No rest for the wicked

[OJJJEM]

There's a huge difference between pushing through pain and pushing through discomfort... If you're in actual pain, don't push it. You may cause further damage to your body. Don't forget to limber up! Warm-ups before a workout and stretches afterwards.

 

[legolo]

Still feeling like crap. Dizzy, feverish, splitting headache, extremely hot and cold at the same time. What fun

Yesterday and today: Chest and Back light.

Sure, that workout is basically a joke, but my 5 day streak is not broken. Yes, I decided to count the 50 side bends from thursday as excercise.

 

[Mamatigerj]

I hope you feel better soon!

 

[Brontus]

10 more days and you can get that fancy 15-day badge

 

[legolo]

Okay, apparently I´ve gone insane today. Watch out, today´s numbers will quite probably shock you

Consecutive Days: 6

Better Than Nothing: 7 sets with EC,
30 seconds rest
1 minute Jumping Jacks,
2 minutes rest while looking for the next workout
Chest & Shoulders light, 3 sets, 60 seconds rest, as intended

Yeah, that´s right. Let that sink in

Question: Does it matter how I hold my hands during Chest Expansions? I noticed that I usually hold them vertically (because I´m pretty far away from my desktop so I can barely make out the pictograms) and decided to hold them horizontally today. Does it make a difference?

Alright, I´m off to take a shower. I earned (and need) it

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 7

Upperbody Tendon Strength Workout with EC

Halfway done to the first badge. Since I did a lot yesterday I wanted to give my body some rest today. I wasn´t really sore, but my shoulders and arms were a bit slower than usual. So, probably not a great idea to go full upper body, but I´m keeping my rhythm of alternating upper body and full body. Maybe I´ll even start with a program or dedicated training plan soon. I´ve been looking around but haven´t found anything that felt like a "perfect fit" yet. Probably because I don´t really have a real fitness goal yet. Currently it´s more like "loose weight and get some strength back". Priority on loosing weight. I´m currently at 113-114 kg /250lbs and for my height and build 90kg/198lbs is probably a healthy weight.
But that´s more like a distant goal, currently I´m more interested in getting my body working again without being out of breath after taking 5 steps I´m exaggerating slightly, but it does feel like that sometimes.

 

[OJJJEM]

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 8

Foundation Day 1: 7 sets, 1 minute rest
1 minute rest
Armageddon: 3 sets, 1 minute rest
1 minute rest
1 minute Jumping Jacks

Did a bit more today. And as you can see, I formally started a program. Foundation seemed like a good place to start from. I´ll still do additional stuff, if the progam allows it, iirc the strength days were especially brutal when I did it back then, ages ago

I still feel like I could do a bit more later, but I feel that shower calling. Maybe I´ll take a walk later, if it´s still light outside when I come back from shopping. I wanted to make a salad for lunch, but apparently I´ve waited a bit too long, the lettuce had liquefied in my fridge. Somebody should really invent canned lettuce...

 

[legolo]

And the streak comes to an end. Wonderful. Pretty sure I did something wrong while sleeping. My neck hurts like hell, I can´t move my head, can´t move literally at all, since every movement is just painful, can´t sit or lie down or eat or drink or literally do anything. Somebody kill me please...

I already took an ibu 600, anything else I could do?

Okay, the streak lives, due to a technicality

Consecutive days: 9

Stiff Neck workout

You called it a workout, so it counts.

 

[legolo]

My neck is a bit better today. I´ve regained most basic functions, but most movements still hurt. I´ve done Stiff Neck every few hours and will continue to do so today. Hopefully by tomorrow this will be over.

Consecutive days: 10

Stiff Neck workout

I´m starting to feel bad because more than half of my consecutive days feel like I cheated. Chest and Back light, Stiff Neck... It doesn´t feel like I did anything on those days.

 

[OJJJEM]

You are doing fitness to your own physical capacity without hurting yourself. I hope you can find the joy in that, even if it is only light workouts. Congrats on your 10 day streak! I'm looking forward to seeing more of what you are capable of as you become capable of more.

 

[legolo]

And another wasted day. My neck still hurts. I accidentally went to bed at 6pm yesterday. I tried watching Disney since watching TV is pretty much the only thing I can do while trying to hold a hot water bottle to my neck. But since it didn´t work that well sitting, I tried it lying down. Next thing I know, it´s midnight. Yay...

"Consecutive days": 11
Stiff Neck workout, again.

I´d like to take a walk or something, but it´s been pouring in almost biblical proportions non stop since yesterday. I could probably take a swin on the sidewalk, but with freezing temperatures, I´m fairly certain I´d only get sick.

 

[legolo]

Well, it looks like I will have to incorporate Stiff Neck into my daily routine. What fun. I´m somewhat pain free (at least in the neck area), but I can´t tilt my head to the left anymore. Wonderful. Well, we all new there were going to be casualties...

On the plus side, I´m actually seeing results, even though I factually stopped working out. I´m down to 111 kg. Which isn´t much and probably because I skipped dinner two days in a row (because I forgot yesterday ), but it still feels great. Changing my diet helped probably too. It was pretty hard for me, but when I went grocery shopping last week I didn´t buy any sodas or sweets. Been drinking nothing but water and I do feel a bit better. Getting all that sugar and chemicals out of my diet is probably a good thing.

Consecutive days: 12 (still doesn´t feel right)

Stiff Neck (yay)
Chest & Back light

Small steps today. I´m basically starting after a three day "break", so I´m not gonna go full blast right away. And since it´s not raining for once and I finally found my warm parka I´m off to take a walk, as soon as I finished filling my pipe. And for those of you wondering, my usual route is between 2km/1,25 miles and 3,5/2,18 long, depending on the shortcuts I take along the way.

I assume I´m going to have to live with with my neck for some time. As long as I can´t get all the stress out of my neck and shoulders... And that´s nearly three decades of stress, you don´t get rid of that easily

Oh god, I´m so stupid. I just took a look at Foundation again, because I thought about restarting it tomorrow-ish and what´s the last excercise of day 1? Knee to Elbows. Which kinda involves the neck. I think I figured out how I hurt my neck.

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 13 (finally a day worthy of being counted)

Stiff Neck (approx. every 2 hours)

Later

Betten Than Nothing: 7 sets with EC
1 min rest
45 secs Jumping Jacks
2min rest
Chest & Shoulders light
1min rest
30 secs Jumping Jacks

I´m finally back on track. No news on the neck front, same as yesterday. I don´t even feel tired or exhausted, more like fired up and ready to go. Sure, my shoulders are a bit sore, but that´s normal. Honestly, I feel like I could go out and run a mile. If only I had shoes and it wasn´t 0 degrees out My last pair of shoes is so ancient, it doesn´t even has soles anymore. And those are just regular street shoes, I don´t even own shoes for sports.

Okay, I´ve officially gone nuts. Here goes

3 minutes rest
Stopgap: 5 sets with EC

Okay. Now I´m exhausted.

 

[legolo]

Okay, until right now I thought that my workout playlist makeover a few days ago was a good idea. Not anymore. But let´s take a step back, as I said I revised my workout playlist, which is the reason I had so much energy lately. Putting my favourite One Piece title songs in there was a great idea. Even if it makes me try stuff I normally wouldn´t.

Consecutive Days: 14 ( I can almost taste that sweet badge tomorrow )

Stop Gap: 5 sets with EC
2 minutes rest
Great Day workout

Well, I just did a friggin LVL 3 workout as an add-on. My original plan was basically my usual. Do one big cardio workout, then some additional upper body strength stuff. During my second set of Stop Gap it became clear to me that I had to change the upper body stuff. My shoulders were way too sore today. Although I can hear the improvements. I can almost move my right shoulder normally and the usually very loud krack when the arm pops out and back into the joint has happened much rarer and is much less audible. Big improvement! Been living with that busted shoulder for 15 years or so, back then my doc said I should build up muscles in my shoulder but I was always too lazy. Good to know it´s not too late to fix stuff like that Anyway, back on topic. In my pauses between sets I browsed the workouts a bit and thought I put filters for "lower body", "cardio" and "lvl 1 or 2" on, as I wanted to do an easy second workout without working my shoulders that much. Apparently I forgot the last part... Oh, well. What doesn´t kill you... After I finished the Jumping Jacks "We Go!" started playing and I just kept going. Honestly, how I could I not with that epic intro? And yes, of course my brain does the entire Gol D Roger, king of the pirates, narration every single time. It´s awesome.

 

[Mamatigerj]

Consecutive Days: 14 ( I can almost taste that sweet badge tommorow )

 

[legolo]

Finally! Due to some network trouble I had no internet from thursday evening until now. Oh, it feels so good to finally be connected again. A day without me being able to watch my comfort shows is totally wasted

Yesterday:
Consecutive Days: 15

Great Day with EC

I couldn´t remember any other workout, since I forgot to log in when bookmarking my workouts and forgetting my password for here anyway. Chrome remembers, so why should I?

Anyway, that´s it for yesterday.

 

[legolo]

Alright. And now today.

Consecutive Days : 16 (boy, that badge is so shiny )

Stopgap : 5 sets with EC (kinda, had to take 90 seconds rest after set 3)

Yeah, I´m pretty beat already. I think I should do a real rest day tomorrow with yoga or meditation or something like that. Or do a workout that doesn´t use my arms at all, my shoulders are killing me.

Good news of the day: It snowed! Sure, it´s at most an inch of snow and most of it has melted already, but snow! I absolutely love snow.

 

[Fremen]

Congrats

 

[Mamatigerj]

Happy Shiny Badge Day!

 

[Brontus]

 

[legolo]

Alright.

Consecutive Days: 18

Yesterday:

Long walk (around 5km)

Today:

Betten Than Nothing: 7 sets with EC
1 min rest
Shoulderwork
2 min rest
Cardio Light 3 sets with 1 min rest

Okay, there´s definitely something off. BTN is supposed to be a LVL 3 workout, yet even after doing 7 sets with EC I feel absolutely nothing. My breathing isn´t any faster, I´m definitely not out of breath at all, I´m not even sweating. And honestly, compared to other LVL 3 stuff like Great Day the workout is a joke. The only thing difficult about it is the number of reps. I always do more than 6 Jacks, because I always forget it´s not 10. It feels like every other workout usually has the same number of reps in every excercise, except this one

Cardio Light on the other hand. Holy hand grenade of Antioch, what the heck is that? There is nothing light about this. I don´t even know half of the excercises. Okay, that a lie, half of the workout is literally just March Steps. But what are side-to-side steps? I know StS Jumps, but steps? I feel like there is a movement missing inbetween, the whole thing is just not a natural flow of movements, if you know what I mean. So I just did the StS Jumps instead

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Congratulations on earning your 15 day badge @legolo!

what´s the last excercise of day 1? Knee to Elbows. Which kinda involves the neck. I think I figured out how I hurt my neck.

In the knee-to-elbows exercise, the purpose of putting one's hands behind the head it to encourage us to increase the abdominal crunch and twist by forcing the elbows into a starting position that's far away from the knees. You don't want to put any strain on the neck to do this. If interlacing your fingers behind your head causes you to pull your head forward to complete the move, try instead just placing your fingertips lightly on the tips of your ears. (Same deal with any kind of supine crunches as well. Here you can use your hands to support the weight of your head, but try not to use them to pull your head forward.)

Okay, there´s definitely something off. BTN is supposed to be a LVL 3 workout, yet even after doing 7 sets with EC I feel absolutely nothing. My breathing isn´t any faster, I´m definitely not out of breath at all, I´m not even sweating. And honestly, compared to other LVL 3 stuff like Great Day the workout is a joke. The only thing difficult about it is the number of reps. I always do more than 6 Jacks, because I always forget it´s not 10. It feels like every other workout usually has the same number of reps in every excercise, except this one

Cardio Light on the other hand. Holy hand grenade of Antioch, what the heck is that? There is nothing light about this.

The method for classifying workout difficulty was changed recently to reflect the types of exercises involved in the workout as opposed to the intensity level of the workout overall. Better Than Nothing includes jumping jacks, which bumps the workout up to difficulty level 3 (even though the number of jacks isn't very high). Cardio Light, on the other hand, includes only standing exercises with no jumping and no one-legged balances. So it gets the level 1 rating, even though it inlcudes more reps per set than BTN. Also: CL is all full body cardio exercises, where as BTN is a mix of cardio and targeted strength moves. So one would expect CL to affect one's heart and breathing rate more (thought this is dependent upon how quickly you're able to do the various moves and through what range of motion.) See the Filter By Difficulty info on the DAREBEE Workout Manual for the full explanation of difficulty levels.

