Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
15261

<p>I grabbed one of the big balls to put next to me (there is a way to place them so that they don’t roll away) in case I lost my balance - so I know about the potential for falling doing those split squats.</p>

<p>BTW, while I was on one of the weight machines, a lady put a barbell (looked like 30 pounds) on her shoulders and then proceeded to bend at the waist until her upper body was parallel to the ground. Then move to a straight up standing position. I was trying to figure out if this was a safe exercise - it would seem to me to put a lot of stress on the back and spine.</p>

<p>At the Y, lots of bicep curls, squats in a cage, and chest presses with the barbell.</p>

15262

I think that’s called a [good</a> morning](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIh_nVSJ-co]good”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIh_nVSJ-co). It’s a horrible exercise. A real spine killer.

One thing I noticed is that a lot of people must still believe that you can burn off belly fat by doing a million different exercises bending at the waist.

<hr>

I didn’t stumble doing the split squats. These weren’t the rear foot elevated version. I had both feet on the ground. I just went down too fast, too far and whacked my knee on the floor. It was dumb. I’m used to having the pad so I don’t have to worry about it.

15263

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<p>I don’t personally use it, but it does have its benefits…</p>

15264

<p>CJane, I’m trying hard to embrace the Gallo-walk. I’m not sure why I’m so stubbornly trying to run the whole thing. I think it’s because I’m traveling for it (visiting my marathoner brother). I think if it was around here, I wouldn’t care so much. It just seems like a waste of a good trip if I can’t run the whole thing.</p>

15265

<p>blankmind- I remember going for a long run (10-12 miles) with two friends where I just had to stop and walk. I must have walked about 300 yards before I started again. The benefit of that walk amazed me. Not only did I end up catching them I ended up pushing the pace for the rest of the run. Almost to a point where they could not keep up.
Since that day I never worried if I felt I needed to walk during a run again.</p>

<p>I was in good shape at that time and would have been running at about a 7 to 7:30 pace on that type of run. So it wasn’t that I just could not run the distance. The walk actually made me run the distance better.</p>

15266

^^ That is what most people find. I don’t walk when I race unless I’ve really fallen apart of if a hill rises straight up from my feet, but lots of people who have finish times faster than me DO use walking breaks. I ran a marathon in December 2001 without training until 4 weeks prior to the race. Of course, I had a lot of past experience, but with the walking breaks (started from mile 1) I ran a 4:34 and was comfortable most of the way. It really does work.

15267

<p>You’ll find a couple new blog posts on my blog from this weekend. The first one published last night discusses injury prevention in distance running and the second one that just launched discusses misconceptions with functional training. It’s been a busy weekend for me as I am finishing another one right now for another site as well. Let me know what you think…</p>

15268

<p>cardio fitness class</p>

15269

I went to bed early last night and woke up feeling very tired - nothing painful, just very tired. I guess weight training + tennis = good workout day. I also ran out of clothes this morning - so I had to pull out one of my size L shirts (I only have five of these and I’m working on retiring them). Went to Marshalls and picked up two more Nike shirts and a pair of Nike shorts. They are slowly getting in the spring stuff.

While there I went around looking for long underwear for our daughter who complained about her legs being cold on a cold day last week. We’ve been used to the warm winter and normal winter days make her feel cold. Marshalls had some UnderArmour in the men’s section but they’d be too big for her so I went looking in the Women’s section for it. The Women’s section is massive compared to the Men’s section and it’s far harder to find things as I don’t know where things are in the store. Add to that feeling the odd feeling of shopping in that section and I just decided to bag it and bring her to Sports Authority to find a pair. It will probably cost a fair amount more but it will be a lot quicker.

I made a few suggestions but she wanted a fashionable look and the best way would be to wear something under her jeans.

15270

Thought my 8 mile run this morning would feel easy after the last 2 weekends of longer runs. I decided to do the hilly run from home instead of driving all the way to the park. It felt really hard and I considered shortening it as I was going along. Early on I actually wondered what it might be like to do 4 2 miles runs today instead of an 8, but I really didn’t feel like spending my day that way. Anyway- got it done. 50 degrees but very gloomy and damp feeling.

15271

<p>The run/walk approach will also likely produce some signficant fitness and fat loss results, too. Here’s a very interesting study:</p>

<p>[Two</a> weeks of high-intensity aerobic interval training increases the capacity for fat oxidation during exercise in women](<a href=“http://jap.physiology.org/content/102/4/1439.full]Two”>http://jap.physiology.org/content/102/4/1439.full)</p>

<p>They took 8 physically active (3 to 4 days per week) 22 year old women, stresss tested them to determine their V02max, and had them do a base line 60 minute cycling test at 60% of their VO2 max while hooked up to all kinds of monitoring stuff.</p>

<p>Then, they had them do 7 sessions of high intensity interval training, every other day for thirteen days. These sessions were constant RPM at 90% of V02max for 4 minutes (brutal) alternating with 2 minutes of slow speed rest. So, like walk/run training with 4 minutes of hard running and 2 minutes of walking.</p>

<p>At the end of these fourteen days of training, they had them do another 60 minute test at 60% of VO2max on the cycles.</p>

