<p>^^ We used to say “Once you get the trophy home, no one knows how many were in your age group!” (Although now with online results, this is a little less true…) </p>
<p>We also say “You beat everyone that wasn’t out here!”</p>
<p>Ahhh, just another easy recovery day of Airdyne intervals. So nice to get on the bike and just relax after a hard set of Spartacus yesterday. Oh, wait…it wasn’t really very relaxing. More like 32 minutes of pure hell with a five minute warmup and a five minute cool down on either end. </p>
<p>Pyramid intervals today:</p>
<p>4 x 8 seconds, 16 seconds recovery
4 x 20 seconds, 40 seconds recovery
4 x 40 seconds, 80 seconds recovery
4 x 60 seconds, 120 seconds recovery
8 x 10 seconds, 20 seconds recovery</p>
<p>I was above 90% max heart rate on all five sets. The last set was brutal, above 90% heart rate for the entire final six intervals.</p>
<p>Time for chicken fajitas.</p>
<p>Many many many ab exercises today. I’m home, on vaca, and had the time to do as many as I wanted. We’ll see if I feel it tomorrow.</p>
<p>VeryHappy:</p>
<p>Got any good ab exercises? I might have to get an Ab Wheel:</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Valeo Dual Ab Wheel: Sports & Outdoors](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007IS74G]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007IS74G)</p>
<p>Mike Boyle uses them as the most advanced ab/core exercise for his NFL and NHL players. I don’t think I can do it yet. First I have to progress through stability ball roll-outs.</p>
<p>Nothing fancy, idad. Let’s see:</p>
<p>The thing where you lie on your back, hands behind head, and bring elbow up to opposite knee. (Surely this exercise has a name.)</p>
<p>Lie on a stability ball and come up slightly obliquely, first to one side then the other.</p>
<p>Using the Captain’s Chair, bring legs up alternating bent at the knee and straight out (and trying to get them as high as possible).</p>
<p>Lie on a flat bench, feet under the holdy-thing, and sitting up.</p>
<p>Lie on the same bench, 180 degrees turned, and hold a four-pound ball between my feet, legs bent at both hip and knee. Straighten out hip flexors but keep knees bent. This is a good one for the part of the tummy below the belly button.</p>
<p>Hold a six-pound dumbbell with both hands above head. (This is hard to describe; it’s for the side muscles in the waist.) Feet planted around 18 inches apart. Lower from the waist toward one side (your face and trunk are facing front); turn from the waist so the back is parallel to the ground; with the weight in arms outstretched, sweep in a semi-circle so the weight comes to the other side; lift up from the waist so the love handles get a workout.</p>
<p>And the toughest one I know of: Put lower legs/feet on a stability ball, arms on the floor. Pull in with the feet and stick your butt in the air so you look like an inverted “V.” Then roll back out so your body is flat again and parallel to the floor. That’s a killer on the tummy muscles. (Is that what you mean by “stability ball roll-outs”?)</p>
<p>Truth be told, I need some new ones also. I did gobs and gobs of these yesterday and I’m just not feeling it this morning.</p>
<p>Cold and windy here this morning and I’m having a hard time getting out the door for my run. Someone give me a shove!</p>
<p>Oh here chintzy, let me help you with that…push… cause I’m on a rest day!! </p>
<p>How’s your running going? Have you signed up for a 10k yet?</p>
<p>Go chintzy! You are my inspiration so get that rear in gear, Girl! It is bitter cold here so getting ready to head to the gym and sweat!</p>
<p>My goal is to get through this weekend and maintain my weight and get to the gym on Friday and Sunday, walk at the mall on Saturday instead of shop and get some type of exercise on Thursday morning…have to check if the gym is open early before I need to cook. Wish me luck!</p>
<p>Thanks blankmind & NorthMinn! That was just the kick start I needed. I haven’t signed up for a 10k. I’m doing a 4.78 mile Thanksgiving race tomorrow and probably won’t do anything else until it gets warmer. My trainer and my husband are both pushing me to train for a half marathon next year. Runners are all nuts! Trainer is running the Boston Marathon on April 18th and a 100k on April 23rd. Did I mention runners are all nuts?</p>
<p>blankmind, good luck on your race! NorthMinn, sounds like you’ve got a good strategy for the challenges ahead!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That sounds healthy…</p>
<p>Those sound brutal. The only one I do is the “crunch” on the stability ball and I do that one more like a [Stuart</a> McGill Curl Up (the back guy)](<a href=“http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/core-exercises]Stuart”>http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/core-exercises) where I only move about an inch, just barely unweighting the shoulders by contracting the abs, but not really “sitting up”.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I haven’t tried the one you describe yet. The *Big Book of Exercises *calls that one a Swiss-Ball Pike. I do the one where I roll the ball in by bending my knees, but keeping my back basically parallel to the floor. Lately I’ve been doing that with a pushup each time my legs are extended back out straight. So it’s push-up position, feet on the ball. Roll the ball in by bending at the knees. Roll the ball out so legs are straight. Pushup, down and up. That’s in one of my iPod nazi supersets, paired with lunge walks/lateral arm raises and jumping jacks. I’m only good for about six of those. The pushup on the stability ball is really hard.</p>
<p>Here’s the stability ball roll-out and also the ab wheel roll out as taught by Eric Cressey.</p>
<p>[Rollouts:</a> Friend or Foe? | Eric Cressey](<a href=“http://ericcressey.com/rollouts-friend-or-foe]Rollouts:”>» Rollouts: Friend or Foe?)</p>
<p>I’m just now at the stage where I’m ready for the stability ball rollout. The proper progression is master plank on the floor. Then, master plank on the stability ball. Then, plank on the stabiity ball moving the forearms forward and back a few inches – very challenging. Then, slowly on to these stabilty ball rollouts. Then, ab wheel roll outs. Most people don’t have the ab strength to control the roll out and they let their back arch down. Not good. Mike Boyle starts all his NFL players out on the stability ball before the ab wheel.</p>
<p>Here’s one that iPod nazi has me doing: a side plank with a twist or reach under:</p>
<p>[Side</a> Plank Twist And Reach | LIVESTRONG.COM](<a href=“http://www.livestrong.com/video/5532-side-plank-twist-reach/]Side”>How to Do Reverse Sit-Ups - SportsRec)</p>
<p>I do this one with a dumbbell in the hand that reaches under and then try to move explosively from the reach under to the arm up position – almost like a tennis backhand, pulling the weight. I also do it the top foot in front of the bottom foot, instead of stacked as in the video. This way you end up in one-arm plank position during the reach under. If you hold the dumbbell in the up position for a count or two, that’s a weighted side plank which is killer for the core muscles in the “love handle” area. This is just a fantastic exercise for anyone who has got the plank and side plank mastered.</p>
<p>idad…you make me feel so guilty with all of your workout routines! I am so bad at fitting them in! That is the one area I really need to work on.</p>
<p>Did my biking for 70 minutes and then tried to walk slowly on the dreadmill to loosen up. No such luck! My knee is really painful this week and only feels good while I bike. Got off and lifted weights for 30 minutes. Feel good but tired! Heading to the shower as soon as D2 gets home! Club will be open until one tomorrow so I’m hoping to get up early and bike so I don’t suffer through the day. Will eat everything but stuffing and bread tomorrow…my trigger points! Oh, and no icky gravy…yuck! That means turkey breast, cranberry salad, mashed potatoes, corn casserole and wine! Wonder if I will even enjoy it anymore!!!</p>
<p>After reading that so many people on this thread have liked Livestrong’s MyPlate, I’ve decided to try it for a couple of weeks and see if it helps me at all. Since going to college, I have tried to be healthier in general, but hopefully this will help me pinpoint what keeps tripping me up food-wise. I came home for Fall Break 6 weeks ago weighing the same I had when I left in August, but my clothes and I felt better so I brushed it off. I came home last night and weighed myself - 2 pounds heavier than in August. Now clearly that in and of itself isn’t a big deal, but I’m just frustrated and want to know what I can change to have a better impact. It seems like my exercise routine is working out okay for now, so I’m going to try to track my food intake for a while.</p>
