Deload week. FEELS BAD, MAN.

Deload week is exactly the opposite of donuts.  My body really wants it but my brain hates every minute.

Today's workout:

Deadlift, 60x5, 75x5, 90x5.
OHP, 25x5, 25x5, 35x5.  No, that is not a typo.  My upper body strength really is that lacking.
Squats, 45x5x3
Power cleans, 45x5.

Today at the gym, a guy was very enthusiastic about how cool my shoes were.  I gave my feet the side-eye in case that last set of deadlifts had caused my shoes to evolve into Romaleos, but no, they were still my beat-up twenty-dollar Chucks.  It was very strange and I finally put a stop to it by grabbing the 25-pound baby barbell and sticking it over my head.  To his credit, he did not commit the sin of trying to talk to me while iron was in play.

I may go this weekend and get a 16kg kettlebell.  I doubt I can do anything with it yet, but it can sit in my carillon and be inspirational.

Starting strength

So here's where I'm starting from, and my collection of current fitness goals, some of which are iffier than others.

Age: 45.  That one, sadly, is not going to improve.
Height: 5'3.  That one probably won't either, no matter what my aerial yoga teacher says.
Weight:  140-something?  I don't know exactly.
Body fat level: 31-32%, according to measurement calculators.  I am a size 8 in jeans and a size 6 in dresses and according to the Navy's body fat standards I am officially obese.  (Fuck you, Navy body fat standards.)

Specific issues: rheumatoid arthritis and an old rotator cuff injury.

For those of you who don't know - e.g., me before I got diagnosed - RA is a systemic autoimmune disease that gets the "arthritis" label because it presents largely as joint pain and damage.  It happens to people of any age.  It makes life difficult because (a) it sometimes flares up and causes a great deal of pain and lack of mobility, and (b) I have to be careful to avoid inflammation.  In fact, I just started back in the gym after a new medication helped put an end to a year or so of near-constant flare-ups.

The rotator cuff injury is from a Body Pump class a few years ago.  It was no one's fault but mine - I tried to use weights that were too heavy and almost blew out my shoulder.  This impatience will become a running theme.

Goals:  I have them.  I will lay them out here, nicely organized.

• Weightlifting.  I'm doing 5/3/1 right now.  The first time around I did Starting Strength, which is still more or less my bible; but 5/3/1 has a slower progression with sub-optimal weights, and that's what I need.  The last time I was lifting, before my flare-ups, I got seriously overtrained on SS.

1. Deadlift 200.  This one I feel pretty good about.  My 1RM now is over 150, so if I don't stall or flare up again I should hit 200 on my 5/3/1 program by late spring or early summer.
2. Squat my body weight.  This one is iffier.  My squats are terrible.  This might happen this year and might not.

• Kettlebells.  I just bought Simple and Sinister and started on that program on my off days.
1. S&S has goals built-in: doing 100 kb swings in five minutes and two sets of five Turkish get-ups in ten minutes, then increasing weight until you hit 24kg.  Right now the whole routine, warm-ups and all, takes me over 45 minutes (because I have no stamina), so there's plenty of work to do here.
2. When I'm done with my 5/3/1 mesocycle, I may take a month off and try to do the 10,000-swings-in-28-days challenge.  It depends on whether my stamina increases from "shit on toast" to "slightly less awful."

• Body composition:  10% body fat loss.  Hopefully the kettlebells and some HIIT on the rowing machine will help with that, but mostly I need to tighten up my diet.  (I eat Primal.)

• Yoga:  I want to be able to go from a tripod headstand in the middle of the room down to crow pose.  I can already go from a half-headstand into crow, I just can't hold it very long, so this one I'm optimistic about too.

So there they are.  Challenging but achievable.  Happiness researchers everywhere should be proud.