My Body

My body, oh my body

Nobody knows Thee like me

Vessel of my Soul, Reflection of my Spirit, Conduit of my mind

So tough so fragile articulate and dumb, on fire and numb, what have you become

What is time to me

Through Thee I see, I hear, I touch, I experience so much

I smell, I wonder and feel, I grieve when Thou art well

Home of me, the only place I truly live

Magical machine

To be continued...

Oh God Dear God

 I love Thee and have great faith in Thee.  

Shoulder is getting better!

 

Facebook post brings the love

Not like it went viral, but in one day this FB post got 150 likes and over 40 encouraging comments from my friends on Facebook. Totally unexpected as most of my posts get a handful likes and couple comments from family and dear old friends. To be honest the only reason this posts happened was I had the weight room to myself on a Friday evening and felt a little lonely. If there had been anyone in there I would have been embarrassed flexing and taking a selfie. My wife was upstairs on the elliptical so I wasn’t truly alone, but my work outs tend to be a time of isolation. Me, my music, and my routine circuit. I call it the ritual. Cardio warm up, maximum fatigue weight circuit, hydrotherapy stretch, steam. Wam Bam thank you mam! Recently loosing myself in Post Malone medley or letting Pandora mix it up a little and see where it takes me. Usually just under an hour two, but hopefully three times a week. My chronic pain eased, my troubled mind refocused, my lungs stretched and steamed, muscles pumped, heart and Soul revitalized, never have I ever regretted having a workout. 

New Diet and Exercise Plan that Always Works

Pull Ups

The Miracle Mile

The Miracle Mile

A ways back when I turned 40 I joined Gold's Gym and committed to turning around my badly spiraling physical condition. I had multiple chronic medical conditions the most obvious being my many orthopedic issues that caused chronic pain in my back, hip, knee, feet, wrists and shoulder. I won't go into details, but leave it to say I was a wreck. I Am a wreck as these and my other medical conditions are chronic. They are mine until I die. Psychologically a chronic medical condition can be devastating. For me the worst was the chronic pain. By definition I was going to be in moderate to severe pain for the rest of my life.  The question to answer is what to do about it? My answer was to just keep moving.  A good friend taught me once while climbing a mountain. He said, "Doesn't matter how slow you go, just never stop. Always Keep your momentum moving."

Back then my work outs started with a warm up on a treadmill while watching a movie in the Cardio-Cinenama to help me keep my mind off my pain. It was during these warm ups I descovered the Miricle Mile. 1 mile walked at 4 miles an hour. A 15 minute mile pace, how hard could it be? My calves started cramping, my knee aching, my feet soar, my asthma kicked in a little, I stated huffing and puffing, and my heart rate increased to 122 bpm. Unknowingly I set a baseline I would use to measure my health. 13 years later and I still start my gym workouts with the Miracle Mile. I do a short stepping speed walk, a long stride hiking step and a slow jog all at 4 miles and hour 15 minute mile long warm up. Now days my heart rate rarely goes over 100 bpm, but my blood is flowing and I am ready to pump out dips and pull ups on the Gravitron (post on Gravitron will come soon). And then right into my Max Fat Ritual that has served me so well of the last 14 years of working out.

The Miricle Mile is not just a warm up. It saved me. It got me moving again. It now shows me real time where I stand physically. When I'm walking or hiking now I know my Miricle Mile pace.

Side note: I read a Richard Bachman (S. King) book called The Walk. In some future distopia there is an annual race for boys and the winner receives immeasurable riches all others die trying. They are all forced to keep a 4 mile an hour pace and if they fall behind and off that pace they are put to death. The race goes on for days and in the end the last man standing wins. I think about this nightmare story a lot while I walk my Miracle Mile. Helps me ignore my pain. I wonder sometimes how far I Could go if my life depended on it. Also makes me realize it does.

Letter jacket, letter sweater and practice jersey of the 1952 University of Maryland Terrapins, Sugar Bowl Champions!

Back in the Gym and an Arnold video. Shock the muscle!

Biceps

https://youtu.be/bOU5SToZgcc

Tricepts!

Abs       

 

Thank you Arnold!

"Shock the muscle."  =  Maximum Fatigue

Water

Rule of Three!
Making water a habit. If this works in a couple of days I will explain.

The plan is to start a new habit. I will drink a large jar of water in the morning before eating or drinking anything else. Rule of three: if you do something three days in a row it becomes habitual!

Maximum Fatigue II

I turn 51 in a few hours and before 50 is over I wanted to committ to a few things and confess. Turning 40 sucked. I was a wreck physically, emotionally and psychologically. In my 40s I made some huge mistakes and did was not proud of how I coped with grief and disappointment. 

