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For almost two months I went all-in on GoWOD.

At first it was 8 minutes a day, then I got hooked and it became closer to ~16 minutes daily.
My mobility score climbed (about +17%), the streak was strong, and for once this felt like a clean, sustainable system.

And then — instead of a reward — I got a penalty.

On 18 Dec 2025 during pancake and some hip “push-out” style drills I felt a warning in my lower back.
Later that same day I still went to the gym and trained lower body (Bulgarian split squats + Romanian deadlifts).
That’s when I got a sharp “my back just went out” moment on the right side of my lower back.

The next day was brutal.
Day two wasn’t better, so I took a tablet to help it release faster.
It improved, I could move and train again — but the area stayed sensitive.

On 26 Dec 2025 I tried to “help” with passive long-sit stretching (legs straight forward) plus hip rotations… and it flared again.

This is uncomfortably similar to what happened two years ago: big flexibility gains, then a twist, then the worst back episode of my life.

So I’m done outsourcing this to an app.

Plan

• quit GoWOD (the habit stays, the app doesn’t)
• build my own short mobility sessions as a Garmin workout list
• keep a strict “do-not-do” blacklist for movements that irritate my back
  (especially deep end-range flexion + rotation)
• bias toward active mobility and stability over passive end-range stretching

Two months of work did build one valuable thing: consistency.
Now I’ll keep the consistency — and remove the randomness.

I’m running a simple supplement plan to stay resilient through a busy winter stretch: family winter break (ski trip to Białka Tatrzańska) and a work trip to Las Vegas.

Timeline

From 1 Dec 2025 → mid-Jan 2026

• creatine
• ashwagandha

From 15 Dec 2025 → end of Jan 2026

• NAC
• resveratrol

Planned from 1 Jan 2026 → end of Jan 2026

• colostrum (immune support “insurance” for travel)

Goal

Not chasing “biohacking points” — just aiming for a strong baseline: better recovery, less chance of getting sick, and fewer disruptions during trips.

On 26 October 2025 I made a decision:
to take mobility and flexibility seriously.

I started this journey with Calisthenics Movement – Mobility 2.0.
I completed the prep phase and Level 1 twice, and the content itself was solid — but the sessions slowly grew from 10 minutes to almost 30, and that simply didn’t fit my day.
I couldn’t sustain that structure consistently.

So I switched to GoWOD, and honestly: this is exactly what I needed.

What works so well for me:

• innovative, built-in progress measurement
• personalized routines
• three simple modes: Daily, Activation, Recovery
• I choose how much time I have (I always select 8 minutes)
• I can do it at any moment: a break at work, while cooking, between tasks

Because of that flexibility, it became a natural habit.
After almost a full month, my streak holds strong and I’m averaging ~12 minutes per day.

It fits my lifestyle, it works with my training, and it finally gives me a sustainable mobility system.

Finished the cycle. Subjectively the weakest so far — not because the stack “stopped working,” but because it overlapped with a very heavy training block (see: fall after the peak) and the UC Berkeley Exec program (Artificial Intelligence: Business Strategies and Applications). The combo of VO₂ sessions + deep study simply masked day-to-day effects.

What I’ll keep (and for how long)

• DHA — continue for ~1 month, then stop.
• Uridine — continue for ~1 month, then stop.

After that: full 2-month break from the stack. Planned restart: ~Feb 10, 2026.

What I actually ran

Daily protocol as in the Cycle 3 start note; effects were more “structural base” than “wow” under high load.

Takeaways

• Under high physical + cognitive stress, perceived gains flatten even if long-term building (mitochondria, membranes) continues.
• Sleep held up; HRV was volatile and tracked intensity spikes.
• The right move now is homeostasis: let the system self-regulate, keep only DHA/uridine one more month, then full off-cycle.

Unfortunately, I have to return the Lactate Scout Sport, as the device turned out to be too inconsistent and unreliable for field use.

After consuming over 20 strips, only about five readings seemed trustworthy — the rest were completely off.
For example, during today’s easy run (cool weather, HR ~142 bpm, pace ~6:20/km), the device reported absurdly low values of 0.5–0.7 mmol/L.
Just two days earlier, after 7 × 1.5-minute intervals at 3:57/km, it showed 9.4 mmol/L, which made sense.
Similarly, on an earlier easy run (~6:20/km), I got 2.4 mmol/L, again plausible.

So the pattern is clear:
👉 the meter performs fine indoors, but becomes unreliable outdoors — especially in cold (6–10 °C), humid, or rainy conditions typical of autumn.
The strips are extremely sensitive to temperature and moisture, which makes real-world measurements impractical.

For verification, I ran a control test using the manufacturer’s calibration solution:
at a reference of 10 mmol/L, the device displayed 10.3 mmol/L, confirming that the analyzer itself is accurate.
The issue clearly lies in environmental sensitivity, not the internal calibration.

A word on Allmed

The distributor, Allmed, showed remarkable professionalism and empathy throughout the entire process.
They advised me patiently, suggested potential troubleshooting steps, and supported my efforts to identify the root cause.
Wanting to be fair, I even asked them to reduce the refund amount slightly and covered the cost of the test materials myself — it felt right to do so after such great customer service.

Conclusion

While the Lactate Scout Sport works fine in lab-like conditions, it’s not a reliable tool for field testing during typical outdoor training seasons.
Consistency is everything when you’re tracking physiological adaptation — and this device simply can’t deliver that under variable weather.

Still, it was a fun experiment — and I learned a lot about how sensitive lactate testing really is.
Also… quite a painful one 😅 — I used the deepest 21G / 2.4 mm lancets, which left real bruises. Now I know: 1.8 mm max next time!

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