PCP Sickness

Man this sucks! 

So late last week I was feeling sick and left early from work friday. Which I HATE doing. It's one of those things that 1 I rarely ever get sick and 2 I know how much extra work gets placed on the crew if only 1 person calls in. It's really tough because everyone in our pharmacy works to the max anyway so when someone calls in there really is no back-up.

So yesterday I felt fine and worked my shift and was great Got my workout in and it was cool.

This morning I woke up and was achy. I thought form yesterday's workout. I also woke up with a really dry mouth so I thought that was why my throat was sore and also really bad mucus which isn't unusual in the morning for me. So I ate breakfast and then shortly after did my jumps. I made it through those OK went inside cut my hair and by then felt really gross so I took a Looooong shower. Felt better. Ate an apple then man the effects for the shower wore off FAST.

Now I have that achy feeling in all my joints. Feel weak. And have the "hot breath" thing that makes me think I have a fever. You know when you exhale out your only working nostril and it feels aflame? Yea. And also my skin is super sensitive to cold right now. 

So things aren't looking so good. I'm gonna have to skip the workout today I want to be better by wednesday. Which is the next day I have to work. I haven't officially called in for the day yet but I called to let em know I'm not feeling to hot and I'm Calling back a little later to confirm one way or the other. But I am not one just to down some tylenol and cover the achy-ness and go to work. I really want to get better and that might mean just taking it slow and healing. 

Anyway I hope everyone else enjoys the beautiful day!

S'all Good

Hey all

I just wanted to let everyone know I feel great and am doing good. The new workouts are tough! But great nonetheless.

I'll have a nice post tomorrow but I just wanted to check in amidst my busy schedule!

Night

Chin-ups and Quadrupedal Movement

So guys finally here are the pictures of the chin-up bar I got for my home. It's pretty cool. It sets up in 1 second and come down even faster. Uses my door-frame or any door-frame really. Does no damage. And has upgrades I can purchase later. It's really neat and I see know way that I can wear it out ever so it seems like a good purchase for just 45 bucks. Not to mention it took 5 minutes to build.

So here is the bar and what it looks like not on the door

And here it is set up from the front

And the back. 

You can see how it works now. The rectangular bar sets on top of the trim in the back and the front cross-bar sets on the sides for the trim on the front. When you get on it the cantilevered effect holds it in place and can support 300+ pounds depending on the door. So here it is being used in action!

Cool huh? It's pretty neat I think I really dig it. 

So I also wanted to talk a little bit about Quadrupedal movement. Which is using your hands and feet (arms & legs) to propel yourself. They work together to improve speed, reach, balance, or strength.  

Basically it is mimicking certain animal movements in nature and naturally these quadrupedal movements are a huge skill in Parkour to develop.

So on the days that I have to do the creep walk in our work-outs I do other things out on my driveway. Among them being . . .

Cat Walk

Gorilla Walk/Run

Monkey Walk/Run

Rolls

and/or Monkey Crawl Mix-up

So I'll give some brief definitions and then hopefully later I can post some pictures.

Cat Walk - See Adrian & Emiko blog since Emiko did a great job doing this on a railing and they have video! Basically you go left hand, right foot, right hand, left foot, repeat. Keep your back straight and head up to see where you are going. It can be practiced on flat surfaces but is great for railing or narrow surfaces as your balance is much easier to hold with at least 3 point of contact at all times. 

Gorilla Walk/Run - Basically start by sitting like a frog. If you reach out in front and put your hands down you can get a feel for your "reach" the faster you want to go the farther you will reach. And the stronger you have to be. Beginners use your palms but if you want to make it tough use only your finger tips. If you use your finger tips your hand should look like you are holding a big grapefruit. Fingers curved, no knuckles buckling, or bending toward the ground. If you can't keep your hand like that do it with your whole hand, kind of slap your palms down.

So you reach forward place and shift your weight forward by giving a little leap with your legs. All weight will go to your arms in that place right before being able to somersault if you wanted. Then your legs drop back down next to your hands and you repeat form there. It's a great way to travel fast and work great muscles. Also it a great way to learn the movements for a kong vault and getting used your your butt being over your head. 

