191.6

So the score a few moments ago was 191.6 English pounds on the Tanita scale.  This would probably put me somewhere around 190.7X on the Bod Pod this morning.

Jury Duty continues to disrupt my workout schedule and my diet.  I have had no noon-time workouts during the past 5 work days.  I won't get one in today either.  Worse still, I had Burger King for lunch yesterday.  It was among the worst meals I ever ate.  It made my stomach hurt, and I haven't had that kind of discomfort in several months now.

The good news is that I have hit 3 consecutive days of CrossFit workouts, starting last Sunday.  The Halloween workout was particularly brutal.  Coach figured only the most hardcore yahoos would show up for a CrossFit workout instead of going to a Halloween party.  He naturally tried to kill us with a cardio workout that would take-out a triathlete.

The big news is that I am adapting to the stress of the CrossFit workout really well.  When I first started doing CrossFit, I was sore in all kinds of places I hadn't felt in 20 years.  My right knee and my right foot were sore and swollen as hell.  I am told this is all perfectly normal.  Whenever anyone starts doing CrossFit, said individual usually goes through these types of adjustment problems.  I am getting the pain and the soreness under control now.

Just how do you control the pain and the soreness of the CrossFit workout?  This is how I have done it:

1. You have to take the warm-up exercises super-seriously.  Go all-out during warm-ups.
2. You have to do cool-down stretches.
3. During cool-down, the foam roller is your best friend.  You must roll-out your hamstrings and calf muscles.  Your calves will be shot to pieces by the jump rope.  Your hamstrings will be shot to pieces from over-head squats, thrusters, and wall-ball. If you don't roll them out immediately after the workout, you will be sore the next day.  The foam roller works wonders.
4. You must take a recovery drink immediately after the cool down.  That recovery drink must contain carbohydrate.  Further, it must contain more carbohydrate than protein.  It cannot be a pure protein drink.  Iso-Pure 50 won't get it done.  If you don't restore your muscle glycogen, you will be sore the next day.
5. I head down the street immediately after the CrossFit work-out and spend 30 minutes in the saunas at 24 Hour Fitness.  I spend 15 minutes in the Steam Sauna and 15 minutes in the Dry Sauna.  I shower-off with the coldest water possible between Saunas.  Alternating heat and cold helps flush lactic acid out of the muscles.

If you will do all of this, you will be tired the next day, but you won't walk like a crippled man.  You will be okay and ready to do it again 24 hours later.

ROMfab 4 Minute Workout Cross Trainer Hunger Pangs

A while ago, I blogged about my discovery of the ROMfab 4 Minute Cross Trainer. I first heard of it from an advertisement published in the back of Discovery Magazine. It was one of the many exotic devices advertised in the last few pages. The stunning price caught my attention.

To recap, I visited the factory (less than 15 miles from my apartment) and I was blown away by the intensity of the workout. I quickly realized that the lower body workout constituted the more valuable half of this machine. This is the most powerful rehab exercise I have ever done for my knees. Given my arthritic knees, this machine is worth it's weight in gold. Tis a pitty that men coming back from serious knee surgery (like Shawne Merrimen and Tom Brady) don't use this machine. It would have helped Payton Manning quite a bit last season.

From that moment until two weeks ago, I was on a non-stop quest to acquire one of these ROM machines. It was not easy. The $15k to $16k price tag of a new A-Machine made it prohibitive. There is a cheaper clone machine, but it is not cheap either. ROMfab answered the cheaper clone with an even cheaper clone, but this has recently risen in price also. In short, I was watching eBay.com, looking for a used unit I could grab for cheap.

Well, my opportunity came. I found an owner desperate to sell in Laguna Hills. I scored at a paltry $6000. That is a stunning figure for most people. Most men of middle-class means would never consider purchasing a $6,000 exercise machine for the home. They more stunned when they realize that I got it at $9000 to $10,000 off the list price. I may be the only dude living in a Canoga Park Apartment who owns one of these things.

So what are the results of my first two weeks with the machine? Pretty damn good. I will start tracking my weight and body composition soon, but not right away. The prime directive is to be able to do 4 straight minutes on the lower body exercise setting the resistance for my ideal body weight (231 according to my doctor). Right now I can only do approximately 2:15 on the lower body. Dr. Bachner would be shocked that I can do that much. I am already blasting the full 4 minutes on the upper body exercise, and scoring 127-128, at my ideal body weight. Dr. Tom Long tells me this is a very good score.

As far as results are concerned, I can tell you that my mobility has improved. I don't have to grab both guidance bars when walking down the stairs. I don't have to edge my way down the stairs, avoiding weight on my right knee. I am waking up in the morning with considerable energy. Much more than before. If I crush a workout during lunch, I experience no narcoleptic fades in the afternoon.

The strange thing is that it seems more like a body building workout than an aerobic workout. My muscles are recovering some of their mass. The hunger pangs that strike after the workout are almost unreal. The hunger pangs that occur through the day are also unreal. Tonight, I demolished an 18 inch 3 pound Carne Asada burrito from my favorite shack around the corner. This was not my intention. I was going to cut it in half, and have the other half for breakfast tomorrow. I have never been able to finish one of these 3 pounders in a single sitting, nor have I ever wanted to try. I couldn't stop. I destroyed the whole thing in a single sitting. I was stuffed, but I knew deep inside that I needed the building blocks. I am rebuilding... just like the Patriots and the Rams.