Achievements over three and a half years

I once did a 30 day exercise challenge where I completed a minimum of 100 push ups per day, every day, for 30 days.  After completing that challenge I was in less pain.  Once it ended, without having a rest day I started another 30 day challenge, then another when that ended, and another.  

During those challenges there are no rest days.  There were no days off between challenges.  This continued for over three and a half years!  

I think back to my first challenge.  Back then, simply getting to/from the ground to do push ups was difficult.  Back then, walking from my house up the driveway and getting into my car was difficult and painful.  Back then sitting at my desk at work was painful and difficult.  

Since then I have achieved a lot of milestones, some achievements are more impressive than others: 

• 100 push ups every day for 30 consecutive days
• 1,000 push ups in one day
• 250 push ups in one set
• 1,000 push ups in one hour
• 1,000 push ups every day for 62 consecutive days 
• Dead hang for 100 seconds
• Dead hang for 2 minutes
• Elbow lever
• Human flag
• Turkish Get up using 15kg (this is probably the least impressive thing on this list, but it almost killed me)
• 100 strict pull ups in one day
• 27 strict pull ups in one set
• 100+ pull ups every day for ten consecutive days
• 10 weighted pull ups (7.5kg additional weight) in a set
• 20 weighted pull ups (7.5kg additional weight) in a set
• 100+ weighted pull ups (7.5kg additional weight) in one day
• 100 pull ups in under twenty minutes

Some of those things took me months to train towards.  Others were achieved a lot faster.  Some I can no longer do as I have not been training for them, while others I do regularly.  

Training for back lever - I still can't do that yet

I am going to mention some statistics.  While the following statistics are concerning, they provide perspective to my achievements:

• Being able to do a single push up puts me in the top 50% of strength in the country 
• Being able to do one strict pull up puts me in the top 25% 
• Being able to do 10 strict pull ups puts me in the top 5% 
• Being able to do over 20 pull ups in one set puts me in the top fraction of one percent 

I can't find any reliable stats for the following, but I know that very few people in this country have done any of the following: 

• Elbow lever
• Human flag  
• 1,000 push ups in a day
• 100 strict pull ups in under an hour 
• Weighted pull ups - any number 

Considering my age, the limited time I have to dedicate to training, my body composition, the long term chronic injuries I have, combined with the alarming statistics above, my achievements aren't bad.

Pull ups per day - modulated and increasing

I put my achievements down to how I train.  I do prochnost' training every day, and it works for me.  I train every single day, no rest days, no days off.  The human body is made to be able to do full body exercise every single day.  When you train that way, it responds well.  

The human body is not made to push to failure regularly, it is not made to push to failure and then do one more rep, this is a dreadfully inefficient way to train.  It is not made to train one set of muscles one day, another set another day, cardio on other days, all with rest days interspersed.  While the smug arrogance of motivational quotes may help you, it doesn't work for everyone.  Training every day, multiple times a day, keeping well below failure, does work for everyone.  

Western style training is probably good for hypertrophy, but inefficient at building strength.  

If western style training was effective at building strength, the alarming stats above would not be a reality.  If it was effective, then being able to do a single push up would not make you above average.  If it was effective, there would be almost no one who is into strength and fitness that is unable to do a strict pull up.  Western training failed me when I was younger, and I would never have achieved the above if I was still training that way.

If you have read this far, my advice to you is to stop training like a westerner.  Western training will make you fail and you will not reach your potential.  Do prochnost' training, and be more.  

Fitbit cardio fitness is not accurate

My Fitbit charge 4 watch measures what it likes to call 'Cardio Fitness'.  I think its algorithm includes things such as my heart rate across the day, my weight, and I am not sure what else.  I know that it accurately tells the time, it is reasonably accurate when it measures my heart rate, and the Fitbit charge 4 is hideously inaccurate when determining my resting heart rate.  This made me wonder if it was accurate when it determines my cardio fitness.

My watch gives me a score for my cardio fitness, it has determined that anything above 44.6 is very good, and anything above 49.4 is excellent. 

Somehow, according to my watch, when I took that screen shot I was scoring in the 52-56 which is well and truly at the top of the excellent range.  I checked earlier today and am scoring 53-57, which is ever so slightly better.  

Sadly, this is not even remotely accurate.

