Knees are still in bad shape today so it will probably be at least Tuesday before any running. Heading to the Y right now for weight machines and then free weights at home later on.
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<p>Oh, I could get 'em out to the car! I farmers walked two 30 pounders from the far back corner of a WalMart to the check out lane and then from the check out to my car. I will confess that my arms were on FIRE by the time I put them down in the trunk. I buy cat litter in the 25 pound boxes, always two at a time, so I’ve got a balanced load to carry out to the car.</p>
<p>I’m fixin’ to head down to the basement for a rare Saturday workout. I’ve got single leg squats penciled into a workout for the very first time, although I don’t expect to be very good at them. I’ll give it the ol’ college try. I got inspired by a terrific video on the single leg squat by Coach Dos Romedios, a coaching buddy of Alwyn Cosgrove out in Santa Clarita, CA.</p>
<p>[BID</a> VID - Single leg Squat Progressions - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RloOznlvZo]BID”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RloOznlvZo)</p>
<p>Seeing Keith Jarrett would be fantastic…I might try and go see him…</p>
<p>I am glad he was mentioned in this thread… I forgot he is coming to the bay area…</p>
<p>Well thanks for the tips and welcome
I already do have gym equipment at home , but I get a little bored with it. I am not really intimidated and my little town has three fitness facilities…one is a place like Curves …not my style. The next is an elitist facility that is way overpriced. I know the owner and not really impressed enough to pay twice as much as the place I joined. The last is the place I joined and I think it will suffice. I went there today and there was more of a crowd than I expected , but I didn’t have to wait for anything </p>
<p>I used to work in the fitness industry when my kids were little so I do know my around free weights and the cardio machines. I will have to get an appointment if I want to learn how to operate the Cybex machines. I might do that at some point but I have to take a trip in about 10 days ( which has me concerned about staying on track ) I already know that eating will be a challenge because 4 of the days I will be staying with my in-laws who eat terribly. I don’t want to offend , but I am going to get some produce and make my own food , again not easy in that country. I am trying to tell myself that 10 days will not derail my goals</p>
<p>Well that was an interesting workout:</p>
<p>WARMUP
Crossover walking toe touch
Overhead squat
Elbow pushups with walkout
Spiderman
Cook hip lift
Leg swings
Seated Thoracic rotation
Quadruped hip flexion
Ankle mobilty
Miniband monster walk
Miniband balance</p>
<p>CORE
Plank (feet elevated on 16 in bench)
Side plank (feet elevated bench)
Farmer’s walk (35lb + 40lb DBs overhead)
Resistance band anti-rotation hold (kneeling)</p>
<p>POWER
DB snatch
Med ball kneeling push pass</p>
<p>STRENGTH 1<br>
Single Leg Squat to bench (up & down to 18 in - bench plus Airex pad)
TRX inverted row</p>
<p>**STRENGTH 2 **<br>
Dumbbell step up (2 x 30 lb DBs up and down to 16 inch bench)
Feet elevated push up (bench)</p>
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<p>The farmers walks were brutal. I think I may have to scale back those weights just a little. It was not easy even getting them outstretch overhead. Planks with the feet elevated that high are tough. And I was sweating bullets to hold the resistance bands for 30 seconds. </p>
<p>Med ball was fun. Kneeling on Airex pad about four feet from wall, bouncing it off the wall and back fast. </p>
<p>I did the single leg squats! Just like the first easy version in the video. 8 lb med ball outstretched as a counter weight. Stand up from 18 inches sit back down. Six reps per leg. A little wobbly here and there, but not too bad. At least I’m on my way with this thing.</p>
<p>The step ups to the 16 inch bench with two 30lb DBs were brutal. That will get your heart seriously pounding. As long as I don’t have any knee issues with the tall step, I’m going to keep that in the regular rotation.</p>