Monkey Walk/Run - Harder to describe in words but I have seen it described as a cross between a cat walk and a gorilla walk. you can lead with your right or left  side and you run like a chimp! You know how they kind of do that sideways shuffle? Well that's what thing is!

You place your leading arm followed by the next right behind it. then swing your legs forward in the same way as you did your hands. and your leading foot should be the farthest thing forward. Repeat. 

Rolls - Well I cannot explain it as good as the instructional videos out there so go watch some! But basically I have been practicing rolling over both left and right shoulders so I do not favor any side. The basic principles are dispersing impact. Not rolling directly along the spine. Avoid hitting your head. And conserving energy and speed. It's a lot of fun but when you are first starting boy are you sore after doing a few dozen on asphalt.

Monkey Crawl Mix-up - This is my name for it and there a ton out there. It's basic quadrupedal warm-ups and stretches. Slow everything down to an easy speed and move from form to form. Do anything that feels natural and stretches you in a healthy way. Throw in some rolls and hand stands even. Some pistol squats or even down-dog pose and up-dog. Anything really just be like a monkey having a good time and fooling a round. Who knew working out could be so fun!

That's all guys. Have a great one!

Week 8 is here with a bunch of exciting stuff!

Hey guys so here are all my updates for Week 8 so far. A lot of stuff to go over so here we go!

SECTION 1: Diet

Breakfast 120g carb 140g veg 2egg  200ml yogurt (up 20g carb, up 20g veg)

Morning Tea 100g fruit (same)

Lunch 140g carb 120g meat 150g veg 1egg white (up 20g carb, up 20g meat)

Afternoon Tea 100g fruit (same)

Dinner 100g carb 50g meat 100g veg (up 50g carb, up 50g meat, up 20g veg)

Night Tea 100g fruit 200ml milk (up 20g fruit, up 50ml milk, down 1 egg white)

Before Workout 50g carb (same)

After Workout 2 eggs white (up 1 egg white)

Comments: I am eating a ton of food now. This is about as much as when we started our diets in week 2! It's hard to actually eat all of this and keep it straight. But I'm doing my best and eating it all every day. My belly feels huge after breakfast and lunch because I have to pack it all in! It's crazy. But it's what we need of course with our active schedules. And this is definitely more carbs than I ever ate on a regular basis.

SECTION 2: Workouts

I'm going to spare all of the details this week since nothing has really changed. We only have a new biceps workout called the show-off and elevated push-ups for new exercises. And the new concept of working to muscle failure is now mandatory for a few exercises. That's really nice because we can get away from the numbers, just like with times jump-roping. So for example if you do 4 sets to failure you work to failure on every set and naturally the amount you can do decreases with every set.

And we are doing 4 set of 4 minutes of jump-roping. I am having a great time with it actually because I am really spicing it up now with tricks and things. I have developed this way of jumping I call the PCP shuffle. More on that later.

SECTION 3: Indulgence Version 2

So my second indulgence was INDIAN FOOD! I have wanted it so badly for so long! It is my all time favorite food ever.

So I went to this great restaurant called Thali of India and got some seafood masala with basmati rice and garlic naan.

Sadly I have no pictures. 

So I quickly devoured my 700 or so calories. I evjoyed every bite it was so tasty and amazing! However it was much saltier tasting than ever before and that was the only downside. I loved the spicy goodness and the garlic naan tasted so good.

However I ate the naan last and then is when I started feeling gross. It was the most white flour I had had in probably 3 months and it sat really heavy in my stomach and a few minutes late I really started to churn. 

So over-all it was a great indulgence but the downsides were too much salt, so I felt bloated the rest of the day and next morning. And the greasiness of the food made me gassier than usual and the white flour made me sluggish. 

All along there a few things I thought I will change in minor ways after the PCP. I was thinking from time to time I may enjoy some 85% dark chocolate. Make myself fresh OJ like usual (2 Oranges, half grape-fruit, half lemon is my usual recipe) and I really want to start making wine and hard cider. 

All of those things aren't unhealthy and I'm sure I will have allowance for them after the project. As my indulgence 1 showed me however the days of chocolate cake are over. So what about Indian food you may ask? well the answer is after the PCP I will do much experimentation to develop awesome indian homemade recipes that cut out the salt and butter, and awesome whole wheat garlic naan! 

Because man I can't give up those spices.

