Tag Archives: healthy living

Bad back

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At the end of Grade 9 I was 4’11” and at the end of Grade 10 I was 5’6.5” tall. I grew 7.5” in 1 year, and during that growth spurt my back torqued a bit giving me mild scoliosis. That year, and for a bit longer, my heals hurt. They couldn’t handle the extra weight I put on. A couple years after that, I started having issues with my back.

But I was young and full of energy. I dealt with back pain by just putting up with it… until it crashed on me, then I was basically in survival mode, incapacitated. I’d sleep on the floor with my feet up on a pillow or coffee table, and I’d take a combination of pain killers and alcohol to get me through 2-4 days of agony before I could get myself back to ‘normal’… with that normal being consistent but manageable back pain.

When I met my wife, at 28 years old, I was at a point where I’d been coping with a high level of daily pain for almost 9 months. It was debilitating. My wife, who was just my girlfriend at the time kept recommending her physio, and I didn’t really want to try someone else, I was getting massages and seeing a chiropractor, and thought I was doing enough.

Then one day I was feeling the pain more than usual. I used to ride my bicycle to work, but my back was bad enough that I took the bus. It was an unusual day where I had to sit in an all day meeting and my back couldn’t handle sitting all day.

I was in agony by the time I got on the bus headed home, and after I got on the crowded bus an elderly lady got up from her seat and said something like, ‘I think you need this more than me’. I declined, thanking her and saying that the last thing I needed to do was sit. This exchange hit me hard… an old lady got up to offer me a seat. How bad must I look for this to have happened. That day I asked my wife for the number to her physio.

That decision changed my life considerably. The physio had me doing these tiny movements to push my hips over to the left and after 2 sessions with him, I woke up one morning and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I took a shower and I couldn’t shake this bizarre feeling. After the shower, I was shaving and it suddenly hit me… I wasn’t in pain.

In the 3 decades, since that experience, I’ve never had my back be as bad as that, but I’ve had some tough episodes. One involved a herniated disc in my neck that sent nerve pain down my left arm. Scroll back a few years on this blog and you will definitely hear me talking about it because it was really all I could think of for a few months.

And now again, for the past few months, I’ve been dealing with sciatic pain down my right leg. My new diagnosis: piriformis syndrome. Basically my butt muscle is squeezing my L5 sciatic nerve. I’m now waiting for an appointment with an anesthesiologist, who will likely give me a shot to ‘cool down’ the issue so that my physio work can actually teach me to keep that area more relaxed. But in the meantime, the pain is triggered, not by sitting, but rather by standing. Even a three minute shower is long enough to initiate the pain.

I’ve joked for years that my mind feels 20 years younger than my actual age, and my back feels 20 years older. A funny remark when I’m in my 30’s, which feels a bit scarier at 58. But if my back has taught me one thing over the past few decades it’s that if I don’t care for it well it will humble and age me.

And so, here I am in recovery mode again, in a slow but steady and dedicated way. I’m trying to stay positive, knowing that discipline and care will help me overcome my back challenges. No appointment scheduled yet with the anesthesiologist, I’m still waiting for the call… in a seated position as often as possible.

Pushup update

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The goal was 3,000 pushups in February. My buddy Dave and I decided we’d do 120 a day over 25 of the month’s 28 days. However, when we were 15 days in and hadn’t missed a day, I upped the ante and said let’s do 3,500. Only a couple days later I missed my 120-a-day goal, and then missed it again the next 2 days as well. So I made up the deficit all in one day by doing 9 sets of 30.

Here is the final tally:

  1. 25+25+25+25+20 = 120
  2. 30+30+30+20+10 = 120
  3. 30+30+30+15+15 = 120
  4. 4*30 = 120
  5. 4*30 = 120
  6. 20+25+25+25+25 = 120
  7. 3*40 = 120
  8. 3*40 = 120
  9. 20+20+20+30+30 = 120
  10. 50+35+35 = 120
  11. 20+50+25+25 = 120
  12. 40+40+20+20 = 120
  13. 4*30 = 120
  14. 50+20+50 = 120
  15. 3*40 = 120
  16. 3*40 = 120
  17. 2*30 = 60
  18. 3*30 = 90
  19. 2*30 = 60
  20. 9*30 = 270
  21. 40+30+25+25 = 120
  22. 2*60 = 120
  23. 3*40 = 120
  24. 3*40 = 120
  25. 6*30 = 180
  26. 5*30 = 150
  27. 5*30 = 150
  28. 35+3*25+30 = 140

3,500 pushups in 28 days.