<p>Pushups with my feet on the 16 inch bench were OK.</p>
<p>So, my Iron Chef Morimoto dish wasn’t exactly lo-cal or lo-carb (thanks to sugar in the white miso sauce), but it sure was good!</p>
<p>Here’s the recipe:</p>
<p>[Orange-Roasted</a> Seafood and Kunomoto Oysters with White Miso Sauce Recipe : : Food Network](<a href=“http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/orange-roasted-seafood-and-kunomoto-oysters-with-white-miso-sauce-recipe/index.html]Orange-Roasted”>http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/orange-roasted-seafood-and-kunomoto-oysters-with-white-miso-sauce-recipe/index.html)</p>
<p>I went to buy seafood with an open mind and ended up making it with crab meat, scallops, shrimp, and haddock – based on what looked good at the store. </p>
<p>I lack an Iron Chef’s plating skills, so I would recommend slicing the orange in half and using two halves for seafood and sauce. Not as grand as 2/3 rds of an orange stacked to the ceiling, but a lot easier to manage!</p>
<hr>
<p>Here’s the sauce recipe:</p>
<p>1 cup White Miso Paste
2 tbsp Mirin
4 tbsp White Sugar
Large Egg Yolk</p>
<hr>
<p>I added enough water to make this liquid enough to drizzle over the seafood and fill the orange halves. Without the water, it was too much of a thick paste. The other option I may try next time is to cut some of the sugar and use more Mirin, which is very sweet.</p>
<p>Anyway, big orange halves, filled with seafood and scallion, drizzled with this sauce, and baked in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Wow.</p>
<p>This sauce would probably be awesome on salmon, too.</p>
<hr>
<p>I used the scooped out orange in a matching salad with spring mix, toasted sesame seeds, and an orange sesame vinaigrette:</p>
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<p>2 tablespoons Orange juice
2 teaspoons Soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon Sesame oil
1/8 teaspoon Garlic – minced
1/8 teaspoon Fresh ginger – grated
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon Sugar
2 tablespoons Rice wine vinegar
4 tablespoons Olive oil
Salt to season
Fresh ground black pepper</p>
<p>^ sounds seriously good!</p>
<p>and well deserved after that workout.
Step ups are hard no matter what the weight. Are you doing 30b. in each hand? I can’t even imagine. I will do them with 15 lb. dumb bells, maybe 20 tops.</p>
<p>Also some brutal workload on the farmers walk. How far did you schlep those weights overhead?</p>
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</p>
<p>Yeah. I had been using those weights to a 10 inch step, but 16 inches is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Six reps per leg – basically just touching the back leg to the floor and back up – left me panting. It’s metabolically challenging, I think because it’s a pretty quick pace. I’ve come a long way. I tried a 14 inch step very early with iPod nazi and it killed my knees.</p>
<p>I don’t know on the farmers walks. Probably 30 feet in one direction, 30 feet back. Then, switch arms and do the same thing. I learned not to turn around quickly with those weights overhead. Every step has to be slow and deliberate.</p>
<p>PS: I’m feeling this workout tonight.</p>
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<p>You get the animal award tonight…</p>
<p>I did a 5-4-3-2-1 hang clean set today. Needed to do more, but just wasn’t feeling it…</p>
<p>Watching the finals of the Australian Open right now. This tournament sets the fashion tone for the rest of the year. The sausage casing look is out this year. Rafael Nadal is wearing a loose but not too loose shirt. Federer is wearing looser stuff too.</p>
<p>The match between Djokovic and Nadal looks absolutely brutal. They are both hitting very hard shots and moving extremely well.</p>
idad- step ups are a great exercise. I did them as part of my rotation of various leg exercises. I have calf trouble and every once in a while I would pop my calf doing them so I stay away from them now. I may give them a try again.
