<p>Idad, I tried your 1.25 squats tonight. Used 20 pound DBs held at the chest. Sat for about a second at the bottom, then went back up, down, and up quickly. </p>
<p>Did 5 sets of Lat pulldowns (10x100) and 5x5 assisted pull ups. The big feat for me today was bench press. I did 3x5 @135 pounds, then did set of 2 @155 pounds, set of 2 @165 pounds, set of 2 @175 pounds. Then moved to 1-sets. Set at 185 pounds (EASY!), set at 195 pounds, and finally a set at 200 pounds! First time I have benched 200 pounds! This is something I had been working towards since high school. It has disappointed me that it’s taken this long, but it’s here now! :)</p>
<p>I’m going to the YMCA in a few minutes and I’m going to try some burpees. I tried one in the basement (without the arm movements). I’m bringing my iPad along with me so that I can get the movement correct. One thing about the jump and landing on the basement floor: I did feel it in the knees (wasn’t wearing sneakers). I just put on the knee braces for protection.</p>
<p>I brought my son’s iPod Touch instead of the iPad - no need for the big device. I got there and the WiFi was out. I stood next to the router - it had a signal but no WAN. I was tempted to reboot the router but decided against it. So I did the burpees from memory. I did five of them and my heart rate was 120 bpm at the end of the set. The burpees did not feel particularly difficult except on my knees when landing. On the fourth one I realized why - the part that I didn’t remember from the video was not to land firmly as with a jumping jack but to land in slow motion and bring your body to the ground so that your legs muscles absorb the shock slowly instead of all at once in the knee. So I did that on the fifth one.</p>
<p>I just reviewed the video from YouTube (some lady in a red top and an odd accent) and the camera person did something off on the first five. He or she shot her on the floor while she was doing the pushup, then brought the camera to see her top two-thirds when jumping but didn’t move the camera down fast enough to catch her knees bending when she went back down again. He stepped back to see the whole thing in the second set of five. She did 12 of them for a set. I guess I can try again next time.</p>
<p>The converted racquetball court had that black cushiony stuff - similar to what we have in the office. I guess they put this over the wooden court - wooden courts typically also provide good cushioning so there should be very good cushioning overall in that fitness room. The room was completely empty besides me. The YMCA was nearly empty too - I guess that people are busy with the Easter weekend preparations.</p>
<p>One other lesson: if you want to see a video in the Y, download it onto your device.</p>
<p>Contratulations on your new 200 lb personal best bench press. Like I always say, you are an animal!</p>
<p>The 1.25 squats take the worst part of the squat and magnify it. I’m sailing long with them until I hit the fifth or sixth rep and then I’ve just gotta grind. The would definitely be blasing the lunkhead siren if I were at Plantet Fitness because I’m gruntin’ big time to get out of the hole on those last two reps. They are, however, insanely good for leg strength.</p>
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<p>Yeah. I had to study Zuzanna’s burpee technique a lot to make sure I had it right, too! </p>
<p>Seriously, though… I wouldn’t worry about technique that much. There will come a point where you can go straight out into the pushup position and down to the floor in one move and they jump back into a squat and up into the air, but that didn’t happen for me for a while. At first, I was just so gassed that it was all I could do to crank out a few ugly reps. You are in better shape than I was, but when I first started doing them, three or four burpees would have me bent over gasping for air. Five of them still send my heart rate sky high. It’s working so many big muscles simulatenously that the oxygen demands are really big.</p>
<p>I watched a few more burpee videos and noticed a few more interesting differences in technique. In one video, I noticed that the guys landed on their toes and then rolled their foot down so that the forefoot acted as a shock absorber. After they had done quite a few, they got sloppy and were landing on their heels or entire foot in one thunk.</p>
<p>Some guys land and then get down in two motions and some do it in one motion. For a guy like me with knee issues, I have to absolutely minimize hard impact on the knees so for me it would go:</p>
<p>1: land on toes and roll back, then
2: bend legs to land with impact spread over a longer period of time to spread shock over a longer period of time
3: land in a crouched position and then go into the pushup position</p>
