lifting_heavy_things | So, who's been up to what lately?

So, who's been up to what lately?

In the last few weeks, I've been going to the gym for the first time in ages.

In the past few years, I've generally been doing bodyweight and kettlebell stuff at home as strength training, and now I've decided to get some barbell work done again, and in particular get back to deadlifting -- partly because I've been having a run of back aches and would like to build up my back strength again, partly because I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy deadlifting.

So I thought I'd check in here and see how everyone else is doing: getting into anything new lately? Learning some new things? Switching training plans? Buying, making or enjoying any new heavy things? Re-starting after time off, or looking to get started? Lurking shyly in the comm?

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Tomorrow I am determined to get up and dance. We're counting my body as a heavy thing. (It's certainly heavier than it used to be and I would like it to not, please.) But I may decide to dance with a 15oz can of food in either hand, so my arms have a little more heft at the ends for strengthening purposes. Good idea y/n?

Better certainly than buying 1lb weights! Especially as a glance over Amazon search results tells me the bleedin' things only seem to come in pink! And, hey, turns out broth comes in 2lb boxes. And a half gallon of water is a bit over 4lb, so I'd have to purchase and then save a couple screw-top milk bottles. After that, actually buying weights becomes reasonable, if it's desirable. Probably will be, if I can motivate myself that far—I want muscle mass. (I don't think I'd mind the scale reading what it currently does if I knew the bulk of that weight was muscle.)

Hey, you know what I should do to make it more likely that "get up and dance" happens tomorrow morning? Make a playlist tonight. 15 or 20 min bouncy music. Which I suppose will be a Kindle Fire playlist instead of VLC Player on computer, because a VLC playlist necessarily involves getting out of my nice cozy warm bed on the grounds that my laptop has no music on! (Whatever. Kindle Fire is a perfectly good mp3 player.)

But I may decide to dance with a 15oz can of food in either hand, so my arms have a little more heft at the ends for strengthening purposes. Good idea y/n?

In terms of muscle physiology, probably not the most effective way of strengthening, because that generally happens at the "low reps heavy weight" end of the spectrum (whatever "heavy" is for you, but we'd be talking something you can only lift for 1 to 10 reps in a row, not, say, 30-40 reps). If you can dance with it doing the same sort of arm moves for 15 minutes straight, it'll be working muscular endurance, not strength.

However, that endurance might still be a useful goal for you!

And personally, I am all in favour of including random physical experiments in my dancing time. You could play with lots of different moves and see what the cans feel like. Just don't be afraid to dump them if it feels too much, gets boring, or your shoulders/any other joints feel tweaky, etc..

Endurance is good, yes, but I take your point. :)

I grabbed the broth boxes and hit play on the playlist...

Three minutes in it occurred to me I ought to be singing along, or trying to, to check where I am on the aerobic-ness of the activity (answer: pushing towards the anaerobic end pretty hard; either that or lung capacity is just that shit), and thirty seconds later I flopped. That first song is only four minutes long!

I think I need to make a new playlist with lower-energy songs.

The rule of thumb for aerobic-ness I've heard is that you should be able carry on a conversation but not sing -- don't know if that helps at all? (And if you can't speak in sentences, you're out of the aerobic training zone.)

I think I need to make a new playlist with lower-energy songs.

Sounds like it! *g* And/or build up the time more gradually.

If you naturally tend to go all-out, one option would be to treat it as interval training (which can be very effective at improving aerobic endurance), and make a playlist of alternating bouncy and low-energy songs. So you're deliberately pushing yourself for a few minutes, then recovering gently for a few minutes, then pushing youself again.

I was misremembering, then. Couldn't talk either, though, so my analysis was still fine.

Hmm. :)

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So, who's been up to what lately?

cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

Re: cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

Re: cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

that was fun but Re: cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

Re: that was fun but Re: cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss

Re: that was fun but Re: cn: discussion of desirability of weight loss