lifting_heavy_things | Weekly post: What did you do?

I've begun doing negative pull-ups, in what is my third serious attempt to finally be able to do one full pull-up. I feel good about it this time (although I am already quite sore.)

\o/ Yay pull-ups!

I recommend hot epsom salt baths for soreness, btw.

My first venture into lifting heavy things was mostly lifting... me! I do Wii Fit, and the strength training exercises there are bodyweight-based. It's been really satisfying to have that "I'm getting stronger" muscle soreness back!

I love that sore feeling. Also, I need to try the WiiFit planks again. I did well on a couple, and then tanked.

Bodyweight work is excellent and cool. I always get the goofy grin of look what I can do with NO TOYS AT ALL!

I am still tweaking my strength training and have started to work towards doing full push-ups with the help of "low wall push-ups" (high on the wall is easy, on the sofa arms is too difficult, so low on the wall it is) and planks.

I am blessed with a house that has many, many ledges, counters, and a wall-length bench. Right now, I'm down from the counter to the ledges (about 8 inches down), and can do the bench, but not many or well.

I did a somewhat light week: two days of upper body work, mostly involving body weight (chair lifts and push-ups) and my new 20lb barbells. I also did a great deal of yard work, which involved pushing an increasingly not-self-propelled lawnmower and lifting cut trees - small ones.

I also had many, many reps of lifting a 24 lb 8 oz weight with varying degrees of assistance and resistance from said weight.

Well.... I joined this comm! :) I want to go back to doing more resistance training, but haven't actually done the *doing* part yet, so I have none of that to report this week -- though knowing there's a weekly "what I did" post will probably be motivating :)

While I'm here, I'll also ask -- I don't currently have access to a gym. I'm clear on crunches, squats, and pushups as good basic general-purpose body-weight (or more) exercises, but is there *anything* I can do for my back without a pull-up bar/the ability to do a full pullup? (which I do not currently have - either the bar or the ability)

Any thoughts/recommendations?

What part of your back?

Pull-ups mainly work the lats -- if you want to work those, your best bet might be to grab some cheap resistance bands and do lat pull-downs. Or do pull-overs if you've got some light weights.

If you want to strengthen your lower back, there are lots of bodyweight exercises you can do, mostly variations on the yoga locust pose. If you've got a Swiss ball and somewhere to wedge your feet, you can do full back hyperextensions.

If you're interested in general-purpose core stability: planks planks planks *g*.

(I know I've just thrown a lot of exercise names at you -- let me know what you're interested in, and I can provide more details.)

Thank you!

:) I have multiple goals, but working the lats specifically is more related to frivolous ones than to important ones. I may look for some bands at some point, but not right now.

I mostly want to strengthen the muscles along my spine -- one of my main practical (as opposed to vain - I like being strong!) reasons for resistance training is a family history of osteoporosis, and basically strong muscles encourage strong bones.

Planks I know; I don't know locust. Tell?

Also, I think we have a swiss ball, but I'm not sure... what are the movements for either full or partial hyperextensions? (I can probably find something to support my lower body, even if it's not a swiss ball...)

Locust.

A common variation in non-yoga circles is the superman.

Stumptuous on back hyperextensions (scroll down past the section on good mornings).

If you have a Swiss ball (one of those big inflatable balls that people sometimes use instead of desk chairs), then lie prone on it with it under your hips, wedge your feet under something for stability, and it works brilliantly for hyperextensions.

I don't quite understand how the whole thing works yet, but in one of the other posts someone linked to this Full Body Workouts page from exrx.net, which links to tons of exercises for every muscle group. A lot of the back exercises look to be rows that you could do at home with dumbbells, though not so much with body-weight.

Thank you! (opening link now!)

I tried the new regimen kindly recommended by

thalia (minus the deadlifts that I still don't know how to do).

I worked out M, W, and F, running the "Day 1" list again on Day 3.

