commodorified: a capital m, in fancy type, on a coloured background (Default)
commodorified ([personal profile] commodorified) wrote in [community profile] lifting_heavy_things2011-10-16 04:40 pm

Having broken the ice...

Hi, I'm Marna.

I have fibromyalgia, RSI-related soft tissue injuries, scoliosis, and a great fondness for Lifting Heavy Things. Which is a good thing, because if I don't want the fibro plus the scoliosis plus the family history of severe osteoporosis to beat me into a little weeping pile of mush whose spouses have to carry her around in a bukit I'm going to be strength-building all my days on this earth.

My current project is this: I have good days, bad days, awful days, great days. They're not really predictable. I get very frustrated when I have to knock off the lifting for a week or more and it causes me to lose form and balance and then when I start up my form is crap and I feel unsafe and unstable so I have to drop the weight down and and and ... so, I got sick of that whole dance and decided there had to be a better way.

(I do not scorn the Machines, I in fact suspect that people like me are who they are a Godsend for, but I travel enough not to want to be gym-dependant.)

So now I am trying to come up with a strength-training program that I can modify like crazy and can do with lots of weight, some weight, or no weight/bodyweight, so that I can do it most days in one form or another, adjusting speed, reps, etc, and still have it be of some benefit, plus I get to keep the aforementioned form through my flares.

At home I have two kettlebells, 10 lb and 15 lb, and some 5 lb and 2.5 lb dumbells. On the road I can generally scrounge around and find things to work with.

So far I have come up with:

Turkish Get Ups: good exercise even with a soup can. I find completely empty hands lets my form slip.
Gladiator Presses: same.
Planks.
Squats.

It is actually possible that those four are a fairly complete workout, but... suggestions are solicited. :-)

Other exercise: I walk pretty fanatically and am blessed so far with a lower body that will let me do that.

I use an elliptical in winter with a focus on building endurance and enough focus on cardio to help my lungs recover from smoking, which I recently quit after 25 (!!!) years.

Oh, and my partners' partners have 25 lb of toddler. He's very good for my lower back. :-)
resolute: (Default)

[personal profile] resolute 2011-10-17 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
What weirdquark said, yes, both for Stumptuous and NerdFitness. (NF is reasonable strongly primal-paleo flavored, but they are tolerant.)

For a pulling exercise:

get a pull-up bar and install it in a doorway inside your house
get a children's rope cargo net:
http://www.amazon.com/Swing-Slide-NE4481-1-Cargo-Climbing/dp/B000HA9H1Q
and install it in the kid's playroom or room, then use it for assisted inverse body weight rows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYUxXMGVuuU (video demonstration via nerd fitness)
do inverse rows off a sturdy table, as the video shows
do inverse body weight rows in a doorway (this always makes my wrists hurt, the grip is incredibly awkward.)

Those are all the things I do for pulling exercises when I'm not at a gym!