<p>Hi everyone – I’m finally back on this thread! I admit (hangs head in shame) to a complete lack of exercise for almost 8 weeks, except for shoveling snow. I won’t bore you with the excuses … So, last week when we were in the Keys on spring break with D & S, I got back into walking,biking, etc. (OK, I’ll confess to quite a few pieces of Key Lime pie, too.) Now we’re home and I’m back at the gym. I’m sore from the weight workouts, but it’s all good.</p>
<p>I actually skimmed all the pages I’d missed on this thread – and of course can’t remember a lot of what I read. But, a couple of shout-outs: (1) idad – your smiley-head photo is AMAZING! (2) chintzy – glad your surgery went well and you’re recovering. You must feel like a completely new person (3) healing wishes to all those in need. I’m still nursing a pain in the left part of my chest that I first noticed when I had a very bad, horrible cough. My online, self-diagnosis says it was/is costochondritis. It’s almost gone, but any sort of ongoing, constant pain just plain stinks.</p>
<p>The last several pages of discussion about obesity are interesting. D is in her first year of the MPH program at Yale, and her particular area of interest/specialty is childhood obesity. (As H likes to say, D had it before Michelle Obama.) Anyway, she just landed a summer internship in DC with the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Her project will have something to do with school initiatives re: fighting obesity. I’m going to send her the various links you all posted. Fighting obesity is such a complex issue.</p>
<p>Anyway, it’s good to be back here! It’s wonderfully warm here today – I’ve been to the gym, and am now headed outside to disperse the snowplow pile still partially blocking my bay of the garage.</p>
<p>What’s scary is the distinct possibility that the government policymakers have been recommending the diet most likely to increase fat gain, raise triglycerides (bad), reduce good cholesterol (bad), and make the bad cholesterol particles smaller and more dense (the linkage with increased risk of blocked arteries.) In other words, the official health policy may have been telling people the exact opposite of what they should be doing.</p>
<p>They have done this with smoking cessation, too. There, the official policy is to advise nicotine addicts to try to break the addiction by continuing to use nicotine. Kind of like telling alcoholics to take a shot of vodka everytime the craving for a drink gets to be too much.</p>
<p>I can’t remember if you are fighting an actual Achilles injury or if this is just stiffness and pain with motion. If it’s the latter, then you might get some good results with mobility drills. I’ve been doing quite a few for several months and, over time, they are slowly starting to pay off. I paid attention to the ankle drill because I have had a very stiff inflexible ankle due to multiple ankle sprains. This was actually limiting my motion on split squats and (I realized) hampering my ability to kneel down. There was a big difference between my two ankles.</p>
<p>Here’s [the</a> ankle mobility drill](<a href=“Ankle Mobility Routine 1 of 2 - YouTube”>Ankle Mobility Routine 1 of 2 - YouTube)that Mike Boyle does with all his athletes every day. The key is to keep the heels of both feet firmly planted, so it’s really working the Achilles area of both ankles. You can vary the amount by the distance each foot is from the wall. Do five or ten on each side with the knee going straight forward into the wall. Then, do the same number with the knee going out over the big toe and an equal number with the knee going the other way (out over the little toe). The angle you can get on these last too variations should improve over time.</p>
<p>I’m doing these because (somewhat counter-intuitively) flexibility in an ankle protects against ankle sprains. I’m tired of rolling my foot while walking and doing a face plant. I bet this little warmup drill before you go walking would probably help.</p>
<p>Tennis: 6-0, 6-4. My serve was all over the place in the second set. Lots of power and lots of spin - I just couldn’t get it in the box. You can have too much strength for tennis.</p>
<p>Wonderful day out there - car temp sensor says 72 with a very gusty wind. I didn’t see any runners out there today - I guess nobody wants a mouthful of sand.</p>
<p>I find Burpees hurt my back. Maybe I’m not doing them right.</p>
<p>It’s restaurant week in the Hudson Valley dh complained that I order the only no carb option main course. (We trade dishes half way through - so I got some of his paella he got half my grilled fish). Desserts were delicious, but small. So not too much damage done. I got a long walk in yesterday. I had planned to go to the gym after a 1 pm meeting, but the client has been delayed. She’s now almost 4 hours late! Grrr.</p>
<p>It would be very easy to arch the lower back doing burpess or pushups. That’s what usually “fails” first doing plank, too. I’ve noticed that it tens to happen with burpees or swiss ball mountain climbers or TRX pushups or Valslide painful pushaways when I’m completely gassed. Actually the main purpose of the abs is to keep the back from bending backwards like that.</p>
<p>Anyway, lower back arching (extension) like that is very painful for some people, so I’m sure you are not alone in feeling discomfort doing burpees. iPod nazi always cautioned to stop if you feel any pain in the lower back doing plank or stability ball plank or anything like that. Same with Stuart McGill. If someone can only go 10 seconds, he has them do multiple repeats of 10 seconds.</p>
