My younger brother arrived home by himself just around 9:10 p.m. last evening. He usually spends Saturday evenings with his girlfriend Bev, but I did not deign to enquire aught concerning his arrival home and alone.
He had passed out within an hour, so that freed me up to leave him downstairs with our T.V.'s basic cable for company ─ I normally employ our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box to summon up episodes of the myriad of T.V. series we follow (he is unable to operate the device).
I now do not recall when it was that I got myself to bed, but my guess is that it was before 10:30 p.m.
After some sleep, a couple or so hours later I rose just to turn on and log back into my computer to have it all ready for later use. I then returned to bed, and managed some further sleep, rising again perhaps around 4:00 a.m.
And from then until I returned to bed well after 7:00 a.m. I discharged the day's content assignment at the new post I am constructing at one of my six hosted websites.
During that work, I had taken a break in order to perform another five-minute plank ─ I have been doing one for that duration since and including June 14.
They never seem to get any easier, even though this was my 10th day sustaining the position for five minutes.
This morning, I had actually been counting off estimated slow seconds in my head, and only periodically checked the timer as I worked towards a 300-count. I was always a few seconds below the actual expiration of seconds ─ which is a good and encouraging thing each time I looked at the timer, for it meant that I was progressively nearer the finish than my count was indicating.
I didn't mind that my 300-count would put me several seconds beyond the five-minute mark, for I do extra seconds anyway in order to comfortably settle any question in my mind that I lasted for the targeted five minutes.
But this morning in the very latest stage of counting, I must have lost track of my count and actually began recounting ─ maybe at the count of 279, instead of continuing from 280, I instead began at 270 again.
Whatever the case, when I got to something like 290, I weakened and looked at the timer ─ and I was already creeping over the five-minute and 10-second mark.
This threw me right off and I stopped my count for a few seconds in my flustered confusion, and then I just decided to call it quits as I crept past five minutes and 15 seconds on the timer.
The significance of this is that ─ even though the planks do not seem any more comfortable to endure ─ I am definitely stronger at them and probably could have ventured on to six minutes this morning.
But why? I do not wish to make six minutes a daily challenge, for I am of the nature that these incremental increases would gradually continue from there ─ and to where?
Would I anon be doing 10 minutes at a steady plank each day?
That's approaching the fanatical. Or so it does seem from my present vantage of a daily five-minute plank, and how unpleasant the experience is.
Maybe I could make a concession to myself and ─ possibly at the 1st of each month ─ strike for a sort of personal record? After all, it is still in my mind that a few years ago when I was doing lots of stomach / core exercising, I am quite sure that on a lark I tried a plank for the first time and endured it for seven minutes.
That may be apocryphal, but it also could be the truth. I really was doing a lot of strenuous core work.
However, that core activity / development all came to a halt when one night I went to bed, and somehow overnight the middle or lower region of my back seized up to such excruciating degree that for several days, there were very few postures that I could assume that allowed me to experience minimal pain ─ forget exercising!
I was most comfortable lying in bed ─ standing was tolerable if I remained perfectly erect without any kind of lean or bend in any direction, but that is just not feasible. Even to reach for something requires some small bend of the back.
It was the same with sitting ─ I had to be sitting almost rigidly upright and motionless, not daring to have any kind of deviation from that posture, or the slight flex would immediately cause the affected muscles of my back to once again painfully seize up.
I never sought medical attention. I was retired, after all ─ it was not like I had a job to worry about. And I'm not stupid enough to think that some doctor could do anything for me apart from prescribing undesired painkillers.
Eventually the seizure eased or loosened up, but I have never dared to risk having that experience again by undergoing the same straining activity that had comprised my fitness regimen and resulted in the horrible and long-lasting spasm.
It's peculiar that I was perfectly fine all that final day long until sometime overnight. Somehow being relaxed in bed overnight induced the dreadful spasm.
Isn't bedrest supposed to be a time of healing for those who are otherwise actively engaged? Mine precipitated the seizure ─ apparently total muscular relaxation can sometimes be inimical where physical recovery is concerned.
I am going to bring this post to a close shortly, because my wife unexpectedly showed up at 4:31 p.m. from wherever it is that she stays over the weekends in Vancouver.
She quickly got involved in doing some cooking, so I kept blogging; and then she went out to probably do some shopping ─ I think that she may have taken her youngest son with her.
She will likely be spending the night here so that she can go to work in the morning ─ our Surrey home if far nearer her workplace (a Thai restaurant) than is Vancouver.
When she left to do that shopping, I took advantage and had some exercise with my 43½-pound dumbbell. Then I took the following two selfies:
I really should try to set something up that would allow me to record myself through some other means ─ I am lousy at taking selfies.
And I am not going to be looking this hale for too many more years.
For anyone who is new to my posts in this blog, I am a tad over five feet and 10 inches (152.4 centimetres) in height, and I would likely weigh in the upper 180-pound range (around 85 kilos) if I had stood on a scales.
I am also 69 years old, and have never had a gym workout in my life.
My 70th birthday will be in October.
As I said, I will not be able to retain my naturally acquired physique for too many more years, so I really do feel it is probably important that I have some record to prove just how long I held onto it.
Can you believe that my wife and I have not been physically intimate since sometime in March 2013?
I can not speak for her, but I have had no other intimate human contact since that time, and sometimes that longing for intimacy becomes almost overwhelming.
I am well aware that many studies have proven that this sort of absence can reduce one's longevity ─ people need human touch and physical bonding / closeness in order to thrive.
But I don't want to keep talking about this, so the speech ends now.
The day has been mostly overcast ─ usually heavily. There has been no chance for any sunning.
I had meant to get started on today's blog post earlier than I did, but my younger brother has been tuning in the FIFA Women's World Cup games.
There seem to be only two per day ─ one starting around mid-morning locally, and then the other starting around noon.
I have to admit that the contests are exciting. And tomorrow when 'my' Canadian lady warriors face off with Sweden in one of the Round of 6 matches (it's scheduled for noon), I'll be involved all the way!
I'll probably even watch much of the U.S. / Spain battle that will be played out earlier, since Canada (if we win against Sweden) may ultimately have to confront the Americans.
It is now 6:32 p.m., and my brother has returned home before even my wife has gotten back. I must stop blogging for today.
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