Training updates, etc

Just a quick update as to how things are going. Garden is coming along. Got the gate posts in the ground for the new fence and picked up the remaining steel for the rest of it yesterday. About half of the expanded garden plot has been double-dug and planted with some late winter crops like lettuce, broccoli, beets, cauliflower, spinach, etc. No spring stuff in the ground yet. Gotta love the Tucson winters with it already in the 80's some days here.

Training wise I have shifted gears. The plan I was working off of was a bit more than my current recovery abilities were capable of handling. The high tension levels of the above 90% gripper closes were also exacerbating shoulder tightness issue and upper back / neck tightness problems. So I took a few days off and reformulated a new plan. Training more often at a lower intensity level and lower volume. Added in alot more stretching and active shoulder rehab work to try and get my problematic left one good and loosened up as well as pain free before I damage it more. Will be mostly GTG and Ladders for awhile to see how this plays out based on the ideas behind this. It is pretty low daily volume per exercise in one workset but single workset stuff has worked for me before. In addition to adding the active shoulder rehab work in, I have added overhead press and bench which I haven't done much of since early 2012. Still hopeful to get an over 40 yrs above 400# bench again before I'm too old and broken to do it.

Starting point on the Bench was 5x135 on Monday and 5x95 on the Seated Overhead Press. Low percentage lifts both of them by the feel. Doing the lifts each day and trying to add a little weight til I hit my 5RM.

Fall Garden

So I've been slacking on the garden upkeep since early summer and the home garden got totally overrun with effing bermuda grass. Since its time to plant fall stuff we have started working on whipping it back into shape so we can get planting. I have already cleared out our community garden plot and prepped it for planting with a few bags of manure, 200# of builders sand to improve the drainage and 10# of earthworm castings tilled in this last weekend. Got some of the seeds picked out and a few more ordered including 3 different varieties of good garlic, carrots, radishes, beets, lettuce sugar snap peas and spinach. Yum! We are gonna do a cover crop at home once I get it cleared out in the main bed and possibly some of the other stuff mentioned above in the raised beds at home. Looking forward to some fresh veggies again!

Veggie harvest from yesterday evening

Had a sizable harvest yesterday. Bunch of tomatoes, some cukes, peppers, carrots, etc. Check out the pic if you are into that sort of thing. The biggest of the tomatoes were about 1 3/4#, with 2 of them being over 1 1/2#. First of the Orange Ox Heart's, and Caspian Pinks ripened finally.

Some tomatoes picked from our garden over the last few days. There would probably be close to double the amount here but we ate them, cut them up to save seeds, or gave them away already. Also pictured are some cucumbers, yellow squash, a tiny japanese eggplant, and an enormous zucchini in front. Tomato varieties are German Johnson (large pink beefstakes that weigh about a pound), Yellow pear, Box Car Willie ( medium size around 6 oz), Stupice (small russian salad tomato), and Viva Italiano (plum type paste tomato). Tasty tomatoes for sure.

Lunchtime training

I'll admit it. I've been slacking on training for the last 3 months. I did my first gripper workout in some time a couple of days ago. I still don't quite have the fire I once did for training but maybe a little interest is coming back. My buddy Zach stopped by the house today during my lunchtime in order to taste test some of the tomato varieties from the garden. Zach is another man after my own heart being a grip guy, tomato grower and homegrown tomato connoisseur. After checking out the garden we cut into a large pink beefstake style tomato, munched on some yellow pears, etc. Also pulled a few carrots from the garden, to munch on. Every thing was super tasty.  After all that we started talking training and I pulled out some grippers for an impromptu gripper training session. I think both of us are gonna have some sore forearms tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by Big Z.