be able to rest my back after I got home. Long story short, my back hurt, and I wasn't sure it would stop hurting before I had to go to bed. But it ended up feeling good enough, so I went ahead and did my...

Push ups: 27 (oh wow, my inner upper arms are kind of sore today, but) then 21 (not so bad this time around, but still not great, but) then 21 (kind of running out of gas towards the end there, and) then 18 (oh you gotta be kidding me, there's another set after this?) then maxed out at 25. The minimum, I might add. Rested about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 112 in about 8 minutes. No idea how I got the max on the last set.

Chin ups: 9 then 8 then 6 then 5 then maxed out at 7. Resting about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 35 in about 7 minutes. Lisa went to bed early, so I had to move the chin up bar to a shorter door. So these were a little easier, since I let my feet hit the ground after each chin up. I wonder if I could have done as many on the taller door upstairs...

Wee bit of bad news about going to the doctor today. They weighed me, and my weight appears to be the same. Granted, this is just after a hearty lunch, and it was a different scale, and I was wearing all my clothes (which I haven't been at home), so this may not necessarily be an accurate reflection of my real weight. But I guess I was secretly hoping I had lost maybe a pound or two in the four weeks I've been doing this. And of course it's not pounds that matter - I would happily weigh 10 pounds more if it were all muscle.

August 16:

I got out on my bike. I had to hurry back, because Lisa had somewhere to go, and I needed to watch Matthew. So instead of the circuitous route I took to get there, I took as close to a straight line as I could. Also, I had completely forgotten that this weekend is the Air and Water Show along the lake, so it was really unwise to go down the lakeshore bike path starting around Armitage. It was wall to wall people, none of whom had any idea that people might be using the bike path for - you know, biking?

I really wish I had the opportunity to go a little further, because I'd really like to keep steadily increasing the mileage of my rides. And it's also been a few years since I've been down the Lake Shore Bike Path, especially further south than McCormick Place. But I did get down to Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium.

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August 13:

I stayed home from work in the morning to take Lisa back to the oral surgeon, but I found myself with a little extra time to make up for missing kettlebell last night. So I did the three circuits, hopped in the shower, and went to the oral surgeon with Lisa. She's doing fine, BTW. The swelling has gone down a lot and she only has a little bruising on her cheeks.

Later in the evening, it was time for my push ups and chin ups. I plan to do week 4 day 1 column 3 for push ups, and I figure I'll try to do week 1 column 2 again on chin ups.

Push ups: 27 then 20 then 20 then 17 then maxed out at 23. Rested about 60 seconds between sets, for a total of 107 in about 7 minutes.

Chin ups: 7 then 5 then 5 then 4 then 5. Resting about 60 seconds between sets, for a total of 26 in about 6 minutes. I could hardly do the last two of the four and the last three of the last five. But I took a rest for a beat or two, then gave it my all. So I hit all the targets today, but just barely.

And I rested August 14th, too. And I swear it's completely unrelated, but I'm finally going to go to a doctor to see about my back pain. I really just wanted to go to a physical therapist, but they seem to only accept "patients" with "prescriptions" from "doctors" for physical therapy. I just don't want my doctor giving me drugs. Ibuprofen is about all I'm willing to take, but I can't keep taking it like I have been lately.

August 11:

Push ups: 30 then 22 then 22 then 20 then maxed out at 28. Rested about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 122 in about 11 minutes. Yes - I did more than the minimum on the max. That feels pretty good. Even though I missed the max on day 1 of week 3 redux, I'll go ahead and move on to week 4.

The chin ups look tough today - almost unreachable - but I'll give it a go anyhow. I've got that 2 minute rest to try to get my muscles ready to go again, so I'll see if it helps any.

Chin ups: 10 then 8 then 7 then 5 then maxed out at 2. Rested about 2 minutes between sets - which obviously wasn't enough to recover to pull off the next set - for a total of 32 in about 10 minutes.

So the push ups week 3 and chin ups week 1 wrap up look like this:

Obviously these number surpass any I've done so far in the last 4 (or is it 5?) weeks. So I'll be moving on in push ups, and repeating week 1 column 2 for chin ups. Not so bad, hopefully the repeat of the week will let me hit all the targets this time around. It looks like the start of week 2 column 2 will be fewer chin ups, but in less time. I'll see if I can hit those - in another week, of course.

I meant to do the kettlebell training the next day, but I was tired. I woke up early thinking I might have to come home early and interview a nanny - but neither Lisa or I had the chance to set anything up.

I'm posting a bit more than a day or two per post, hoping I can catch up to current before too much longer.

August 8:

I think I'm supposed to do week 3, day 2, column 3 for push ups today, but I'm not sure. I'm more sure about doing week 1, day 2, column 2 for chin ups. Regardless of what I've actually worked up to, this is what I'll be doing for the day.

Push ups: 27 then 19 then 19 then 15 then maxed out at 25. Resting about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 105 in about 8 minutes. I actually think I could've gotten one, possibly two more out of the max set before total collapse, but I just stopped at 25. But the really good news is that today, I hit all the targets for week 3 day 2. Hooray!

Chin ups: Not quite so good. 9 then 8 then 6 then 4 and two halves and then maxed out at 2 and three halves. Yes, I tried to get more than two on three separate tries. And failed. Rested about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 29 in about 7 minutes. This is definitely more than I've done so far, but it was still short of the target. I think I'll probably end up repeating this one, too. Small bummer. But overall I'm still feeling good about my generally forward progress with the chin ups.

August 9:

Just to wrap up where I've been along the path to 100 consecutive push ups and chin ups so far, I've created a little chart tracking my progress.

This gives me a lot of hope - I can see, now that I've laid it all out, that I'm making some real progress. At times it feels like I'm taking a step backwards for every two steps forward I'm making, but I can see the method to the madness.

Thanks to Lisa's parents being in town to help out after Lisa's wisdom teeth extraction, I got to get out on my bike both days without feeling guilty about leaving her with Matthew! I got out and cleaned up my CamelBak backpack, loaded it up with about 3 liters of water, filled my tires up to 110 psi, and took off. I went just a few more miles today than I did last Sunday, so the total was almost 32 miles. The route was pretty similar to what I did Sunday, just following the trail a little further. Courtesy Google Maps again, here's my route for today:

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Lisa and I interviewed a few potential nannies on Sunday, and we had to take her parents back to the airport, so I took another day of rest on August 10.