<p>12.5 miles on the beautiful Perkiomen and Schuylkill River paths. Carried a plastic water bottle to mile 3, drank some and left it. Finished it up on the way back. 30-34 degrees, sunny. Glad it’s done.</p>
<p>tom:</p>
<p>I did a lot of step-ups to a low step very early on when I was still a big ol’ fat guy. It was really of the few big leg muscle exercises I could do at first and only to a low step. Taller steps hurt my knee – in the same way that walking uphill can provoke knee pain. Most likely, that knee pain was caused by tight, weak hips and glutes because I no longer experience that at all.</p>
<p>As I understand it, lower steps tend to work the quads (front of the thigh) and tall steps tend to work the glutes (hip and butt), so I really needed the tall step for this to be an alternative to deadlifts or single leg deadlifts. </p>
<p>What I do is keep one leg on the bench and step down to the floor and back up with the other leg. The idea is to get no contribution from leg touching the floor – just graze the floor and not push off. I’m not quite that nimble with 60 pounds in my hands, so I put the back foot down, but really try not to push off with it.</p>
<p>Tight calf muscles? That sounds like it would be associated with, or even the cause of, ankle mobility limitations.</p>
<p>Weekly Marshalls scouting - about half of the stuff on clearance last week is now gone. There are no short-sleeve workout shirts in there, just coats, long-sleeve, hoodies, etc. They have more short-sleeve stuff in the regular activewear section and it isn’t really discounted (more than their usual discounts). I think that I have enough for now unless I need to start wearing size S as the Ms are feeling a bit loose.</p>
<p>There’s still tons of womens activewear for sale - odd that the guys stuff is selling but the womens stuff is sitting.</p>
<p>Did my home weight workout this morning and feel pretty good right now. Even the knee is feeling a little better. I took a little Advil last night and I think that helped.</p>
<p>Was all ready to do my 5 miler today.
Weather outside is disgusting, so the treadmill is was to be.
Unfortunately and stupidly, I ripped up the tops of multiple toes wearing a pair of fashionable, but heretofore, relatively comfortable, boots a couple of days ago (wrong socks!) and cannot, despite creative attempts at wrapping/band-aids, keep them from chafing very painfully and bleeding.</p>
<p>I have to remind myself that because I am only fake training for a race, this is not a disaster and let it be.
I’ll see how it all looks tomorrow and either do it then or do something else cardio.</p>
<p>Spent about 40 minutes doing stretches, abs and other core work last night. In general, it felt pretty good. I may try to run for a mile to see how the knee feels.</p>
<p>One good thing about not being able to run very far is that doing the low-carb thing is a lot easier.</p>
<p>happy to report I have lost 3 pounds so far. now off to yoga</p>
<p>Happy dance for rushedmom!</p>
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<p>cjane and BC: </p>
<p>Man, everyone is busted up. Me, too. I injured myself – wait for it – making a chicken caesar salad last night! Argghh. I was watching the golf tournament while cutting veggies and managed so slice a little sliver off the end of my thumb with a very sharp 10-inch butcher knife. I haven’t cut myself in years. So stupid. Fortunately, I had stocked up on bandaids just last week, so I think I’ll survive. BTW, these new-fangled waterproof [url=<a href=“http://www.nexcare.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/NANexcare/Nexcare/Products/?PC_7_RJH9U5230G8BD0IUC4S6IE3O33000000_nid=208RCT7D8XgsK2K7L2FM73glCBB1JBQB8Fbl]Nexcare[/url”>http://www.nexcare.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/NANexcare/Nexcare/Products/?PC_7_RJH9U5230G8BD0IUC4S6IE3O33000000_nid=208RCT7D8XgsK2K7L2FM73glCBB1JBQB8Fbl]Nexcare[/url</a>] bandaids are the cat’s meow… They really do stay on.</p>
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<p>On bum knees: Here’s a new study (PDF) showing the link between hip exercise and reduced pantellofemoral knee pain in women:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jospt.org/members/getfile.asp?id=5497[/url]”>http://www.jospt.org/members/getfile.asp?id=5497</a></p>
<p>They took two groups of sedentary women with classic knee pain (runner’s knee, etc.) and had them do eight weeks of two very simple resistance band hip exercises and no other exercise. The group doing the hip exercises saw an improvement in their pain.</p>
<p>Ouch, idad! Hope that heals up quickly.</p>
<p>Blisters still yucky and painful, but decided it was time to “toughen up, buttercup” --</p>
<p>cranked out 5 miles on the treadmill per the 10K training plan. (had really wanted to go outside but it was very wet and I was concerned that getting my feet wet on top of everything was not the way to go)
Managed through double socking and taping to prevent some chafing, but did not feel great.</p>
<p>But that one’s done. Tomorrow back in the gym for the last workout of the month:
“Wild Card”, so it’s a surprise.</p>