Written by Jacob Cassidy

Operation Herculean Update – Week 3

Topic: Operation Herculean

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Another fun event-filled week in Las Vegas and I still managed to gained 2 pounds while losing nearly another ½ inch of fat from my waist this week. Better results than I was expecting because my exercise and diet is completely unstructured right now.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what I did this week:

Monday

I did my first Zumba class ever, a type of hip hop/Latin dance cardio class. It’s a fun class for the right people, the girl I’m seeing loves it for example, but after trying it out I’ve decided I’m not really a fan.

I have two problems with the class. First, I have the opposite issue as most people in that I have a fast metabolism and don’t like stuffing myself full of food. Doing high energy cardio for an entire hour each day would quickly diminish my ability to gain weight and would likely make me even skinnier. And second, my energy levels are pretty low presently from being sedentary for so long, and the class is too high paced for me at my current levels (this should self-correct as I get fitter).

One thing I found very interesting is there was a few people in the class who go to nearly all the Zumba classes offered in the many different 24 Hour Fitness gyms around the city, yet they’re still fat after doing it for months. I found this out because they’re having a competition to see who can go to the most classes.

Apparently, my training partner was telling me, one lady looks exactly the same (looks like she’s hiding a mini elephant in her spandex) after going to nearly every class, sometime 2 or 3 a day, for 4 months. I noticed these same people were barely pushing themselves in class and most likely justified whatever they were eating after class by thinking they’re exercising hard in class. Very common theme: people think they’re exercising more and eating less. Bad idea. The opposite is usually the truth.

Tuesday

My training partner wanted me to try Zumba Toning with her, which is slower paced than normal Zumba and uses 2.5lbs dumbbells to “tone” while getting a cardio workout. I wanted to see what it was like first hand and compare the “toning” Zumba to regular Zumba. As far as toning goes it’s a pretty much a marketing gimmick, but still great for building endurance.

I couldn’t fully compare the differences though because I was emotionally off and was feeling a little withdrawn (something that still happens to me from time to time, but fortunately with increasingly less frequency as I develop myself).

Wednesday

Both my training partner and I were too tired and sore to hit the gym. Instead, we stayed in, made a delicious home cooked meal, and went to bed early.

Thursday

Finally hit a yoga class again. I’m totally in love with yoga as a combined stretching and mediating practice. I find I feel so much more relaxed mentally, physically, and emotionally after doing an hour of yoga. I’m looking into DVDs I can follow when I head back to Alaska at the end of the week so I can continue the practice. If you know of some great videos, please let me know :).

I probably did push myself too hard during this class, the next morning I woke up and my upper left back around my shoulder blade (my Levator Scapulae for those familiar with muscles) knotted up in pain. I most likely strained it and it’s still mildly painful as I write this. It’s getting better every day and hopefully will be back to normal by the end of the week.

Friday

A local bikram yoga studio was running a promotional week for $20 and my training partner and I decided we wanted to check it out. Bikram yoga is also known as Hot Yoga. They maintain the room at 105 degrees and 40% humidity. In this environment we do a 90 minute class consisting of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises done at the end.

I really enjoyed this session, especially since my left shoulder was stiff, but my training partner found the studio more stressful than relaxing. The female instructor talked nonstop in a bootcamp like voice bark orders at everyone, not what we pictured for a yoga practice. It didn’t bother me much because I took my hearing aids out before class to keep them dry from sweat and couldn’t hear anything the instructor was saying anyway.

I was sensing something off putting about the people that worked there though. From the front desk workers to the instructors, they all seemed callous, fringing interest in how we were doing, but not caring what we actually said or felt.

Saturday

We went back for an afternoon bikram yoga session and were in such a rush running errands for Girl Scouts in the morning that we didn’t have time to stop anywhere and get water.

With just two 20oz water bottles left in the car, we rushed into the studio two minutes late and asked if we could still joined the class (they don’t want anyone entering or leaving after the session has begun). The front desk receptionist said it was cool and then placed my training partner and me on opposite sides of the room, barely squeezing us between other people in the overcrowded room. The room was so crowded I couldn’t even stretch out to do some of the poses.

We had a different instructor this time and apparently he made a bunch of sarcastic remarks when we came in (of course I didn’t have my hearing aids on so I didn’t hear anything), saying things like “Well, I guess we’ll have to start all over because some people can’t bother to be here on time.”

He then proceeded to talk into the microphone system so loudly I was able to feel the sounds bounce off me as he barked orders at everyone. If I wanted a bootcamp, I would’ve have joined the army.

Unknown to us at the time, my training partner was put in the hottest area of the room (I’m guessing it was about around 115-120 degrees there, as the temperature by the door was 110) and she ended up giving me her bottle of water after I went through mine so quickly. This was not good because she quickly become dehydrated and light headed. We had gone out dancing at the Vegas nightclubs the two prior nights and haven’t gotten much sleep on top of this.

At some point, she was starting to really look out of it and the instructor asked her if she was ok. She said “No”, and he replied back “Sure you are”, and continued to bark orders. I didn’t hear any of this and didn’t take any action. Had I known, I would have walked my training partner out. She didn’t want to leave because they continually tell us, both at the front desk and during class, to stay in the room, even if you can’t do anything but just sit there. She felt it would be very disrespectful to walk out after making the commitment to join the class under their terms.

I, on the other hand, could care less about disrespecting someone’s or an institute’s views when it comes to something like this. Especially when the situation is similar to that of the spiritual guru, James Arthur Ray from the movie “The Secret”, who was recently arrested and charged with three counts manslaughter connected to the deaths at a sweat lodge in one of his workshops.

My training partner is still sick from the situation, and is fortunately feeling a little better each day. We won’t be going back to this studio. However, I’m still interested in trying out more bikram yoga, or another mode of hot yoga, from a different place that doesn’t have a callous bootcamp style of practice.

Sunday

We took the day off from training and joined my training partner’s parents for a home cooked family dinner. It was delicious and relaxed day.

Lifting Weights

You may have noticed I didn’t write about any weight training this week. With the exception of doing a few weighted exercises for my biceps and triceps on Monday after Zumba, I didn’t lift any weights this week. I’m finding getting conditioned with bodyweight, yoga, and other classes more important this month to get my body back in shape. Even pushing myself during yoga lead to my shoulder getting knotted up so I want to slowly work back into lifting weights to avoid any major injuries. Once I’m back in Alaska next week, I’ll start turning up the intensity with lifting.

Right now the scale says I weigh 174 lbs dry in the morning with a 32.375” waist. That’s 4 pounds up and 31 to go. :)

A side note: I’m late posting this update because I’m working on a redesign for this site. I decided after getting feedback from several people that this site is kind of an eye sore to look at with all the black. A slightly prettier, more readable website will be up sometime next week. In the meantime, the Operation Herculean updates will continue as normal. Next week I’ll be back in Alaska and new update pictures and full official measurements will be up.

Posted on February 23, 2010

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