And I think that's honestly the biggest key to getting into shape! You have to have excess ambition. If you don't you're probably going to give up after a week or two, and that's just as bad as never getting started. On the subject of weights, I started changing my program last night. I introduced a superset into the routine. Man, rough stuff. I have a video of dumbell exercises, so I started checking it last night. The first exercise I did was called hip thrusts. It's kind of wierd to explain. My wife looked at me like I had two heads when I told her, but I'll give it a shot here. You hold the dumbell with both hands, hanging between your legs. You legs should be bent about halfway into a squat. From there, you keep your arms loose, doing no work, but you thrust your hips forward, which swings the dumbell out in front of you. It sounds silly, but when I did it, I realized there's muscles in my legs and groin area that haven't been worked yet. I couldn't walk last night at all. The superset I introduced was a squat, curl, and press. You hold a dumbell in each hand, both down at your sides. Move down into a full squat, then come up. When you're back into standing, you curl both weights simultaneously up to your shoulder. From there, press them straight up into the air. Bring them back down to the top of the curl, then back down your side, and back into the squat. Rinse, repeat. This one didn't hurt too much, since I've been doing all three individually already. Doing them all at once really gets the heart pumping though. Supersets are advised for people who are already used to some exercise, since you use far more muscles in the same set. Good luck getting into a program vins! Congrats on making the right choice for your life!
OK I tried a variation of it last night. Unfortunately I had to take more breaks than I wanted in order to finish. I started with some sprint interval training and that really killed me, so I had to take a few mins and have soem water before getting back into it. Also, I do plan to continue with my normal weight routine, so I have to find a way to mix in both. Right now, I am feeling OK, not too sore surprisingly...so I will try again tonight...but I will be doign the running plus weight workouts too for my legs, so I am sure it will be more soreness-inducing...
Good work man! Glad to see you are doing it now. Don't worry about taking longer breaks the first week or two. Your body has to get used to this new type of labor. You'll get there, just stick with it. What is your normal weight routine? Does it vary so much from the stuff I've outlined? Keep in mind, I do a weight routine every night (albeit with dumbells right now, but as soon as I get my bench, I'll be doing that as well.) It's the process that causes the quicker change. The interval training builds the muscle faster than traditional ways. (In the case of weight training, taking long breaks between sets, only working on certain muscle groups certain days, etc.) This system is designed to be dynamic, to approach the experience of the "hunter" for more evolutionary-based conditioning.
Last night I worked back and biceps, so I ran first to get the heart rate up, the went into the gym and did leg stuff and: Rows 3x10 Lat. Pulldowns 3x10 Rows on Hammer Strength machine 3x10 Shrugs 3x12 Bar Curls, standing 3 sets Dumbell curls on incline bench, 3 sets Hammer Curls, 3 sets standing Abs Tonight I will run again then do: Legs (squats and calf raises) Bench Incline bench Military press Front shoulder raises Lateral raises Triceps (headcavers and pulldowns) Abs
It's really simple: Stress positions. Don't do reps. Hold your weights (lower weight than normal obviously, at most half of your usual weight) in place for various contraction lengths of your muscles for several minutes. It hurts like hell when you do it but within a week your biceps, triceps, deltoids and brachiali will be huge. Like I said it doesn't really do anything for strength but you look ripped. It isn't what I'm aiming for though. I can outline specific positions for each muscle later if you want. I can only truly isolate the bicep and the deltoid, I haven't figured out a way to completely isolate the tricep or the brachialis. I'll figure it out eventually.
That's actually a very nice looking complete workout. I don't know if there's other exercises that you do, but if there aren't, I'd suggest some sort of a deadlift to work your lower back and hamstrings (stiff-legged). Otherwise, you've pretty much covered every major muscle group.
I am hoping I can work off the beers I drank last night...I have been trying to limit my intake but last nite I was with a couple buddies and downed more than I wanted to....I hope my progress isn't screwed now...
Okay, cool. My father used to make me do that. (It was more to learn discipline than for muscle, but whatever.) I might try that. Maybe once a week in lieu of my regular program. Here's an idea on the triceps. What I do to isolate them when working with weights, I extend my arm straight into the air, so my elbow is almost fully straight, and my fist is pointed at the ceiling. I then bend the elbow, so that my hand is coming down towards my back. I bring the weight all the way down to my shoulder, so that my elbow is bent as much as possible, then push the weight back up again. Maybe this would work with your method? The Brachialis I don't have any advice for really. Maybe resting your elbow on your knee, with a weight in your hand, and using just your wrist to lift? Not too many angles, but I would think there would still be enough pressure on the forearm to do the job.
