787 Workout and Today’s Confession

Count 2, 4, and 6 of the 8 Count Bodybuilder

I’ll start with a confession. I’m writting these blogs to be a trail of breadcrumbs. I’m not what I used to be, but I am not yet all that I can be. An overnight success is a person who has no record of what has lead up to their success. This blog is my record. I have been pretty consistent over the last 10 years or so with Bible reading, devotional writing, and exercise. Please understand that my divinely inspired devotionals are first of all my strongest exhortations to myself. Today’s devotional is a good case and point. I’ve been in Thailand for about 2 weeks now. I have lots of free time on my hands. I’ve spent far too much of it doing things like watching movies when I have tons of books to read and pages to write. I’m not suggesting that anyone should be working around the clock. There is a big difference however, between resting when you are tired and lazing about without being tired from work. Today’s devotional helped me to acknowledge my need to do better at sticking to the basics.

Today’s Workout Description

Thailand Date: 24 March 2023 | Start: 04:30 | Finish: 0535

Warm up: Started with about 10 minutes on the stationary bike while listening to Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s Abandonment to Divine Providence on audiobook. It’s been so long ago since I purchased this audiobook that I’ve nearly forgotten about this Christian classic. Listening with new ears and a sense of the timing being right.

Continued my warm-up with my 1 pound Indian Clubs. Getting back to the circular motion designed to lubricate the vital natural function of the shoulders. I have found nothing thus far that does that better than these ancient little clubs.

Last part of my warm-up was 10 minutes of the ropa-dope. That’s what I call jumping rope Muhammad Ali style. I realize that is a dated reference. My beard is more sliver than black, but I’m totally okay with my age. I was catching the rope almost as much as jumping it though. Uggh! It seems I have a bit of muscle memory of how to get it done, but I’m a far cry from being able to perform it anywhere like the younger me. Nothing to do with old age and everything to do with not having practiced it for a long time now. I think I will make this a part of my daily warm-up while I’m here.

Main Work: Going to call this one the 787 Workout

I started thinking about this workout yesterday. This morning I actually decided to do it. It is literally the hardest I’ve worked out in a very long time. Injuries more than my age have gradually pushed me to almost all easy exercise sessions. While I have discovered the benefits of easy exercise, my desire to go hard has been increasing for the past few months now that I’m able to go hard again. Today’s workout fit the bill, and balance is always desirable.

It consisted of 7 Hindu Squats, followed immediately by one 8 Count Bodybuilder. That was one round. I completed as I could in 7 minutes. So I call it the 787 Workout. Seven minutes doesn’t sound like much I know, but it didn’t take long to get my heart rate up to about 154. I was breathing hard and all noodled legged. Just the right amount of hard without sending me to bed for the rest of the day to recover, I did a totally of 13 complete rounds. I will try to beat that next week. Going to shoot for doing this workout two times a week. That should increase work capacity nicely.

Cool Down: Did an additional 10 minutes on the bike listening to Abandonment to Divine Providence. Best workout I’ve had in a few weeks.