<p>Would it work better for your shoulder to do the elbow version- sort of make a triangle with your hands clasped? (iDad probably has a video of what I mean…)</p>
<p>Nike is launching a new product called NikeFuel - it measures your calories burned throughout the day in normal activities and tells you how far you are to your daily goal. It comes with software and social media interfaces so you can share your progress.</p>
<p>Sounds a bit nutty to me but I’m not exactly running with the hip youngsters.</p>
<p>The elbow version is pretty much the only plank I’ve ever done.</p>
<p>[Working</a> Your Core: How to Do the Plank - Health & Fitness - ModernMom - YouTube](<a href=“Working Your Core: How to Do the Plank - Health & Fitness - ModernMom - YouTube”>Working Your Core: How to Do the Plank - Health & Fitness - ModernMom - YouTube)</p>
<p>I’ve not heard of plank being particularly hard on the shoulders, but I’m lucky in that I’m one of the few guys my age who doesn’t have shoulder issues. If it causes shoulder pain for days, then don’t do it!</p>
<p>I have been doing a different version lately that is kickng my butt. Start in the pushup position, lower yourself to the bottom of a push up (nose a couple inches from the floor), and hold there. I’m doing 45 seconds, just gutting it out for the final 15 seconds, and collapsing in a heap on the floor at the end.</p>
<p>sewhappy, when I’m doing planks, my core and not my shoulders do all of the work. Is it possible that you are doing something not exactly right? Maybe you H can look at your planks and tell what needs to be adjusted (my H always tells me if something that I’m doing does not look like the picture)… I looked at my coworker’s planks the other day; she had no idea that she was not doing them correctly and appreciated the advice that I and another gal gave her.</p>
Bunsen, I think you are getting close to the issue. The odd think is that the right shoulder is fine, the left shoulder hurts horribly and then freezes up.
I love the simplicity of the plank and would really like to incorporate it into my regimen but it seems to be off limits for me. Walking, running seem to tighten my abdomen fairly well but I would really like to address the core “core”.
<p>sewhappy, you can skip the planks (especially since you are probably not doing them right due to shoulder pain) for now and try other core exercises. I’m sure our fitness expert idad has a video or two of some nice ones. :)</p>
<p>5 miles on the dread… err, Precor, 8:35 pace. Felt fine, but the first mile was meh.</p>
<p>MOfWC, you can tell your son in law that he is wrong about compression socks. I love my pink compression socks!! I think I’m going to get myself another pair, in fluorescent green.</p>
<p>Ran/walked 4.88 miles in 48:32. If I can get up to 6.2 at a 10 min pace for my race I’ll be happy.</p>
<p>Bunsen, I looked at the good form running website that you posted, and I tried to work on that today. But how do you work on getting your glutes to be more involved in the process? I don’t really feel my glutes while running, so I assume they are not doing their share of the work :)</p>
<p>Hmmm… I agree with MOfWC that making the glutes work is hard. blankmind, I will have to look on the web if I can find anything that describes/demonstrates what the PT taught me. It is really hard to describe how to get yor butt moving without any pictures! I guess to start, you can try some of the glute strengthening exercises promoted here by idad!</p>
<p>BTW, fantastic run today, blankmind!</p>
<p>sewhappy:</p>
<p>Is this like a stabbing sharp pain in the shoulder while you are actually doing the exercise? Or, general muscle soreness that shows up afterwards?</p>
<p>If it’s a stabbing sharp pain, then I wouldn’t do any exercise that causes that as something is hurt and no point in making it worse.</p>
<p>If it’s muscle soreness that shows up later, then you might try just doing shorter durations and try to build up over time. In general, you want to consciously think about getting your shoulders “out of your ears”. No shrugging. Always pull the shoulders down and away from the ears when doing any exercise.</p>
<p>Airdyne intervals again today. I’ve been doing a steady diet of longer intervals, from 45 seconds to 3 minutes, both on the Airdyne and jogging. So, I decided to do some short intervals today. I did 3 six minute sets with a full heart-rate recovery between sets. Each set was six fast intervals, starting on the minute every minute.</p>
<p>1st set: 10 seconds fast / 50 seconds slow</p>
<p>2nd set: 15 seconds fast / 45 seconds slow</p>
<p>3rd set: 20 seconds fast/ 40 seconds slow</p>
<p>I didn’t see the same max heart rate as the other day (a max of just 93%), but these felt brutal. The graph shows how diabolical these short intervals are. Even though the total sprint time in each set is only 1 to 2 minutes out of the full 6 minutes, the heart rate keeps increasing basically like a 6 minute sprint. The rest is an illusion that only serves to let you go a little harder:</p>
<p>[the</a> graph](<a href=“http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/AirdyneIntervals10-15-201-19-2012.jpg]the”>http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/AirdyneIntervals10-15-201-19-2012.jpg)</p>
![http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/AirdyneIntervals10-15-201-19-2012.jpg]the](http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/AirdyneIntervals10-15-201-19-2012.jpg%5Dthe){kind=link}
<p>I was staggering off the bike at the end of this one. It was rough.</p>
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<p>The big problem is that I didn’t even know what it felt like to “activate” my glutes/butt muscles and I’m pretty sure that is probably true for almost everyone. I spent six months wasting my time with glute exercises because I didn’t even know what it felt like to fire the glutes, so I was using every workaround in the book, like giving myself hamstring cramps.</p>
<p>If I had it to do over, I would start with this exercise:</p>
<p>[Quadruped</a> Hip Extension on Elbows - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7MuyIawJdno]Quadruped”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7MuyIawJdno)</p>
<p>You can still cheat this exercise with your hamstrings, but it does the best job of anything I’ve tried of isolating the butt muscles. Everyone here who has tried this has had a sore butt the next day.</p>
<p>Runners are notorious for having poor glute activation. Running is highly focused on the quads (front of the thighs) and so repetitive that they come to totally dominate the action, resulting in even worse imbalance than most of us already have. The quads tend to bend the leg at the hip. The glutes provide the counter-balancing straightening force at the hip. An imbalance is a major contributor to knee pain. Strength and conditioning for runners should be glutes, glutes, and more glutes.</p>
<p>Running is also taking place in a single plane: movement forwards, with none to the sides. So runners need to do side to side stuff – like miniband monster walks and single leg exercises that force stability in the side to side plane.</p>
Here’s a video that does a terrific job of explaining the role of hip extension (glute power) in sprinting. I don’t have the endurance to keep this up for long, but I instantly started using my glutes to run after watching this. In fact, I came home after my first walk/jog and my glutes were ridiculously sore.
It also makes it easy to understand why the world’s best sprinters tend to be muscular as it’s all about using strong glutes to drive explosive power into the ground.
[Speed</a> Science - Marin Catholic Strength & Conditioning - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZheFawgP2E&feature=player_detailpage]Speed”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZheFawgP2E&feature=player_detailpage)
Anybody else notice we hit 1000 pages today? 
Been quite a ride; now onto the next 1000 pages 
<p>i-dad and bunsenburner bring up a good point – it’s entirely possible to exercise and work up a sweat and get your heart going, but not get the benefit for the area you wanted to exercise. </p>
<p>I made it to the gym last night (thanks guys!) and took a class – lower body conditioning – I felt muscles that never got a workout on the elliptical trainer.</p>
<p>Good to have this thread’s blessing on giving up the plank. It’s the sharp, stabbing type pain, btw. </p>
<p>I’m doing the treadmill of late. Cannot tolerate the cold air outside. Also, some yoga and a little bit of overheads on the hoist.</p>
<p>Down 3.0 lbs this week</p>
<p>Starting weight: 177.8</p>
<p>Current weight: 163</p>
<p>Total loss = 14.8 lbs</p>
<p>Set my goal weight to 125-130 so, about 35 more to lose. Can’t wait to be under 150. I have people telling me I look good. :). </p>
<p>Determined to get 60 min in when I wake up this afternoon. Am taking prometrium. (Natural progesterone) and it makes me feel kind of drunk and very sleepy.</p>
<p>sewhappy:</p>
<p>That is bizzarre that you can do overhead lifts without killing your shoulder, but planks hurt. I think overheads are usually what kills people with shoulder injuries. A lot of guys can’t even get their arms into an overhead position! Just goes to show how funny all these aches and pains can be.</p>
<p>I wonder if the overheads are hurting sewhappy’s shoulder even though there is no pain DURING them? </p>
<p>mspearl- WAY TO GO!!! You are making fantastic progress and I’m glad you are getting positive feedback since we can’t “see” you.</p>
<p>Daughter went to hot yoga yesterday for the first time in years. She had a morning off from her hospital chaplain job for “spiritual renewal” and she decided to renew herself spiritually in yoga. She was VERY nervous, since she remembered how hard it was and how I talk about it. She did great. It was hard, but she said “I thought it was easier than Sunstone (the Dallas studio).” I reminded her how much better shape she is in now!</p>
<p>Did a 3.7 mile run this morning. I get short days today and tomorrow and then daughter and I are trying the infamous “11.2” as it is called in our gorgeous, hilly park on Sunday. I’m sure we’ll have to do a little walking and plenty of catch-our-breath breaks, but this will be her first time on the 11.2, so we’re looking forward to it. Some of the elite older runners in town say they can’t run in the park too much because it just beats them down too much with the steep up and down hills, so I know I’ll be pretty beat after it. It’s been awhile since I’ve done it because my hamstring injury didn’t need it.</p>
I’m getting really sick of this frozen tundra around my house, but the even worse news is that the tundra will be rapidly melting this weekend. My treadmill will get a lot of action…
<p>Wow, hops! 1000 pages indeed. I thought it was just on my computer screen, but I guess page count must be screen-independent.</p>
<p>Great job everyone for hanging in there and making a lot of progress despite bad weather, sore body parts, etc.!</p>