Pierini Fitness: getting old

Monday, May 18, 2020

Middle-age man morning report

When in the U.S. Army five decades ago, I remember how each morning there was a morning ritual leading to what was known as the Morning Report. A fellow soldier friend of mine had as one of his many duties its daily preparation.

The Morning Report was a document produced every morning for every basic unit of the Army. It reported head counts of Army soldiers and changes in status from the previous day. Once completed, it was reviewed and approved by the unit’s Commanding Officer and then punted up the Army chain of command. Basically, it was a daily measure of Army soldier resources, strength accountability and military readiness.

Fast forward to my middle-age man present.

Nowadays, I do a morning report of sorts with my middle-age man body to assess its resource availability and readiness for another day of fitness training. In 2 Thessalonians 3 we read: “If any man will not work, neither let him eat.” Pierini Fitness says, “If I don’t earn my calories from activities of daily living and exercise, let me not eat.”

My morning report assesses my body and mind’s readiness for planned daily living activities and fitness training. Nowadays, it’s giving me much different information than a noon or early afternoon report.

For example, yesterday, upon awakening and crawling out of bed, one of my first thoughts was how sore and stiff I was, and that perhaps my planned fitness activities for the day might not take place.

My wrists, hands and ankles were sore, and the rest of my body “radiated” signals that perhaps a day of fitness training rest was a good idea. My previous day’s workout included a short morning kettlebell workout and then later in the day, 150 burpees performed at a moderate pace.

This has become a common morning experience for me that’s more pronounced than decades earlier. I remember when in my late 40’s until my early 50’s hitting the gym at 6:00 am sharp, roaring, and ready to go, each Monday through Friday. I don’t have the physical ganas to do this nowadays. Did it, done it and gone!

What I’m also finding is that as time passes, these morning report feelings begin to dissipate so that by noon or early afternoon, I’m ready to tackle my fitness training for the day. Yesterday, for example, after my ganas woke up, I went for a great 6-mile early afternoon run.

So, my middle-age man morning report is often not a good measure of my middle-age man body's resource availability and readiness for another day of fitness training.

You may recall from what I’ve previously shared that my fitness training approach is an intuitive one. I’m never quite sure what I’ll do even though I have some ideas and preferred exercises to select from in my fitness training cafeteria with workout duration and intensity depending on what’s being reported in my morning, noon, and early-afternoon reports.

Works for me.

Even though it doesn’t always give me the good report I’d like, I’ll continue each day preparing upon awakening and crawling out of bed, my middle-age man morning report.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Monday, August 10, 2015

A few words with Tommy Kono

Tommy Kono visits worldwide headquarters of Pierini Fitnesss

Last Friday, I met with my my friend Olympic weightlifting legend Tommy Kono at the worldwide headquarters of Pierini Fitness.

Mr. Kono was in Sacramento over the weekend to attend the Tommy Kono X Weightlifting Competition named in his honor.

For those of you who are west coast weightlifting history buffs, here's a photo of Tommy Kono circa mid-1950's.

Tommy Kono is second from the left, followed by Alyce Yarick, Ed Yarick and my father (RIP). The person to Mr. Kono's right is Dan Uhalde who, at the time, was the second best lifter in the 198-lb. weight class. Back then, lbs. were used to express weight. Mr. Kono's best guess is that this photo was taken in 1954 or 1955.

Click above photo for larger view

Here's another photo of Ed Yarick Gym's weightlifting team that went to San Quentin Prison sometime after the 1952 Olympics to compete against the prisoners. This friendly competition with the prisoners took place in either 1954 or 1955.

Mr. Kono is standing far right, my Dad is standing far left (RIP) and my uncle (RIP) is kneeling in the front row second from right. Ed Yarick is the big man standing in the center.