But what are side-to-side steps?

All the exercises in that workout that are not march steps are simply step jacks with different arm variations. So for side-to-side steps: tap one toe out to the side, while both arms swing across your torso to the opposite side. When your feet come together, your arms swing to the front. Then you tap the opposite toe out and swing your arms across to the opposite side. If you did side-to-side jumps for that exercise, then you increased the workout difficulty to a level 3.

 

[legolo]

So, I almost forgot to work out yesterday because I wasn´t feeling well.

Consecutive Days: 19

Chest n Back Light

 

[OJJJEM]

But you didn't!

ALMOST TO 20!!!

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 20

Stopgap: 3 sets with EC

Still feeling like crap, possibly even worse than yesterday. Feverish, dizzy, my head hurts (mostly because I kinda forgot to open the bathroom door before entering). And the fact that it get´s dark at 4pm seriously saps every bit of motivation or happyness out of me. I miss the sun...

 

[Mamatigerj]

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 21

Cardio Light: 3 sets with EC
1 minute rest
Better Than Nothing: 7 sets with EC
1 minute rest
Chest n Back Light
1 minute rest
1 minute Jumping Jacks

It´s weird. Every single time when I plan not to do so much that day (mostly because my shoulders are sore again) I end up doing a lot. Just like today. Tried Cardio Light again, I even practiced those weird Side to Side Steps beforehand in the way @Laura Rainbow Dragon described. The whole thing still feels really weird, too many things to think of at once . I can either move or think, not both at once

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

I can either move or think, not both at once

I so feel you on this! I'm not sure which is worse: switching between different step jack variations, where your legs have to keep a rhythm while your arms switch up to doing something else entirely (step jack to seal jack transitions, anyone?) or workouts like CL where you have to switch up your plane of movement between each exercise. Indoor cardio pretty much always makes me long for the zen-like peace of just putting one foot in front of the other over and over again for a nice, long run in the woods.

 

[legolo]

Consecutive days: 22

100 Jump Jacks
much later
Arms & Shoulders: 5 sets with EC

No real motivation again today. Started looking for workouts and somehow ended up watching "poorly drawn educational videos" on youtube since I had to google some excercises. So I kinda declared today an impromptu "rest" day. Really got to find a way out of this funk...

 

[OJJJEM]

On the bright side... you've got great taste in historical stick figures!

 

[Brontus]

You are 8 days away from a 30-consecutive-day badge. 8. Keep goin' bud. Don't overdo yourself, but keep goin'. Try to outdo yourself.
I chuckled when you said you started with looking up exercises and then ended up on poorly drawn educational videos. Those rabbit holes can get you sometimes, lol, but sometimes you end up learning something really weird or cool or weirdly cool.

 

[legolo]

You are 8 days away from a 30-consecutive-day badge. 8. Keep goin' bud. Don't overdo yourself, but keep goin'. Try to outdo yourself.
I chuckled when you said you started with looking up exercises and then ended up on poorly drawn educational videos. Those rabbit holes can get you sometimes, lol, but sometimes you end up learning something really weird or cool or weirdly cool.

If only I hadn´t watched the entire channel dozens of times already. Not to brag, but I know way more weird stuff about pretty much everything than anybody I know

The thing right now is, that I´d like to do more. I need to do more. I still have 55 lbs to lose, which is just an insane amount, my life is generally a total mess, there´s nothing but chaos and I´m slowly falling deeper into the abyss. But this is pretty much the only thing I can control. I´ve been working out for 22 days, possibly the longest time I did something that I wasn´t literally required to do. Hell, I don´t believe I ever showed up to work for 22 consecutive work days I just need a way to get some motivation to do more than the absolute minimum. Sure, days like today keep the streak going, but do they actually help me lose weight or build up strength? Sure, the Arm & Shoulder stuff probably does something for my strength, but aside from that? Sometimes it just feels like my goals are unreachable...

 

[Mamatigerj]

I think that building that habit, training yourself to make exercise a routine part of every day, is a worthy goal; that is kind of the point of the streak. During this time if there are some absolute minimum days, so what? You are building a foundation.
You said it yourself:

I´ve been working out for 22 days, possibly the longest time I did something that I wasn´t literally required to do.

That is a great accomplishment in and of itself!

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 23

Daily Excercise: 100 Jumping Jacks done, 2 sets, 2 minutes rest
2 minutes rest
Stopgap: 5 sets with EC

I don´t really get it. A week ago I was able to do so much more, but now I´m spent after so little. Disappointing...

 

[Brontus]

7 days. 1 week to that shiny badge. Keep goin, man, you're almost there.

 

[WSMC1]

If I may…
Hang in there! That is often the tough part…I know from my experiences last few years it sometimes is a seeming nightmare, if I can just keep the exercise going even at a more gentle easy pace, lighter weights, less miles on my ole bicycles I still can find the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, and find I am better off for having kept on going. That said I find days I cannot do certain things, certain movements, so I look for a modification or different manner to do something to keep on going.

Wishing you well!

 

[legolo]

Forgot to write this up yesterday.

Consecutive Days: 24

Better than Nothing: 3 sets with EC

My calves were sore so I didn´t do much.

 

[Brontus]

You're almost to 30. Doing good, brother. Keep it up. Only a few more.

 

[legolo]

@Brontus Buddy, you´re my hero today. I´ve been lurking on the site the entire day with absolutely zero motivation to do anything. If it weren´t for your post here earlier, I probably would´ve done nothing and lied about doing something tomorrow. Which would´ve sucked royally so close to the next badge... And, no. Even though I did the entry a day later a few times I haven´t lied about working out yet. Which has been a challenge, honestly. I´m doing the whole work out thing for myself and as we have established I do not care about myself, at all

Consecutive Days: 25

Cardio Light: 3 sets with EC
1 minute rest
Arms & Shoulders: 5 sets with EC

 

[Brontus]

@legolo My pleasure, buddy. 5 days left to that shiny 30 Days badge. You got this, man.

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 26

Refresh

I´m exhausted... Spent half the day shoveling snow, since I live on a side street and the public works guys only do main streets. Barely.
It´s slighty above freezing now, so the snow on the roof has started to thaw. Which results in big heaps of snow sliding and crashing down in front of my window. Coupled with my above average paranioa this makes for a really fun time. I constantly think some serial killer is stalking about on my roof. Given the neighborhood I live in, that´s actually fairly possible. And now I´ve given myself horrible nightmares

 

[Brontus]

4 days. Woo! Can almost taste it.

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 27

Stopgap: 3 sets with EC
1 min rest
Nomad: 5 sets with EC
1 min rest
1 min Jumping Jacks

Wonderful! Apparently my shoulders are now never not sore. This sucks.

 

[Brontus]

3 more days! Good job, buddy! You're doing it! You've been using them a lot. Might need a bit of rest...but only after you hit 30 days

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 28

Great Day with EC
2 minutes rest
Chest n Back light


Wow, that was a terrible idea. Everything hurts. Two more days...

 

[Brontus]

That's right. 2 more days.

 

[legolo]

Consecutive Days: 29

Arms & Shoulders: 5 sets with EC

Another day shovelling snow... Just one more...

Mhm. No idea who´s idea it was to invent that flavour of scented candles, but they´re really weird. Yes, I use scented candles. It´s basically the last piece of luxury I can afford. And yes, they´re from the cheapest discounter, because again, I´m absolutely broke. I´m currently torn between buying new shoes or buying groceries. So far, groceries has won every single week Circling back.
The scent is "Soft Cotton". They´re blue. I usually buy Sandalwood, which are also blueish, but Soft Cotton is weird. It smells like freshly washed clothes. My bedroom smells like laundry day all the time. But the candles suck. They used to burn much better. But I smelt the wax leftovers to smelt new candles. Already have two big candles made from old wax. And they´re gonna be fun, because I didn´t sort the leftover so the scents are mixed. Rant about candles over

 

[Brontus]

1 day, man! Woo! Shiny badge!

 

[OJJJEM]

*stares intently at the thread for that 30 day update...*