Back In the Saddle

Wednesday, August 19, 2009
off-158.5# (lots of salt yesterday)

I knew that I wasn't 100%, that my strength had waned, but my breathing was better, I'd not had fever in a week, and I tolerated work pretty well the last two nights. So I decided to test the waters and see just what I'd lost and what I'd retained while my body fought off infection. I decided to start with my bodyweight routine mostly to get loosened up and remind my body of movement and tension before reintroducing the 16kg and 20kg bells. Before I got sick, I was doing 3 5-rung assisted pullup ladders with the black and purple bands alternated with elevated perfect pushups. I went into things today playing a bit looser than I usually like to. Where before, my ladders were a quick clip of pullups, right to pushups, right to partial pistols and on to the next rung, taking a couple minutes of rest before the next ladder, today, I paced myself a little more slowly. Though I didn't take specific rest time between rungs, I just floated from one to the next as I felt comfortable then took the prescribed 2 minutes rest between ladders. I started the first ladder trying for 5 rungs, but couldn't get but half a rep on the last rep of the 5th rung, so I decided to back down to 4-rung ladders, hoping for at least 4 ladders, maybe five. Turns out the last reps on the last 2 ladders sucked, and honestly don't really even count. Instead of partial pistols, I took a cue from Franz Snideman's recent videos and did knee-together squats with one-legged pulses at the bottom during the first 2 ladders. For the 3rd, I did knee together squats without the pulses, and for the 4th, I did 30sec planks with each rung. Afterward, my muscles were jelly, and I'm still feeling the work. This puts me 4-6 weeks behind where I should be right now. I'd be lying through my teeth if I were to say I'm not horribly disappointed. I sincerely hope, though, that the strength will return more quickly than it was earned the first time around. As it is, I'll focus on the positive of having lost some weight and try to keep that off while regaining my strength.