New Blog

The latest blog can now be found at www.willistonjkd.com

Good News

I had my Dr.'s appointment today. With the exception of my cholesterol being a bit high, I am in pretty good health. However, the sleep issue is taking precedence now. I have been put on a prescription sleep aid till I can get into the sleep clinic and re-evaluate my Apnea. The sleep issue is what has been wiping me out in terms of physical and mental performance. My exhaustion levels are dramatically high, which is what caused me to cease my HEAT Training till I could get a handle on my health. Hopefully, the Ambien will get me to somewhat of a normal state and I can re-start my HEAT program.

Stay tuned!!

Bad News

I have been having a fight with a medical issue. Not from the training, or an injury, but a legitimate medical issue. Something I was diagnosed with a few years ago, but is now causing me great distress.

Because if this, I am stopping my H.E.A.T. Training until I can receive the treatment I need. My 1st Doctor's visit will be on th 19th of January.

I will continue my JKD Training because right now it's more mental than physical.

Week 2 - Day 2

I reluctantly skipped yesterday due to a visit to a friends house which went longer than expected. They live on a 300 acre farm and breed AKC lines of German Shepherds (the perfect beast!!) and invited us to come out and play with the dogs, a snow-mobile they just bought, and get some sledding in. I have never been on a snow mobile, but I am a certified instructor on an ATV. Applying those skills made perfect sense on a SM. We had a blast, but I sort of got a workout because of having to muscle the steering, and digging out of getting stuck... twice... Plus, we were marching up a hill a few times to get to our sledding runs. We had a blast, but now it's time to get back to business. This was my first REAL snow play day since moving to ND back in February.

OK, back to the workout:

My cardio/intervals went good. I'm still trying to find a good apparatus on which to do the intervals. The ski-type machine I think is just a bit too much, so I went back to the elliptical bike type one.

My circuits were a bit off. I increased the weight on my overheads 5# and made it through, but on my lat raises, I tried the same thing and quickly discovered it was too much, so I backed it off 2 1/2# and finished the circuit, but went to muscle failure. I figured that was OK, and would start there on the 2nd circuit. WRONG!! My right shoulder started hurting, so I backed off to my original weight but after 3 reps, was at muscle failure. I stopped at that point and went on to the next exerscize, not wanting to risk injury.

Shoulder seems to be OK now, but I was worried I had strained it. I guess I'm just not quite ready to move up on my lat raises.

I have been doing my workouts in the morning from 7:30-9AM, but now have a dilemma. For the last 2 weeks I have been on an afternoon shift for work, but am going back to a morning shift on Wednesday. So, now its either a 4 -5:30AM workout, or a 4-5:30PM workout. I usually hydrate then wait 1/2 hr before leaving for the gym, so that means a 3:30 AM wake up call. The 5:30PM finish time may interfere with my son's Tae Kwon Do classes, so looks like my day will be starting pretty early from now on. I could go later in the evening, but I feel like I'd be taking too much time away from family. At lease everyone is asleep early in the mornings.

Thankfully... Back on track. Week 2 - Day 1

Happy New Year!

Thankfully, the situation was resolved in a positive manner. It could have been MUCH worse. Teenage OTC drug abuse is on the rise, especially with Dextromethorphan (Robitussin-D, Coriciden) and Diphenhydramine (Benadryl). How to abuse this stuff, sadly, is all over the Net.

With my family concerns put to rest (for the moment), I am getting back on track with my HEAT program.

Today we started cardio on a ski type elliptical machine for interval training 2 minutes at a working pace, then :30 if higher intensity for 20 minutes. I started with the machine at full incline, which at first didn't seem too bad, but about 10 minutes into it, I realized it was a mistake, so i reduced the setting from 10 to 1 and finished with my Quads in a frazzle. This MAJORLY affected a later exercize.

The warm-up exercises were a good additional stretch after the new cardio circuit. the "Yoga Push-Up" position was a bit difficult, so I just went to a "Front-Leaning Rest" type position instead.

The weight circuit was pretty good. I started light just to see where I was at with it, and I think I could move up at least 5# when I do it again. I just didn't quite hit muscle failure, but was really close. The one exercise that I really felt was difficult was the "Uni-squat." My Quads were already screaming from the cardio, and I also learned that my balance is severely lacking. I clumsily stammered through 15 reps on each side.

Over all it was a strange, but effective workout. Again, I am a rookie to all of this, so I'm sure I will get better.

Tomorrow, a 2 cycle repeat of last weeks workout with reduced rest times. I'll really be able to tell how much the days off affects my performance with that one. My hope is to get through all 7 days in that actual time frame, even though I have to go out of town next weekend. Also, I have a JKD workout scheduled for Sunday at the Tom Harvey Training facility. Tom, I'm working on my "On-Guard."

Amy Kelly suggested to me that I log my measurements at the start, or I'd regret it later. So, tomorrow, before I go out for my HEAT session, I will record them.

Temporary Setback

Due to a personal matter, I am having to put everything on hold. I will probably have to start over with my HEAT training once this gets resolved.

Week 1 - Day 7

I know it took me more than 7 days due to some personal business and the Holidays, but I MADE IT THROUGH WEEK 1!!

I think the object of toady was to show you that even though you made it through week 1, that you're still weak!! (Not Really...) my AHR when I finished was 168.

The shortened break between stations really was a kicker. Not to mention I was taking :30 breaks between rounds instead of the prescribed :15 since day 1. So in doing the :15 rests made the workout much more intense. I doubt I would have been so objective if I had started that way and burned out on the first day. One thing I know for sure is that I am in a better place physically than I was when I started.

We begin Week 2 tomorrow, which is more strength oriented. 1 down, 11 to go!

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming..."

To add, I'm glad I found this program. It's dynamic and interesting. I have tried to do other programs for weight and physical training, but it all seemed so boring and repetitious. If you are at all interested in better health and fitness, or even a seasoned veteran, please check out this program. Click on the H.E.A.T. Program link on the right side of the page. It may be for you, too.