5 June 2012 Marimba

I'm getting old. We all are. I just gets more noticable at a certain point. Besides contemplating a more complex change that could really affect our lives, I've decided a good first step is to improve my conditioning. For over eight years I've done 10,000 steps a day. I plan to continue doing it. Ali does it too, and it gives us a good reason to go for walk when we might not otherwise do so.

I wanted a more proactive physical program to get into better shape. Traveling for work smells. I enjoy working with different sites, but the food options stink and exercising sometimes just doesn't happen. I needed a different option. I'm not fond of gyms and clubs. Many hotels limit access to exercise rooms to times when I may not be available. I recently found a website which encourages two hundred sit-ups as a way to stay in shape. The basic idea is you do 200 sit-ups a day every other day for three days a week. The plan they provide is five groups of forty reps with a minimum rest of one minute between reps when you reach your sustainment level. They provide a number of schedules to help participants reach their goal.

I thought about this and realized it's easy to take a pad when traveling and even I might be able to do this. So I started. Never one to leave well enough alone, I decided to add 200 push-ups as a goal. Then I decided to fill in three of the open four days with 200 curls with each arm. Hmmmm, this is getting complicated. So far all has gone well. I was on the website's schedule for about three weeks before opting for a less aggressive schedule which still adds a few reps each session. I do about twice as many sit-ups as push-ups, but both are increasing. I've worked out with curls for a long time, but never structured anything so now at least that is defined. We'll see how this goes. I may even provide some updates. Hopefully, this will help me through a tough time mentally and give me some additional physical conditioning.