<p>Sorry about the bug sting, MOWC. I seem to regularly inhale bugs on my bike rides. I had a bee get caught in my hair while running once and sting me in the scalp. It hurt and made me quite jittery to the point that I felt like I couldn’t complete the run and called for a ride. The next few days the swelling migrated down my forehead, removing the appearance of any fine wrinkles on forehead and between my brows, without looking obviously swollen. I felt like I had discoverd “natural botox” :eek:</p>
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<p>Still too much weight. Unless you’re using ankle weights, there is zero need to put the stress on the knee that knee extensions do. Much better off with squats.</p>
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<p>great suggestions, idad, I think this is what I will propose.</p>
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<p>No.</p>
<p>When I have knee problems, I can’t do squats. I can’t do leg lunges safely either as one or the other knee may give out. On a leg extension machine, at worst, you’d just let the bar drop.</p>
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<p>The only thing I would do differently exercise-wise would be that I wish I had gotten the suspension straps (or some other option) earlier and started working on inverted rows moving towards band assisted chin ups sooner. The Smith machine in the gym would be great for this. Same principle as the pushup – make it as hard or easy as you want by adjusting the angle. The chin up is not the end all and be all, but that pulling works a lot of good stuff and is hard to do any other way.</p>
<p>BTW, I find that plank on the forearms is harder than plank in the upper pushup position. It’s the same angle deal. On the forearms, the angle is closer to parallel and more difficult. Plank in the pushup position may be more tiring on the shoulders, but it’s easier on the core (at least for me).</p>
<p>Don’t sell yourself short on the pushups. Going from the fourth step to the second step is major progress. That’s really all that matters.</p>
<p>BC:</p>
<p>On squats and knee injuries, check these two videos out:</p>
<p>The first is Mike Boyle’s standard “return to play” test for athletes after ACL surgery. The notes for the video:</p>
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<p>[YouTube</a> - 1 Leg Squat- Static/ Unsupported](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWeXisjUnBs&feature=player_detailpage]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWeXisjUnBs&feature=player_detailpage)</p>
<p>The second is a female high school sophmore athlete at Boyle’s, 8 months after ACL reconstruction surgery;</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - mbscvideo’s Channel](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/user/mbscvideo#p/a/u/2/A7ucL0xg-LQ]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/user/mbscvideo#p/a/u/2/A7ucL0xg-LQ)</p>
<p>Blows my mind. I can’t do this squat and, intutively, it doesn’t seem to be the ticket for strengthening a bum knee. But, apparently, this single leg stuff is the cat’s meow when it comes to athletes and knee rehab because it requires (and improves) functional control of the knee in all planes of motion.</p>
<p>Idad, if I want to try the new rules of weight lifting workouts, which book should I start with? Is the ab one a good place to start? I’m not starting from zero, I’ve been doing some weights & core workouts pretty consistently but I need some new things to do and don’t want to pay a trainer.</p>
<p>ACL problem is not the same as Chondromalacia. Chondromalacia is a far more common injury.</p>
<p>Those exercises make me wince. I do 30-60 pounds on leg-lifts so that’s 15-30 pounds per leg. She’s putting about 85% of her body weight on one leg in addition to the hand weights. For me that would be 160 pounds without weights vs up to 30 pounds on the leg extension machine.</p>
<p>The leg extension machine also allows you to exercise the left and right muscles above the kneecap independently. You can also just do a static hold - you don’t have to lift it up and let it down repeatedly.</p>
<p>Okay, idad, I think you have a found a sponsor – NRFL4A. It’s like you have become their new spokesperson – they should be sending you some “ab swag” for your efforts. Alternatively, you could go into NRFL4A cyber coaching 
I definitely will be refering to your posts when I put together my training schedule.</p>
<p>Squats get a bad rap for being bad for your knees. Done correctly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. For a long time, people believed that doing squats led to ACL injuries. That, too, has been disproven. However doing knee extensions has been shown to increase torque and increase the amount of anterior translation of the tibia at the knee. Neither of those is good for the knee.</p>
<p>Also, a knee extension machine is not functional. Squats are. I only use knee extensions when rehabbing knee injuries, but that is using ankle weights (if any) and it is used to regain and retain knee ROM. As soon as I can, they are discontinued for better activities such as the squat using mini-squats, wall squats, TRX squats, TRX Single Leg Squats, and barbell squats.</p>
<p>I was traveling for work for a few days and have missed a huge amount of posts from you guys.</p>
