Exercise and Fitness (M.O.R.)

[cjfshaw]

An excellent opportunity to present this workout video.

:lmao:

I thought that was a woman, then it talked. Seriously the hair and musculature was just like a fit woman. Sucks to be him.

You're not going to get strong on high reps. That's pretty much a universal rules amongst all strength coaches in every discipline. You'll get stronger on high reps than doing nothing but you won't get strong.

Sure, you're not going to be a strongman by doing lots of high reps at low weight. My point is that you do gain strength and mass, just not nearly as much. Of course now that I'm explicitly reiterating my point it sounds extra dumb b/c it's just common sense.

[cjfshaw]

Today's workout, all bodyweight, no rest between exercises, sets, or reps

3x5 of the following - step-ups (height was around knee level), lunges, split-squat, bulgarian split-squat, box pistols (got almost but not quite to 90 degrees)

[Lightning Lord]

Yesterday (Monday) was my expected day off. I felt okay, not really very tired, but thought it best to keep at least one day per week as rest.

Woke up today feeling just wretched. Sore, tired, nauseated, stuffed up...just not pleasant at all. Trying to decide about running today, condition has not improved.

Weekend was so good for training, week itself starts off so bad...

[Vethnar]

This was a depressing day.

For the benefit of new readers, and those who can't remember everything that has been posted before in the Exercise and Fitness threads, here's a brief summary of my exercise and fitness history so far:

I'm a former sprinter (I was active back in the middle of the 1990s), and have been trying to get back in shape since summer last year. My only attempt at a competitive race last year was a disaster: I pulled a hamstring. After recovering, I was only able to run for a few weeks before developing plantar fasciitis, which made it impossible to run during the winter. Fortunately, the winter still wasn't wasted, as I spent lots of time lifting. My strength and power have improved tremendously.

Recently, I've felt in very good shape. I'm lifting more than I have done since 1996, and during my first few outdoor workouts this spring (mostly stair jumping), I've felt extremely excited. It feels like they have adjusted down gravity a notch or two during the winter.

Yesterday, I had my first sprint workout with my old track and field club. Because of my injury history, I wanted to start a little carefully and didn't run quite 100%, but I still managed a manually timed 60 meters at 7.2, which isn't too bad after doing nothing but lifting for half a year. Unfortunately, this was fast enough that my team-mates managed to persuade me to run the first leg of a 4x100 relay the very next day, i.e. today. Previously, I didn't really intend to compete before near the end of the season.

Today was a cold day. At the time of the race, the temperature was only about 5 degrees Celsius (that's 41 degrees Fahrenheit, for you Americans). Cold weather, high speed, and an aging (I'm 35), poorly trained sprinter sound like a recipe for disaster. And of course, this is exactly what happened. Once again, I've pulled a hamstring, and must be prepared to rest for at least a few weeks.

:crying:

[TheLoneliestMonk]

Sorry to hear that Vethnar.

I'm comming to the end of my deployment, and since my replacement has gotten here, I've gotten a bit lazy about working out. I also did a 1 day fast, followed by a day of only fruit for some reason during which I didn't work out. Those rest days really felt like they payed off yesterday, when I played basketball for 2 hours last night, and still had the energy to go for a run in the morning :). Hopefully my lifts haven't suffered too much. I'll find that out at the gym tommorrow morning. I'm really excited to get home and be cooking for myself so that I have more control over my intake which will hopefully give me more energy.

[Lightning Lord]

Once again, I've pulled a hamstring, and must be prepared to rest for at least a few weeks.

:crying:

I'm sorry to hear that. It's a terrible thing to get back to feeling good about running and having it taken away from you. Speedy recovery mate.

[Fleeing Finn]

...

That sucks... Have you been focusing on strenghtening and increasing the mobility of your hamstrings? I'm loath to speculate the reasons for your injury over the internet but do you think you might have a muscle imbalance, i.e. excessively strong quads compared to hams? Usually sprinters require hamstring specialization in training to reduce injuries. On the other hand, this is what I said the last time and it seems it didn't help :thumbsdown:

Anyway, injuries are unavoidable no matter what you do. Speedy recovery mate, enjoy the track and the outdoor season when you get better :)

[Vethnar]

That sucks... Have you been focusing on strenghtening and increasing the mobility of your hamstrings? I'm loath to speculate the reasons for your injury over the internet but do you think you might have a muscle imbalance, i.e. excessively strong quads compared to hams? Usually sprinters require hamstring specialization in training to reduce injuries. On the other hand, this is what I said the last time and it seems it didn't help :thumbsdown:

I must confess that I haven't done the natural glute ham raises you recommended nearly as often as I should, but I don't really think I'm very quad dominant. I think the most likely reason for the injury was simply that I was trying to run too fast too early, without giving my body time to adjust. When you haven't been sprinting for a long time, it's better to start a little carefully, and then gradually increase the speed workout by workout. That's what I intended to do, but then I was persuaded to participate in this relay.

Of course, the cold weather also didn't help.

At any rate, I promise to do natural GHRs regularly from now on.

Anyway, injuries are unavoidable no matter what you do. Speedy recovery mate, enjoy the track and the outdoor season when you get better :)

Thanks! :)

I'm a little more optimistic now than I was yesterday night. I recovered surprisingly fast the last time this happened, and it feels less serious this time.

[lokisnow]

Did three circuits today. Three circuits is a lot.

1. 24:56

2. 24:30 (though I realized I forgot to do the plie squats)

3. 28.58

on a brighter note, the demon Beelzebub exercise of torture known as the static squat improved today. I managed thirty seconds on my first circuit until I had to stand up; gritted my teeth and got to 45ish seconds on my second circuit and nearly fell on my ass; then sucked it up and hammered out one minute of unadulterated pain (though I think my counting went faster too, lol) and actually did collapse at the end, as I was unable to stand. but I got to one minute on the static squat, one goal met, booyah.