Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
16161

<p>I had plateud and went to a really tough work out Saturday, today went to a class that a year ago would have been hard, but it was like a warmup class. Saturday i carried a man about 30 pounds above me piggyback across the gym, he carried me over his shoulder. 15pound medicine ball Burpees, sit-up with kettle ball, etc loved it, </p>

<p>Justsigned up for a month of crunch and two free private training class thru oneofthe sites. I am so stoked. Thursday its rowing. </p>

<p>I am hooked on working out and I can keep up with people half my age</p>

16162

<p>Ok…down 1.2 pounds in 2 weeks…could just be a blip…</p>

<p>But I don’t care…it is going in the right direction… :)</p>

16163

Good for you, dstark. Nothing like results to keep you motivated.

I had a terrible night of sleep last night. Didn’t fall asleep for about two and a half hours after I got into bed. I did wake up extra-late yesterday and I didn’t have my usual glass of wine at dinner, so for at least those two reasons I wasn’t tired. Also may have mistakenly had something with caffeine at dinnertime, but I’m darned if I know what it was.

Tossed and turned thinking about my sons – one about to move to Wisconsin to start his fist real job, the other just accepted at one of the grad schools of his choice for his chosen field and waiting to hear from a few others. They’re launching, but they still require mom-and-dad support to get there. Older son called me at 9:30 PM, so of course when I went to bed at 10:30 I was all wound up about that conversation.

16164

<p>Any favorite exercises for arms? Chair dips and push ups aren’t options–PT recommends opting out–rotator cuff problem. I’m finding the tricep jiggle more and more annoying!</p>

16165

<p>Bicep curls?</p>

<p>Hitting tennis balls (but not the serve)?</p>

<p>Rowing might be okay.</p>

16166

<p>VeryHappy…it cracks me up…</p>

<p>After we talk …our kids feel better…or they forget about the conversation and just go on with their lives…</p>

<p>And we have all these emotions…:)</p>

16167

<p>dstark, truer words were never spoken.</p>

16168

<p>dstark:</p>

<p>Yeah! Glad to hear that you are on your way.</p>

<p>beil:</p>

<p>Welcome to Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness! </p>

<p>From what I can tell, shoulder injuries and knee injuries are probably the two most common obstacles to geezer fitness. Dips are notoriously hard on shoulders and the trainers I follow just don’t use them period, with anybody, for that reason. The other group that frequently causes problems are overhead motions: overhead presses, chin ups, etc. Those are more in the category of “does it hurt?”. If it hurts, you shouldn’t do them.</p>

<p>I don’t do many arm-specific exercises. Instead, I do upper body pushing and pulling exercises that strengthen the entire upper body at the same time as working the arm muscles. I think that strengthening the big muscles of the upper back probably helps with shoulder injury prevention.</p>

<p>PUSHING:</p>

<p>a) You might be able to do elevated pushups pain free. Start with the hands against a wall. Then, if that doesn’t hurt, hands on a kitchen counter. And, finally progressing to lower boxes or doing them with hands on the stairs, moving to lower and lower steps. Ask you PT about these.</p>

<p>b) Dumbell bench pressing. Lying on your back on a bench or a stability ball, pressing one dumbbell or kettlebell up, then the other arm. Check with your PT on this one. The range of motion that seem to bother people with shoulder issues is when the weight is all the way down. One work-around is dong them lying on the floor. The elbow prevents the weight from going all the way down and putting stress on the shoulder.</p>

<p>PULLING:</p>

<p>The classic here is the chin up, but I suspect your PT will nix that for now.</p>

<p>a) [Inverted</a> rows](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube). This can be made as easy or as hard as you like by raising the bar: [Inverted</a> Rows (on Smith Machine) - YouTube](<a href=“Inverted Rows (on Smith Machine) - YouTube”>Inverted Rows (on Smith Machine) - YouTube)</p>

<p>b) Single arm dumbbell rows: Best version is one hand on a bench, two feet on the floor. [DB</a> Row - YouTube](<a href=“DB Row - YouTube”>DB Row - YouTube)</p>

<p>If you can get a TRX or [Jungle</a> Gym XT](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Lifeline-USA-Jungle-Gym-XT/dp/B004R3VQU4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331736218&sr=8-1]Jungle”>http://www.amazon.com/Lifeline-USA-Jungle-Gym-XT/dp/B004R3VQU4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331736218&sr=8-1)suspension trainer, these are fantastic for all of these upper body exercises:</p>

<p>[UE</a> Rotator Cuff FE w. TRX Eccentric.MP4 - YouTube](<a href=“UE Rotator Cuff FE w. TRX Eccentric.MP4 - YouTube”>UE Rotator Cuff FE w. TRX Eccentric.MP4 - YouTube)</p>

16169

I’ve run into many tennis players that had rotator cuff problems that had to modify their serves to continue playing. Serving incorrectly can damage the rotator cuff and it can aggravate an existing problem. The modifications usually result in a far less effective serve.

So I’d agree on avoiding any kind of overhead exercises.

There are exercises and stretches on the web for rotator cuff problems - I do them from time to time even though I’ve never had any rotator cuff problems.

Another category of problems besides the shoulders and knees comes with the forearm - tennis and golfers elbow. You can get this problem from doing certain weight exercises including pullups, bicep curls, triceps extensions and sports that place shock on the forearm (like tennis and golf).

