<p>BTW, I solved my health problem that I attributed to low carbs - it was actually caused by caffeine and I’ve dropped coffee from my diet. I was browsing around for how much water you should drink per mile and ran into something on caffeine that explained what was happening.</p>
<p>Millions of Americans pop statins to keep their cholesterol levels down. But new research suggests that cholesterol-friendly foods, such as soy products and tree nuts, may also contribute to lowering LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol levels.</p>
<p>The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that people who ate a healthy diet filled with cholesterol-lowering foods experienced a 13 percent decrease in their LDL cholesterol levels. Those who followed a diet low in saturated fats experienced a 3 percent decrease.</p>
<p>The lead researcher on that study, David Jenkins, is big wheel in the vegan organization, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He does studies to promote vegan diets.</p>
<p>OK, third week of the final phase of iPod nazi core. This is theoretically the hardest week and I would say that it lived up to its billing. I was dripping sweat doing core exercises with light weights.</p>
<p>He had me doing two different exercises while staying in a squat position for 45 seconds. This one – a Pallof Press – pushing a DB straight out from the chest and back:</p>
<p>OMG. This is brutal. And I was only using a 10 lb dumbbell.</p>
<p>The other one is the same position, but curling and pressing the weight overhead while staying in a squat. I used a 15 pound DB and was dying. The isometric holds in the squat postion set the legs on fire.</p>
<p>New burpee variation. Frog jumps, with the knees coming up an out to the elbows.</p>
<p>Both knees at the same time or alternating? It sounds horrible. Why the need to make a burpee worse than it already is? To make you like the “original” one? </p>
<p>I am joking, of course, but I have yet to encounter anything with the word burpee in it that isn’t dang hard.</p>
<p>Both knees at the same time. Up and out as high as you can raise them. He offers alternating high knees as an option if the frog jumps are too much. </p>
<p>They weren’t as bad as I expected. Felt like really good hip activation. Had to go a little slower than regular burpees. But, 45 seconds of that, and I’m seriously gassed. Then, immediately into plank position birddogs (plank, extending one arm and the opposite leg off the ground, hold for 2 seconds, then the other arm/leg).</p>
<p>Here’s the full set. 45 seconds of each exercise, no rest. Then, one minute rest before the 2nd and 3rd sets:</p>
<p>Burpie Frog Jumps
Birddog Plank
Sumo Squat Curl to Press
Elevated Hip Thrusters
Sumo Squat w/ Pallof Press
Elevated Twisting Side Planks</p>
<p>The side planks are a conventional side plank with the top arm holding a DB straight up to the ceiling. Then, reach that arm and weight down and under the body until you have twisted into a plank, then back up to the ceiling. 45 seconds per side. iPod nazi was doing it on two chairs, but it’s just as effective on the floor.</p>
<p>Today’s 5k: Walk 5 min, run 7 min, walk 3, run 10, walk 3, run 5, walk 1:30, run 2:04, collapse. Total time 36:34. I think I do better with a rest day in between.</p>
<p>Made it out this morning for a 20 minute run, which felt good. It could have been longer, but hey – I got out, and got moving.</p>
<p>I’m sure this thread has dealt with this before, but how do you stay motivated to keep exercising? My goal isn’t weight loss, it’s more nebulous – to feel good and have more energy (instead of relying on Juan Valdez to get me through the day). I also have a job where I basically sit all day so I think it’s important to move around at some point (besides sprinting to the fax machine). Any thoughts are much appreciated.</p>
<p>I assume that you’re a younger person by your username.</p>
<p>Older folks frequently have a lot more problems related to weight and lack of fitness and the fifties are where you need to fix these problems because your joints may not allow you to fix them in your sixties. Older people may want more strength to deal with injuries - if you get injured, you often compensate with other parts of your body and then those parts too are prone to injury. If you have good, overall body strength, it may help you to avoid injury or it may help you to better recover.</p>
<p>OK, I’m going to ask this silly question because no one has addressed this.</p>
<p>(Whoa – a new topic on this thread??)</p>
<p>When I do planks, or when I do push ups with my feet on the stability ball, and I hold my core very straight for more than a second or two, my vertebrae sort of “pop.” I imagine (but I don’t know for sure) that the spaces between the vertebrae are lengthening. (That’s my hope, anyway, since I’m certainly not going to grow anymore.) It’s not painful – just a little pop.</p>
<p>Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know what this is?</p>
<p>I have other things that pop - wrists, ankles, shoulder, jaw but have never had it on the spinal column. I don’t associate popping with pain - just something slightly out of place.</p>
<p>A bit of hip soreness this morning and my schedule is crazy so I don’t have a workout planned for the day. I haven’t had a break day in a while. If things go well, I might be able to sneak a run or tennis in but my default will be weights at home and at the Y. My biggest problem is that I won’t be in the office today.</p>
<p>The plan for this morning is a bunch of neighborhood women are getting together to walk to Starbucks (about a mile and a half away.) Just fun cause our kids are older, some at college, and we don’t see each other at the bus stop in the morning anymore. It’s cool but threatening rain. <em>I</em> don’t mind getting wet but not sure about the others!</p>
<p>Classof 2015, I have the same issues with the motivation to exercise. I don’t need to lose weight and my job involves lots of walking, so technically I probably get the minimum dose of regular exercise. But I feel better if I do something more active, like running. I find that I need a goal to work towards to keep exercising. I signed up for a 5k race, and that thought helps me to go out and run on the many days that I could easily talk myself out of it.</p>
<p>What a fun way to get exercise! I have my little Marshall’s bargain $19 ultralight ripstop nylon rain jacket/hoodie that stuffs into one of its pockets into a little pouch that easy to carry in one hand. I just take it with me if it’s threatening rain. I added some 3M reflective tape, so I’m prepared even for an unexpected total eclipse of the sun! :)</p>
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<p>I don’t know what causes knuckles or joints to pop, but plank is going to tend to put the lower back into an arched position (extension, the opposite of a crunch) as gravity pulls the stomach down. Most of us end up losing that arch and hunching foward from years of sitting at desks and most bulging disk problems are caused by the forward curvature. So, a little arch could well feel good (and is typically the normal ideal posture), although some people with damaged discs feel instant pain from arching their backs.</p>
<p>iPod nazi (and others) emphasize not allowing your back to arch during planks. There’s a technique of rolling your hips under slightly to counteract. The inability to hold my spine neutral is when I know I’ve reached my limit on stabilty ball pushups and some of the other stuff I’ve been doing. I start to feel it in the lower back. It’s also the limit on pressing weights overhead as the tendency is to over-arch the lower back under load like that.</p>
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<p>I’m feeling it in my glutes and hips this morning, too. Second week in a row of my little DB deadlifts (lifing two DBs from 9 inch steps at my sides). I’ve gotten to the point where I can get down to the weights using all hip hinge and keeping my knees out of it (just slightly flexed). My hamstrings are totally stretched at the bottom, weight back on my heels, then I drive the hips foward to lift the weights (two 60 lb DBs). I’m definitely feeling it in the glutes the next day.</p>
<p>I have been, and continue to be, working on making fitness and exercise a regular part of my daily life. I guess the #1 trick that I use is a fixed schedule – “these” kinds of workouts on Mon, Wed, Fri and then “that” kind of workout on Tues and Thurs (and maybe Saturdays).</p>
<p>The second trick that I use is doing a fixed “official” workout programs, starting at the beginning and working through to the end over 12 to 16 weeks (or longer). I’m now finishing up the third one that I’ve done and will probably go back and repeat one with heavier weights.</p>
<p>The third trick that I use is keep workouts short and sweet. I don’t want workouts that are so long and grueling that I dread them.</p>
<p>The fourth trick is to find a way of logging or journaling your workouts (such as this forum thread) because the simple act of writing a little something about your workouts is a motivator. When I read about MOWC’s or BC’s or Hops Scout’s or NMINN’s or everyone elses workouts, it makes me more fired up to do mine for the day. This is really important because a lot of us don’t get that kind of reinforcement from friends and family – many of whom are often trying to avoid thinking they they “should” exercise.</p>
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<p>As for benefits, I can’t describe how great it feels to be a little stronger and more fit and more flexible (aside from the fat loss).</p>
<p>How do I stay motivated? Good question. I guess there are several things that keep me going. In our quest for DH to lose weight, I rapidly shed so much weight that I needed new clothes a few sizes smaller! Trying to assemble a new wardrobe quickly without breaking the budget is a major pain. No way I’m doing this again - I’m a bargain hunter. I guess the commercial featuring a young lady eating her yogurt snacks while walking past a teeny weeny polka dot bikini hanging on the wall has some truth to it.
When I run, I get motivated by trying to reach the next landmark or competing with my built-in Garmin dude. It does help that my running trail meanders through a scenic valley with a river that has ducks, eagles, Canada geese, etc. Some people sign up for a race and begin training for it, but I’m just the opposite: I found a training schedule and trained first to make sure that I would be able to run the distance without croaking, then entered a race.
Thirdly, coming here and reading about what everyone else is doing is very motivational.</p>
<p>I can never go by a “when I feel like it” lack of structure, because then, guess what?, there never seems to be a good time to exercise. If the exercise is a standing commitment, be it a class or as an appointment with a workout partner, there is no chance I will blow it off, otherwise much can seem to interfere. That’s why I almost always exercise first thing in the a.m. I admire those like BunsenBurner who do evening runs, because I find if I don’t get it out of the way first thing, there is a much higher chance that I don’t get around to it.</p>
<p>I have trained for races in the past and that is helpful as well, because there is a program to stick to. Again the no brainer approach – today is long run day – no ifs, ands or buts.</p>
<p>I am at the point where I am having to come up with a new structure for myself. The membership at my gym is up and they are no longer offering an attractive package for me. I have an alternative class that will be offering much the same elsewhere, but only twice a week and that doesn’t start until second week of September. I will plug in my cardio on other days, but will need to find some times to do weights. I believe I have a workout partner for New Rules for Lifting for Abs come September, as well.</p>
<p>Mean time I don’t feel like starting anything new, not sure I am motivated enought to do NRs or weights on my own and will gone most of next week (although I will be hiking and biking). Mainly I don’t want to lose my muscle/strength gains between now and second week of September.</p>