<p>I have really struggled with jumping. My knees hurt. My shins hurt. Basically everything hurt. But, I’ve stuck with it. My warmups include hopping forwards and back ten times, side to side ten times, then forward and back 10 times on each foot – three days a week. Slowly, every so slowly, my body has learned to do it and land more softly absorbing the impact. I still look like a dancing hippo on the one-legged hopping, but everything else is coming along.</p>
<p>Eventually, you just land, bend your knees, and continue down to a full squat with your hands on the floor as the legs kick out into the pushup position. It’s one motion, but I’m not sure it’s a motion you can consciously make your body do. It just sort of happens as you adapt to maximize efficiency of motion.</p>
<p>Jumping and landing are heavily related to ankle mobility’flexibility, which is something most of us are sorely lacking. This transfers energy to the knees, which would ideally get absorbed by the ankles flexing to land softer. I think you just have to accept it as a long-term project, adding a little bit of jumping to your routine. The body will figure it out.</p>
<p>I’m struggling with ankle mobilty on reverse lunges right now. My oft-sprained ankle doesn’t like to bend and steppng back into a reverse lunge requires it to bend.</p>
<p>Well, you can’t really play tennis with a weak ankle and I’ve never had flexibility or strength problems with the ankle except for the two times that I sprained them.</p>
<p>BTW, there is a marvelous YouTube video of Roger Federer in slow motion - you can see the incredible stresses that tennis places on ankles in this video. Roger is wearing an ankle brace in the clips.</p>
<p>Search for Federer Slow Motion and pick the first video. It should have almost 2 million hits.</p>
<p>Running in Denver- there is a huge trail (path) system. We stay in the Cherry Creek area right on the Cherry Creek trail. It goes a long way in both directions and is flat. WildChild has something planned for tomorrow in Lakewood Park, which I may have to walk due to the right butt problem. We’ll see. Washington Park has a nice loop around it. It is a very run and bike friendly city. A lot depends on what part of town.</p>
<p>Thank you! Thank you, MOfWC! I will be verrry close to that area, so you just confirmed what I was able to find in bits and pieces on the 'net. Cool. Whether I cam run at such an altitude, that’s a whole different question. I have to save some energy to explore the big shopping center that’s also located nearby.</p>
<p>Shopping in Cherry Creek is great! There is a store called Outdoor Diva and also a LuluLemon and a Title Nine. They are not in the mall. All women-specific.</p>
<p>You need to slow down a little for the altitude, and you notice it a lot on any upgrades. </p>
<p>Idad- one of the things in hot yoga is aren’t allowed to hunch over with hands on knees. You can lie down, but you are always supposed to be yoga-ish…not always easy…</p>
<p>VERY quiet at the gym this morning. It was supposed to be a running day for me, but my lower right calf was bothering after Thursday. Could be achilles tendonitis? Don’t want to aggravate that. I read online that a heel cup in my shoes may help so I’ll try that next week. Seems like it’s always something … W-a-y back in the day when I did a fair amount of running, nothing seemed to bother me. This getting old stuff stinks!</p>
<p>I agree with the getting old stuff but I don’t know if my problem is just plain getting old or if there’s a particular problem I need to fix and/or move I need to stop. My left ankle has been bothering me – burning pain right behind the ankle bone bump on the outside of my leg – so for the last month or so, I’ve stopped using the treadmill and the elliptical, since both of those seem to aggrevate the pain. Instead, I’ve been using the rowing machine, the stair master, and the stationary bicycle. Unfortunately my ankle still hurts – the so-called “rest” doesn’t seem to be doing anything useful – AND my weight is up two whole pounds from last Saturday to this Saturday. I’m sure at least a pound and a half will drop off shortly, once the holidays are over with and I get back to normal (or below-normal) eating for a week or so, but I miss the huge caloric expenditure that threadmill and elliptical provide (not to mention the endorphins) so I may just go back to them and continue taking ibuprophin. I mean, really, what’s the harm?</p>
<p>Oh, well. I’m probably not cut out for hot yoga and speedos! I’m afraid the ol’ (formerly) fat guy doesn’t always maintain his yoga-ish-ness during workouts! </p>
<p>Actually, truth be told, I don’t actually bend over and put my hands on my knees when I’m panting. As I understand it, that’s not the best way to recover. So, I try to stay upright and even walking (staggering?) around a little. Mostly, I just pray the batteries in the GYMBOSS will die so it won’t beep at me to start the next exercise in a few seconds!</p>