<p>Chintzy, AWESOME pictures! Congratulations!!</p>
<p>MOWC: I agree with those who said that your “before” picture looks like a lot of other people’s “after” pictures. But the dog is the best of all. </p>
<p>I foolishly didn’t bring my workout gear on my business trip. What WAS I thinking? Wound up doing a few things in my room but it just wasn’t the same.</p>
<p>And a three-hour flight delay didn’t help. Glad to be home and ready to work out tomorrow.</p>
<p>BTW: It is impossible to find fruit while traveling.</p>
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<p>Yes. The ABS version is really the only one to even consider buying at this point. The original New Rules of Lifting and New Rules of Lifting for Women are fairly old books at now and Cosgrove considers parts of the workouts obsolete. The authors basically suggest that, if you are doing one of the older programs, you should substitute the new core stuff. It is also the most general fitness oriented. The older books are a bit more weight lifting oriented without the very strong dynamic warmup and core workouts – the stuff that most of us need desperately.</p>
<p>The fourth book in the series, probably scheduled for New Year’s release (to hit the New Year’s resolution market) is going to be New Rules of Lifting for old injured people!</p>
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<p>Did they include you while writing this book? Looked to you for ideas? :)</p>
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<p>I hear ya. When I started working out, I had a gimpy right knee and I was so fearful of it buckling that I wouldn’t squat down to look at the bottom shelf of the fridge. I was scared to death to do lunges.</p>
<p>What I have since discovered is that there was nothing wrong with my knee. I simply lacked the ankle flexibiity, hip flexibility, and strength to control the knee (it’s the leg with the oft-sprained ankle). The reason that knee hurt walking up hills is that I couldn’t bend my ankle enough. The failure to bend my ankle put stress on the knee. As I have slowly made progress, the knee issues have gone away. I can squat quite deeply with no knee instability or pain at all. Hip mobility and strength is huge when it comes to knee pain.</p>
<p>Now, I’m certainly not suggesting to start out with that single-leg squat. That’s the final destination.</p>
<p>Here’s an article that will take some time to wade through, especially deciphering the terminology. It’s an article Mike Boyle wrote on Chondromalacia, Patella Tendonitis, and Patella-Femoral Syndrome</p>
<p>[Anterior</a> Knee Pain - Pain Site versus Pain Source](<a href=“http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1531.cfm?sd=51]Anterior”>http://www.strengthcoach.com/public/1531.cfm?sd=51)</p>
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<p>The article goes into great depth, including exercise videos, on the training protocol they use at Boyle’s for athletes with Chondromalacia pain. The key is to develop the entire leg to provide true stability to the bending (eccentric motion) of the knee – in all planes. The leg extensions only work in one plane, but to truly stabilize the knee, the hip and ankle must also be able to control lateral forces. That’s why that single leg squat is the ultimate test. The single leg must be able to stabilize the body up and down, left to right, and front to back. The poor single leg balance I’m working on is a related issue.</p>
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<p>No, but I’ll sure be in line to buy a copy and do the workouts. </p>
<p>These programs are bargains at $10 or $15 or whatever they cost. I mean $15 for a three month Alwyn Cosgrove workout program is a pretty good deal. If you did nothing but the core workouts from the book, you’d get $15 worth. There isn’t a lot of downside. </p>
<p>I paid $40 a month for a couple months at Body By Boyle Online to get copies of his three month fat loss/general fitness workout programs. I paid $99 and $149 for the two ipod nazi programs. Really, the only other option is a personal trainer, which is big money and not really well-suited to those of us who would rather workout at home or on our own. Plus, most of them aren’t as smart as Alwyn Cosgrove. There are some really, really bad training programs out there, especially for us older folk where injury is a real issue. What’s a Jillian Michael’s DVD cost? :)</p>
<p>This is apparently a new Stuart McGill hip stabilization exercise for people with low back pain triggered by hip issues:</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Hip Airplane](<a href=“Hip Airplane - YouTube”>Hip Airplane - YouTube)</p>
<p>I just tried it and this is a lot harder than it looks. I can sort of halfway do it a little bit on my good side. Hopeless on my bad side. This is gonna take some work.</p>
<p>Another version:</p>
<p><a href=“McGill's Hip Airplane - YouTube”>McGill's Hip Airplane - YouTube;
<p>And Another:</p>
<p><a href=“Hip Airplane - YouTube”>Hip Airplane - YouTube;
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<p>I often sleep on the floor. When I get up off the floor without using
my arms, you can hear the grinding in my knee.</p>
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<p>I’m a tennis player. I ran just as hard at 245 as I do now at 190.
That’s forward, backwards, left, right, rotate left, rotate right.
