Yeh!!!! We Are In Korea…………..

WOW!!! Taiwan, Japan and Korea; what a tour, working and working out over the last 2 1/2 years. I have learned quite a bit about these cultures professionally as an engineer and on a social level, one only sees by hitting the gym on a regular basis. Yep, being a gym rat can be cross cultural.

So as I posted in my last entry, I am using the gym at the Grand Hotel in Asan-si Korea. It is an older gym, but it is usable and the membership fees are less than Japan. Plus two of my coworkers are sharing that time and trying to keep up (LOL), not sure why but I enjoy the company. Maybe they’re also looking to lose that Last 10 Pounds as we come to the end of our grand Asian tour.

The Foot.....................

I’m still recovering from the broken foot that has slowed me down since June, it is getting better and I am up to 4, 5K runs a week. In Asan Korea, because of this slow recovery, these 5K runs are segmented. I do 5 segments of 5 minutes at a 10 minute mile and 1 ½ minutes at a 12 or 13minute mile with a 3 minute warm up on the front and back end of the runs, I’ve been getting 5K out of these and have slowly been improving the distance over that fixed time period (3…5…1 ½…5…1 ½…5…1 ½…5…1 ½…5…3; 37 minutes total). I have only completed 1 of my ‘split 20’s’ since moving here on October 1^st. And the ‘Widowmaker’, that will probably have to wait until next spring. All is not lost however, of the 5 segments, 3 are up hill with 2 of the 3 at a 5 to 7% grade. It’s almost like running stairs.

So this is my cardio, and I am seeing consistent improvement so I know I’m on the right track.

Squat, Squat and Squat……………

Over the past year, in Japan, I had been working on deadlifts for what seems like forever. It got to the point that there was very little improvement and the even worse, very little desire to improve. I was doing everything I could to stay away from the smith machine. However, over time I have slowly but surely shifted my leg days from a dead lift to squats under the smith. And in Korea, they have a smith that is not counterweighted; the bar weight is approximately 30 lbs.

And what have I been doing under that smith rack, as heavy and as deep a squat as I can muster. In fact I can spend a good 40 minutes or so just adding weight and doing another 8 reps. For the heavier squats, I use a bench to poke me in the butt to mark the low spot (box squat style) and I move my feet out quite a ways so that my back is 90 degrees to the floor at the bottom of the lift; maybe more of a hack squat. Where I feel it is in the center of my quad’s. I generally keep the weight at 265 or 280 lbs for 2 or 3 working sets and pyramid up and pyramid down to and from that weight. There are maybe 12 to 15 sets; just over 100 reps. What I find is a tremendous pump in my quads, especially after the heavy sets at the top of the pyramid. Very cool.

And after this I like to do light weight (been working at 125 to 130 lbs) ‘deep’ squats; 4 sets 8 reps, ass to grass. Again because of the smith, I kick my feet way out in front so I can keep my back more or less perpendicular to the floor at the bottom. If I concentrate on contracting my ab’s and pulling with my hip flexors I get an ab exercise that feels 50 times as powerful as a simple floor crunch. Again; Very cool.

And as I had mentioned, my coworkers that are sharing my gym experience in Korea, even at lighter weights (less than 50%) cannot keep up with that volume of leg work. It amazes me that I can.

The only thing I can’t do is run the next day. Yep, my legs are a wreck for a day after this level of abuse.

Those Damn Frogs……………

In early November, I was in Taichung Taiwan for a one week mission for the client and stayed at the Tempus Hotel. The Tempus also has a pretty good gym, very similar to Korea, Beijing and Japan; a bench, a smith, a rack of dumbbells and a couple of extra 20 kg bars. And it just so happened that it was ‘Bicycle Week’ in Taichung during my stay. Bicycle week is where all of the top end bicycle manufacturers from around the world meet and show there wares. Frames and cranks and gear-sets and wheels and brakes and saddles and handlebars and shoes and clothing………..and anything bicycle is on display. There were three main hotels involved this year and one was of course the Tempus. So when I wondered up to the gym in the evening, there was an international gathering of cyclists; or at least the manufacturing representatives of various bicycle component manufacturers. And there was one in particular that caught my attention…………..

This guy started on weight machines, did a couple of reps then talked on his cell phone for 10 minutes. Went to the next machine, did a couple of reps and spent the next 10 minutes on his cell phone. He kept looking in my direction waiting for me to finish up on the bench. So after my sets on the bench, he ran over and in broken French and English, he asked if I was done, so I waved him on. He was not a big man; a bit smaller framed than me and at one time, maybe a bit thinner through the waist. His shirt was a bit too tight. Anyway this guy loads up about 230 lbs on the bar, gets under it and tries as hard as he can to push the bar up over the pins; it doesn’t budge. He then sits up, dials out and talks another 10 minutes on his cell. Then he leaves. Me and a Taiwanese fellow just kind of looked astonished by the show, smiled at each other and unloaded the Frenchman’s bar. The Taiwanese fellow just smiled, shrugged and said ‘Damn Frogs’. We both went on to finish our workouts. What a memory…………

Supplements……………

As I’ve discussed in previous blog entries, I have tried various supplements and vitamins with some providing pretty good results and some just being crap. Recently, since the move to Korea, I have stopped all intake of vitamins, powders and elixirs; I have quit cold turkey. WOW!!! Is there a reason?? Nope, just quit. So since October 1^st I have been supplement free. The list really wasn’t that extreme and I really don’t have any after effects; negative or positive. My list was;

Fish Oil	Multivitamin
500 mg B3, Niacin	100 mg B6
2000 iu D	500 mcg B12
BCAA before and after runs	Calcium

We will be ending our project in Asia in February and I will be seeing my pill pusher for the first time in almost 3 years. He will order me a much needed blood work up and of course he will ask why I have ditched the Lipitor and the Niacin. What I’m curious about isn’t so much my cholesterol numbers, it’s the blood sugar. I don’t think there is an issue but I’m thinking that I just might stay away from all supplements just to see how I come out; a new baseline for my KPI’s. And if cholesterol is high, so be it. If the numbers are reversed again, (LDL vs. HDL) then maybe back to the 3 B’s. We’ll wait and see.

I do feel pretty fit, and pushing 60 years that’s saying a lot. So Run, Jump, Lift and Squat; anything goes when you push for that Last 10 Pounds.

MMJennings