<p>Yay. I’ll order the mini-bands. I tied one of my thera-bands but it isn’t a great solution.</p>
<p>jym- I exercise before work (early, early) and if I don’t do that, after work. Sometimes both if I’m in high mileage stuff.</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota^^</p>
<p>I am not on a weight loss plan but am trying to improve fitness. I weigh a few pounds more now, consistently, than I ever have. I like to think it’s because muscle weighs more than flab. ;)</p>
<p>Plateaus are frustrating but there are many times when I wake up and I know that I’m thinner though maybe not lighter. At some point, after a fair amount of weight loss, you feel pretty good about how you look and feel, even if you have more weight that you want to lose.</p>
<p>jym, I ride the bus to work (1 hr each way), and I exercise after work and on weekends. We invested in a quality treadmill and some other stuff so we do not have to waste time on driving to the gym.</p>
<p>jym-
I do my workouts in the morning. Too much seems to “come up” and interfere when I have them planned for the evenings, although when I was doing marathon training, I did have group runs in the evening.
For the summer - I think I would like to do a powerwalk in the evening as a sort of bonus mini workout.</p>
<p>My currrent workouts take place at 7 a.m., but I attended a bootcamp for years that met at 5:30 a.m., which with the half hour drive had me getting up at 4:45. I find the exercise part relatively easy, because I schedule it so that I have a standing appointment and just treat it as part of my schedule. No questioning, “do I feel like it now?”, because the answer is generally “no”.</p>
<p>The diet/nutrition part is more challenging for me because of so many choices, having to take others into consideration, hard to keep focusing on the challenges over and over again, etc.</p>
<p>jym:</p>
<p>Yes. I work from home, but my workouts average just 45 minutes a day, five or six days a week. Three days a week, it’s right at an hour. A couple of days a week are 30 minutes. I don’t believe that long workouts are necessary, or perhaps even ideal. I could cut my workouts back to just 30 minutes a day and do just fine. Short, high intensity workouts provide the most bang for the buck.f</p>
<p>nMinn:</p>
<p>Yay! Losing inches without pounds is really the ideal result of working out. That is a sure sign that you are shedding fat and increasing lean muscle. I went through that about a month into *New Rules of Lifting for Abs *back in February when my weight actually increased a pound or two for a couple of weeks at the same time I was going down another pants size. </p>
<p>I think there are probably some short-term water retention issues with starting to lift weights. The intitial muscle soreness means muscles are inflammed, which means they are increasing fluid retention. My week or two of weight gain corresponded with the time I was pretty sore from much more intensive weight lifting workouts. That’s temporary.</p>
<p>I’ve come around to think that the ideal way to look at the diet/exercise equation is that the diet is the fat loss part and the exercise builds muscle and improves conditioning. They are complementary and one without the other is going to provide less than complete results (although it is possible to lose weight without exercising).</p>
<p>NM – that’s great. </p>
<p>Idad – any idea where to buy the bar that the Jungle Gym XT is hanging from in the video? I don’t have a solid place of attachment. We already ruined one doorway by putting a pressure fit pull-up bar in it – D cracked the frame! Not doing that again.</p>
<p>And somebody a page back was complaining that boobs and belly were the last to lose the weight – having read Gary Taubes’ Why We Get Fat, I’m not surprised, and there seems to be a pretty good biochemical explanation for why. Unfortunate, but true.</p>
<p>The cheapest combo chin-up/pullup/dip/roman chair was $279. It would be a neat device to have at home. You could add in assist by keeping a leg on a chair.</p>
<p>I don’t trust the things that you hang on a door frame.</p>
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<p>The Jungle Gym isn’t really supported by the frame. It wedges between the door and the frame. If you pull it on a door opening away from you, it can’t pull out.</p>
<p>As far as alternative supports, I have mine wrapped around a beam in the basement, but I would be more than confident with the door approach. Another way to go would be to install one of the chinup bars that actually bolts to the door frame (in a closet door, maybe). Then, the suspension straps could be looped around the chinup bar. Or, install one of the [chin</a> up bar](<a href=“http://www.bodyrock.tv/wp-content/themes/nerdery-skeleton-theme-v1/timthumb.php?src=http://www.bodyrock.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/featured2.jpg&w=594&h=412&c=1&q=100]chin”>http://www.bodyrock.tv/wp-content/themes/nerdery-skeleton-theme-v1/timthumb.php?src=http://www.bodyrock.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/featured2.jpg&w=594&h=412&c=1&q=100) like Zuzanna uses.</p>
![http://www.bodyrock.tv/wp-content/themes/nerdery-skeleton-theme-v1/timthumb.php?src=http://www.bodyrock.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/featured2.jpg&w=594&h=412&c=1&q=100]chin](http://www.bodyrock.tv/wp-content/themes/nerdery-skeleton-theme-v1/timthumb.php?src=http://www.bodyrock.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/featured2.jpg&w=594&h=412&c=1&q=100%5Dchin){kind=link}
<p>Today’s workout (somewhat of a fail :()
Warm Up (2 rounds)
250m row
10 pass throughs
10 air squats
10 push ups</p>
<p>followed by:
20 30 lb. kettle ball swings
20 pushups
20 jump lunges
20 v ups
20 ground to overhead with 30 lb. kettle ball
25 Burpees (could not do!)
20 ring rows
25 box jumps (this is the first time I could bring myself to jump up on the box, still very scary)
25 situps</p>
<p>Don’t even know my time, because I was so upset about freezing on the burpees and a little shaky after the box jumps.</p>
<p>CJane - why would that be a fail? Looks like a pretty intense workout even without the burpees.</p>
<p>Can you do a burpee if you’re not already pooped from the earlier exercises? </p>
<p>And those box jumps sound scary. Congrats for doing them.</p>
<p>I couldn’t even think of doing 25 burpees. I’ve never really tried to do them to failure, but I’m guessing I might be able do 10. I’m currently doing sets of six, three sets per round. Three rounds, so a total of 54 burpees in a workout. Six burpees, with the pushup and a strong jump is about all I’ve got. I really start grinding on the pushup after that.</p>
<p>I have done some short box jumps – up a flight of stairs, but it’s not a great “geezer” exercise. High injury quotient. A lot of trainers have stopped doing them because they end up with so many athletes bloodying their shins. Jumping down is especially rough on the knees. Sets of 25 sounds like a lot. I don’t think it’s the kind of exercise that you want to do to the point of failure.</p>
<p>Have you thought about breaking up the 20 reps of all that stuff into two or three sets of six or ten reps with a rest in between sets?</p>
<p>The pushups are really what get me. I can do 5-6 “real” push ups, then have to go down to my knees. Even in that position, I get so fatigued that I start to need really long rests.</p>
<p>I have been breaking up the sets to less reps, but this was the “workout of the day”, so I gave it a go.</p>
<p>I have done a ton of step ups in my time, with weights, without, etc. so the box jumps are okay in how they feel while doing them. There is just something kind of scary and intimidating about looking up at that box…</p>
<p>I haven’t had any issues with my knees to date, despite lots of running in the past, touch wood, is that the main injury you are referring to, interesteddad, or do you mean falling down off the box type of injuries? Or likely all of the above ?</p>
<p>idad- hope the vertigo is gone.
MOWC- hope the chair is just the ticket. (PS have been doing a lot of my interval runs – very short laps of 270 meters-- in my Vibrams and am loving them. I will be looking into more of a barefoot shoe, per your suggestions for my longer runs)</p>
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<p>How high of a box are you using?</p>
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<p>Michael Boyle has talked quite a bit about box jumps in training his athletes as it is a very popular “plyo” explosive power exercise. He does not allow his athletes to jump down from the box, period. Too many knee injuries. That is a lot of impact stress. He does use box jumps, but only up to about 20 inches. He does a lot of weighted sled work for explosive power. Jumping and fast sprint starts are largely about strength.</p>
<p>Other trainers have said, particularly with teen athletes, that they just waste too much time with kids who have slammed their shins into the box and cut/bloodied themselves. Just not worth it. In any case, I don’t think it’s a good exercise for high reps. The whole idea (build explosive power) is kind of negated by trying to do reps to the point of exhaustion.</p>
<p>For us old geezers, the whole jumping thing is pretty tough on knees. I’m working on it with jump squats, hang cleans, and so forth.</p>
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</p>
<p>It appears to be. No signs of it this morning.</p>
<p>I am, however, sticking to my plan to just do upright intervals this week. Airdyne today. The vertigo was a good excuse to lay off of the weightlifting for a week and let some little aches and pains recover.</p>
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<p>I use box jumps quite often in my workouts. 20-24" box somewhere in the 5-15 rep range for each set. Sometimes I jump back down; other times I don’t.</p>
<p>I went into a closet and dug out some old jeans that my wife told me about. There was one 34, two 32s and one or two 31s. I had been thinking about buying a 34 just to try out. The 36 is now just a bit big. I managed to get the 34 on and the cotton was very soft and comfortable. I suspect that it will be comfortable for regular use in about three weeks.</p>
<p>I don’t think that I’ll be putting on the 31s or 32s anytime soon.</p>
<p>Workout today was a 7.5 mile run.</p>
<p>I wanted to hit some tennis balls this evening but couldn’t find anyone to hit with. I want to try out the new, arm-friendly racquet.</p>
<p>IDad- Glad the vertigo is gone. </p>
<p>Went out for 4 miles this am and it started raining. Warm, but rainy. I cut it back to 2 and die 3 after work. Trying to build up mileage and it’s tiring. Doing my butt exercises, too. Skipping yoga this week for several reasons- I would rather be outside, I’m tired from the other stuff and I don’t want to pay. I just need a week or so off.</p>
<p>Crazy lady, when YOU think you need a week or so off - you MUST need a week or so off.</p>