The swish is so satisfying. You took me back in time for a minute where some memories had faded.

I’m spending 10 days in the country with nothing to do but play guitar and work out.

All I have to work out with are two 30 lb dumbbells. Gonna try some **** that I don’t usually do like rotator cuff stuff (taking recommendations) and overhead squats.

doubt you're gonna be able to safely do rotator cuff stuff with dumbbells that heavy. I was using 8-10 pound ones to do rotations.

Yes but if I do various overhead stuff that uses rotator cuff as stabilizing this would do the job. I know what you mean though because I once rehabbed a messed up rotator cuff with the progression (soup can——>10 lbs).

got a little exercise yesterday for the first time in a long time. haven't been working. i've become quite sedentary during this mess over the past few months. only physical activity has been yard work. lame ****.

so yeah i took out the bar yesterday, warmed up with 5 bodyweight squats. then i picked it up and did 5 overhead presses. 30 seconds later i did 5 front squats just the bar.

that was it. very light day 1 just in order to go through the motions safely. it was my first workout over 40 years old

im sorry to report that the female upthread that i often enjoyed basketball and working out with has passed away just recently. rip.

life goes on though. this **** is weird. not sure how health and fitness forum feels about state of the world monologues so I'll just say it's been a weird year and i hope it gets better from here.

I was grilling a steak yesterday and lifted a little bit while it cooked.

5 body weight squats
Overhead press 55x2x5
Front squats 55x2x5

Sorry about your friend. That's gotta be hard.

thanks, knew her since we were teenagers. there's a joke in there about her taking my virginity but I'm not feeling clever enough to formulate it.

I'm waiting for the slab of concrete that I work out on to dry up before exercising today. not doing anything spectacular. i plan to do the same weight as last time but this time it will be 3x5 for overhead press and front squat. I still feel like my cardiovascular system is severely lacking strength and i want to do 3x5 successfully before adding weight.

some current stats:

height 6 feet
weight 220 lbs(up about 15 since the holidays)
smoke yes
drink very rarely
diet anything but peas(disgusting vile creation)
prescribed drugs: 30 mg abilify daily, 175 micro grams levothyroxine daily
not prescribed drugs: weed. no hard stuff.
and lots of caffeine oh hello coffee.

injuries:

some knee pain due to lack of squats most likely in addition to the left knee dislocation back in 2002 that still bugs me during the cold months.
shoulders are particularly weak as noted by pain during sleep.
right shoulder is mostly healed from pulled muscle last month

sometimes when i stretch or cough, my chest pops. the sound and feeling originate where sternum meets one of the higher ribs. its not painful.

sometimes if i exert pressure on my thoracic cavity(whether farting or anything like that), my back will pop. the sound and feeling originates near the bottom of the thoracic portion of the spine. it is a muffled sound, which is consistent with the feeling that it is on the inside of the spine, as opposed to the exterior where the noise would be louder and more defined.

I've had on an off neck problems throughout my life. i pinched a nerve when i was in high school gym class. dehydration and fatigue were always present during bad flare ups. however the problem has been minimized since I was 30 years old. thank you overhead press. more muscle = more blood = more room for nerves to do their thing.

edit to add that i dislodged my xyphoid process a long time ago and i still have some unnecessary sensitivity that originates around the bottom of my sternum/xyphoid process connection. at this point its basically a mental thing, unless i actually get hit in that area, which would likely be painful anyways.

future health and fitness goals: basically i just want to enter my later years with a good muscle mass and hopefully a stronger cardiovascular system than what I have now. If my stomach happens to get smaller that's just a bonus. only goals in addition to that is staying out of the looney bin.

will report back later after workout.

10 bodyweight squats
front squat 55x3x5
overhead press 55x3x5

spent the past few hours moving a tree that was recently cut down. it was somewhat draped over part of my neighbors fence, and the tree service guys apparently don't make much money from clean ups as evidenced by the remains of the tree still being there. to make a long story short I got about 50% of the brush broken up, all of the large pieces are now in the same general area, and its not on my neighbors property anymore.

the workout went well. second squat of the second set i lost focus and got stuck at the bottom for a moment but i stood up no problem first try. focus is a problem for me in almost everything I do, but i really need to be on the ball if I'm going to move the weight safely when it starts to get heavy.

only other thing to note is that the shoulder muscles are apparently very vulnerable to lethargy as evidenced by them popping into action. I swear I could literally feel the dormant shoulder muscles coming back to life. central nervous system advancement underway. I had a little pain in the previously injured right shoulder exactly where the injury caused the most pain, which felt like it was most likely front deltoid. it didnt bother me at all while i was moving the wood though, but my back did. nothing serious just general fatigue pain.

whatever happened to the basketball thread? pretty sure I'm subscribed but haven't seen it updated in what has likely been years.

instead of talking about current sports, I'd like to take a moment to relive some ****. maybe it will help you remember something you did. remember those friends you made on the field and court? yeah they remember you too. I have a basketball sportsmanship trophy from 93 that went to the kids that played the hardest. I took home a championship trophy that night as well, but the sportsmanship trophy is bittersweet because I always thought it should have gone to this other kid that always played his heart out. He died in a fire the year after high school graduation. That was a fun winter.

**** I'm realizing that almost all of my sports memories lead to someone dying. I'll try to stop that.

I had a terrible 13 year old baseball season. one ground ball with eyes that got me to 1st base was my singular hit on the season. I caught a lot of innings but only threw out one or two runners all season. In the last inning of the last game of the season, which was not an important game as we didn't make the playoffs, I was up against a pitcher that was basically a fill in so that the all stars could rest for the postseason. 3rd base coach says to me as I'm getting up, "you better not K vs this guy!" Of course, I did. the field wasn't far from my house so I walked home and reevaluated my investment of time and effort into baseball. I could compete on the little league field but on the real field I wasn't ****. So I didn't play 14 year old season the next year. however, all of my friends were really good at baseball and I still went to a bunch of games. it was then that we started playing a lot of pepper. which really got me to focus on the ball. we got pretty good at it, as evidenced by my circle of friends starting 3rd, short, and 2nd a few years later for varsity. I also happened to grow a lot during the year off which made handling the bat easier and my arm also got a lot stronger. my friends were ultimately the ones that got me to play and they said that the coaches(two dads of my close friends) would likely draft me. that made it worth it so I played. I could hit just ok at the beginning of the season but my defense had improved a lot behind the plate and i caught the majority of most games that season. I threw out a ton of runners. I got so good at it that when there were runners on the corners coach wouldn't mess around with signs. He would just yell "throw em out! I made the hand selected town summer team that year and we almost made it to the final regional round. that was a fun summer.

because of my mild successes in my teens, my parents insisted that I try out for various high school sports. I didnt really want to but I went through the motions for baseball and basketball. didnt make any cuts, but I don't feel the least bit bad about it.

It wasn't until I was 18 that I made a new friend that was really into basketball and playing vs him greatly improved my game. Previously my skillset was only good for 2 guard, but he forced me to get better at dribbling. I had a few inches on him, but he was much stronger than I was. he played defense hard. he wasn't afraid of contact when he was dribbling, and he had some decent skills. we played a lot of new york with other friends and some one on one and we decided to start going to random parks looking for games. played with people of all shapes sizes colors and ages. good experiences all around. even in seemingly tough neighborhoods, the court is sacred. eventually he moved away and I've only seen him once in the past 15 years.

now I'm wondering how the hell did Tony Pena play baseball for so long the way he did? some guys have legs of steel. I have no idea what would happen to my legs if I tried to go catch 9 innings today. lmao. likewise, if i tried to play full court basketball right now? let's just say I would need a break almost immediately.

I spent 2 hours finishing the tree work around noon today. back was tired but after a couple hours rest playing on the computer I decided to lift.

5 bodyweight squats
over head press 55x5
5 bodyweight squats
romanian deadlift 75x5
overhead press 75x3x5
front squat 75x2
front squat 75x3
front squat 95x3x5

everything felt good. minor popping in knees and shoulders but nothing painful.

next workout i plan to include some pushups.

got up this morning and dug out a garden bed after a singular cup of coffee, which made me not really feel that great about lifting as my back was tired before the day even really got started. I don't eat breakfast as it causes meds to interact poorly in my stomach. basically it makes me feel shitty if i eat within 2 hours of taking the meds. had a bowl of cheerios around noon, but still wasn't really feeling it. so i chugged another cup of coffee and got a bottle of pepsi. had a glass of pepsi and finally i started to feel some energy in myself. then i went to the driveway.

bodyweight squats 2x5
overhead press 55x5
overhead press 75x2
overhead press 85x3x5
front squat 75x3
front squat 75x2
front squat 105x1x5
one pushup lol.

overhead press was good until the final rep, which took something extra to get complete extension.

squats felt good.

powerclean form was very poor in every pull, which is why I cut the squats short. need to fit in better powerclean warm ups in future.

arms were clearly fatigued from overhead press so I only did the singular pushup. maybe i'll start alternating pushup days and overhead press days.

haven't had the focus necessary to lift the past few days, but I worked out a little today.

bodyweight squats 2x5
front squat 55x3x5
hang clean 75x3
front squat 75x4
front squat 95x3x5

that was all I wanted to do.

