<p>Bench press is definitely a great exercise. The only beef the trainers have with it is that kids do too much of it and then don’t balance it with pulling exercises.</p>
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<p>If those pushups are getting too easy, there are plenty of variations that will make them tougher:</p>
<p>a) Elevate your feet on a 10-inch step or even a weight bench and do your pushups that way.</p>
<p>b) Lift one leg off the ground and do a pushup. Then, put that leg back down, lift the other leg, and do another pushup. Single leg changes everything.</p>
<p>Thanks, NorthMinn! I broke down and bought the liquid egg whites in hopes they would taste/cook the same, but haven’t tried them yet. Unfortunately, now I’ll be losing my only upper body workout–separating eggs!</p>
<p>BunsenBurner, I’m still slogging away on the elliptical and treadmill. I agree with Idad, the treadmill does feel like a hampster wheel! I’m in awe of your speed! Unfortunately, the injury I was nursing pre-surgery seems to be flaring up again. :(</p>
<p>MomofWildChild, care to do some doctoring over the internet? It hurts my lower butt when I drive longer than 15 minutes or so. Hurts when I sit. Now that I’m walking briskly, I feel pain down my hamstring, sometimes all the way down to my ankle. Does that sound similar to what you’ve been dealing with? I may actually have to drag myself to the doctor. Ugh</p>
<p>I-Dad: Body Glide really works. Over the last 10 years, I’ve done five of the 3-day (60 mile–20 mile-a-day) fundraising walks for breast cancer (Avon, Komen, and then a local group). Couldn’t have done it without Body Glide, especially in those years when it was really hot in May. All of the 3-days I’ve done have been the third week in May.</p>
<p>It looks like the dead giveaway is pain driving. It is apparenty aggravated by sitting with the knees higher than the hips, such as in a typical car seat.</p>
<p>It’s basically inflamation of a small muscle that runs next to the sciatic nerve. Muscle swells with inflamation, puts pressure on sciatic nerve, and causes pain. It looks like it is primarily a repetitive use injury, which is why it is common in runners (1500 reps per mile).</p>
<p>Interestingly enough my back muscles are stronger than the front muscles. I can do 155 on the machine or 75 pound dumbbells on the three-point rows.</p>
<p>Played two sets of tennis, won 6-2, 6-3 but he ran me all over the court. My knees hurt a bit on stairs again. I forgot to bring in my knee braces for playing so there will be some pain for a few days.</p>
<p>chintzy- it sounds like mine (upper hamstring tendonopathy) in many respects, but could also be piriformis. Mine never hurt all the way down the leg, and the pain with sitting is pretty close to the sitbone. You could have rotated your SI (sacroilliac) joint slightly out of position which can also cause pain anywhere from back down to hamstring. It takes a really good PT to figure that out and fix it.</p>
<p>Went to the gym late today…almost talked myself out of going since I had insomnia last night. Glad I went. This was supposed to be my easy day so I walked on the treadmill, no biking. Did my weights yesterday so I did pushups, kettlebells and stretching. A nice easy workout that had me burn 600 calories according to my HRM.Will be back at it hard tomorrow!</p>
<p>Yikes chintzy! Hope you go have the pain assessed. Better to find out before it really becomes a problem. Listen to MOWC!!!</p>
<p>OMG. This workout stuff is hard. I have been skipping the “metabolic finishers” of Alywn Cosgrove’s NROL 4 ABS workouts because I don’t have anything left in the tank. So that means doing “metabolic” conditioning on my off-days. Could be hill walking. Could be Airdyne intervals. Or, it could be the favorite torture of the Cosgroves and Zuzanna – kettlebell swings and burpees.</p>
<p>Today, it was kettlebell swings and burpees. I got a couple of weird new 10lb weight plates at WalMart – they have a big handhold carved out of the plate, like a kettlebell. So I assembled a 30 lb dumbell with this plate at the end and it swings vertically with two hands, just like a kettlebell. Cool.</p>
<p>I kicked up it up a notch today. Each set was:</p>
<p>No stopping. 8 minutes straight of 30 sec work/30 sec rest “metabolic” intervals. The GYMBOSS interval timer was beeping every 30 seconds like some kind of demented soundtrack to a B-grade horror movie. I could have thrown the thing in the Merrimac River and it would have floated to the top and beeped at me again. Live by the beep, die by the beep!</p>
<p>Then after the first set, a two minute breather to regain consciousness, and a second identical set. So in 18 minutes, a total of 96 swings and and 40 burpees.</p>
<p>Talk about working up a quick sweat. I really had to visualize myself as a fit guy to finish the second set. Kinda fun way to cardio interval workouts, though. Saw a peak heart rate of 94% so that’s a good solid little workout.</p>
<p>Recovery day for me. No running, just weights and a salad for dinner.</p>
<p>I’m thinking about signing up for an official race, a 5k or a 10k. DH approved of the idea. Recommendations of a somewhat flat, not too crowded race, preferrably without dogs or strollers, are greatly appreciated. :)</p>
<p>Are you looking only locally? You should be able to find a site that posts upcoming races. Most people in my area use coolrunning.com in the Upcoming Local Races section. I don’t recall if they describe the course. I haven’t seen dogs in races but I don’t know how you can keep the strollers out. The race that I run in the summer had a no-strollers policy but, of course it was ignored.</p>
<p>BB- I’m glad you are going to race. You run really fast and I think you could do really well if you like it. Find the website of your local running club. There will be a race calendar and probably a message board where you can ask about the different races. Active.com has race listings, too.</p>
