Tag Archives: wellness

Lift heavy things

Leave a reply

Inspired by Peter Attia’s book Outlive, I purchased a weighted vest. My buddy Dave and I have been doing the Coquitlam Crunch, weekly during the school year, for a few years now… and today we did it with 16 pound weighted vests.

I did a couple incline treadmill walks with the vest on before trying it on this average 10% grade over two and a half kilometres long walk. But I have to admit that for the 457 stairs section I was huffing and puffing at the end. Still, our time to the top was only about 20 seconds slower than last week’s walk, so overall it was an excellent workout that was well within our capabilities.

According to Dr. Peter Attia, the best things we can do increase our healthspan (not just lifespan) is to:

  • Increase our Max VO2
  • Increase our muscle mass
  • Lift heavy things

The biggest downfall (literally as well as figuratively) are falls and injuries that stop us from doing the 3 things mentioned above. Case-in-point: fall and break a hip and suddenly you aren’t likely to be doing any of the above for weeks if not months… and then getting back to it afterwards you probably aren’t going to be as able to continue where you left off. Inversely, doing the 3 things above make you stronger, more vital, and less likely to do things like accidentally fall and break your hip.

So, we put on our vests this morning and started up the hill. On Dave’s recommendation… which I like… for the next 6 months we’ll do our Coquitlam Crunch with weighted vests the first Saturday of every month. In 6 months we will re-assess and maybe go to twice a month. It was hard enough today that I don’t think I’d be motivated to do this every week (yet) and we aren’t in a race, so once a month seems like a good start.

So this is my public service announcement: Lift heave things!

Be the hero that carries all the grocery bags from the car to your house in just one trip.

Haul your ass up the stairs rather than taking the elevator or escalator.

Increase the weights you lift so that you are actually working you muscles to fatigue rather than finishing 3 sets of 12 at a weight where the last 2 reps are almost as easy as the first 2.

Find ways to push your body without being stupid about it. My vest came with 40 pounds of weight, but today I did 16, and I’ll keep it at 16 for a while, eventually increasing the weight on my treadmill first. Again, this isn’t a race, it’s more about making lifestyle choices and lifting heaving things is a choice that will help you be able to do things you want to do for much more healthy years.

Slow paced day

Leave a reply

After a couple days of busy holiday prep and celebration, I have had an absolutely lethargic day today. It took me hours to get off the couch and actually do some exercise, and now I’m feeling too lazy to go shower.

In an hour I’ll head to a nearby lake that’s lit up and enjoy a walk with my mom and kids, then it’s home for leftovers… and that’s my entire day!

Sometimes a lazy day is a good day, and today is one of those days. I did my cardio, I stretched, I did a long, single set of triceps… and I’m back on the couch writing. I was actually napping for about 20 minutes between paragraphs.

Too many days like this would make me feel unproductive, but today I am cherishing in the slow, lazy pace. If I get up to board games with my family tonight that will be a highlight. If we just spend the evening in front of the TV that would be fine too.

Sometimes doing nothing is a pleasant luxury.

Altered states

I’ve spent most of the last few weeks in an altered state. My herniated disc is almost always on my mind. The meds have numbed most of the pain, but I’m often feeling like my head is not screwed on tight enough. The description I use is ‘loopy’ which I describe as somewhere between mildly drunk and mildly high. The challenge is that I don’t really enjoy this state, and I find it hard to concentrate. It’s not a feeling I enjoy.

Even writing my Daily Ink has been challenging with me often putting these short posts away for a while and coming back to them. I end up doing a lot of edits… like making this new thought into a new paragraph and breaking a stream of consciousness run-on sentence up in the previous paragraph. I also used a wrong word (probably a typo) and I’m struggling to make sense of what I actually wanted to say… the sentence no longer having any meaning for me.

At least I’m no longer adding to the altered state with (legal in BC, Canada) marijuana gummies , which I was supplementing my pain meds with to manage my pain between pills. As much as I don’t enjoy the loopy feeling now, I enjoyed it less when I had to numb myself to doldrums of constant pain.

New meds that I started Friday night are leaving me with windows of clarity I haven’t had for a while, but also reintroduce new levels of ache and discomfort (verging on pain) that I thought I was free of on the more loopy medication.

Overall… I think I’m on the mend, but I am not there yet. I’m now dealing with feelings I know I should let go of, but struggle with. Feeling that I should start catching up on work, feelings that I will be in recovery for a very long time. Feelings that I’m wasting away life in a loopy altered state. I’m on the mend, I’m in the mend, I’m on the mend… that is what I need to focus on, loopy altered state or not.

Turtle mode

I’m just turtling right now. I’ve had a bad cough for over a week, and I’m worn out. Last night I felt like things were getting worse, but this afternoon I feel like I’ve turned a positive corner. I had covid in November and now an ugly cough to start the new year… this hasn’t really been enjoyable.

Two years of wearing masks kept me healthy for a long time and being hit this hard twice in just a couple months had been challenging and exhausting. So, I’m curled up with a blanket, I’m drinking a lot of liquids, and I’m medicating myself with cold, cough, and sinus pills every few hours.

No plans, no agenda. Netflix, my audio book, and sleep. I’m turtling all weekend long.

Not all cylinders firing

It has been well over a week since I was hit with this cough and it is still wiping me out. I went home at lunch yesterday and slept for over an hour before I could do anything remotely productive. This morning my cough isn’t sounding a whole lot better. I’m reminded of the chronic fatigue that hit me a few years ago.

I wrote We are One recently, about the interconnectedness of our minds and bodies. It only takes an experience like this to understand how our brains are affected by the wellness of our bodies. It’s not just that I’m coughing, it’s that my whole body is working to get better.

I’ve heard a number of people tell me they’ve had similar coughs and it took two weeks before they started to recover. I’ll keep going to bed early, drink a lot of fluids, and keep the Tylenol flu medicine flowing to prevent a sinus infection that I tend to be prone to… and hopefully my body (and mind) will be running on all cylinders soon.

It comes down to this

I just deleted 3 paragraphs that led up to me writing this:

If you can’t take care of yourself during your busiest times, then you aren’t actually taking care of yourself.

That’s the whole post. No excuses, no postponing, no making up for it later. Take care of yourself. You’ll get more done and feel better doing it.

Balancing fitness and wellness

On January 19th my brother-in-law and I bet that we would be able to do a couple fitness challenges by February 19th. The first one is 60 push-ups, and the second one is 30 pull-ups.

I began at a point where I was regularly doing 25-30 push-ups and 10-12 pull-ups, and felt that 60 consecutive push-ups was easy to get to, but the pull-ups would be a challenge. I was right, and while a week ago I was able to do 60 push-ups (the last 15 very slowly and more vocal than I would have liked), I was only at 18 pull-ups and knew I would struggle to hit my goal by the 19th.

Then my upper back started to tighten up. I have always had to take special care of my back, dealing with issues since I grew 7.5 inches in a year as a teenager. I have mild scoliosis, and deal with discomfort daily, and pain when I’m not caring for myself, or when I do something silly or accidental. This upper back pain wasn’t an injury feeling, just an overall tightness that wouldn’t go away.

So, last week Wednesday I had a very deep massage that was one of the more uncomfortable ones I’ve had in ages, and came home had a hot tub after dinner. In the hot tub, finally feeling normal, I decided I needed to give my shoulders a break and I paused my push-up and pull-up regimen. I’ve kept up my cardio, I took Saturday off, I took it easy yesterday, and will do so again today when I head down to my home gym after writing this.

The reality is that I’m stubborn and I plan on meeting the pull-up challenge eventually. I’m fitter than I’ve been in a couple decades. I’m lighter than I’ve been in a couple decades. And half a life ago I used to do 3 sets of 28 chin-ups with a 25lb weight hanging off of me. I know 30 pull-ups is something I’ll be able to ‘pull off’. The challenge is that I can’t live my life trying to meet unrealistic fitness goals, and feeling like my back is in a constant state of flexing too hard. I can’t sacrifice my wellness for a fitness goal.

I’ve been on a 2-year healthy living path. My back has been better than it has been in years, but I would still be lying to myself if I said my back didn’t give me issues. Stretching and very deep massage help a lot. Staying fit helps a lot. But over-exertion and pushing myself doesn’t help. I can progress and improve slowly, but I can’t race.

At 53, I don’t plan on slowing down and taking it easy. I plan on reaching new fitness goals… but I need to be the tortoise and not the hare. Slow and steady progress is what will benefit me, while pretending I’m youthful and invincible will cause avoidable injury. This will hurt both my overall wellness and my ability to not just improve but also maintain my fitness. I won’t be doing 30 pull-ups any time soon, but I will work to get there, and I believe it’s achievable… without sacrificing the well-being of my back.

The sound of a river

Today I found a beautiful little spot to meditate and behind me a river was roaring softly. It drowned out the sound of cars and the hum of civilization. It took over my sense of hearing.

The white noise of a fast traveling river is very soothing. It calms the mind and softens your other senses. When I hear this sound, I am reminded of different places that have set a similar mood for me. My racing mind slows, and I feel calm.

All this from simple sound of running water.

Ten Million

According to Worldometers.info as of today over 10,000,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of those, over 5% or 500,000 (read half a million) people have died.

I don’t want to share commentary, I just want that to sink in.

This is a global issue. It has and will further impact the world. As we head into summer, be smart, be safe, stay healthy.

Adapt, Adjust, and Amplify

“Lose 25 pounds in a month.”

“Earn $1,000 a day.”

“Look 10 years younger.”

“Discover your potential.”

“Live the life of your dreams.”

“Anything is possible…”

…But none of it is attainable for the vast majority of people. The plans are made to look simple, but the goals are lofty, and the path to success is anything but easy. How many of us are excessively rich, looking and feeling healthier and younger than we are, and living our ideal dream life? We aren’t going to get all these things from some motivational speaker or some club membership or program. As Derek Sivers says,

“If [more] information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.”

It’s amazing how easy it can sound, but real, incremental, and meaningful change often takes two things:

  • Consistent effort.
  • More time than you think.

I’ve written about my healthy living goals, and the shoulder injury that I’m recovering from. In the past, an ice-pick-like stabbing pain in my shoulder would have been enough to derail my entire workout schedule. I would have stopped everything and gone into lazy mode.

Instead, my treadmill run, which bounced my shoulder too much, became a stationary bike ride; my weights set became a core strength set. My other routines remained as well. I think this happened because I am not on some crazy, unrealistic path to health goals I’ll never achieve. I’m on a slow, attainable path, that I want to maintain.

Here is the path that worked for me:

Adapt, Adjust, and Amplify.

It wasn’t easy at first, and it was not going to happen overnight. There wasn’t a romantic appeal, it wasn’t sexy or overly inspiring. It took patience. And unlike the fads and crazes, it lead to significant change over time.

1. Adapt – The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. If at first you don’t succeed, try something different. I made changes that were realistic and sustainable. Twenty minutes of cardio – totally doable to fit into my schedule. Before, I’d incrementally move that up to close to an hour. Now, I can put in over an hour on the basketball court, running hard, even though I haven’t done more than a 25 min. hard cardio workout in over a year. I won’t win any marathons, but I’m not dumb enough to ask my body to try. I adapted a workout schedule that optimizes my fitness in a minimal amount of time.

2. Adjust – My schedule had to adjust when I started writing this daily blog before my morning workouts. I kept running out of time. Now I’m writing this at 10pm, in bed on Sunday, rather than early tomorrow morning. I write longer posts on weekends, when inspired, and keep them short, with limited writing time on weekdays. I’ve adjusted a few things along the way, each time I do so, it’s to reduce friction and to make maintaining my wellness regimen easier. A great example of an adaptation is that when I felt I was stagnating a bit on my runs, I started doing some interval training. I increased my speed for minute or minute-and-a-half intervals, and I watched my top speed increase. When I got to a good speed, one that I used to run when I was in my 30’s, I made that my new maximum for my hard days… I adjusted again, rather than pushing myself to some unreasonable goals.

3. Amplify – When things are working, I highlight them. I’m public with them on my blog, and with family and friends. This isn’t bragging, it’s holding myself accountable. When I see results from interval training, I push myself to do this more often. When I got injured, I focussed on my daily calendar, and the things I could do, rather than the things I couldn’t. By amplifying the small successes, and the commitment I made to myself, I’ve created a positive feedback loop that inspires me to keep going.

As catchy as Adapt, Adjust, and Amplify may sound, it’s the other two tips that really make this work:

  • Consistent effort.
  • More time than you think.

Keep going, knowing that long term goals are more sustainable than flashy weight loss or instant muscles. Low motivation or injuries will happen, they don’t need to break the pattern of consistency, they will just slow down the intensity, and the timelines to the goals that were created.

There are times to aspire to be great, and to put everything you have into success and achievement. And, there are times to focus on self care… Times to realize that mentally and physically, we need to be consistent, show up, and maintain as well as tweak, the patterns and behaviours that make us incrementally better over time. It’s not fast, it’s not glamorous, it is achievable and rewarding, as long as you are dedicated and show patience.