 

My Cardio Fitness according to Fitbit

The cardio fitness scale it uses is:

<30.2   Poor
30.2-35.0   Fair
35.0-39.8   Average
39.8-44.6   Good
44.6-49.4   Very Good
>49.4   Excellent

All of these increments are 4.8 above the previous.  Another increment above 49.4 would be 54.2.  Given that my estimate is 53-57, at very worse I would be at the very top of the Excellent range (if not somewhere in the next increment above excellent).

My actual cardio fitness, if I am being honest, is pretty low.  

My heart rate is often pretty high even when I am sitting still and resting.  I get out of breath walking up stairs.  While I used to jog for hours when younger, these days I would not be able to run a 5km without having to stop and rest.  This is not an 'excellent' level of cardio fitness.  I think my actual cardio fitness would be somewhat below average.

I think the algorithms that Fitbit uses are based on overweight and obese people.  The fact that I am thin and have a low BMI in the Healthy BMI range means that any cardio fitness results that Fitbit provides are massively skewed.  

I use my Fitbit as a watch, and it works well.  I also find it useful for me to be able to keep an eye on my heart rate.  Fitbit is of no use when it comes to 'cardio health' if you are thin.  

If you are thin, or even not massively overweight, please disregard the cardio fitness level, it would be dangerous to think it was even remotely accurate.

Body Fat Calculator not worth doing

If you could wave a magic wand so you would weigh the same, but have less fat, would you do it?  Of course you would, very few people wouldn't.  

What about if you could wave a magic wand that would make you lose weight, but have more fat, would you do that?  Of course not!  No healthy person would.  

Regardless of what we are told, no one, or at least no normal person, wants to lose 'weight'.  What people actually want is to lose 'fat'.  

Being overfat causes a huge number of illnesses for individuals, and is a massive burden on society.  Being overfat, regardless of your weight, is unhealthy.  Similarly being under fat, regardless of your weight, is also extremely unhealthy.  

For some time I have kept an eye on my weight.  Mostly because my weight kept getting too low, which was worrying.  

As well as keeping track of my weight in kilograms, I have kept an eye on my Body Mass Index (BMI).  BMI is a better metric than just weight, but it's not perfect.  

I wondered if knowing my percentage of body fat would be useful.  Recently I measured my neck, hips, waist etc.  I entered these numbers along with my height and weight into a few online calculators that are meant to estimate my percentage of body fat.  Even though I entered exactly the same numbers, the results from different calculators were vastly different.  

Depending on the calculator I used, my body fat estimate came back as low as 5.5% (which is drastically low and close to death) up to a far healthier 10.8%.  To give these numbers some perspective, the 'Healthy' range of body fat for a male of my age is 11% to 20% body fat.  

image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cells_of_the_human_body_by_mass.svg

My results from various online body fat calculators:

https://www.precisionnutrition.com/body-fat-calculator 
My result: 10.8%

This US Navy body fat calculator https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/navy-body-fat
My result: 6%

A different navy calculator https://www.bizcalcs.com/body-fat-navy/
My result: 9%

The US Army body fat calculator https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/army-body-fat
My result: 5.5%

You may be asking yourself, if I entered exactly the same data into different calculators how can the results vary this much.  The answer is simple: online body fat calculators are not accurate!  

If you want a number that will either make you feel good or make you feel bad, then use online body fat calculators.  When you get a result that you don't like, look around, sooner or later you will find a body fat calculator that gives the result you are after.  This sounds pointless, probably because it is pointless.  

Instead of measurements and online calculators, you could try to use skin fold calipers.  These are meant to be reasonably accurate at estimating subcutaneous fat (ie fat under the skin) if used correctly.  They do not measure or estimate visceral fat (ie much more dangerous fat around the organs).  If you are skinny fat, you will have little subcutaneous fat, and a higher amount of visceral fat.  For most people, fat calipers are probably somewhat useful and relatively accurate.  For skinny fat people, these calipers are not very useful.

Another way to estimate your body fat is to use body fat scales.  I have never used them, but everything I read says that they are ragingly inaccurate.  

If you want a true measure of your body fat, you would need to do a water displacement test, or a Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry scan, or even use an Air-Displacement Plethysmography pod (and even then I am not sure how accurate this last one is).  

