<p>You could go with a weight plates set which are adjustable. But I hate changing the weights around so we have fixed dumbbells. I just buy a new weight if and when there is a reason to do so. My son keeps telling me that 15 and 17.5 are too easy so I’ll get him a 20 and he can leave the plates dumbbell at 17.5 or bump it to 22.5. He could set it to 20 but it would be lopsided.</p>
<p>So maybe a 15 pound weight and one or two five or six pound weights.</p>
<p>WalMart has plain gray metal 20 pound hex dumbbells for under $1 a pound. If your store is out of stock, you can order them online and get free shipping to your nearest store for pickup. I’d love the rubber ones, but they are ridiculously expensive.</p>
<p>Sports Authority has the metal ones for about $22 at 20 pounds. The rubber ones were $40+. The rubber ones are better at our household as I don’t have to deal with howls from someone that accidentally hits one with unshod foot.</p>
<p>BC:</p>
<p>I’ve given away all my pastel dumbbells and have the plain gray hex dumbbells in 10s, 15s, and 20s. I use all three sizes for various exericise in my circuit workouts. </p>
<p>I just leave the adjustable set configured as my “heavy” set, which is more or less what I can bench press for 8 reps. They are currently at 30 pounds each, but I have plates to go up to 35 pounds each. I’ll probably buy 4 ten pound plates, which will let me go to 40s, 45s, or 50s. I can’t imagine ever needing more than that. 100 pounds of dumbbells is a lot for an ol’ fat guy to lift. We’ll see how it goes if and when I get to the 35 pounders.</p>
<p>Mathmom:</p>
<p>I found the abstract to that study, but there wasn’t any detail about the actual exerise programs. The testing was done measuring max oxygen intake on an exercise bike and max one-leg force on some kind of “weight machine”. Both measures are pretty flawed. The fitness guys have known for a long time that max oxygen (VO2max) doesn’t correlate in any way with athletic performance outside of marathon runners or cyclists. It doesn’t even correlate in a heavily aerobic sport like soccer.</p>
<p>It is quite possible for somebody doing long slow distance cardio training to get weaker. Rachel Cosgrove says that she gets softer and weaker everytime she trains for an Ironman competition. Her body adapts to the high mileage running and swimming and biking. She has to quit doing that stuff for six weeks afterwards and lift weights to get lean again.</p>
<p>If someone does 21 weeks of whole body exercises (pushups, lunges, squats, and so forth), they will be demonstrably stronger and more fit. If they start from ground zero, as I did, the 21 weeks may just be getting them to the point where gains start coming quickly.</p>
<p>The runners I know- including myself- sure don’t get soft and weak from training for distance events. Most do some weight training, but nothing like the amount Rachel advocates. Perhaps we don’t have explosive muscle strength, but we definitely have strength. You don’t carry your body 10 or 26 or 100 miles without having strength in your shoulders and core- besides the obvious leg strength.</p>
<p>A woman yesterday did the first-ever “Double Monkey”. She started at 3am and ran the entire Monkey Marathon (in the heavily wooded park) BY HERSELF (I would have been terrified). She then joined the “real” Monkey at the start line and did it again. She is an ultra-marathoner (obviously). Another guy who has been injured all year- similar to me- but was even worse about obeying his PT and stopping running said that his PT said “You might want to see a different kind of therapist.” Different breed of animal, for sure.</p>
<p>I’m beginning to think my “system” continuing to be slightly out of whack is related to my gallbladder surgery back in May, and not to my trip to Italy. I don’t mean to hijack this thread, but has anyone had experience with this? Or maybe I should start a new thread? Honestly, sometimes the power of the web is just too much – probably time to step away from Google …</p>
<p>Woke up and checked things out this morning. Neck is about 85%. Knees are about 95%. Arm is about 80%. I should be able to run or lift tomorrow. We’ll see how the arm is for tennis on Wednesday but I think that it should be better. If it’s iffy, then I’ll go with a softer racquet.</p>
<p>Here’s an article on tennis elbow from Boston trainer Eric Cressey, who works with a lot of professional baseball players. If you are like me, you’ll have to Google some of the terms to figure out what he’s tallking about.</p>
<p>[Understanding</a> Elbow Pain - Part 5: The Truth About Tennis Elbow | Eric Cressey](<a href=“http://ericcressey.com/understanding-elbow-pain-part-5-the-truth-about-tennis-elbow]Understanding”>» Understanding Elbow Pain – Part 5: The Truth About Tennis Elbow)</p>
<p>In a nutshell, he suggests that tennis elbow is really a wrist issue – using the wrist to compensate for the stress at impact during a backhand stroke – that shows up a the elbow because that’s where all those tendons from the wrist attach. He has some videos of physical therapist massage techniques, but also talks about the need to for wrist exercises to improve strength and flexibility. He also talks about the need for core strength work and hip flexibility work so that the large muscles of the body are engaged at impact instead of overstressing the wrist.</p>
<p>You might find it an interesting read.</p>
<p>Well, that may be true for the lateral but my problem is with the medial. The medial is usually caused by serve issues and sometimes caused by the forehand stroke. My backhand is better than my forehand and I use classic technique. The thing that I have is more commonly called golfer’s elbow but it’s also called tennis elbow but it is on the inside whereas classic tennis elbow caused by backhand technique problems is on the outside.</p>
<p>The modern approach to tennis is to use a Western Grip on the forehand and a two-hander on the backhand which eliminates the requirement for classic technique on the backhand side because you have two arms working on the stroke.</p>
<p>I went to the website and it basically says a lot of the above. He talks about modern racquets being part of the problem but really doesn’t provide details on why modern racquets are bad for your arm. The site racquetresearch.com provides the math and physics of why modern racquets are bad for you. Of course the problem is that modern racquets do give you a performance advantage but at the cost of higher risk of injury.</p>
<p>There are many pros that use paintjobs - basically they’re using something relatively soft with a paintjob that makes it look like another racquet so that the manufacturer can sell those racquets. Pros may also use different frames, so-called pro-stock frames like the Wilson H22 or the Head frames that retail customers can’t buy. These frames are of higher quality construction and they are customized for weight, swingweight, balance, length and grip. These frames are essentially the same as frames sold in the 1980s and 1990s before manufacturing moved to China. You can buy prostock frames if you know where to look but they generally cost moderately more than retail frames. You can also get a much higher level of quality and comfort if you buy used equipment older than the stuff that’s mass produced in China.</p>
<p>You can still buy arm-friendly racquets too. In general Pro Kennex is known to have the most arm-friendly lineup around. Guess what? They are one of the least popular brands in the US.</p>
<p>Back in the gym this morning. My knee is a little sore from wearing heels this weekend but not as bad as it has been in the past. Even walked up mega stairs without getting winded. Major accomplishment! 
Had lots of comments from people who noticed the weight loss…yay! Now on to that next 5 pounds.</p>
<p>Congrats idad on reaching that elusive 5 pound goal!</p>
<p>Glad you got to enjoy time at the Monkey Race MOWC!!</p>
<p>Way to stick with it to wnp, teri, blankmind, BC, CBB, bromfield, toneranger and everyone else who is facing real life issues with family, work and injuries. We can do this!</p>
<p>Ahhh. Yes. Golfer’s elbow is a different issue.</p>
<p>I was old-school. I played most of my tennis with two rackets:</p>
<p>A Martina Navratilovna model graphite Yonex (made in Japan). That thing was big and stiff as a board:</p>
<p>[Martina</a> Navratilova racquets yonex - 80s-tennis.com](<a href=“http://www.80s-tennis.com/pages/navratilova.html]Martina”>http://www.80s-tennis.com/pages/navratilova.html)</p>
<p>If I recall, the Yonex broke one day hitting a shot. Then, I switched to the McEnroe MacGregor MAX200G (Made in England). This was soft and forgiving. I still have two of them, one slightly warped, the newer one (last strung in 1991 according the sticker), appears to be in good shape.</p>
<p><a href=“http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5755/mce01cr.png[/url]”>http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5755/mce01cr.png</a></p>
<p>Of course, I learned to play with the classic Jack Kramer Wilson wood racket. Somewhere along the line, I also picked up a Lendl Kneissl White Star Pro graphite racket on sale for $20 or whatever. I never used it much. If I recall, it was soft and forgiving, too. Didn’t have much “power”.</p>
<p>The Yonex was the only “oversize” racket – although not as large as the orginal Prince jumbos. The McEnroe MacGregor is more of a conventional size racket.</p>
<p>I still have a MaxPly, Spaulding Natural and Bancroft Players Special. I also used several other wood racquets. I used the Head Pro in the 80s and early 90s - it was a very small aluminum racquet. Very flexible by today’s standards. Today I use a very stiff and heavy racquet. The weight negates a lot of the stiffness. I have lots of softer racquets but I just win more matches with the stiff frames.</p>
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<p>Early indications are that the plateau may have ended. We’ll see. That could be short-lived by the time Thursday is over!</p>
<p>I took yesterday completely off. Well almost. My wife said that she had signed up for “water zumba” classes to go with her “water aerobics” classes and her swimming laps. I said that should get out of the pool and do some burpees. She said, “what’s a burpee?” so I had to drop and do some burpees to demonstrate. I think I did eight good burpees in my jeans and topsiders. That was the full extent of my exercise yesterday as football sunday has become my self-imposed day off. I needed it. My legs were sore all week from squats and lunges.</p>
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</p>
<p>Oh, yeah. I forgot. I had one of those. Everybody had one of those. It was like the first metal racket. I actually think that was what I learned to play with. I think I bought the Jack Kramer afterwards to check out a wood racket. I think I bent the Head one day after it “slipped out of my hand and bounced off the court” shortly after a bad shot (if ya know what I mean…).</p>
<p>The first metals were made of steel. The Wilson T2000 used by Jimmy Connors was the epitome of the steel racquet. Aluminum frames came later on. I have three Head Pros in my closet (I used to have four but gave one away). They are made of extruded aluminum (similar to an I-Beam) and are very, very strong. I have bent other aluminum racquets but not those that were extruded.</p>
<p>The Head Pro would have been difficult to learn on. The sweet spot was about the size of a quarter. If you didn’t hit it, your shot would die or shank. The Head Master was a popular teaching frame back then. It was of a much softer construction and had a larger sweet spot. The Head Pro had a red throatpiece while the Master had a dark blue throatpiece. Steel frames generally didn’t have plastic throatpieces.</p>
<p>Oh, I had the Head Master, then. The one with the blue throat piece. I will confess that, when I bent it, it probably did “slip out of my hand after a bad shot” pretty hard…</p>
<p>I tried out the Jimmy Conners T2000. That was, by far, the worst tennis racket I’ve ever hit a ball with. It was dreadful, if I recall. Heavy. made a godawful rattling sound and vibrated like crazy with every hit.</p>
<p>If I were to start playing again, I’d probably get some jumbo sized trampoline racket and spend hours working on my dink drop shots.</p>
<p>I had planned to make it home for lunch today but ended up needing to get something out – I remembered seeing some recommendations for Wendy’s chili somewhere on one of these threads and I just checked the nutrition information. It actually looks like it might even be healthy (as opposed to not horribly unhealthy). What am I missing?</p>
<p>Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 large Chili (340.0 g) </p>
<p>Amount Per Serving
Calories 330
Calories from Fat 81
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 9.0g14%
Saturated Fat 3.5g18%
Cholesterol 55mg18%
Sodium 1170mg49%
Total Carbohydrates 35.0g12%
Dietary Fiber 8.0g32%
Sugars 9.0g
Protein 25.0g </p>
<p>Vitamin A 6% • Vitamin C 6%
Calcium 10% • Iron 20%</p>
<p>Amesie: sodium (49% of daily allowance) will be my main concern with this recipe.</p>
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<p>I bent several aluminum frames into a P shape - they were Rossignols. I had quite a temper back in my early 20s. I was impressed at how strong they were even after been smashed as hard as I could manage, into the ground. Never broke one.</p>
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<p>I liked it as it had more power than wood racquets. The thing broke on me in the neck
(weak spot where the welds were) on a hard shot. The T-3000, which was the follow-on
model, had a spring encased in a plastic ball at the end, was supposed to do a better job at dampening vibrations.</p>
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<p>This is why so many people have tennis elbow today.</p>
<p>There is a group of older ladies (60s) that play before we do on Wednesdays and watching them hit the ball is painful as we know the kind of stress that they are putting on their arms. In the old days with small racquets, people that didn’t have proper form and technique mostly gave up playing because they got frustrated at spending all of their time picking up balls. Now those players can hit with a fair amount of power but they don’t realize the damage that they are doing to their arms.</p>
<p>I remember when those arm bands started showing up. It was with the advent of the Prince oversize racquets.</p>
![http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5755/mce01cr.png[/url]](http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5755/mce01cr.png%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
