<p>Glad to hear you got some walking in at the cabin, NM.</p>
<p>Idad, when you first started single leg deadlifts, how on earth did you learn the balance. I tried em without the weights and literally felt at times like I was going to topple over. Maybe I’m doing it wrong – watched a ton of videos and was trying the cross movement to start in order to make sure I was extending my leg enough.</p>
<p>In the course of my googling, I also came across something weird re planks – a columnist saying it was better to do six ten-second planks than a singe 60-second plank. That sounds like cheating to me…isn’t the whole point sustained core engagement?</p>
<p>Let me know your thoughts I would happily shift my hold downward if I imagined for a moment i would get better results. But I can sustain form a little over a minute without the sense of impending death :)</p>
<p>NMinn- Thought of you when I was in the MSP airport on Thurs and yesterday! Yesterday’s weather was awful- and it was the Twin Cities Marathon. Maybe it didn’t rain for the actual race. My two young friends who are REALLY fast runners from Minneapolis were not happy with their races. The guy had a “bad day” and ran 2:27 (but was trying for 2:24). The girl has been struggling with a butt/hip injury and was trying for a PR 3:05 and fell apart for a 3:14. I ran that race in 1998!</p>
<p>Weather on Saturday was horrendous but actually much better on Sunday for the race. Still bad for a race. The end of the race is nice…all down hill for the last mile. There is always a nice crowd cheering everyone on. D2 didn’t run it this year but went out and ran 10 miles on her own on Sunday. Wish she would have run it.</p>
<p>Actually, Stuart McGill recommends starting with the sequence of 10 second holds for plank to build up core strength/stability. I started out with the 45 second and 60 second holds, but looking back, I know believe that the series of shorter holds is a better approach. When I was a 250 lb ol’ fat guy, I was just hanging on for dear life, sweating profusely, holding those 45 second planks on shear determination. I wasn’t doing quality planks. I think I would have gotten more benefit from 10 seconds of quality repeated several times. </p>
<p>From a performance standpoint, core stability is most important for a brief instant. The instant you pick up a heavy box. The instant you hit a golf ball. And so forth. McGill has studied world class athletes in a number of sports and the one common factor in all sports is the ability to instantly “pulse” and stiffen the core muscles - usually in some sequence of stiff, relaxed, stiff. For example the long-driving champion golfer that McGill wired up and measured in his lab has a stiffened pulse at the top of the swing as he initiated the downswing, then another at the moment of impact. But, it’s almost always short pulses of insanely high core stiffness at just the right moment. The core stiffness is what transfers power from the legs to the arm when, for example, throwing a 90 mph fastball or hitting a serve in tennis.</p>
<p>For us mortals, the core stiffness protects the spine when we pick something up. It’s mostly sub-conscious, but doing planks teaches us how to fire the core muscles.</p>
<p>I was so discouraged by my complete lack of balance on that exercise that I made it a long-term challenge. Specifically, I started doing a variety of single leg balance exercises in my warmup each day. Just standing on one leg. Standing on one leg while moving the other to front, side and back against a resistance band around my knees. And, so forth.</p>
<p>With the benefit of hindsight, the lack of balance was in large part of symptom of week hips/glutes. As those get stronger, the ability to remain stable on one leg improves – kinda like magic.</p>
<p>A couple of tips. I would start out with the single leg deadlift with no weight, just trying to touch the toe of the standing leg with the opposite arm. In fact, that’s a great warmup to do before doing single leg deadlifts anytime.</p>
<p>I would not worry so much about keeping the back leg completely straight. The goal is to keep it straight, but I don’t think that is the immediate goal if it interferes with just staying balanced.</p>
<p>The whole exercise is a bit of a magician’s trick in that it diverts your attention from the real action. You tend to think about the arm going down or the back leg coming up, when the real action is the HIP/BUTT OF THE STANDING LEG! That’s what is doing the work and providing the stability. So focus on that. Also, the real action (once you start doing it with a weight) is when you lift back up. Gravity will take the weight down all by itself – although it seems like you have to actively lower it. It’s a hip hinge, just like a kettlebell swing, only on one leg.</p>
<p>Keep the standing leg just slightly bent. That will help activate the glutes. When you start nailing this exercise, that hip/glute will be sore.</p>
<p>I do it next to a bar stool so that I can graze it with my free hand when I start to wobble. Fortunately, I don’t generally wobble that much anymore, but it’s taken a long time. I’ve been at it for two years now.</p>
<p>One thing that surprises me about the whole exercise thing is, frankly, how little time it takes to make a lot of progress. I’ve gotten the impression sometimes that when people read my home workout they’re thinking this must take forever. Nope. About 30-35 mins. That’s it. And when I run, it’s normally less than an hour, including warm up and cool down. So, workouts of 1/2-1 hr five or six days a week is my big fitness effort.</p>
<p>KMC, when I tried that one holding dbs I thought it was easier to stay balanced than when I didn’t, but I used heavier dbs than I should have and more reps (still not many) and paid a price afterward. I went back to no dbs and have been too chicken to take on dbs for that exercise since, but I probably will again sometime.</p>
<p>Deborah- that’s a good point. Even with my running- it averages an hour a day. Weekend long runs are longer, of course, but some people think I must spend 3 hours a day on exercise! It really doesn’t take that much time to stay fit.</p>
<p>Definitely true, Deborah. Not counting hiking, I exercise between 4 and 5 hours a week. Three one-hour workouts. Three half hour workouts, give or take. I actually think less is more – even 20 minutes several times a week would pay huge dividends. Whatever it is, it can’t be a “grind” or you won’t sustain it over the long haul. It’s really helped me to come up with an assortment of 20 minute workouts.</p>
<p>Even if I only have 20 mins that can amount to some distance either running or walking at a good clip. In fact, had a late night with other stuff tonight and only had 20 mins before it got too dark to be comfortable being out- I still went out and walked a quick bonus 1.5 .</p>
<p>Starting to think I need new running shoes . I’ve had mine for quite awhile- they look great still but I’ve been noticing my left foot/ankle/heel being a little sore/tender. I’ma lefty and seem to favor that side running too - can the running store people look at a shoe and tell if its worn down or broke down ( or something!) by examining the shoe ??? I don’t notice anything obvious on the outside or bottom…</p>
<p>Sometimes you can tell by the outsole, but what really happens is that the midsole breaks down (and can do so unevenly) and that is harder to tell by looking. If you think you need new ones, you probably do.</p>
<p>I recently saw a display showing how much sugar is in various soft drinks and other beverages (similar to some of the pictures found on Google images). Wow. Makes that 1/2 packet of sugar I put in a cup of tea at the Chinese restaurant look like nothing, even considering I might drink five of those mini-cups of tea.</p>
<p>Any of you knowledgeable folks here have experience attending a program?
If not the classes, reading Dr May’s book?</p>
<p>I need some help developing a positive connection to eating as opposed to the yo-yo diet thing which isnot working for me except very short term.</p>
<p>You’ve piqued my interest. I’m going to have to track down some of her stuff and give it a look see. Just from a glance at the website, it may be a little bit too much “get in touch with your feelings about eating” for me. But, everybody is different and that seems to be a successful approach for a lot of people.</p>
<hr>
<p>Back to the basement for a full workout today. Took it slow with some extra bits of rest, but was right back with the heavy weights. Did four rep sets of chin-ups, really good ones. It had been a week since I’d done my full warmup routine. Felt like the tin woodsman… :)</p>
<p>“Home workout, aka leg, middle (core), and arm stuff, done. Shoe-free.”</p>
<p>My home workout today was also shoe-free… Kettlebell exercises, pushups, Bosu ball “storks” - I have not done this stuff in ages, so will be sore tomorrow!</p>
<p>I agree that staying fit does not require a huge time commitment- unless I’m training for a marathon and have to do long runs, I rarely spend more than 1 hour a day on workouts.</p>
<p>Idad, yes, Im trying to get past some of the talk show-ish aspects of her plan.
My goal would be to learn some tools to help me avoid the mindless eating due to stress, boredom, etc. Eat when hungry, gee what a concept, how did I miss that?</p>
<p>I have a convenient opportunity to participate in a workplace group for little $$$.
Cant hurt, I figure. Of course, I DO already know what the better food choices are, just not successful enough to follow consistently.</p>
<p>I alway “say” I’m just doing these little 20 min sessions but I added it up yesterday and by the time I add the “little core” the “little kettlebell” routine and the “little dive/swim” I’m actually racking up closer to 45 min </p>
<p>Thanks for the tips on the single leg deadlift. I feel better about my apparent lack of balance. I tried the weight-free movement throughout the day and I’m starting to feel what’s supposed to happen, so I’ll just add it to the warm up for a while until I’m a little more stable before adding weight.</p>
<p>It was my trainer girlfriend who put me up to it. The other day she commented that now I’m at a level that several of her coaching clients are at and I should consider putting the sldl into my routine. Her gym is about an hour south of me or I would pop by for some supervision. </p>
<p>At the same time, I’m glad I’m taking the DIY-at home approach for the moment. My mom had been going to the gym 3x a week when her boyfriend was doing rehab for a stroke. Now that he’s able to drive again, she’s stopped going. I asked her what she was doing about her work outs that made her feel so good. “Nothing” was her answer.</p>
<p>I know how that one goes, which is why I wanted this time to work out something I could do at home and habituate it, however small/short. In a worst case week, I’m still getting four or five days in this way.</p>
<p>I hadn’t gotten that far in McGill, idad, to learn about starting the short bursts on planks. I think now that I’m at the minute I may just stick with it since I can hold the form. I need to set aside some reading time. I wish his book was on kindle, because I think I might have read through by now :)</p>
<p>Long day at work yesterday and today isn’t looking much better, sadly. Went to the gym last night - 45 minutes on the treadmill. </p>
<p>I am finding that I like MyFitnessPal for the most part - it will tell you things like “If every day was like today, in 5 weeks you would weigh xxx pounds”! It will also tell you if it thinks you’re not eating enough. Easier to track that I’m keeping my carbs in check thanks to the red and green markers. Of course, not having a bread binge during the month of October will help with that. </p>
<p>mommusic, did you take the little quiz on eating from that website? I did and found it interesting, but nothing I didn’t already know. I don’t eat because I’m hungry - I eat because I’m bored, stressed, lonely, you name it! I exercise to control my weight. I am very rigid and rules oriented. Sounds like I’m writing my horoscope or something here! I think I would probably enjoy the social atmosphere of a weight loss group, but then I think how is that different from what I am getting here?</p>
I would happily shift my hold downward if I imagined for a moment i would get better results. But I can sustain form a little over a minute without the sense of impending death :)</p>