I increased the weight I was pushing on all the exercises I'd been doing before, going down to two sets, sometimes of only 4 or 6 reps. I learned I can no longer bench press 40 lbs, but OTOH, I can do 6 pull-ups with only 65 lbs subtracted from my body weight. Yee-hah!

I ache like crazy, but I feel stronger already. (:

\o/

INORITE?!?

I'm now on my second week of exercising every weekday morning, which I'm pretty happy about!

Overall it's been a mixed bag. I've screwed up my shoulder a bit trying to do pushups on the assistance bar in the bathroom at work, and the yoga routine I tried yesterday was really not designed for someone who's got a lot of weight on her chest. By the time I was on my 8 millionth downward dog, upward dog, bend over and touch your toes, bend up and touch your toes another way that made up well over a quarter of the half-hour video, my back was going "Dude. No." At least I've learned enough that I quit before it caused any damage this time, which considering my history is pretty good.

The weightlifting's doing much better, though. I added another resistance band for my rows, and I think I'm pretty close from graduating from railing squats into broomstick squats. I'm more at the point of using the railing slightly to balance myself rather than oh my god if I don't hold onto this with a deathgrip I am going to fall over, at least.

Have you found

sun_salutation yet? Useful for yoga advice.

(In my experience, the crucial thing for protecting your back in forward bends in yoga is to be very strict about bending from the hips and not rounding your back at all: bend your knees as much as you need to, and try not to fixate on how close to your toes you can get.)

That looks like an awesome community, thank you!

And actually, that's good advice, thank you. I just experimented with a couple forward bends and realized that I must've been rounding my back a fair amount. Doing them while paying attention to that feels a lot better.

This is a nifty little video on exactly what's involved in bending from the hips:

YogaGarden: Stretching Hard or Hardly Stretching? Use Your Hips!

Shoved a lawnmower around a quarter of the yard on Sunday and another quarter on Wednesday, which is probably as good as pushups for my upper-body strength, definitely better than a walk around the block for my cardio, but effectively killed my motivation for the week. (Ow. I liked it better when this was my brother's job.) Starting on other half later this afternoon, but my legs still hurt from Wednesday so I don't expect much.

Speaking of pushups. I heard somewhere that people who can't manage them parallel to the floor should try at a thirty-degree angle, or forty-five or sixty or ninety, and when each angle gets easy decrease the angle. That true?

Yep -- start by leaning against a wall with your arms straight out, and only as much angle as you can successfully push. As you work down to lower angles, walls won't work anymore but you can try tables, stair railings, chairs, whatever looks like a good height. Almost any surface can be exercise equipment.

Awesome, thanks! Maybe I'll be able to get enough upper-body strength to, y'know, start the fucking lawnmower by myself...

I solved that one by switching to an electric mower -- no pull cord, and it's infinitely quieter and cooler and less gas-fume-y. (A push mower would be even better, but the spouse gets a vote on these things too...)

I have no input on the lawnmower. Nor am I really inclined to ask why Dad went for a gas mower after discovering that our last mower died sometime between last summer and last month.

I discovered in the last few weeks of half-marathon training that neglecting my core strength not only leaves me vulnerable to the lower-back strains I'm prone to, but also hampers my running performance. So I bought a stability ball and started doing some core exercises with that. Because of the aforementioned weak back, I think I want to work on that for a couple of weeks before trying actual lifting of heavy things.

One thing that's distressed me about trying to find a lifting site I like is that there seems to be this "us vs. them" mentality between lifting and cardiovascular exercise. One of the commenters on (I think) Stumptuous said that whenever she sees a middle-aged woman running down the road, she could just cry because it's such a waste of time and effort. As, y'know, a 37-year-old woman running down the road, that really made me not want to go back there. If anybody knows of sites or books that are actively supportive of both lifting and CV exercise, I'd love to hear about them.

In the comments above, I posted some info about using a stability ball to do back hyperextensions -- I found those really helpful for improving my lower back issues.

