Take care of yourself

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

No squat rack. I just have the rack on the bench.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

OK ... I did work out in a gym for a while where I didn't have a squat rack, just a couple of benches. Luckily, I'm only 5-foot-6. I could keep the bar on the bench rack, sit under the bar and lift it up.

That was fine when I was at a moderate weight but you really do need a squat rack for getting heavy.

Now, for your abs. Get 'em done in five minutes.
You'll do a cycle of four sets, each at 30 seconds. No rests in between. Take a one-minute break, do it again. And tell me you don't feel it.

1. Toe touches (lie on back, raise legs to perpendicular with body, extend arms toward toes and crunch up to touch your toes)

2. Extension crunch (from toe touch position, extend arms out over your head and legs straight, do not touch floor, raise back up to toe touch position, repeat)

(it's called a double-leg stretch in pilates)
3. Windshield wipers (raise yourself up on your elbows, get legs in pike position, drop from side to side, CONTROL is important, your legs should resemble a windshield wiper)

(video shows hanging windshield wipers ... you can get the idea)
4. Figure 8s (maintain pike position, instead of wiper movement, draw figure 8 with your feet, legs never drop to touch the floor)
... nuts, couldn't find a vid clip.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Yesterday
Crossfit's "Elizabeth": Full-squat clean 135 pounds, ring dips, 21-15-9. I can't clean 135, and I don't have rings, so I did 95-pound cleans and regular dips (the site says do three regular dips as a substitute for every ring dip, meaning 63, 45 and 27, which is just plain nuts). I did the 21-15-9. I'd still be there today if I had to do 135 total dips.

Anyway, got through it in a slow-ass 17:25. My god, those full-squat cleans are a cardio bitch. By the time I got done with "Elizabeth," I was soaked. And with that, I called it a day.

Joe

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Thanks. I really appreciate your help, even if you didn't get my tattoo joke. So do you think these are better than bicycle crunches? Because I saw two sites that suggested them. Admittedly, I didn't spend a lot of time searching. I'm sure I could have found a suggestion for almost every ab exercise in existence.

Today was an off day, and I was too busy to do much. But I did about 60 extension crunches. It definitely works. I did notice that I can't hold my legs together very well. My knees were about six inches apart. Also, my back popped a lot. I guess it's old age. I really want to work on my back, and I am. But it's a long process.

I think I'll do the extension crunches as often as possible and work in some of the other suggestions. Is it okay to work abs every day? I've talked to a few people who do them three times a week. I have enough free time to spend 10 minutes a day on them. But I don't want to overwork them. I'm assuming they work much the same as other muscles.

With squats, I just bought two dumb bell bars. It cost me a whopping $12. I can use the weights from my bench and increase my squat weight quite a bit. It was either that or dropping $30-$50 every time I move up to a bigger dumb bell. The bars look like they'll be a little more awkward to use than the solid steel dumb bells. But it's a concession I had to make since I'm working outside of a gym.

I threw some pitches to my son today and played at the park. I noticed I'm quite a bit faster and have more stamina. I think I'm almost ready to start running. I'm just waiting a few more weeks because I don't want my first run to be my last.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Bicycle crunches have long been respected as the best abdominal exercise. I think I saw one study refuting that once but it was a while ago ... thing with me is I have exercise ADD, so to speak. I get bored and I find this circuit keeps me challenged.

And yes, you can work abs every day, although EOD, you switch it up ... try lateral (side bends) and hip flexion (crunches) exercises on day, rotational (woodchoppers) and isometric (planks) the next.



Joe, I finally did one of your nutty Crossfit series tonight, thanks to the urging of my trainer. After doing push on Saturday and pull on Sunday, I took a Monday break and hit it hard tonight.

