Almost Christmas.

Where has the time gone? So much of it has slipped by since my last posting of June. Scary.
But then that's the way life is as you get older, and you put your head down to get on with the everyday business of working, living, relaxing - when possible - and dealing with whatever curveball hits you from out-of-the-blue.

I've now stopped working full-time in theatres at the hospital, and instead I work on what is referred to as 'Bank' - a form of agency staffing for the NHS. My current residence is A&E, just for two days of the week, the rest of which are interspersed with my clinic days. Presently, of the latter, things are somewhat quiet, just the odd day here and there.

After my inguinal hernia repair in February I let my fitness slide. Due to the recovery phase primarily, but as they progressed, laziness kicked in, and I welcomed it with open arms. I spent much time playing Cyberpunk 2077, reading and working on my own cyberpunk story (which is still ongoing), which I'm enjoying, when it's not frustrating me.

So I've picked up my training regime once more, primarily focusing on body weight, with some dumbbell work in the mix. I'm also doing regular intermittent fasting with a prolonged 48 hour fast every 12 weeks. Interestingly, on the prolonged fast I can drop five pounds of weight without doing a thing. Once the fast ends I'll usually regain two of those pounds. The most important aspect of the 48 hour fast is how you break it at the end. I follow a recommended method of lean protein for the two days following the 48 hour fast, so that will be lean meat (chicken, turkey, pork or salmon), with broccoli cooked for 60 seconds in the microwave in order to retain all the goodness, and mushrooms cooked in some butter. Plus plenty of water to drink.

The health benefits of fasting are amazing and make complete sense for your body. It's sad that today the human species has been conned by the food industry and advertising that it's important you eat round the clock. Such nonsense.

Anyway, I thought I'd post my most recent session from Thursday just gone (14th). What you may notice is that rep range is higher, no longer sets of 10 reps, but instead, reps of 30. Where reps of 10 have been used is in exercises that I'm just starting to add into the mix, to ease the mind-body connection into action.

My 'Hallway Lunges' are just that, lunging up and down the hallway, taking six strides/lunges each way, so I tend to treat that as a set of six lunges equals one rep. I tend to wear a weighted vest for these. 

Here is the session for Thursday 14th December, 2023

• 30 Push ups
• 30 Sumo squats
• 30 Mountain climbs
• 75 second plank
• 30 squats with weighted vest
• 30 squats with weighted vest, heels elevated
• 30 Step-ups with weighted vest - 15 reps leading with left leg, 15 reps leading with right leg
• 2 x 4 Hallway lunges with weighted vest
• 2 x 10 Lying hip raise
• 2 x 10 Lying hip raise - single leg - 10 left leg, 10 right leg
• 3 x 20 Seated dumbbell flys
• 30 Lying tricep extensions with dumbbells
• 30 Lying dumbbell flys - performed as a superset with the triceps exercise above
• 30 Seated incline shoulder press
• 10 Ab wheel roll outs - on knees
  
  Session finished with gentle stretching.

Usually I aim for around eight different sets of exercises, but recently I've been adding more and finding the higher rep count gives me a better feeling of 'pump'.

As usual, I'll leave you with a song/tune that I'm really enjoying, and this one I often listen to at night when writing my story. It just helps the mood.

Here is Mr Kitty and the song, 'After Dark'. Enjoy.