Day 86, Late Night

Long day and a late night. Didn't get home until 1:00am, which technically makes this a day 87 post I guess. I'm quite tired.

There's one thing for sure, parties are the enemy of the PCP. It's very tough to control your eating when snack food and alcohol are laid out everywhere. Plus, a late bedtime sabotages you in two ways. One is that you don't get enough sleep that night. Muscle growth happens during the fiber repair stage that happens when you snooze. The second way is that the next day your workout will suffer as you work on little sleep. You'll probably have to cut some sets.

I'm not much of a partier anyway. But especially not now.

Day 85, 12 Weeks

Yesterday was the 84th day, and it wasn't until today that I realized that 84 divided by 7 is 12, i.e. 12 weeks. (I suck at math)

And you know what that means. Bruce Lee photo time! Did you know that Bruce Lee could do two finger push-ups? If you've never seen them check this out. You can see the push-ups at about 1:20 but the whole video is great.



I can't do two finger push-ups, although I've been working up to them for a few years. I started on fists, then 5 fingers, and now I'm down to three (well, 6, I have to use both hands) I can crank out about 25 pushups from this base. So without further ado, here's the 12 week photo.


Thanks everyone for your support. Almost there!

Day 84, Circle Crunch

Damn, I love this crunch. I don't know how it escaped my attention until now. Usually we just isolate the rectus abdominus muscle with regular crunches, or the obliques with side crunches. This one hits both in a fun way.

Lie on your back, hands lightly touching the ears. Lift the shoulders slightly and instead of crunching up, rotate the torso to the left and up in a circular shape. Go all the way around until you're down on the opposite side. From here you can keep going in the same direction for a few more reps, or, stop and go in the opposite direction, which is pretty hard.

One of the hardest things about abs work is keeping it fresh. Not just to alleviate boredom, but to find new ways to stimulate those muscles that get too good at the usual exercises.

Day 83, I Give Up...

Yes, I give up... on trying to fashion some kind of chin-up bar. I spent days combing the net, talking to carpenters, metalworkers, and even a car designer for BMW. All of the solutions were too bulky and/or expensive.

The best thing I saw came from reader Jake Sibley, who was so kind as to offer to help me with international shipping (thanks dude!). The Perfect Pullup. But they don't ship to Japan and by the time we got all the buying and intermediary shipping figured out the project would almost be over.

So, I've resigned myself to the only other choice for someone who doesn't enjoy the gym atmosphere. The playground. Yesterday I racked my brain for all the playgrounds I had seen on my adventures around Yokohama, and took a kind of Pull-up bar tour to find the best one for my purposes.

First up, the playground at Yokohama Stadium.


A little on the short side, plus, this park is always busy with one of the following, depending on time of day, a) housewives and their little kids b) elementary schoolgirls or c)drunken homeless men. Next...

Near Odori Park

Here's a jungle gym that might work... the height is right...


let's give it a try...

Agh, the parallel bars stop my shoulders from finishing the movement. No good. Onwards...

Near Minami Police Station

Here's a set next to some swings...

Uh... I don't think this is going to hack it.

I feel as ridiculous as I look. Not going to work.

Next up, a kind of neglected playground near Yokohamabashi.

Yes! It's high enough. And I'll be able to get shoulders through those gaps in the ladder rungs.


Perfect! And it's not too crowded. Plus, the kids here (you can just see them in the top right of the next photo) were pretty nice. For some reason they all started calling me Michael. Probably their elementary ALT English instructor is named Michael, and they figure if it works for one male Gai-jin it'll work for them all. Fair enough.

So, this where I'll be every third day for the next few weeks. Come by and join me for a few sets of chin-ups and the ridicule of small children.

Can't beat the price!

Day 82, Lemon Bars

Today you may remember was my indulgence day.

So far the indulgences, which come every 15 days have been;

Beer

A Chocolate Chip Cookie

Wine and Cheese

Ice Cream

and today's was...

Homemade Lemon Bars!



I love desserts that aren't overly sweet and have more than one flavor going on at once. Cheesecake, bitter chocolate, etc... so Lemon Bars have always been one of my favorites.

But in Japan you're never going to find lemon bars so we've learned to make them.

Here's how the sheet looks before cutting.




and here's how they look going into my mouth.



Taste
Tangy and delicious. Great texture. Homemade things just have that extra something to them. I ate 4 5cm by 5cm bars.

Effects
After 10 minutes, an intense bout of the shakes as the sugar hit my bloodstream. I just can't take that much concentrated sucrose at once anymore. My stomach was also a little confused as to what to do with all the flour hitting it at so late a time (9pm) I haven't eaten more than a piece of toast's worth of carbs past 6pm in 82 days.

Aftereffects
Upset stomach, occasional twitches in the back of my neck. A heavy sleepy feeling (sugar crash). Churning intestines. A desire to put the leftover lemon bars out of sight. Tired in body but mind racing.

Phew! Next indulgence, day 97. These things are a real trial for me. It blows my mind that I used to eat this stuff that now turns my world upside down like it was nothing. My question is, is it necessarily good to be this sensitive to rich food? Isn't there something to be said for having an iron stomach? My body has gotten much stronger but my stomach is a real wimp these days.

Day 81, Weariness

Today for the first time in a while I was simply tired and fed up with trying to stay on the plan. Tired of measuring out my lunch, tired of eating egg whites (I only made it through 3 today), tired of the second day deep soreness I described in day 80.

The funny thing is that when you do something for this long you reach a point where it's easier to just follow the momentum that you've built up and keep doing it than veer wildly off course. For example, I could throw up my hands and say "forget this!" and go have three pizzas at Sisiliya, but the flavors would be overpowering for me and my stomach would hurt like hell within 10 minutes. You have these visions of finishing the project and having a big piece of chocolate cake with all your friends, but the truth is that at that point the cake is too rich for you and you've lost all your friends because they're intimidated by your killer physique. (well, maybe not)

Truthfully, today was just a busy day and the PCP felt more like a chore than a joy. It's my fault for overscheduling myself and spending too much time on one project I just wanted to finish. One of the most important mental changes that you have to make doing something like this is to realize that you do have to schedule in your health. The times I've strayed furthest from my plan is when I just leave myself 30 mins to magically get through 1000 jumpropes and 30 sets of exercises. It never happens but I still imagine it can be done when I see my appointment book filling up.
If you asked someone, would they rather be wealthy and successful or healthy, they'll always say "healthy." It's the most obvious thing that without health there's not much point to all that money and success. But crack open that same person's appointment book and you'll probably see that on the ground the pursuit of success gets a lot more scheduled time than exercise.

At least that's how my day was today, and my frustration flowed not towards the excess work but towards the PCP, which is just backasswards. The PCP only helps me and makes life more interesting. I'll try hard not to let it get bumped off the schedule for lesser pursuits.

Day 80, Sore

Today I was sore from every damn direction. Yesterday I did a ton of pullups at the community gym (still no luck finding a pull-up bar) so my whole back felt somehow leaden. When your back is sore it's not like regular muscles being sore. It's just a sheet of weariness draped over your whole body, like the iron vests you have to wear when you get a dental x-ray.

The other soreness was from the bottom, from my top secret leg stretching technique. Hip abductors were not happy campers.

When I'm sore like this, it gives me a great deal of compassion for my weaker or older yoga students. Today during class I was having a hard time demonstrating correct form. It wasn't that I didn't understand what to do, I just didn't have the fine control over my musculature that I needed. It was a good reminder to be patient with people who struggle in class, and of course, to Help the Aged.



Being sore also has another positive side effect. There's no better way to learn anatomy than to have a sore muscle. All day you get to feel exactly when and how that muscle is used. For example, tonight I was chopping bell peppers and I noticed from the soreness that the cutting action used just the slightest bit of my trapezius, right where it tapers off at the deltoid. How interesting!

Okay, you don't have to say it. I'm a geek.