<p>Ouch. The closest I’ve come to falling with weights has been with some of these split squats where it can get a little shaky side to side. I think I would rather do the BOSU ball stuff with dumbbells. At least those are easy to throw down if you really get in trouble – although it would be just as easy to wrench your thumb.</p>
<p>Ouch, not-VeryHappy. I’m really glad that it wasn’t a lot worse, and I hope by the time next week rolls around you’re back to normal.</p>
<p>I know that the stability-challenging equipment is supposed to be really, really good for you, but I am quite nervous about taking a tumble and doing in my wrist or ankle again.</p>
<p>I have enough trouble trying to stay upright with one or two feet on solid ground during a lot of these exercises. I can only imagine what would happen if I stood on a BOSU ball! Heck, I’ve fallen off my stability ball.</p>
<p>Be careful VeryHappy! Take care of yourself.</p>
<p>Yay for you idad!!! That is really quite an accomplishment! Sending wishes for another year of good health and new goals!</p>
<p>Back to the gym this morning and it felt awesome!!! I was worried that I would be too tired or something would be wrong but I pedaled hard and got my 70 minutes in at level 8 doing intervals by increasing rpm every half mile. Nice way to ease back in to the program. Was able to get all of my pushups done too. I really should have continued to do those while I was gone but I didn’t. This was truly a vacation! I weighed in and found I had gained 3 lbs but I know that will come off quickly as I wean myself from the fresh guac and margaritas! I made the mistake of grabbing D2’s gym bag instead of mine this morning. Good thing her shoes fit me but I didn’t have my HRM to track my progress. Oh, well…all was fine! Feels good to get back to my routine and have my knee feel better!</p>
<p>Oh…I finally got my massage that was my reward for losing the first 20 lbs. It was phenomenal and I promised myself another one as soon as I reach my next goal!</p>
<p>Well, I’ve done my weight lifting on the bosu ball for years, and I even do some squats on the ball – two-footed, nothing fancy – but yesterday was the first time I’ve had any difficulty. Oh well; live and learn.</p>
<p>So, of course I had to give this Spartacus 2.0 workout a test spin this afternoon. There are already YouTubes of people doing it.</p>
<p>The Workout Muse iPod soundtrack is fantastic. The intervals are pretty challening: 40 seconds for each exercise with 20 seconds of rest in between, but they are semi-manageable. What I couldn’t do is immediately repeast the first five exercises with no rest, so I paused the ipod for an extra 2 minutes to regroup after each of the four sets.</p>
<p>Biggest surprise: how challenging the plank to pushup position and back is. You start in plank and, moving one arm at a time, come up to pushup position and then back to plank. It doesn’t take many of those to turn the arms into jello.</p>
<p>If you aren’t looking for something quite as intense, just doing the two five-exercise circuits at a slower pace would still be a good workout. All you need is a pair of dumbbells or a couple pair of different weights.</p>
<p>45 min/5.2 miles/502 calories - that’s what my dreadmill had to say about my run tonight. I’m off to do t-pushups and my weight routine to make sure that I earned my glass of Sangiovese. :).</p>
<p>VH, I hope your thumb gets better fast. I once dropped a chunk of frozen fish on my big toe -ouch!! Those darn toes and fingers take forever to heal.</p>
<p>Well I got out for a walk again this week. I went walking in a part of town where there aren’t any sidewalks anyway so I didn’t have to feel cross about people not shoveling their sidewalks. Only two miles, but I figure better than nothing!</p>
<p>I once dropped a 45 pound weight on my big toe. Shear carelessness. I’ll never do that again. It hurt like anything for weeks and eventually the toenail fell off. It looked terrible for months.</p>
<p>Gosh, lots going on in this thread. Congrats to Idad, Cheers for Chintzy, Condolences to VH, who else did I miss???</p>
<p>Well, I discovered the secret to dropping a few quick pounds - get braces on your teeth. I have a very high tolerance for pain, and my mouth doesn’t hurt at all, unless I try to chew. So, diet has been pureed soup, smoothies, etc. I have dropped two pounds since thursday. I guess I will have a beautiful smile and a flat belly!</p>
<p>I have been vigilant with exercising. I have been walking regularly and have reincorporated my weights. I am going to leave the winter months at the same weight I entered. And at this stage of life, that is a victory.</p>
<p>Now that I’m home in CT and can examine my entire body, I see a few other bruises that I hadn’t noticed before – but nothing too bad, nothing that won’t heal. Thumb is better. Back to the gym tomorrow.</p>
<p>You are a warrior, VeryHappy! We need to award the annual MOWC Trophy for the CC workout warrior who most epitomizes the spirit of playing through pain!</p>
