<p>I put my 44s in storage a while ago. I’m using 40s, 38s and 36s. The 40s are scrunched quite a bit and they have a ton of extra room in the thighs. I should buy 36s now but I need some time to go shopping. I also need to check my old clothes bins to see if I have some old 36s. I know that I have old clothes going down to 28.</p>
<p>I’m pretty happy with my progress too. I look a lot better in the mirror and feel better and I know that I can do a lot more but that rushing doesn’t work - consistent work and good habit win over doing it really fast IMO.</p>
<p>Could you describe this a bit more? I’m familiar with the concept of planks, although I’ve never done one, but what kind of pushup targets that region?</p>
<p>I’d like to get into free weights and more stuff that I can do when not at the gym…</p>
<p>I was surprised at how many of my (young) male running friends objected to the women’s only half marathon. Geez- it’s not like there aren’t a zillion races for them to run! I remember back in my other life when I ran a women’s track event for the first time in corporate nationls (I never ran track in school) and I won. It was SO fun to break the tape and not have anyone in front of me. I have never been a big “need to just be with the girls” person, but I am looking forward to this event and participating with my daughter.</p>
<p>In other news- I got another shot in the a$$ this morning. I was thrilled (not) to hear that sometimes it takes THREE injections (this was 2). This time he really hit the right spot and I was instantly pain free. I hope it holds. Dr. said it should work on the inflammation and not just mask pain. He said not to run for now. It was nice climbing in my car without pain and sitting at my desk without pain. We’ll see. The issue now is High Hamstring Tendinopathy and Bursitis. Lovely.</p>
<p>Ouch MoWC! I hope this works for you!
H is having neck pain/stiffness and he is on his second bout of steroids. He is not supposed to do any workouts/golf/mowing grass…etc. Hard for him not to be active. They are not sure what the problem is even after 2 MRIs.</p>
<p>Woke up this morning and felt puffy. My wedding ring has been very loose lately and it was snug. Sure enough got on the scale and my weight had gone up 1.5 pounds…must be total water weight. Had gone out to lunch yesterday and had a salad and then had some prepackaged hummus last night. Was within my calorie limit but there must have been sodium hidden in there somewhere! Will drink more water today!</p>
<p>edit: hmmm…the other difference is the new vitamins. Wonder if they have any effect???</p>
<p>You can also do a beginner side plank using your knees as a the fulcrum with your legs bent 90 degrees behind you.</p>
<p>Plank and side plank are not fat-burning exercises. Because there is no movement, they don’t burn a ton of calories or raise your heart rate that much. However, they produce incredible results in strengthening the core muscles around your waist (front and sides) that improve your posture, fitness, and strength for every other exercise. A few months of doing plank and side plank and you can brace or stiffen your core at will which makes every other exercise you do more effective and is essential for things like safely lifting a bag of charcoal out of the car trunk. These are probably the two most important exercises you can do for functional real-world fitness.</p>
<p>NM - prepackaged hummus is probably loaded with sodium to prolong its shelf life. When my weight suddenly goes up by 1.5 lb, it is Mother Nature ltelling me to check my feminine hygiene products supply Sorry for TMI…</p>
<p>Consolation: I do not do any of the crazy stuff in the I-dad’s link (T-pushups with weights - no way!!!). Just simple garden-variety pushups, trying to do as many as I can in one minute (I started with 10, now I’m up to 30). I do not do any crunches at all as I found them ineffective. Here is what worked for me, YMMV.</p>
<p>About 3-4 times a week, I go through the following routine (15-20 min total with rest if you need it):</p>
<p>Start slow and do not use weights that are too heavy. I progressed from 6 lb weights to 9 lb, and currently I’m using 15 lb ones with no plans to “upgrade”. If you feel pain, stop and listen to your body. Concentrate on the proper form and technique to avoid injuries.</p>
<p>Bunsen…haha! I am way past that trip with Mother Nature! ;)</p>
<p>I do the bicep curls, shoulder press, front raise, overhead tricep and kickback, chest flys and press; all with free weights and machines. I don’t do any lower body weights as my legs are very toned/muscular from bike and I have no hips,thighs or butt and bad knee! I need to increase core work…:o</p>
<p>You are way ahead of me. I can do 15 good pushups at a time.</p>
<p>Hah, I looked like some kind of wounded beast doing those T-pushups. That’s one that going to take some time to get to the point where I’m doing the exercise instead of the exercise doing me. I started with the 8 pound dumbbells and quickly said, “No, I don’t think so” and dropped back to the 5 pounders. I can’t remember how many I did. It wasn’t very many. Four on each side for a total of eight in each set or something like that. The exercise is all about flexibility and balance. I may actually drop back and do it without weights for a few workouts because I’m struggling with the pushups with my hands on the dumbells on the floor.</p>
<p>The dumbell rows from the push up position (holding the top of a pushup and lifting a dumbell up from the floor to your shoulder) is a fantastic exercise. I feels like dumbell rows combined with plank. You could definitely do that one. One of the Cosgrove’s (Robin Gosgrove who wrote the Spartacus Workout and her husband) philosophies is that you should always do a pulling exercise (like a row) to balance each pushing exercise (like a pushup or a dumbbell press).</p>