One thing I am proud of was that I committed to a workout ritual that got me to where I am today! Less of a wreck in every way. I worked-out my way out of whole of a mid-life crisis and actually made it to the second half! 

On this last day of 50 I here by commit to developing a new routine that I will refine into a ritual. A workout ritual to get me to 60 feeling fitter, stronger and happier than I am today. At 50 I can say that my Max Fat Ritual has me feeling fitter, stronger and happier than I did at 40! 

To accomplish this I will document the development of the new ritual here with regular posts and begin a new phase including care management plans for my many chronic health issues. MaxFat + MrPiP (patient improvement plan) = Hope. 

I will make 60 my new 29! It was be easy, but what in life worth doing ever is? 

This is what an old man seriously committing to something really special looks like. This makes me think I need a highly motivational before picture that in ten years will show my substantial progress.

That should do it! 

Max Fat Reload

King of the hill. Tyler 

Tucker and Emma frolic to the top.

These three make it easy to climb.

They remind me that Maximum Fatigue is only a tool. A technique to build muscle and heart and mental toughness muscle

100 jabs 4 forearm shivers in 60 seconds. End it with fun MF.

Jab it out

Dips and Pull-ups

I'm big on always working apposite muscle groups creating symmetry and usable strength. Work the groups as one set dips-pull-ups. When I started MaxFat I could only do 3 dips and one pull-up kinda of. I would say how many I can do now, but,  it's not about how much or how man you do it is about reaching Maximum Fatigue in opposing muscle groups in 2 or 3 minutes and then moving forward into the routine working your ritual. It does take me a lot longer and a lot more reps than ever to reach MaxFat and for this I thank God!

The funnest part of my workout is working the bag

KISS

50 jabs , cross with forearm shiver both sides twice !

Maximum Fatigue goes mobile

My Kbear has been training year round for eight years. Conditioning workouts twice a week and hits maximum fatigue regularly. So proud of her so much fun to watch her get stronger and stronger!

Tractor Tire kicker

My nephew has a trainer girlfriend and she posted a trackter tire workout set on FaceBook. It

was awesome. On Friday I finished my MaxFat workout with a tractor tire kicker. I used one of the smaller tires to gain a little confidence. Monday I used the biggest tire and I almost lost the battle. You push it over, leap up on it, jump back, squat lift it into standing position, push it over and repeat the length of the gym. With the big this one it was four flipping leaps down and four flipping leaps back. Kicked my bass. The last few I almost couldn't stand it up. Awesome. Thank you nephew's girlfriend for the inspiration.

I commit to posting a video of this new. MaxFat Kicker! Look for it on maximumfatigue.blogspot.com !

I also commit to posting a selfies before and after MaxFat!

Ritual

Maximum Fatigue Ritual

01/22/2014

 

Crank up the headphones



Cardio-cinema warm up mile on treadmill

Bench 135 X 20

Curls 40s dumbbell X 12

Tri's full stack X 20

Big Ball forward planks, back stretch, hand stand

Rack leg-lifts X 20

Rack leg-ups X 20 + ski it out

Pull-ups X 10

Jabs X 100

Hot tub stretch twists, hams, squats, kicks, trunk push

Steam

Pool swim 2 run 2

shower

home

 

A while back this routine became a ritual. I practice this ritual three times a week and plan to continue until I'm 50 when I will reevaluate my commitment to Max.Fat. The key to this work out is to reach complete muscle fatigue with each exercise with one set. Each exercise one time until you can not do another rep and then rest while holding weight and then do one last rep anyway (with spotter assistance preferably). The next key is to continue quickly to your next exercise and rapidly work through your circuit never resting or completely recovering your breath. In my current ritual I am really huffing and puffing by the time I'm throwing jabs and my heart is really pounding. Then jump in the hot tub for a stretch, steam and cool-down in the pool.

 

I think this routine became a ritual last year after being laid-off by Pfizer. I had a little more time on my hands and a lot of frustration and anxiety to release and working out got me through it. And helped me loose 40 pounds. And just tonight my wife said, "Your arms have gotten so muscle-ly!"

Routine to Ritual

My father once taught me to turn a routine into a ritual. When times change as they always do a change in routine can be a major disruption. I've been is sales for over twenty years, change jobs, change route. New school? New sports team, new club, new season? 

My Dad once said, "A good routine will carry the day, but your rituals determine your future. Know your route and within it build some rituals that satisfy your soul."

As usual I had no idea what he was talking about.

But now,