You Be The Judge

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You Be The Judge

December 7, 2020 by kmabarrett

My wife isn’t sure if I’m having a mid-life crisis or just going into my second childhood…

This year I’ve been watching A LOT of YouTube. Well, okay… It started last year, but that’s just a detail.

I was viewing a bunch of videos on working out and I found myself going through reams of “30-Day Challenge” videos. Of course, I decided to give one a shot. My choice: the “30-Day / 100 pushup per day challenge”.

Day One (Test): Zero. That’s correct. I could not do a single pushup from the floor. I could get into a plank position, (with effort,) and lower myself to the floor, but not get back up off the floor.

Obviously, some modifications would be necessary… Inclined pushup from the back of the sofa. Five. Okay. It’s a start. First day: 20 sets of five, spread through-out the day (and evening).

Days 2 and 3 were more of the same. Day 4, I was able to do 10. So, 10 sets of 10, spread through-out the day.

To make a longer story shorter, about day 10 I was finally able to do ONE pushup from the floor. By then, I was doing five(5) sets of 20 inclined. At the end of 30 days, I could do 5 pushups from the floor. (And shorter again…) At the end of 60 days, I was able to do 15 pushups from the floor. By way of comparison, Google says an “average” 65 year old man should be able to do between 6 and 16. In other words, I went from abject failure to the top end of “average”.

And then I got hurt… (But that’s another story.)

While browsing YouTube, it started feeding me boxing and martial arts videos (over and over again). So, (of course) I started watching them… Because I wasn’t able to do much other than walk, I started shadow-boxing in front of a mirror… And then I bought gloves… And then I bought hand-wraps… And then I bought focus pads… And then I started making home-made (read: inexpensive) boxing targets. It turns out YouTube has videos on how to jury rig most of the expensive kit you need to practice boxing.

Here’s some pictures of my gloves… They are RDX F12 Training Boxing Gloves (16oz.)

Fresh out of the box and still in plastic

Palm side up

“Business” side up

And, after trying them on a few times a week for the last month or so… Today I did my first “workout” with the gloves.

Now to be fair, I did actually try them on and use them for a few minutes when I would set up a new target and once for a few minutes of shadow-boxing in front of a mirror, but until today, my wife had put it down to another one of my “phases”. When approached on the possible purchase, she did insist on a $50 limit on my gloves because she was convinced they’d be gathering dust by now. So, yes, they’re an inexpensive pair. Not “cheap”, just inexpensive. And, no, they are not leather. They are “engineered” leather. (LoL!)

Today’s workout was about 45 minutes long, sweaty and exhausting. But, it was loads of fun and I felt terrific after my hot shower. Tired and relaxed and starting to get sore in strange (and not so strange) places, but all things considered – terrific!

I’m really not sure if this is a “phase” or not, but I’m going to put up a post every now and then about this “journey”. I’ll try to come up with a way to let you know in the “post” title when I’m on this topic as I have no idea how many of my blog followers have the slightest interest in this side topic.

A final note (reality check): I am a 65 year old man, morbidly obese, with a heart condition (AFib) and on blood thinners. So, NO, I will NEVER be in a fight or EVER sparring. This is just a way to try to add some fun to my efforts to raise some sweat (and maybe learn a bit about the “sweet science” while I’m at it.)

On This Day In:

2021

A Tenacious Cycle

Once Upon A Time…

2020

Kinda Like Posting To A Blog About My Day

Just A Different Point Of View

You Be The Judge

2019

I Think I’m Repeating Myself

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like X-mas!

2018