MSI Press Blog

Slugging though a 5-year period of preparation has moments of high motivation and moments of wondering if the bridge is just too far. I was wondering that today after gaining (not losing) two pounds (still beating around the overweight-obese divide) and thinking maybe commonsense is the better part of valor when I saw this quote from Thomas Merton: "The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little," OK - rock climbing, yoga, it's still on! Judo in January!! And back to more sit-ups, more push-ups, trying to really do a pull up. Strong Fitness challenges -- I'm all in!

  We have a tenant downstairs in our house, and the tenant has a son. He is nine years old and treats us as his grandparents. We, in turn, treat him as a grandson. So, I was astonished that he could not pull himself up on the chin-up bar that my husband had installed in our bedroom doorway so that I could get to the point of being able to do pull-ups, lots of the them. He was very weak yet a very active boy -- we walk about a mile each night together, with him scootering (well, I guess that is really not walking) and me running along beside him. He found the light weights I lift to be very heavy. I mean, we are only talking about 20 pounds. Then, I was appalled to find out that gym is no longer part of elementary classrooms around here. Goodness, where do kids get their guidance in physical activities? So, I interested him in a competition, using the bar. Who could get to do pull-ups sooner. He pulled in a kid visiting a neighbor for two weeks and vowed to do better than t...

We have all heard about dressing for success. Generally, that refers to the concept that if you want a promotion (or to be hired), your clothing needs to make you look the part, whether that be a suit or some kind of specialized attire -- or in the case years ago when I wanted to get my daughter accepted into Moscow schools when I was living and conducting research there and needed a "napravlenie" [written permission form from the school district] a school univform with fartuk [frock] and properly tied hair ribbons). If you plook the part, you generally have a better chance of getting the part. I have found that to be the case as well with fitness training. If I put on my walking shoes, I want to walk. If I put on my sneakers, I want to run. If I put on slippes, I want to lounge. It is not necessarily what "I" want to do, but what my body expects to do. It has become habituated to associate attire wtih intention. If I don shorts and tank top, I am suddenly re...

So, after a bit of hiatus because of that pesky roatotr cuff overuse that made my trainer suggest I leave off some of the more strenu ous arm activity, I returned to yoga. Suerprisingly, yoga requires a good deal of arm strength. (This has been a surprise to me: my arm strength is not good enough to get me easily through a one-hour yoga class, but it is good enough to get me rather easily through a two-hour rock climbing class. Boy, the myths are being vividly revealed as I continu with training.) One of the things I have learned is something I suppose every athlete knows, but, then, I am not and have never been an athlete, so I would not be aware of it. That is the best knowledge (and not really a sexret at all): no matter what it is you want to do, however impossible that seems, just start small and keep on going. That happened with leg presses. I struggled at first, just 18 months ago with 10 pounds, and I stayed around 30-40 pounds for months. Now, surprisingly, I can do 24...

Pacific Edge Gym Teaching Room In accordance with my planned approach to developing ninja capabilities, two weeks ago I enrolled in a rock climbing class. One of the things I had learned from watching the stories of competitors on American Ninja Warriors included seeing how many of them were either rock climbers or spent time at rock-climbing gyms. Good climbing depends on feet, not arms. In fact, with feet properly placed, one can hang by one arm for a very long time and feel little strain. Shoes should fit snugly and have bottoms that create friction in order to use feet more effectively. The "climber's triange" -- toes and ball of foot -- indicates where a climber should place his ore her weight when climbing. (After scaling the wall in the gym three times, my toes were really sore! I gave them a nice bubbling session in my foot massager afterward.) I thought I would have to build arm and shoulder strength. I never thought I would have to build toe ...

So, just when I think my rotator cuff overuse has worn off and I can go back to using it for strenuous activities, I immediately strain it again. Finally, I figured out how! Months ago, I had installed a pull up bar across the bedroom door so that I could try to pull myself up (nope, I cannot do that yet -- you would think after 18 months, it would be easy, but it is still out of reach). Clearly, I need to build stronger should muscles and lose some more weight so I have less to pull. Nonetheless, I try. Finally, after the last complaint from rotator cuff, I put two and two together: it was the frequent trying to lift more than I can that has been straining the rottor cuff. That makes sense since I need 60 pounds of assist on the machine at the gym. That means, I have been asking my rotator cuff to take on those 60 pounds that my shoulder msucles cannot list. Light dawns! So, I am increasing my pushups, my work on the machine with safe assists, the carious shoulder machin...

