Take care of yourself

Do you grip the bar with both palms down or one palm down and one up? One up and one down should make a difference if you're not already doing it. I go left palm up and right palm down, but it depends on what feels more comfortable.

 

I do one and one. And I've started locking my thumb down with my index finger too.

I've started doing farmer's walks pinching a 45-pound plate in one hand, alternating when I feel like I'm about to drop it. But I wondered if anybody had any other tips.

 

Maybe hang from a pullup bar for as long as you can.

 

Saw a guy at my gym do three bar muscle-ups in a row today. Holy shit. Not a huge guy, but ripped. I wonder how many kipping pullups he can do in a row. Says here: a shitload.

 

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/training-day/201305/zero-excuse-weekend-challenge

Pretty decent circuit of exercises to do if you don't have time to make it to the gym and need something quick.

 

I mowed the yard today with a push mower. Took about an hour, and I sweated through my clothes. That's my workout for the day, and I'm OK with that.

Joe

 

I did the same on Monday, plus spent an hour with the weedeater. Took about 2 1/2 hours total. Also mowed two neighbors' yards.
I damn near died.
It was about 90 out, and more humid than I realized. It also didn't help that I'd skipped lunch. By the time I got to the weedeating, even with a couple of short water breaks, I was sapped. Wanted to finish, though, so I gutted it out. Winding up the extension cord for the weedeater, it felt like the thing was 500 feet long instead of 100. It just kept coming and coming.
I ended up spending 20 minutes standing in a cold shower, feeling nauseous the whole time. Got out and laid naked on a towel in the living room, under a ceiling fan and an air vent, for another 10 minutes. Finally took two 32-ounce bottles of Gatorade, a few glasses of water, and a few hours on the couch before I finally started to feel right again.

I'm 36, in fairly good shape, and have never felt that bad before -- even after cutting grass when it was hotter than that. It truly scared me.
Be careful out there, fellas.

 

Did some one-arm kettlebell snatches last night ... those were seriously kind of fun, once you figure out how not to snap your forearm in half holding the KB at the top of the motion. Also, a CF total of 875 on Tuesday night ... 355 back squat, 175 shoulder press, 345 deadlift.

 

Joe: You talkin' about one of these?



I've had reel mowers ever since we bought a house in 1998, and hell yeah, they make mowing the lawn free exercise. If you have to go up any hills, it's a damn good leg workout.

You'll also spend exactly $0 on gas.

 

I decided to buy a reel mower this spring since I just have a small townhouse. What a piece of shit that thing was. It's definitely good exercise, though, since you have to go over your yard two or three times to get it to look halfway decent.

 

You have to keep a regular schedule ... if you let the grass get too long or "go to seed," it doesn't cut very well.

Also, if your yard has ruts or bumps in it, the reel mower bounces over them and misses spots.

Needless to say ... having a perfectly manicured lawn is not my No. 1 objective.

 

I have one of those, a seriously good Scotts brand that cost me about $125 five years ago when I had a bungalo yard in Jacksonville, as in postage stamp small. Where we live now in CoMo, our big-ass yard is a piece of shit: full of rocks and trees and very little real grass. I gutted it out for a year with the reel mower until I bought a power push mower a couple of years ago, and that's what I used last week.

We're moving in two weeks to another of the system's colleges because the wife got nearly a 30 percent raise, a big-ass signing bonus and paid moving expenses. We found a nice house with a much smaller, flatter yard than we have here, so next spring, after I get the lawn in shape, I'll be using the reel mower again. No ear plugs, no bandanna wrapped around my face because of the dust, no gas or spark plugs or oil — just sweat. And after I mow, I'll jump in our pool and cool off.

We'll miss CoMo, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. Plus, there's a shitload of fishing to be had with my old college roommate in the Ozarks.

Joe

Edit: Even with a good reel mower, I went north-south and east-west to get my yard looking good with it. Finding the right height to keep your lawn is key, and it's kind of trail and error process.