<p>Wow - this thread is such a treasure trove of great insights. I really appreciate the suggestions on managing a problem shoulder.</p>
<p>One important shoulder tip that everyone needs to work on is “packing” the shouders. Bascially, for virtually all exercises (including pushups, chinups, etc.), the shoulders should not be shrugged. They should be consiciously pulled down and back. As bodyrocker Zuzanna says, “get your shoulders away from your ears…” This is the key to engaging the large muscles of the upper back. It’s one of those things where, if you consciously do it for a while it becomes second nature – kind of like bracing the abs/core. It’s really important for overhead stuff like chinups.</p>
<p>I’m headed out the door to the airport, but remind me next week when I get back and I’ll track down an awesome YouTube video that walks through a great drill.</p>
<p>^^ That’s true even for biking/spin class. The tendency is to lift the shoulders. My great spin teacher (well, until he went to the federal pen) in Dallas had a mantra that he would repeat “Abs in tight, shoulders relaxed, light grip on the bars…” I would always notice that my shoulders were up around my ears!</p>
lol:
I was into spinning before our move a year ago. My fav spin instructor was also quite the flamboyant personality. Let’s just say he never really stopped spinning . . . I miss him.
<p>Ditto on the shrugged shoulders. I must do this whenever I am exerting myself in any way. Every trainer, tennis coach etc. I have ever had has remarked on this. I still find it hard to remember.</p>
<p>Sad to add to this list of instructors ending up in the big house. I had a favorite cardio dance instructor who suddenly was no longer teaching on the “outside”.</p>
<p>95 minutes of tennis, 3 sets, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2. Opponent was visibly upset from time to time. I think that he was feeling pretty frustrated. He has improved his game from the last time we played and I think that he expected to do better. When we play, we both later evaluate our performance and figure out what we can do the next time to reduce our own mistakes and try tactics that will exploit the other’s weaknesses. The problem is that I lost about five pounds since the last time we played and I’ve been amping up the speed on my runs (recall that I said that increasing distance has been hard). The speed and distance work are producing enormous dividends on the tennis court. It is very, very frustrating to hit excellent shot combinations and watch the other player return them all back.</p>
<p>I was winning a lot of matches when this guy bought a bigger racquet. The bigger racquet allowed him to get balls back that he could just barely reach. It’s pretty annoying to think you hit a winner and then it comes back floating deep in your court and you have to start over again. My response was to get a bigger racquet too.</p>
<p>I have no doubt that he will tweak his game to add pressure next week. It’s just nice to feel in solid control of a match (alas, it doesn’t last long as opponents aren’t static).</p>
<p>Ran 2 miles this evening, 9:18 pace. Another 2.25 tomorrow and I have 20 for the week. I didn’t get any calls for tennis tomorrow so a few miles should be pretty easy.</p>
Sounds like a very satisfying match (for you ;)), BC.
I would love to be able to play at the level you do.
Just a cardio dance class today, same routines as Wed. but everything felt a little harder today because of yesterday’s workout.
Everybody’s running is making me really miss it. I might try to get a run in or at least a treadmill workout in tomorrow, especially since this month’s challenge for the gym workout is 3 minute sprints at the end. Now, I am actually surprisingly fast on a sprint – problem is it can’t last for more than 30 seconds, then surprisingly fast rapidly deteriorates to not.fast.at.all 
I think I might work on 3 minute intervals.
<p>The shrugged shoulders thing is something I need to become more aware of in everyday life. I’m pretty aware while exercising, but I think I ought to put a post-it in the car that just says, “Shoulders” and another on my desktop – maybe a thumbnail of a shoulder that I can put over where browsers and windows don’t generally obscure.</p>
<p>Well, I went ahead and signed up for a 10k in early March. I want to give myself plenty of time to prepare :).</p>
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<p>One very simple measure of progress is to measure your waistline at navel level. It should be less than half your height. Very lean people may get down to around 42% of their height.</p>
<p>^^Probably does not apply to ladies. :)</p>
One thing to be careful of with the “shrugged shoulders” posture is that for some folks it leads to sway back, ie, extending forward in the lower back – a very dangerous posture for anything involving impact.
