<p>^
So, just goes to show the huge differences in strength from one person to another and one exercise to another. I felt like the 135 pound barbell for the Romanian deadlifts was too easy. But I can’t do more than a dozen real pushups at a time and couldn’t do a single real unassisted pull up or chin up to save my life. I know that idad worked his way up to doing a bunch of pull ups, but I don’t know if I will ever be able to get to that point. I just don’t think I will have the upper body strength to body weight ratio.</p>
<p>No workout for me today. Got a mammogram instead. Not pleasant with sore pecs. Sorry for the TMI.</p>
<p>CJane:</p>
<p>Keep in mind that I don’t do barbell deadlifts at all. This was the first time I’ve touched the barbell in 8 months. And, I am super-cautious with exercises that are potential back-breakers. I wasn’t straining to lift the weight on the Romanian deadlifts at all. Just focusing on keeping really good solid form for 12 reps at a time. I actually liked the exercise this time around – although it’s not one that I would feel comfortable trying to really push the weight. I know that runs counter to weight-lifting orthodoxy, but trying to deadlift too much weight is a recipe for herniated disks. I don’t need that.</p>
<p>Idad, I have no doubt that you could do more on the deadlifts, if you wanted to. I was just remarking that although I feel I could do relatively “a lot” on them, it doesn’t translate into strength in other areas. I think there is a huge difference between being capable of doing a whole bunch of pull ups and not being able to even come close to doing a single one.</p>
<p>Like you, there are exercises where I deliberately do less than I am capable of, because I am being careful. Hamstring curls come to mind. But I am not being careful when it comes to pull ups or push ups – they are just too dang hard!</p>
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<p>We’ll see what my back has to say about that tomorrow morning!</p>
<p>BTW, I’m certainly no pull-up machine. I can grind out three, maybe four, but they are slow and well short of commanding! It took me over six months of patient work to do the first one. I’m kind of disappointed that I can only do nine of the band assisted pullups this week. I really thought that I could get the full 12. I guess I could throw a another band on the bar because I’m not getting a whole lot of assistance from one band, but I’ll probably just leave it alone. Maybe I’ll do six and six.</p>
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<p>I don’t ever recall you doing the barbell before. I thought that you used heavy dumbbells but I don’t remember you going over 100 pounds before. I guess there’s a limit of what you can do with dumbbells.</p>
<p>I’m not doing anything with a barbell for another week or two. The back feels quite a bit better today - oddly enough, it may be that playing tennis yesterday loosened or warmed things up. I also got a lot of rest (14 hours) last night. I might do a bit on the Smith Machine next week though.</p>
<p>I have frozen shoulder & fibromyalgia so these weight lifting stories are encouraging but discouraging at the same time.</p>
<p>Walking and working in my yard isn’t getting me to the level I want to be at- but I am really tired of whinging about how much everything hurts, so I signed myself up for a 6-week tai chi/qiqong program that is close by.
I tend to overdo things but I don’t think there is anyway I could hurt myself doing tai chi & it might get me moving again! ::::::::::::::crossing fingers:::::::::::::::</p>
<p>Yay, BCE.</p>
<p>Good start, emeraldkitty!</p>
<p>The 5K from hell met all my expectations. We got lost (as did many) trying to find it, the race director was laying out the course this MORNING and got totally lost on foot in a huge state park. The race had to start 40 minutes late. It wa so hot and humid. The timing system involved carrying a Popsicle stick with you and turning it in at the finish. It was a total debacle, but fortunately there were only 30 or so runners and people were pretty patient. My sister is president of the organization this race was a fundraiser for, and I told the “real” runners who accidentally happened across it what the situation was and that it was a first time event. </p>
<p>Blessedly, the course was short by 1/2 miile so was 2.6. I was glad. With Garmin, you still know what you ran and how you did. In the old days if a course was wrong it was a huge disaster because everyone would start arguing about the true distance because your pace depended on knowing that. I didn’t mind stopping.</p>
<p>Did win my age group (there were actually 2 other women in it) and my internet running group friend won 1st woman. Thanks to me insisting a couple of days ago when I got up here to PA, there were good prizes for us. Glad it’s over. I’m running poorly up here. I hope it’s just the weather.</p>
<p>^ wow 5K from hell, all right.
Reminds me of a St. Pats 5K I was all ready to run, had it all figured out, was going to be dropped off, no parking involved, only to sit in traffic due to utter disorganization and chaos and watch the runners go by.
I was so frustrated because I had spent some time getting ready to run the race and I had had a couple of “donation” situations in the past.
Congrats on winning your age category, that’s great no matter what.</p>
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<p>Back in January, I got a cheapo barbell to used with the standard dumbell weight plates. I used it a few times for overhead squats and romanian deadlifts, but all my weight plates gravitated back to dumbbell use, especially once I figured out how to do these suitcase DB deadlifts from two little short stools. Lately, I’ve been deadlifting two 60 pound DBs – four 10lb plates, two 5lb plates, and two 2.5 pound plates plus the bar (actually it’s 58.6 lbs to be precise). I’ve also been using those for 1-arm rows, too. I can go as high as eight 10 lb plates on each DB – about 90 lbs each. So, I haven’t run out of challenges yet! I think lifting DBs is harder than lifting barbells, because each arm has to handle the full weight – there’s no compensation. And, each arm has to stabiliize the weight in something like an overhead press. I think Boyle figures that you can generally handle about 80% of your barbell weight when pressing dumbbells.</p>
<p>I had to dig the barbell out for these overhead squats (although you can do a DB version, too), so I figured I’d slap more weight on it and do the romanian deadlifts with the barbell for a change of pace.</p>
<p>It’s a pain in the butt to constantly reconfigure back and forth from the DBs to the barbell, so I’ll probably leave the barbell set up for a few weeks. One NROL4A workout has overhead squats, the other has romanian deadlifts. So I just have to take plates on or off the barbell for each workout. Plus, there’s a limit to how heavy I can safely go with a barbell and no spotter. It’s easier to dump DBs on the floor (doing a bench press, for example) than a barbell that is coming down across your neck if you have to dump it.</p>
<p>Have we discussed Tabata? I know we’ve discussed intervals, but I can’t remember if we talked about Tabata specifically. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I’ll leave the Tabata Protocol intervals to the young whipper-snappers. They are a little rich for my blood, even though they are a very popular Airdyne workout.</p>
<p>Tabata was a Japanese PhD who published one of the first research papers on interval training, back in 1996. He studied a protocol that Japanese Olympic athletes were using. Eight intervals on an exercise bike, 20 seconds as fast as they could go, with just 10 seconds of rest. His subjects were extremely fit college varsity athletes and many of them could not complete eight intervals. With negative rest intervals (shorter rest than work), these are absolutely brutal. In reality, the heart rate just pegs and then stays there for the duration. The results were spectacular gains in both anaerobic and aerobic conditioning, but most normal people cannot do Tabata intervals. </p>
<p>I think it was Alwyn Cosgrove who described them as trying to outrun a freight train on a bridge and then, at the last second, jumping to another bridge just before the train hits you, only to find out that there’s a faster train coming on the second bridge.</p>
<p>Most of us should start out with rest intervals maybe three times longer than work intervals, then progress to two to one, then maybe (if you are super fit) one to one. The best I can manage with 20 seconds pedalling is 40 seconds of rest (2:1). In terms of ratio, short work intervals require more rest than long intervals. For example, a 1:1 ratio is plenty with a 90 second work interval but, 10 seconds work/10 seconds rest would gas you instantly.</p>
<p>Spectacular New England afternoon, so I did the longer version of my hilly walk/jog in the park. 4.2 miles incorporating the extra loop across the two old stone bridges over the lily pond. Six 2 minute jogging intervals (three on dirt trails) plus a bonus sprint to my driveway at the end for a little ol’ (formerly) fat guy speed work (doncha know!).</p>
<p>Saw some high heart rates, but not as much panting like a dog as usual. I’m finally acclimating a bit to these two-minute jogs.</p>
<p>MoWC - at least the course wasn’t a half mile longer!</p>
<p>^^ God I know! I knew it was not going to be accurate, and I was SO glad when I realized it was going to be way short. My brother in law doesn’t race often and thought he had busted out an awesome 5K until I broke it to him that it was 1/2 mike short.</p>
<p>I discovered something last night when I couldn’t sleep (3 a.m…who knows why). Instead of tossing & turning, I did 15 minutes on the floor of stretching and leg lifts. (You know that nice tired feeling you get after doing leg work? Worked like a charm.)
Also had some milk so I wouldn’t be hungry. Zzzzzz…</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>^^^
OK, who is going to be the first to try 3am burpees? :)</p>
<p>^LOL you could hurt yourself. Then when the ambulance came at 3:15 a.m. you’d wake up the entire neighborhood.</p>
<p>Never a good time for burpees…</p>
<p>Just did a 40 minute cardio dance class today. Was going to do New Rules, but ended up having to drive what seemed like all day from one thing to another.</p>
<p>Dan John calls Tabatas as being the “Four Minutes of Weight Loss.” I love them! You’re soaked when you’re done.</p>