My goal this morning was to do 4 sets of 35 to get my last 140 done. (Since 28*120 is only 3,360, I had a few more than 120 to do the last few days). However, I did the first 35 in the gym after doing my warmup and stretching, then Dave and I did a heavy chest workout. I hit a PB (personal best) on bench press. Then we did heavy incline press, and finished with a superset of chest fly machine and push-ups, and the 3 sets of 25 that I did today were easily the hardest sets I did for the entire month. The last 30 were easy again, I only just did them with a nice long break after my workout.

It’s great to have small goals like this in addition to regular workouts. This is especially rewarding when I’ve had to put training for ‘Everesting the Crunch’ on hold due to sciatica pain in my leg. I’m doing my physio, taking painkillers, and following up with doctor visits, but standing for more than 3 minutes triggers the pain, and it’s hard to go through a day not standing. That said, pushups don’t require standing and so they have been a great goal, fully achieved with no pain.

I’m not sure what our next small goal will be, but if I don’t come up with one, I know my buddy Dave will.

More health data tracking

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A while ago my wife bought a Hume scale. You pull a handle with sensors up from the base, stand on the scale while holding the handle, and it gives health data far beyond what a simple weight scale does. That said, I’ve questioned the accuracy, and it definitely took some time to adjust, or should I say acclimate, to what it was reading about me.

The thing that really didn’t seem right at first was the heart rate, now with my Garmin watch to compare, I think it is about a heartbeat or two per minute above accurate, but that isn’t a drastic difference. The other thing I wasn’t sure about was body fat percentage, but I just did a scan at my gym that tends to be more accurate and it was pretty close there too.

One stat that all 3 sensors, the Hume, my watch, and this gym scale, all tell me seems to be accurate but the information is useless, and that’s BMI – Body Mass Index. The stats shared with me are 25.3, 26.0, and 25.2 BMI respectively and the Hume app says,

“25.3

High

A ratio of weight to height squared, widely used as a general health screening tool. It is generally regarded as an outdated measurement for health as it does not differentiate between muscle and fat. We have included it here for users which find it useful.

ⓘ Your rating is scored against medical and scientific benchmarks established for people your same age, sex at birth and height.”

And my watch bluntly says,

“Average BMI 26.0

Reducing your BMI to 21.9 can help lower your Fitness Age.

To help achieve this goal:

• Focus on both diet and exercise.

Cutting calories has been shown to be most effective for weight loss, but both regular exercise and calorie maintenance are important for keeping the weight off.”

However, further down in the description of BMI my watch also says,

“Keep in mind that BMI may not be a useful metric for everyone. Highly trained and muscular athletes, for example, may report high BMI numbers even though they are very fit.”

I don’t know if I’d call myself a ‘highly trained and muscular athlete’, but when my Hume app tells me that my body fat percentage is 14.8% and the fancy gym scale says it’s 14.6%, I’m definitely not cutting calories and trying to keep weight off… in fact I’m hoping to gain another 8-10 pounds this year.

All that said, I’ve learned that BMI is not a measure I plan on concerning myself with. And while it’s flattering to have such a low body fat percentage, I wouldn’t mind if that went up a bit while I focused on gaining more muscle. And so it’s good to have data to track but I’m not fixated on the numbers as much as the trends I’m seeing, as these numbers fluctuate.

I’ve learned that my diet does affect my weight and when I’m active I need to maintain my calories and especially my protein. I’ve learned that sleep affects my ‘health score’ and that sleep really is important for my strength, recovery, and overall health. And finally, as mentioned, trends matter more than concerning myself with daily numbers.

I’ve enjoyed tracking these and more data points on my Hume scale and Garmin watch, I do wish theses apps spoke to each other and shared data, but both put product loyalty (buy our watch AND our scale) over customer convenience. What I like is that I can see how my stats are trending, and while I do pay some attention to the numbers regularly, I’m not preoccupied or worried about them… which I think is healthy.

More rest

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I’m going to physiotherapy. I’m going to massage therapy. I’m doing my stretches and exercises. And I’m still dealing with leg pain that gets triggered from standing. Until a week ago I could just sit for 5 minutes and the pain would fade. I could walk on the treadmill or up/downhill, and even run, and felt no pain… but after 3-5 minutes standing in the shower, shaving & brushing my teeth, or making food, the pain returned.