<p>Also, if you are doing curls and presses, trying combing them all in one with a squat. There’s squat press as the final exercise in Spartacus. iPod nazi has had me doing a squat with a curl and press on the way up. I can do ten with the 14 pound dumbells, but I’m huffin’ and puffin’ at the end every time. It’s a great fat-burning exercise because it works every big muscle in the body. I love it because it integrates the thighs, the core, the shoulders, and the arms in one continuous “athletic” move. Burn calories, cardio fitness, and improve real-world functional strength all in one.</p>
<p>Well, I did a little 3.3 mile walk this afternoon. Nice easy recovery day. I am sore from head to toe from yesterday’s Spartacus Workout. I think I used a bunch of muscles that I don’t have or something. Guess I’ll have to do it again tomorrow!</p>
<p>More exercise is fantastic, but crunches aren’t going to do that much for you. They are one of the least effective exercises that you can do to lose belly fat. Try the plank and the side plank that BunsenBurner linked to just above to strengthen your core and then think about some whole body, large muscle exercises to burn fat. Pushups, lunges, squats, stepping up and down quickly, and so forth.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t think the group classes would be my thing, either. I like to bend over panting like a dog in private!</p>
<p>Gotta give it up for those ladies, though. They are flat burning some fat cells doing that workout. I bet chintzy could knock 'em dead in a Spartacus class. If I recall, she’s been doing burpees, so her trainer has her doing this kind of stuff.</p>
<p>Ran six miles - this is getting fairly routine. One thing of note is that I used to always wear heavily-cushioned shoes to protect my joints when I was heavier. A few weeks ago I just started wearing shoes without cushioning - they had the stock insoles. And they were fine. Basically I’m at a point where walking</p>
<p>idad–just watched the video. Now I know where my trainer gets all his torturous ideas! This months it’s burpees on the bosu, push ups on the evens. They are sad little push ups, and I fear I’m going to do a face plant on the hard plastic side of the bosu one of these days.</p>
<p>I did 8 pushups this morning. I haven’t done pushups in quite some time. They weren’t that hard - actually they were easier because of the weight drop. All good form. I’m pretty careful with any weight-bearing exercises on my right arm. I should probably do more of them regularly.</p>
<p>We have our torture drills in tennis too. One type has a coach at the net with a bucket of balls and a short line of students at the baseline. Coach hits a ball, student hits a groundstroke, coach hits a shorter ball, student hits an approach shot, coach hits a ball to be volleyed, student volleys the ball, coach hit a lob, student runs back to hit an overhead. This can be pretty strenuous stuff as you don’t know where the ball is going to go. Another drill that I used to do used the lines on the tennis court. Take a tennis racquet, run down the doubles sideline, then move over to the singles sideline and run backwards to the baseline, run forwards to the service line, shuffle over to the center line, run forwards to the net, run backwards to the service line, shuffle over to the other singles sideline, run backwards to the baseline, forwards to the net, shuffle to the doubles sideline and then back to the baseline. Good stuff for balance, movement, mobility, aerobic conditioning and strength.</p>
<p>I think he is one of the pioneers in pushing the concept of high intensity circuit training instead of steady-state cardio for fitness and fat loss. If you can handle the Scottish (?) accent, this interview explains his philosopy:</p>
<p>My iPod Nazi clearly follows this philosophy with his workouts. I could tell from the exercises you’ve talked about that your trainer has you going down this road, too. It’s interesting because these timed circuits adapt to any level of fitness. I mean, that women’s Spartacus workout shows some ladies pretty early on the fitness curve (like me a few months ago) doing a workout that easily scales up in intensity to gobsmack the fittest professional athlete. </p>
<p>I think you and I are both examples of people who have lost a signficant amount of weight with these kinds of workouts as the core of our exercise. I’ve been doing them three days a week since day one. It’s exciting because I feel like I’ve finally reached a threshold of fitness where I can start doing them at a little higher level, i.e. still able to physically do the exercises even when aerobically stressed from the interval nature of the circuits. I look at the hill walking I’ve done on my off days as a way for a deconditioned fat guy ex-smoker to build the aerobic endurance to really do this kind of workout. Going forward, I think walking will become more of an active recovery day, just for fun. I can’t do these circuit training workouts on back to back days.</p>
<p>4 miles run/walk this morning. Did irritate the injury a little. Then went to PT. I think I can get through this half-marathon with my daughter on Saturday. It will be a challenge, though.</p>
<p>One unpleasant surprise- I did not sleep at ALL last night (very unusual for me). Well, maybe 2 hours. I finally got up and got online to check on the side-effects of the cortisone shot from yesterday. Yep- insomnia. Lovely.</p>
Sorry for TMI…</p>