Resting heart rate: 44 beats per minute*
My latest pulse measured at a hospital was yesterday: 44 bpm, but with an asterisk since I had just had knee surgery under general anesthesia, so who knows what drugs were affecting me. On the other hand, maybe it was just because I had been lying still for a couple hours.
My pulse is the number in the upper right corner. My blood pressure was 111 over 79, which a search says is normal.
![](https://i0.wp.com/joshuaspodek.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/pulse_240822.jpg?resize=693%2C645&ssl=1)
The next challenge is doing burpees with my knee bandaged until the swelling passes. I handled yesterday’s evening burpees by doing them in the morning. Yesterday was also a lifting day, so that morning I did my full lifting routine and both sets of calisthenics before the work day began.
I know most Americans would spend that time on social media, and the average American spends more time on social media per day than I do exercising even on my most exercising day, and I want to connect more with more of my countrymates, but I prefer exercising and productive work in service of others to scrolling to satisfy my cravings. I can’t afford the time. I guess they’re more privileged than I am.
I’ll figure out today how to do burpees and the rest of my twice-daily calisthenics without risk of injury. I’ve found that people who are injured most tend to find ways to achieve things despite injuries, as I wrote six years ago in You’re supposed to get injured. Look it up to see Brett Favre’s record of starting in games and his mind-blowing list of injuries. Knee surgery doesn’t compare. He’s human. I’m human.
Read my weekly newsletter
![](https://i0.wp.com/convertkit.s3.amazonaws.com/subscription_forms/images/005/129/483/standard/Initiative_Leadership_Spodek.jpg?ssl=1)
On initiative, leadership, the environment, and burpees