For the last week and a half, the pain has crept into activities where I’m mobile and moving, and then has been slow to subside, even when I sit.

So, I’ll keep doing my stretches, keep going to physio and massage, and even seek more medical help. What I’m also going to do is give my legs more rest. I’ve been pushing hard, I’ve seen amazing gains… but my body is telling me that it needs a break. I’m going to go easy on my legs, and give this issue some time to heal.

3,000 pushup February

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My buddy Dave and I have done the February 2,000 push up challenge for a couple years now and this year I suggested bumping it up. The actual challenge is 2,000 push in 20 days, but we were doing it over the full month. Last year I did 75-80 push ups daily in sets, sometimes just doing 4 sets of 20 or 3 sets of 25, sometimes less sets with more reps… With rest days.

This year I plan to do 120 a day. I only need to do that 25 days to hit 3k, so I’ve got 3 rest days if I need them. Yesterday I did 4 sets of 25 and one set of 20. Today I plan to do 4 sets of 30. This isn’t hard, it’s a fun challenge, and my buddy and I keep each other motivated to do them. Having small, fun goals like this keeps me focused, and gives me small incremental goals to do a few more per set as the month progresses.

I think challenges like this are great. Even if you struggle to do 5 pushups, you can spread sets out throughout the day and shoot for 1,000 pushups in the month. That would be 7-8 sets of 5 in a day, but the thing is that within a week your new maximum will be close to 10 and you’ll need less than 4 sets a day at that point. In fact, if you struggle with pushups, you’ll see more gains than someone who already does them easily.

It’s a fun challenge, find an accountability partner or just track your progress quietly… either way, go for it. You’ll love the gains and have nothing to lose.

It’s 6am, let’s go!

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We’ve fully reached the stage of finding reasons to go rather than finding excuses not to. I’m not available this weekend to do our weekly walk up the Coquitlam Crunch, so Dave and I met in darkness at 6am to start our trek up the hill.

I’d say we reached this stage a full year ago. It was 2025 that we went from our commitment to doing the climb at least 40 times a year, matching the weeks of a school year, to ensuring we never missed a week. This wasn’t a voiced decision, it’s one we just found ourselves doing.

Now it’s something we just do… And yet it’s a lot more than that!

It’s a chance to to talk, to rant, to seek advice, to share, to listen, to connect.

It’s a commitment to a friend.

We now regularly meet at 6am for workouts anyway, and we often do multiple crunches at a time training for Everesting the Crunch, so to meet on a cold Thursday morning and just go up and down the Crunch once, actually feels like a rest day.

Cardio time

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Last year I wanted to do one Max VO2 training session a week, but I really did it only every 2-3 weeks. This year I’m committed. My activity of choice right now is 8 one-minute sprint intervals. My interval timer is actually set to 1:15 high intensity followed by 1:10 low intensity. The reason for the additional time is that it takes about 13 seconds to get the treadmill from my low intensity walk, at a 3.4 pace, to my high intensity pace starting at 8.6 and progressing to 9.4 on the final one (I skip 8.7 for those that are math inclined).

I thought I’d share the stats from my watch for the last 3 runs, and then I can see how I compare closer to the end of the year.

January 11, 2025

January 14, 2025

January 20, 2025

I’m actually not trending well, with my average and overall heart rate going up, but fluctuations are to be expected and that’s why I decided to share the last 3. There are two big challenges ahead. The one I have control over is dedicating to doing this at least once a week. The one I have less control over is seeing how quickly I can get my heart rate to recover and if I can decrease my overall peak heart rate doing the same activity… this challenge should be achieved just from the commitment to do this weekly.

Time will tell, and the data doesn’t lie.

Maintaining balance

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I’ve written about finding balance many times before, and I think that in our busy lives finding balance of time is one of the most challenging things to figure out. Between work, family, leisure, and health, there is never enough time in the day. Today, I’m thinking about a different kind of balance, physical balance.

A few weeks ago on one of my Coquitlam Crunch walks I slipped on a small icy section. It was careless because it was my second trip past this area, and I had noticed the ice the first time, then walked right through that section blissfully unaware the second time. I took most of the fall on my hand, my wrist was a bit swollen and very sore for a couple days, and only recently I haven’t noticed it at all. I was lucky not to have broken my wrist.

