Middle-aged man chatter and white smoke

Pierini Fitness is an analytical fitness dude and likes objective measures to validate what he has accomplished or failed to accomplish.  This requires fitness, health and wellness goals that are expressed using a measurement of some type and a way of subsequently measuring results.  Anything else, the way he sees it, is middle-aged man chatter and white smoke.

Earlier this year, around the beginning of Spring, he set the following goals to achieve by the first day of Summer 2019 which is a few days around the corner:

(1)  Complete 100 pull-ups in 20 minutes.

(2)  Complete 100 bar dips in 15 minutes.

(3)  Complete a kettlebell (KB) complex using a 24kg KB consisting of 4 rounds of 8 reps each of swing, clean and push jerk with each arm, followed by 100 burpees in 20 minutes.

(4)  Enter and complete a 10k fun run and run it at a 9-minute mile pace.

(5)  Achieve a body weight of 172 lbs. with a body fat of 18 percent.

Since summer begins next week on June 17^th, Pierini Fitness has decided it’s time to report his results.

Complete 100 pull-ups in 20 minutes

Pierini Fitness chose to do this alternating between pull-ups and chin-ups for a better upper body workout.  While it’s true that chin-ups are generally easier than pull-ups, tweaking this goal, in his opinion, didn’t diminish the challenge. 

His best time thus far completing 100 reps is 20:40 on June 3^rd.  He may, or may not, complete another 100-rep workout by the first day of summer so the 20:40 is his final best result.  Therefore, he got close but failed to achieve the 20-minute goal.

Complete 100 bar dips in 15 minutes

This goal was achieved twice with the latest being 100 bar dips completed in 13:46 on June 4^th.  Goal accomplished.

Complete a kettlebell complex (described above) in 20 minutes

This goal got “parked” as the demands of running started to take more of his time.  It’s a tough goal and one that Pierini Fitness hopes to eventually tackle.  Bottom line, goal abandoned and not accomplished.

Enter and complete a 10k fun run and run it at a 9-minute mile pace

As previously reported here at Pierini Fitness, the fun run will be the Wharf to Wharf 6-mile run taking place the last Sunday of July.  It’s a run beginning at the Santa Cruz Wharf and ending at the nearby Capitola Wharf.  Pierini Fitness is currently training diligently for it with every intention of achieving his goal. 

He’ll give a report on how he did by early August.

Achieve a body weight of 172 lbs. with a body fat of 18 percent

Pierini Fitness has weighed in at 172 lbs. or less 31 days since the first time he did so on April 17^th, including yesterday when this was written.  He has since better defined his goal weight as between 172 and 177 lbs.

He had a DXA body scan done earlier this week to accurately measure his lean muscle, fat, bone density and visceral fat.  It’s a great value service provided by BODYMAP360 and one that he highly recommends.  The price he paid of $49 is far less than the valuable information provided. 

Pierini Fitness measured at 18.8 percent body fat, slightly over the 18 percent goal, but he’s nonetheless pleased with the results.  Since the last test done on April 10^th, his body weight was 0.8 lbs. less but the good news is that he lost 4.1 lbs. of fat while gaining 3.4 lbs. of lean muscle (0.1 lbs. variance due to rounding.)

So, while the goal was not achieved by 0.8 percent, it’s close enough to say that it was. 

Working with his cyberspace fitness training partner, Pierini Fitness will be defining the next round of his fitness, health and wellness goals to chase during the summer with a measurement date by the first day of fall in September. 

And, he’ll have objective measures to validate what he hopes to accomplish because anything else is middle-aged man chatter and white smoke.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Correctly described as middle-aged men

Pierini Fitness recently learned that Microsoft intends to help him be more politically correct and inclusive in his middle-aged man reflections.  They plan on doing so using artificial intelligence.

Microsoft recently announced the upcoming integration of its artificial intelligence powered ideas into its Word, the word processing program used by many including Pierini Fitness when composing his middle-aged man reflections appearing here.

According to a Microsoft blog post, this new feature will be offering familiar fixes for spelling and grammatical errors and advice on more concise and inclusive language such as “police officer” instead of “policeman.”

What does Pierini Fitness have to say about this?

“No way, man, as in middle-aged man.”

Rest assured that Pierini Fitness middle-aged man reflections about living and dying, gracefully aging and trying to live a good and honest life will continue to properly identify its primary audience as middle-aged men.  Calling them middle-aged people just doesn’t have the ring to it that’s necessary to properly identify who they are.

No thank you Microsoft but this isn’t something Pierini Fitness is interested in using, so he’ll be shutting that feature off once it’s part of the latest version of your Word software.    

Here at Pierini Fitness, middle-aged men will never be called middle-aged people because they’re more correctly described as middle-aged men.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Howling at the moon

Many moons ago, when living in the country on 5 acres, Pierini Fitness had a hot tub on the back deck that he would often submerge himself to relax at the end of a hard day.  The country nighttime fresh air, stars in the sky and the “music” of the country critters orchestra made this time enjoyable and gave him many pleasant memories.

Part of his ritual including getting out of the hot tub and wrapping a towel around his body in transition to returning to the real world.  On full moon nights, his ritual included another step that preceded the towel wrap. In his buff, he would look in the sky, stare at the moon and then howl like a wolf. 

It always made Mrs. Pierini Fitness laugh when he did this but, more importantly, it gave Pierini Fitness a middle-aged man release of any rough-around-the-edge whatever was remaining in him that hadn’t been released by hot tub time.  And, it gave him a good laugh at himself moment. 

Howling at the moon should be a great middle-aged man pastime that we should all do on a regular basis.  Believe it or not, there’s a day set aside for doing this on October 26^th of each year.  Worldwide Howl at the Moon Night is a day people are encouraged to go out and howl at the moon.

Pierini Fitness has learned that, contrary to what he thought was true, wolves don’t howl at the moon.  When they howl, they’re communicating with other wolves in their pack, and do so by holding their heads up towards the sky, as if looking at the moon, so their howls can carry longer distances.

For Pierini Fitness, howling at the moon is more about releasing his middle-aged man primal feelings into the universe where they can meander and land where they’re destined and make the earth a better place for all.  Rumor has it, at least in his mind, that his howling at the moon has a benevolent impact on global warming, but this hasn’t been scientifically proven.  Therefore, it’s more of what can be described as a Pierini Fitness middle-aged man tale.

The next full moon is scheduled to appear in the sky on June 17, 2019 which is a mere 11 days from today.  Pierini Fitness invites all restless middle-aged men around the world to join him on this day in preparing for Summer 2019 hot summer nights, beginning four days later on June 21^st, by going outside in our back yard, scantily dressed or in the buff, as you choose, and have a good old time howling at the moon.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum