Despite little heavy weightlifting and no intermittent fasting for almost 3 weeks now, my body has stayed looking good. I'm pretty happy about that. We'll see when I get back if I've lost much strength, but I bet it isn't too bad. While I haven't been doing hard IF, I rarely eat more than 1 big meal a day and sometimes eat almost nothing before dinner. It also helps that it's quite easy to eat paleo here, other than the fast food at the food court the meals are pretty healthy.

I did one dumbbell workout, and a few bodyweight workouts. Haven't worked hard more than once a week, but I get in a fair number of handstands, jumping squats, pushups, and short planche attempts. Anyway, dunno if strength is just slow to atrophy, or if my muscles hold up particularly well. I will work them hard during my few days home.

I've been thinking about a black light tattoo, now that the tech is pretty good. I want something clever, though. Ideas so far are "SECRET MESSAGE", and a third eye on my forehead. What else would be neat to have hidden and only occasionally revealed?

We make a fair number of trips b/c Shannon gets cabin fever easily, so I haven't gotten in as many working hours as I would like. OTOH, with offline gmail, and wifi in the hospital and parts of the mall, I've been able to get a fair bit of work in even while we are out. If we are eating at the mall I'll often bring my laptop and work while we wait for food, for example. And yesterday, we drove 2 hours to Portobello on the Caribbean side, where we spent a few hours, and drove 2 hours back, and I got in a good 2-3 hours of work, mostly while driving. (Portobello was interesting, but I am not optimistic about the economic prospects for a city whose main claim to fame is that it was an important port hundreds of years ago.)

There is exciting news about the IVF, but Shannon wants to break it first. I paid the IVF fee in cash, which was fun, this is my first time using poker winnings to pay for major expenses (since last year was my first significant winning year). Have hardly gotten any play in this year, though, with all the travelling. I may try to get some hours in while I am recovering from jaw surgery, maybe go to LA or Vegas for a weekend or something when I get cabin fever.

I can see why people retire here. It's pretty nice. It is cheap in the rural areas, even if not in Panama City. Personally I am willing to deal w/ US taxes for the advantages of the US - I like the fast life and network of interesting and talented people. I think to me, it comes down to ambition. I don't want to relax and enjoy the weather, I want to change the world, and I think the first world is much better for that. If that fire ever burns out, I could enjoy someplace like this...but I don't know that I ever want it to burn out.

Ok, should get back to work.

Great article by "Coach Sommer" on bodyweight conditioning:

In this article, I will cover the basic progressions needed to learn two primary gymnastics exercises: the planche and the front lever. This will be by no means a complete bodyweight training program, but rather an introduction. These two movements were chosen for their novelty, the simplicity of the movements and for the excellent strength gains that are possible for those who are willing to commit the necessary sweat and dedication. The planche will be our pressing movement and the front lever will be our pulling movement.
...
A common misconception is that bodyweight exercises do not build substantial strength but are rather more suited for building endurance. For most people this conjures images of endless pushups, sit-ups or for the strong, perhaps pull-ups and dips. Great maybe for general fitness or endurance, but of little value in building real strength.
...
The name of the game is resistance. A muscle contracts against resistance and, with perseverance, over time, becomes stronger. For strength to increase, the amount of resistance or load worked against must also increase over time. Hence the problem with bodyweight conditioning - as the resistance (weight of the body) is fixed, how to continue to increase strength? Surprisingly the answer is simple - by decreasing the amount of leverage it is possible to exert on an exercise, the resistance of an exercise becomes increasingly greater. For example, a hanging straight leg lift is much harder than a tucked leg lift. In both exercises the weight of your legs remains constant, however by reducing your leverage (i.e. in this case straightening your legs) we are able to greatly increase the resistance. By straightening the legs we have effectively doubled the difficulty of the exercise even though the weight of the body has remained constant.

With experience and creativity it is possible to learn or design exercises that, done correctly and with the proper progressions, are so lacking in leverage that even at bodyweight levels of resistance it is possible to build staggering amounts of strength. In addition to strength, the athlete will also develop excellent balance, coordination, agility and exceptional core strength.

Finally made it to gym after 19 days of not lifting!

BS: 45x10, 95x5, 115x4, 135x3, 145x2, (155x5, 155x5, 155x5)
Press: 45x5, 65x3, 75x2, 85x1, (85x5, 90x5, 90x5)
DL: 135x3, 155x3, 175x1, (180x5)

15 ghd, 5 pullups (+10#), 7 hspus, 6 ring pushups

well, not really. but if u want, u can follow my strength building on this google spreadsheet.

Book here about bodyweight exercises:

Using research proven Turbulence Training techniques, you can burn belly fat in half the time and never do boring cardio again. You don't have to spend hours in the gym on the treadmill to get results or the mid-section you have always wanted. Instead, using the short, burst Turbulence Training exercise system, you can workout less and get more results in the comfort of your own home.

5 x (10 burpees - star jump, 5 pairs jump lunges, 5 candlestick slow-down, 30sec front plank)

10:05

----

It's amazing what a difference 7:10am and 8:10 am are as wakeup times. Since I fall asleep around 11:30 - midnight normally (on my current schedule), Tovar waking up at 7am (like the last 2 times I had him), means I'm being awoken by screaming after having slept 7 hours. Tovar waking up at 8:20, like this morning, means I slept 8 hours, lay in bed a little, got up and made tea, and then heard him calling (when we respond quickly he doesn't need to escalate to screaming).

Yesterday:

Nasty Girls - 3 x (50 air squats, 7 muscle-ups[1], 10 hang power cleans, 83#) - ~11:30
Hey, let's do another workout - 3 x (20 burpees, 20 Dbl Unders[2], 30 GHD situps) - ~11:30

My traps are very sore, from the cleans I think. My bad shoulder/neck are a bit sore too, but considering the workout, they held up well. I think it was catching the cleans in the hang position that bothered the shoulder.

[1] ground assisted for transition, basically an inclined ring row and then a ring dip. Besides being hard, muscle-ups require a lot of shoulder flexibility and trying to learn them bothered my shoulder even before the injury. I think it will be awhile yet before I can do them.

[2] Subbed 40 single unders, as I am just learning to jump rope.

I read Zen Habits' post on bodyweight exercises, and decided to look for a video that would lead me through a set. I went with the Bodyweight 500 from Turbulence Training, which I'd heard good things about. It requires a bouncy ball, chinup bar, and row bar, of which I have only the chinup bar at home. I faked the leg curls using one of Tovar's toys (Tovar: "*I* want to do leg curls!), but I didn't do the bouncy ball core exercise. I tried doing the rows hanging from my desk, but they were just too hard. And I flaked on the 25 chin-ups at the end. So it was about a Bodyweight 400 or 375.

They have 250 through 1000, so you can start easy and work your way up.

first yoga class last night at PG. Ashtanga.

liked:
* cross of exercise and meditation, focus on breathing
* warm, pretty room
* puts people's bodies into sexy poses
* very different exercise modality than I'm used to
* should improve my flexibility and balance
* very "at your own pace" - you were welcome to take breaks if needed, modify poses to make them easier, etc.
* brutally hard on my legs

disliked:
* brutally hard on my legs
* while all Yoga classes at PG are for all levels, this one was too hard and it was a bit frustrating. we were moving rapidly between poses that were all new to me. Hard to keep up.
* the rapid movement also made it hard to stretch, as I couldn't really "sink into" a pose as I was still figuring it out.

I'd like to learn the basic poses more rigorously, and be able to sink into them more deeply, so I think I will try the intro class next and maybe stick with that for awhile.

It was pretty funny getting to PG just as the previous Yoga class let out - what seemed like dozens of people, all with yoga mats hanging from their shoulders, milling around in the parking lot and entry area. Guess this stuff is popular.

Look for my profile in June on Sexiest Geeks Alive.

Let the anticipation begin!

20 min: rounds of 5 kipping pullups, 10 push-jerks (15# dumbbells), 15 KB swings (25#), did 10 rounds + 2 PU. First time using KB, got significantly better at them as the workout progressed (learned to use arms minimally). Thighs sore (should have stretched more before learning KB), otherwise I feel great.

My buff body is slowly but steadily reappearing. Weight is down to top end of college weight (115#).

I'm starting back on CrossFit. I only went once or twice in the month since my rib has been healed because the evening schedule of the group classes was not working with my "one big meal in the evening" diet and general busy-ness (and desire to specifically do CF). So I gave up on the group classes and signed up with one of the instructors for personal training 2x/week.

I'm psyched! It will be great to actually have a workout schedule that is regular and planned around my other commitments. Yay! The few times I got in a good workout while on the Warrior Diet I just felt marvelous, so hopefully that will continue. The trainer was glad to hear I'm on that diet, he said that in CF diet is considered the base of the fitness pyramid, more important than exercise.

I told him my workout goals were to learn the CF system to the point where I can safely do all the exercises, including all the lifts, on my own, and understand enough principles to design and monitor my own training program. I may sign up for one of their Level 1 cert weekends down in SD w/ faustin in July (those things sell out 2 months in advance!).

I rocked the exercises tonight b/c of my mastery of kipping pullups (it was 10-9-8...2-1 of fake handstand pushups / no-hip situps / jump ups / pullups), which was fun. Kipping pullups are so awesome.

BTW, here is the famous anti-CrossFit NYT article from 2005: "Getting Fit, Even if it Kills You." The short answer is: yes, really intense workouts for people who are not used to them can be fatal. No one has yet died from CF, but ~6 noobs have ended up in the ER. Working a beginner too hard is stupid, and any CF trainer who does it is (in my unprofessional opinion) being criminally negligent. This does not mean that CF is bad - to the contrary, its intensity is why it is so good for the body and why so many people are so passionate about it. It's one of those cases where that which does not kill you makes you stronger. And that which, if an untrained person did it, would kill them, is the best for making a trained person stronger.

Also, the one-size-fits-all criticisms are ridiculous. I've been going to CF group classes for beginners, and every exercise has variants for people at lower levels of fitness or mobility. And this whole "time over form" thing is so weird - my classes were all about form. Maybe there are different subsets of the community? I guess I could see, once you get the basics down, some stupid people being obsessed about time, but just try sacrificing form when Rob Miller is watching. Your ears will be ringing (and deservedly so).

I was going to do a 1-month of warrior diet post, but it's gotten late somehow so maybe tomorrow.

A french fry is a ship of carbs carrying a load of grease. For a young teenager, each french fry represents a blemish of acne on the face. I think the carb and fat load must have been an extremely rare event in the evolution of our species. In ancestral times of 100,000 years ago, fat would have accompanied protein, not a simple carb. I don’t think our metabolism really “knows” how to handle the combination without complications. Our metabolic networks have to be stressed and routed into less than optimal responses to this mixed and previously rare signal. The carbs release insulin which shuts down fat burning. I would guess the high fat load and high blood sugar that results becomes a heavy sludge in the blood stream, bruising the epithelium and stressing the vessel. The high insulin opens the epithelium to the intrusion of fats. The fats are oxidized, driven by the inflammatory response to the high blood glucose; oxidizing fat on a stream of glucose mediated free radicals inflames the vasculature promoting cardiovascular disease. The liver is confused, I think, when it sees the high insulin, blood glucose, and high fat; what should the response be to this odd signal?

"A Mound of Brown"

I love the merging of nutrition and aesthetics that is the multi-colored diet rule: your diet should contain a variety of colors. It really is true (unless you hack it with food coloring, obviously).

BTW, I'm still loving the undereating/overeating diet, (I can't quite call it The Warrior Diet, having read the full book, because there is a lot of other stuff I don't do). I'm losing weight and feeling great. The daily cycle of deprivation and satisfaction involved in "One big meal a day, in the evening" is wonderful. Main downside is that local CrossFit classes are in the evening, and this system means exercising in the evening just doesn't work.

I'm trying to set up w/ a personal trainer but I've been extremely busy lately. Been making up for it somewhat by using a pullup bar I put in a few months ago, and am finally making good use of.

My elevated mood the past couple weeks has really been noticeable! I don't think I've felt this consistently great since college. Not that my normal mood is bad - far from it - but this is even better. I think it's from the diet, but exercise is probably part of it too (it started most strongly after my first CrossFit day). I wonder if the sunlight could be another part of it? Based on my new familiarity w/ bipolar, I'd be worried about onset of mania if I hadn't experience this state safely many times in the past.

It's so wonderful that, whatever it is (diet & exercise I think), it is making me happier and more energetic, which exactly counterbalances the effects of sleeping poorly. So I have hope that even if I never cure my apnea, the way I've felt the past couple weeks will continue to ameliorate it.

Current status for the apnea, BTW: My tonsillectomy seems to have helped a little but not a lot. They advised me to next try a medical device rather than more surgery, so I'm getting a dental appliance that will keep my tongue from falling back while I'm asleep, and will generally increase muscle tone in my mouth. I used one many years ago, and it was too painful to wear. This new one is adjustable (in 2 directions, I think), so you can slowly get used to it, which should be much better. We'll see what happens!

Had my first CrossFit since the accident, it was great. Shoulder is pretty sore, but that's to be expected. In the long-run, stronger muscles make it happier. We did push-presses, 5-5-5-5-5, plus some misc stuff. I didn't remember my weight from the one time I'd done that before, so I was conservative and worked my way up to 75 lbs.

Lifting weights feels so good! I don't mean waving a dumbbell around, I mean using my whole body to lift something really heavy in the air. It makes my whole body tingle (in a good way). So awesome.

Today I read an article about how weights rule. The summary is:

1) weight training is the undisputed champion since it builds a bigger fat-burning furnace
2) bodyweight exercises and sprint training are the number one contenders - just look at some photos of gymnasts and sprinters (running, swimming, skating, cycling, it doesn’t matter..)
3) slow cardio is only good as a ‘break-in’ or as an add-on.

And it contains 2 sample workouts using this philosophy.

Also, I forget if I ever posted this, but I read a free Kindle preview of The Cardio-Free Diet, which is an entire book about how cardio blows and the way to go is to build muscle.

It made me realize how great Kindle Previews are for confirming one's prejudices. You only read the first few chapters of the book, so you get enough to think you've learned something if you already agree with it, but not enough detail that you might be able to see flaws. Awesome!

Anyway, I'm excited to get back into CF for awhile. I don't think I want to do CF in the gym long-term, because I eventually want to just get a good home setup so I don't have to go anywhere (or pay anyone) to exercise. But there is so much technique involved that it'll take at least a couple more months before I can ponder that.

After 3 pretty easy days, I woke up hungry. So I ate half a grapefruit and a couple eggs for breakfast. No reason to go crazy about this thing - I'm going to do what my body wants. I'll try to minimize eating during the rest of the day, if it feels good. Yesterday I had 1 hard-boiled egg, 1 kiwi, 1 small cup of carrot juice, and one piece of string cheese before 7pm, and it was easy to eat that light. And I did a short workout, no cardio. Got a little grumpy around 6pm-7pm, I think I should have eaten earlier.

Haven't done CrossFit since the rib injury, but I did 2 light workouts on my own this week. Weights and a 500m row on Monday, weights & abs yesterday. I'll do another one this weekend and hopefully start CF again next week. I miss it!

I've been pretty hyper this week due to job & hobby-related excitement, so I'm not sure to what degree that is making the Warrior Diet easier. My hyperness is sort of funny in light of Shannon's condition in that if she had the same symptoms I've had, we'd be worried and calling her psychiatrist and maybe upping her meds. After all, I think hypomania is an accurate term for my condition, so in her it would be dangerous. But of course I know from 10-15 years of experience that my hypomania never turns into actual mania, or leads to depression. I hope we can find a med balance that lets Shannon experience hypomania safely, b/c unipolar hypomania rules!

Since December 28th, 2006, just over a year ago, I have lost 25 lbs. I've gone from wearing pajamas to work to fitting into all of my old clothes, and having many of them be a bit loose. Here's how it happened:

Week 1 (SLA) 3.5 lbs
Week 3 (SLA) 6.5 lbs
Week 4 (SLA) 8 lbs
Week 5-6 (SLA) 8.5lbs
Week 7 (SLA) 10lbs
Week 10 (SLA) 12lbs

The fast start from the Shangri-La Diet was great, but the oil eventually got nauseating and my diet stalled for awhile.

I increased how much fruit and vegetables I ate, trying to eat a "plate diet" of 1/2 veggies, 1/4 meat, 1/4 good carbs, and tried to do cardio exercise periodically, both at work and on my exercise bike at home. I managed to lose another 7 lbs (total -19). Then I stalled for awhile again.

Finally, about 6 weeks ago, I moved to more of a paleo diet, cutting out bread from most meals, eating about 2/3 fruits/veggies and 1/3 meat/dairy. (and small occasional desserts). I also started doing CrossFit 1hr/week (and dropping almost all other exercise). I lost 6 more lbs, and am noticeably toning up.

Hopefully this brief (2 years) overweight part of my life will now be behind me for good. And I look forward to seeing what my cholesterol numbers look like next fall when it's time to get them tested again.

Actually, if the diet + exercise keeps working as it has been, I may end up lighter than my college weight - and certainly stronger. I got a decent amount of exercise in college, but it just doesn't compare with weightlifting.

A good example of the CrossFit philosophy is that they do kipping pullups instead of static ones. In a kipping pullup, you swing forward, back, up, push away from the bar, back, repeat.

It uses less arm strength, and thus you can do more of them. But that doesn't matter as a first-order effect, because you don't do a fixed number, you base targets on your ability. The important effect is that it makes core strength and coordination more important. You excel at dynamic pullups by coordinating many muscle groups, where static pullups are more about big muscles.

Actually, as a first-order effect, being able to do more is seen as an advantage:

What we care about above all other things is Power - that is; work divided by time or, equivalently, (Force x distance)/time.

The reason we care about Power more than strength or endurance or even speed, is that power output is what taxes the whole human system - and ellicits a neuroendocrine response. The whole point of most of our named workouts (and most of the workouts that aren't named), is to measure/challenge power output.

When we increase an individual's ability to output power we observe a corollary increase in absolute strength, speed, endurance and stamina. If workouts are designed to increase absolute strength, strength is the only area of improvement.

In other news, I hear they are working on a Planet Granite in the Presidio, which will have views, from the tops of the climbs, of the bay and the GG Bridge.

This paleo-ish diet plus 1x/week weightlifting seems to be working great. I figured I would have gained weight from travel eating, but this morning I was 120.6, which is down a couple pounds from a couple weeks ago. I've lost 22lbs or so in 8 months, and have less than 5lbs left before I'm at my college weight. I'm starting to muscle up a bit too, but have a long way to go in that dept.