My last bought of severe tennis elbow lasted about 7/8 months and there were a number of weight exercises that I couldn’t do because of it. Sometimes it hurt to brush my teeth or comb my hair. When one part of the body has an injury, it is natural to place a large load on the other limbs to compensate. It’s important to have overall body strength and flexibility so that you don’t damage other parts when compensating.

16170

<p>

</p>

<p>Dips and pushups are primarily chest exercises, with triceps being used secondarily. However, if those are hard to do because of injury, that severely limits the upper body pushing type of exercises that you can do.</p>

<p>The counterparts are the pulling exercises that work primarily the back, secondarily the biceps. These include pullups and rows.</p>

16171

<p>beil:</p>

<p>Thanks for triggering a look at the TRX shoulder exercises. I just ran through them, as shown in the video I posted. These are fantastic. I’m going to add them to my warm up. I think they’ll help me with chin ups, push ups, and so forth. A couple of them are pretty hard, but it’s easy to adjust by changing the angle of the body.</p>

<p>Here’s another good video:</p>

<p>[TRX</a> Letter Exercises - YouTube](<a href=“TRX Letter Exercises - YouTube”>TRX Letter Exercises - YouTube)</p>

<p>This one has me thinking about putting together a complete TRX workout that I can do at the local park on a nice day.</p>

16172

<p>Beil, am doing PT right now for the pinched nerve in my neck and a recurrence of my two bum rotator cuffs. He has me doing elevated push ups against the wall, but has me going into the down position and just stretching first. Also has me using a theraband tied around a door knob and has me pulling the ends back to my waist, but it does work the triceps. Hurts my shoulder, though. I’m in the baby steps phase; I can’t even reach around to hook my bra.</p>

16173

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s actually a very tough position. Forgetting the bra part, I suspect that very few men have the shoulder joint range of motion to get their hands to the center of their backs.</p>

16174

I can reach the middle up to about two inches below the neck with my left arm. I can reach the center up until about six inches from my neck with my right arm - my right arm and shoulder are probably bigger and less flexible from tennis.

I do the four arm stretches on both sides before every run.

  1. Pull arm across the shoulder.
  2. Arm L-shaped over head, pull at elbow across the top of the head.
  3. Hand at top of back, elbow above head, pull elbow down.
  4. Arm behind back below shoulder, reach hand up as high as possible.

One the last one, I cannot reach the elbow with the other hand to assist the stretch but I just do the best that I can.

16175

<p>interesteddad, it’s one of those critical measurements of flexibility and joint health for me! My right arm is OK with that position, but the left one is another story.</p>

<p>BC, I do those stretches regularly, too. They are good while I’m sitting at my desk at work.</p>

16176

Many gyms and fitness centers have wall charts with stretching exercises and it makes for a good reminder to go through a routine of stretches before and/or after your workout. I can just mindlessly listen to music and then go sequentially through the stretches. I wouldn’t mind having one of those wall charts at home. Some of the charts just have ten stretches while some are a series of charts with twenty. I think a set of ten that you do regularly is good as the chart reminds you to do them and they do not take too much time.

Another test is if you can touch one hand to the other behind your back, one above your shoulder and the other below. I can touch with the left below and the right above but it feels like I am about five inches from touching with the left above and the right below. I don’t think that I’d ever be able to close that gap without a lot of muscle loss.

16177

<p>Ahhh…I can touch either way… :)</p>

<p>I guess I need more muscles…</p>

16178

<p>Whew. That was a fun workout. Back to the basement for crawlin’ around on the floor and lifting heavy things and stuff. </p>

<p>Added the TRX shoulder exercises to my warm up. Did the “I”, the “V”, the “T”, and the “W”. In addition to getting the shoulders all fired up, they are pretty good core exercises, too.</p>

<p>Today’s farmer walk was two DBs held outstretched overhead – one 20 lb and one 40 lb. That is no joke. For whatever reason, it’s hard to stay upright.</p>

<p>Strength exercises were just crazy hard. Did the single leg squat to a bench, just using an 8 lb medicine ball as a counter weight. Like [this</a> video](<a href=“1 Leg Squat - 90 lbs - YouTube”>1 Leg Squat - 90 lbs - YouTube), but with no weight vest. I can’t believe how hard these are. The final reps are just grinding with all my might to push back up.</p>

<p>Then, I did the step ups to the 16 inch bench holding two 35 lb DBs. Gonna have sore butt muscles.</p>

16179

<p>Really bad week for exercise for me. Nothing really yesterday except for stretching. Only workout today was standing in a subway that was stuck for quite a while. Things look good for tennis though.</p>

<p>On a positive note, the joints are doing great.</p>

<p>I will have to say that being in good shape makes really stressful weeks a lot easier to handle.</p>

16180

<p>Now I know why I’m working out.</p>

<p>BIL’s condo basement got flooded. DH and I packed up dozens and dozens of black garbage bags filled with such exotica as waterlogged phone books and boxes of old magazines. Man, those things are heavy when wet!! I must have brought up 25 or so bags from the basement to the first floor, and about a dozen of them into the car. Tomorrow, we go back for the rest of them.</p>

<p>I figure each heavy bag was between 20 and 30 pounds. Ran them up the stairs, tossed them in the trunk of the car.</p>

<p>Better than any gym time.</p>