Today was an off day for me, so it was just yoga (Inner Strength) and 100 pushups. I am not sure if I got EC for the workout (don't drop down between planks). I always forget to check yoga workouts for EC because it seems a little contradictory for an exercise that is more about flow and relaxation. Anyway I probably got it.

I have been reading a book about sobriety. Kind of a strange topic for me as I have three drinks in the past 15 months, but it has some interesting insight. I came across an interesting quote there "Perfection is prison, excellence is elastic." Although it is talking about alcohol consumption, it struck me that this phrase could apply to exercise, specifically how some of us debate the usefulness of streaks and whether they really motivate us. Of course, it works differently for everybody, but it seemed to hit the mark with me. To put it in other words, when we have a streak of days of doing something, then we become a prisoner of that streak, as we feel beholden to it. Furthermore breaking that streak means a defeat of sorts, having let the (usually impressive) streak end. On the other hand, not worrying about perfection but excellence, means being elastic (or flexible/adaptable, I think they were going for alliteration) which makes a lot more sense to me. I read a study once that said that people that speed in their cars always have the impression that they are going slower than everyone else because they are focused on those people in front of them that they can't or haven't yet passed. What they really don't see are all the people behind them that they have passed, and I think that this works in the same way, and is in line with the quote above. When we have an impressive streak it means that we are only looking forward to what we still have to accomplsih and not paying attention to what we have already done in the past.

Anyway, just some thoughts on my off day.

Hope you feel better.

Excellence is a very difficult thing to define for many people, I think. Is excellence (excelling) in this context taken to mean anything less than perfect? In which case, I'd have trouble saying it was excellent. I think having a big focus on alliteration, though making for memorable sayings, can confuse the issue! I think Effort might be a better word, according to my interpretation of what you're saying. You might not be achieving perfection, but if you're putting in as much effort as you are capable of at that particular time, you are being elastic - you do way less on a bad day than a good but if you've put in as much effort as you can, that is enough. This allows, I think, for what might otherwise be seen as "back-sliding". It is indeed a very interesting thing to contemplate. Thank you for mentioning it.

Thank you for the thoughts this is actually a very interesting and complex topic I have not thought about as much as I probably should have

It is funny, during my holiday my friend told me it was great that we hiked 11 km, the more the better. To me it was not, beacause that was over my current limit and I would call 'perfect' staying within my own range of reasonable exercise. So maybe being elastic/flexible will make perfect.

TopNotch Oops, I meant to say an easy day, not off day, I am fine, thanks for the well wishes though. I agree with your point. In the military I had a commander, who said out loud something that I had thought my whole life, and its that you get a lot farther going 80% all of the time than 100%, because 100% will burn you out, whereas 80% probably won't. I think that is the similar idea here, that for a lot of people that excellence means above 80% in terms of effort or reward.

SheWhoMustNotBeNamed It is an interesting book, even for a (mostly) non-drinker like myself.

NancyTree That is a good point as well.

I keep using walking challenges on the FitBit app to hit my daily step count, even though I am not really leaving the house much because of the cold. Today I was in a few different challenges and so I got to almost 17,000 steps, which is a lot for pacing back and forth in my house. Unfortunately, tonight is supposed to be the coldest temperature in the past 26 years, so not getting better for the next bit, though I suppose that it also can't get much worse when we are challenging the historical record.

I started the rotation over again today and coincidentally there was a new workout in the database that had kicks, so what better day to knock off the kick requirement of my rotation. So I did No Mercy (level I, EC) and then Push & Pull Express. I did a lot better on pullups today than I have done recently. I managed 6-5-4-3 on the four sets. I added 80 pushups to make it to 100 for the day.

With kicks and pullups out of the way, I now have pushups, plyometric, partner, dumbbells, dips, abs and wild card left for this rotation.

I did OK on my step count again today, though it was a bit lower at over 10,000. It is anyway nice that I am hitting these numbers when we have such cold temperatures.

This evening I did Defying Gravity (level I, EC) and Me Time (level I, EC). For the first exercise I did 97 total pushups. This included 6 each time for skydiver pushups, and 1 for pushup holds, which are pretty tough to push out of after 20 seconds. Though the second workout was only a level 1 workout, it was a decent challenge after a level 5 workout.

That takes off pushups for this rotation, so I am left with plyometric, partner, dumbbells, dips, abs and wild card.

