Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

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29081

<p>My digital scale is that repeatable, too. The only time it gives two different readings is the result of it only reading in 2/10ths increments. So, if I really weigh 250.3, it might read 250.2 one time and 250.4 the next, just depending on the sightest difference making it round up or down. I am particularly fond of my scale this week. It’s been especially “accurate” lately :)</p>

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<p>CJane: </p>

<p>Good glute exercises in that link. Thanks. For some reason, they all look familiar. All routine parts of my warmup. This month’s warmup (from those random workout videos I found on the internet) has an interesting variation on the hip flexor stretch. Rear foot elevated hip flexor stretch. I didn’t want to drag out the Reebok step for one quick stretch, so, my very first warmup exercise every workout is a hip flexor stretch with my foot on a 16 inch weight bench. That will definitely get your attention!</p>

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<p>On Squats and knee pain:</p>

<p>Obviously this might not apply if you have a torn ligament or a torn meniscus, but non-specific knee pain when squatting (often diagnosed as Patella Femoral Syndrome) is actually caused by weak or immobile glutes. For years, I avoided getting into a squat position due to pain in right knee when it was flexed. I wouldn’t even squat down to look for dessert on the bottom shelf of the fridge; instead, I would put one knee on the floor. That pain is completely gone and has been for a long time. And, I squat below parallel in just every warmup and workout. Docs are always prescribing exercises to strengthen the quads (muscle on the front of the thigh just above the knee) to improve knee pain, when most people really need to strengthen the glutes so that the hip can flex without pulling on the knee. The muscles in thigh attach to both ends.</p>

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<p>CJANE:</p>

<p>If you want a fun one to make your glutes sore, try this one:</p>

<p>[LATERAL</a> CROSSOVER STEP-UP - YouTube](<a href=“LATERAL CROSSOVER STEP-UP - YouTube”>LATERAL CROSSOVER STEP-UP - YouTube)</p>

<p>When I do it, I leave one foot on the bench for all 12 reps, just stepping down and back up with the other foot. 12 per side with two 25lb DBs is the hardest exercise in my workout right now.</p>

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<p>It believe that walking automatically works the glutes more than running, especially walking up hills.</p>

<p>People who run exclusively are notorious for glute problems. Of course, they aren’t alone. It’s the biggest area of weakness for just about all of us. Too much time spend with the hip flexed (sitting). The main role of the glutes is to pull the leg back into a straight, extended (not bent at the hip) position. Think about a kettelbell swing. The hip is bent, the glutes drive the hip forward, straightening the leg, and that power drives the kettlebell forward and up.</p>

29083

<p>Abasket, the best part was I didn’t think about tedious stuff that’s been occupying my mind for the past couple of days at all. I was just in the moment. Yay! As for in the moment, non-deep thinking or contemplative thoughts that can get one through an hour on the treadmill on a day like today, I compare the pace I’m going throughout the run to what I have logged in my brain as pace at various points on previous runs. I pay attention to how I’m feeling and my breathing. I notice my surroundings – who’s familiar, who’s not, if anyone’s running in front of me, how fast they’re going and what it looks like their plan is if they have one, what’s going on over in the lifting area and with the bikes nearby, clothing, gear, gym employees that come through, anyone who’s got a trainer working with them, etc. I had a handy distraction today for the first portion of my run. A woman got on a treadmill kitty corner in front of me. One can conduct an initial visual inspection to try to guess if the person is a runner/athlete, how much of one, etc (lol, yes, the things we do to help the time go by on a treadmill). After brief warmup walk she starts in at 6.0 mph and after some time ups it to 7.0. Hops off briefly for a breather. Repeats this a couple more times. Follows this with a cool down walk. Finished in about 20-25 mins with a total of ~2 miles. At this point I feel good because I’m still going. :wink: Never mind that it looks like she might be moving on to the dbs or another machine. Then there’s a mid-section of time where I experimented with pace – upped it more than I usually would for a while and then when I felt it was going to be too taxing to stay at that rate for the rest of the run, dropped it down a notch or two. The last 15 mins was getting toward the finish line and determining how much to speed up when. Then I was done!</p>

29084

<p>Just as a followup to the cholesterol testing. I finally got the bill for my blood work after Anthem’s discount. I can’t figure out how to break out each test, but I basically had three routine tests: the comprehensive metabolic panel that includes blood glucose, elecrolytes, kidney and liver function, etc plus the basic TSH Thyroid test plus the fancy NMR particle test instead of the routine lipid cholesterol test. List price was $341. After Anthem’s discount, the price was $76 for all three. So the incremental cost of getting the fancy NMR test over the standard cholesterol test was totally insignificant in my case and for anyone else who has an annual deductable that means they will be paying for such tests out of pocket.</p>