I did some pushups

5, 5, 10

haven't lifted today and I don't think I will. However I played 18 holes of golf over the past two days. I walked as a single both times. yesterday I only lost one ball, but today I lost 4 or 5. some decent shots on both days. i finished yesterday with bogey/par. the highlight from today was my par on a 200 yard par 3. missed the green by a couple feet with 5 wood, chipped within 7 feet and hit the putt.

Before yesterday I hadn't been golfing in about ten years, so it's just about the experience right now. in my 20s I was completely obsessed with golf, but some back, hip, and knee stuff that i've already mentioned got in the way of me enjoying golf.

luckily i haven't had any such pain over the past two days. I feel pretty good actually.

edit to add that yes i sweat my ass off today and I had fun doing it.

Played 18 today. Had a few terrible holes but I didn’t lose count. Highlights:

Made par on 542 yard uphill par 5. Didnt leave the short grass the entire hole.

Par on 170 yard par 3 after 25 foot 2 putt.

Birdie on 140 yard par 3.

Par on 140 yard par 3 chip and putt.

havent touched the bar in 6 days but ive been golfing 4 out of the past 5 days. it has really changed my attitude which had become quite bad due to some stuff in my personal life. if i may make an analogy:

issues with friends and family are like fairway bunkers. sure sometimes you get stuck in there for what seems like an eternity, but eventually you'll get out and then there is a lot more golf to play. life goes on.

my wrist was pretty sore yesterday morning but it loosened up a lot by early afternoon, so i figured its like old jack burton always says, "oh what the hell?"

played 9 in the midday sun. hit some good shots as well as some horrendous shots, started the 3rd hole +6 after a double bogey and a quadruple bogey, but played decent after that to shoot 46 on the par 34 course.

then last night as i was relaxing in the recliner, i decided to crack open my 15 year old copy of "golf is not a game of perfect," which was quite dusty. inside the front cover i found some really old pictures that got me all misty and nostalgic. say hello to benji and lady:




benji was my dog. lady was my ex girfriend's dog. benji was an ******* lol rip old friend. lady was a sweetheart that was relocated to a farm when my girlfriends father passed away from cancer. i know it sounds cliche "went to a farm" but yeah that really happened and im sure she had a nice life after we went our separate ways. <3

so yeah, feeling pretty good this morning and will try to play 18 today if i can get out.

That brings back some memories for me too. I used to read all the Bob Rotella books repeatedly in my teens and early 20s. Golf was basically my whole identity back then. I haven't played golf for 10+ years, my clubs have been sitting untouched in my closet. But I think the Rotella books set me on a path of introspection and self improvement for the rest of my life. His books introduced me to the idea that the way you think really does improve your score, and your life.

Played 9 as a single with the worst behaved threesome I’ve ever had the displeasure of playing with. Guy played my ball out of the rough on 2. They were talking during tee shots. Guy picked up my ball among the trees and said “it’s yours “. And I said it’s yours now. He said no it’s not mine and he tossed it to me so I kicked it like a hackey sack and I said something about coronavirus. He said something about not having it and using his glove hand to pick it up but I already dropped and hit a runner out of the woods and was making my way down the fairway asap. I complained to manager and he gave me a voucher for free 9 holes.

So today I broke a sweat but didn’t have fun doing it.

Used the 9 hole voucher this morning. Was a much better experience than yesterday. Had a nice walk and hit some good shots. If my feet recover unexpectedly I might lift this afternoon.

Been golfing a lot. Haven’t touched the bar in a while. Lost 9 pounds.

I played a very hilly golf course yesterday. According to my playing partner’s step counter we took over 13000 steps on entirety uneven ground.

Probably shouldn’t have drank the past few days but I’m stuck in the country alone for the week. My ankles are swollen and my legs are still pretty sore from the 18 holes we played on Friday, I didn’t notice how swollen my ankles were until Last night. Basically I’ve been abusing my body in the name of golf, while doing everything wrong health wise, including sleeping in a sitting position the night before last, which is likely the most important factor contributing to the swollen ankles.

So today Im putting my feet up whenever possible.

That course really kicked my ass.

I drank a lot of water yesterday and put my feet up several times. My feet and ankles have returned to normal form.

I did some pushups and sit-ups yesterday:

215 pound person pushups alternating with flat leg sit-ups:

1 pushup
10 sit-ups
5 pushups
10 sit-ups
10 pushups
10 sit-ups
5 pushups

Then I hit a few chip shots on the carpet. When I was done my right shoulder started to hurt. I have identified the source of the pain as deltoid and or the rotator cuff muscle in control of external rotation. So I found the video below and tried the exercises. Will do more tomorrow. It’s pretty stiff today.

https://youtu.be/6u8QpNmQy_g