<p>BTW, weight is still stable at 182 despite the chocolate binge.</p>
<p>Well, I’ve had my little fling with Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and Butterfingers. They are gone. And, that’s that. The leftover Blow Pops and M&Ms in the halloween bowl are not callin’ my name. I think the key is to move on.</p>
<p>A little sore this morning. Not sure if it’s the sawing tree limbs or the heavy (for me) deadlifts Monday afternoon. Maybe a little of both.</p>
<p>BC: Have you got power yet? Electricity is a wonderful thing…</p>
<p>We have power in our home but no internet. The kids have power and internet at their apartment. I told my wife that she could go down to the apartment if she wanted internet or use the 3G iPad at home.</p>
<p>We got power back early for our town. About 60% don’t have power. PSNH said that 99% should have power by Friday night. That’s the way it is for most towns up here. Fairpoint has no estimates on when they will be back up. This means that I have to drive into the office to work which is a real pain. I could camp out at McDonalds but then I’d have a Big Mac binge attack.</p>
<p>shaw – we’re also off Mass Ave., about half way between Harvard & Porter Squares. Very convenient – but apparently not much for trick or treating. Oh well – everything got shipped out to S & D yesterday.</p>
<p>My new gym has more different types of cardio machines than other places I’ve been to – more ways to torture me! I was sweating like crazy this morning.</p>
<p>Sounds like a wonderful location.</p>
<p>Maybe you can describe the cardio machines sometime. I like to hear about what is out there.</p>
<p>Did my time on the dreadmill today. Was a sweaty mess! Moved to the weight machines and upped weight again. Did lats, triceps, shoulders, chest. Also did my pushups. Felt good.</p>
I walked to the gym yesterday but only managed 10 min on the rowing machine & 3miles on the upright bike before my knee gave up.
Did the leg press & other machines for legs but am going to meet with a trainer ASAP so that I don’t make things worse, I don’t want to go backwards.
I did stretch out for 20 minutes which felt great & got my blood going enough that even though I walked home with wet hair, I wasn’t cold.
<p>4 miles, 9:17 pace. Best pace at that distance in most likely a decade. Must be all of those chocolates. Also, Smith Machine, Free Weights and Abs Dolly+. Having power and a day of nice weather helps.</p>
<p>emeraldkitty:</p>
<p>Knee pain can be frequently improved by strengthening the hips and ankles. A good place to start would be doing this one every day or every other day.</p>
<p>[Quadruped</a> Hip Extension on Elbows - YouTube](<a href=“Quadruped Hip Extension on Elbows - YouTube”>Quadruped Hip Extension on Elbows - YouTube)</p>
<p>Mini band walks (with the band around your ankles or just above the knees) are also fantastic for strengthening the hips:</p>
<p>[Lateral</a> mini band walk - YouTube](<a href=“Lateral mini band walk - YouTube”>Lateral mini band walk - YouTube)
[Mini</a> Band Work - YouTube](<a href=“Mini Band Work - YouTube”>Mini Band Work - YouTube)</p>
<p>The other exercises that will really help are bodyweight squats and split squats. If they hurt your knees at all, then you can make them less than body weight by hanging onto resistance bands or a cable weight handles from overhead to provide assistance and make the exercise effectively less than bodyweight. This is how they get people recovering from ACL surgery squatting at first. The problem with the leg press and leg extension machines is that they isolate the knee when the underlying issue is often a failure to completely engage the hips and butt muscles (glutes) in leg exercises. For the same reason, the bike is probably better than the rowing machine for cardio if you are experiencing knee pain.</p>
<p>Here is a highly technical article on anterior or frontal knee pain. I had to read it with a dictionary, but it’s worth its weight in gold for knee pain if you can wade through the physical therapy jargon. Lots of videos to see the various exercises:</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>
<p>thanks for all the links interested dad!</p>
<p>Oh,no! Just bent over to pick something up from the floor and pulled something in my low back. Seriously hurts! :(</p>
<p>NMINN:</p>
<p>ARGHH! Hopefully, it will just be a one-night aggravation. </p>
<p>That’s how it always happens. Stuart McGill says that people never tweak their backs when they are picking up something heavy – because then they are braced. It’s always when they are just tying their shoes or something and haven’t braced their core because it’s just so routine.</p>
<p>OK, just realized the first part of my previous post (#13144) was supposed to go on another thread! And I was just on that thread wondering why my post wasn’t there … As I keep telling D – “Don’t get old; your brain doesn’t always work the way you want it to!”</p>
<p>NM – hope it’s not serious.</p>
<p>Been without power for three days–utility predicts we might get it back by Thursday. My H is traveling for work (he lucked out) and I have been staying with friends who have a generator. It is amazing how miserable one can be without power. I spent the first night alone in the cold and decided that was a stupid idea. We have quite a few trees that were split in half because the snow was so heavy–don’t want to think about replacing them. Figured Id be prepared for this happening again and I’m calling around to find contractors to install a generator. This is the second time in three years that my part of MA has had storms that knocked out power for days and brought down lots of trees. Didn’t have to deal with Halloween candy yet; our town postponed Trick or Treat until Sat.</p>
<p>CBB – your post made perfect sense to me :)</p>
<p>New Rules of Lifting For Abs for me tonight. Cranking through Phase II.</p>
<p>Tough workout. I feel like I’m pretty solid with all the exercises now and they aren’t killing me like they did the first time through this program, but I’m using enough weight that I’m getting a heck of workout. Step ups to a 14 inch step with 70 lbs of DBs in my hands, eight reps per leg definitely gets me breathing hard. That one alternates with sets of single arm DB push presses, which is also a full body exercise.</p>
<p>This workout has mixed grip chinups, one hand facing in the other facing out. I’ve been doing these with a little bit of band assistance, but I decided it was time to do some unassisted chinups again. So I cranked out the first four reps in each of two sets unassisted, then went to the band for the final four reps. Fantastic. It’s been probably six weeks since I’ve done unassisted chinups and I’m definitely making progress. This geezer fitness stuff is really favors the tortoise approach, I think. Just keep chipping away at it.</p>
<p>After the workout, I threw in a bonus set of five single leg squats to a 17 inch box on each leg.</p>
<p>Bromfield:</p>
<p>I feel your pain. 24 hours without heat and electricity was gracious plenty for me. Here’s hoping you get power tomorrow!</p>
<p>4 miles after work. Got dark on the path before I finished and I could barely see. Time for a light. The job is going to require a lot of adjusting. I didn’t run screaming from the building. Let’s leave it at that. PAYCHECK.</p>
<p>Paycheck is good. That’s what I’ve been telling myself when I joined a company that was even less conventional than a typical small biotech. I used Bob Sutton’s advice, “Swim with your feet forward”. </p>
<p>I still feel horrible and somewhat depressed (even my retail therapy did not help!) and was not in the mood to run tonight. It is rainy, dark, and DH is gone to yet another meeting. Will simply do some weights and idad’s favorites after dinner.</p>
<p>I think everyone in struggling a bit with the exercise routine. The weather, no heat, and other stuff has kept me from getting an interval session in for the last week. Instead, my extra workouts have been “fun” stuff like pushing the snowblower or sawing up fallen tree limbs. I’m going to aim for Airdyne intervals tomorrow. Or maybe burpees and swings, but I’m probably borderline too sore for that.</p>