Tonight, husband Carl brought home three large bags of groceries and needed help bringing them up the stairs to our second-floor living space. I reached for all three. "Be careful," he said, pointing to one bag. "It is very heavy." I lifted it. "No, it's not," I told him. "Yes, it is," he insisted. Well, actually, no, it was not. It would have been a year ago, but not now. I easily carried all three bags together, two in one hand, and the supposedly heavy bag in the ohter, up our 17 stairs, held all in one hand to open the door, and then lifted them all easily onto the counter which is almost chest-high for me. If I needed an assessment, there I had it. Of course, though, I want something a little more formal albeit informal, meaning my own assessment. Beginning from this point, though, I think I will pull my trainer into helping me develop a formal assessment. She says that I have made significant progress, both vi...

4-minute cardio from Strong Fitness Magazine For the past several months, slogging best describes my physical training efforts. Yes, my trainer kept pointing out ways in which I had made progress, and I kept at my " homework " that she gave me. Still, it did not FEEL like I had made progress. FEELING engages motivation. Motivation can keep you going, but will power fuels it during the blah-nothing times. Sometimes, you just need to FEEL  progress. And that happened this week! In two ways!! I was able to do 100 iterations of abs and laterals exercises, nonstop, with raised legs and 8-pound kettle ball. Not all that long ago 25 iterations were almost impossible; then 50 iterations were onerous. Now, 100, with the energy to do another 100 right away. Yes, FELT progress. Thne, Strong Fitness Magazine (great online magazine for women who want to be fit) published an article about a 4-minute cardio exercise that builds cardio quickly. Right--if you can do the fo...

One of the things I thought about only cursorily when I entered on this quest was what the cost would be. Sure, I figured there would be some cost for training and for gym membership, but with obstacles around the neighborhood and at home, I figured a lot of training could actually be obtained for free, just through the course of living. To some extnet, the free-from-living training expecttion has panned out. Running into stores from parking lots. Jumping up and down curbs. Flying across car hoods and landing at the door to my  misaligned-elbow-from-lifting-a-sectional-sofa-with-one-hand physiotherpist (he was looking out the window once and saw that -- said I was his only patient who arrived at his door that way). The basics, though, the very necessary things where I need advice and access to equipment that speeds up the building up of specific muscles and specific ninja techniques (not available at our local gym, so travel to distant gyms is required), undeerstanding what...

As my fitness training intensifies, I find that I am as overwhelmed with math, as I was as a humanist, in math classes as a child. I got the "necesssary" A in all my courses, but I took only the routine high school college-prep math courses and nothing fancier. Sometiimes, numbers become completely meaningless. So, trying to put meaning into what is a good heart rate has become a nightmare of numbers rolling over me, of a cloud puffed high like a thunderhead, spewing showers of unrelated digits down upon me at night when the sorting out should happen during my sleeping hours, but it does not. This past week I was at a conference. The fitness center had little equipment other than treadmills. And, the treadnills had just too much information: BPM at 65% for each decade, ages 10-90 (guess not many centenarians find their way onto that moving belt) BPM at 80% for each decade). I had been operating with one figure, which is a comforting way of operating. No need to ...

So, it is not a pretty picture, and also, it was bound to happen, I guess. A rotator cuff injury -- from weed-wahcking, not from fitness training. My fitness trainer is very careful to make sure I don't overstress my rotator cuffs, knowing that a torn rotator cuff could end all my ninja hopes and plans. But that weed-whacking... So, what have I learned? Still learning, actually. 1. I cannot force the use of my arm and expet it to get better. No powering through, So, pull-ups are out for a while. I wonder if the strength I have built up (not very impressive yet, honestly speaking) will return. Well, I will the answer to that question in time -- and will share. 2. I should not "grin and bear it" because analgesics not only help with pain, they also help with inflammation, which is very important for healing. 3. I do NOT want surgery; that is the scariest part because it may really put me out of commission. So, I need to help the rotator cuff heal naturally. 4...

So, last month when my trainer was having her baby, she gave me homework for the time she would be out. I found the homework so useful that I continued it even after she came back. Just the right aount for me right now, and I can start to see some small (wish it were large, but it is small) differences. Still, a year and a half ago, I was much pudgier, 11 pounds heavier, and with no muscles. So, since pictures do not lie (well, not usually and not unless doctored), here is my first attempt at recroding some progress. The pictue is so helpful, I will start to do updates for my 6-month assessments. (Short-term goals are as motivating as andmore doable than long-term goals.) For the record, here is the daily homework: 30 minutes of cardio (yeah, I get to choose and to mix and match) 100 abs (another choice and can mix and match) 50 squats Monday, Regular Tuesday. Sumo Wednesday. Chair Thursday. Jump  Friday. Front lunges Sat-Sun. Burpess (really difficult right ...

After 7 months in fitness training, working on core, biceps & triceps, and leg strength, I was just thinking to myself, "Wow, do I have a long way to go!" Why? Because I have been watching the latest city finals and gauging how, without mistakes (which all too frequently do happen), I would do at this point. (Of course, I have four more years of training to go -- the list of training needs and the list of what I can do should take quite a different shape by then). So, obstacle 1 in Philly: the archer stairs (that replaced the floating steps) -- probably not a problem (legs have been shaping up well, including jumping, skipping, running, and movement on a the Bosu ball). Casey Rothschihld, though, got caught traveling with the rope, and that dragged her back in the water. So, my experience at the ninja warrior training session with the rope tells me that I have the same problem. Therefore, not something to work on right now, but once I get to the point in my training...

The human ability to err comes through in American Ninja Warrior that I have watched. No missteps or a fixed error result in a run to glory. One simple misstep, and even the greatest warrior can fall from glory. Last night, Isaac Caldierno, one of only two ninjas to finish Stage Four at Mount Midoriyama, fell on one of the early obstacles in the Indiana city competition. Had he lost his touch? No. Had his muscles atrophied? No. Did his strategic thinking skills fail to keep up with the ever-evolving courses? No. Had he miscalculated the obstacle? No. Did he feel sick, confused, or distracted? No. He simply took a misstep—as we all do from time to time throughout life, sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally. In other words, he is human. When Kacy Catanzaro made her way through tall poles rising from water, situated farther apart from each other than Casey could possibly reach, she did a quick calculation and jumped, managing to grab and hang on to the next pole. The c...

 Yesterday, a newly adopted feral cat hid himself under our very large, 7-section sofa. I pushed the sofa out a bit to reach him and found that by doing so I had trapped his paw under one of the heavy bars that held the sections together in the back of the sofa. Concerned for his safety, I instinctively reached out with my left had, lifted up the end of the sofa (about three sections) and pulled the cat out with my right hand. My goodness, I thought, after letting the sofa back down, I have become quite strong from my training over the past seven months. Quickly, though, the reality set in. It as not my muscles alone that lifted the sofa. It was adrenaline pouring into the muscles, making them stronger. Very quickly, my wrist began to throb. Oh, oh! I made it through the night, sleeping though the pain -- I can do that. In the morning, the pain made it clear that I needed to confess to the doctor my foolishness at thinking I might be superwoman. I wrapped an ace bandage ar...

Today, I began my yoga classes. I dropped in to the gym's Flow Yoga class. Earlier, when I consulted with my trainer, Brittany, she suggested that, of the classes that the gym offered, yoga would be the most beneficial for me in my seeking to develop the skills needed for coping successfully with the ninja obstacles. I quickly saw how well she had identified my weaknesses, the most significant of them being balance. The yoga instructor was patient with me as I topped over again and again. Stand on one foot? No, I don't think so. Not yet, anyway. My ability to handle positions, like the downward dog pose above, surprised me, pleasantly so. All the work on core with Brittany for the past six months really had prepared me for poses requiring core development. Planks? Not a problem. Contort legs and arms? Not a problem -- for six months, I have also been working on flexibility. However, balancing on one foot ended up with both feet on the floor or real tipping over. Than...

Given the need to attend a wedding in Elk Grove, the lucky contiguity to my son, Shawn, and his family who live in Elk Grove, and the opportunity for lunch with a former assistant Hatem, who now lives in Roseville, my husband, Carl, I, and my youngest son, CB, packed up the car on Friday afternoon for a weekend adventure three hours from where we live. The Studio, a martial arts center in Roseville three hours from our home in San Juan Bautista is the closest gym that offers ninja training -- both for kids (which turned out to be fortunate for short little me) and for adults. The Studio had scheduled the next iteration of the adult class for Saturday, July 28, absolutely perfect timing. I could get there Friday night, get a full night of sleep to be fresh for the ninja training, then have lunch with Hatem, race back to the hotel for a change of clothes, and finish the day at the wedding, with a planned breakfast the next morning our grandchildren and daughter-in-law. Tight ti...

As I get into physical training, I continue to learn surprising, new things, This week I learned that muscles have memory. Muscles I developed in the Army are just hanging around to be re-awakened. That is pretty cool.

So, I learned something new this week. Iterations matter as much as weight. In fact, I can try to lift heavier weights, or I can get the same benefit by lifting a lesser weight more times. As my starting point, then, I will use: 15 iteratinos 5 pounds That sounds like not very much to all you readers who are have stayed in shape -- unlike me, an almost-septaguarian wth five decades behind me of NO physical activity. Hey, at least I am doing it now. Better late than never, right? Who else out there in their 60s and 70s is striving to get back into shape -- or enter competitions? Would love to hear from you!!