<p>Anyone here do yoga? Friend of mine celebrated her 50th birthday on Thursday by having all her friends come to a yoga class (led by her teacher) and then dinner at her house. We all did an hour of vinyassa (sp?) yoga. I have never taken a yoga class and haven’t mostly because I have a very limited attention span and thought that all of the meditation stuff would make me crazy. I was surprised because this particular class (while it did incorporate that relaxation/breathing-type stuff–sorry I don’t know what these moves are called) involved some fairly sophisticated exercises: balancing, planks, neck bridges. Also, some of the stuff we did was very similar to pilates. I felt pretty stiff while I was working (sitting cross-legged was the worst) but I was able to do most of the moves. I also felt really good and flexible when it was over. However, today, my quads were killing me. I really felt it in kettlebell class when we were doing the squat/lunge moves with the kettlebell.</p>
<p>Questions: Is there a type of yoga that’s more athletic than others? Is the hot yoga better for some reason. I’d be willing to take a class because I get bored doing the same things and like variety. Does yoga help with flexibility and stiffness? Will you get more flexible as you practice it more? What’s the best type of yoga for a beginner?</p>
<p>I do Hot Yoga (Bikram) and it is the yoga I like best. I feel it has a cardio element to it due to the heat which really elevates your heart rate. You might get bored, because the series of postures is the same every time. I happen to like that. It is challenging, but also fine for beginners. You just do what you can. It doesn’t really get easier, but you do get better at it. You do adjust to the heat. Well, sort of. It is still challenging. I feel it works on strength, flexibility and balance. I need work on all of these. If you try it, don’t decide you hate it after the first class. Give it 2 or 3 classes fairly close together. Trust me on this one.
Lots of runners and other endurance athletes are flocking to hot yoga. Older athletes in particular…</p>
<p>Good solid *New Rules of Lifting for Abs *workout this evening. This was my 14th workout in Phase II (two more to go) and my 30th overall since I started the program on New Years Eve. This program is so good. It’s fun, it has great exercise progressions, and the pacing of each workout is manageable and interesting. The warm up stuff and the core stuff is just fabulous.</p>
<p>Once again, I stuck with the same weights I’ve been using. Honestly, I’ll probabably stick wtih them for the final two workouts of this phase. I ramped up pretty quickly and I don’t think I can complete four sets of 8 reps with any more weight. These weights are still very challenging, although I was able to plod along in a little more workmanlike way today. The one-arm DB push press (squat down, press up wtih the legs while raising the DB overhead) felt stronger. 35 pounds is a lot for more on that one, so it’s not an “explosive” move, but it felt like I was doing the exercise instead of the other way around.</p>
<p>Had a fun walk today with freshman S (home for spring break). A few miles over hilly, wooded terrain with waterfalls to look at every so often. It was longer than planned because of badly marked detours due to park maintenance. One sign said “pedestrians take _____path” and when we tried to go that way, another sign said that path was closed as well! These guys should talk to each other. </p>
<p>My S is tall and long-legged so it pushed me to walk at my upper limit. I reminded him how we used to carry him on our backs when he got tired. Of course, WE had the long legs back then!</p>
<p>interesteddad – my achilles tendon is sore and tender, but just since yesterday, though I’ve had problems with that achilles tendon off and on for years. I’m going to give that Mike Boyle exercise a try. Thanks!</p>
<p>VeryHappy – yup – Barbara was already taken.</p>
<p>That’s the kind of nagging stiffness/soreness that should really benefit from this kind of fleixibilty drill. Boyle’s warmup for his athletes (and training clients) has one or two of these for basically every joint in the body. They don’t feel like much while you are doing them, but over time I’ve started to notice either more range of motion or easier range of motion.</p>
<p>The NROL4A warmup has a bunch of similar stuff including a series of hops: </p>
<p>forward and back ten times on two feet
side to side ten times on two feet
forward and back ten times (each side) on one foot</p>
<p>Those were actually tough for me to do at first as they aggravate every little geezer ache and pain. Now that I’ve done them 30 times, I notice a huge difference. Lunges (with no extra weight) are also fanstastic for stretching out geezer legs and moibilizing geezer joints. Boyle’s warmup has a seriies of quick front lunges and side lunges. Alwyn Costgrove’s version has a bunch of walking lunges – crossover lunges, curtsey lunges, etc. This would also be an ideal place for Valslide reverse and lateral lunges (Boyle’s athletes do them on slide boards, which is essentially the same thing).</p>
<p>It took me a while to understand how important these warmup type mobility/flexibility drills really are. For a lot of beginners, they really can be the full workout. I still don’t do them as regularly as I should before I go out for a walk, but I’m trying to remember.</p>
<p>I’ve done several styles of yoga, including Bikram, Iyengar, and anusura. Bikram is considered the “McDonalds” of the yoga world. They are a franchise and require there instructors to pay big bucks for training which I’ve been told is inadequate. I have scoliosis and found that after doing Bikram for a year, it was exacerbating my curves.