Good job with everything and, again, amazing winter pictures.
And you're right about keeping a streak, it's definitely true for me as well. I feel like it depends on how much you can let go of something and that comes with growth. But then again, if you're trying to build a new habit it can also be useful to be a little bit tougher on yourself. Now, finding this delicate spot is the tricky part, for me (and some of my friends) at least.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. When I grow up I want to be as cool as you are. (:

motionaction That is true, that being a bit more rigourous at the beginning of something new helps a lot. Thanks for your nice words too.

I keep hitting a decent step count despite myself, just because people keep challenging me on FitBit to do so. I probably wasn't going to make it today, but then I ended up having to wait at two different bus stops for a total of about 40 minutes, so I just filled that time by getting steps in. I got just over 10,000 steps.

Tonight I did another partner workout from the book. This one was called "What's Not To Resist?" It had the following exercises: lunge and hand press; back to back walkout (this didn't really work so well); pushover press; resisted front and side raise; leg press; side plank hold; glute bridge bicycle; resisted hamstring curl; and resisted pushup. As I can only train with my wife, these exercises where a substantial difference in weight is an issue are not so good. So the back to back walkout was essentially impossible for her to pushup with her legs against my weight. I think by now I should probably build some of my own workouts with this book, or maybe even just modify some workouts from the database, and use partner exercises as substitutions.

I also did Arms 360 and added 92 pushups to the 8 that I did in the partner workout. As I discovered last week this workout is good for when I don't want to or don't have time to do L-Sit Prep.

With partner and dips out of the way for this rotation, I now have plyometric, dumbbells, abs and wild card left.

Another decent day for steps, with another 13,000. Pretty much the same thing happened to as yesterday, missed a bus that comes every thirty minutes by about 60 seconds, so I just filled the time with walking back and forth.

In the evening I did Pecs (level I, EC), Paladin (level I, EC), Home Upperbody Tone, Cardio & Coordination (level I, EC) and Freedom (level I, EC). I added the first two workouts at last minute, as I felt like a bit of structure for my pushups tonight versus just doing 100 by whatever counts I wanted. For the fourth workout I added a step to the middle of the side to side jumps. I have seen the feet for the step around the house in various places but I always see them when I am doing something else, so the step was just sitting on the floor, but it really helped to increase the challenge for the side to side hops (though some of that must have been psychological just by having an obstacle there.) Though a step with no feet is not very flashy, it anyway meets the wild card requirement for this rotation. I had to add 37 pushups at the end of training to make 100.

With dumbbells, plyometric and wild card done, I only have abs left for this rotation.

After over a year off since my last job, I have a new part time job at the airport, mostly designed to fit in with my wife's somewhat unpredictable schedule. I was in training for the past three days, and my first day of actual work was today. Because of this I am going to need to make some changes in my exercise patterns. Already in order to schedule my training at work I had to forego running since about a week by this point. As with tonight, I will sometimes have to work late at night (such is the nature of airport, usually early or late). It is fairly physical work that will require some lifting of heavy objects (bags) and some walking. I am going to try to stick to the same rotation that I have been doing so far, though I might need to be a bit more forgiving at times.

As usual I got a decent amount of steps in during the day watching the boys and some more at work. Step count was over 11,000.

Today I did Master of Abs (level I, EC) at around midday and 100 pushups. That satisfies abs for this rotation, which was the last requirement left, so I am on to a rest day tomorrow. I will see how much it ends up as a rest day, I might take two rest days this week because of the schedule.

Good luck with the new job and the adaptions on exercise and family life.

Congratulitons for the new job!

Good luck with your new job and fitting your life around it.

Hope the new job is fun.

mavie SheWhoMustNotBeNamed lofivelcro TopNotch Thanks all! It is mostly stuff that I have done in the past, so it is pretty easy so far.It is also nice that my commute from door to door including walking in from the parking lot is 15 minutes.

I haven't been able to run for a over a week now. Though it has everything to do with an unforgiving work schedule between my wife and I, I guess that it is also nice that it has been pretty cold in this period as well. This morning I had a bit of time before going to work, and had to go to the grocery store, so I combined the two together. The grocery store is not far away from us, so I ended up just in the neighbourhood north of where we live. Not a very noteworthy route, just on streets that I have never been on before for 2.9 km, which I did in 17:34. Temperature was -18 with a wind chill closer to -30.







As planned today was a rest day, though with work I am not sure how to factor that in. Anyway, for exercise in the evening I just did Tune Out and 100 pushups.