{"id":150,"date":"2006-02-13T18:39:46","date_gmt":"2006-02-13T09:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-02-13\/150"},"modified":"2006-02-13T18:39:46","modified_gmt":"2006-02-13T09:39:46","slug":"working-out-and-feeling-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-02-13\/150","title":{"rendered":"Working Out and Feeling Great"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

\n\nMy posts seem to have a negative tint lately, so I thought<\/span> I'd try to\ncounter that with a post<\/span> on the somewhat of a success<\/span> story that are my\nrecent workouts at the gym.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fitness History<\/h3>\n

\n\nIn the very old days I was quite skinny (more gangly, really, considering\nthat I'm a geek<\/span>), and weighed in at about 180 pounds [82kg]. I'm 6'4"\n[192cm], so 180 pounds is pretty lean. Then I started<\/span> working out and I\nbuilt<\/span> up a fairly<\/span> nice build; at my peak, I had Popeye<\/span> arms (okay, not\nreally, but at least I had<\/span> some muscle on my bones) and was about 200\npounds [91kg]. I was very<\/span> pleased.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nBut then I spent two highly stressful, highly sedentary years writing a book<\/span><\/a> followed pretty much immediately by the\nlack of time and some years of chronic back pain associated with a kid<\/span><\/a>, and the end result was\na fairly<\/span> tubby 216 pound [98kg] me.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nMind you, that 16-pound [6.5kg] gain masks the related muscle loss and\nsubsequent replacement by fat. For my new<\/span> non-manly build I was<\/span> closer to\n30 pounds [14kg] over what I should<\/span> have been.\n\n<\/p>\n

Hitting the Gym<\/h3>\n

\n\nI finally started to do something about it in October, when I started<\/span> going\nto a small<\/span> gym<\/a> with\nmy friend Katsunori\nShimada<\/a>. My goal was<\/span> to go thrice weekly, and having the pressure not\nto cancel on someone has been helpful in mostly keeping that goal, with the\nexceptions of when I've been sick (which has been way, way too many times).\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAt first, we went to some of the aerobics classes, and I was<\/span> surprised to\nfind that I really<\/span> liked them. Very high energy, and not boring at all. The one problem<\/span> was that I had<\/span> a hard<\/span> time memorizing whatever moves were being\nused that day, and so often found that I couldn't<\/span> keep up properly. After a\nwhile,<\/span> I realized<\/span> that while I really<\/span> liked the physical workout, I really<\/span> disliked the mental workout. For whatever<\/span> reason, that gym likes to keep\nthe aerobic workouts quite complex, so I decided<\/span> to abandon them.\n\n<\/p>\n

Cardio<\/a><\/h3>\n

\n\nWe tried the exercise bikes, but found them mind-numbingly boring and\nbutt-numbingly painful. Then we gave the elliptical cross trainers a try<\/span>\nand found a real<\/span> hit.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a><\/div>\n\n

They're very easy on the joints (and the rear), and for some reason much\nless boring than the bikes. I created<\/span> a “30-minute workout”\nplaylist on my iPod, which starts out at a slow<\/span> 55 beats-per-minute pace,\nworks up to 85 bpm, then back down to 75, then up to 98 for a few<\/span> minutes,\nthen down to 60 for a while,<\/span> then up again until a 5+ minute run of 99 bpm\nat the end. A 99 bpm<\/span> song translates to a 99<\/span> revolutions per minute cycle\npace, which is just short of flying.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAll along the way I try to actually keep up with the pace, but at first\nthis was only the most wishful of thinking, as I couldn't<\/span> get through 15\nminutes much less 30. My water<\/span> bottle would be drained in the first five\nminutes.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nEventually I could get through 30 minutes, but certainly not keeping the\npace set by the playlist. My water<\/span> bottle was lasting a good<\/span> 20 minutes,\ntoo.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAs time went, I could<\/span> finally get through the whole thing at the prescribed\npace, and have a bit<\/span> left in the water bottle at the end. I'd half kill<\/span>\nmyself doing it, of course, peaking at a heart<\/span> rate of about 165 bpm and\nending up drenched in sweat. (Despite the fact that I actually<\/span> drank a lot<\/span>\nduring this, and that much of what I sweated<\/span> away stayed on me in the form\nof a wet<\/span> shirt, overall I would<\/span> still lose almost two pounds [800g] in\nthose 30 minutes!)\n\n<\/p>

