Lifestyle in 2015. part 2

As I mentioned in my previous post, healthy lifestyle has become an important part of my identity. I decided to share how I actually accomplish it, because there is no secret ingredient. Instead it is a habit, which includes hard-work and perseverance to follow week in and week out. It does not happen in a month or even year, but requires years of commitment to one's body and wellbeing.I started doing sports regularly back in May 2012.

I would go running 4-5 times a week. Shortly after I signed up for my first race and half-marathon, which I completed in 2hours and 8 minutes, and meanwhile raised over $1 000 for Hospice in Moldova. As I continued running I increased my weekly distances. I observed that my back would ache because it was too weak, so I started to go to the gym as well to strengthen my core. So for about 4 months in 2013 I would go to the gym 2-3 times a week, and continued running 2-3 times a week.

Shortly after, I left to the UK, where for the whole year I trained with my rowing team. We would have 7 work outs per week, plus one long run, 8-12km, that I would do on my own.When I got back to Moldova, I ran a half a marathon in October and renewed my gym membership, and my working out routine as a whole. In march, 2015, I had a nerve pinched in my back, as a result of which my right hand got numb. I found out that I have lumbar lordosis with an asymmetrical pelvis, most probably an innate condition. And since I was doing heavy weights: 50-60kg deadlifts, 40-50kg weighted squats, thrusters and clean jerks, I pushed too much weight on my spine and triggered the nerve pinch. It was a tough time, as I did not do any sports for 2 months. After months of chiropractice, I slowly started to regain strength in my right hand.

Though it was not recommended, I also started running again, since it has become such a big part of who I am. Trying to minimize the pounding and impact on my spine, I would run only short distances. I also started going to the gym again, focusing on body movement exercises, conditioning and endurance, rather than on heavy athletics. To stretch properly, I added one hour yoga section per week. Additionally, I do 15 minute yoga sessions every morning when I wake up.As a result of all the injuries and small 'hiccups', I managed to achieve in the last 3 months a balance in my training that works great. Now my week training looks as following: Monday evenings I go for a 5km run. I keep a moderate pace with acceleration in the last 2kms. We call it in rowing: 'emptying the tank', or negative split running, when every kilometer is faster than the previous one. I try to do it for my every run.Tuesday and Thursday evenings I go to the gym. My gym workouts vary but they generally consist of warm up, weighted moderate exercises, high intensity exercises and plank & stretching in the end. My workouts are always up to an hour. To give you a glimpse of what sort of exercise I do here are couple of routines I did in the last week:

Time: 10 minutes. Every minute 8 pullups.

Time: 10 minutes. Every minute 6 burpees jumping over a 50cm tall box.

Task: 200 thrusters with an 8kg sandbag. Each break: 20 double under rope jumps.