<p>Gym day with S2 today. I warmed up with 20 minutes of hills on the elliptical machine, followed by the core workout, squats, KB swings, and stretching. </p>
<p>I picked up Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously by Bill McKibben. It’s a quick read so far about McKibbens’ training vigorously for cross-country skiing events at the same time his father developed a life threatening illness. This title came from the extra reading list at the back of Younger Next Year. Has anyone read it?</p>
<p>Back to the basement. My knees have been a little gimpy the last couple of days. I think the high step ups may have gotten me.</p>
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<p>Highlights of today’s workout were goblet squats. I bumped those up to the 35 pound kettlebell from the 30 lb DB I’d been using. Not super heavy, but fifteen reps with 35 lbs is all I can handle.</p>
<p>The finisher was bodyweight squats: four rounds of 20:20s. I managed to get in 50 squats.</p>
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<p>I can tell already that these workouts are terrific for fat loss. I think I’m dropping body fat and I’m not even trying to.</p>
<p>I highly recommend that new book on weight loss by Rachel Cosgrove. I bought it out of curiosity - even if I wanted to lose 2 dress sizes, it would be a very unrealistic goal for me at this point :). The advice in the book makes perfect sense! Cut out the carbs, do not eat junk (at least not more than 3 times a week), and do weight-bearing exercises to increase lean muscle mass, all written in plain English. Mr B got mad at me when he saw the book on the dining table, because he thought I had lost my marbles and decided to get skinnier than a broom handle. :)</p>
<p>Worked at a track meet today. Set hurdles and starting blocks around track. Ran back and forth during all distance races cheering on our boys and girls. Think I’m more worn out from this than a tempo run or intervals.</p>
<p>Yeah, I thought the whole introductory spiel on why the type of exercise and the type of diet works was very well done. I suspect that a lot of women have fallen victim to the yo-yo starvation diet cycle that undermines their ability maintain weight. Men, too… although our problem is probably more straight-forward. We get fat because just eat too damn much.</p>
<p>I just skimmed the daily menu planner stuff because, I’m not going to follow it, anyway – but it looked pretty reasonable.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reverse lunge w/single arm row tips, iDad. I did try it today. I think I’m making a simple exercise more complicated than I want, though, so I’ll probably just keep the reverse lunge isolated in the future.</p>
<p>I went down to the caf for lunch. In general, I always buy three chicken tenders because the low-carb options are otherwise non-existent. They had a burger day. Cheeseburger, veggie burger or turkey burger. That was fine - but you got potatoes, cole slaw, relish, sour cream and a bunch of other options (carbs) and I didn’t feel like spending $7.00 when all I wanted was the burger. So I just went with the chicken tenders.</p>
<p>I feel like I’m basically going to have to watch calories for the rest of my life. It’s nice having LiveStrong handy to help count to keep me honest.</p>
<p>Busy day here. 4 miles of walking with sabadog. 3.75 m treadmill run. Sushi, banana and green machine smoothie. Three separate items, not all combined. </p>
<p>BCE, I know what you mean on the counting calories for the rest of your life. I would like to stop, but not tracking is how I keep ending up here. </p>
<p>MOWC, Arby’s is promoting a roast beef sandwich on that Hawaiian bread. That is one kind of bread I do not care for.</p>
<p>I’m too fond of sweets, but I don’t tend to crave bread. Not to say I don’t like it at all, but it’s not like chocolate. I’ve never been much of a sandwich person, and it’s not unusual for me to pull the meat out, eat that, and leave a good portion of the bread untouched. On the other hand I do like a good bagel or bialy.</p>
<p>it’s a pretty complicated exercise. I don’t think I’d mess around with it until your reverse lunge is really solid. That one is hard enough by itself.</p>
<p>I think my reverse lunge is pretty good, but I believe I will always likely have more of a tendency toward being tippy on certain moves than a lot of people because my center of gravity is high.</p>
<p>6 miles, 3 in the morning, 3 in the evening. Worked on bumping up speed which is easier to do when I don’t have to worry about getting in daily distance goals.</p>
<p>1574 calories today. Lowish-carb day but not really low-carb.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I’ll put the reverse lunge/row in my workouts very often. I might tend to use it more in “interval circuit” type workouts or maybe as a core exercise. I don’t think I’d feel like I was missing something important if I never did it.</p>
<p>The workouts I’m doing have you do one power exercise the first day. Then, one of these combination exercises in the second workout. The idea is to use all kinds of muscles simultaneously. All in all, I think I would tend to select power exercises (KB swings, box jumps, DB snatches, KB cleans, medicine ball slams, etc.) more often.</p>
<p>I hear you, BC. I don’t want to get in my own way, which is part of why I haven’t gotten a Garmin. I need to remember to enjoy the outdoors, and if I were wearing one of these tech devices that measured all the extra stuff I might get a little too wrapped up in that – worrying about whether it’s tracking the right start place, catching the turns on trails, etc. I can obsess on the treadmill. ;)</p>
<p>iDad, all kinds of muscles simultaneously. Would be interested in hearing more of the reasons why this is considered especially of benefit and always more ideas of how to accomplish the task, of course, if you want to take the time to explain. Thanks.</p>
<p>I think there are two completely separate reasons:</p>
<p>1) Certainly for fat loss, but really for general strength and conditioning and fitness, you want to do exercises that work as many big muscles as possible. That burns more calories. That gets the heart rate up. That builds more lean muscle mass. That’s why this approach to exercise gets away from the machines or the isolation exercises (like bicep curls) in favor of stuff that is moving the whole body. A “combo” exercise – like a squat followed by an overhead press – will have you gasping for air in no time flat. I’ve only seen a few references to it, but using upper and lower body muscles simultaneously is ridiculously demanding. That’s why Airdyne intervals are so hard. The body just can’t supply enough oxygen to all those big muscles at the same time and once muscles run out of oxygen, you’re toast.</p>
<p>2) Separate from all of that, the ultimate goal for core stability is to be able to do dynamic motions with the upper or lower body against a rock solid base of core support. So, to be able to do something like a row with one arm while in an unstable position (a reverse lunge) without falling over or twisting is a very advanced level of core stability (especially hip stability).</p>
<p>Yes, they were “sprints.” Definitely not full speed but enough that I’m sure my heart rate was up pretty high. I considered putting a HRM on, but that would have required me to go back to the gym to get one. This was done on the football field so yards is obviously the main measurement there. It wasn’t actually a part of my program (program called for lifting today) but it does include some conditioning work and I chose that today because it was BEAUTIFUL outside… I may try running on the turf a little more as the weather gets nicer…</p>
<p>Also, went for a walk with my dad tonight. About 2 miles…</p>
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