If (like me) you lack the money or ability to access to these tests, then stick with BMI.  While BMI is far from perfect, it is better than just using raw weight, and you can measure this at home for free.  All you need are bathroom scales.    

Desert strength training

Recently we took a trip to the desert.  While we were there we stayed in a house that was dug underground.  Many people live in dug out houses out there due to the intense heat.  

Not surprisingly, they had no gyms out there.  

One of the benefits of body weight exercises is they can be done anywhere and do not need a gym.  

The following picture we went to a look out for sunset.  My son decided to do elbow lever off a fence.  It started to creak and crack so he didn't do this for long.  He did straighten up, but I didn't get a decent photo before he had to stop because we were worried the fence would collapse.  

While the land may look very flat, and for the most part it was, there was actually a bit of a cliff to the left of the barricade.  

Back from the lookout there were some large rocks that had been placed to prevent cars driving up to the lookout.  

Much to the amazement of onlookers, my son did elbow lever using these rocks.  He held elbow lever for some time.  It is easy, because he is strong.  While he is skinny, he is stronger than he looks and can probably do a lot of physical things you can't do because he trains properly.  

While it has nothing to do with strength training exercise, below is a photo of one of the few trees that grew out there in the desert.  This tree was about two meters tall, gnarled from the desert winds, far older than it looked, and must have incredible strength to be able to survive out there.  

This little tree is a true representation of Prochnost'.

Tree in the desert

BMI over 12 months

There is an old saying that goes "Shchi da Kasha, Pisha Nasha", which roughly means "Cabbage soup and buckwheat porridge are our food".  

There seems to be solid logic behind this saying that goes beyond the fact that these were some of the few foods that were almost always available in the old days.  

Most of my life people have told me that I need to fatten up and that I am too thin.  My body is not like theirs, for me to be healthy I need to be relatively thin.  

Gaining fat for a skinny person can be dangerous and unhealthy.  Gaining weight by gaining muscle on the other hand is healthy.   

If I eat poorly and don't exercise I tend to lose weight (which is the opposite of many people).  I believe this is mostly from losing muscle mass, and gaining fat around my organs.  This is a bad thing.  

If I 'eat healthy' and exercise I tend to gain weight (again this is the opposite for many people).  This is mostly from losing fat around my organs, and gaining muscle mass.  This is a good thing.  This is how my body works, and if you are skinny fat it is likely how your body also works.  If you are skinny fat, you want to gain weight but not gain fat.  

Gaining fat for a skinny fat person is unhealthy as they mostly gain fat around their organs.  Skinny fat people need to gain muscle to be healthy.  

I need to be relatively thin to be healthy, but for some time I kept slipping below my healthy range.  For a while my weight was too low, and I was worried.  

To help keep an eye on things I recorded my weight each week for over a year.  I got on top of things, and started to put on a little weight, you will see this in the graphs below.  

Weighing in at the same time, on the same day each week, wearing the same thing, for an entire year (plus a few extra weeks), enhances the data integrity and allows for some interpretation of the data and some fascinating conclusions to be drawn.   

BMI stats for over a year

In the above graph I weighed myself at the same day each week, around the same time, and wearing the same thing (just my glasses so I could read the scale).  

A 'healthy' Body Mass Index (BMI) is considered to be from 18.5 to 24.9 and as you can see I spent most of the time within that range.  My average BMI over the past year, even when you include the first few outliers, was well within the healthy BMI range.  

Looking at the graph you can't help but notice the initial sharp increase.  This is when I stopped eating wheatbix for breakfast, and started to eat buckwheat (grechnevaya kasha).  It changed my weight and helped me become healthier.  

During the initial BMI increase, I visibly lost fat even though I was gaining weight.  As I gained weight and lost fat, presumably I was gaining muscle.  Prior to recording these stats my cholesterol was a bit high, and my LDL to HDL ratio was not great.  Towards the end of these stats my cholesterol is low, and my LDL to HDL ratio is perfect.  

As nothing else (diet, exercise) changed, I am pretty sure that this is entirely due to eating grechka instead of wheatbix for breakfast.  It appears that buckwheat is far more healthy for me than wheat.  

