<p>Yay for swimscatmom, Keilexandra and emeraldkitty for trying new things!!! I want to try yoga this year, too.</p>
<p>CBBlinker…I like early morning workouts, also. I try to be at the gym between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on what is happening around here. I feel so much better for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>Rode my bike and then did my pushups on the Smith bar at the lowest setting. Popped out 60 today so I am now ready to go to the floor (according to the trainer). WIll see how it works tomorrow! After pushups I did free weights and never went close to a machine. One of my new goals is to use more free weights than machines. Then ventured over to do the dreaded core exercises…are you surprised idad??? Did planks, side planks, stretchy band exercise and used the 18 lb. core ball to use like a kettleball. I am exhausted! I barked my way through the exercises but actually it helped loosen things up and I am feeling a little better.</p>
<p>BB…I threw away all of the leftover Holiday goodies around here since I was starting to nibble on things I don’t even like! Getting ready for Cabo in a few weeks and I definitely need to start craving my salads!</p>
<p>hops_scout…great goal! I try to get to the gym 6 times per week but maybe setting up a schedule would really motivate me if I wrote a routine down. Great idea! Thank you!</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what. After listening to iPod nazi and Spartacus instructions implore me to fire the hips and power the swing with the legs and butt, that video was better than a thousand words at vizualizing the concept of driving the hips! I think it must be the white pants…</p>
<p>I’m thinking I’ll try a modified version of Zuzana’s workout for my cardio interval day this afternoon. Those are the first two “cardio” exercises in this new Alwyn Cosgrove program I’m doing, but he doesn’t add the “cardio” part until the second phase. No reason not to do it instead of Airdyne intervals on my alternate days. Those are two of the most fantastic exercises in the world. If you did nothing but swings and burpees, you would work every muscle in your body, have fantastic core strength, burn a ton of fat, and be in great shape. The only problem is that both exercises leave you panting like a dog in under 30 seconds.</p>
<p>I’m thinking 10 swings (five with each arm since I do the one-arm version with dumbbells) and 5 burpees. Then, wait until my heart rate is back below cardiac arrest levels (60 seconds?) and go again. I have no idea if I can do two rounds, four rounds, or whatever. I know I can’t do it like Zuzana!</p>
<p>Fantastic. I wish that I had known about doing them at an angle to start. I did them from my knees, which was OK, but moving the bar lower and lower is a better way to progress with pushups. You can do the same thing at home on your stairs. Start with your feet on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and your hands three or four steps up. Then, move the hands down one step when it gets too easy. Then, a week later, move down another step. And, so on until your hands are on the floor.</p>
<p>I’m doing the same progression in reverse with reverse rows – pulling myself with a bar set high so the angle is easier. I’ll steadily lower the bar to make it more difficult.</p>
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<p>Ah, you’ll come to love the core exercises! Here’s a shocker. My workout yesterday had an exercise that can be done on the lat pulldown machine. Only instead of sitting on the machine, you kneel behind the seat on the floor. Then, reach up, grab the bar, and pull it straight down until it touches your chest, then back up. Because you are kneeling with no support, it forces you to stabilize your core muscles while working the arms and shoulders (no cheating and leaning back to pull with your body).</p>
<p>Here’s a little secret that the “meatheads” doing bench press in the gym haven’t figured out. It’s not about the weight. It’s about perfecting the technique and body positions. The smart guys won’t use more weight than they can manage with perfect form. As soon as your form breaks down, that’s the end of the set. Reps shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s 30 seconds to do 8 to 12 reps properly. That’s the range to be working in. When 12 reps gets easy with good form, grab a bigger weight.</p>
<p>Many of the weightlifting positions are identical to major poses in yoga and it is equally important to do them right. I know I did at least two in the workout I did yesterday are straight out of yoga poses: </p>
<p>Watched the Zuzana video. idad… with personal trainers like Svetlana and Zuzana you should be very motivated! I was happy to see that my core ball swings were just like her sandbag swings! Don’t think my abs will ever look like hers! At least I can do 50% of the exercise! Burpees are in my future!</p>
<p>Fair is fair. I need to find ya’ll ladies some exercise videos done by a “Vladamir” in the Czech Republic! It is funny. Zuzanna has motivated me to push on with burpees and T-pushups. For some reason, she’s just more motivating than watching videos of Mike Boyle!</p>
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<p>I got my intro to the exercise in Spartacus. I do it with a dumbbell – “x” swings with one arm, then “x” swings with the other. iPod nazi shows the exercise with a backpack and books. Kettleball. Medicine ball. Sandbag. Doesn’t matter. Heck, you could even swing the kitty, I suppose!</p>
<p>Well, as I start a new year, I am happy to report that I have managed to stay in my desired range of weight despite an extremely stressful year. I give myself a three pound range and as soon as I go one pound over I go to the Dr. Gott “No sugar, no flour” mode. It hasn’t been easy. I usually ignore cookies and sweets, but this year they were just calling my name. I am also happy to report that in the fall I was able to get a PR with a time under 32:00 for a 5K racewalk. At this stage in life (a month from being 59), times are usually trending up, so PR now is really a good feeling. I know that at this moment I am not in the same shape I was in the fall, but I have continued to get a workout in most days.</p>
<p>My goal for the coming months is to resume more weight work. I have lifted weights for over 30 years and I have times when I get away from my routine. This has been the longest stretch of haphazard workouts, and that must change. Very Happy, one of my goals is to focus on preventing osteoporosis and I read your comments with great interest. Thanks!</p>
