Mellow Monday ...

Another day; another brick in the wall ... 

Starting my second week of recuperation after the ultrasound  knee injection two Fridays ago, so it was off to the gym this morning for an upper-body and core workout. My first legs routine was going to be Saturday, but it looks like I'm going to postpone that a little bit until I get back from visiting my dad down in Houston. He is 84 years old, and not doing  very well, health-wise.

One thing I've been working on is pull-ups (machine-assisted). I've never been able to do pull-ups, and it finally occurred to me to try doing the negative portion of the pull-up, to help build strength for that movement. So that was my first exercise today.

I stood on a step-up platform, grabbed a high bar, palms facing away, and pushed off, arms bent, trying to hold myself up as gravity pulled the other direction. Mostly, it was a slow descent, but it was good. I did two more reps like that, and before too long, I'll be able to hold myself up at the top, and then start working on lowering a little bit, then pulling back up. Look out latissimus dorsi!

After that, I did six sets of hanging leg raises, again on the high bar. I'm already getting stronger at these, but today my hands were slipping on this smooth metal bar the last couple of sets. Maybe some gloves are in order.

A friend who was doing chin-ups across the way then showed me a routine on the Smith machine that I think is going to be helpful, too. Laying on my back on the floor, underneath the barbell, legs extended with feet propped up on a step-up platform, grabbing the bar with palms facing in, and doing horizontal chin-ups. I was able to do eight reps this way. Good stuff.

After that, I did some bent-over dumbbell rows, dumbbell shoulder press, triceps press, side laterals, front laterals, rear laterals, narrow grip standing rows, cable flyes, and finished with three sets of ab wheel roller.

Pretty good workout.

Another brick in the wall.

And, as always, here is the requisite pitch for my book, "Finally Fit," the story of my pole vaulting journey that began around the time I turned 60 years old. Find it HERE.

Ciao, y'all ...