<p>Darn, darn, darn! I have been trying to get away from just doing biking and have upped my walking and added the kettlebell swings. Yesterday I walked again (3.8 mph for70 minutes at alternating inclines) and did the swings. My knee is so swollen and hurts like the dickens! Wonder why the walking aggravated the meniscus area and I wonder if it will always be like this? So depressing!</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear about your knee. It does sound like the walking probably did it. Kettlebell swings make just about everything else sore, but shouldn’t be too tough on the knees unless you are doing a deep squat with each swing.</p>
<p>When I was dealing with the metatarsal foot pain walking, I came to realize that time/distance wasn’t helping. I could walk for 30 minutes pain free but not 90 minutes. You might have to cut back and not try to walk for 60 - 70 minutes at a stretch. When any of us geezers have a chronic issue, it really becomes a matter of managing it: staying under the threshold for that activity that causes pain (which could include not doing that activity if the threshold is zero) and allowing whatever recovery time we need between sessions.</p>
<p>You might end up having to save the walking for when it’s really nice outside and you want to enjoy a hike or sight seeing or crusin’ the mall instead of using your “walking mileage” threshold on a treadmill!</p>
<p>My black miniband arrived. I felt bad. It cost $2 with free shipping and it cost them $2.60 in postage. Oh well. They’ll just have to pro-rate the loss over my other orders!</p>
<p>That thing is tough around the ankles. It’s pretty good for the Val Waters “butt walks” with it above the knees. Probably about right for me on that one. I’ll have to compare it to using the green one and the blue one together.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing forward and lateral mini-band walks in my warmup every day. Really feelin’ it in the hips. Kinda funny that it’s the guys here on CC who are doing the butt toning exercises!!!</p>
<p>Sounds like they usually ship to clubs. I’m a bit pressed for time at work today so it doesn’t look like I will get in a workout at the office. I guess I may have to settle for the weight machines at the YMCA.</p>
<p>BTW, I saw them loading in another couple of elliptical machines at the Y yesterday. They have had a huge number of new machines in the last year. I assume that there’s either a lot of demand or they’re getting them cheap or for free. I’ve never seen all of the machines in use so it seems to me to be a little overkill.</p>
<p>Just kind of a fluke. Usually, somebody would order a couple of mini-bands like I did last time, tacked on to an order with ValSlides or an Airex pad or a Reebok step or something. They usually have either “sale” items or “free freight”. After getting the green (medium light) and blue (med. heavy) bands, I decided that having a black one (heavy) would be good for these “butt walks”. So I ordered one thing while they still had the free freight promo. It’s like dumbbells – the resistance you need with these bands depends on the person and the exercise. </p>
<p>Speaking of dumbbells, you are such a monster on your one-arm row, that I’m going to suck it up and go for 50 pounds on that today. I’ve been doing 2-pt rows to work the lower back muscles a bit, but at 50 pounds, I’ll probably keep the hand on the bench (or sofa arm, in my case!)</p>
<p>I’m also going to try out my “ghetto” deadlift today. They make a “trap bar” for deadlifting that you stand in and grab so that your arms and the weight hang vertically to the sides instead of deadlifting with the barbell in front of your legs that puts a forward lean stress on the back. This is considered to be much safer. Plus, with standard 45 pound olympic plates, the bar starts mid-calf so there’s not as much bending. I’m doing a dumbbell version, with two dumbells to the sides, but starting with them on 10 inch stools. It’s the last ten inches to the floor that is the back killer in the dead lift. I used this setup just for picking up and putting down the dumbbells the other day and it worked great.</p>
<p>We’re in the process of getting some new equipment and getting rid of some older stuff. In fact, we just moved out an old treadmill today and had the local garbage company come pick it up. We’ve got two more sitting in the gym waiting to decide what to do with them. In another gym, we have an old elliptical that has been taken apart for pieces and now it waits being trashed…</p>
<p>Apparently none of our fitness equipment is ever purchased new; it’s always used equipment and very little of what we buy in big pieces are new. Our pilates equipment was likely brand new but that is about it…</p>
<p>OK, that’s it. I’m done. No mas. I might have to take two days off this weekend.</p>
<p>Two supersets in the strength portion of today’s workout and I bumped the weights on all four exercises:</p>
<p>First superset:
Split squat (two 30lb DBs) - 8 per leg
One arm row (50lb DB) - 8 per arm</p>
<p>Second superset:
Dead lift (two 45lb dumbbells) - 8
One-arm bench presss with shoulders on stability ball (two 35lb DBs) - 8 per arm</p>
<p>Repeat for a total of four times. I’m toast. </p>
<p>I think the one-arm bench press was the hardest. Mind you, I can barely wrestle two 35lb DBs into position me on the stabilty ball forming a virtual bench with my legs and glutes. Then, I have to hold one up while I lower and bench press the other, and vice versa – alternating from side to side. Split squats with 60 pounds are pretty tough, too. That gets some serious leg burn going.</p>
<p>This was a good week of workouts. Three hard NROL4A workouts plus a good Airdyne interval set on Tuesday and good interval set of swings/burpees yesterday. That’s about as much workout as an ol’ (formerly) fat guy can handle.</p>
<p>You guys are all doing great. Me, I’m on a downward spiral. I forced myself to the gym today after I don’t even know how many days. I decided to go back to the beginning of the C25K and then did some planks. I have got to get back on track. My work schedule is so random, it’s hard to keep up a good workout schedule.</p>