<p>Back to the basement for me. (And, I might add, thank god it wasn’t another Airdyne day!)…</p>
<p>Really good workout. I’ve now been doing this series of three workouts long enough that it’s pretty much old hat. So, I tried to pick up the pace just a little bit today.</p>
<p>Biggest gain was in one of my warmup exercises… a version of plank where you go down to the bottom position of a pushup and then hold that for 45 seconds – nose an inch or two off the floor. It’s been killing me. I’ve been making it to 45 seconds just on pure gutting it out and then collapsing in a heap. Today, for the first time, it felt like holding a plank. Still a tough 45 seconds, but a big improvement. It’s like I had to get some more upper body strength in order to make it a core exercise and let my abs and glutes help. I think it’s related to what I felt on pushups Saturday.</p>
<p>Single leg deadlifts were good, too. I bumped up the weight from 40 lbs to 45 lbs and was pretty solid on all three sets.</p>
<p>I walked a mile from the bus stop to my house. Too many things to do, so that was my cardio exercise for the day. Add 2 sets of 20 pushups plus my free weights routine, and I’m done.</p>
<p>My Monday Zumba class was cancelled. So I had to go for a walk instead, the weather being very nice. I did run up and down a berm that separates a subdivision from a parking lot. It’s a pretty good hill.</p>
<p>Got in stretching, abs and glutes workout this morning and feel quite good. We’re back in the 20s for temps again so it was an invigorating trip to the office. I’m glad I repacked my gloves for filling up the gas tank.</p>
interesteddad–wow, about that plank: I can hold my nose an inch or two off the floor…if my knees are on the floor…for about 10 seconds. This is how I know I need work!*
*To be fair, I have a tendinitis problem in the left wrist and really shouldn’t be doing pushups. Don’t know what I can do instead.
I did make a great discovery this morning! And who can I tell if not you people? I tried on my bathing suit and discovered–how can I describe this–you know the flabby parts of the butt that should be in the suit but peek out above the thighs in back? Gone. I’ve been working the glutes and I guess I gave myself a butt lift! So delighted!
I was sure it was time to go for the skirted suit this year.
<p>You could do a modified pushup with your elbow and forearm resting on the ground. I just tried it in the office and you do work the other side. You might also try using a dumbbell on that side (or both) so that you get a pistol grip instead of putting your hands flat on the floor. There are devices that are sold that you grab onto in a more natural form - the cheap version is dumbbells.</p>
<p>Tell me about it. Local weather bug station shows gusts of 30 mph this morning. Quite a shock to the system after the 80 degree tease, huh.</p>
<p>I’m so cold, I’ve got a Cowboy Junkies song from their new album on repeat this morning, They played it as their final encore in Boston (mildly not suitable for work).</p>
<p>On the bathing suit… That’s even better than 5 pound party time! I’m just happy to be able to put on a bathing suit and not look like Orca, the great white whale! </p>
<p>On the pushup planks… Don’t feel bad. It’s one of the hardest exercises I’ve ever tried. I was literally shaking by the halfway mark. I’ve been doing it my warmup once a week for a couple months now (it’s part of Michael’s Boyle’s new seven exercise “functional movement screen” warmup) and I was just gutting it out and collapsing at the end every time. I think it’s all about developing the back muscles (lats) to be able to solidly lock the shoulders to the torso. That way, all the big muscles and core muscles can take some of the load off the arms. That’s what it seems like, anyway.</p>
<p>I prefer to just use hands because I like to do pushups spur of the moment. My right wrist is very strong from tennis too. I imagine piano players have strong wrists too.</p>
<p>The downside on the alternatives is that they don’t work your back and core in the same way that pushups and planks do. But you do what you can when you have an injury.</p>
<p>Stopped by Marshalls last night to check on Nike shirts. They had a few colors and textures in Dri Fit that I don’t have. Was very tempted but I may wait until they move over to the clearance rack.</p>
<p>As I mentioned a few days ago, they mentioned that their inventories were higher than they expected and need to clear it out. The shirt supply was the best I’ve seen at Marshalls. All of the Pro Combat stuff was gone though - it appears that that stuff is pretty popular.</p>
I’m sorry to hear that the chocolate boycott isn’t producing the desired results. Cutting down on bread seems like a reasonable next step, although it is so hard to say without looking at the totality of the diet! In general, most of us older folk are going to lose weight easier if we find places to scale back carb consumption and try to keep the protein up.
From an exercise standpoint, I would try to augment the long walks with something that involves a short burst of high intensity. Could be finding a steep hill or a long flight of steps on your walking route. Whatever. Something about high intensity exercise shifts metabolism to make fat loss easier… and it doesn’t take very much.
Also, resistance strength training of some sort is almost essential for us older folk to maintain weight. Otherwise we steadily lose lean muscle as we age and that shifts the metabolism in the wrong direction – towards fat storage. Both the strength training and high intensity exercise increase human growth hormone production and decrease insulin resistance, which stacks the deck in our favor.
<hr>
I hear ya on the blood pressure. The highest readings I see are in the doc’s office. I finally bought a good meter and test my own for a week from time to time to get a more accurate read on the typical range throughout the day.
@dstark–It’s called white coat syndrome. My BP is always higher in the doctor’s office. I bought a meter and monitor BP at home. Big difference.
My BP is borderline high and I’m working on lowering it (on doctor’s advice) by exercising and losing weight. Doctor also suggested acupuncture. I’ve had three sessions–not painful. I go there and fall asleep for 20 minutes. BP seems to be going down. Hard to know if it’s the acupuncture or diet/exercise since I’ve also been losing weight (slowly).
She’s doing great. Gainfully employed since graduation with public policy advocacy group (one you’ve probably heard of) on K Street. Loves Washington. Lives in a quarter mile from a METRO subway stop, has lots of friends – from Swarthmore, from various roommates, from work, and otherwise.
We were just e-mailing today. I sent her the YouTube “endorsement” of Boston Mayor Mumbles Menino in the Massachusetts Senate race:
So I had to go for a walk instead, the weather being very nice. I did run up and down a berm that separates a subdivision from a parking lot. It’s a pretty good hill.</p>
