Stronger/Thanksgiving in 2022

I’m getting stronger! The right arm still hurts, though. I’ve revised my workout routines, not slowly, but still incrementally. I currently perform a Muay Thai shadow boxing workout twice a week. It’s not an official workout, but I cobbled together some drills from some YouTubers on the subject and added what I liked. It takes me about a half an hour, after which I do three core exercises: mountain climbers, Russian twists, and flutter kicks. I’ll perform each of those a minute with a one minute break before proceeding to the next exercise. Once a week, after one of those shadow boxing sessions, I’ll do my isometric stretches. That is, my front and straddle splits. Those shadow boxing drills make those stretching sessions much easier as my body is warm and lose by that time.

More importantly, I’ve figured out a smarter way to do resistance training. I think I’ve permanently given up squats and deadlifts for Bulgarian split squats and single leg deadlifts. The beauty of those two exercises is that they apply all of the resistance of their two legged counterparts, but with so much less weight. Right now, I’m only working up to between 50lbs and 60lbs for both of them. My muscles get the workout they need, but my joints aren’t anywhere near as stressed. My only remorse is that I didn’t have the wisdom to make this switch years ago. Now, I just need to figure out some exercises that will rejuvenate my shoulder and elbow.

I spent Thanksgiving by myself, and it was (mostly) glorious! My sister didn’t invite me up to D.C. because she and her husband were going to visit his brother. My brother still isn’t talking to me, so he wouldn’t have been an option, and I’m not sure I would have wanted to if he was. My aunt and uncle are too old to handle Thanksgiving anymore, so I’m not sure what they did. I suspect that their kids, my cousins, now handle it. I’m glad I wasn’t invited; I’ve often felt intrusive the few times I was.

What did I do? I went to the gym (of course). I read a little of my book (not as much as I wanted to or should have). I “bullet-proofed” my bike tires. I watched a video about the following hack, and I couldn’t help but try it. I bought some pipe insulation from Home Depot. They’re basically like pool noodles, but they’re intended to keep pipes from freezing. I took off my bike tires, wrapped the inner tubes in them, then put the results back in the tires, and put the tires back on the rims. I can’t imagine ever blowing out a tire ever again!

I was only able to go riding once, sadly. I was going to go today, but I also bought a rifle safe for my Black Friday purchase. Tractor Supply was selling a full fledged, 20-30 gun, fireproof safe for $350 (down from $500). I don’t have anywhere near that many firearms, so I can use that extra space to store my ammo, tools, and other peripherals. I don’t think I’ll ever have that many. I have one more stripped lower receiver I can use for an AR build, and I really want to get a shotgun, specifically, a DP-12 and/or a Kel-Tec KSG, but I need to prioritize responsibility after I’ve been so indulgent this year. Unfortunately, I had to rent an SUV to pick it up because my ‘03 Acura didn’t have the space to transport it. That was an extra $120, so didn’t really save that much. Still, I’m glad my firearms are now safely locked up when I’m not around.

I hope I get to go riding tomorrow. The temperature is projected to be in the mid 60s, but the forecast also calls for rain.