Cardio Logs

Cardio Logs - 2009

I was engaging in "short, intense cardio" after my powerlifting workouts, as discussed in my powerlifting book. Namely, I was doing step-ups on my squat box on squat days, jumping rope on deadlift days, and hitting a heavy bag on Bench and Bench Assistance days. Thus I was doing cardio of some sort four times a week, along with lifting four days a week.

However, due to injuries to both hamstrings, step-ups and jumping rope were too intense, so I began walking after those workouts in September 2009. But it was still too much on my hamstrings to walk right after my workouts, so starting October 5th I began taking my own advice from my powerlifting book and splitting up such longer-term, lower intensity cardio and my lifting. I began walking in the mornings, and then lifting in the late afternoons.

Since that went well, starting October 18th, I moved hitting my heavy bag to the mornings on my Bench and Bench Assistance days. Splitting up my cardio and lifting should enable me to make better progress on the cardio and will shorten up my lifting workouts so they are not as fatiguing.

Initially, I was not walking very far or fast due to my hamstrings and not being used to walking, and I wasn't hitting the heavy bag very hard or long due to an injury to my left pec. But by following the plan outlined in the chapter on exercise in my Eating Plan book, God-willing, I will be able to gradually increase my time and intensity.

For those looking for a plan for starting an exercise program or rehabbing an injury, I am including my cardio logs here. They will demonstrate how to go about gradually doing so. Keeping such logs is a great incentive to keep up with an exercise program. They also allow you to quickly see your progress, thus further encouraging continuance.

The walking steps and mileage are being measured by a pedometer. I didn't remember about having a pedometer until my fourth walk. I'm not sure how accurate the pedometer's step count is and more so its conversion from steps to miles. The conversion is based on stride length, which will vary as I increase my pace. But the important point is to gradually increase the distance, and a pedometer is sufficiently accurate for that purpose. The mph are calculated from the time and mileage. This again is probably not very accurate, but sufficient to keep tabs on walking pace. On some occasions, the pedometer reading was obviously wrong or I forgot to use it. In these cases, I estimated the distances from the preceding and following readings.

Also, by December I had worked up to a circular path of a little over half a mile and then began working my way up a long, rather steep hill. So as not to overdo it, I only went a small distance further up the hill each walk. That is why the increases during December are very gradual.

On the heavy bag, my plan was to start with just two minutes at a light intensity and gradually increase the time and intensity. It's not possible to indicate intensity, but below is my gradually increasing time.

The first and last minute or so of both the walking and the heavy bag are being done at a slow pace for a warm-up and cool-down, respectively.

For my weightlifting workouts at this time, see Full Workout Logs: Starting 9-27-09: Rehab 2 Workouts - Weeks 1-6 of 12.

Walking Log

Date	Time	Steps	Miles	MPH	Comments
9-2, W	4:18	---	---	---
9-6, Su	4:30	---	---	---
9-9, W	4:50	---	---	---
9-13, Su	4:50	446	0.23	2.38
9-16, W	6:10	588	0.24	2.36
9-20, Su	6:33	611	0.25	2.30
9-23, W	7:03	670	0.27	2.31
9-27, Su	skip	---	---	---	Bad weather
10-1, Th	7:33	685	0.28	2.24
10-5, M	7:33	700	0.28	2.24	Start mornings
10-8, Th	7:34	744	0.30	2.40
10-12, M	8:00	815	0.32	2.40	Estimated
10-16, F	8:27	851	0.34	2.40
10-19, M	8:56	918	0.36	2.40
10-22, Th	9:28	943	0.38	2.40	Skipped workout
10-28, W	10:15	1020	0.41	2.40
11-1, Su	10:07	1035	0.42	2.50
11-4, W	11:20	1143	0.46	2.44
11-8, Su	11:07	1116	0.45	2.43	Different path
11-11, W	12:09	1200	0.50	2.48	Estimated
11-15, Su	11:58	1275	0.52	2.60
11-18, W	13:01	1357	0.55	2.54
11-21, Su	13:11	1426	0.58	2.66
11-25, W	12:14	1256	0.51	2.50	Different path
11-29, Su	12:34	1386	0.56	2.68
12-1, Tu	?	?	?	?	Xmas Shopping
12-6, Su	13:12	1392	0.57	2.59
12-9, W	13:15	1425	0.58	2.62	Estimated
12-13, Su	13:30	1460	0.60	2.67	Estimated
12-17, Th	13:36	1491	0.61	2.71
12-21, M	13:50	1525	0.62	2.69	Estimated
12-24, Th	14:16	1557	0.63	2.65	Sore hamstring
12-31, Th	15:42	1679	0.68	2.59

Heavy Bag Log

Date	Time	Comments
9-7. M	2:00
9-10, Th	2:15
9-14, M	2:30
9-17, Th	2:45
9-21, M	3:00
9-27, Su	3:15
9-30, W	3:30
10-4, Su	3:45
10-7, W	4:00
10-11, Su	4:15
10-15, Th	4:30	Start mornings
10-18, Su	5:00
10-21, W	5:30
10-26, M	6:00
10-29, Th	6:30
11-2, M	7:00
11-5, Th	7:30	Felt good
11-9, M	8:00
11-12, Th	8:30
11-16, M	---	Skipped workout
11-19, Th	8:30
11-23, M	9:00
11-26, Th	9:00
11- 30, M	9:30
12-3, Th	10:00
12-7, M	10:00
12-10, Th	10:30
12-14, M	11:00
12-20, Su	11:00
12-23, W	11:30
12-27, Su	11:30
12-30, W	12:00

These cardio logs are continued at: Cardio Log - First Half of 2010.

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