\n\nLately, though, I go through<\/span> the whole workout easily, and my heart rate\ndoesn't get much above 145 at the fastest. Even when I doubled<\/span> the 99\nbeats-per-minute pace at the end to 10 minutes, I find that<\/span> I'm just in\ncruise control and feel like I could<\/span> go on indefinitely. And I don<\/span>'t even\nbring a water<\/span> bottle anymore.\n\n<\/p>\n

Weight Training<\/h3>\n

\n\nWe also do simple weight training on the machines for about an hour -- we\ngo through a list<\/span> of an even dozen exercises, just one set each (15 reps\nfor upper-body, 20 reps for lower-body). We use a<\/span> workout sheet<\/a> that I'd made to\nuse when I worked<\/span> out in the Yahoo! employee gym, and keep track of our\nprogress. I've now regained the big barrel chest and Popeye arms (okay,\nagain, you know what I mean<\/span>) and feel great. Shimada-san, who had never\ndone any meaningful exercise, has progressed rapidly himself.\n\n<\/p>\n

The Best Part<\/h3>\n

\n\nThis is Japan, after all, so the best part is that after you get a shower<\/span>\nand are all cleaned up, you can enjoy a hot<\/span> bath right there at the gym.\nAfter that, I sit in<\/span> front of some fans to dry and cool down, and\nthat's<\/i> the best part for me.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nLast week, though, I discovered<\/span> something even better than the hot bath: a\ncold<\/span> one. They have what I would<\/span> suppose in English would be called a\n“plunge bath”, a bath<\/span> of cold water. It's not freezing<\/span> or anything; it's a\nwarm<\/span>-sounding 68F [20C], but believe me, after a hot<\/span> shower it feels like\nice. The first<\/span> couple of times were very difficult (it's COLD!<\/b>), but\nI'm used to it now so it's not difficult to get in up to my neck. I stay for<\/span> only a few<\/span> seconds, and then I'm done.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nWhat I find so nice about it is that I feel<\/span> so refreshed afterwards. I still<\/span> enjoy sitting in front of the fan, but find that I don't<\/span> really need\nto do so as I did<\/span> after the hot bath (the hot bath having left me a bit<\/span>\ndizzy). In any case<\/span>, after a good<\/span> workout and the plunge bath, I feel alive<\/span>\nand genki.\n\n<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/h3>\n

\n\nBeside the financial costs, it really takes time. The gym is<\/span> a one<\/span>-hour\nround trip drive away, and most days that I go<\/span> it ends up eating a painful<\/span>\nfour hours. But Fumie's been supportive, and the results so far are that my\nchronic back ache is virtually gone, I feel wonderful<\/span>, I've put on a fairly<\/span>\ngood build and lost a lot<\/span> of blubber to the tune of now being about 207\npounds [94kg]. I've been going for just four and a half<\/span> months (half of the\ntime, it seems, being out of commission with a cold<\/span><\/a>), so I'm pleased\nwith the progress.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My posts seem to have a negative tint lately, so I thought I'd try to counter that with a post on the somewhat of a success story that are my recent workouts at the gym. <\/p> Fitness History

In the very old days I was quite skinny (more gangly, really, considering that I'm a geek), and weighed in at about 180 pounds [82kg]. I'm 6'4" [192cm], so 180 pounds is pretty lean. Then I started working out and I built up a fairly nice build; at my peak, I had Popeye arms (okay, not really, but at least [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}