Have a good one every body!

So I was gonna blog tonight

Well I guess technically I am but not a long one.

Tomorrow morning I will blog about the following

Indulgence v2: Indian Food!

Workout

Diet

And Chin-up bar!

My schedule is insane so I have fallen into a habit of long posts every 3 days or so. I guess that's bad maybe just slightly irritating to any one who follows all our blogs because when I do one of my jumbo posts that would be a lot to read with everyone else's.

That brings me to my only point of the day. If you are a reader of our blogs please comment! We didn't all get 2,000+ views from each other and our few friends and family who follow I'm sure. So if you read please comment. It means a ton and it's nice to know if anyone else out there may be interested in the project. Who knows if there is a PCP3 group you may be it and know us already before you start!

So comment!

Please 

Be back tomorrow. Good night.

Challenges!

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that the PCP by all means is a huge CHALLENGE! 

Right now I have been so busy and it seems so hard to keep up with everything and I have totally been battling not letting the PCP take a back seat in some cases. I don't know why it's so hard sometimes just to do stuff but I have been so worn down and tired it has been hard to do 100% of my exercises some days. And honestly I have let a couple slide here and there. 

That needs to stop.

I don't want to look back and think "Man I could have had a ton better results if I only did THAT or THIS"

I have been keeping everything pretty much at the level it supposed to be but I know it can be a Slippery-slope and I don't want to start down that path. So I hope I can keep things in high gear here and not slip any further. It's not good to get lax on the project AND feel guilty about it so I'm not going to dwell on anything but form here on out I'm going to cultivate the energy and zeal I had on Day 1.

Let's get the adventure going again.

So Help me all hold to this because I know everyone else has there own stresses and problems and I have proven to myself I'm not the kind of person anymore to say "well I just don't have the TIME to get in shape" I have the time and I have the program and I'm afraid of letting you all down. I just need to balance and readjust my mindset.

Six-pack here I come.

And on a positive note the PCP has changed me so much that my diet has not slipped at all. I find it much harder to stick to the workouts. So At least I know at the end of the 90 days eating right is 80% of the battle, and I have the 80% knocked down and covered. But I have 40 more days to get a handle on making working out not a choice but a habit in every way possible. The jump-roping is fine I have never missed a day without a legit substitution but man I just can't get myself to do all my strength workouts some days. It can be a real battle.

So it's time to change and taking preventive measures to not go any further. And as Patrick has always told us the blog is the accountability that keeps us going. If I'm not honest here then I'm not being honest with myself.

Thanks guys for all your support and this probably isn't as dramatic as I made this post sounds, but the PCP has the effect on you. Avoiding 20 grams of vegetable or your shoulder workouts can seem like a HUGE deal with a PCP mentality. While before I would've been like "eh, it's nothing I'll just make it up tomorrow."

Have a great night

PARKOUR HEROS: David Belle

So this is the last of my PK heros post that I am going to do. I figured since David Belle is the hero I chose to work towards for the PCP he deserved 2 posts. In this post I'm gonna show you a little bit about PK and how it's not always safe. And it is certainly not easy. 

For everyone out there new to PK or those that think it's just the next dare-devil risky thing to do beware of stupid videos online of kids just "tricking" that have no training or discipline. 

Parkour CAN be dangerous.

But everyone who takes it's seriously knows that you never do anything that you do not think you can do. And the second you do something that you feel uncomfortable doing that's when you get hurt. Naturally you get all sorts of bumps and bruises all the time but we are talking injuries. As you will see in one of the videos below even David Belle and fall sometimes. 

So please be careful if you are going to practice PK and work at YOUR OWN PACE. Never someone else's. PK and Free-running are trying so hard to gain a strong footing and a good reputation we don't need people breaking or killing themselves because they were stupid and then PK gets a bad rep. 

The other video is from a movie he did. The videos of David Belle are sadly in short supply, especially because so man of the interviews are in french. But I still think it's awesome what he did in that movie and the stunt work involved. You saw in previous posts how he does quality real life PK. So enjoy the bit of entertainment.

So enjoy the videos and learning from David Belle as I have. His years, no decades really, of practice allows him to jump building to building, and I'm sure it also helps him fall better and recover from injury. Go slow, have fun, do PK.