This past year I vowed that we would not lapse into inactivity over the winter months. Though our favored form of fitness activity - cycling - would be ruled out due to cold and bad road conditions, we could nonetheless maintain at least some level of - even if only a minimal one - conditioning by using exercise bikes indoors. I have to say I'm a bit shocked at what I've learned from this experience.
Before continuing on that theme, let me explain a bit about last season. We really had done very little cycling over the years leading up to last year's season. Summer of '07 we did very little, though we did manage to get out a bit in summer of '06. '04 and '05 we did a bit as well, though we did not put in any very long days (i.e., not more than 35 miles). So, when my high blood pressure started to become a significant issue in spring of '08, motivating me to establish and stick to an exercise regime, we were fairly out of shape.
Those first few rides late last spring and early summer were trying. I remember how tired I was after the first 25 mile day (please bear in mind that I tend to push myself pretty hard on the bike). I felt similarly drained after the first 35 and first 50 mile days of the year. In other words, I was sore for several days afterward, and the thought of doing any strenuous activity was not at all foremost in my mind. We managed to put in even a 65-70 mile day last year, and the after-effects were similar. Of course, having done quite a lot of cycling and training in my younger years, I had come to expect this sort of "plateauing" effect: each increase in mileage during the course of a season requires an adjustment for your body, and the second 35 mile day of the season is not nearly as hard on your body as the first.
I should also mention as a part of this aside that, even in my younger years when I was racing bicycles, I wasn't terribly disciplined about training. I wouldn't stick to much of a regular training schedule during racing season, but would rather just try and spend time on the bike several times a week: the main goal was to get a certain total mileage under my belt per week (say, a minimum of 150 miles). In the off-season, I was even more undisciplined. During a couple of seasons I did some riding indoors using rollers. But again I didn't have a regular schedule and was very sporadic about it: if I was more liable to train indoors, it would be more likely to be at the very end of the season (say in Nov. or Dec.). The upshot is that I didn't really take off-season training very seriously.
Fast forward to this year. I can therefore honestly say that this year, when we were pretty regular about riding the exercise bikes 4 times a week over the whole off-season, is the first year I ever actually trained with any discipline over the course of the off-season. I also want to stress another important factor: our off-season training consisted in spending mostly about 1/2 hour on the exercise bikes. We started off doing 45 minutes last fall, but reduced that to 1/2 hour since around Christmas time.
Now, this training indoors was not simply a leisurely session on the exercise bike - I should point out that. It wasn't especially strenuous, no, but I'd try to keep my rpm's up around 90 or more and sustain the heart rate at probably 130-140. So, a short but vigorous aerobic workout, one without serious strain on the leg muscles.
So, what are the effects of this, essentially minimalistic - though regular - training in the off-season? It can be best characterized with the following single word: dramatic. In our first on-road session this year we went about 17 miles. We both felt great. We went up the hills we struggled to get up all last season (try riding hills on a recumbent tandem sometime) in the same gear we were riding up them at the end of last season. It was almost as if we never got off the bike at season's end, actually. And perhaps most impressively, I hardly felt any soreness the next day. Perhaps a bit of stiffness in the backs of my legs for a day or two, but that's it. This was nothing like the "plateauing effect" I knew from training in my younger days, where each significant increase in mileage carried a new level of trauma to which the body needed to acclimate. I can honestly say that I didn't feel anything like that at all.
And last weekend we did 35 miles, and a lot of that going at a pretty good clip. I felt almost no soreness at all from that ride the next day. So, I have to say that I'm truly impressed. It really looks as though, by riding for only about a half hour four days a week over the winter, we've essentially preserved all the conditioning we gained by putting in all the miles we did last summer. Excuse me for getting excited about the obvious, but this is a real revelation. Why couldn't I do even this paltry amount of off-season training years ago, when I was racing? What a difference it would have made! I might have won the tour de France! (ha ha) Ah, the foolishness of youth.
Anyway, this subject seemed important enough to warrant a blog entry. It sure has made an impression on me. But it's also got me wanting to experiment: what's the minimal amount of off-season training we'll have to do to preserve some semblance of fitness from last season? Mind you, I don't pose this question out of laziness: rather, I'm trying to be careful that we don't get burnt out by overdoing it. We will need to take breaks, and sometimes to take it easy, for that reason.
Already I'm scheming up a new plan to test: next winter, we'll cut down to 15 minute sessions 4 times per week on the exercise bikes during deep winter (say, from Christmas to the end of Feb.). We'll pare down to that from 1/2 hour sessions in the fall and increase from 15 minutes to 1/2 hour in early spring.
I'll let you know the results then.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Two weeks with truncated P90X; homemade push-up bars
We started using a modified version of the P90X program close to two weeks ago, so here's a post about how it's going so far. At the end of this entry I'll also include some tips on making homemade push-up bars, which can be used for the P90X program, and will include some photos.
"P90X modified? What does that mean?" you may ask. Well, as I've explained in previous posts, I plan to adapt the P90X program to my own regimen and needs. One thing this means is that I won't be doing any of the leg strengthening exercises they show, or the aerobics--that means over 50% of the program won't be applied in my case. Why? Because I get leg strengthening and aerobic exercise from my preferred form of physical activity--cycling. When weather permits, we ride outdoors--anywhere from 10 to 70 miles. When weather doesn't permit, we ride for 1/2 to 1 hour on stationary bikes indoors.
But using less than 50% of the P90X regimen is not the only modification I've made. We also are not following the diet--though I think our current diet is healthy enough and already fairly close to what the P90X program recommends. Perhaps more importantly, we're not following the P90X schedule. That is to say that we do not do P90X exercise routines 6 days a week--nowhere near that--and we do not intend to do a 90 day cycle of the P90X exercises we are using--the cycle the program is set up for.
No, we have already been doing strength training two days a week--on Mon. and on Fri.--and we plan to continue with that schedule. But instead of the weight-lifting exercises we were doing on Mon. and Fri., we'll do some select P90X routines. To be precise, we're using only 4 of the 12 DVD's, all of which offer exercises aimed at strengthening the upper body (remember, we strengthen the lower body by cycling).
To be even more precise, we use DVD 1 (chest and back), DVD 3 (shoulder and arm), DVD 9 (chest, shoulder, and tricep), and DVD 10 (back and bicep). To date, we've done all but DVD 10, which we'll do tomorrow (tomorrow's Friday, the fourth day we'll have been doing P90X routines).
Below is a table listing all the exercises contained on each of these DVD's. Note that the table does not list such details as number of repetitions or sets.
Now, for a preliminary report on the modified P90X routines we've been doing: man, this is hard! I'm getting dusted by dainty ladies in aerobic dance get-ups! This really is a rigorous regime. In fact, it's too rigorous--more on that later.
I can really feel these P90X workouts for days afterward, and I'm nowhere near keeping up with the folks in the videos in number of reps--even the dainty ladies. I'm glad we didn't go into this with the idea we'd be doing these workouts almost every day--it's just too much, given our goals.
Preliminarily, I see a place for the more full-fledged workout (meaning, our adapted version where we do a full DVD for upper body strengthening twice a week and thus all 4 of our favored DVD's over a two-week cycle). But it's not going to be during most of the year. No, during most of the year when we're able to get out on the bike, I want a less rigorous upper-body workout. Frankly, I put out so hard on some of our rides that I'm feeling the effects for days afterward. And I'm sure as heck not going to want to do a full P90X session the day after one of those rides (maybe not for 3 or 4 days afterward). No thanks: I don't want a routine that interferes with my main fitness activity. So I'm now on the lookout for a calisthenics routine that we can use during late spring, summer, and early fall (cycling season), one that's less rigorous--say a half hour session. For now, we'll continue using our modified P90X, since cycling season is not yet in full swing. But we should be switching to some other, less demanding calisthenics routine sometime in the next month or two.
Ok, given what I've said about our modified P90X having a place in our regimen what, exactly, do I mean? What I mean is that its place, for our purposes, is in the cycling off-season. I can foresee us doing what we've done these last two weeks, i.e., using the 4 upper-body P90X DVD's each Mon. and Fri. in a two-week cycle from, say, late-Nov. through mid-March. That's when we're putting in limited time (about 1/2 hour per session) on stationary bikes indoors. And that's when doing a really rigorous upper body workout is not going to interfere with our cycling. In fact, I could foresee my cravings for a good, hard workout being satisfied during the cycling off-season by twice-weekly P90X routines. The idea during this off-season as far as cycling goes is, after all, just to keep the legs spinning: we're not supposed to go all out. Rather, we elevate the metabolism slightly, maintain it for a short time, and just keep the spin in our legs. In other words, this is a great time for introducing a rigorous upper-body workout like the 4 P90X DVD's provide.
In closing, I'll leave you with some tips on making your own push-up bars using plastic pipe. These push-up bars are recommended for the P90X program, though they're not absolutely necessary. I should point out up front that you won't save much making these for yourself: in fact, if you don't already have some tools (e.g., a PVC cutter), some materials, and some craftmanship abilities, it may cost you more to make your own. The cheapest premade ones I saw were about $10 (that was on the internet, so add shipping cost), and that's not much more than the $7 I spent on the materials I bought to make mine. But if you're a do-it-yourselfer like me, you won't be deterred by any questionable savings: you'll go ahead and do the job yourself. You may well even improve on my plan.
Below is a photo of the parts I bought, after cutting and prior to assembly. I'll later provide a detailed list, a price breakdown, a description of what I did, and a photos of the fully-assembled final product.
Here I'll provide a parts list, cost itemization, and some directions. To make these yourself, you'll need something like the following: some 3/4 inch PVC (you only actually need about a foot, but the shortest length I could buy at the store I went to was 5 feet); 2 three quarter inch PVC T fittings; 4 three quarter inch PVC caps; 2 one inch PVC caps; 2 ninety degree one inch non-metallic rigid conduit elbows; and some glue.
The total cost of these materials--excluding the glue, which I already had--was $7.75. Some of the parts are cheaper at other stores, so I could have saved a little off that by looking around a bit more to see who had the cheapest parts. I could also have saved had I already had some 3/4" PVC laying around. But seven or eight dollars is about what you can expect to pay to make these bars.
Below is a photo of the finished product, all glued up and ready to use. I'll include some directions after the photo.
Directions: these parts all basically just slide together. The 3 inch sections of 3/4 inch PVC pipe slide into the ends of the PVC T fittings, and the 3/4 PVC caps slide onto the ends of the 3 inch sections of 3/4 PVC pipe. I didn't glue those joints, but just pounded them together solidly. The remaining end of the 3/4 inch PVC T fitting slides up into the flared end of the 1 inch 90 degree non-metallic conduit: it's a fairly loose fit that needs to be glued. Since these materials (PVC and non-metallic conduit) are not really meant to be used together, there's no glue made specifically for joining them. I used shoe goo, but construction adhesive or epoxy would work just as well--just make sure it's a thick glue, so it won't just flow out of the fairly loose joint. Finally, the 1 inch PVC caps slide onto the open ends of the 1 inch 90 degree non-metallic conduit elbows. I did not glue this joint either.
Leave the glue to dry overnight and . . . voila! homemade push-up bars! Below you get to see the final product in action.
Maybe I'll tell you in a later post about that wound on my left index finger: I got it constructing the chin-up bar I just finished in our building's exercise room.
Addendum: here's a picture of a commercial product (ca. $10 minus shipping cost) that's constructed from the same materials as mine were:
Post-addendum: here are a few alternate links that offer good overviews of the P90X DVD's we're using and descriptions of the exercises involved (beware of the first two links which, despite containing helpful descriptive information, are high-intensity sales sites that may attempt to thwart use of your browser's "back" button): chest and back, shoulder and arm, and back and biceps.
"P90X modified? What does that mean?" you may ask. Well, as I've explained in previous posts, I plan to adapt the P90X program to my own regimen and needs. One thing this means is that I won't be doing any of the leg strengthening exercises they show, or the aerobics--that means over 50% of the program won't be applied in my case. Why? Because I get leg strengthening and aerobic exercise from my preferred form of physical activity--cycling. When weather permits, we ride outdoors--anywhere from 10 to 70 miles. When weather doesn't permit, we ride for 1/2 to 1 hour on stationary bikes indoors.
But using less than 50% of the P90X regimen is not the only modification I've made. We also are not following the diet--though I think our current diet is healthy enough and already fairly close to what the P90X program recommends. Perhaps more importantly, we're not following the P90X schedule. That is to say that we do not do P90X exercise routines 6 days a week--nowhere near that--and we do not intend to do a 90 day cycle of the P90X exercises we are using--the cycle the program is set up for.
No, we have already been doing strength training two days a week--on Mon. and on Fri.--and we plan to continue with that schedule. But instead of the weight-lifting exercises we were doing on Mon. and Fri., we'll do some select P90X routines. To be precise, we're using only 4 of the 12 DVD's, all of which offer exercises aimed at strengthening the upper body (remember, we strengthen the lower body by cycling).
To be even more precise, we use DVD 1 (chest and back), DVD 3 (shoulder and arm), DVD 9 (chest, shoulder, and tricep), and DVD 10 (back and bicep). To date, we've done all but DVD 10, which we'll do tomorrow (tomorrow's Friday, the fourth day we'll have been doing P90X routines).
Below is a table listing all the exercises contained on each of these DVD's. Note that the table does not list such details as number of repetitions or sets.
DVD 1 - Chest & Back | DVD 3 - Shoulders & Arms | DVD 9 - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps | DVD 10 - Back & Biceps |
1. Standard Push-ups | 1. Alternating Shoulder Presses | 1. Slow-motion 3-in-1 Push-ups | 1.Wide Front Pull-ups |
2. Wide Front Pull-ups | 2. In & Out Bicep Curls | 2. In & Out Shoulder Flys | 2. Lawnmowers |
3. Military Push-ups | 3. Two-arm Tricep Kickbacks | 3. Chair Dips | 3. Twenty-ones |
4. Reverse Grip Chin-ups | 4. Deep Swimmer's Presses | 4. Plange Push-ups | 4. One-arm Cross-body Curls |
5. Wide Fly Push-ups | 5. Full Supination Concentration Curls | 5. Pike Presses | 5. Switch Grip Pull-ups |
6. Closed Grip Overhand Pull-ups | 6. Chair Dips | 6. Side Tri-rises | 6. Elbows-out Lawnmowers |
7. Decline Push-ups | 7. Upright Rows | 7. Floor Flys | 7. Standing Bicep Curls |
8. Heavy Pants | 8. Static Arm Curls | 8. Scarecrows | 8. One-arm Concentration Curls |
9. Diamond Push-ups | 9. Flip-grip Twist Tricep Kickbacks | 9. Overhead Tricep Extensions | 9. Corn Cob Pull-ups |
10. Lawnmowers | 10. Two-angle Shoulder Flys | 10. Two-twitch Speed Push-ups | 10. Reverse Grip Bent-over Rows |
11. Dive-bomber Push-ups | 11. Crouching Cohen Curls | 11. Y-presses | 11. Open Arm Curls |
12. Back Flys | 12. Lying-downTricep Extension | 12. Lying Tricep Extensions | 12. Static Arm Curls |
BONUS ROUND | 13. Side-to-side Push-ups | 13. Towel Pull-ups | |
13. In & Out Straight-arm Shoulder Flys | 14. Pour Flys | 14. Congdon Locomotives | |
14. Congdon Curls | 15. Side-leaning Tricep Extensions | 15. Crouching Cohen Curls | |
15. Side Tri-rises | 16. One-arm Push-ups | 16. One-arm Corkscrew Curls | |
17. Weighted Circles | 17. Chin-ups | ||
18. Throw the Bomb | 18. Seated Bent-over Back Flys | ||
19. Clap or Plyo Push-ups | 19. Curl-up/Hammer Downs | ||
20. Slo-mo Throws | 20. Hammer Curls | ||
21. Front-to-back Tricep Extensions | 21. Max Rep Pull-ups | ||
22. One-arm Balance Push-ups | 22. Superman | ||
23. Fly-row Presses | 23. In-Out Hammer Curls | ||
24. Dumbbell Cross-body Blows | 24. Strip-set Curls |
Now, for a preliminary report on the modified P90X routines we've been doing: man, this is hard! I'm getting dusted by dainty ladies in aerobic dance get-ups! This really is a rigorous regime. In fact, it's too rigorous--more on that later.
I can really feel these P90X workouts for days afterward, and I'm nowhere near keeping up with the folks in the videos in number of reps--even the dainty ladies. I'm glad we didn't go into this with the idea we'd be doing these workouts almost every day--it's just too much, given our goals.
Preliminarily, I see a place for the more full-fledged workout (meaning, our adapted version where we do a full DVD for upper body strengthening twice a week and thus all 4 of our favored DVD's over a two-week cycle). But it's not going to be during most of the year. No, during most of the year when we're able to get out on the bike, I want a less rigorous upper-body workout. Frankly, I put out so hard on some of our rides that I'm feeling the effects for days afterward. And I'm sure as heck not going to want to do a full P90X session the day after one of those rides (maybe not for 3 or 4 days afterward). No thanks: I don't want a routine that interferes with my main fitness activity. So I'm now on the lookout for a calisthenics routine that we can use during late spring, summer, and early fall (cycling season), one that's less rigorous--say a half hour session. For now, we'll continue using our modified P90X, since cycling season is not yet in full swing. But we should be switching to some other, less demanding calisthenics routine sometime in the next month or two.