<p>SWMom–for me, spinning got soooo much better when I got spinning shoes. I didn’t get them for the first month and then I overheard a regular in the class (who was only in class for the winter because she was a serious biker and went outside once the weather allowed) say that she wouldn’t even bother with the class if she didn’t have her spin shoes. I thought that was a stupid comment–but, YK, I now agree with her. I probably wouldn’t do the spin class without my spin shoes. They’re worth the investment. For me, they made a huge difference in how I felt. It does take time to get comfortable with spinning. Also–I really need a towel, because I sweat so much. Water is the other key to feeling like you’re not going to die during spin class. I’ve been doing the class for about a year and I still don’t love it, but I don’t dread going to class and I love the results. Today I burned 680 calories, according to the HRM. I was also doing 90% of max HR during the various jumps/intervals/climbs.</p>
<p>IDad–those sandbag swings that Zuzu does are the same kind of movement that I use in with kettlebells. How much does her sandbag weigh? It looks really heavy.</p>
<p>wnp, heavy weights is the trick. But of course you can’t lift the heavy ones until your muscles are strong enough, so you’ve got to start out with light ones.</p>
<p>That said, I can’t stand to see some of the women at my gym – they lift delicate little three- or five-pounders 10 times three days a week and then wonder why their arms aren’t shaping up. You’ve got to work it, people!!</p>
<p>The core ball that I used today at the gym looks like a kettlebell only it is hard rubber and the “handle” is cut out of the circle/ball rather than attached at the top. Can’t find one online but it had “core ball” written on it. It was 18 lbs. I liked it!</p>
<p>I don’t think she’s swinging that much weight. She did a video back in December talking about just moving back to Prague from Canada and not being able to get sand because everything was wet. So she bought rice to fill it. I think she said 10 1-kg bags of rice, so about 22 pounds. It is a pretty awkward weight to swing, which probably makes it a bit harder.</p>
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<p>A good weight is something that you can do 12 reps with good form for the first set and maybe can’t quite get to 12 reps on the final set. You have to figure the context of the workout, too. A weight that might be easy for 12 reps in a stand alone exercise may be a challenge if that same exercise is part of a sequence of exercises with little or no rest in between. </p>
<p>I don’t see anything wrong with starting with 5 and 8 pound dumbbeills. You just can’t be afraid to push on to bigger weights. Like Rachel Cosgrove says, your dumbbells should weigh at least as much as your purse!</p>
<p>Not VH–but my trainer (boo hoo–she’s moved on) had me work up to the point where I use 15 and 20 pound weights for almost all of the exercises I do with weights. I think I started out with 8 pounds and moved up from there. My trainer really pushed women clients to use the heavier weights; she rarely had me use machines. I almost never see women using weights over 10 pounds in my gym. I think the ball you mentioned might be a medicine ball (with handles). I use those too–they come in various weights. Here are a couple from Amazon.</p>
<p>wip2- 32 minutes is incredible! Congratulations. You would kick my butt right now in a 5K with my low heart rate training. </p>
<p>My lunchtime run was awful. There is so much going wrong for me right now it’s hard to even say what factor was the worst. I was dehydrated (sat in a meeting all morning with nothing to drink) and still have bronchitis. My legs/butt were sore from weights last night. I was overdressed. The course is hideous and the broken glass along several stretches was a nice touch. The crowning glory was as after I got cleaned up and dressed in the handicapped bathroom I discovered I had left my access badge in my office so I had to tromp through the lobby without shoes and carrying my big gym bag. Of course I ran into our Executive VP! Classy.</p>
<p>I do 15 pounds for curls and 10 pounds for things where my arm is more extended. I’ve thought about moving up, but 15 to 20 pounds is too big a jump for me. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with starting at 5 pounds, but I think that 1 and 2 pound weights are fairly pointless. (I did a dance aerobics class for a long time with 3 pound weights, but we did wave those things around for a lot of reps.) I don’t think my arms look that great - I’m no Michelle Obama. On the machines I use more weight - 60 pounds for the pectoral and 55 for the lateral row.</p>
<p>Run and weights in the office again today - same as yesterday but longer distance and got up to 100 on the bench press (have never done 100 before). The gym was pretty crowded at 4:00 PM so I need to move my workouts earlier if I’m not busy. I don’t go at lunch because that’s the most crowded time of the day.</p>
<p>MoWC - I will have DH call you to give the professional dress seminar to his new employees this summer :)</p>
<p>Thanks, VH, I will think about increasing some of my weights as I get back into the swing of things. Whenever I have been on hiatus, I find I need to back off and start at lower weights to maintain form. I have a bench, a curl bar, and a pulldown station in my home, an assortment of plates, along with a bunch of dumbbells from 5lbs. to 30 lbs. The only thing I use the 30’s for is holding at my side for leg raises. Now all I have to do is go downstairs and start again!</p>
<p>Thanks Bromfield…didn’t see it there but the dual grip ball is close to what I used today except there was only one grip.</p>
<p>I am using 15 lb dumbells but for some reason when I read aboult lifting heavy for women I thought it meant way more than that. I guess I remember reading something on the Livestrong site that was suggesting heavy weights and low reps for women and I was thinking really heavy weights…like 50 pounds!!! Haha!</p>
<p>I need to find ya’ll ladies some exercise videos done by a “Vladamir” in the Czech Republic!</p>
<p>no doubt. ;)</p>
<p>I just think if I wore a bra cut that low I would fall out- ( love to find one that isn’t under my chin though)
Im not motivated enough to do much on my own, but I hope if I stick with the classes long enough it will build my endurance back up and it will be a habit again.</p>
Did planks, side planks, stretchy band exercise and used the 18 lb. core ball to use like a kettleball. I am exhausted! I barked my way through the exercises but actually it helped loosen things up and I am feeling a little better.</p>