Yeah, the only exercise I would suggest adding is squats. A new exercise in my new superset workout I just introduced to myself is to hold a dumbell in each hand. Go down into a squat, then come up, curl both arms, then press them to the sky. Go backward until you're back into a squat, and repeat for the set. It works a lot of muscle groups in the same set. I have read doing it with a barbell as well. I haven't tried it though, so I can't give any advice. (The one change would be to lift the barbell to your chest, rather than the dumbells out to your shoulders.) I'm not great on terminology, but I believe it's called a Squat Clean and Press, can anyone verify?
Don't worry about it. I went out drinking last night too. Just keep working. Use last night as motivation to work a little harder today. Put in an extra 10 minutes, and let the workout speak for itself. Don't find reasons to fail. That's the surefire way to make failure occur. Keep going man, I know you can do it!
I got back to the gym yesterday...actually went out yesterday afternoon and bought a squash raquet and a ball....played for the first time last night...it is fun but I need a bit more of a challenge if it is gonan give me any real cardio work, cuz I played against my girlfriend. Still gotta work on the diet but damn, its hard....I think the idea is to not have the bad stuff around, then it is alot easier to avoid...
Well, exercise is exercise, regardless of the competition. As for the diet, yeah, the easiest thing is just not buying it in the first place. If it's not there, you can't eat it. Buy fruit at the supermarket, so that's your only option for a snack.
Anterior raises are crap. Cut them out of your routine and substitute them with bent over posterior raises.
I like them....and I find that my anterior delts are pretty pronounced. I do them because I can't do shit for military press because my shoulders will sublux from nothing (due to rotator cuff damage and cartilage tears), so I have to go super super light on any overhead presses. To try and still build my shoulders I have been doing lateral raises and anterior raises. I know i need ot get the rear delt work in there...but what is it that's so bad about the front raises?
They're unnecessary. Aside from the fact that the anterior delts receive enough stimulation from many other excercises, it just isn't that good a lift itself to begin with. I don't understand your post concerning overhead presses, either... if you're medically cleared to lift, and the injuries have healed, you should be fine. On the other hand, if they're still raw, then you probably shouldn't be doing much lifting in the first place. You should look into incorporating other shoulder exercises, like face pulls or upright rows, too.
I would argue that posterior raises are a waste of time as well because any sort of rowing motion you do will hit those pretty decently. However, it all depends on each individual, if he feels that his front delts are a weakness, then maybe front raises are necessary. Also, history of rotator cuff injury = don't do upright rows
Not to the same degree, though, so it's not quite applicable. Posterior raises aren't done as much in a rowing motion as they are in a 'reverse fly' motion. Not to mention that the posterior delt is one tricky little bugger to isolate, whereas most nearly any upper body excercise incorporates at least some degree of use of the anterior delt. In that respect, I sort of liken the anterior delts to the forearms. But yeah, good call on the rotator cuff/upright rows point (though my previous question toward jtuds in my post still stands).
My strength program started monday. I tested a 4.22 shuttle run, 7'10'' long jump, 1.39 10 yard sprint and a 26 inch vertical. Hopefully all these will go up as I learn the correct techniques and whatnot. And eating right sucks balls.
Hey all! Happy Hump Day! Today, simply because of the personal irony of the situation, I want to discuss something I really haven't gotten into previously. (Mostly because I really didn't look into it enough previously.) The subject is the post-workout meal. I just began mixing smoothies yesterday. Turns out the slop I made was disgusting, and not really the right thing to drink, but it was a start. Anyway, this morning I received an e-mail from a list I'm subscribed to with some interesting info. Here it is: Okay, so I made a smoothie consisting of a slew of ingredients. (Not the best idea, as you'll probably agree.) The recipie: 2 bananas 6oz vanilla yogurt (low-fat) 7 scoops of Whey Protein (vanilla) 4 large strawberries 1 "handful" of blueberries 1 "handful" of cashews 1oz granola with berries 4oz milk I threw all of that in the blender and whipped it up. It started off mostly white, and ended a sort of pinkish mud color. It didn't taste particularly bad, but it was pretty far from delicious. Not to mention, I had to more "eat" it than drink it. Anyway, that was my first foray into smoothies, and I think it's interesting that the research shows that drinking them is actually more important that starving yourself afterward. (I know someone had mentioned this earlier in the thread, and that's what got me motivated to start drinking them myself. This e-mail's timing was great in reaffirming the importance of this "meal.") I have to say, I feel better. I actually drank it before I worked out, so I'll change that tomorrow morning. Today I didn't feel that ridiculous hunger I've been suffering through every day. (I don't know if it's psychological or not, but my muscles actually feel "better" as though they aren't fighting me for something. I usually feel like my muscles are "starving" for something post-workout, until I eat something a few hours later post-morning-workout.) ------------------------------ Something else I'd like to share is to exercise whenever, and wherever you can! I was thinking about this as I was coming to work this morning. I have been dropping my kids off at school in the morning for the past few months, since my wife is supposed to be confined to bedrest. Unfortunately, my kids go to school a 15 minute ride from where we live. Anyway, I saw a woman that I see once in while walking down the main stretch of the longest street I follow to the school this morning. The street she is walking down is up and down with hills, and it's QUITE a distance between the intersecting streets with bus stops. I've seen her often enough to know she's walking the entire stretch every morning to a bus stop she doesn't need to. She could quite easily get on a bus much closer to where she's coming from, and not have to walk. But that's the point. It's an OPPORTUNITY. So anyway, I dropped my car off at home, and got on the train afterward. When I got to my station, I came to the stairwell to street level. Rather than just slug along up the stairs, I took that opportunity to do a sort of modified lunge workout climbing the stairs. Basically, I used my front leg to do the work. Stepping up with my left leg, I fully bent it at the knee, and used it to push myself up the stair, rather than bringing my right leg up. I then repeated the same thing with the right leg. I could really feel the work my muscles were doing. A simple opportunity to get a quick workout! (Keep in mind, this fits in very well with the Hunter scenario. Quick bursts of work at sporadic intervals during the day.) Afterward, I thought about all of the times during the day I do simple things to get in quick spurts of work. When getting out of my chair, I put my hands on the armrests, and push. Sort of a modified dip. I also take the opportunity quite often to stretch. (This deserves some extra stress here. Get up from your chair at least once every hour and fifteen minutes. Sitting in an office chair for 8 hours is hell on your body, and that's not even from a fitness standpoint. Look away from your monitor every 15 minutes as well. Preserve your eyesight!) ------------------------------ Okay, I think that's enough to discuss right now. Anyone have some good smoothie recipies? Advice on finding mini-workouts during the day? Let's hear them!
I have injuries from the past that were never properly rehabbed. When I was in my teens I pitched and threw way harder than I should have, and never did any cool down afterwards. That stretched muscles in my shoulder and caused some laxity in the ligaments/rotator cuff tendons around the joint. From playing high school and university football I have separated both shoulders, so that worsened the laxity (to the point where I can sublux from throwing a frisbee hard or trying to swing overhead with a badminton or tennis raquet, or overhand serve a volleyball). I tore my right AC joint partially when I went into the boards head first playing hockey, so my right clavicle is not and tight to my right scapula as it should be. Basically, as strong as I make my shoulders, they are not stable. So, this effects my ability to do military press, because I am so wary of my shoulders giving out that I either do extremely low weight or cheat my arching my back alot. The injures haven't healed. Stretched ligaments and lax tendons really never do after a point. I wanted the surgery that re-tightens them, and know a couple people that have had it and it has worked well for them, but I was never able to get that suggested by a doc, so I have just dealt with it. They aren't raw right now, they're just nagging. They do come back around every once in a while though when I try to do something I shouldn't. It's the Coraco Humeral and Capsular for sure, and maybe the Coraco Acromial too It is really horrible, I can't even play baseball any more because putting any force into a throw can cause a subluxation. When i was competing for a spot to play corner in university I would sublux when reachign up quickly to deflect a pass....in one-on-ones.....done for the rest of practice, no way to impress coaches from the sidelines....it really is a shitty thing but I blame myself for not continuing with rehab exercises early on...