The stresses on ankles in tennis is extreme. But my ankles have
always held up except for two sprains. One was due to slipping on
ice. I don’t recall what caused the other.</p>
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<p>One of the cool things about tennis is that you stretch your hips and
use your hip muscles when you hit forehands, backhand and serves. The
serve provides for an extreme stretch and then you use your muscles
to rapidly rotate your body to uncoil your body to accelerate your
racquet to 100 MPH.</p>
<p>In a good serve, your hip moves about nine inches in front of your foot
laterally. That provides a pretty good stretch. Your right shoulder
bends back and then you use your legs, hips and shoulders to launch
and uncoil the body. Too bad it’s asymmetrical.</p>
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<p>[YouTube</a> - Three Styles of Tennis Service Rhythms](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyR7NNeXiJc&NR=1&feature=fvwp]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyR7NNeXiJc&NR=1&feature=fvwp)</p>
<p>Henin has the largest hip-forward motion of the bunch. I think that
Nadal is next followed by the girl after Federer. Then take a look
at the feet and ankles and consider the stresses on the ankles in a
serve as you lean back, coil and use your feet, ankles and toes to
launch yourself into the air and then land one one foot.</p>
<p>BTW, Nadal is wearing patella straps on both knees. He has access to
the best care and training in the world. Last year he crashed and
burned in the French Open but his knees were good enough for him to
play at Flushing Meadows where he didn’t win. He has been playing well
though - it appears to me that he’s done two things to decrease knee
problems: he doesn’t play as many tournaments and he lost weight. That
seems to be working for him.</p>
<p>Djokovich, the current Wimbledon champion and world’s #1 player has
worn a patella strap for most of the year. I assume that he has access
to the best care and training in the world too. You’d never know that
he has an injury (or maybe it’s preventive) by how well he moves and
plays.</p>
<p>I don’t think that either of these guys is lacking in the hip mobility
and strength department.</p>
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<p>Actually three.</p>
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<p>65% of tennis is lateral movement. Tennis players typically have
very strong abductors and adductors. They typically have a bunch
of other strong core muscles. I took a tennis friend into the
weight machine area and showed him the rotary torso machine and
maxed it out. He got on and did the entire stack too. He had never
done the exercise before and he doesn’t lift weights at all but
he naturally works the obliques through tennis.</p>
<p>I have overall felt considerably better after using the set of weight
machines that I mentioned earlier for the last couple of weeks. I
don’t get particularly intense with any of the machines. It could
also be moving up to playing tennis twice a week instead of once a
week and playing with a bit more variety in opponents.</p>
<p>My feeling on the knees is that they will get considerably better
with weight loss. That’s the ultimate solution. But I’ll keep up
with the leg extensions in the meantime for short-term recovery.</p>
<p>Thanks idad, I’m glad I asked before buying. Hopefully I won’t end up needing that 4th book.</p>
<p>I loved seeing all the pictures you guys posted. Chintzy, what a transformation!</p>
<p>Hello! I am an avid fitness/diet person, and have been following this thread with interest. In pretty good shape, and try to vary my exercise routines</p>
<p>I have found as I have gotten older that I have had to scale back some of the more dangerous/intense activities that I did over the years (horseback riding, martial arts). I walk, swim, do yoga and exercise almost every day of the week, though, including hot yoga. Also interested in the mind/body connection and mindfullness and meditation.</p>
<p>I agree mostly about the lo carb /paleo approach; but what I find equally important, when consuming meat or dairy, is to try and buy meat/dairy/fish raised humanly. This to me is important from a health perspective (e.g. ratio of Omegas in cattle; animals eating what they are supposed to eat in nature)humane perspective (factory farms are awful - would rather eat small amount of beef raised on grass, their natural diet, and slaughtered humanely, even if I eat less of it), and “green” wise - the support of local, sustainable agriculture, small family farms, that are in competition with BIG CORN and giant corporations.</p>
<p>I do not fanatically try to elimate all “treats” though; I find if I never have a small donut or piece of cake or ice cream, or white bread, I find myself craving them. Moderation and small amounts are what works for me. What you resist, persists, for me at least.</p>
<p>I am not that interested in tracking what I eat/exercise/weigh - I try to go with how I feel on any given day and activities I like.</p>
<p>Glad to join the conversation!</p>
<p>Always good to have another expert in fitness areas.</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re already in pretty good shape. I had a great deal of weight to use so I tried to maximize weight loss using all available tools that I thought would work. These days I feel far less pressure to lose weight because I feel (and look) a lot better. I still have weight to lose but can relax a little on splurges from time to time. But I’m the type that could eat the same thing every day for a year.</p>
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<p>Speaking of food, I picked up three packets of tempeh at Trader Joes. I was in on Wednesday to pick some up but they were out of it. They told me that a shipment would arrive on Friday morning. I was wondering if it’s really popular and they run out or if it is really unpopular and they don’t stock much.</p>
<p>The calorie breakdown is 26% carbs, 41% fat, 33% protein.</p>
<p>Calories: 240
Fat: 11 grams
Chol: 0
Sodium: 10
Carbs 16 grams
Fiber: 9 grams
Protein: 20 grams
Sugar: 0 grams</p>
<p>Ingredients are soybeans, brown rice, barley and millet. I’m going to ask my wife to make me a packet. She made some Chicken Rice last night which means she also made an asian Chicken Rice hot sauce (it’s orange-colored; not as hot as Chinese mustard but it’s stronger than typical Western stuff). It’s fairly inexpensive too. It is possible that this replaces Tofu or that we go with one day of Tofu and one day of Tempeh a week. Tempeh has advantages in that it is compact, easy to store and has a ton of fiber. The disadvantage is that you have to soak it for a while before cooking.</p>