Ok, given what I've said about our modified P90X having a place in our regimen what, exactly, do I mean? What I mean is that its place, for our purposes, is in the cycling off-season. I can foresee us doing what we've done these last two weeks, i.e., using the 4 upper-body P90X DVD's each Mon. and Fri. in a two-week cycle from, say, late-Nov. through mid-March. That's when we're putting in limited time (about 1/2 hour per session) on stationary bikes indoors. And that's when doing a really rigorous upper body workout is not going to interfere with our cycling. In fact, I could foresee my cravings for a good, hard workout being satisfied during the cycling off-season by twice-weekly P90X routines. The idea during this off-season as far as cycling goes is, after all, just to keep the legs spinning: we're not supposed to go all out. Rather, we elevate the metabolism slightly, maintain it for a short time, and just keep the spin in our legs. In other words, this is a great time for introducing a rigorous upper-body workout like the 4 P90X DVD's provide.
In closing, I'll leave you with some tips on making your own push-up bars using plastic pipe. These push-up bars are recommended for the P90X program, though they're not absolutely necessary. I should point out up front that you won't save much making these for yourself: in fact, if you don't already have some tools (e.g., a PVC cutter), some materials, and some craftmanship abilities, it may cost you more to make your own. The cheapest premade ones I saw were about $10 (that was on the internet, so add shipping cost), and that's not much more than the $7 I spent on the materials I bought to make mine. But if you're a do-it-yourselfer like me, you won't be deterred by any questionable savings: you'll go ahead and do the job yourself. You may well even improve on my plan.
Below is a photo of the parts I bought, after cutting and prior to assembly. I'll later provide a detailed list, a price breakdown, a description of what I did, and a photos of the fully-assembled final product.
Here I'll provide a parts list, cost itemization, and some directions. To make these yourself, you'll need something like the following: some 3/4 inch PVC (you only actually need about a foot, but the shortest length I could buy at the store I went to was 5 feet); 2 three quarter inch PVC T fittings; 4 three quarter inch PVC caps; 2 one inch PVC caps; 2 ninety degree one inch non-metallic rigid conduit elbows; and some glue.
The total cost of these materials--excluding the glue, which I already had--was $7.75. Some of the parts are cheaper at other stores, so I could have saved a little off that by looking around a bit more to see who had the cheapest parts. I could also have saved had I already had some 3/4" PVC laying around. But seven or eight dollars is about what you can expect to pay to make these bars.
Below is a photo of the finished product, all glued up and ready to use. I'll include some directions after the photo.
Directions: these parts all basically just slide together. The 3 inch sections of 3/4 inch PVC pipe slide into the ends of the PVC T fittings, and the 3/4 PVC caps slide onto the ends of the 3 inch sections of 3/4 PVC pipe. I didn't glue those joints, but just pounded them together solidly. The remaining end of the 3/4 inch PVC T fitting slides up into the flared end of the 1 inch 90 degree non-metallic conduit: it's a fairly loose fit that needs to be glued. Since these materials (PVC and non-metallic conduit) are not really meant to be used together, there's no glue made specifically for joining them. I used shoe goo, but construction adhesive or epoxy would work just as well--just make sure it's a thick glue, so it won't just flow out of the fairly loose joint. Finally, the 1 inch PVC caps slide onto the open ends of the 1 inch 90 degree non-metallic conduit elbows. I did not glue this joint either.
Leave the glue to dry overnight and . . . voila! homemade push-up bars! Below you get to see the final product in action.
Maybe I'll tell you in a later post about that wound on my left index finger: I got it constructing the chin-up bar I just finished in our building's exercise room.
Addendum: here's a picture of a commercial product (ca. $10 minus shipping cost) that's constructed from the same materials as mine were:
Post-addendum: here are a few alternate links that offer good overviews of the P90X DVD's we're using and descriptions of the exercises involved (beware of the first two links which, despite containing helpful descriptive information, are high-intensity sales sites that may attempt to thwart use of your browser's "back" button): chest and back, shoulder and arm, and back and biceps.
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