Weber State Wellness Program

As part of my new job at Weber State, I get to take part in their employee wellness program. It's useful, because the university pays its employees money to take part in activities that promote "wellness." This includes, annual checkups, visits to the dentist, maintaining a fitness log, reading health-related books and participating in events such as 5ks, marathons, triathlons, etc. It's pretty awesome.

Weber State's Swenson Gym

That being said, they also offer an annual fitness screening through their Health and Human Performance department. I underwent that yesterday to get a thorough analysis of where I stand healthwise. It included blood work, body fat measurements in a high-tech pressurized "Bod Pod" and various strength and conditioning tests using performance gadgets like the stuff you see in Under Armour commercials and Olympic training laboratories.

I'm still awaiting the results of my fitness evaluation, but my blood tests came back immediately. The results were encouraging. Measurements of my triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, glucose, lipoproteins were all taken. I fell in the "optimal" range for every category, which shocked me. When I went to the doctor two years ago (almost to the day), I weighed in at 215 pounds and was told I had dangerously high cholesterol for a man in his mid 20s. I now weigh about 175 pounds (a loss of 40 pounds so far), but I still have more to lose and my eating habits are still fairly unhealthy, which is why I was a bit stunned to see I don't have any issues as far as cholesterol and blood sugar go.

When I get the fitness and body fat results, I'll be able to better gauge particular areas I need to work on. In the meantime, I'll continue working on increased cardio with light weight training. I went to the gym only twice last week, both at WSU's on-campus Swenson Gym because it is free to faculty and students. The jury is still out on whether I will go there more often or stick with Planet Fitness.

Tonight, though, Planet Fitness it is...

Weekly update

Since starting my new job, it's become a bit harder to find time to update my workout blog. When I find the time to exercise, I completely forget about it by the time I come home. I'm going to do my best to keep updating, but I might just do what I'm doing today, and do weekly blogs that recap my exercise for the week.

I went to the gym on Wednesday, Friday and today. On Wednesday, I did a 30-minute run on speed intervals, going 5.5 mph for 2 minutes followed by 7.0 mph for a full minute. I logged exactly three miles doing so and followed it up with some biceps/triceps work using nothing but my own body weight, so no dumbbells this time. On Friday, I went for the same thing (speed intervals), but this time on the stationary bike. I ended up setting a new 30-minute personal best of 9.35 miles (old record was 9.30).

Today, it was the first time I've tried going to Planet Fitness on a Sunday morning and to my surprise, there were quite a few people there. Not so swamped that I couldn't find a machine, though. I planned on doing another 30-minute run, but after a mile, my shins were starting to throb, so I stopped right away. I spent the rest of my hour doing hip-strengthening and some light ab work.

Not a terrible week, but I still need to do better.

Total distance: 4 miles running, 9.35 miles cycling

Lungs on fire

Today was my first day back doing dryland training for about three weeks and I paid dearly for it. I stuck with something simple, riding the stationary bike for 30 minutes, but I made sure to turn it into interval training, much like I did at the pool earlier this week.

First photo taken of the stationary bike at Planet Fitness. I normally capture my workout stats via picture on the bike at the Roy Rec Center.

I rode for three minutes on level 10, cranked it up to level 15 for a full minute (sprint) and repeated for a full 30 minutes. And the last couple of one-minute sprints had my lungs burning like I hadn't worked out in years. It's amazing how quickly you lose stamina after just a few weeks off. I finished up with some easy weightlifting on my arms and chest.

I start my new job on Monday and with it comes full access to Weber State's gym on campus, which happens to be right across the street from where my new office will be. So, I'm going to try that out next week and see how I like it. I've grown fond of Planet Fitness and its hours right near my house, so I'll have to weigh the pros and cons of each and go from there.

Total distance: 8.97 miles cycling.

New job, new motivation

I've been in a significant exercise dry spell during the past couple of weeks. I've been stressing as I wade through the hiring process of a potential new job, which would make life so much better for Jen and I. You know, interviews, call backs, waiting and more waiting. I wasn't able to sleep for more than an hour at a time for about two weeks, and it took a devastating toll on my body. Sluggish, tired and absolutely no motivation to work out.

That being said, I ended up getting the job and I start next Monday. It felt like a huge load was lifted off my shoulders and ironically, that night, I still was unable to sleep, this time out of excitement. But I'm back to normal now and today Kelly joined me for a swim at the Roy Rec Center, our first swim in a long time.

Staying true to my 2013 goals, I focused less on yardage and more on quality. Here's what I did.

Warm up
150 yard freestyle
Core
5 x 100 freestyle sprints on 2:00
10 x 50 freestyle sprints on 1:00
Cool down
350 alternating breast and free every 50 (easy)

The sprint sets were very tough. I was sucking wind the whole time, so I knew I was pushing myself hard getting solid bang for my buck without overloading my shoulder with too many yards. It felt great to get back in the pool, though.

Total distance: 1,500 yards swimming