<p>In the second test, after just two weeks of training, their average heart rates in the later stages of the 60 minute test had fallen dramatically – from 160 bpm to 150 bpm:</p>

<p><a href=“http://jap.physiology.org/content/102/4/1439/F4.large.jpg[/url]”>http://jap.physiology.org/content/102/4/1439/F4.large.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Their VO2max, after just two weeks of training, had increased an average of 13%.</p>

<p>And, here’s the really interesting part from a fat loss standpoint. In the second 60-minute test, after two weeks of interval training, their metabolism had changed. They were burning signficantly more fat and significantly less carbohydrate than during the first test.</p>

<p><a href=“http://jap.physiology.org/content/102/4/1439/F3.large.jpg[/url]”>http://jap.physiology.org/content/102/4/1439/F3.large.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So, the interval training increased their fat burning, even during long, slow cardio sessions (60 minutes on an exercise bike). Combine this with the fact that high intensity intervals cause increases in testosterone and human growth hormone, and it’s pretty clear how this approach can result in actual physioligical changes that help with fat loss. The shifting of fuel from carb burning to fat burning has implications for race day and “bonking”.</p>

<p>All things considered, it looks like there is good reason to do run hard then walk training.</p>

15272

<p>DW not with me today, so I am able to wear my calf length pj-bottoms. Teal with 1inch pokkadots. Lockerroom attendents liked them.</p>

15273

<p>I had a spasmy twinges in some side muscle in my back this a.m. Went to the gym and they are all gone. It’s nice when it works out that way! All this nice weather has gotten me running/walking more than I did this summer.</p>

15274

<p>for all the swimmers out there, [College</a> Recruiting Guide for Swimmers](<a href=“http://collegerecruitingforswimmers.blogspot.com/]College”>http://collegerecruitingforswimmers.blogspot.com/)</p>

15275

<p>Today’s run: 30 minutes, 3.14 miles. Not fast, but it felt easy, so I’m good with that.</p>

15276

<p>51 degrees and sunny here today, so I had to flip the schedule and do a hilly walk/run 5K outing today. Quite breezy, so I wore long running pants, a short sleeve tech t shirt, and a lightweight long-sleeve 1/4 zip. Couldn’t find my dayglo yellow Brooks beanie, so I wore a lightweight fleece beanie and lightweight fleece gloves. Just about perfect, even though I worked up a little bit of sweat.</p>

<p>Slow as molasses – first time out in a month and only the second time in two months – but, felt good. Max heart rate of 96%.</p>

<p>Got an oldie but a goodie on my random 5-star iPod shuffle playlist:</p>

<h2>[Sonny</a> & Cher - The Beat Goes On](<a href=“Sonny&Cher - The Beat Goes On (live) - YouTube”>Sonny&Cher - The Beat Goes On (live) - YouTube)</h2>

<p>Left over buffalo wings and blue cheese dip for dinner. I nailed them yesterday. Just awesome high fat/low carb treat!</p>

15277

<p>2.5 miles, somewhere around 8:55 pace. Felt reasonably good. Did some bicep curls too as the Smith Machine was occupied. I will most likely be going to the YMCA tonight for the weight machines.</p>

15278

<p>Hey, BC. My Marshalls is getting in spring stuff, too. You should try on one of the Champion C9 shirts. They fit a little on a snug side, slightly stretchy. Same shirt as the Nike training t’s you’ve been buying – basic solid color tech t’s with reflectlve logos., but the price is right: $5.99. I’ve got a three from last summer (black, navy, and red) that have been great. I grabbed a couple today in [bright</a> blue](<a href=“http://img2.targetimg2.com/wcsstore/TargetSAS//img/p/13/80/13805436.jpg]bright”>http://img2.targetimg2.com/wcsstore/TargetSAS//img/p/13/80/13805436.jpg) and [neon</a> lime green (highly visible!)](<a href=“http://img1.targetimg1.com/wcsstore/TargetSAS//img/p/13/80/13805456.jpg]neon”>http://img1.targetimg1.com/wcsstore/TargetSAS//img/p/13/80/13805456.jpg). My store also had them in black for $5.99.</p>

15279

<p>I didn’t see these in one of my local stores yesterday (NH takes longer…) but I’ve standardized on Nike for t-shirts. I have ten right now and I think that’s enough. The shirts are essentially free with the gains from trading their stock. I have a few Adidas sleeveless running shirts and am looking for Champion shorts. I found Asics at Sports Authority and they had a great sale there - of course there were a ton of XLs, a bunch of Ls, two Ss and no Ms. I rather like the Asics design - very light and functional. The Nikes have more material and are heavier.</p>

<p>I don’t think that I’m going to see Asics at Marshalls. These were 5 inch shorts which I prefer and which nobody sells inexpensively except on really good sales. You have to pay more to get less. The Champion shorts are fine for running but not for tennis as the pocket is a bit narrow to fit two tennis balls in without them flopping around.</p>

15280

<p>Marshalls will probably get the Nike Tennis shorts again. Tennis specific shorts, plain black or plain navy. 7 inch length. No liner. I got a couple pair last summer; they are good all-around summer shorts with two front pockets and a back pocket for a wallet.</p>