<p>Tonight I was in Target and decided to see what they had in the way of weights. I was quite impressed with all of the happy easter-egg colors and brought home two three-pound hand-held weights. Honestly I am not sure exactly what I am going to do with them yet, but I like that I can take them to my office and maybe sneak in a few reps of something while I sit at my desk all day. </p>
<p>And three pounds weighs more than I thought it would. Makes me appreciate that losing even five or ten pounds would be a pretty good thing health-wise.</p>
<p>a) Stand up with the weights held down by your sides. Spread your arms out and up, like making snow angels, until the weights are at shoulder height and arms parallel to ground. Return arms and weights to your sides.</p>
<p>b) Same thing, start with the weights to your sides, but raise your arms out in front until the weights are shoulder height and your arms are parallel to the ground.</p>
<p>c) Start with arms to your sides. Bend arms up at elbows, until the weights are up to your shoulders, elbows still down to your sides. This is a “curl”.</p>
<p>d) Start with weights at shoulders, elbows bent. Straighten arms, pressing weights straight above your head, then back to shoulders.</p>
<p>e) Combine c) and d) for a “curl & press”. Weights at sides. Curl them up to shoulders. Then, press up above head.</p>
<p>f) Lie on your back (on floor, bench, or stability ball). Arms outstretched to the side with the weights. Raise arms up until weights are over your chest and back down. Arms can be slightly bent if it’s more comfortable, but the angle of the elbow should stay fixed throughout. This called a “fly”.</p>
<p>BTW, learn proper breathing from the start. Always exhale as you lift the weights up and inhale as you return them slowly to the starting position. It’s OK to lift them quickly, but you should always return them slowly and controlled.</p>
<p>It’s pretty hard to lift weights more than 3 days a week, because you need a day in between to recover. An ideal schedule for you might be to lift every other day and run every other day.</p>
<p>For fat loss programs, Boyle has them doing high intensity circuit training (same basic concept as Spartacus) and then high intensity interval training for any additional days. BTW, I would consider singles tennis (when played hard) to be a form of interval training. It’s basically like shuttle sprint intervals with the heavy metabolic load of stopping and changing direction.</p>
<p>Broke down and called for another appt with the knee surgeon. I can no longer ignore that something isn’t quite right. Will see him on the 18th. Still working hard but the knee is swollen and I still have pain. The biking helps but I am in agony if I don’t bike first thing in the morning and even then I have stabbing pain in the meniscus. sigh…</p>
<p>Ouch NorthMinnesota, you need to get that fixed. I’m taking my son on a couple of college visits this weekend, so I have to combine my running and strength workouts today, so I can take the next 3 days off. Traveling always leads to eating more than normal.</p>
<p>Ouch, NM! Take care of that knee. Ice it well until you get to see the doc, and take something anti-inflammatory. A person very dear to my heart had a knee surgery after experiencing similar symptoms - swollen knee, pain when walking… He is on his way to recovery, but running at this point is still out of question. The good news is that he has not gained a pound even after stopping all vigorous exercise a couple of months ago.
You probably already know what your doctor might say, but here are a couple of links that we bookmarked:
[Meniscus</a> -Southern Maine orthopedic specialists](<a href=“Log In ‹ Spectrum Orthopaedics — WordPress”>Log In ‹ Spectrum Orthopaedics — WordPress)
[url=<a href=“http://www.orthop.washington.edu/uw/tabID__3376/ItemID__161/mid__10313/Articles/Default.aspx]Torn”>http://www.orthop.washington.edu/uw/tabID__3376/ItemID__161/mid__10313/Articles/Default.aspx]Torn</a> Meniscus-torn knee cartilage not limited to athletes or sports - UW Medicine.<a href=“for%20the%20illustrative%20purposes%20only;%20no%20personal%20expeience%20with%20either%20of%20these%20places”>/url</a></p>
<p>The guy that I play regularly is pretty competitive. In general, when I’m over 215, he wins. He just has to move me around enough to wear me out. He can do this side to side or up and back. Under 210 (and if I’m in good cardio shape), I usually win. At my current weight (202) I win easily. Weight was a big deal in Men’s tennis this year with several players bulking down, notably Nadal. Relatively small differences in weight can make the difference at the highest levels and more strength isn’t always better because there is a cost to that strength.</p>
<p>In general, I have a much better serve due to a height advantage and I take better advantage of technology. I migrated from a continental forehand to an eastern forehand 30 years ago and only migrated to a semi-western a few years ago. It takes quite some time to change grips and you lose a lot of matches in the progress but I like to make long-term investments. In the past, when one of us got better, the other would figure out how to negate that advantage so it was like two people working to get better. At my current weight and fitness level, his strategy and tactics aren’t as effective. He’s in very good shape and he’s probably stronger than I am but his stroke production isn’t as efficient. It’s very hard to change your strokes and style after playing with it for forty years.</p>
<p>NMinn- I hope you can get some relief. 3 Advil 3 times a day for now. Ice and rest. Sounds like a possible torn meniscus but hopefully just tendonitis.</p>
<p>Spin class this morning. It is not my favorite thing, but it sure is a good workout. </p>
<p>Off to PA to food-hell for the weekend. Land of TastyKakes and hoagies.</p>
<p>MOWC…don’t forget the cheese steaks! Have fun.
We’re heading up to NY to visit family and then celebrate our anniversary. Hanging out with Yankees fans on Saturday night…yikes!
Made a big pizza last night and only had one piece. Didn’t want anymore even though it tasted great. I think you get used to smaller portions after a while. A good thing.
Off for a hilly walk before the monsoons come in…</p>
<p>I’m going to walk on the Perkiomen Trail with a high school friend I haven’t seen for 40 years. He “ran” the Steamtown Marathon last week that I was supposed to run. His foot gave out (prior injury) at 10 miles and he walked the last 16.2. He said he was dead last and they were taking down the scaffolding at the finish line when he came in! He said if he ever says the word “marathon” again, punch him in the face. I know the feeling…</p>
<p>idad: Thanks for the suggestions. And I know that you are correct about the breathing but it feels backwards to me–it seems much more natural to me to inhale while lifting up and exhale while returning. </p>
<p>NMn: I haven’t been following this thread very long–is your knee injury an old problem or something that happened recently? I do hope it gets better soon.</p>
<p>I got inspired by this board and I’m going with two friends on Sunday (unless we get hit with a big rain) to do Pack Monadnock–less traveled trail up Mt. Monadnock in NH. It’s about 7 miles and I’m anxious to see how many calories I’ll burn. Today, I worked with my trainer at 7 am and then met these friends and walked to a conservation trail (small hills) in my town (about 4.5 miles in all). According to my HRM, I burned 425 calories on the walk. However, it wasn’t much of an aerobic workout.</p>
<p>That’s why I mentioned it. If you get in the habit of breathing correctly from the start, it will feel natural soon enough.</p>
<p>Actually a good strong exhale is a helpful technique for recovering your breathing when you are gassed from waking up a hill. The gating issue with breathing is expelling the depleted oxygen. If you are starting to get winded on the treadmill or the bike, three or four strong exhales can often help.</p>
<p>Also, the land of Morimoto’s Tempura, which might be the best tasting thing I’ve ever eaten. Tempura battered and fried rock shrimp, coated in a buttery hot chili sauce. Think buffalo chicken wings only made with Iron Chef tempura shrimp instead of chicken. Good lord. I’m pretty sure that would be lo-cal, right?</p>
<p>Chili sauce on Tempura? Haven’t tried that. My wife makes Tempura about once a month with all kinds of veggies. She makes a traditional Japanese dipping sauce for it. The sauce is quite light. She uses a very light batter too and the dipping sauce is well-absorbed by the crispy batter.</p>
<p>We use chili sauce like ketchup when it’s around. We used to get more garlic chili sauce from the 88 Supermarket but they’ve gone downhill over the years. I can’t wrap my head around chili on Tempura. Not even wasabi. Perhaps with a heavy batter. In Singapore, KFC sells spicy (chili) fried chicken but the batter on KFC is a lot heavier than what my wife makes. I should take a picture of it the next time she cooks it and post it somewhere.</p>
<p>Well, I’m officially wiped out from Spartacus. I had to actually lie down right after dinner last night (grilled chicken salad with my homemade Bobby Flay lime/scallion blender vinaigrette). I’m tired/sore in every muscle in my body this morning. One more lap in the chariot on Friday and then this workout is going back on the shelf for a couple of weeks while I let iPod nazi flog me into shape with Phase III (the supersets). Sounds like a horror movie.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, there’s Geno’s Steaks in Philadelphia. Haven’t been there in a long time but it’s tasty food. Don’t go there if you’re worried about calories.</p>
<p>I’m a little sore from the weights last night but it’s that good kind of soreness where it’s just a gentle reminder of a previous workout. I know how you feel though - I used to get that way playing tennis - much less these days being lighter. I’m considering asking a few better players to hit with regularly to get a better workout. That would mean cutting out something else.</p>
<p>I make Japanese tempura, too with Japanese tempura sauce – basically soy and mirin.</p>
<p>The sauce Morimoto tosses the rock shrimp tempura in is actually a homemade version of a commercially available Asian product – chili mayonnaise. In one of his other restaurants he uses an alternate wasabi mayonnaise. His dish is made with a Korean hot chili sauce. It’s tossed in the sauce just like buffalo chicken wings. Very rich, of course.</p>
<p>I’ve got the recipe in his cookbook, I think, but tempura hasn’t been on my menu since I’ve been on this move more, eat less kick. I’m kind of holding out deep frying a mess of something or another as my treat after one of these five pound goals. Could be tempura. Could be my Sam Adams beer battered fresh haddock with onion rings. Could be my grandmother’s fried chicken – all of which I used to cook pretty well.</p>