<p>Pull ups are missing from my repetoire because I haven’t gotten around to installing a bar down in the cellar.</p>
<p>Full bodyweight pullups are incredible for a “pulling” upper body exercise and a great core exercise. Most people can’t do them unassisted. The gym guys use “bands” to assist and reduce the difficulty, progressing from larger to smaller bands:</p>
<p>After two days off to let my “boo-boo” get all better, I was back in the saddle today, cranking out a Spartacus Workout. Kinda tough after a few days of pie and beers and wine. I bagged the rear-foot elevated split squats today and went back to the standard goblet front squats. I’ll attack the RFESS monster again next week. The only weight I changed was adding a dumbbell to the lateral squats for the first time - just a little 15 pounder goblet-style. Otherwise, pretty much picked up where I left off. Max heart rate: 97%. And, I was up above 95% a lot today. Including on my Svetlana-approved 8 rep sets of T-pushups.</p>
<p>Feels good to get a workout in. Get those endorphins flowing and my metabolism cranked.</p>
<p>Ankle appears to be just fine. No pain today. I can’t even make it hurt with moves that were triggering the pain yesterday. Knock on wood.</p>
<p>I’ve seen people do them with chairs too but you’d need a very high ceiling for that. Basically you put one foot on the chair and adjust the pressure with your foot for more or less assistance.</p>
<p>The last time I could do unassisted pullups was when I weighed 145. There was a pullup contraption on the universal gym at Boston College. I miss that old gym. You can get quite a good weights workout fairly quickly on a device that doesn’t use much space. The newer versions are too compact where you have to do things to get the exercises to work.</p>
<p>^^^Me too. I like to use it; it makes my shoulders a bit sore the next day. I used to use it all the time; now I just use it every two weeks or so. I figure I’m getting really ripped across my back. (Ha ha ha.)</p>
<p>Hmm. No discussion of pull ups would be complete without checking in with Svetlana. Looks like three hundred and eight thousand people have learned rope pullups from her. I can’t imagine why? [Body</a> Rock Pull ups](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>iPod nazi has a fun challenge for anyone who thinks they can handle it. A two-exericse Superset:</p>
<p>1) Ten pushups
2) Five pullups</p>
<p>Repeat for five sets without rest. Yeah, right!</p>
<p>While “studying some new exercises” at Svetlana’s site, I came across a terrific blog written by Freddie dealing with the way friends and family react to an eat less/move more kick by a family member. It really hit home for me as I’ve encountered unsupportive to negative responses from my family and I’m increasingly realizing that this is a very common experience for people who embark on a fitness/weight loss plan.</p>
<p>Without excerpting the whole thing, here’s the family reaction that most describes what I’ve encountered:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This really hit home for me. I stopped telling my wife about hitting new weight loss goals at 35 pounds. I e-mailed my daughter the same chart of hitting my 50 pound goal that I posted here and got the sound of crickets chirping. I haven’t mentioned 60 pounds or 70 pounds to either of them.</p>
<p>Weirdly enough (and I don’t really understand it) I was very uncomfortable when people commented about a significant weight loss. Really, really uncomfortable. In turn, while I would say to a friend – or my husband – “Gee, you’re looking great,” I would probably not directly mention weight loss at all. It is undoubtedly some issue that I have, but it is just uncomfortable.</p>
<p>I guess it’s just an emotionally charged issue, from every angle. I’m guessing that women probably have a harder time from family members. We men aren’t always terribly supportive of diets and fitness efforts. I know I wasn’t, although I did always go out of my way to notice and compliment when those efforts were successful.</p>
<p>I understand why I’m getting the sound of crickets from the family, now. It’s too bad. I tried to make it a shared family challenge back when I hadn’t lost a pound and was sweating like a pig trying to ride the rickety old yard sale exercise bike for five minutes or panting from a quarter mile walk. It was really puzzling way back then that I couldn’t get any encouragement. My wife had tried to get me to start exercising for years, but I guess that isn’t what she really wanted. In retrospect, my family probably wanted me to fail. I would rather have seen all of us be successful.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you one thing, though. I’m sure not going to apologize for, or feel guilty about, losing 70 pounds and getting fit. If anyone has a problem with me getting in shape, that’s their issue, not mine. My weight and poor cardiovascular condition could have killed me, sooner or later. It had certainly reached the point where it was making every day tasks difficult. I’m proud of making this kind of change.</p>
<p>idad, congratulations on reaching your goal! You’re an inspiration. I’m sorry your family doesn’t see you that way. I hope you and your wife (and daughter) can find a way to be happy about the “new you” together.</p>
<p>idad, many many months ago, up-stream on this thread, you mentioned that imom was buying your favorite ice cream, and i suggested it might be a way to sabotage your efforts. Guess I was right. </p>
<p>You’re upsetting the “stasis” of the family dynamics. No one is comfortable with that. Just take satisfaction in the fact that you only have the power to change yourself, and you’ve done that in spades. The others will have to change themselves if and when they’re ready. It may take a few years, but i bet you they come along eventually.</p>
<p>idad, you have done something wonderful for yourself and for your family. It’s a pity they don’t recognize it, but maybe it makes them feel worse about themselves, thus the passive aggressive reaction. I wish my H would start taking care of himself, it worries me. </p>
<p>VeryHappy, did you reverse your osteoporosis with just exercise, or did you take medication? My doctor wanted me to start on boniva, but I am really torn about the side effects. I was hoping to exercise it away. Of course, now I have no time to exercise, so maybe that plan won’t work :)</p>
<p>Yeah. And, if I recall, I didn’t eat one spoonful of those “buy 1, get 1 free” half-gallons of Breyer’s mint-chocolate chip ice cream!</p>
<p>My “ice cream” treat these days are Lindy’s Italian Ice cups. A single serving cup of really good sweet italian ice, frozen solid, so it takes fifteen minutes to eat. 100 calories or so in lemon, cherry, raspberry or other flavors. No splenda or fake stuff.</p>
<p>I did ease the restrictions over the holidays with some beer and wine and daily deserts: a little slice of cranberry mince pie, some Alden Merrell Cappuccino Silk Pie and so forth. Along with some splurge meals, I was way over my calorie targets, but I still managed to “eat less” than I would have in the past during a holiday week. No bowls of cashews. No plowing through boxes of thin mints. No chips and dip. It’s when you have booze AND deserts AND start scarfing down all those “extras” that you can really start packing it on.</p>
<p>Made it to the gym even though I am hoarse and sniffly. Gosh darn it! I usually never get sick! Walked 35 minutes on the dreadmill and 35 on the bike because H came along for the ride. He pointedly told me he would only stay for an hour. I guess I should be happy he is back in the gym! Up 2 pounds over the Holiday season this morning…wasn’t happy about that since I had been maintaining! Will be really careful this weekend and see if it drops off. Still have some goals to meet by August 2011!</p>
<p>blankmind, I did take Actonel for years – I’m on a “holiday” right now – but it wasn’t until I added weight-lifting that I really started to reverse things. I also take calcium (1,200 mg a day in divided doses), Vitamin D (also around 1,200 a day, in divided doses), and use an estrogen patch. But IMHO, it’s really, truly the weight lifting that makes a difference. </p>
<p>I have a strong, strong history of osteoporosis in my family and am extremely petitie. So from my perspective, it’s the most important thing to prevent.</p>
<p>Even the Mayo Clinic recommends strength training as a way to slow the loss of bone density with age (and they don’t usually recommend anything that doesn’t require a prescription!):</p>
<p>It’s doubly important for us “older” folk because we also start losing muscle mass with age. Strength training, in any of its many forms, slows the loss of bone density and muscle mass, with the added benefit of making us stronger in everyday activities like getting up out of a chair, shovelling a snow covered deck, or carrying groceries to the car.</p>
<p>Combine that with the fat loss benefits of strength training and you may well be looking at the single most important thing we can do to stay heathy and fit.</p>
<p>Idad-I’m mad at your family. You very well could have saved your own life!</p>
<p>NMinn- I can relate. I am SO sick. Coughing up my lungs, nose flowing and stuck in the car for the 2nd day of our drive back home. Not only did I not run this am in Tulsa, I barely could get up and going. I’m hurtling across Arkansas sucking on ice cubes and shaking the car with my coughing. I rarely get sick.
I missed a turn last night and added 15 minutes onto the 13 hour driving day. I was a bi**h about it.<br>
A friend of mine ran 5000 miles this year. He’s young and, no, he has no real life besides running. He did the Leadville 100 this year. I just want my 2000 mile level back. </p>
<p>I think I’m ready to not eat food with faces and legs.</p>
<p>Look on the bright side. At least you are not **hurling **across Arkansas. Come to think of it, though… just being in Arkansas is probably bad enough!</p>
<p>Being sick sucks. All you can do is just ride it out and look at it as a few days to recharge the batteries.</p>
<p>Looks like I might be able to get out for a short walk this afternoon. 39 degrees and sunny. I’ll have to stick to the pavement because any dirt path will be pure mud. So, I’ll probably do my old 2-mile route and try to push the pace. It’ll be nice to get some fresh air.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I try to look at it from their perspective. Watching somebody lose 70 pounds is enough to **** anybody off, right? The rational response would be to start asking how they are doing it (especially because I’m obviously not eating low-fat cottage cheese for dinners!), but this whole eating and exercising thing is not always rationally motivated!</p>
<p>That’s what’s so amazing about eating “right” and exercising. You don’t have to starve yourself or eat yucky things. (I count cottage cheese in with yucky things.)</p>
<p>Played tennis today, 6-2, 6-4. He made me work again and I was about to give up if he won the game when it was 5-4 in the second set. I was pretty tired around the middle of the second set so he’s basically making me run more.</p>
<p>Left ankle is sore again. I need to figure out why just the left is sore. It could be my serving motion because that’s the pivot foot or it could have something to do with him hitting a lot of balls to my backhand side.</p>
at Svetlana’s site, I came across a terrific blog written by Freddie dealing with the way friends and family react to an eat less/move more kick by a family member. It really hit home for me as I’ve encountered unsupportive to negative responses from my family and I’m increasingly realizing that this is a very common experience for people who embark on a fitness/weight loss plan.</p>
Up 2 pounds over the Holiday season this morning…wasn’t happy about that since I had been maintaining! Will be really careful this weekend and see if it drops off. Still have some goals to meet by August 2011!</p>