I also recorded in kilograms how much the BMI deviated from the ‘healthy’ line in the graph below.  The bar on the right shows the entire healthy range to provide context.  0 is the healthy line, anything below zero shows how far below the healthy range I dipped, and anything above shows how far into the healthy range I reached.  As you can see, I was at the lower end of of the healthy BMI range, which is where my body needs to be in order to be healthy.  

Kilograms above or below the 'healthy' zone

So there you have it, a little over one year of BMI stats collected weekly.  Initially I was a bit too low.  I started eating buckwheat instead of wheat.  Since eating buckwheat every day my BMI has been healthier, I have lost fat, my cholesterol level has dropped, my LDL to HDL ratio has improved, and I gained weight.  

If you are skinny fat, record your weight every seek for a few weeks.  Weigh in at the same time at the same day each week, try to do this before getting in the shower so you are not weighing clothes.  Then start eating grechnevaya kasha for breakfast.  

Buckwheat is high in high quality protein, and very nutritious.  Perhaps buckwheat will make you stronger and healthier.  

Shchi da Kasha, Pisha Nasha (Щи да каша – пиша наша) - Cabbage soup and buckwheat are our food.  

Fitness park equipment

Recently we went on holiday.  While we were travelling we found a park with playground and fitness equipment.  They had heaps of things that my son wanted to use.  I took a few photos as I found it amusing.  

They had a stationary bike, peddling was too easy so my son used it for elbow lever.

Stationary Bike

They had dip bars, my son used these for dips and then elbow lever.

More elbow lever

There were push up bars that were intended to make push ups easier, these were good for elbow lever.  

Elbow lever on push up bars

An inclined bench was used for elbow lever.

Elbow lever off an inclined bench

He had another try at the stationary bike as it was so much fun.  Normally exercise bikes are used by fat people to sit and peddle slowly while pretending that they are exercising.  I can't imagine many thin people ever use them, and I wouldn't think anyone would use them for elbow lever.  

How else would you use a stationary bike?

As well as all this there was a playground.  There was a thing in the playground that spins.  My son used it for elbow lever.  It was difficult and scary as the thing was spinning.  Apparently his legs acted like a sail and they caught the wind.  It was terrifying to watch.  

spinning elbow lever

The park was almost empty when I took these photos.  We went back to it later and it was full of people.  

Much to the delight of onlookers, my son did more elbow lever off the equipment, and did a lot of pull ups using their pull up bar.  I don't think these people had ever seen a strict pull up.  

A few of the young men attempted to do a pull up after watching my son, but none of them were strong enough.  

Fitbit resting heart rate

I wrote an earlier post reviewing the Fitbit charge 4.  Overall it is a good piece of equipment.  One of the main issues I noticed was the resting heart rate seemed odd.  

Since then I have kept an eye on it, and the resting hears rate algorithm is clearly not accurate!  Some days my heart rate is constantly above the 'resting heart rate'.  Even when I am asleep.  

The screen shot below is a perfect example.  I did not do any aerobic exercise and was sitting around almost the entire day.  My heart rate never dropped below 84, yet my FitBit Charge 4 calculated my resting heart rate as being 79.  The following day it estimated my resting heart rate to be 77, so it doesn't appear to be averaging over a longer timeframe.  

Never dipped below 84

There are plenty of days like this where my fitbit estimates a resting heart rate that is not right.  

The screenshot below it estimated my resting heart rate to be 77.  On this day my heart rate only went as low as 77 twice in that day, and was significantly above this for the remainder of the day and night.  

If you think the fitbit's algorithm excludes any exercise when calculating resting heart rate, that still wouldn't explain what you see here.  I did not do any aerobic exercise and was sitting for most of that day.  I was working from home that day, so didn't walk to or from my car, I sat in front of a computer all day, and rested in the sun on my deck at lunch time.  I would not have travelled more than 30 meters from my bed that day.  

Only down to 77 twice

Below is another example.  On this graph my heart rate dipped to 80, only twice, and only briefly.  Once around 2am the other around 4am, I was possibly asleep during those times.  Other than that my heart rate was above 80.  Somehow it calculated my resting heart rate to be 80.

This time I worked from the office, so walked to and from my car.  I spent the rest of the day sitting at my desk.  I may have gotten up once or twice to walk to the kitchen or go to the toilet, but there was no exercise.  I didn't even go for a walk at lunch that day.  

