Dufisthenics

A couple weeks ago I started seeing a guy showing up at the gym that strikes me as somewhat odd.  The first thing is his attire is the same regardless of temperature outside, sweatpants and a large hoodie sweatshirt.  The sweatshirt is always worn with the hood up to enhance his Assassin’s Creed look and enhance his ability to ignore others.  The guy does not appear to be overweight so I am not sure why he is trying to sweat off extra water weight.

But the really odd thing is his workout which appears to be nothing but core, every day.  It isn’t a diverse core routine, the vast majority of it appears to be leg lifts on the ab board while wearing ankle weights.  For a half hour he did nothing but this movement.  Towards the end of my workout for some variety he did knee raises instead. Both of those movements are quality exercises but I don’t really understand doing nothing but these movements day in and day out.

I wasn’t thrilled doing lower body work today considering I am still walking with a slight limp.  Instead of doing the squat press at the beginning of the workout it got tacked on at the end.  I normally prefer doing compound lower body movements up front.  Doing them after fatiguing your legs with leg curls and extensions definitely affects your productivity.  I also had ROM issues because of swelling that still exists in my right knee.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Seated leg extensions – 100lbs x 10

Seated leg curls – 100lbs x 10

Standing calf raise – 205lbs x 10

Seated leg extensions – 115lbs x 10

Seated leg curls – 115lbs x 10

Standing calf raise – 250lbs x 10

Seated leg extensions – 130lbs x 10

Seated leg curls – 130lbs x 10

Standing calf raise – 295lbs x 8

Squat press – 225lbs x 10, 315lbs x 10, 405lbs x 8, 495lbs x 5

So I decided to do some dragon flags as part of my core Friday.  I completed one set of 5 reps and was at the bottom portion of rep 3 of the second set when I felt a jolt through my lower right side, shifted a little bit towards the back.   The pain was quick and severe and instantly dropped me out of my suspended body position.  I sat up and did a quick self assessment to see if I tore any vital organs.  I didn’t feel anything horrible besides some mild residual pain in the area so I resumed my ab workout, just dropping any more dragon flags from the agenda.

Doing an extremely total body strain move like dragon flags may not be the wisest decision for someone in the homestretch of a half century on the planet.  However how cool of an obituary would that be, Duf dies mid-dragon flag…..

The gym recently hired a woman that I knew for awhile as a fellow gym patron.  She is in shape and has crazy multi-colored hair.  I was in absolute shock when I saw what she was doing, CLEANING!  The gym simply is not maintained well. Double digit pieces of equipment are either broken or need repair in some way.  The bathrooms are gross and routinely run out of supplies like paper towels or soap.  I have documented some of the problems in the showers too like broken fixtures and drains that don’t drain.

So anyway this woman was going around with a mop and cleaning the areas that I have not seen touched since the gym reopened.  She was getting under and behind machines where mountains of dust bunnies resided.  Hell she even cleaned the cob webs in the back corners of the gym that have been there for a year or more.  I was so impressed and pleased I told her that she was awesome and I appreciated her doing all that cleaning.  She said it really needed it which I enthusiastically agreed to.  I can only hope this woman doesn’t have the same average tenure as most front desk staff at the gym which can measured in months if not weeks.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

20 pull ups

50 push ups

Dragon flags x 5

Standing dowel oblique rotations x 20

Dragon flags x 2.5

Standing dowel oblique rotations x 20

Hanging knee raises x 20

Standing dowel oblique rotations x 20

P-bar knee raises x 20

One arm side plank x 60 sec – both sides

Static floor leg raise hold x 60 seconds

Extension plank hold x 60 seconds

Static floor leg raise hold x 60 seconds