Incremental Fitness

There is talk of an experiment that took a little frog and dropped him in hot water, and he jumps out right away (please don't try this).  But when the scientists put the frog in cold water and then slowly heated it up, the frog was happy until he was dead.  The reaction to jump didn't kick in, he was used to it.

This (rather macabre) thought got me thinking about how I approach fitness.  I go hard until I hurt something then I rest, and eventually quit.  Thinking about how much it will take to get back to that point I was at when I stopped.  This time will be different.

I started my planning like I start everything.  With a Google Spreadsheet.  Wrote down 365 days.  From today until next year.  Then I researched baseline fitness for fat, lazy, old people.  What is the most elderly workout one can do in cardio.  It turns out that from my age, 110 BPM heart rate for 30 mins a day is low/moderate.  That what I hit for today.

I then found out what a max BPM heart rate would be for someone who is one year older than I am. Turns out 160 BPM Hear rate is a rigorous heart rate for someone of my vintage next year.  That is what I placed as my 365 day target.

Then I simply subtracted 110 from 160 and reached a 50  BPM increase of a year.  Divided by 365 and got 0.13 BPM every day.  Plugged that into my computer as well.

I did this same thing with pushups, squats and weight.  

The most fun is going to be planks.  Amanda Minchau, my wife, saw an old man doing a 6 minute plank.  He said he has been adding one second on to his time every day.  That's pretty cool, so I am borrowing that.  Today I did a laughable (but perfect from) one second plank! 

Here is my workout for today:

• 30 mins Elliptical 110bpm
• 1 second plank
• 1 perfect pushup
• 5 perfect squats

Workout Results: I actually sweated during the 30 mins.  The plank was just funny. the pushup was actually hard and proved I need this. The squats weren't terrible but my knee is sore from skiing injury.

WHAT DID YOU EAT YESTERDAY?

Some Open House Snacks

Two peanut butter rice cakes

Overall, not a healthy eating day.

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

I am sore everywhere.  Parts of my feet are just sore, calves are sore, right knee is injured a bit, left knee is sore, left wrist has a ski injury (minor) right thumb is super stiff.  Neck is night.  Back gets stiff when sitting too long.  Getting tired a lot after 12 hours of work.  Really, I feel like base-line crap.