Resting heart rate of 80 - but how?

The FitBit Charge 4 is not accurate when estimating resting heart rate.  If you are thinking of getting one, it tells the time well, it seems to count heart beats accurately, but the algorithm that estimates resting heart rate is massively inaccurate.  

Protein powder vs meat vs eggs

I looked into protein shakes to increase my protein intake.  They taste great and take less effort and time than cooking food, but they seem expensive and lack many nutrients that are present in meats, vegetables, and grains.  

Strangely, I am yet to find any decent comparisons of the amount of protein and the price per serve in protein shakes to meats or other foods.  So I looked up and compared several meats, eggs, vegetables, and a few grains.  For ease of reference, I included the websites I gleaned the information.  

I am interested in protein percentage and noted if the food is not considered a complete protein.  Leucine is an amino acid that is important for building muscle, repairing muscle, and it is metabolised in muscle fibers.  I am also interested in iron content as I struggle to get enough iron.  I know a lot of people care about calories, so I also include the amount of calories of each even though I think people vastly misunderstand calories.  

To give the below comparison some perspective, the recommended daily intake for a male about my size and age is roughly:

Protein 50 g
Leucine 2.4 g
Iron 8 mg
Energy 2,000 kcal

To make the comparison as useful as possible, I am comparing 100 grams of each as it would be around one serving, except for the protein powder which is one 40g serving.  

Protein Powder

Note: whey protein are considered complete proteins as they contain good amounts of all essential amino acids.

Protein Powder per 40 g serve

https://www.uprotein.com.au/100-whey-protein-powder-enzymes-2kgs/

Protein 33 g

Leucine 3.39 g

Iron 0.74 mg

Energy 149 kcal

Meat

Note: meat based proteins are considered to be complete proteins as they contain good amounts of all essential amino acids
Note: about 14% to 18% of iron is usually bioavailable from meat

Chicken per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171477/nutrients

Protein 27.3 g 

Leucine 2.33 g

Iron 1.04 mg

Energy 165 kcal

Beef per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174032/nutrients

Protein 25.9 g other cuts as low as 13.6 g

Leucine 1.45 g 

Iron 2.6 mg 

Energy 250 kcal

Rabbit per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174348/nutrients

Protein 33 g

Leucine 2.57 g

Iron 4.85 mg

Energy 173 kcal

Quail per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169902/nutrients

Protein 25.1 g

Leucine unknown

Iron 4.43 mg

Energy 227 kcal

Squab per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169905/nutrients

Protein 23.9 g

Leucine unknown

Iron 5.91 mg

Energy 213 kcal

Eggs

Note: eggs are high in all of the essential amino acids and are considered to be a complete protein

Chicken egg boiled per 100g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173424/nutrients

Protein 12.6 g

Leucine 1.08 g

Iron 1.19 mg

Energy 155 kcal

Quail egg per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/172191/nutrients

Protein 13 g

Leucine 1.15 g

Iron 3.65 mg

Energy 158 kcal

Vegetables and Grains

Note: many plant based proteins are considered to be incomplete proteins as they are low in one or more essential amino acids
Note: Plant based iron is not as bioavailable as animal based iron, for example less than 2% of the iron in spinach is bioavailable

Comparison of nutrition: Buckwheat vs Rice vs Wheat vs Maize

Spinach per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168462/nutrients

Protein 2.86 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.223 g

Iron 2.71 mg (low bioavailability)

Energy 23 kcal

Soy bean (sprouted and steamed) per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168460/nutrients

Protein  8.47 g

Leucine 0.607 g

Iron 1.31 mg

Energy 81 kcal

Peas per 100g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170419/nutrients

Protein  5.42 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.323 g

Iron 1.47 mg

Energy 81 kcal

Lima beans per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174253/nutrients

Protein 7.8 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.673 g

Iron 2.39 mg

Energy 115 kcal

Corn per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169998/nutrients

Protein 3.27 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.348 g

Iron 0.52 mg

Energy 86 kcal

Buckwheat per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170286/nutrients

Protein 13.2 g

Leucine 0.832 g

Iron 2.2 mg

Energy 343 kcal

Rice per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168930/nutrients

Protein 2.38 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.197 g

Iron 0.2 g

Energy 130 kcal

Wheat per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168944/nutrients

Protein 9.61 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine unknown

Iron 3.71 mg

Energy 332 kcal 

Mulberry fresh leaves per 100g

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17135021/

Protein 7.34 g (range 4.72 to 9.96 g)

Leucine unknown

Iron 7.53 mg (range 4.70 to 10.36 mg)

Energy 77.5 kcal (69 to 86 kcal)

Conclusion

Meats: Rabbit meat has more protein than chicken or beef, and had the highest percentage of protein other than the protein powder.  Surprisingly, rabbit meat has far more iron than beef or chicken.  Rabbit meat was also the superior meat when it comes to the Leucine content.  Rabbit meat is very low in fat.  It makes me wonder why more people don't eat rabbit meat.  Rabbit is far too expensive and difficult to buy here, so I would eat chicken as it is high is protein, high in leucine, and has some iron.  

Eggs: Chicken eggs are reasonably affordable and easy to buy, and has good levels of protein, high in leucine, and has some iron.  

Plant foods: As far as plant foods go, buckwheat was the stand out.  Buckwheat is one of the few plants that are considered complete proteins.  Buckwheat is nutritionally comparable to egg, but has higher iron and higher fiber, and is easier to digest.  The carbohydrates in buckwheat are healthy.  

Novel plant foods: mulberry leaves are an underutilised (and seemingly unknown) vegetable.  Mulberry leaves are far more nutritious, easier to grow, higher yielding per square meter, need far less water, and use less fertiliser etc than common vegetables that we eat.  I find them to be unpleasant raw, but when cooked and used like spinach they have a mild taste and an agreeable texture.  I only included this for my own curiosity as you probably can't buy them anywhere and would need your own tree if you ever planned to eat these leaves.

Price comparisons per gram of protein

I tried to compare rough costs per kg, cost per serving, and the cost per gram of protein of some of the foods listed.  Some meats (rabbit, squab, quail) are expensive or even impossible to buy locally, so I have not included them below.  Prices vary from day to day, and from store to store, so the following will not be completely accurate.  Still, this is interesting and may be of some use, so I will leave it in for now.  

Uprotein powder costs $94 for 2 kg, $1.88 per serving, or about 6 cents per gram of protein

Chicken costs about $10 per kg, $1 per 100g or just under 4 cents per gram of protein 

Beef mince costs about $11 per kg, $1.10 per 100g or just under 5 cents per gram of protein (or vastly higher depending on the price of meat or the cut eaten)  

Spinach price varies considerably, sometimes about $15 per kg, $1.50 per 100g, or about 52 cents per gram of protein 

Buckwheat costs about $7 per kg, $0.70 per 100g, just over 5 cents per gram of protein

Eggs cost about $5 per dozen, 2 eggs weigh about 100g and cost about $0.83, or just under 7 cents per gram of protein.  If only eating egg whites (as many people do), the cost per gram of protein doubles

Public Chin Up Bar Update

Back in February I wrote a blog post about floods destroying the local pull up bars.  These were the only public chin up bars in the region.  I now have an update, so thought I would share.

The old broken fitness equipment has since been removed, leaving behind a sunken square with weeds and holes.  This made me think that the local council was not going to replace the broken fitness equipment.  

The local chin up bars have been removed

This is what was left of the chin up bars after the floods

Then I remembered council also had to replace the broken playground that was destroyed by the floods, and I vaguely remember someone saying something about them putting in new 'fitness equipment' there.  So I went to have a look at the new playground.

The new playground looks good.  Sadly, the new fitness equipment does not.  

Nothing there is overly useful, and there were no chin up bars.  Such a wasted opportunity.

The new fitness equipment

The new equipment, from the other direction

What a sad state our country is in when there are no longer any public chin up bars in the region.  

Earlier this year I did an exercise challenge where I completed 100+ pull ups per day for ten consecutive days.  I also did a pull up challenge over the month of May.  My son and I then did another challenge that we called 'the big hour' where we each completed over 100 strict pull ups in one hour.  Very few people in this country have ever achieved these things.  

There is no way people can train to be able to do these exercises unless they already own monkey bars or something similar.  This is not really possible for renters.  I am very lucky as I have monkey bars at home, and use them for many strength exercises, but there are a few things I would like to do that cannot be done using my monkey bars.  

I live in a country where over 2 out of every 3 people is overweight or obese.  Most of the 'fit' and 'strong' people that I see lack functional strength and just rely on their bulk.  Most have very low strength to weight ratio.  Many have low muscle tone.  If they had some way to train I can only imagine what they would be able to achieve.

Our councils dedicate money to improving health, but the money is all directed to the wrong areas.  Put in some chin up bars, allow people to train strength using body weight.  

Kettlebell Get Up

I have been doing the kettlebell get up for some time now and thought I should write a blog post on it.

This exercise is often called a 'Turkish Get Up' or a 'Kettlebell Get Up' or much less frequently a "Russian Get Up".  It is great for whole body strengthening and conditioning.  My understanding is that even though it uses a Russian girya, it was Turkish wrestlers who originally developed this exercise.

I have a few old injuries that are causing increasing issues as I age.  I take prescription medication each day, as well as that I am allowed to take over the counter pain killers such as paracetamol when needed.  

My body started to degrade, so I decided to get stronger by doing body weight exercises.  This really helped, and for some time I was in far less pain and was more able to do everyday things.  Then inevitably, my body got older, and it started to degrade again.  I was in more and more pain, I was back to having days where my migraine would not ease off, and I was less able to do day-to-day things.  

I take my prescription as directed, and I often needed to take paracetamol once or twice during the day.  As time went on I was taking more and more paracetamol until it reached the point where I was taking the maximum safe dosage every day.  This reached a point where, often an hour or two before I could take my next dose, I was counting down the minutes and wishing time would hurry.  

This was a dreadful way to live, so I decided to try and change it.  I started doing kettlebell get ups.  They helped a lot.

I still do some body weight exercises each day, and some stretches, as well as doing GetUps.  I started doing one each side (two in total) with a very light weight.  I worked my way up to doing three each side (six in total) with a light weight.  Then I progressed to doing five per side (ten in total).  This only takes me five to ten minutes, and does not have to be completed in one go.  From here I have kept the number the same, and am gradually increasing the weight.  

Since doing Get Ups I no longer have many entire days of migraines.  I am in far less pain.  Most days I only take my prescription and don't need anything else.  That is a massive improvement to my quality of life.  

With a get-up, you move through a hip hinge, a knee-dominant move, and transforming a horizontal press into an isometric vertical press.  As the movement is unilateral, you are actively resisting rotation the whole time.  It’s rare that you get to practice so many cornerstone movements in a single rep of an exercise.  

Some benefits of doing Get Ups include:

• Time under tension is significant when compared to other exercises
• Involves many movements in one exercise
• It targets many muscle groups in unison
• Improves mobility and enhances the ability to do everyday tasks
• Promotes cross lateralization (eg getting right brain to work with left side)
• Promotes upper body stability
• Promotes lower body stability
• Enhances core strength and stability
• Ties the right arm to the left leg, and left arm to the right leg (similar to martial arts)
• Helps build balance
• Promotes spatial awareness
• Develops a front/back weight shift
• Develops upper body strength, trunk strength, and hip strength
• Retains and develops the ability of getting up from the floor (which is important as we age) 
• Improves shoulder stability through different planes of motion and positions
• Improves coordination
• Helps to even out any movement asymmetries you might have
• Has carryover into other sports like martial arts

I considered writing instructions on how to do a Get Up.  Pavel Tsatsouline provides excellent demonstration and instructions here (starting from about 15:04) and you are best going there and watching/rewatching this rather than me trying to paraphrase Pavel.  

With the GetUp there are some safety tips in there to take heed of.  They are all mentioned in Pavel's video.  I will stress that you must never do more than five consecutive reps per side, and never train to failure.  It is not hard to learn this as long as you start lighter than you think.  Many people start learning this skill with no weight, or using something super light such as a shoe.  Build up weight slowly, and all will be well.  

Once you have a kettlebell, you don't spend any more money to be able to do this.  Kettlebells are built tough, they should last a lifetime, so no need to buy replacements.  There are no gym fees, no membership fees, and no personal trainers.  It only takes 5 to 10 minutes spread through the day to do these, no travel time, no wasted time wasted getting into and out of gym clothes.  

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: "the kettlebell is an ancient Russian weapon against weakness".  Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным).