Enjoy your Sunday!

Today is the last day of May and Sunday and, as usual, Pierini Fitness is closed so the chief executive blogger can rest his body, mind and spirit.

Visit us next month - that's tomorrow the 1st of June - for another creative blogflection guaranteed to be original. Enjoy your Sunday!

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Hanging straight-leg raises medley

Here's an exercise I tried yesterday after watching a fellow gym member perform it a few days earlier. I matched her total rep count but she tells me that she's good for 10 reps on a good day. Well so will I after some more practice. Lately, I rarely do any direct ab/core work other than an occasional ab plank hold because my ab/core musculature gets worked really well with my Olympic lift workouts.

Here's a demonstration from yesterday at my gym. I tried to perform each rep from a dead hang and touch the ceiling with the front tip of my shoes to add an extra challenge.

Give this bad boy exercise a try. I call it the hanging straight-leg raises medley.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

An 8 minute quickie

Yesterday I attended a continuing education seminar so I walked to the downtown location where it was held. It's one mile away from my home, so it took me about 20 minutes to get there as I chose a relaxing pace. The morning weather was spectacular. During the lunch hour, I walked another mile to my bank and then to the State Capitol to attend a pro-life rally. I walked home but made a pit stop at Bodytribe Fitness, the gym where I train, about 5 blocks from where I live.

I didn't have much time to train during this unscheduled visit and I needed to save myself for a bigger training day tomorrow, but I felt like doing something quick so this is what I did:

1) standard grip pullups x 6 reps followed by overhead squat with 95 lbs. for 6 reps

2) standard grip chinups x 6 reps followed by overhead squat with 95 lbs. for 6 reps

3) close grip pullups x 6 reps followed by overhead squat with 95 lbs. for 6 reps

4) close grip chinups x 6 reps followed by overhead squat with 95 lbs. for 6 reps.

That was it for yesterday - 3 miles of functional walking in pleasant weather and a stop at my gym for an 8 minute quickie.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

200,000+ miles

My 1999 Honda Accord odometer hit the 200,000 mile mark the other day. I’m looking forward to the day when the odometer reads 300,000 miles. Hopefully, it will eventually surpass the mileage racked up on a car I owned several years ago – a 1988 Volvo 240DL, a car I owned for over 12 years and eventually donated it to charitable organization when its odometer read about 306,000 miles. That car still had some life in it as evidenced by the charity using it as an operating vehicle rather than sell it as is done by most charities.

I’ve learned that beating repairs to the punch with scheduled maintenance is the trick to auto longevity. Guess what – maintaining good fitness and health is cultivated the same way. Better to keep my body fit and healthy with scheduled maintenance, such as eating healthy and sensibly most of the time and training regularly and wisely most of the time.

That’s my middle-age man strategy for good fitness and health that has served me well thus far, just like my middle-age auto with 200,000+ miles.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Thank you Father Tom!

Last month I attended a Human Life International (HLI) pro-life contemplative retreat in Mexico City and had the wonderful opportunity to meet and get to know its President, Reverend Thomas J. Euteneuer (Father Tom). Here's a recent article written by Father Tom in his “Spirit & Life” e-newsletter that helped me better understand the priestly vows of celibacy and my own marriage vows: The Dynamics of Celibacy

Thank you Father Tom!

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Memorial Day sluggishness

Yesterday was a normal training day but I didn't train; nor did I write a blogflection for today.

Guess I had a serious case of Memorial Day sluggishness.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Give this quick plyometric circuit a try

Here's a quick workout for you on time-challenged days. It will challenge your balance, coordination, explosiveness and speed. That's me demonstrating all exercises last Friday at the gym.

In case you're wondering, my knees are fine. I wear Tommy Kono knee bands when training in the Olympic lifts and doing squats. I did squats earlier in the workout and was too lazy to take them off before demonstrating these exercises.




Give this quick plyometric circuit a try.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

See you on Monday

Today is Sunday and Pierini Fitness is closed.

See you on Monday.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Getting back in the bar dip groove

My Tuesday blogflection earlier this week shared how lately I’ve had an itch to include more pullups in my training. Ditto for bar dips, an exercise I use to perform frequently back in my bodyweight-only exercise training days.

Back in those “old days”, I could perform 30 reps of bar dips in a single set and 100 lb. weighted singles on a good training day. While that’s not great, it was good enough for me. Now, being out of bar dip shape, I’m only good for 12-15 reps for a single set. There’s no way I would try weighted singles right now. Actually, my right shoulder is a little aggravated from last Saturday’s circuit workout that included bar dips, a healthy middle-age man reminder to be cautious in resuming them in my training.

Here’s the circuit workout I did last Saturday that included bar dips, consisting of 6 rounds of the following:

(1) pull-ups/chin-ups x 6 reps (done using my 6-grip pullup/chinup medley described in my Tuesday blogflection ), then

(2) bar dips x 6 reps (the standard garden variety), and finally

(3) Olympic-style back squats x 6 reps (next time I’ll do Olympic-style front squats for variety).

The pullup/chinup and bar dip reps were about 40 to 50 percent of my currently single set maximum. For the squats, I chose a weight that was about 65 percent of my current one rep maximum. I buzzed through this 6 round circuit in about 22 minutes; not a killer pace but one that required reasonable effort on my part.

Just like pullups and chinups, slowly but surely I’m getting back in the bar dip groove.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Summertime sleep deficits

I’m beginning to ask the question of what is a nap. It’s been so long since I’ve had one. A great power nap would be wonderful right now. I mentioned power naps in a prior blogflection about sleeping here: Sucker punched in a nightclub brawl

Why do I have a hard time getting sufficient sleep when daylight hours are longer, such as now and through the summer? I believe it goes back to my youth. I played outdoors as a young kid as long as possible until being ordered inside by my parents. As a teenager, when school was in recess during the summer months, I went to bed much later than during the school year. I enjoyed being wide awake during the long and hot summer days and evenings, basking in the sunshine with a euphoric feeling of not having to go to school.

As teenagers, my friends and I roamed around outdoors doing absolutely nothing most of the time. It took us all day, evening and night to get this doing nothing done, and cultivated a feeling that I might miss something if I went to bed early. That lingering feeling still exists to this middle-age man day.

Hopefully soon I’ll get an overdue power nap and feel rejuvenated, but until then I’m sighing and resigning myself to upcoming summertime sleep deficits.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum