Tag: blood pressure

Today I did my fitness assessment. As I suspected, I gained some weight (about 10 lbs from my last weigh-in) and some fat (1% from my most recent test). The trainer couldn’t measure the fat on my thigh because my quads are so huge. That was nice.

I was pleasantly surprised at my muscular endurance score. I did 40 push ups before losing form.

I don’t fully understand the cardio endurance test. I was supposed to keep a specific rate on the bicycle while the monitor measured my heart rate. Then the computer changed the resistance on the bike. It worked in 3-minute cycles. The computer told me I was done, but I felt like I could have gone longer. Then my report said my cardio needs improvement. I don’t disagree, but I also don’t understand why.

Improving cardio will help the other area that needs help – my fat percentage. I also talked to the trainer about weight lifting for burning day instead of weight lifting to bulk up.

My BP and heart rate (which aren’t bad but could be better) should improve in tandem with my cardio endeavors.

All that leaves is back flex. My plan is to do more yoga and lyra, but I’m not sure what I can afford this month since I need to make some repairs to my car. Yoga is free at UWF, but lyra (which is just so much fun) is off-site and carries a small fee.

Today was rest day, so I don’t have anything to report on that front. I ended up skipping fencing because I didn’t feel prepared for my real job tomorrow, so there’s nothing new there either. We’ll see what tomorrow has in store for me.

Tonight was another all-out Krav practice. I still don’t do so well with what I refer to as “changing planes.” Basically, if my head is alternating between being above and below my heart (like breaking out of a headlock) or if I’m getting up and down a lot (like doing burpees), I tend to have issues with my blood pressure. I’m not passing out, but I do see the static at the edges of my vision. I actually stopped once, but usually I try to fight through. I figure if I’m ever being attacked for real, my assailant won’t hold off on me if I get heady.

Right now I know I need to work on stopping an attack with a punch. My instinct is to block that outside strike, but I really don’t need to. I also need to review my forward kicks to make them more like a knee with a snap (if you do Krav, that makes sense, if you don’t, well… I’m not sure how to clarify).

At any rate, I feel awesome after class, and I’ve dropped 5 lbs since the beginning of the year. I’m assuming I was holding some water weight at that first weigh-in. I haven’t been leaning out hard enough to drop that much weight in 10 days. More importantly, though, I feel strong (except when I’m in armor, but that’s another story!).