I saw, thanks!

I had that same reaction to some of the comments about running at both stumptuous and gubernatrix. :/

One thing that's distressed me about trying to find a lifting site I like is that there seems to be this "us vs. them" mentality between lifting and cardiovascular exercise. One of the commenters on (I think) Stumptuous said that whenever she sees a middle-aged woman running down the road, she could just cry because it's such a waste of time and effort.

Gosh, I saw that same comment and was really annoyed. a) its not a waste of time; b) how the heck does that commentor know that woman doesn't do weights and cardio?

One thing that's distressed me about trying to find a lifting site I like is that there seems to be this "us vs. them" mentality between lifting and cardiovascular exercise.

Ah. Thanks for the warning, before I get too deep into Stumptuous.

This week's mostly been climbing and yoga, but today I did a quick-and-dirty workout of push-ups, negative pull-ups, and squats with minimal weight (working on form -- for some reason I find it easier to squat properly if I have at least a teeny bit of weight on my shoulders).

Then later I did a round of Turkish get-ups, and confirmed that it's finally time for me to get a heavier kettlebell.

Not much this week because I was giving the ouch time to get over itself.

Some playing around with planks, back extensions and kitchen counter push-ups on Tuesday, the, "hm, can I do this, and for how long" type -- I feel that I might want to construct a core/back workout for home. I'll have to check the links already here. Also, how do I time those exercises that need timing? Twist my head to look at the clock? Borrow a metronome? Time to music?

Thursday I felt up to the usual round at the gym -- back training first, where I identified the exercise that had made my rib muscles unhappy: a seated-on-a-Swiss-ball sideways turn with elbows close. I left the weight on that cable thing (5 kg for 4 sets of 15) but attempted more control and smoother movement. It seems to have worked, no pain today.

Machine circle: I had planned to take some weight off, but my vanity wouldn't let me. Instead, I upped the bench presses to 29/34 kg and the "close your legs" one to 30/36, but I did only 8 to 10 reps and concentrated on form (as far as possible with the machine park). I am getting frustrated with the machines for several reasons, not the least of which being that I cannot compare what I'm doing with what most people here are doing. One of these days I might get over my fear of appearing silly and ask the trainers if they have free weights in the mixed gym -- I know they don't have any in the women's.

Interval running: fine.

Discovery #1: I have got into the habit of going to the gym enough that I was happy to go again after skipping twice.

Discovery #2: There are some playground devices with nice smooth metal bars in a hidden area of a tiny park nearby. I can think of uses for those.

Other: I got a mat for home exercising (because, hardwood floor...), and discovered a resistance band in a drawer when looking for a place to store the mat.

Also, how do I time those exercises that need timing?

For planks and things like that, I generally take my watch off and put it on the floor where I can see it.

Timing to music also works, if you've got a song which you know is roughly the right length (or where you know that up to the first chorus is x amount of time, etc.), and can sometimes be more motivating than staring grimly at your watch *g*.

I know they don't have any in the women's.

*glares at them*

and discovered a resistance band in a drawer when looking for a place to store the mat.

Yay, resistance band! That gives you many fun options for things to do at home.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my strength training days (MWF I do cardio). I usually do 3 sets of 12 reps of everything. A few weeks ago I upped the weights I was doing by one notch -- and did 3 sets of 8, then the next time 2 sets of 10 and then 3 sets of 12. The 3 sets of 8 was surprisingly easy, but I found myself consistently having difficulty getting through 3 sets of 12. Inspired by daedala's comment (http://lifting-heavy-things.dreamwidth.org/571.html?thread=2875#cmt2875s), this week I decided to up the weights again and do 2 sets of 8. This turned out to be surprisingly difficult.

