Geezer's Long March Toward the Elite Sneaking Up On the Finish Line

[Mark E. Hurling]

I met the Special Olympian and his parents at the Carbondale Gold's tonight. A sweet kid with Downs and with great anthropometry for deadlifting at 4' 11" and the bench press with a thock chest and short arms. Nice, short levers with short strokes to lockout. He was coming back from a double hernia operation and will only be doing benching for the foreseeable future. Less inter-abdominal pressure to build up according to his dad and the doc. So, no pushback from me.

I made an opening error for his warmup cardio that his dad insisted on. I suggested the elliptical but the motion arms irritated his left elbow he said. So, Plan B. He likes the rower, so row he did. Then, a rip through some Lifefitness machines his dad showed me. I'm standing pat with his dad's current programming so as to ease into this.

On to the bench press. His body was wobbly on the bench and his dad was concerned about his stability. With good reason. So I suggested he align himself so his eyes were right under the bar, pull himself up to set his upper and lower back, and squeeze his knees together on the bench. Worked like a charm on the first try. Frankly, I was winging it a little, never having seen such an issue to resolve before. Success was sweet. He and dad were smiling.

Dad was concerned about strengthening his core, so I had him do some rope handle cable crunches and a pendulum machine that hits the lower abs as a finish.

More to come, I think. But we'll see.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Last night at the gym, I concluded the session by showing the Special Olympian a photo of Lamar Gant a powerlifting great of yore. He pulled a deadlift of 524 lbs. at a bodyweight of 125. The first to blast through a triple bodyweight + DL at 5'2". Gant was born with severe scoliosis and grew up to develop exceptionally long arms for his body. Perfect for a deadlifter. I showed the Special Olympian this to illustrate how people make the most of their abilities, even though they might be considered less able among the general population. I'm not sure if he got the full impact of my point, but his dad did and may follow up later.

Also, the Olympian had done Taekwondo in the past as evidenced by his gear bag emblazoned with the US and South Korean flags and all the usual TKD imagery. My parting shot was teaching him a basic escape from a wrist grab. He picked up most of it, and with a couple of course corrections on how to use his elbow as a crowbar in the escape pulled it off handily. As I told him while leaving, "You learned two new things tonight. A Japanese word, Jujitsu, and how to get out of a wrist grab."

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 232.

Rounds today of handball, speed bag, elliptical, heavy bag, SciFit, rower, and stretching.

Average HR was 125 bpm @ 82% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Ball Cap.jpg

Ken showed tonight. I was afraid I'd seen the last of him from the back pain he was in last Friday. But, as he said, he doesn't give up easily. I started him on the last three takedowns of the Blue Belt 1st degree course to fix his intermittent and ongoing problems with them. It took a little repositioning of his hands on one and getting to step deeper and pivot 135 degrees on the other two and he seemed to get them.

Then I ran him through the rest of the techniques at speed and he did great. If he retains tonight's work, he's good to go for Blue Belt 2nd degree.

Average HR was 114 bpm @ 75% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 232.

1st Cycle, Week 3. 5 reps, 3 reps, as many reps as possible.

Bench Press: 105-120-135/2.

High Pulls: 155-175-195/3.

Cable Rotations: 160 for 3 sets of 5.

Average HR was 119 bpm @ 78% of MHR.

[DavidCC]

Weight: 232.

You're fading away before our very eyes.

Great job on the weight loss. You mentioned before that your hypertension might be a function of your sleep apnea. I wonder if your sleep apnea might be a function of your weight? As your weight continues to drop your need for the CPAP might become a thing of the past.

Keep up the good work.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Why thank you Dave.

As to my weight and the apnea? Maybe. DB tells me the snoring got bad some years back as my weight started to go up. But then too, I was drinking a lot too. As mentioned back in November, I quit drinking cold turkey and have not had one since. So I'm sure that played a role as well.

I've adapted well to the CPAP, but would be perfectly happy to not have to use it. We'll see. Stopping can be tricky to navigate. That thing is monitored, and if it gets less than 60% use, they take it back or make you pay for it. Mine was covered by Medicare.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 233.

More Sunday morning hiking. I went to Devil's Kitchen Lake and walked it's Northern edge and the dam and spillway into the creek bed downstream. The devil must have been a real popular guy here in Southern Illinois when the residents and passers through handed out names. But then both the Ohio and Mississippi had river pirates along them at Cave in Rock and Grand Tower and thieves, brigands, and murderers scattered throughout. Bloody Williamson County comes to mind.

It starts at Tower Rock with the Devil's Whirlpool, where many a canoe, flat boat, and paddle wheeler came to grief. Then to Devil's Backbone and the Devil's Bake Oven on the banks of the Illinois side of the Mississippi. Go North around Steeleville, and there's the Devil's Hole. Moving East you come to the Devil's Standtable in Giant City Park, then Devil's Kitchen Lake. Further East there's the Devil's Workshop in Dixon Springs Park and a couple of dramatic rock falls also called the Devil's (sometimes Satan's) Backbone in Bell Smith Springs. So far, I've hiked two of them now. There's a short trail around the Devil's Standtable. I intend to hike them all.

This is a drone video of the area I hiked around the dam:



Average HR was 106 bpm @ 69% of MHR.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 230.

My low back was tight so rounds today of mostly upper body stuff, speed bag, arms only SciFit and rower, cable crunch, heavy bag, elliptical, and stretched.

Average HR was 133 bpm @ 87% of MHR.

I ticked up another point range in VO2 max at 38 to 42.

Afterward, I tried a new chiro as a test and found his approach was good. So are my usual suspects at L4 and L5, so life is good.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Weight: 230.

1st Cycle, Week 3. 5 reps, 3 reps, as many reps as possible.

Incline Press: 145-160-180/2.

Hammer High Row: 280-315-350/2.

Deadlifts: 245-275-310/2. Another success of some note. I thought about trying a double overhand grip, but checked my ego in the chalk bowl and went with an alternating grip. Also, I carefully selected the bar with the best and sharpest knurling on it.

Average HR was 125 bpm @ 82% of MHR.

My randomly chosen attire for the morning turned out to be a t-shirt DB bought for me when I retired (got laid off), "RETIRED: Under New Management (see spouse for details)". This was a big hit with a couple of old guys as we were passing through the Atlanta airport en route to the USPA drug tested Nationals. Along with my Old Guys Rule ball cap with the legend, "Low Maintenance, High Performance."

EDIT: Finally, I need to drill another hole in my belt. A little loose during the cinch ups.