<p>So, if you are curious and if you have a LabCorp location nearby (mine is in the same building as my doctor), then it’s a piece of cake to get the NMR test instead of the standard lipid profile. It gives all the same information (total cholesterol, HDL, triglycerides, calculated LDL) the doc gets normally, plus the particle counts, particle sizes, and insulin resistance score.</p>

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<p>For me, it’s Patella Femoral Syndrome. I can judge my knee health by doing (or attempting to do) squats. I’ve been able to do them lately which generally means that my knees are a lot better, and they are.</p>

<p>Sometimes I can do regular squats but can’t do single-leg squats. This usually means that there is a problem with one knee.</p>

29086

<p>Not Deb - I couldn’t run 5 miles if I were being chased by wolves! – but I have a very specific playlist. It’s almost Pavlovian in nature – I hear these songs and I want to start running. </p>

<p>I have a weird trick that I play on myself. I say I’ll run for, let’s say, 10 songs. I’ll play a song, then I’ll hit repeat and say - that didn’t count, now I’m back at one. I do that a few times before I “let” myself start counting. It’s odd, I know, but it gets me farther (further?) when I trick myself this way.</p>

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<p>BC:</p>

<p>You would be a perfect candidate to test the hypothesis and commit to a year of intensive glute/hip exercise.</p>

<p>Here’s a link to a 7 part series on patella femoral syndrome Mike Reinhold, long-time physical therapist for the Boston Red Sox. This article is on the role of the hip and ankle in knee pain, but there are links to all seven articles:</p>

<p>[The</a> Influence of the Hip and Foot on Patellofemoral Pain - Mike Reinold](<a href=“http://www.mikereinold.com/2009/06/influence-hip-foot-patellofemoral-pain.html]The”>The Influence of the Hip and Foot on Patellofemoral Pain)</p>

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<p>This whole issue is apparently REALLY common for female athletes with knee pain.</p>

<p>Here’s one with some suggested exercises from Mike Boyle:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/fbbuploads/1204824347-anterior-knee-pain.pdf[/url]”>http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/fbbuploads/1204824347-anterior-knee-pain.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>HopsScout can probably point to some other stuff in this area. I think he sees it in his training work. Seems to be pretty much accepted fact in up-to-date physical therapy circles.</p>

29088

<p>Well, in honor of healthy eating, a trimmer figure, and good cholesterol numbers, I’m ready to fire the smoker up on 4th of July and stock my freezer with ready to eat BBQ. 4 full slabs of baby back ribs and 4 three-pound boneless pork butts for pulled pork! If I’m going to stoke the fire all day (4 to 6 hours for the ribs, 12 to 14 hours or the pork butts), I might as well do enough to last for a while. Stuff freezes great and is way better than any BBQ available around here.</p>

<p>As Peter Attia’s t-shirt says:</p>

<p>[Praise</a> the Lard!](<a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d-RDmvtMRS4/T3jcmcSdNFI/AAAAAAAAAFI/GECLH_KZrjQ/s1600/Peter-Attia.jpg]Praise”>http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d-RDmvtMRS4/T3jcmcSdNFI/AAAAAAAAAFI/GECLH_KZrjQ/s1600/Peter-Attia.jpg)</p>

<p>So much for the food pyramid…</p>

29089

<p>Track night. Core/stretch. Mile warmup. 3x200s, 4x400s mile warmdown. Small hammy twinge so i shut it down.</p>

29090

<p>Repeat erased!</p>

29091

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<p>Don’t need to. A variety of the top tennis players in the world, both male and female, with access to world-class trainers and doctors have knee problems and the type of bandages, sleeves, kineseo tape and straps imply patella femoral syndrome. There were some five or so knee injuries in one day of play last week alone which forced match retirements.</p>

<p>The arguably best player in the world right now would be the world’s number one player if he didn’t have knee problems. As it is, he was bounced out of the first round of Wimbledon with clear knee problems and I’m guessing that he doesn’t make it to the US Open this year. Hard courts are his worst surface and hard courts happen to be the worst surface for knees.</p>

29092

<p>I did it! Kinda surprised myself actually.</p>

<p>Went back to the KB circuit from the other day, but made three changes. I cut the reps to 6 reps per exercise, down from 8. I did the swinging KB clean instead of putting the weight down on the floor each time. And, I started on my weaker side (left) so I had a prayer of doing the push presses. </p>

<p>So, each set was six reps per exercise all with a 35 lb KB:</p>

<p>*KB deadlift (left hand)
KB clean (left hand)
KB front squat (left hand)
KB push press (left hand)</p>

<p>KB deadlift (right hand)
KB clean (right hand)
KB front squat (right hand)
KB push press (right hand)*</p>

<p>I did each side non-stop without taking my hand off the KB. I did put it down and take five or six deep breaths between sides.</p>

