April 14th, 2012: Back up a pound. 282. You know what, though, I distinctly remember being in the 320’s and sighing, and saying to myself, “Geez, it would be nice to be less than 300 lbs.” At least I’m past that point. It’s all good. I am under no illusion that it’s ever going to go faster or get easier. Dang, I was hungry last night, too. Thankfully the way the program works, once you’re rolling, being hungry is the exception and not the rule.
My daydream: I am just finishing a sanctioned boxing match – end of the 3rd round. Kansas City, MO – June 2013. I have won, and I know it. I was not the more skilled boxer, just the boxer in better shape. I never did lose my wind, never had to breathe through my mouth. I am still on my toes. How to get there? The program, the process, and Rule #1 (Cardio).
April 14th, 2020: I’ll admit that regarding exercise, I’m lucky in that I’ve always got a place to go fling iron, punch swinging objects, and run from imaginary zombies without any actual displacement. I call my basement gym the 2nd Wind Gym.
I don’t think I’ve ever lived under any roof that didn’t have some kind of exercise equipment in it – from the sand-filled donut weights with the plastic covered bar in the 1980’s, to the laundry-hanging Sears treadmill early in this century, to the $5,000 worth of frustration alleviation at the 2nd Wind Gym in my basement.
If I didn’t have anything, however, I think I’d do what I see those dudes do on Lockup. Shit, they’re ripped, and half the time they don’t have any real equipment to work with. I would do a circuit like this:
- Invisible Jump Rope – 3 minutes
- Pushups – failure
- Shadowbox – 3 minutes
- Body-weight squats – failure
- Body-weight lunges – failure
- Planks – 1 to 3 minutes
- Crunches – failure
I would call that circuit the Dirty Seven – and I would go through it 3 or 4 times, and I would do that once in the morning, and then jog 3 miles at night or ride my bike for 30 minutes away from house and then head back (ostensibly taking 30 minutes to return).
I would also try to buy some kind of small piece of exercise equipment (dumbbells or a medicine ball or a jump rope) every week, and every month I would buy something a little more expensive (like a punching bag or something), and once or twice a year I would kick-down for some kind of bench system or machine. That Total Gym 5000 from the photos is the most underrated and awesome piece of exercise I equipment I have (fyi).
