This is the end of my eighth week of cower in place. As Dave Ramsey might say, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I have plenty of criticisms of my governor, his orders, and our destroyed economy that I have vented here and in comments. But this week I am moving on. I have to. It’s become a contest between my hatred of statist errors and my sanity. I’m choosing my sanity.

The lemonade I’ve made of these lemons is working out regularly.  The quality of my workouts has not been as high as the before times.  Not having access to the gym is a problem. So I have substituted endurance and persistence for intensity.

At the start of the lockdown, my weight had been creeping up ever so slightly. I was unhappy and knew I could do better. So, I have taken this as an opportunity to make better food choices, prepare more of my own meals, and concentrate on getting enough protein.

In March I started tracking and recording my weight. I do a weekly weigh in that comes with a little nervous anticipation. I started at 182.  I’m down to 177. It has not been a straight line and I have had some frustration given the amount of conditioning I’ve added to my routine. Still, it is progress on the way to my interim goal of 175.  In these frustrating times, every week I have dropped half a pound or a pound, I have gotten a boost of pride and some sense of control over my situation.

Another area in which I focused some attention are my lats.  They are easily my weakest area and have been my downfall when testing in my AthleanX program. Tejicano posted a helpful article on pullups that struck a chord with me.  I decided it was time to directly take on the challenge.

I chose to incorporate pullups into my strength workouts no matter how bad I was at them.  And I was bad.  When I started, I could only do 2 and I’m being a bit generous calling the second one a completed pull up.  The only pull up bar available to me is one mounted in a doorway.  I don’t like it because it’s lower than I like.  But it had to do.

So, every strength workout of every week has included pullups. Slowly, I have added more reps and more sets.  Yesterday was a personal best of 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 2.  These are not perfect pullups. I don’t have the wingspan of a bat. I still have a long way to go.  I’m not sure I’m going full Goggins but hot damn I have been persistent, and it is paying off.

This is really nothing more than The Slight Edge principle at work.  I’m not sure if I have recommended that book in the past.  If not, that’s my oversight.  It is a great book that applies to just about any area of life.  I highly recommend it.

Here are a few songs to get you to drop that doughnut and get moving. Uncredited Ozzy backing vocal. The only French rock song I ever liked. Sometimes a supergroup really is super.