It’s best to find a yoga teacher who is knowledgeable and has lots of experience. As a novice, a teacher should make modifications and adjustments to your postures.
There are hot yoga classes which aren’t Bikram classes. For my back I prefer inyegar or anusara (based on inyengar.) These styles work on alignment.</p>
<p>I have found my hot yoga (Bikram and otherwise) instructors to be very well-trained. I have done other types of yoga, too, and Bikram suits me best. The instructors DO encourage modifications and never push the students beyond what is appropriate for each student.</p>
<p>Went a little bit beyond my capabilities this morning and ran the 11.2 loop in my extremely hilly park (where Monkey Marathon is held). I did pretty well for about 7 plus miles and then the hills really got to me. I had to stop and rest frequently after that, but I made it (actually added on a little flat at the end for 11.5). I guess I didn’t quite have the base and the leg strength for that course. I thought I would be OK since I did the 5.8 last weekend and have done 2 flatter 10 milers. Once you commit to the 11.2 course you are pretty much stuck with it. I didn’t bonk or anything, I simply didn’t have the legs for the hills in the later miles. Feel good about doing it, though.</p>
<p>Yay, MOfWC! I just finished my 11 mile run. There are pretty much no hills in the park where I run, so I will have to get creative in the business center where DH works. They have super hills.</p>
<p>I can’t thank you enough for the socks recommendation. I found the PhD socks at our local TJMaxx, and my feet feel great even after pounding the trail for 1.5 hours! Yay, Smarwool and Brooks!</p>
<p>I thought some of ya’ll might be interested in this. StrengthCoachTV.com is doing a series of tours of gyms and fitness facilities of top trainers. Just little 10 to 15 minute facility tours with each owner giving a bit of the philosophy. This week’s episode is a tour of [Mike</a> Boyle’s Strength and Conditioning in Woburn, MA](<a href=“Strength Coach TV- Episode 5- Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning - YouTube”>Strength Coach TV- Episode 5- Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning - YouTube). Yes, the Mike Boyle I reference all the time. This facility was named the top gym in America by Men’s Health Magazine. They only do group training, typically 9 in a group – high school, college, and pro athletes, plus general public. Interestingly, the cost is not terribly high. Two day a week programs for adults run 12 weeks at about $30 a week ($375 for the program). Four day a week summer programs for high school and college athletes are $1095.</p>
<p>This tour features Mike Boyle showing the layout of the facility.</p>
<p>A little warm up on the treadmill walking and running.</p>
<p>5 rounds of 15 reps each:
–Box Jumps (24" box)
–Knees to Elbows (hanging from pull up bar)
–Air Squats
–Assisted Pull Ups</p>
<p>Time: 27:55
Avg HR: 168 BPM
Max HR: 191 BPM</p>
<p>Walked a few minutes on the treadmill to cool down.</p>
<p>It was interesting watching the heart rate go up and down throughout the workout today. We decided to time it, but not push the time. We wanted to do the exercises strong rather than rush through.</p>
<p>Right now I’m doing a little bit of self myofascial release with a lacrosse ball…</p>
But, a couple of shout-outs: (1) idad – your smiley-head photo is AMAZING! (2) chintzy – glad your surgery went well and you’re recovering. You must feel like a completely new person (3) healing wishes to all those in need. I’m still nursing a pain in the left part of my chest that I first noticed when I had a very bad, horrible cough. My online, self-diagnosis says it was/is costochondritis. It’s almost gone, but any sort of ongoing, constant pain just plain stinks.</p>