I mostly use machines, so this is my list of all the machines I use (as best as I can remember the names) and what I set the weights at (with the previous week's in parentheses, since I upped them this week):
+ Shoulder Press: 40lb (from 30lb)
+ Leg Press: 9x22lb (from 8x22lb)
+ Rowing: 7x12.5lb (from 6x12.5lb)
+ Standing Leg Curl: 25lb (from 20lb)
+ Vertical Chest Press: 70lb (from 60lb)
+ Prone leg curl: 80lb (from 70lb)
+ Pulldown: 70lb (from 60lb)
+ leg extension: 70lb (from 60lb)
+ seated pull: 70lb (from 60lb)

+ free weights (classic forward curls [biceps] & military presses [deltoids]): 12lb (from 10lb)

Looking up the names of the free weight exercises I use (I'd meant to respond to last week's "What did you do?" post) in my copy of Smart Girls Do Dumbbells (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/703533.Smart_Girls_Do_Dumbbells), I found that I wasn't doing any triceps exercises, so on Tuesday this week I added in v-backs (using the same 12lb weights as I'd used for my other free weight exercises that day), which didn't feel like they were doing anything, so I looked at the book again and on Thursday did two-arm overhead extensions (with a single 12lb weight), which did feel like I was working muscles.

I didn't want to try anything too new this week because I'm getting ready to run a 5k race on Sunday (wish me luck!), but like others here I'm feeling inspired to get to where I can do chin-ups. So I did do some lateral pulldowns on Saturday, Tuesday, and today. And since someone here had mentioned it was good to alternate pushing and pulling exercises I did shoulder presses at the next machine over.

Also did some lower body strength stuff with a stability ball on Monday and some squats and lunges on Wednesday. I found the posts about squats at Stumptuous interesting. I had never been told it was dangerous to go all the way down (which apparently is a big myth that everybody who tries doing strength training gets told?) but I had just followed my instructors at stopping with my butt about level with my knees. Going lower was interesting and I want to practice that (maybe to get better at balancing) and then try to add weight.

Hoping to get a little more serious about this next week!

My workouts this week were pretty much the same as they were last week, but due to travel, I only got in two days of lifting rather than three. Still, I managed to make myself go while I was out of town - it helps that my hostess also works out regularly and was hoping to get in a workout while I visited.

Right now, I'm trying to hit every major muscle group with each workout, but with different kinds of exercises each workout. Given that I can get to the gym only 2-3 times a week, that works better for me than trying to alternate upper body workouts and lower body workouts.

This week I started the workouts in NROL for Women. I'm aiming for 2 days a week of NROL workouts, which will mean finishing the program in around 9 months rather than 6; given the other exercise I already do, 3/wk isn't enough recovery time but 1/wk isn't enough to really get benefits. We'll see how it goes. (And y'all please wish me luck on keeping this up! - I work out a lot but kind of profoundly suck at keeping to a structured program for any length of time.)

The other adventure of the week was making Fun and Heavy Things to Lift out of random leftover and found objects and about 300 pounds of sand and a whole lotta duct tape. Whee! (I should totally do a separate post about this stuff.)

The other adventure of the week was making Fun and Heavy Things to Lift out of random leftover and found objects and about 300 pounds of sand and a whole lotta duct tape. Whee! (I should totally do a separate post about this stuff.)

OMG PLEASE.

I KNOW. And bonus: filling and weighing sandbags = extra workout!

Going off on a tangent -- we should also have a post on "things we use as exercise equipment that were not designed for that purpose", or some suchlike; I get a lot of mileage out of my broomstick and my sledgehammer (the saviour of my elbow tendons).

Edited 2010-05-10 14:22 (UTC)

Primarily, my own self. :D
I have some mobility and endurance issues. Thursday, I wound up standing the better part of the day, the longest I've done in Quite Some Time, in the service of a Good Cause. (Not a particularly *noble* cause, mind you, just one I found entertaining.)

Today, some Hauling of Heavy Groceries uphill (and then most of them back down again).

I can feel the difference in the muscle tone of my forearms since before I started using the cane. Very much firmer.

Weekly post: What did you do?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject