The Rock-Your-Body Fitness Thread
We talk about health and exercise in a lot of different threads. It's time for a one-stop shop.
As you all have read ad nauseam, I have a super slow metabolism so I'm always looking for ways to increase my fitness.
I'm going to join a gym next Wednesday (most likely). Is it true that I should leave a day between working muscle groups? I'll likely only be at the gym on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I'm not sure what the best excercises are if I'm only going to be working that area once. Like, Wednesday for legs or front and Thursdays for arms or back. Something like that? I'll have about an hour between work and when yoga starts and the gym will be relatively empty, so I'll have plenty of time and access to equipment.
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I recently read that dehydration leads to a drop on body temperature and a drop in temp triggers a body to store fat. Of all the dagnabbit, underhanded, flea-analogue bitten things! My normal temp is in the 97.1 - 97.3 F (36.2 - 36.3 C) range.
Meh. My gym partner keeps backing out at the last minute and I'm not motivated to go alone. I guess hiking will make up for some of it. I'm taking it easy this weekend with a 10 mile / 16 km, 2000 ft / 610 m climb. It's only a 7.5% grade, so it should be quick.
I hurt my shoulder last week (dumbell shoulder presses, listening to loud metal and over exerted) and have only been the gym 2 1/2 times since. I cut one workout way short because of shoulder. Normally I exercise intensely at least 5 days per week. I feel like I am getting fat - tho ironically scale has me down 2 lbs. I tried workout on Wed. but only isolated lower body lifts, and it seems anything I do upper or lower body is irritating my shoulder. It isn't bad during the day, but at night it is hard to sleep. This has been my first injury in more than a year, and the slowest recovery I can recall. It sucks, I feel like I am getting fat just typing this. Plus I need the stress relief. I may have to go to the doctor, which I dread for a myriad of reasons.....
stair climber?
If you go slow and for ages it might not be jarring, but you'd breath heavy.
after promising to post in here for every exercise, I didn't at all last week.
Last week, I walked to/from work a coupla times, went to power class at the gym and went for a run. Not great, but much better than previously.
Yesterday I tried a new gym class - there's a new timetable out, and me and a girl at work are much more likely to go if we plan a class together. it was fight do, which was kind of like an aerobics-type class but with all punching and kicking and stuff. It was good!! It got the heart rate up and my back / shoulders are aching today, so I must have been working something. PLUS I got to imagine punching and kicking people I don't like in the head!
stair climber?
If you go slow and for ages it might not be jarring, but you'd breath heavy.
That was an excellent idea, hh! I knew you would come in handy one of these days ;) I also knew there was a reason I kept that old stair stepper around after I got the eliptical a few years ago. I did just that: I did some slow intervals of stair steps, only 20 minutes or so. I have to be careful because although it does not seem like the shoulder if being worked, i have found out through residual pain at night or next day that just about anything we do works our shoulders in some way. So I went slow. Good suggestion!
I am on the road to rehab with my shoulder. I decided not to go to the doctor and just treat like a torn/irritated cuff until something tells me otherwise. So I am doing rehab exercises on it. This is my first injury since vegetarian/vegan, so I am curious to see how well the recovery goes. I am setting my goal at 2 weeks from today (Aug 30) to have a real workout - but not with shoulder lifting for a while. Maybe Sept 15 for shoulder lifts at 1/2 max. Realistic??
I did some slow intervals of stair steps, only 20 minutes or so.
Show off. Shea's convincing me to try the contraption, but I think I'd last three minutes or so.
Did 4 sets of low resistence shoulder rehab exersises last night, with 5 minutes of stair stepper intervals in between. So far so good on irritation. Tho there was some ache, it is only slight, much as if I didn't do anything and cerainly less than when I really tried to work it. The click and popping seems less, but that may just be opptimism. 13 days to go!
I did some slow intervals of stair steps, only 20 minutes or so.
Show off. Shea's convincing me to try the contraption, but I think I'd last three minutes or so.
You hike ten+ miles for fun. You can do it.
I like to prop a book up in front of me. Its a lot easier to read on the stepper than the treadmill or elliptical in my opinion.
Great idea on book, and I am with Shea: you can do it HH! Your feet or calves may have burning sensation like 5 to 10 minutes in. But if you work through it, it does pass in a minute or two, then you can go forever. I used to always stop when I felt that. After working through it a few times it doesn't happen anymore.
Buns of Steel and Perfect Abs for 40 minutes. My bum is already starting to look a little perkier but the abs are going to take some time. Today I'm hitting the beach for a few miles.
the last month or so has been my slackest time of exercise in the last few years, and it sucks. I have still been doing the odd weights workout and jogging as often as I can, but it's felt patchy and not good. It's been so stinking cold, and I've been feeling overly tired a lot of the time, as well as having some really busy times at work, and exercise time just hasn't always been available...
so I'm going to start a new round of p90x this weekend, and still try and go out for a little run on weekends as well. I also feel like I needed a break from the p90x routine, and now I'll be more keen to get back into it properly...
Maybe the break will help make it more engaging?
definitely, that's what I was trying to say.
I meant the regularity of it, I just didn't write that. When I take a break, getting back in the routine is the hardest part.
Case in point: I haven't been to the gym in ages. Now I'm avoiding it on purpose because I have a couple big hikes coming up and I don't want to be gym-sore for them. Going back on a daily basis at the end of summer will be so hard.
OMG, I did the Boot Camp Abs segment on Perfect Abs and my abs are so sore this morning. I feel like I was gut punched....multiple times.....by Chuck Norris.
OMG, I did the Boot Camp Abs segment on Perfect Abs and my abs are so sore this morning. I feel like I was gut punched....multiple times.....by Chuck Norris.
That's awesome, Storm.
Of course you exagerate. Because if you were truly punched by Chuck Norris, you would not even feel pain in your abs, since they would have vaporized faster than the speed of light so the pain would be in reverse and actually feel like pleasure.
things I learn from having a break from p90x:
*I didn't lose as much strength as I thought I would
*That might not be such a good thing, because I could physically do everything, but my muscles aren't used to those exercises at the moment and they took a battering
*Doing 150+ push ups on a Saturday morning when you haven't done any at all in a month is a sure way to be in pain when trying to do anything more complicated than breathe by Sunday night.
*I missed Tony's cheesiness : )
That's awesome, Storm.
Of course you exagerate. Because if you were truly punched by Chuck Norris, you would not even feel pain in your abs, since they would have vaporized faster than the speed of light so the pain would be in reverse and actually feel like pleasure.
I'm thinking I'd actually be dead if I was gut punched by Chuck.
I walked three miles around The Burg Saturday, took a down day on Sunday, and I'm back to the videos today!
When I'm hiking and super tired next Saturday (I'm going up a 10,000-foot / 3 km peak), I'm going to think back to oww's 150 pushups and shea's 50 minutes of running, and dig down and find more omph.
last week = fight class, and pump class and that's it - pretty crap really, but it's a start.
this week - yesterday I drove into town to go to the fight class thing and traffic was suuuuuppppper busy and instead of the usual 5-10mins to get to town it took half an hour, by which time it was almost time for class...AND THERE WERE NO PARKING SPACES!! I drove round for 10 mins couldn't find a park and got furious and pissed off and drove home...what a waste of time!
today I went for my first proper workout in ages (as in not a class or just a run) and I really enjoyed it. I don't know why I keep putting it off because I like going to the gym....it's just the thought of it when I'm not there : /
Wow! You lovely ladies are impressing/embarrassing me with your killer regimes! So...I kicked it up a notch. I was mostly doing stair stepper and shoulder rehab exercises the past week. But the past few days there has been 0 pain my shoulder - neither during or post workout. This leads me to believe that the injury was not as bad as I feared - the nature of the pain was very deep and dull, really fear damaged cuff. Or maybe since vegan I can recover much more quickly now??
So I decided to do a 75% of peak performance, real honest workout today. I still mixed in the shoulder rehab exercises in, but did not hold back much. I did use lighter weights (perhaps 20% of max) for direct shoulder exercises.
Here is what I came up with....
- 10 minute up/down intervals on treadmill*
Shoulder:
- "Giving" resistance bands
- Reverse row RBs (hitting delts, chest and shoulder)
- Squatted T's - like a squatted dumbbell row
- Shoulder pulls on crossbow (like 20% of max, but full range of motion, as it was the press (push) that hurt my shoulder, not the pulls)
Abs:
- Toe reaches
- "Navy seals" crunches
- NSs head circles
- NSs bicycles
Total gym (set down to 50%)
- Chest press
- Front straight Rows
- Side torso twists
Finisher
- 2 mins on stair stepper
- 2 mins "rest" in sauna
The whole thing above was done on a circuit. The strength sets were each done for 1 minute, with no rest in between. The only rest was the 2 minutes in the sauna, which is the most miserable rest period (huffing at puffing at 160 degrees) you can imagine, and is actually the hardest part of the cycle, except for the 5:7+ up/downs* on second cycle.
So I did this 2 times and was contemplating a 3rd time. The irst 2 cycles took 30 minutes, and I was not sure if any of this would inflame my shoulder, and there was a bit of popping and clicking in shoulder, and I was drenched in sweat and tired, so I only did 2.
* These "up/downs" I call them have many variations. I get bored on a straight tread run or eliptical, so I design little games for interest and short term max perf. The one I am particularly hooked on lately is to start at 1 mph (yeah, wait, it gets worse!) at 12% incline, then each minute I decrease incline 1 setting and increase MPH by 1. So, by 6% grade @ 6 MPH you are really huffing and by 4:8 you are ready to fall out. I have been - since the shoulder (excuse?) - walking/cheating for a minute on the 2:10 interval cause the 3:9 is kicking me hard.
My goal is to by Saturday do the above circuit for 3 cycles. Then by next week sometime to increase the shoulder weight to maybe 50% max?? Of course I have to see if I can sleep without pain tonight, but so far it is looking good.
Alright, so there! Now I don't feel like you all are making me look as bad. I *really* *seriously* was babying my shoulder for the past 2 weeks tho, so I do have an excuse.
I wish I could do 150 pushups… geez! I get to 40 and I start wimping out.
I can't even get to 10! I have no upper body strength.....yet.
Yesterday, 20 minutes working out the bum and 20 minutes Perfect Abs. I must be getting used to the abs workout cuz my muscles aren't nearly as sore as they were last week.
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