Day 482

I did not do any training today.  The reason for this is because I was advised by my dentist not to lift any heavy weights for a few days, as I just had another two of my teeth extracted yesterday.  It was another surprise for me from my dentist.  Two weeks ago it was from my lower set of teeth; yesterday it was the corresponding pair of upper teeth.  The four teeth that have been removed are the ones just behind the canines, to make space for moving my teeth around.  After removing the teeth, my dentist adjusted the wires on my braces again, and also added power chains from my canines to my molars to pull the teeth and close the gaps made by the extracted teeth.  As soon as the anaesthesia wore off, my teeth started to hurt, and I realized that my canines have moved a bit so now the upper and lower canines clash against each other in places they haven’t before.  My molars also feel pain whenever I try to chew anything.

Needless to say, since last night after my visit to the dentist, eating has been a challenge because

1. My canines hit each other whenever I close my jaws
2. I feel pain in my molars whenever I chew, especially if the food is harder than boiled rice.
3. Food sometimes get stuck in the space between my teeth, or sometimes on my braces.  I cannot just suck it out as it could cause the wounds to reopen.

Nevertheless, I tarried on eating food, albeit softer food.  I actually shopped for chicken breasts over the weekend, but right now I don’t think I can eat and enjoy grilled (relatively tough) chicken breasts.  Luckily, my mom made pork and beans; the beans and pork were soft enough for me to eat for last night and today’s lunch.  Omelettes are okay for breakfast.  Tomorrow I’m planning to steam some cream dory for lunch.

Now, until the pain goes away, I’m not even considering lifting.  Just the thought of gritting of my teeth whenever I try to exert more force is enough to make me avoid it for now.

In any case, the pain should go in a few days.  Until then, I’m making use of the rest time to do other stuff I’ve been putting aside.

Day 480

This afternoon, I went for my training session at the gym. I just found out two days ago that the gym I go to now has some foam rollers. Although they are a bit too soft for my liking, it now allows me to do a more complete warmup at the gym, instead of having to do my foam rolling at home before I go to the gym.

To start off, I did dumbbell snatches. I intended to do 4 sets of 4, with the last set being at the heaviest weight I have done successfully (75 lbs). However, at the end of the fourth set, I felt I had a little bit left in the tank, so I decided to go for 80 lbs. I wasn’t able to do 4 (ending up with 3 on the left and 2 on the right), but it felt good to be able to go for a personal best!

After that, I did alternating sets of exercises. First were single-leg squats alternating with rope face pulls. Then it was pushups going straight to clap push ups, alternating those with dumbbell rows. Finally, I did two 3-point planks. The entire workout took a just little over an hour, but I felt it was a good one!

Eat right, train hard, and expect success!

Day 478

I had to postpone my training to today instead of yesterday.  Lots of issues cropped up at work, which had me working late on both Tuesday and Thursday, up to 12 hours straight in the office.  I was determined to get my training done, so I opted to do my training today in the early morning before going to work instead of after work.  That way, whatever happens at work, my training is already in the bag.

It’s been a while since I lifted weights in the early morning.  I had a light meal before going, and then took my bike to get to the gym to save time instead of waiting for public transport.  It was a welcome change to train early as there was almost nobody in the gym save for a few people working with their trainers.  I did power cleans, pullups, dips, barbell overhead squats, Pallof presses, and then finally, dumbbell external rotations.  I then cycled back home, had my breakfast, then sped off to work.

Fortunately, it was not as busy as the past two days. However, a few minutes after I left the office at the normal time, my phone rang. It was a client asking for me to go online to help them fix the mess that they made. This is the same client which I had been working with for the past two days, whome I talked with online the whole morning, during which I had already given instructions on how to go about fixing their own mess. Before, I would have turned around to try to please the client. However, this time I politely told them I am already out of the office and they would have to wait until I get back tomorrow.

There is more to life than work.  Rest, training, and family time come to mind.  You can’t be efficient trying to please everybody.

Day 475

It was a public holiday in the Philippines today, a day to commemorate our dearly departed loved ones.  This allowed me to have my training session in the late afternoon.  This time there was no drama upon trying to enter the big chain gym; the front desk manager who gave me a hard time last Friday wasn’t there even though it was about the same time.  I was able to stay focused throughout my workout with some good music pumping through my music player to drown out the crap music being played by the gym.

Exercises were dumbbell snatches, single legged (pistol) squats, pushups + clap pushups, dumbbell rows, rope face pulls, and three point planks.

Below, as you can see, I am back to taking pictures in my room at home.

Day 475

It’s been a very busy week for me since I arrived in Manila after a three-and-a-half-month project in Saigon.  Though I did take Monday off from work, the rest of the week was flat out work catching up on other work commitments and also supporting/hand-holding the client in Vietnam.  I had planned several times during the week to train after work (actually, every day), but always something came up that forced me to stay overtime in the office.

This afternoon was the first opportunity to go.  I and my mother went to the gym and I was looking forward to training again after the break.  Before I went away, I “froze” my membership at the big chain gym I go to, to save money as I would not be using that gym while I was away (I only pay 20% of the membership while it is frozen).  I froze it for the months of August, September, and October (I went away in the middle of July).  Once I returned sometime in late September or early October, I could just “unfreeze” the membership by paying the other 80% toward a full month’s dues.

Imagine my surprise when, upon logging in at the front desk, I was informed that my membership was still frozen, and that if I push through with working out today, I would be charged for the whole month of October, even though I would only be using the facilities for one day in October!  I asked the front desk manager for some consideration; I have been a founding member at the gym, paying my dues, sometimes not even freezing my account even if I am away a lot (due to the bureaucracy you have to go through to get it frozen, and then sometimes even getting billed in full even if my membership was frozen).  No amount of reasoning was enough to get me through (even on a day when they were handing out free passes to non-members!), so I asked to speak with a higher manager or else threatened to cancel my membership.  The front desk manager was only too happy to hand me a cancellation form!  Bad customer service! Fortunately, I was able to talk to the membership manager and explained my situation, and she agreed that some leeway should have been given to me in this situation.  I told her that this kind of behavior from the front desk manager made me feel that the club does not care about its current and (so far) loyal members, and she apologized.

I almost lost the urge to train, but I pushed through.  I kept to one of my templates from last week: barbell power cleans, pullups, barbell overhead presses, dips, Pallof presses, and dumbbell external rotations.  I was just happy to be able to work out at all, so no records today save for the barbell overhead presses (for which it was only my 2nd time to do).

Apologies for the lack of status pictures today.  I did some grocery shopping with my mom right after training, and got out of the mall at closing time, with the rain falling already, so it was a long wait to get onto public transport.  Another typhoon is affecting Metro Manila today and through the weekend; hopefully this time it is not as bad as there are many families out and about to visit their departed ones over the All Saints/All Souls weekend.

Day 463

I’m on track to go back home to Manila on Saturday morning, so I cannot go to the gym on Friday evening as I’ll be packing my stuff then.  This makes today’s training session my last here in Saigon on this trip.

I did not try out any new exercises, but I did do a few challenging exercises: single-arm dumbbell snatches, single-leg (pistol) squats, pushups + clap pushups, seated cable rows, face rope pulls, and three-point planks.  The gym was packed, hot, and humid.  Though sometimes it can be difficult to work out in those conditions, I know I am going to miss the place.

Eat right, train hard, and expect success!

Day 461

In tonight’s training session, I tried a few new moves among the exercises I did.  First, I warmed up with some power cleans with an empty Olympic bar.  After that I decided to try to do snatches with it, my first time to do so.  I then did my work sets of power cleans.

Next, I did another new exercise, which were barbell overhead squats.  Even with just the empty Olympic bar, I found the exercise to be challenging, as I had to really control my core to keep from falling over backwards (or forwards).  I did 2 sets with the empty bar before doing a set with another 10 kg (there were only a pair of 5kg plates, a pair of 20kg plates, and 3 pairs of 25kg plates for the Olympic bar).

After that, I did pullups and then dips.  I then tried the third of my three new exercises, which were Pallof presses.  This is an exercise which trains the core to resist rotation.  I finished wih dumbbell external rotations.

Eat right, train hard, expect success!

Day 456

Today’s training went even better than the last one.  It consisted of dumbbell snatches, deadlifts, pushups + clap pushups, dumbbell rows, rope face pulls, and Russian twists.  I found that I had enough energy today to push myself, and only faltered in the last rep of my deadlifts (the 5th one on the 3rd set).  Still, not too bad as that last set was equal to the maximum weight I have lifted on deadlifts (130kg).  It only gets me to aspire to improve on this exercise!  Perhaps my next program will include progressions on the deadlift.

On a not so positive note, I have been asked to my stay here in Saigon by another week.  I was already getting excited to see my family again this weekend so I am a bit disappointed.

Anyway, training goes on.  Eat right, train hard, expect success!

Day 454

The weekend was good for me as I was able to catch up somewhat with my sleep, especially on Saturday.  Sunday I went around the downtown area to hear mass and also do some shopping for some souvenirs to bring home (fingers crossed) this coming Saturday.  Today at work I was still not 100%, but still felt better than I did at the end of Friday.

Today’s training consisted of pullups, power cleans, pistol squats, dips, prone alternate extensions, and dumbbell shoulder external rotations.   With each training session I feel more and more convinced that a good training session makes up for a less than stellar day at work!

Day 451

Today was a particularly busy day at work.  I have been going nearly flat out all week, and by today I was running out of steam a bit.  I had considered skipping my training session, and the heavy rains since midday all through the afternoon was an additional disincentive.  The rain did peter out to a light drizzle in the early evening, and that encouraged me to go and at least get some key exercises in.

And so in tonight’s training session, I sticked to a few exercises which give me bang for the buck: dumbbell snatches, deadlifts, pushups + clap pushups and rope face pulls.  Three to four sets for each exercise, and going heavy on the first two.  Four exercises over a little over an hour, and yet I was totally drenched in sweat by the end.

I look forward to the weekend to rest and recover.

Eat right, train hard, and expect success!

Day 449

Today I did mostly the same set of exercises as two sessions ago, but with slightly different parameters for reps and weight.  I did power cleans first, setting a new personal best for last/last set.  I was able to do 3 reps, then failed the next rep, rested a few seconds, and then did the last two reps.  This was the first time I tried to clean 70kg; my previous heaviest go at the clean was 65kg for 1 to 3 reps.  I think the clean pulls I have been doing in the last 6 weeks of the Built for Show Spring program has added strength to my pull, in particular, the first pull.

I continued with single-leg (pistol) squats, dips, pullups, prone alternating leg/arm extensions, and dumbbell external rotations, finishing just in time to catch the 2nd to the last bus back to the hotel where I am staying at.

Eat right, train hard, and expect success!

Day 447

Second day back in the gym after my last mission.  I did dumbbell snatches (3X5) followed by deadlifts (3X5) not too far from my personal best weight.  I intended to do flat bench barbell presses next, but despite waiting on 6 benches in the gym for more than a few minutes, it seems that everyone was still doing National Chest Day on a Monday, even in Saigon!  Instead, I substituted with 3 sets of pushups (10 reps) going directly to clap pushups (another 10 reps) without stopping.  That was fun and challenging to do.  I then did dumbbell rows (5X5), face pulls with a rope (3X12), Russian twists (3X10), and then finally three-point planks (60 seconds on each side).

Eat right, train hard, and expect success!

Day 444

After a week off from training, I went to the gym again today, and I felt great!  I planned to do a full body workout based on complex movements and generally using around 5 reps per set.  I started with 3 sets of barbell power cleans with the olympic bar(man, I missed doing those!), then followed with barbell back squats, weighted dips, pullups, single-arm dumbbell overhead presses, and then finally a set of plank variations with opposite arm/leg raised alternately (I couldn’t remember what it is called right now, but it was from the Flatten Your Abs program).

Eat right, train hard, and expect success!

Day 442

It’s been a week since I completed my latest twelve-week training program. I have taken this time to relax and let my body rest as well as to recover more quickly from the cold and cough that I started experiencing last week. I did not do much over the weekend except rest (sleep, glorious sleep), do a little shopping around for a camera bag, and go to church. Today my cold and coughing are not completely gone yet, but I am feeling much better.

I intend to go back to the gym again in two days. I have not decided to start another program yet, as I’ll be on the move again in 2 to 3 weeks, going back to Manila after finishing my project here in Saigon. Until then, I’ll be trying out a few exercises in between doing basic whole-body training, and perhaps work on some of my weaknesses.

I have no been able to get my final measurements at the end of Mission 4, as I do not have access to a scale that I can use on my usual weighing time in the early morning, before eating anything. I did weigh myself at the gym after my last workout though, and there I measure myself at about 70.5kg with my gym clothes on.

To all of you who are in the midst of their own missions, stay the course!

Day 435

Today was a really weird day.

The customer I am working for here in Vietnam had scheduled to move today from their temporary site office to their newly-constructed permanent office.  As with any move, things did not go perfectly as planned, so we were left without a network connection for almost all of the day.  That meant that were not able to do significant work, as these days, almost all information technology stuff is done over the network!

At the same time I was coughing much during the day, and the medicine I took had me a bit drowsy at times.

On our way back from the office to the hotel, we go stuck in a big traffic jam on the single unpaved road.  I got worried as I didn’t want to miss the last training day of my current program!  The heavy traffic meant that I arrived back at the hotel more than 30 minutes past the usual time.  As soon as I got into my room, I quickly changed to my training clothes, packed my gym back, and then headed out the door.  I caught a motorcycle taxi to get me to the gym more quickly than waiting for the bus.

As I was running late, I tried to really stick to my rest periods throughout the session, and so the whole training was done at a high pace.  Most of the exercises were 4X10 with 60 seconds rest, alternating between push and pull exercises for the whole body.  I was well satisfied with the effort I was able to put in despite the slight sickness that I was feeling and the very tight training time.  To top it off, the rains opened up and brought some heavy rain as soon as I caught the bus going back.

Eat right, train hard, and expect success!