<p>Well, gotta admit, sounds like a great race to volunteer at - stuff to gain with no pain! Best of luck to your D! Hope the storms stay at bay. </p>
<p>IDad, that Dead Bug ball exercise is great. It’s remarkable how pressing down on the ball with your arms increases the abs engagement so much. One of the stability ball exercises I’ve been playing with is laying prone on the ball at my hips. Then I walk myself out with arms extended until I am in a plank with my feet on the ball. After a 5 count, I pivot into a side plank on one side for a 5 count, pivot back to neutral for 5, pivot to a side plank on the other side for five, then back to neutral, then a pike for 5, return to neutral and then roll back to hips on ball. That’s 1 rep. </p>
<p>Any recommendations for exercises that will help me get out of a chair without using my hands/arms? I need to start at a baby-steps level, it would appear…</p>
<p>You want to work on strengthening your abs, glutes and quads while learning how to tilt your pelvis forward while in a seated position. Start with exercises like pelvic tilts while laying on your back with your knees bent and your feet on the floor. Add in some abs using a stability ball- lay on your back, knees bent, feet on floor, using your arms to hold a stability ball against your thighs, then lift your feet a couple of inches off the ground and use your arms to press the ball into your legs. Also do body weight squats focusing on getting a good hip hinge motion and contracting your glutes. Do the squats standing facing a wall as close as you can handle and don’t allow yourself to bend so that you touch the wall with either your head or your knees as you do the squats.</p>
Don’t know why post repeated itself!
<p>Counting Down:</p>
<p>The squat is the exercise that keeps us geezers able to get out of a chair. Here’s Rachel Cosgrove demonstrating a progression from easier to harder. I wish I had had a TRX or Jungle Gym when I started exercising at 250 pounds and couldn’t do a squat. You could also rig up a rope over a bannister. Her progression is exactly how I would do it if I were starting today: TRX assisted squat > bodyweight squat > goblet squat</p>
<p><a href=“How to Do Squats | Sleek/Strong With Rachel Cosgrove - YouTube”>How to Do Squats | Sleek/Strong With Rachel Cosgrove - YouTube;
<p>The best tip for me was/is to always think about pressing down through the heels, even to the point of wiggling my toes off the ground. That gets the butt/hip back where they belong.</p>
<p>I do some kind of bodyweight squats in every warm up and some kind of squat with weights in every workout. It’s probably the single most important exercise when you consider that the thing that sends most old folk to a nursing home is no longer being able to get up from the potty without assistance. It’s fundamentally a function of poor leg strength. I couldn’t get any where near thighs parallel to the ground when I started. In fact, it hurt my knee to the point where I had to kneel with a knee on the ground to rummage around on the bottom shelf of the fridge.</p>
<p>MOfWC, good luck to your D! Fingers cossed that the weather will cooperate. Let us know how it goes! </p>
<p>MKAT:</p>
<p>Yeah. I’ve done some combo in iPod nazi core workouts that involve stability ball pikes and pushups. Tough stuff.</p>
<p>One of my standard plank workouts is feet in Jungle Gym moving from front plank (30 seconds) to side plank (30 seconds) to opposite side plank (30 seconds) to front plank (30 seconds) with 15 seconds rest while changing positions. The unstable feet make really engage the core.</p>
<p>This one, stability ball toe touches, is surprisingly difficult, especially if you try to slow it down and hold the touch position. I do it with my ankles on the ball instead of my toes:</p>
<p><a href=“Stability Ball Toe-Touches - YouTube”>Stability Ball Toe-Touches - YouTube;
<p>Both my D & S do CrossFit and I admit to worrying some about both of them. D was a Health & Exercise Science major undergrad, has an MPH, and is a certified personal trainer in the Metabolic Effect method. S is in the Air Force. I forwarded both articles to them. As I said, I do worry …</p>
<p>My run/walk on Friday morning was outside – a nippy 28 degrees with a headwind. I always start off slightly underdressed, knowing how much I heat up. One thing about it being that cold – I had to keep going since I’d freeze if I stopped!</p>
<p>Today I’m doing a walking tour in downtown Boston – probably not a particularly fast pace, but it’s something. (Oh, plus I do 2 miles almost every day with the puppy – and that is a very fast pace!)</p>
<p>Good luck to MOWC’s D.</p>
<p>IDad, I always end my TRX work outs with some combination of planks and pikes. The unstable feet really does add to the core engagement. The full core engagement is what I also like about doing the suspension rowing and chest presses with my hands in the handles and my feet elevated to the same height as my hands. I haven’t yet added an instability element to that but now that I have finished reconfiguring my gym and have the TRX mounted from the ceiling rather than from my lifting cage, I think I have the space logistics to use a ball for my feet. That should prove very interesting 
! </p>
<p>One of the things that’s so much fun about using a ball or a suspension trainer for core work is that you are limited in the movements and combinations you can do only by your own creativity. I’m frequently finding myself wondering “What if I did this…” and then trying out new things. It’s just a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Looks like the rain is holding off until 10-11 am, which is good. Not that she’ll be finished by then, but it’s better if it starts AFTER you are already running! </p>
<p>Counting Down, IDad’s suggestion of using a suspension trainer is a great idea if you are willing to make that investment and have a nearby facility where you can go to a couple of suspension training classes to learn how to use it. The beauty of suspension training, like TRX or a Jungle Gym, is that you are using body weight resistance and have infinite control over how easy or hard an exercise movement is. Using the straps for support when doing squats really enables you to concentrate on form, technique and muscle engagement. Even if you don’t have the space or desire to ceiling mount a suspension trainer in your home, they can also be used with a fully removable door mount that gets slung over a door which is then closed to complete the process. When you are done exercising, you open the door and just remove the mount and suspension trainer.</p>
<p>CBB, pups are good motivation to exercise, that’s for sure. That was my exercise yesterday - trip to the vet to spend my paycheck, trip to Costco to spend H’s paycheck, and 3 big walks and a few rounds of Jolly Ball - Sabapup loves to retrieve - Sabadog is a good supervisor. </p>
<p>Easy 2.5 miles this morning. All the students are off on break so had to take advantage of a nice, quiet campus to run. Decided to follow MOWC’s good example and volunteer for our local Turkey Trot instead of running it. </p>
<p>Good luck to your D, MOWC! </p>
<p>Hope the weather holds for your D, MOWC.</p>
<p>I’m off to ride some new trails in half an hour. 41 degrees now but supposed to warm up to 50ish. Then it’s back to painting.</p>
<p>Nothing today, despite it being a glorious, cool fall day, but did go dancing last night, which should count for something. The dancing was preceded by a football work out: staying in motion on various cardio machines until the ball game ended. </p>
<p>@interesteddad, if you are on CC today, can you provide a link to your fab brussels sprouts recipe? I thought I had saved it, but I can’t find it in my recipe file. If you don’t have the time, no biggie, I found a recipe for sauteed brussels sprouts with bacon and onions which sounds pretty good. </p>
<p>@Nrdsb4, is this what you were looking for? </p>
<p><a href=“Ideas for using Marsala wine? - #5 by interesteddad - Parent Cafe - College Confidential Forums”>Ideas for using Marsala wine? - #5 by interesteddad - Parent Cafe - College Confidential Forums;
<p>@sabaray, yes, thank you! I knew there was some kind of special ingredient, but I couldn’t remember what it was. The Marsala wine sounds like a wonderful addition! </p>
<p>Nrdsb, a splash of any dry white will make Brussel sprouts heavenly. I’ve even used Riesling in mine! </p>
<p>Waiting for the Monkey report! </p>
<p>Well I’m thinking the 2 months of low hr training back in August and September might have increased my speed and helped my legs heal. Yesterday I ran a 5:27 mile on the treadmill and today averaged 7:50 for 8 miles. Legs and knees are pain free . Still run with CEP knee braces for longer runs .</p>