Exercise and Fitness VI

[Lord of Oop North]

For all your skipping fans, I just came back from jumping rope in the park, which is very meadow-like.

Lots of improvement. Working my way towards a consistent set of double unders. I do not like sucking at things, so I have been practicing them very often. I seem to have the timing down,until I try and maintain it over the long term. Don't think it has anything to do with wrist strength, because they don't seem to be fatiguing from twirling the rope. Years of swinging a hammer has made them nearly infatigable (Get your mind out of the gutter :P ) I am thinking that perhaps my legs just can't jump fast enough. Doing it for twenty minutes also doesn't help, I imagine. Heh.

[Liffguard]

I've found that problems with double-unders are rarely about either forearm strength or leg speed but usually more about simple rhythm. A lot of the time I actually end up overdoing it, either jumping too high or spinning the rope too fast and losing the synchronisation in my jump. I don't have any specific advice, just try to relax and maybe worry less about speed and power and more about rhythm.

[Stego]

So I can't squat.

I am stuck doing wuss exercises for my legs. For life.

So fuck it, I wanted to do them well. I did a set of ten leg presses with 11 plates on each side yesterday. Broke a thousand pounds on the machine, though it isn't lifting that much. (I forget the percentage you are actually lifting.) Doesn't matter. I felt strong as fuck. Pretty motivating.

Nothing on me looks all that big, IMO. I don't look like a large man at all. Except for my legs. My legs are fucking ginormous.

Liking it.

Also, overheard in the Stego house today:

Me: Whatcha watchin?'

Wife: 'The end of the Tour de France."

I glance over and see the riders from the rear.

Me: 'I didn't know they had a Tour De France for women.'

Wife: 'I think those are the guys.'

Me: 'oh.'

Wife. 'yeah.'

[Vethnar]

Explosiveness and agility above and beyond even what the clean will give you. Also, a very strong posterior chain with an additional nice focus on the traps, rhomboids and delts. Oh yeah, and it helps to develop upper-body flexibility especially in the shoulders.

Thanks. It definitely sounds like something I should learn, even though it looks a bit scary. I just hope I'll manage to find a coach. It seems that few people are interested in olympic lifts around here. :angry:

[Stego]

We did chest day today and I have a pump that is borderline painful. With the increased weight I've been using, I can definitely feel the effect on my CNS. I don't recover as quickly form heavier sets.

[Liffguard]

Another forum that I occasionally post on just posted an awesome bodyweight/kettlebell circuit for muscular endurance and cardio. It was specifically designed for grappling but it'll work for anyone looking to develop functional fitness.

Anyway, here it is.

[Lord of Oop North]

Me: 'I didn't know they had a Tour De France for women.'

Wife: 'I think those are the guys.'

Me: 'oh.'

Wife. 'yeah.'

:lol:

Another forum that I occasionally post on just posted an awesome bodyweight/kettlebell circuit for muscular endurance and cardio. It was specifically designed for grappling but it'll work for anyone looking to develop functional fitness.

Anyway, here it is.

Today is supposed to be my rest day, but I am feeling antsy and may try this.

[Vethnar]

Some of us are just trying for good overall general health; not Ms. Bodybuilder of the Year awards :P

The thread does take all fitness levels, from Olympic lifts to "can only do treadmill/walk around the block"...and that's ok.

Oops, you just helped me realize that what I wrote in my previous post was easily misunderstood. When I wrote "... around here", I meant around where I live, and not here on this message board. There isn't much interest in olympic lifts where I live, which makes it difficult to find a coach.

Like you, I appreciate that this thread has participants of widely different ambitions and fitness levels, and the many helpful and knowledgeable participants.

On the "just trying for good overall general health" vs "Bodybuilder of the Year" scale, I'm a lot closer to the former than the latter, by the way. :)

[lessthanluke]

Fuck. 4 weeks into smolov and its going great and now today I wake up and feel terrible. Bad stomach, headache and was jsut sick. I hope it clears up quickly.

[seastarr]

I am graduating to the 12 kg kettlebell. I have to go talk to the grouchy Armenian guy to go get my new KB. He made fun of me last time because I asked for the smallest one he had. (8kg)

Maybe he will be nicer now that I am stronger.

Today: pilates mat including the one leg and one arm push ups at the end. One leg=no problem. One arm=sad and feeble.

Feeling low today: puffy, fleshy, and grumpy. Probably I should go jump rope or do cardio for a long time.

[The White Wolf]

I did an 18 miler today and passed a big milestone. Since the summer before my freshman year of high school, I have logged 40,000 miles in a little more than 16 years and over 60 pairs of running shoes, finishing with 40,003 today. I would like to brag I have more miles than my car, but alas, my car is up over 100,000 so I have a ways to go.

[cjfshaw]

I did an 18 miler today and passed a big milestone. Since the summer before my freshman year of high school, I have logged 40,000 miles in a little more than 16 years and over 60 pairs of running shoes, finishing with 40,003 today. I would like to brag I have more miles than my car, but alas, my car is up over 100,000 so I have a ways to go.

Lol, ridiculous man, nice job!

[Mudguard]

I did an 18 miler today and passed a big milestone. Since the summer before my freshman year of high school, I have logged 40,000 miles in a little more than 16 years and over 60 pairs of running shoes, finishing with 40,003 today. I would like to brag I have more miles than my car, but alas, my car is up over 100,000 so I have a ways to go.

Wow, nice job. That's dedication! That's enough miles to go around the world a couple times I think.

[Stego]

I have logged 40,000 miles in a little more than 16 years and over 60 pairs of running shoes, finishing with 40,003 today.

That is fucking amazing. And your avatar has a stegosaurus in it.

You are my hero.

[Nichole]

I went on two hikes over the weekend. I'm hoping to be able to post some pics because it was gorgeous.My legs are sore today, but in a good way. Unfortunately, the bugs attacked me and now I'm itching horribly. I had to run an errand during lunch so I couldn't do my workout today.

[ztemhead]

good work, WW!

Because I've felt in a bit of a rut lately I've been doing the workout poster from this month's Men's Health. Say what you will, but it's cheaper than a personal trainer, and it's been good for my brain to have to concentrate on something new rather than just doing the same old stuff. Romanian deadlifts and standing rows are both things I've never done before that are proving a challenge to develop proper form.

tommorrow is a challenge day. I have in mind to jog an 8 mile loop as my last workout before vacation. :)

And I'm pleased to say I've met my fitness goal for vacation. Now I can go bugger off around the country for eight days of excessive eating and drinking.

question for the weightlifters here: pyramid everything, or are there some exercises you just do straight 3 sets of whatever at the same weight?

[Vethnar]

Wow, nice job. That's dedication! That's enough miles to go around the world a couple times I think.

Not quite. The circumference of Earth, like so much else, is much easier with metric units. The meter was originally defined as one ten millionth of the distance from the North pole to the equator. Hence the circumference of the Earth is almost exactly 40,000 kilometers. Because there are about 1,609 meters in a mile, The White Wolfe's 40,000 miles are only enough to go around the world 1.609 times.

Still very impressive, of course. Well done, WW!

:thumbsup:

[Vethnar]

I've never tried the snatch. It looks cool, but very difficult. Is it worth learning (with a coach, of course)?

After studying lots of articles and videos on the net, I decided to try power snatches today, even without a coach. I basically did them just like power cleans, with a few obvious adjustments (much wider grip, higher jumping position, catching the bar above the head instead of racking it on the shoulders). It seemed to work OK, and was quite fun. I used only an empty bar today, and will try to add weights very slowly until I feel confident about my technique.

With some more practice, I will have another explosive exercise added to my repertoire. The explosive exercises are always the most fun, and the ones I do best at. My body was built to move moderately heavy objects at high speeds, not to move extremely heavy objects at low speeds. :)

[Whitestripe]

Super annoyed here. My foot has been sore for a few weeks. It started hurting on my way home from a bike ride. I called the podiatrist (I have really bad feet) it took another week to get me in. Had my appt today. They took and x-ray and... you guessed it... broken! G_D DAMN it hurts! Of course, now I'm off it for a month. Pisser. Just when my @ss was starting to look good again.

And yes, I have been walking around on a broken foot for two weeks, without realizing it was, in fact, broken. I even took a (very short) hike in Lake Placid last weekend.

[OctopusArms]

question for the weightlifters here: pyramid everything, or are there some exercises you just do straight 3 sets of whatever at the same weight?

I try to increase every set, but if I find that my form is starting to break down or I don't think I can make the number of reps I'm going for on the next set, I'll stay where I'm at.

Also, if I failed to get the required number of reps the last time I did a particular workout, I'll use the last weight I could do.

For example: about a month ago, I was doing my first 4x8 upper body day and it went like this for chest press: 50x8, 60x8, 70x8, 75x6. My next 4x8 day, two weeks later, went like this: 75x8, 75x8, 75x8, 80x7.