iPods and Stuff

February 23, 2005

Now that I’ve remembered to actually charge the damned thing *and* bring it to the gym the last few times, I’m really happy to have my own music on board while training. I believe the recent articles saying that it improves intensity. At least it does when you’re rocking things that make you move.

A Current Sample of the Mix:

System of a Down — stuff from Toxicity
Limp Bizkit — My Generation and Rollin’
House of Pain — Jump Around and a few others.
Public Enemy — stuff from Fear of a Black Planet.
Eminem — Mostly newer stuff.
Soundtrack — The Scorpion King. (cheese!)

But I tell you: I sure move when this stuff is threatening my ear wax.

Today, I came to one of those realizations. That old saying about insanity being about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Well, whoever said that’s an asshole. Because he’s right. Man, I’m such a doofus.

I twanged my back again, doing deadlifts and squats. I’m starting to believe (and will confirm this eventually with my doctor) that I might have a curvature of the spine or something. When I do this kind of work, my lower left lowest lumbar area is what ends up hurting. Looking in the mirror, I believe maybe my body is doing some twist to the left thingy that’s resulting in pain when I’m lifting heavy weight.

If I hadn’t twanged my back, I would’ve been raving about the fact that I deadlifted 200 pounds in dumbells this morning. Holding those 100 pound suckers and dragging them down my legs and back up was thrilling. Until it hurt five minutes later. Rat Bastid!

So, I’m going to carry on with my other lifting, and try even harder to shore up my core muscles, my lower back muscles, etc. I’ll shift my squat days into a diversity of methods: bodyweight exercises for squats and lunges, and machine-assisted lifting for leg-centric exercises (doing leg presses and leg curls instead of squats). Once I figure out things with the doc (an xray at the least; maybe an MRI), I’ll see if there’s any way to salvage the good old fashioned exercises.

This, by the way, was probably the catalyst for quitting the program I did a month or two ago. Now, with reflection, I was reacting to the twanging I gave my back at that time, and decided to blame it on doing heavy lifting. This time, I’ve recognized what’s going on, and I’m just going to update/modify what I’m doing.

I’m thankful that I’m logging everything workout wise on paper, including my moods, the little notes that come from the lifting days. I find that going back to it is helping me find trends that I wasn’t connecting together before. This thing, for example. I didn’t realize that every time I hurt my back doing squats and deadlifts, I blame the lifting program and shift it. It’s a good reason to write down the workouts.

Foodwise, I had a weird experience last night. I was lying in bed reading when Kat came home from the movies around 9. I said to her, “I just realized something. I thought I was hungry because I’d forgotten to have my late night snack. I’m hungry because I forgot to eat supper.” Trust me, this is a first. I’m usually pretty hungry all the time. But this time, nothing. I didn’t bother having supper *or* the snack. It seemed novel.

And finally, I’ve been having some great conversations in email with people I’ve met through this website. It’s really exciting talking about fitness and nutrition and the like. It really gives me something back in return every time. I feel more and more motivated when I read people’s thoughts and opinions. When I’m asked for my opinions, I actually get something out of the process of composing my thoughts to make a decent reply. So, it’s a cycle that feeds me back something, even though sometimes someone will comment that they feel they’re wasting up my time. Never. It’s some of the best time I spend in a day.

Thanks to everyone who’s persisting and working towards their goals.

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