Weekly Feature: What did you do?

[cereta]

I thought it might be fun to have a weekly post where people could comment with what strength training they did this week. It could be a fun way get ideas, cheer each other one, and help our members keep track of their own work.

I'm keeping the title completely neutral, because I want this to be as broad as possible. You can go into detail, you can talk about something new you did or an increase of some kind, or you can just report time or days or whatever makes you happy.

Comment away!

Comments

[cereta]

Today was my first day attempting to work without my personal trainer, and I think it went very well. I discovered that the window seat in the play room is perfect for chair lifts (once I move the toys out of the way). I did three sets of ten reps of:

Chair lifts
Shoulder presses (done with a twist motion - I can't find the name for it) 16lbs
Bicep curls (16lbs - I had been at 20 Monday, but 16 seems to be plenty for now)
Single arm rows
Pushups (from the knee)

I also did two sets of 15 second planks. I think I'm ready to go up to 20.

I skipped lower body stuff because I did them Monday and Wednesday, and my knees are bothering me a bit, so my trainer advised a week off.

I have some ideas for adding stuff, but I will probably wait a week until the semester is over and I have more time.

[rydra_wong]

Despite the comm title, I don't think I've actually lifted anything heavy in the past week *g*.

I recently recovered from a virus, so exercise (apart from climbing) has been fairly informal and haphazard: mostly whatever I feel like playing around with at home and have the energy for.

I've been doing sets of push-ups at random intervals through the day on a "greasing the groove" basis (note: this is not a porno title, really -- it's a strategy for increasing reps by picking a number that's well below your limit, so you don't go anywhere near failure, and then practicing it a lot; I thought I'd experiment with it and see if it works for me).

Oh, and working on pull-ups: doing negatives at home, and practising the very bottom of the movement (from a deadhang, the bit where you have to engage your back muscles) at the climbing wall, where they have a nice metal pole you can hang off in the training area. I WILL GET MY PULL-UP BACK ONE DAY DAMMIT.

And a few bodyweight squats with a broomstick, because good squatting form was one of the big things I learnt from the workshop I attended, and I'm determined to engrave it in my muscle memory. There's a whole thing about sitting down between my legs rather than on top of them (yes, I know this makes no sense in words) that was a revelation to me.

[cofax7]

I bouldered on Monday evening instead of lifting, and then on Wednesday morning I lifted for a bit, and then did some bouldering. (Yes, bouldering is totally lifting heavy things, as it involves lifting me. *g*)

[rydra_wong]

\o/ Bouldering!

[cereta]

Yay! I really want to try that soon.

[sanguinity]

And the absolutely classic heavy thing, at that!

[rydra_wong]

*points*

disobey_gravity

(Also, brain permitting, I will be writing my 3W4DW climbing post at some point.)

[damned_colonial]

Ha ha, nothing! It's been a low motivation week for everything but my Club Vivid vid.

[yvi]

I only started weight training three weeks ago and I did a lot more reading up and modified my strength routine this week. As of two days ago, I have added squats, lunges, rows and shoulder presses to what I did before (bench presses, wall push-ups, crunches, biceps curls, flies and reverse flies). My new program takes me about 50 minutes, which is a good amount of time, I think. The squats were a bit hard on my knees, though, and since I also do running I am going to leave them out today so they can recover.

So far. my weights looks like this ( provided my barbell actually weighs 11 kilograms...):
squat: 20 kilograms, able to do that 12 times, but I can't yet go down far so I will also practice without weights
bench press: 16 kilograms, able to do that 11 times
curl: 13 kilograms, able to do that 12 times
shoulder press: 13 kilograms, able to do that 12 times

I am actually not sure how much my dumbbell handle weighs. I think 2.5 kilograms, but it could also be 2 kilograms, and I add 1 kilogram per handle for all the exercises so far except or the rows which I can comfortably do with 2 kilograms added.

I'll probably up a few of those next training or the one after that. I am still trying out a lot of stuff, having my boyfriend watch whether I am doing them correctly etc.

I am pretty proud of myself right now :)

(Note: not a native speaker and damn, all that new vocabulary is a bit hard)

[umbo]

Saw personal trainer on Weds. and did mostly upper body stuff; will be seeing her again today and doing mostly lower body stuff.

[lyorn]

I went to the gym four times. Unfortunately it's machines only when it comes to weight training, but it's also women only, which I like. I have difficulties talking about the machines since I lack all relevant vocabulary, but I'll try.

I did a yoga/pilates mesh class on Saturday, which always reminds me that I have very far to go when it comes to being able to lift my *own* body weight and that I have no stomach muscles to speak of. It's a mystery to me how other people can use their stomach muscles and keep breathing! (I have very, very bad coordination and flexibility. That's the reason I'm taking that class, and I fail at it so hard.)

Because of the usual yoga/pilates induced soreness, on Sunday I did only my back exercises and 2 km of runnning intervall training. I have recently switched from attempting to jog, which bores me and did not go anywhere, into 60 seconds running, 60 seconds walking. Which is great fun, but brought unexpected problems.

Tuesday back exercises, and the machine circle. I raised the weight on the dip machine to 30/33 kg, on the leg press to 95/105, and on the move-legs-outwards (no idea how it is called) to 32/38, all with about 12 to 14 repetitions, but not too sure of my form. Then some running, which failed -- I seem to have either pulled muscles on my ribs and in my lower belly, or ripped something other than muscle -- anyway, rapid movement or jostling of the areas causes a short, sharp ripping/stabbing pain. Which means, when running fast, every step hurts. I don't even notice it during strength training, though.

Thursday, same as Tuesday. Still running fail with much ouch.

I'm not satisfied with the week overall.

I also carried a 20kg bag of cat litter up three floors, which was, in a way, best moment of the week (strength-wise) because I wouldn't even have attempted that a year ago.

[rydra_wong]

Form is definitely vital to protect your knees during squats.

For me, the things I have to watch are a) making sure my knees are lined up pointing in exactly the same direction as my toes, and b) making sure they don't wobble inwards as I stand up.

Still getting the hang of that, which is why I'm spending a lot of time with just my broomstick *g*.

[yvi]

Thanks for the tips!

And yeah, I think I might train with the broomstick on the days that I am running or something, so that I can get that exercise down. I have rheumatoid arthritis (((not in an active flare, though, so I can do exercises just as everyone else, and am actually under doctor's orders to build up some muscles to protect my joints, before anyone here lectures me))), so I need to pay attention to my joints. No point in damaging them when my body can do that all by itself ;)

[littlemousling]

IDK if mine counts; I've never been clear on the exact line between cardio and strength training, because most of my cardio comes in HOLY GOD MAKE IT STOP style, with resultant big bulging muscles. I mean, when I'm on my highest gear biking uphill, it doesn't feel much different from one of those leg-pushing machines with a LOT of weight on it, you know? (Except then I get to crest the hill and coast down the other side--silly machines don't let you do that!)


Anyway. If any of you know the line better than I do, I'd love to hear a clear explanation of the difference between that and the leg machine thing. (Is it just "duration"?)

[daedala]

I went to yoga a lot (4 times?). The classes are for one of the more strength-focuses variations, so there was a fair bit of bodyweight lifting. I'm almost back to where I can do a full pushup again, hooray!

I am trying to get myself of doing assisted chinups whenever I pass the chinup bar in the basement. I did lots of laundry yesterday, so there were chinups. :)

[daedala]

Even on the days you are running, you might consider dropping the weights on the squats a lot, or only doing bodyweight squats, until you have the form nailed. Protecting knees is important!

Stumptuous.com has a lot of good advice on why and how to squat.

[yvi]

Even on the days you are running, you might consider dropping the weights on the squats a lot, or only doing bodyweight squats, until you have the form nailed.

I suppose you mean 'not'? I guess I'll see how my knee feels in two days. I've never had problems with them before and I ran yesterday, so it might also be from that and they just need a day to recover. I can't really pinpoint whether it's joint or muscle pain, which leads me to believe it might be muscle soreness. I have arthritis, I know joint pain ;)

Thanks for the links. I think I already read half of them, but not the others. I find things a bit hard to find on Stumptuous.com.

[daedala]

Oh, um, yeah.

The Stumptuous site was redesigned a few years ago and I give up -- I use google with site:stumptuous.com if I want to find something. Even stuff I know is there is hard to find. Grr.

[rachelmanija]

Attempting to get back in shape after I injured my knee AND my elbow, and then turned into a slug for the last six months.

At home, with the weights I had lying around, while watching Project Runway, everything in 2 sets of 8 at 10 lb: Squats, shoulder press, bicep curls. Vowed to go in to gym, where I have access to more stuff.

[sanguinity]

Exhumed the weights from the clutter. Lifted them.

(I had, for reasons that are not worth enumerating, gotten out of the habit. I have also, for more reasons not worth enumerating, been looking at the weights without moving the weights, and thinking that I need to get back into the habit. At this point, I'm chalking myself a victory.)

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do about lower-body strength, given home free weights and a balky ankle.

[rydra_wong]

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do about lower-body strength, given home free weights and a balky ankle.

I suggest lots of one-legged exercises (doing one side, then the other). The balance element is good for stabilizing the ankle, and it effectively doubles the amount of work the leg is doing, so it works well if you don't have very heavy home weights.

Try one-legged deadlifts and Bulgarian split squats, or one-legged squats going down as far as you possibly can.

[laurashapiro]

Monday:

Assisted pull-ups (-80lbs)
Low rows (50lbs)
Side raises (10lbs each)
Back extensions
My weird-ass combo PT/yoga ab workout
20 min treadmill w/a 3-minute sprint at the end

Wednesday:

Assisted pull-ups (-80lbs)
20 min treadmill w/a 3-minute sprint at the end

Friday:

I am in a lot of RSI-related pain today, so I did about 20 minutes of yoga and that was it.

[sanguinity]

*experiments*

...wow, my ankle did not yell at me. And there was surprisingly little muttering, too. Thanks for the suggestions.

[red_eft]

Did dumbbell curls and... what's the thing where you lift them straight up? Shoulder presses! twice this week. 10lbs, 2 sets of 10 reps. I think I'm ready to move up a weight. I'm looking for wider varieties of stuff that can be done without access to a gym/special equipments, as all I have are various weights of dumbbells and a barbell. Still, as I haven't done any exercise at all for... gah, a long time- I'm counting it as progress.

[cereta]

Dude, that is progress!

Also, you should post asking for ideas. ;)