Day 1

[plotovertime field1=”Weight” field2=”Heart Rate” field3=”Resting Heart Rate”  field4=”Workout Length” field5=”Gut” field6=”Chest” field7=”Bicep” field8=”Setups” field9=”Pushups” field10=”Dips” width=”700″ height=”400″ type=”LineChart”  maxdays=”30″]

(First time I’ve gotten to use my new WordPress plugin, Plot Over Time 🙂

First day back in – so today was just a quick warmup workout.

Since Sunday I started taking my vitamins, and taking a Glucosamine & Chondroitin supplement (otherwise known as WD-40 for joints :-).  I’m trying to eliminate as much possible problem with my shoulder and hip as possible – a couple of visits to Dr. Holmberg would probably help the hip considerably.  The shoulder is cartilage damage, so there’s not a lot that can be done except lube it and be careful.)

I’m not happy with my resting heart rate – sure, it’s not bad (67 bpm – average for a 40 year old is 71 – 75 bpm, ‘athletic’ is 50 – 56.  But I used to have a much lower resting heart rate around 60, and could drop my heart below 50 just by concentrating for a moment.  I want to get that back 😉

This one was an upper-body emphasis workout, with a “videogame cardio” (Rockband 3, Expert Mode with Pro Drums enabled.)  The cardio isn’t enough anymore – it used to be I could get my heartrate up and keep it there alternating between weights and cardio (great for keeping the heart pumping during the cycle time for my muscles).  Despite having not been working regularly for a bit it’s hard to keep the heartrate in the 130 – 145 range.  I managed to peak it at 137 for a bit (I have a $20 Walmart special heart monitor – you put your fingers on it to check your pulse, it’s not one of those fancy continuous monitors, so any heart rate average I put up will be erroneous.)

Overall, felt good for a warmup workout.  Tomorrow I’ll try something a little different.  Looking at the numbers my new plugin, it’s pretty pathetic, really – I only did 90 setups and a whopping 30 dips.  Must remind myself – the point wasn’t go until exhaustion (my usual goal), but to just warm up the muscles for a more solid upper body workout on Friday.

Now for the “horror” part of the workout log:  my first “photo weigh-in”.  My rough plan is to once every week or two post a picture of me shirtless.  Please, turn down the brightness on your monitor – that’s a whole lot of fairly ugly, white skin.

The goal there, of course, it to be able to flip back from time to time to see what progress is like.  But I apologize to those with sensitive stomaches.