<p>sabaray- Don’t feel bad at all. We are all an experiment of ONE, and great that you jogged 2 miles. It sounds like bad conditions, so congrats on getting through it. We all started somewhere, and, in my case, I seem to have to keep RESTARTING somewhere!</p>
<p>I know I can do it now, and that is the important thing. I’d been walking and then jogging up the hills (because it was easier than walking) but now I can do the whole thing. H walked the route behind me, but he was working hard too. </p>
<p>I have to say, MOWC, you are my motivation. I loved running when I was younger and now I want to enjoy it again. I know I’ll never be at your competitive level, but there’s no reason I can’t get into local 5k races. I hope your restarts are over and you can just keep on going!</p>
<p>sabaray:</p>
<p>The next time you feel “feeble” jogging 2 miles, think of the poor ol’ (formerly) fat guy panting like a dog doing a 2/10ths mile jogging interval! From my perspective, there is nothing “feeble” about jogging 2 miles.</p>
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<p>I punched the clock with the third outing of this week’s workout. My kitty kat helped with the core section. He figured out that he could get 30 seconds of head scraching on the side plank and then walk around and get 30 more seconds on the other side. He was all over that – for three sets! Kitty Kore Training ™. I think there’s an infomercial DVD in there somewhere!</p>
<p>He didn’t want anything to do with the single leg deadlifts. Smart kitty.</p>
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<p>Now, it’s off to chicken caesar salad!</p>
<p>Thanks, sabaray. There is NO reason you can’t do 5Ks. I think about half the people walk the whole thing these days. I think it would be fun for you and motivating. </p>
<p>When I don’t have to stand up while I drive the car, I’ll feel like I’m “back”. For now I’ll do what I can. I am very nervous, since it looks like tomorrow is my season debut on the bicycle. I thought H wasn’t going to want me to ride this summer since I was such a pain about it last year! 
This afternoon he said (after he rode 70 miles today) “Do you want to do a little biking tomorrow?” I hope I remember how to shift the stupid gears and that I don’t get hit by a car. It will be a short one- about 20-25 miles. I have to do just a little running before it so I can make my week…</p>
<p>Today’s simple diet tip:</p>
<p>Stop drinking carbohydrates.</p>
<p>For exercise today DH & I planted a bush and dug and shoveled dirt around in a few places. Used the wheelbarrow to transport good dirt to places that were full of clay and wouldn’t support life. It felt good to dig. Besides the arm muscles it must use the glutes, don’t you think? :)</p>
<p>Definitely. Shovelling dirt and wrestling a wheelbarrow uses just about everything! </p>
<p>Actually, lifting up the handles of a wheelbarrow is a perfect real world deadlift.</p>
<p>I always feel really good about my fitness when I can do these real-world activities at my “advanced” age. There’s life in the old girl yet! :D</p>
<p>I think we all surprise ourselves when we can still run around the pasture a little bit…</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments on jogging and knees. Yall did convince me to get new shoes, about a couple hundred pages back, so that’s covered. I am mostly walking on the treadmill, with up to five minute jogging intervals. I have never been athletic; up until this year I was pretty well convinced that I despised exercise. For some reason I am finding that adding the jogging intervals makes the treadmill time more interesting, but at 45 and having had a herniated disc about 10 years ago I am a little paranoid that I will do more harm than good. I have a dr’s appt in two weeks and I am going to ask about exercise facilities that cater to old people–my reasons for exercising are mostly to stay functional over the next however many years. Weight loss would be a bonus but I think whatever additional weight I lose will be because of diet, not exercise.</p>
<p>I’m with you on the intervals. I would die of boredom on the Airdyne in less than 30 minutes without cranking up some intervals to make the time go a little faster.</p>
<p>As for age and herniated discs, I really don’t think that has to be a liability at all. The top fitness programs these days are VERY back friendly. If anything, I think us older folk may have an advantage because we have no expecations of overnight results. I think we tend to be a little more patient and that’s a good thing when it come to exercise. For example, I think I’ve developed pretty decent form on most of the weight lifting exercises, in large part because I’m not in a big all-fire hurry to pile on the weight. I’m happy to lift whatever I can handle with good form. A lot of younger guys just want to lift a big number and going too heavy too soon means crappy, dangerous form.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve encountered a single exercise in a good program where age gets in the way of doing it. All the good programs have progressions that allow starting with easy versions of the exercises and adding difficulty as appropriate. For example, the second week of this iPod nazi core program adds challenges to the exercises from the first week.</p>
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<p>But how do you know that your form is good? Walking seems hard to mess up, but weights seem easy to do wrong.</p>
<p>Dear Coach iDad:</p>
<p>Besides the hip lifts with the "squeeze, 1, 2, 3, 4), what are 2 more glute exercises I can easily do at home while in the TV room or something. I have a Swiss ball and stairs. I think getting these glutes firing instead of the hamstrings is going to be the real key to getting over this problem.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
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<p>The main thing from an injury standpoint is always paying attention to the lower back, making sure that it is in a “neutral” position, not rounding forward or arching backwards due to excessive load. For example, in plank, you can feel when you start to sag and arch the back. In a deadlift, you can feel when your back is solid and braced, not rounding fowards. Stop when you can’t keep the lower spine “neutral” or if you ever feel any pain, and you wil go a long way towards preventing injury from weight lifting. </p>
<p>Just doing a lot of core stabilty exercise has laid a foundation where I’m aware of a neutral, braced, stable position. Credit to iPod nazi for getting me started with a proper foundation.</p>
<p>Plus, I pay attention to the safety-oriented trainers and just don’t do the stuff that leads to a high injury rate. No crunches. No back squats. The safer versions of deadlifts, etc.</p>
<p>I saw a glutes machine at the new Y yesterday. I didn’t try it out as I don’t think I need to but I’m going back there today and I’ll give it a try to see how I fare in that department. There’s a big pole with a cushioned attachment at 90 degrees and you essentially lie flat and move the pole up (or maybe around) - I guess with your whole leg movement as opposed to a leg curl.</p>
<p>I think that it could be simulated with a band attached to something heavy that’s low on the ground.</p>
<p>Full-length mirrors help too.</p>
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<p>Here’s next week’s progression in my new iPod nazi program:</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Elevated Hip Thrusters](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZuM4pB4duQ]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZuM4pB4duQ)</p>
<p>In this new program, he’s doing this one with his shoulders on a Swiss ball and his feet on the edge of an Adairondack-style lawn chair. So maybe your Swiss ball and a foot stool or whatever you can find that’s about a foot tall.</p>
<p>The other group of exercises for the hip is the dead lift. Here’s how reknowned physical therapist Gray Cook teaches it:</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Gray Cook Teaches Kettle Bell Deadlift](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P02K_-OxwMs]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P02K_-OxwMs)</p>
<p>This can be done with any weight. Doesn’t have to be a kettlebell. Could be a suitcase, a knapsack full of books, a 25 lb bucket of cat litter, a five gallon gas can full of water, or whatever. The single leg version he covers starting at about the 6 minute mark is probably the gold standard for most of us, because it gives maximum effect without having to use massive amounts of weight.</p>
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<p>I agree that the specific solution to your issues will be continually working on glute activation. Actually, it’s probably the #1 thing that almost all of us need to work on. It’s an affliction of sitting at a desk or behind the wheel. Here’s what one of the physical therapists who hangs out at Mike Boyle’s StrengthCoach forums wrote just this week:</p>
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<p>I’ve been amazed that it has taken me months and months to even figure out what it meant to “fire the glutes”. That’s how bad my “glute amnesia” was.</p>
<p>Kind of a recovery day after my long run yesterday.
40 minutes dance aerobics. HR got high in a good way and it is fun to just go with the music sometimes.
Haven’t worked up to running in my Vibrams yet, but really like them for just running around doing errands, gym workouts and the dance fitness classes. I am terrified to take the plunge and run with them. Anybody tried them yet?</p>
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<p>Not me. My feet are happiest with big 'ol arch supports and really unhappy without them. I think that people with good high arches to start with are going to do best with the new “minimalist” footwear.</p>
<p>Just finished home weights workout and about to go to the gym to work out on the machines while son runs on the track. It feels quite good to switch to weights from running for a little bit. I’ve also got in a lot of sleep hours this weekend which helps on the recovery from the week’s activities.</p>