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<p>I’m in the mathmom club today. Got in a 2 mile walk in between the mountains of snow. It was good to get outside and breath a little fresh air, even if it was 36 degrees. Came home and did a quick set of 10 chinups and 10 pull-ups (with major band assistance) and then did three one-leg squats on each leg (with surprisingly little band assistance). I’m a long way from unassisted chin ups, but closing in on the single-leg squats. A lot of it is convincing myself that my leg isn’t going to break. I just do a few at a time, because one-leg squats have a very high muscle soreness quotient.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing a boatload of squats lately and definitely seeing some gains both in strength and flexibility.</p>
<p>Went outside for a run today. 20 minutes average HR @169 and MAX HR @191. I hope to get out a couple more times this week as it’s supposed to be warm all week.</p>
<p>Off day for me. I took a nap and listened to a Dr. Stuart McGill (the back guy) podcast while bar-b-q’ing a mess of chicken breasts. Hard to beat listening to a PhD going on and on about side planks! :)</p>
<p>I dive into *New Rules of Lifting for Abs *Phase II tomorrow. The fun includes:</p>
<p>1) Mountain Climbers with my hands on the stability ball (I tried this the other day for kicks and it is hell). It’s like the first two or three are, “hey this isn’t so bad” and then at about the tenth one, it’s “OMG, my core is on fire…”</p>
<p>2) One arm dumbbell presses with just the head and shoulders on a stability ball or weight bench. iPod nazi introduced me to this and it is hell.</p>
<p>3) 6 to 10 burpees on the minute every minute for ten minutes. I don’t think I can even do 10 burpees … although they are nice enough to recommend skipping the push up part. I’ll set up my GYMBOSS timer for 20 seconds of burpees, 40 seconds of rest, and see what happens. This is the “metabolic finisher” and I’m confident that I will be metabolically finished!</p>
<p>90 minutes of Hot Yoga on Sat morning. 8 1/2 mile run today (57-63 degrees, sunny) which was even worse than last Sunday’s horrible run. HR was just as high and out of control and my pace was even slower. My weight was extremely low following the run. I think I am dehydrating more than I realize from hot yoga, even though I am not having the usual signs of that. The only sign seems to be a crappy, high HR Sunday run! I am going to work on my hydration and doctor son-in-law thinks my electrolytes might be out of balance from all the hot yoga sweating. Not fun.</p>
<p>DH and I just returned from a very spontaneous road trip. Inspired by the rekindled Canadian Olympic spirit, we went down to our hotel’s gym and ran/lifted weights, then went for a swim in the hotel’s outdoor pool (outside temp 46 degrees :)). Unfortunately, the free food (absolutely yummy!) that they served at the Gold lounge cancelled out our exercise efforts. :(</p>
<p>We were gifted with Chinook (warm, downslope) winds last night and this morning, and the temps got up into the upper fifties, so bye-bye snow and ice. Evaporating before my eyes Yes! By afternoon the wind had died down, so I went for my first outside walk in nearly two weeks, and did that ever feel good – though my legs were a bit like grape jelly by the time I got back. I think that the strength-training workout yesterday did a number on them and they’re still recovering. They don’t feel awful, though.</p>
<p>OK – I’m looking for a website where I can assemble a strength-training workout and then print it out and take it with me to the gym. I can’t (won’t) take Rachel Cosgrove’s book with me, and it isn’t laid out well for tracking a workout anyway. I also have to modify some of the exercises to accommodate my hand restriction. Any suggestions? I’m looking to find something I can print out and put on a clipboard and then note reps and weights on.</p>
<p>These may be what you are looking for. They are blank exercise log sheets. Room for penciling in warmups and eight exercises. Here’s the on-screen version:</p>
<p>If you want something more elaborate, here’s on on-line subscription service that provides a full daily progress database including custom workouts:</p>
<p>I can’t tell for sure what the damn things costs. I think it’s $75 for a one-year subscription, but don’t hold me to it. I signed up for the trial, so I’m guessing I’ll get plenty of e-mails detailing the cost!</p>
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<p>Or, if you have some money to burn, I would love to subscribe to this. It’s a custom version of the above service put together by Mike Boyle. All of the training programs he uses at his gyms for fat loss clients, fitness clients, NFL draft clients, NHL hockey clients. Videos filmed at Mike Boyle’s of all 280 exercises. Plus the ability to customize these programs in the software described above. The only catch is that the service is really designed for personal trainers to manage their clients and it’s $60 a month. A little too steep for me, although I may have to check it out for a month.</p>