Built a chin up bar and have been doing some moderate workouts. Todays looked like this:

Bunch of various leg swings. Then some squat holds.

Bodyweight squat 10/10/10/20

Pushups 5/10/15

Chin up 3/3/3/1 held last one at top for a short period.

Got 4 sets of 3 last Monday but right shoulder acted up since then. Today was first chins after 3 days no workout.

Current stats 43 years old; estimate 185 lb(191 at dr fully clothed recently)(down from 225 may 2020) and still about 6 feet tall. Still smoking but my diet is mostly real food these days.

Some hoops occasionally. Played some new york with a couple guys a few weeks ago. Used defensive leg muscles in forgotten ways.

Did some chin ups since then but basically maintenance reps with nothing else. My right glute medius started complaining soon after waking today. Did a series of leg stuffs first to get blood to my hips to heal it.

Vertical leg swings 15 each leg.
Lateral leg swings 10 each leg.
Stepovers forward and back 5 each leg.

10 high knees each leg.

5 lunges each.

10 forward kicks each.

Rear oblique kicks holding a post for stability, 2x5 each leg alterating sets.

Lunges 5 each leg.

20 squat.

Chin ups 1 set of 4.

Pull up fail 1(never been good at these, i got about 2 inches of motion before my brain decided it didn't know the command for that motion. My grip was probably too wide to start).

Put a brick down to assist getting to the top with pull up grip, with slight jump. Did that 3 times for 10 second holds.

Then 2 chin ups.

Right hip still kinda tight but the blood felt good.

I realized what happened to my hip when i laid on the couch yesterday some time after posting.

Ive been sleeping with a heavy blanket for a few weeks. Its very comfortable. I woke yesterday morning and the heavy blanket was hanging half off the couch, exposing my bottom half. I remember using my right leg trying to pull it back onto the couch. I was unsuccessful and got off the couch to start my day. The conscious waking pain hit a couple hours later.

If i had remembered that earlier, i wouldn't have done the lower body workout yesterday. Seems i may have set myself back a bit.

I slept ok for about 7 or 8 hrs with normal blankets, after some cbd balm on the affected area. Feels looser today. Much less pain, maybe 2 or 3 on the one to ten scale. Gonna try to avoid sitting for extended periods as this caused pain to spike yesterday.

Days 1 to 3 since last post were full of leg swings, high knees, kicks of varying direction, squats, lunges, and stretches in attempt to regain full mobility in right hip. 2 nights ago it felt good enough after a bunch of mobility reps that I started adding forward and back stepovers.

There was also a progression of pull ups assisted by a brick and a little jump, all with holds at top.

Did this workout today after basic warm up:

10 squat.

Alternating lunge 20 total.

Lateral lunge 5 each leg.

20 squat

Assisted pull up with hold at top(estimate seconds) 4x 12/10/8/6. Maybe 40 seconds between reps.

Dead hang chin up 3 plus 15 second hold at top.

Got a shoot around in as well yesterday. Mostly casual shooting from wherever. Few foul shots to groove it. Then i did my corner drill. Shoot corner 3 and rush the hoop. Get rebound and either rush to opposite corner, or same corner if rebound leads me there. Repeat until legs are angry.

Then casual shots for a few mins. Another round of corner drill totalling about 15 shots attempted. Then a casual period followed by a final long corner drill with at least 15 shots if not 17 or 18.

Then top of the key, which is the shot i always make as final shot. Got it on 2nd attempt. Done.

Leg swings and various kicks.

10 squat

Alternating lunges with 2 stone pavers(10 lb each?) held in front of chest. 10 each leg.

Squat with pavers at chest. 10.

Alternating paver lunges. 10 each leg.

10 paver squat.

Romanian deadlift with concrete chunk(60 lb?) 1x10.

1 pull up from tip toe but no jump to assist. Held at top 10 second. Then 2/1. Held last one a short moment.

Chin up. 3 with longer hold at top on final rep. Maybe 25 seconds.

Vertical leg swings 15 each leg.

Lateral swings 10 each.

Forward and back stepovers 5 each.

10 alternating high knees.

10 forward kicks each leg.

20 squat.

10 rear oblique kicks each leg while holding post.

10 forward kicks each leg.

20 squat.

All very short breaks above. Then 1 min break.

Dead hang pull up 2/1 with 6 second hold last rep.

1 brick assisted pull up 1/1. Held both reps for about 5 seconds.

Chin up 2, second rep was slow but held for 25 seconds fairly easily.

Bar work is 30 to 40 seconds rest. Not great progress but moving along.

Vertical and lateral leg swings 10 each leg. 5 forward and back stepovers each leg. Some high knees. Added unassisted rear oblique kicks 2 alternating sets of 5 each leg. Forward kicks 10 each leg. Squat hold, then up. Then 25 squats. All breaks less than 10 second till here.

2 min break.

25 squats.

2 min break.

Dead hang pull up fail 1.

Brick assisted pull up with hold(estimate seconds) 4x 12s/15s/10s/3s.

Dead hang chin up 2/1.

Intense shoot around yesterday before sunset in heavy new balance industrial work shoes(hard heavy sole, steel toe, etc). 4 decent rounds of the rush corner shot. 3rd round was from out of bounds. Final shot from top of the key made it first try.

Workout today:

Various leg swings and kicks.

Squat 25/30/25 maybe 1.5 mins between sets.

Some forward kicks.

Dead hang pull up, 1, rest, fail 1(60% up before stall).

Brick assisted pull up 1x3.

Dead hang chin up 2/1.

Workout earlier today.

Did the warm up and 5 squats basically to get the blood pumping.

Dead hang pull up 2/2/1.5.

Brick assisted pull up 1x3.

Dead hang chin up 1 with decent hold at top.

Shot hoops a couple days ago. Was fairly intense. Made a decent number of shots over about 45 mins.

Workout today:

Various leg swings and kicks.

30 second squat hold.

10 squat

Romanian deadlift with concrete chunk, 1x10.

Alternating lunges with medium sized rock in each hand 10 each leg.

Dead hang pull up 2/2/2.

Dead hang chin up 3/3.

Starting a med change. Previously i was taking 175 mcg levothyroxine every morning, plus an extra 175 mcg in the evening once a week. I found that the shoulder soreness began to flare around the seventh day. I was trying to take the extra one every sixth day to counteract it, which was working. After consulting with my dr i got a month of supplemental 25 mcg tablets, which i break in half and add to my morning dose. Try for a month and review. Hopefully its a more stable schedule.

Mental stuff? I still deal with intrusive unprovoked thoughts, but i manage it. My story telling ability is ridiculously better than it was back in(insert year prior to 2014) as my ability to hold train of thought is at or near peak functionality, however far from ideal focus ability. Meh. Other more serious mental stuffs are at all time low significance in day to day life. The less i engage the darkness, the brighter the light shines.

Im happy and i feel good physically. Currently zero nagging pain sources. Avoiding push ups seems to avoid chest pain(old old chest issue from a flying shoulder that pinned me to a wall in 98, tends to cause pain in the rib that goes in front of my heart from sternum to armpit, but at least it doesn't pop anymore) while pull ups and chin ups are getting the weight of my shoulders and arms away from my ribcage through better shoulder posture.

Avoiding back bridges since the neck injury and learning of my singular degenerative disc in c4 c5. This flares up if i do certain things. Wearing hoods. Looking to the side more than 15 seconds at a time. Playing poker on my phone too long (usually means im doing well in a tourney tho). Looking around when backing up in a car without turning my body, etc. I manage and im lucky its been very stable almost a year. Its been an issue since a gym class dodgeball game in 94 left me unable to move my head without terrible pain. Spent more than a handful of days mostly in bed trying to be still as a kid, but it wasnt a serious issue as an adult until the injury last July.

Lost some weight. Maybe 10 lb since December. Still got my Buddha belly though, thank god.

Knees are happy lately, which is big for me. It also comes with some satisfaction knowing that i basically rebuilt my left knee with exercise. I wouldn't want to go catch an inning, but otherwise happy functional knees.

My left hip is also mostly transformed from whatever i did to it in 2004. It wasn't till squats in 2010 that my hips began to return to normal functionality. Left hip still crackles from certain motions, mostly when the knee is moving high and out to the side. At least its pain free crackle.

Thats my long winded way of saying im happy with how good i feel. Maybe hoops tonight. We'll see.

Was fairly productive today including some moderate intensity yard work. Did a short workout after about 2 hours in the yard.

Pull up 3/2/2

Brick assisted pull up 2.75 didnt try very hard to get 3rd.

Chin up 3/1. Short rest before 2nd set, which was really hard. So i took a good 5 minutes before a final set of 3.

Usually i hold something during leg swings but today i experimented with unassisted leg swings and kicks.

30 squat.

10 concrete chunk Romanian deadlift.

Pull up 3/3/2

Brick assisted pull up 2.85.

Chin up 3x3.

Was away for work for five nights after last workout, and when i returned i slacked a few days.

Played some 2 on 2 basketball a few nights ago. 4/7 shooting including a long 3 from 45 degrees in about 20 mins.

Workout last night.

Lower body warmup then 20 squat.

Brick assisted pull up 1x3.

Chin up 3/1/1

Brick assisted pull up 1.

Chin up 3.

Good to go through the motions.

Did the leg warm up but it was just to get blood flowing for the bar.

Brick assisted pull up 3/2/2/2.

Chin up 3/3/3/1.

Short sweat last night. Various leg swings and kicks. 5 squat.

Brick assisted pull up 3/3/2.8/2

Chin up 2/2/3

Slacking since last job ended on Sunday.

No warm up.

Chin up 2/3/4/4/4.

Thats all.

My bad. Poker tourney was starting and i was rushing.

Decided to get some yard stuff done before the game. Workout actually looked like this:

Chin up 2/3.

20 mins shovel work.

4 chins.

10 mins shovel work.

4 chins.

10 mins shovel work.

4 chins.

Thats why i got so many after 1.5 weeks no bar work. Felt good tho.

Alternating sets of dead hang chin ups and brick assisted pull ups. The brick subtracts about enough for a little knee bend on one tip toe. I get a split second of leg contribution to start the pull up.

5 chin. 3 pull. 4 chin. 2.5 pull. 4 chin last one really hard. Fail pull held at 50% a moment. 1 slow chin held at top a moment.

Finished an 8 day job yesterday featuring a very sound sensitive blind Labrador. Sweet boy but easily set off by noise even when in his safe room which he absolutely loves. Im both grateful to have gained this experience, and im still pretty exhausted. I did a little workout last night.

Weightless dead hang arm circles. Basically bent over using body motion to make arms do circles. About 3 mins of this. Then some wrist loosening stuff.

Lots of various leg swings and kicks.

Chin up 4x3.

It occurred to me today that dynamic stretching as introduced to me by the hnf forum faq years ago is the single constant in my activity. My routine has evolved from the basic vertical and lateral swings into something much more meaningful to me in terms of functionality. My knowledge of anatomy i gained reading my ex's massage therapy books allowed me to identify injury and treat with exercises, and the long term effects have been quite pronounced for me in terms of maintaining strength in various positions. None of this stuff would have come together for me without the dynamic routine. With that in mind, heres the full description of what i just did including all warm up reps.

10 post assisted vertical leg swings each leg.

10 assisted lateral swings each leg. Glute medius was tight.

Front high kicks 10 each leg. Right toe is now getting slightly higher than my eye level. Left toe right at eye level.

Unassisted rear oblique kicks 2x5 each leg alternating, basically like a rear 45 degree hackey sack kick.

Assisted rear kicks with hip allowing toe to be pointed to the side at top of kick 1x10 each leg. Felt good straight legged so thats how i proceded.

Oh a few rounds of high knees mixed in between there.

3 brick assisted pull up(takes off about 5 inches of hang) with jump, did 3x5. The reps at beginning of sets i was trying to really get my chest to bar height and doing ok. By the end of sets my chin was barely clearing the bar.

Dead hang chins 3x3.

Went directly from yard work to the bar.

3 brick assisted pull ups. 2 sets: 5/4.

2 brick assisted pull ups 1x4.

Dead hang chin up 3x3.

Vertical and lateral leg swings 10 each leg. 10 front kicks each leg. 5 rear oblique kicks each(both hips popped no pain). 5 straight back kicks each. Alternating round house kicks 10 each. 10 high knees. Alternating lunges 5 each.

All in succession. Sort rest here.

3 brick assisted pull up 6/5/5.

Dead hang chin up 3x3.

A good workout wasn't in the cards today, but a fast workout was:

2 brick assisted pull ups 5/4

3 brick assisted pull ups 1 hard rep.

Dead hang chin up 4.

Maybe 30 seconds between sets.