Have a little background in spinal alignment from many years of ballet. You don’t want to pull your shoulders back. You want to align vertically, up and down, as straight as possible. And be very conscious that when you try to correct at one point in the spine it can pop out in a bad direction elsewhere.
<p>I’m about 44% by that measure. I was 40% by that measure in my 20s. There are bodyfat calculators on the web based on weight, height and waist but I imagine that they break down at the extremes.</p>
<p>We have people in the office that are extremely skinny - typically immigrants from China or India. They aren’t necessarily fit either. I would guess that relatively simple formulas wouldn’t work on them.</p>
<p>8.2 hilly miles. Felt tough, but I did it. Then I went to the Secret Santa drunk (I mean brunch) with my neighbor ladies. Made sure I rehydrated with Diet Coke before I hit the Mimosas and egg casserole. It was fun and we got to wear PJs to the brunch.</p>
<p>I got my 2.25 miles in (9:08 pace) and got my home weights workout done. I haven’t done a free-weight workout in quite some time so it’s nice to just get one done. The other thing I haven’t done in about ten days is a stretching routine.</p>
<p>I got invited to doubles tomorrow so I’ll try to squeeze in a few miles afterwards.</p>
<p>Waiting to hear from Idad on his Mall walk.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know who had the bright idea to lap the Mall. Sheesh, my legs are killing me. We started at the National Air & Space Museum, walked to the Washington Monument, then walked a lap of the tidal basin taking in the Jefferson and FDR memorials. Then the new MLK monument (made in China), the Korean War memorial, the Lincoln Memorial (where my daughter took a video of her ol’ (formerly) fat dad doing five burpees!</p>
<p>Then, the VietNam memorial, the WWII memorial, the Declaration of Independence signers, the White House christmas tree, and a martini on the rocks on the top floor deck of the W Hotel. Finally over to Bobby Flay’s Burger Palace for dinner. About 6.9 miles when I lost sat reception.</p>
<p>That was enough, but we then went to a crazy ladies arm wresling event on capitol hill, where we stood for 2.5 hours. Yeow, my dogs are barkin’!</p>
<p>Beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. Upper 40s, maybe 50 degrees. Pretty nice walking weather.</p>
<p>Idad, sounds like you had a wonderful way day. :)</p>
<p>I was planning on maybe going for a short run, but by the time I finished running the errands, it got dark and very cold. And my stupid knee was hurting! Arrggh. I went to see a specialist who checked the knee caffully, pulling and bending my legs in all sorts of weird ways. She does not think that I have a traumatic injury like a torn meniscus; it is likely that I hurt a tendon by jumping off that stupid wall… My overzealous attempts at running with a hurt knee aggravated the injury. I possibly have a bad case of tendinitis and maybe my IT band tightened up so much that it is pulling the knee cap out of its place. I was told to apply ice, eat lots of vitamin I, rest, and do a ton of stretches. Sigh. I did some of the recommended stretching for 2 days in a row, and now my entire lower body hurts!</p>
<p>iDad- sounds good. Did you say hi to Abe for me? I’m sure he enjoyed the burpees!</p>
<p>BB- I was about to ask about your knee. Is it really painful? My PT said it is easy to just tweak a knee a little and get some cartilage caught. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt until after a couple of miles. I hope yours will settle down with the Vit I and stretching.</p>
<p>That sounds like trips that we used to take with our kids in big cities though we’d usually break them up with a rest period in between. There was a lot of stroller time in there. You had much nicer weather than we had back up here in New England too.</p>
<p>Is vitamin I, Ibuprofen?</p>
Yes, I said hello to Abe. It was easy walking, but many many more hours on my feet than I am used to. I was toast.
Off this morning to the Air and Space Museum, which we didn’t do yesterday. Then on to Reagan National to pick up a rental car and drive to Baltimore. We have dinner reservations at a place called City Cafe that looks pretty good. Probably crab cakes, we’ll see if I have the willpower to substitute something for the side of lobster mac 'n cheese. Maybe the roasted brussel sprouts. Or not…
Ryan Adams concert after dinner.