<p>CBBBlinker – tenderness/soreness in the lower calf muscle can absolutely be the start of achilles tendinitis. From years of dealing with this issue (and a number of doctors and podiatrists and PT and PRP injections and…) there has been absolute agreement from every professional I’ve seen: tight calf muscles are at the root of all achilles tendinitis and plantar fasciitis problems, and tight hamstrings can aggravate tight calf muscles. For a long time I had achilles tendinitis on one ankle, and plantar fasciitis on the other foot. If you can avoid letting this become a chronic problem, you’re infinitely better off. My achilles tendon is apparently permanently swollen and thickened, and very easy to irritate from the years of achilles tendinitis. </p>
<p>So… 1. Ice is your friend. It needs to become your really good friend in the near term. 2. Most docs encourage regular use of good NSAIDS (like Aleve) for a 10 day to two week period upon the onset of a bout of acute A.T. Some prescribe an Rx anti-inflammatory, and there is also a topical Rx one. 3. Back off whatever you were doing, even if the AT seems to go away after you’ve run or walked for a bit. 4. Begin stretching the calf muscles gently and slowly both with the knee straight and with the knee bent (wall stretches) – don’t bounce, and do not hang off a stair step. Doing stretches 8-10 times a day (at different times) is not overdoing it. 5. Avoid going uphill or using much of any incline on a treadmill, which puts way too much stress on the achilles at this point. 6. Heel lifts or orthotics may help. If you already have orthotics and they’re old (>3 years if you do a lot of walking/running) you may need new ones even if the old ones look okay. My doc keeps the casts, and I was shocked to see how the orthotic, which used to fit snugly against the cast, was now gapped in a number of areas. 6. I had a lot of AM stiffness, and had to be very, very cautious going down stairs. Be very gentle with the AT at that time. 7. If it doesn’t get better with self-treatment, consider asking for a PT authorization. Massage (which was anything but comfortable), ultrasound, and some electrical device that zapped steroids into the tendon were helpful. Aqua jogging or swimming are much less stressful on the AT than walking or running.</p>
<p>Having been through more than two years when I could not walk more than a couple of blocks without major pain due to the problem having become chronic, I’d suggest that you do everything possible to try for a real resolution before yours gets this way. I run to really tight calf muscles, and always have, but I just keep at the stretches every single day, and if it starts to twinge, I back off whatever I am doing. Good luck!</p>
I’m really sorry for everyone who is nursing an injury. I feel so fortunate to be hangin’ in there. The only thing I’m watching is a shoulder that gets a tad tender.
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Dug out the Airdyne and wheeled in back into place today. First time in like 6 or 7 weeks I’ve been on it. Tried a different kind of Mike Boyle interval: Go 1 mile for time, then rest until the heart rate recovers to 60% of max, then go another mile. I did four miles. I couldn’t come close to Boyle’s times, taking about 3:18 to 3:20 to ride a mile. The longest interval I’ve done before was 60 seconds, so this was some serious leg burn. I’m not even close to figuring out how to pace myself.
I took 60 to 90 seconds between miles to recover. The whole thing was over in 20 minutes. Kind of a fun variation on Airdyne intervals.
<p>Sounds like a good time. Glad to hear you keep making progress!</p>
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<p>It looks like I’m going to do something I haven’t done in a couple of months-- take two days off in a row! We’ve had storms off and on for the last 36 hours. Today I just didn’t feel like getting up and doing anything. Unless I decide to knock out a P90X workout tonight (not likely), I won’t be working out today. Tomorrow we’ll be gone for a good part of the day. I doubt I’ll want to go to the gym when we get home.</p>
<p>I’m working on developing my workout program for the month of May. I’m going to set the interval training aside for the month and focus on strength. I plan to do some heavy lifting next month! Time to break some more PRs.</p>
<p>Felt good to get back on the Airdyne. That’s a different kind of workout. I really think variety is key for us geezers, for both injury prevention and to keep it interesting.</p>
<p>My legs are toast, though. Hard week of leg exercises.</p>
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I have to save some energy to explore the big shopping center that’s also located nearby.</p>