Was I chasing wind?

These days I train in the Olympic lifts but prior to that for 3 years I was a bodyweight-only fitness dude. I did high-volume rep training of traditional calisthenics such as pull-ups and pushups, generally a circuit of multiple sets with minimal rest between sets.

I also experimented with other bodyweight-only training methods such as dynamic visualized resistance, dynamic self-resistance and isometrics, but always gravitated back to calisthenics. I enjoyed anaerobic endurance training because it elevated my heart rate, giving me a good dose of exercise-induced endorphins. As if that wasn’t enough, most of the time I ended my training with a good hard run.

During this fitness era, each year I prepared for the Marine Physical Fitness Test, self-administering it to myself on my birthday. Three times a week karate training was also something I did. And not to be lazy, I found time to train and enter about a half-dozen fun runs during the year, mostly 5k and 10k distances. I took all of my training seriously like a world-class athlete, priding myself on my anaerobic endurance. I had boundless energy, was very lean, ate like a horse and slept like a baby. People constantly told me how fit I was. “Life is great” I told myself. “Yes it is” I replied.

But then one day I didn’t want to train this way any longer. I was ready for a change. Maybe my body was telling me to cool it. I’m not sure. I had no lingering aches and pains beyond the occasional and expected delayed-onset muscle soreness. Looking back, maybe I no longer wanted it really bad whatever it was this training gave me. The answer is still not clear so I’ll blame it on being a middle-age man, a little more tired than before.

So now I train in the Olympic lifts twice a week. The high-volume rep sets are a thing of my past. Karate training is still part of what I do, but that training has tapered to once a week at best. I haven’t run in about a month. Prior to that my running had slowed to once a week. It’s official – I am a retired fun run athlete.

“But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the toil at which I had taken such pains, behold! all was vanity and a chase after wind, with nothing gained under the sun.” This is a verse from Ecclesiastes, one of the biblical books of the Old Testament, a treatise on the vanity of all things.

Reflecting back on my past crazy way of training, I sometimes ask myself “was I chasing wind?”

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Easy on the eyes

Happy New Year 2020 my fellow middle-aged man brother from a different mother.  Please accept my best wishes that all your 2020 dreams and desires are realized in the new year.

I hope to finally be back on the Pierini Fitness saddle and start delivering a more regular dose of middle-aged man reflections about living and dying, gracefully aging and trying to live a good and honest life.  My efforts lately have been spotty which happens from time to time.

The new year brings a new decade of life and with it is a realization that Pierini Fitness – the blog - now covers three decades of cyberspace presence.  That’s not suggesting I’ve been at it for 30 years but, nonetheless, it now has a cyberspace presence covering three decades - 2000-2009, 2010-2019 and, now, starting 2020 decade.  God willing, hopefully there will be many more.  

So, where should I start with this first post of a new decade.  Maybe with some rambling and eventually something will come from it.  

How about sharing my Winter 2020 fitness goals for starters?  I do have some, continuing with a season-based theme of fitness goals that give me fitness training focus while having fun chasing my middle-aged man fitness, health and wellness goals.

These are the Winter 2020 fitness goals I’ve set for myself:

1 - Complete a single set of 18 pull-ups.  My best recent effort is 16 reps.

2 - Morning weigh-in no more than 175 lbs. with 170-175 lbs. being ideal weight range.  My average morning weight in 2019 was 173.22 lbs.  

3 - Complete 100 burpees in 10:00.  Yikes! - this will be a challenge and it may take until Summer 2020 before I get close to achieving this goal.  My best recent effort is 11:44 but it would take longer now after being on vacation for 15-days and hardly working out.  

4 – Perform a pull-up hang hold of 2:20.

5 – Perform a handstand hold against wall for 1:30.

6 - Make further progress lowering my body fat percentage with a Summer 2020 goal of 16.0 percent and be at 16.5 percent by end of this winter.

None of these goals will make me a more virtuous and wholesome middle-aged man.  Some of my harshest critics may think I’m chasing wind and being vain with goals like these.

Good for them being able to complete a thought!  There’s nothing wrong under the sun having goals, whatever they may be.  They give us direction as we navigate the turbulent world in which we live.  

The hard work I’ve done since reporting to Pierini Fitness boot camp last August 31, 2018 has been rewarding.  It’s enabled me to reclaim my middle-aged man fitness, health and wellness with upper-percentile strength endurance and cardiovascular-respiratory condition.  But, there’s more work to do and I’ll do it in 2020!

One of the “fruits” of my hard work has been a more pleasing-to-the-eyes body appearance, at least in my eyes.  The middle-aged man paunch is gone, my knees don’t hurt, my face doesn’t look like a chipmunk that’s been harvesting chestnuts from my previous gluttonous adventures, and my across-the-board fitness measures are all up.

Mrs. Pierini Fitness, my chief critic, did give me some honesty perspective recently.  She told me that while all my hard training has given me a more fit, lean and mean-appearing body appearance, the weight I’ve lost has made my face look like a 70-year old man.

Yikes!  

Is it now, like, when I ring the doorbell and the person on the other side says, “Who’s there?” that my answer is “Freddy Krueger calling.”

Seems like I’ve got some other work to do.

And, what might that be?

To see if I can make my face easy on the eyes.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

What am I going to do when I get there?

Reflecting back on my middle-age man fitness journey is an enjoyable act of nothingness. There have been so many different fitness things I’ve chased at one time or another. It seems like they all have one thing in common in that they kept me out of mischief and trouble. Some were centered on accomplishing something by an upcoming birthday.

One such birthday-theme fitness goal of mine several years ago was when I wanted to score at least 250 points on the U.S. Marine Physical Fitness Test on my 50th birthday. The test consists of 3 events – a single set maximum effort of pull-ups, a 2-minute timed set of Marine abdominal crunches, and a 3-mile run. A perfect score of 300 points requires 20 pullups, 120 Marine abdominal crunches and running the 3 miles in 18:00.

The first time taking this test on my 50th birthday, I scored 237 points by performing 17 pullups, 73 Marine abdominal crunches and running the 3 miles in 21:30. The following year I took the test on my 51st birthday and improved only slightly by scoring 239 points, performing 16 pullups, 73 Marine abdominal crunches and running the 3 miles in 20:16.

They say that the third times is the charm and that was the case on my 52nd birthday when I finally achieved my 250 point goal by scoring 257 points, performing 18 pullups, 77 Marine abdominal crunches and running the 3 miles in 19:32.

That was the last time I took that test! I moved on to new fitness goals to chase in my search and thirst for something new, like a restless teenager constantly shouting out about how bored they are. Was I chasing wind?

So the question for me today, as I stare my current fitness goals in the eyes, is what am I going to do when I get there?

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Today is Sunday and, as always, Pierini Fitness is closed so the chief executive blogger can rest his body, mind and spirit.

There was a time when that wasn’t always the case and my Sunday was like any other day running around chasing wind, working during my busy work season, exercising and shopping. Honoring the Lord’s Day and immersing myself with rest from the activities and toils of Monday through Saturday everyday life is definitely better for my faith, fitness, fortune and health.

Regular readers of Pierini Fitness recognize my closing signature and have figured out on their own that it is a Latin phrase for “The peace of the Lord is always with you” . Enjoy your Sunday as I am, come back tomorrow for another Pierini Fitness blogflection about a topic yet to be determined but guaranteed to be original, and Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum