Tag: health

Pull-ups Update

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

One of my annual goals was to make one pull-up. The last meaningful update on that goal was in March, when I made 3 reps with a neutral grip. Since then, I struggled with injuries and gained a few kilograms of weight. So it didn’t look like I’ll make progress past three.

In order to address the pain while not giving up on the goal, I lowered the intensity of my exercises, increased the frequency, stopped making them from a full hang, and ditched the neutral grip in favor of the standard semi-false grip. I now do 1-4 series almost every day, depending on how I feel. I also introduced non-standard push ups with various difficulty.

After 4 months of that, my forearms no longer hurt as much as they did in March. They still do, I sense a bit of pain even as I type this, but it’s okay. Not something that would take the peace of my mind.

So, today, I showed my kids how to properly hang on a bar. And the bars in the school where we played have one that’s significantly higher than the one I regularly use. I can’t even try making a pull-up without fully hanging first. I tried doing pull-ups there, and made 4 clean reps.

Four is the new record for me. It took me roughly 4 months since the previous record of three, and it happened almost by accident. But at the same time, I exercised every day since we came back from Sozopoli, so maybe not that much of an accident after all.

Would I do 5 soon? Who knows. It can happen tomorrow, in another 4 months, or never. Doing this at 47 is tough and it hurts. Lots of things are pulling me down. Maybe the right way to get to a higher number of repetitions is to eat healthier food.

The first ten minutes

~ Veselin ~ 19 Comments

My 2024 fitness goal is to walk 10k steps per day on average. It’s a tough goal – 10k is 1h 40 min of walking per day, 3.6M steps annually, or 511 hours of walking. That’s a non-trivial amount of time and effort, especially on work days. Busy on Monday? Do 4k steps and you’re down 6k to make up on another day. Got Covid? That’s an easy 70k steps down, which need +1k/day over the next 70 days to catch up.

I tried a variety of tactics to keep the number above 10k. I did morning walks, replaced the city driving with walking, did 5h long weekend hikes. And when the winter season started, I got to under 10k anyway.

My new attempt is catching up with the treadmill in the evening. But it’s super difficult! I’m ready to give up any second during the first ten minutes of indoor walking. Not sure how to overcome that dread. I am so close to achieving the 10k annual average 🙂 Maybe 6-7 treadmill walks away. It’s either the treadmill or going out at 10pm in cold weather, with mud and darkness.

I’m open to ideas.

Borisova Gradina during the brightest part of the day.

What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?

~ Veselin ~ 6 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?
View all responses
  • Minimalism – my wife is a minimalist and I enjoy the simplicity of that concept, particularly about clothes, electronics, and furniture. I also apply it to books and only keep the ones I love.
  • Sleep – if something is not important enough to be done first thing in the morning, it’s not worth doing last thing in the evening. This helps me go to bed sooner.
  • Reading – I try to read for about 2 hours per day. ~~10pm to ~~midnight is reading time. Helps me sleep better.
  • Walking – my goal is 10k per day and I do that for cardio fitness and meditation. 2 hours of walking per day requires sacrifices but then I found hacks – if a 30-minute drive can be replaced by a 1h walk, that’s half of my daily walking at the expense of 30 minutes. So I walk to places that people would normally drive to. Also, playing football with my kids counts as walking and family time.
  • Calendar – if a task is important enough, I put it on the calendar, personal or professional. This forces me to complete important tasks better than a to-do list. Less important and not-time-sensitive tasks still don’t go to the calendar.
  • Blogging – I try to blog daily and participate in the community.
  • I drink sugar-free sodas and eat chocolate. I can probably do better here but it increases the present-day comfort at the expense of my future self.