25 floor wipers to warm up
1 mile
100 pullups (assisted ... first 70 at a 110 drop, next 30 at a 130 drop)
200 pushups (managed to do almost half of them without dropping to my knees)
300 air squats
1 mile (no way I was running on the treadmill, I hit the elliptical)

I did rounds of 10 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 airs quats, 10 pushups, 15 air squats. By the fifth round, I thought I was crying but it was just the sweat pooling in my eyes. By the seventh round, I thought I was going to give up but soldiered on. By the eighth round, I was sure there was going to be ground turkey and spinach pasta rollups all over the assisted pullup machine. By the ninth round, I was in a weird kind of delusional haze and just managed to keep going until I finished all 600 friggin' exercises.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Flash!

Yeah, that's the "Murph" I did on Sunday. Freaking brutal. (By the way, the Navy announced yesterday that a new ship in production will be named the USS Michael Murphy. He was a SEAL who was awarded, posthumously, the Medal of Honor after serving in Afghanistan.) It's a seriously hardcore workout, one of the three or four toughest I've done.

Great job. I'll make you a convert yet.

Joe

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

It took me 50 minutes to get through all 10 rounds.

I would never use Crossfit as a day-to-day training tool. I enjoy -- and find my body responds better to -- conventional strength training with interval-style cardio.

However, a similar effort (Jared designed a 300 for me for next week) is not out of the realm of possibility to shock the body every few weeks or so.

Currently, I'm on a push-pull-SHOCK for two weeks. Then I have four weeks of strength training. Then back to PPS for two weeks and four weeks of ST.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I finally took the time to see what an assisted pull=up looks like. Maybe some day. Not now. Does Crossfit have a program for beginners? I'll have to go there and check it out.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

If you want to crossfit, just scale the exercises to what you can do. When I first started four months ago, I used assisted pullups from 18 pounds to 78 pounds to get through 100. Now I don't use the assisted thing at all.
And don't try the workout of the day stuff yet. Give yourself a couple of months to get acclimated before jumping into them. I've only been doing them regularly for about a month and a half.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Probably about time I made a post about my workout regiment on this thread.

I finally adjusted my program today. I've been doing the same for too long and I've known it was time to shake things up, but it was just too easy to keep going with the same routine.

What I had been doing was working two body parts every time (i.e. shoulders and tris or back and legs, etc.). I'd do five different exercises for each body part and do three sets of each exercise. I was doing heavier weights and less reps. I would spend about an hour-1:15 in the gym, taking short breaks in between sets. I saw big gains at first and while I plateaued a few times I was going up in weight and still seeing some gains, but I knew it was time for a change.

So today I finally took the plunge. It'll probably be a work in progress for a little while, but the plan is to do four body parts a day (i.e. today was shoulders, back, tris and abs, tomorrow will be chest, bis, legs and abs). I did three different exercises for each body part today and three sets of each exercise. I haven't figured out exactly what I'll be doing weight-wise. I'm starting out at what I've been doing, though I know I'll be more fatigued so I'll just play it by ear as a I go. I basically tried to do one cycle of the four body parts X 3 sets each today without resting. Then I'd take a break, do the second cycle. Then another break and the third cycle. I was pretty good about not resting more than a few seconds going from exercise to exercise, though I couldn't help it during the third cycle. End result was that I sweat more than I probably ever have at the gym, I was done in 45 minutes (and actually did more work than I did when I was there for 15-30 minutes more) and I legit felt like I was going to throw up towards the end and for about a half hour after.

All in all I think this will be a good change and a necessary one. If anyone wants more specific info about what types of exercises I'm doing I'll be happy to share, but I just don't want to bore people with it if they aren't interested. It's basically 99% free weight stuff with dumbbells or barbells.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Which version did you see?

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Today, fucking running again.
Four half-miles. I rested three minutes between each one. In order, 3:16, 3:13, 3:09, 3:07. The first time this workout came up, on 4/1/08, my best half-mile was 3:17. I fucking hate running. I don't know how Ragu does it. And there go a couple of running knuckleheads across the street.

Knees to elbows (10), pushups (15), five rounds in 8:02. Brutal after the running, and the sweat poured off me.

Back extentions, 20, 15, 15.

Boobie, post whatever the hell you want. I want to read it.

Joe