<p>I only do these workouts three days a week – Mon/Wed/Friday. I can’t do them back to back days. I’ve been alternating between two workouts – Spartacus and the latest iPod nazi supersets – for a while now as I’ve had quite a way to go to get up to speed on them. I’m still not doing the full unabridged iPod nazi supersets. Each superset is three exercises like squat/lateral raise, plank on ball, burpees that you are supposed to repeat three times without rest. I skip the burpees in the first and second set, giving myself a 30 or 45 second break, then do all three for the final set – before the two minute rest between each of the four super sets. The ol’ fat guy struggles with workouts that go immediately to the next exercise with no recovery in between. I’m getting better, but it’s slow progress.</p>
<p>I’m the one who is amazed at your endurance on that exercise bike. I was on the Airdyne for 42 minutes yesterday and it was all I could do to walk up the stairs afterwards.</p>
<p>I’m eating stuffing tomorrow. And, since I make the gravy, I’m eating that, too! We don’t do any potatoes or other starches since everyone loves the stuffing. I am making Julia Child’s onions in cream bechamel sauce. I’ll eat those, too. Basically, it’s shaping up as a cheat day, but I will just have one plateful and push my chair away from the table and the cupboards are bare when it comes to chips and pretzels and peppermint patties and cheeze plates and cashews and all that junk. My wife did buy some Rondele cheese spread, but I’ll be able to take a pass on that I think.</p>
<p>teenage cliche:</p>
<p>2 pounds since August is not bad! They don’t call it the freshman 15 for nothing. You are 13 pounds ahead of the game.</p>
<p>On the other hand, tracking at Livestrong is a great idea. It will teach you a lot about what you eat and what foods are calorie dense. The first place to start is to ditch everything with added sugar and the junk food carbs like chips. The big challenge with a college diet is that the dining halls serve way too much pasta and starchy fillers. I’m not a pasta nazi, but you can’t eat it day after day after day and expect to lose weight.</p>
<p>t-c - remember that your weight can go up and down 2 or 3 pounds for no reason at all. So 2 pounds could be normal variation. But even if you don’t need to lose weight, I think tracking food for a bit is a good thing to do.</p>
<p>I’m eating everything tomorrow. Just not huge quantities of it. I’m in charge of pies (fattening) and hors d’oevres. I’ll do some crudites (yay healthy!), but would like something a little more interesting than carrots and celery. I might roast a little asparagus. Need some inspiration!</p>
<p>My family likes grilled portabella mushroom caps stuffed with feta. You can also stuff them with the chopped stems, ground turkey and seasonings. There’s always shrimp, too! Homemade salsa??</p>
<p>Finally actually did something today - two sets of tennis in 90 minutes. I was reviewing a racquet for someone else so I didn’t play that well but it was still a workout. My neck actually feels a lot better after the tennis - I think that it increased my range of motion.</p>
<p>Knees and arm was okay. Twinges in the arm using a too-light racquet. The legs held up well. Maybe some weights tonight.</p>
<p>I am eating everything tomorrow, except for stuffing, but I’ve never cared for stuffing so it’s no sacrifice. I love mashed potatoes and gravy, so probably seconds on that for me. And cranberry sauce. And pie. </p>
<p>I have a theory that if you normally eat an appropriate amount, you can eat overeat on one occasion, and your body will just ignore it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.</p>
<p>teenage_cliche, just make sure you are accurately reporting your portion sizes on livestrong. I had to reassess my thinking on portions, for example when I would have a bowl of cereal, it would easily be twice the size of what a single portion was supposed to be. It would be so easy to pretend I just had one portion when in fact I was having 2 (or 3).</p>