Cardiovascular Snapshot at 47

I will be 47 next month. Here is a snapshot of my vitals.

I use Apple Watch and the below measurements are from that.

My Cardiovascular fitness is very poor. Below Average in fact.

  1. VO2 Max : 29.7.

This is Low. Rock bottom – as per Health app.

2. Cardio Recovery : 24BPM

Couldn’t find enough material on how apple has computed this and how I can interpret.

3. Resting heart rate : 70 BPM

I have High Blood Pressure ( 130/90 ) – haven’t measured in a while.

MENS RESTING HEART RATE CHART
AGE18 -2526 -3536 -4546 – 5556 -6565+
ATHLETE49-5549-5450-5650-5751-5650-55
EXCEL’T56-6155-6157-6258-6357-6156-61
GOOD62-6562-6563-6664-6762-6762-65
ABOVE AV66-6966-7067-7068-7168-7166-69
AVERAGE70-7371-7471-7572-7672-7570-73
BELOW AV74-8175-8176-8277-8376-8174-79
POOR82+82+83+84+82+80+

Resting Heart Rate for WOMEN
Age18-2526-3536-4546-5556-6565+
Athlete54-6054-5954-5954-6054-5954-59
Excellent61-6560-6460-6461-6560-6460-64
Good66-6965-6865-6966-6965-6865-68
Above Average70-7369-7270-7370-7369-7369-72
Average74-7873-7674-7874-7774-7773-76
Below Average79-8477-8279-8478-8378-8377-84
Poor85+83+85+84+84+84+

4. Hang test : 30 seconds. Way lower.

“…males to the standard of two minutes, and females to a minute and half…at the age of forty!”

5. Heart Rate Variability : 30ms. Ideal should be 35ish.

So what next for me?

  1. Increase my Vo2 Max. I have started doing HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training – once a week for 30 minutes. Apple Watch has this option.
  2. Have to take lot of stairs. Back in Bangalore – our office is in 5th floor ( vehicle parking is -2 : 7 floors if I take stairs), Home is in 4th floor ( 3rd floor, vehicle parking is -1 ). Currently in Dallas since we work out of home and hardly there are any stairs to take. I think my Vo2 Max will not improve.
  3. Have to carry weight. There is something called Farmer’s carry – fill 2 bags with heavy weights and walk around the home.
  4. Continue Hanging. Will try to add 1-2 seconds more hang time every week. Have to take it up to a minute somehow.
  5. More runs. Will target daily 10k.
  6. Will start Pushups and planks.
  7. Will start skipping after I get back to India.
  8. I have weights back home – will add to my routine.

Let me post my numbers after 6 months. Apr 2024. Let’s see if I have improved on the above numbers.

The Uneducated Sufi

Sufi never once licked us – the most common thing all dogs do to show their affection.

Sufi was born in a lab and never had her mother’s affection. This common trait in all dogs is missing in Sufi and is one of the things that makes her unique!

I have made this joke so many times at Sufi’s expense. She doesn’t mind. She loves us and we love her.

Ahem.. if you haven’t got it – Lick sounds like Likh – in Hindi to write.

Bad Punn.
Mokkai.
I am not Sorry 🙂

The Poisoned Boli

This was before the Vaali play began ( The play was spelled Bali – they had bengalisized the word ). The play was about Rama killing Bali by hiding behind a tree and shooting an arrow to kill Bali. What if Rama did not chose an arrow – but a poisoned Boli?

The Missing Sink

I enjoy making really Mokkai ( banal, PJ ) observations.

These are not really a “joke” joke – it is an emerging yet to be named art form which Chatgpt cannot create.

It is up to me to save humanity.

Here is my attempt at linking my 2 passions – making mokkai observations and drawing terrible cartoons – introducing Mokkai Cartoons.

Here is the first one – The missing sink

We had gone to Rangashankara to watch a play ( a mokkai play called Baali ) – before show started P and I went to the washroom.

This happened there.

The infamous Meme by Elon Musk “Let that sink in”. I patted Prithvi for the quick mokkai addition – the fruit does not fall far from the tree!

Metro @ Whitefield finally

It took forever – may be 5 years?

But finally – this coming Saturday – May 25th 2023 – Metro is going to be thrown open at Whitefield.

From Kadugodi to KR Puram. The critical KR Puram to Byappanahalli will take June/July – but I am ok to wait – we have waited all these years.

Every time I go to Dubai I will be jealous of their Metro System.

In December I was there for 10 days – and not once I took taxi. Did go around a bit – we even went to the Dubai Library – it was a long walk from Metro station though.

Now – soon – things will be the same here.

For the nearest Metro station – SAP labs – I have to do a 900m walk, then take a bus – 335E and 500 series – 4 stops. Then I can go anywhere in Bangalore.

Just love this freedom – and guilt free travel – without polluting too much nor adding to the traffic woes of Bangalore.

Come March 27th – Monday – I will go to office in Metro – for the first time in India. Have done it in Chicago ( not metro exactly – it was a suburban train ), and in Dubai.

Me happy!

My daily routine now – 2023

Finally I seem to have hit a consistent routine. It all started with me learning another yoga bit – Suriya Kriya in Dec 2022 – a variation of Suriya Namaskar – but more like a moving meditation than yoga.

I start my day around 4 to 4:30ish – by lighting lamps to the Gudi – an Yantra we had got for my sister from Isha Coimbatore, and then handed over for temporary safe keeping by Charu to me.

Then I start with Bhutta Shuddhi. To cleanse the five elements. Has lighting camphor and doing deep Ujjain breathing.

Then I do the preparatory asanas – Flutter, Cradle your baby pose,Cat pose. Simple stretches – to prepare the spine.

Then I do Anga Mardhana. Series of Asanas – brutal in a few places – has the heart beat going up some 2/3 times – and ending with savasaana – it will be like ice cream after an hour walk in the hot sun. This takes some 45 minutes – so if time is short ( I wake up late ) I skip this.

Then I do Suriya Kriya – the latest addition to my arsenal. It looks so simple – but just injects so much energy into the system – keeps me fully ON till I go to sleep.

It will be around 6:10ish.. I take a break to say bye to Prithvi – his bus leaves as 6:30 am.

Then I continue – now I do Shambhavi Maha Mudra. The Main Course This Kriya is taught by Sadhguru and doing just this one is enough – if not we do anything else. Is very powerful.

Starts with a simple alternate nostril breathing – or – pranayama, then Oam Kara sound and some flutter breathing and finally bandha locks – its an experience to be felt – 20-25 minutes.

Then I do Shanmukhi Mudra. This is the brahmari – in the marketing material of Isha it said it will help reduce Tinnitus – I signed up – Could be it is effective – not sure.. but I read this targets the pineal gland – this guy is the main controller of all other glands in the body – so why not?

And I am done.

Anga Mardhana I have just added last week, but since December have been consistently doing Suriya Kriya along with Shambhavi.

Almost daily – but here and there I drop it when I am traveling or some weekends when I am just too lazy.

The effect has been startling – like day and night. Almost zero anger. And the mood is very stable.

Yesterday – for no reason was exuberant.

Immediate next step – to continue Anga Mardhana. It is not easy – takes more time – but the effect is really good.

Next step – sign up for Shoonya – I have learned almost everything I can learn outside Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore. Shoonya is available only there. 4 day residential course.

Here is the life story of a speck

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