<p>I did four sets with a 90 second rest in between. Each set (both sides) was taking between 2:30 and 3:00. The whole workout took 17:50 and I saw a max heart rate of 92%. The push presses at the end of each set are brutal…</p>

<p>Good little workout, though. I’ll keep doing this one. It’s good practice for KB cleans. You could also substitute KB swings for the cleans, no problem.</p>

<p>Now, it’s fresh haddock pan roasted in butter and white wine for dinner. Yum…</p>

29093

<p>BCE -who is the tennis player- nadal?</p>

29094

<p>Yup. You could see his strength at the French Open in 2013. Of course he also won it in 2012 but he lost in the second round of Wimbledon last year and sat the rest of the year out. If it was just a bad tournament, he would have been back. He clearly did a lot of damage to his knee but he was back to very strong (as in best in the world in 2013). But he wore a bandage on his patella for the whole year.</p>

29095

<p>Squat tips video. Nice and simple:</p>

<p>[Elite</a> Performance With Mike Boyle: Teach Any Athlete How To Squat Properly | STACK Coaches and Trainers](<a href=“http://www.stack.com/video/2516103439001/Elite-Performance-With-Mike-Boyle-Teach-Any-Athlete-How-To-Squat-Properly/]Elite”>http://www.stack.com/video/2516103439001/Elite-Performance-With-Mike-Boyle-Teach-Any-Athlete-How-To-Squat-Properly/)</p>

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<p>Idad thanks for the video. If you had a choice between squats or single leg squats what would you choose</p>

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<p>I think one is a necessary prereq to the other. The single leg squat, IMO, is a VERY advanced squat progression. I can’t imagine getting far with it it until you do good solid goblet squats.</p>

<p>Actually, I think you want to go goblet squat > split squat > rear foot elevated split squat > single leg squat.</p>

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<p>Try to do one single-leg squat.</p>

<p>You should have your answer then.</p>

29099

<p>Hey guys, , thanks for he awesome info and video re squatting technique. I did practice Dan johns goblet squats quite a bit over the last few months to get my form right, but I’m not sure my form was as good while doing the kettlebell routine, so I’m going to practice maybe with a band and keep doing a singe set for a few days to acclimatize. I really like the routine and the feel I get from it, so I’m just going to make it work.</p>

<p>In my case, my thighs, glutes and calves are pretty much the most clearly defined muscles on my body – likely from the hill walking :slight_smile: – but that doesn’t necessarily mean my glutes are as developed as my thighs so I might benefit from work that way.</p>

<p>The knee in question is arthritic, and is also the same knee that was planted into the dashboard of a 1956 Superchef at 125 mph as an idiotic teenager. Comparatively, it doesn’t swell or trick out nearly as much as it used to before the hill walking…so the muscles around it must have strengthened. But I am hyper-conscious of when it complains because once it swells up, I’m sidelined.</p>

<p>In other news, I get to go kayaking tomorrow with friends to watch the fireworks downtown! I am excited as I have not been out this year between the floods and subsequent fast water and a general nervousness about doing this river solo when I didn’t grow up here and don’t know the waterway well yet. But on this little trip I’ll be with the best watershed guy I know so it will el me get familiar.</p>

<p>Idad, I ate a different breakfast in your honor yesterday as an experiment in lowering my carb ratio. On south beach years ago, I used to do an omlette in olive oil with a cup of fresh mushrooms and cheese seasoned with dill weed. I forgot how delicious it was :slight_smile:
First off, though double my normal calories, it sustained me longer.
It must have also reduced the inflammation I believe I get from just about any trace of gluten (normally i eat oatmeal and yogurt in the a.m.) because I dropped nearly a pound overnight. It may be a coincidence because hormonal shifts can easily make a pound differential for me, but it certainly served as reinforcement for a low carb breakfast :)</p>

<p>Speaking of which, DadIi

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<p>Inflammation can also be cause by food allergies or sensitivities – I am allergic to wheat, for example, so eating bread can dramatically alter my weight in short order. Have you ever been tested for food allergies? I don’t mean anaphylactic shock level, although I do go that way with bell peppers, but even milder, low level reactions to things like wheat can go unnoticed but make a difference once identified and avoided.</p>

<p>Just a thought. It could have just as easily been the inflammation from the workout because the repair process is going on most actively on a rest day/day following. Building muscle absolutely involves “inflammation” from the micro tearing. And you’re noticing the results in how your pants fit, so its really happening :)</p>

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<p>2.5 mile run last night - either RunKeeper was off or I was running some of it at under 10mins/mile - truly it must have been off!!! I do love that RunKeeper app - actually made a goal for the month - love how at the end of my run it tells you what % you are to your goal!</p>

<p>It’s the little things. :)</p>