<p>Yeah, I ordered a couple of minibands along with my daughter’s Valslide order. I have no idea what strength I need. Probably the blue one, I’m guessing.</p>
<p>BTW, you can get serviceable ValSlides at KMart in a package of four for $12.95. Waxman 9" x 5" oval furniture sliders. They aren’t quite as heavy duty as the Valslides and you don’t get a carry bag or exercise manual, but they are functional.</p>
<p>Now you are ready for Alwyn Cosgrove’s diabolical kettlebell swing and burpees “metabolic circuits”. I’m debating whether to do that right now or some Airdyne intervals.</p>
<p>I was disappointed to find out my kettlebell has been back-ordered. The rest of it is shipping today and should arrive by Friday. I went with the blue and black minibands.</p>
<p>Had the first session with the trainer today. She’s an exercise phsysiologist who also works for the PT office, which is good from a smart-about-adaptability standpoint. As expected, I’m pretty unbalanced, and have tighter than could be credited hamstring and calf muscles, as well as a tendency for a lot of rotational twist in my hips during lifting exercises. (I guess that’s my way of cheating.) I am thoroughly tuckered out, and drinking rather ridiculous amounts of water. Not that we did anything particularly heavy, but she’s looking for form and mechanics, and that sounds right for the moment.</p>
<p>Way too sore in the shoulders after yesterday’s workout tp even think about dumbbell swings and burpees, so I climbed on the Airdyne for 16 all-out, fast as I can pedal, 10 second intervals. Haven’t done those for about two months. </p>
<p>They were as tough as I remembered. The first eight aren’t too bad. The second eight are pretty much brutal. Nice little 30 minute cardio workout.</p>
<p>I went into the gym tonight, but struggled to get motivated. Just didn’t want to do cardio! I did do another CrossFit workout this evening, some planks, and then played around with the TRX straps a little bit. So I got a workout in; just not what I had originally planned. And yeah, idad, I’m sore today as well… I considered doing tomorrow’s workout this evening as well because I am going on an interview tomorrow and will be gone all day. It will get saved for Thursday which was going to be a day off.</p>
<p>I played hookey from the gym last night. I can’t believe it. I. Just. Didn’t. Want. To. Go. It was my childish way of acting out toward my boss, my job, my life right now – “I don’t want to do what I’m supposed to do; I’m going to live it up!” Yeah, living it up turned out to be going home, pouring a glass of wine, and watching NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles. Big whoop!!</p>
<p>Sometimes your body says to take a rest and sometimes you just feel like doing something else. I try to get workouts in but sometimes I don’t have enough sleep or I have too much to do or things just aren’t convenient. Not a big problem unless I get into this mode for a month or two.</p>
<p>I actually think this is a healthy choice, considering other possible methods of “acting out” - e.g. drugs, alcohol, road rage, affairs, prostitutes, etc.</p>
<p>Changed up the routine today. No biking! Just used the dreadmill. Put it on 4.0 and climbed hills for 70 minutes while I watched Ellen and then listened to music. Got my heart rate up and burned lots of calories. Trying to change things up and I had a really wicked workout yesterday so today was a bit of a recovery day for me. Will do my pushups later today.</p>
<p>Must have been something in the air yesterday. Sounds like all of us had trouble revving up for a workout.</p>
<p>hops:</p>
<p>You ordered the right two minibands. Mine arrived. I ordered two greens (med) and two blues (heavy). The green band around my ankles felt pretty light until I had walked sideways about a dozen steps and came back the other way. Blue band was pretty hard right out of the gate and didn’t allow me to take as full a step as the green. The blue band will probably be perfect for you with the black (extra heavy) being a challenge. I’m keeping a green and a blue set and sending a green and blue pair to my daughter in her theme package. </p>
<p>These little bands give you a pretty fantatstic workout for a $2 item. This will make it a little easier to to this [Big</a> X-band walk](<a href=“X-Band Walks - YouTube”>X-Band Walks - YouTube), adding the miniband around the ankles to provide more “glute activation”. About ten steps both directions of this gets the blood flowing to all kinds of muscles during a dynamic warmup.</p>
<p>Went on vacation in Dec., usual 7 pounds, just as expected. The thruth is that you do not need to do anything special to lose them if you just go back to your regular eating. I did not deprive myself of all wonderful food, champaign at every dinner and unbelievable deserts during my vaction (all included). Well, going back in 2 weeks, still have one pound on me. I trust when summer is here at home, swimming should take care of all additional poundsl. 2 hours/day of regular non-swimming routine just does not compare, but I stick to it, makes me feel good.</p>
<p>It sounds like your knee must be better these days to do 70 minutes of fast incline walking!</p>
<p>Changing it up every so often is probably a good strategy. I think our bodies adapt and find little ways to “cheat” whatever workout we are doing over and over and over, thus reducing the effectiveness. Plus, it helps keep it fresh and interesting to do different stuff.</p>
<p>PS: I wish my body would hurry up and find some little cheats to make these NROL4A workouts easier, because they are kicking my butt. I’m having to really pay attention to recovery days because of the cumulative effect of three of these workouts each week.</p>
<p>The knee is feeling better as long as I keep moving! It gave out on me twice this past weeknd while I was shopping with H. He was surprised…as was I! No more taking off due to snow! ;)</p>
<p>Hey NorthMinn–I’m doing really, really well. I am amazed (as is my doctor) by the speed of my recovery. There is no doubt in my mind my level of fitness has everything to do with it.</p>
<p>I’ve been hitting the gym since Saturday. Did a mile on the treadmill in a blistering 16:30! Can people even see me when I’m moving that fast?</p>
<p>I forgot to mention something this past weekend - I spent four minutes on an Octane Fitness Easystrider elliptical. Wonderful machine - smoothest elliptical that I’ve ever been on. It has the hand poles that move back and forth along with height and resistance buttons right on the handle. Also provides you with your pulse. I mentioned their bicycle model sometime last year. I used the machine while waiting for my son (I got done doing weights before he finished running).</p>
<p>OMG. I just tried the miniband walk from the Valerie Waters butt exercises link a few pages back. Mini band around the legs just above the knees. Feet about shoulder width apart pushing against the band. Semi-crouch squat position. Walk slowly forwards about 20 steps, then backwards about 20 steps. </p>
<p>At first, I thought, “piece of cake, this is a little wimpy”, but by the time I completed 20 steps foward and 20 steps back, the outsides of my hips/butt were absolutely on fire, burning. Blue band is right for me on this one.</p>
That may not be running, but it’s a pretty good clip for walking. That’s about how fast I go when I walk in my neighborhood. I see lots of people on treadmills going slower than that.</p>
<p>I put on my thermometer pants today - straight out of the dryer they are kinda tight. So I took out the tape measure and did confirm that waist and hips are somewhat smaller than they were six months ago which was the last time I took a tape measure to them. Since I’ve only lost a few pounds since then that was nice to see.</p>