As we get older, falls become one of the biggest threats to our wellbeing. I have to wonder if I was 15 years younger, would that ice have caused me to fall, or would I have been able to regain my balance? Also, would my situational awareness have been sharper, since I should have already been aware that section was slippery?

Either way, I fell, and had the potential to do a lot more damage than I did. A few months ago I was regularly working on my balance. One thing I was doing was balancing on one leg with my eyes closed. I was getting better at it and then asked both my daughters to try and they had no issues doing it longer than I could. This is something that definitely decreases with age, and I want to add improving my balance back to my stretching routine.

My dad passed away at 79. At that time he was already shuffling around, unable to go up or down stairs without holding the rail and going one step at a time. My in-laws are in their 90’s and were far more mobile than my dad was at 79, but I can also see their struggles with balance now.

Physical balance is so critical to a healthy lifespan, and it’s something that is easy to take for granted until you no longer have it. And falls can be a quick way to hinder how well you can balance in the future, or at the very least they can disrupt your healthy routines with an injury. Yes, strength trading helps a lot, as does cardio training… but I think exercising specifically to maintain balance is something I need to pay a bit more attention to.

I wasn’t quite prepared

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Today I learned a good lesson. I’m in pretty good shape, but almost all of my cardio training has been under an hour. The only exception has been training to Everest The Crunch, (climb a local power line hike 37 times in two days this coming August, to exceed the height of Mt Everest). Two weeks ago we did 4 times up and ended with one trip down the crunch.

This week we did one more trip up for a total of 5 up then one down.

It was a gorgeous day. We got started by organizing cars and help driving at the top, then headed down to the base and started walking up around 7:45am. At that time the sun wasn’t out yet and I was dressed warmly, but not appropriately. This was my first mistake. I was wearing heavy, fluffy long underwear under water resistant track pants, and a cotton shirt under a hoody and a rain shell.

By the end of the second trip up the hill I was a hot mess. My long johns and cotton shirt were soaking wet. I felt either too warm or chilled from the sweat, there was no happy medium.

My second mistake, and the bigger of the two, was that I didn’t eat enough. I brought no snacks, and only had a protein shake about 45 minutes before starting. There is a stairs section of the crunch that always gets my heart rate up pretty high, and on both the fourth and fifth trip up the hill my heart rate didn’t really go down after the stairs. Basically, I was running on empty.

My buddy, Dave, who is doing this adventure with me (it was actually his idea), appropriately lectured me. And, I’ll be wearing quick dry layers and bringing more sustenance than half a water bottle of flavoured water the next time we are doing 3 (and more) hours of exercise. Lessons learned.

The good news is that 5 trips up still felt completely doable, and I’ll be prepared to get to the next level in a few weeks when we go for 8 trips up. We are still a long way from being ready for 37 trips up in 48 hours, but I’m confident Dave and I will be ready when the time comes… especially since I’ll be a bit more prepared.

Leg day

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One of my health goals this year is to increase the size of my legs, specifically my quadriceps. I think that for their size, they are pretty strong, but that’s relative because they are pretty skinny.

Proportionally I look like a guy who chooses to skip leg day. That’s not fully true, I work my legs almost daily, but that’s usually a weighted walk on the treadmill, or once-a-week sprints, and of course, mentioned many times here, the Coquitlam Crunch walks weekly.

Basically, I exercise my legs more than any other part of my body… but almost always walking, and for cardio rather than explicitly to strengthen and grow them. If I look back at last year, I’d guess I did about 40 or so leg days, barely over once a week for only 75% of the weeks in 2025. Then to start this year, I did legs on the 1st, then today, on the 11th.

My goal, which I will be tracking, is to get at least 78 dedicated leg days in this year. That’s an average of 1.5 times per week. This is harder that it would seem because I need at least 2 days rest after a leg day before my training to Everest the Crunch, because climbing the Crunch progressively more times to train is by no means fun after a leg day.

One thing I hate about leg day is that I find of all my body parts legs hurt the most for the next two day. That means over 150 days this year that I’m going to feel sore legs. Yuk. But if I’m going to gain another 10 pounds, another goal I have for the year, most of it will need to be on my legs. I’m not going to get much bulkier in my upper body, so legs are the place I have the most potential to grow.

So there it is, I’ve put my goals out into the universe, now I’ve got to make them real. Leg day #2 done for the year… I’ll link back here at the end of December.