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Exercise and Fitness VI


Greywolf2375

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So, I'm clearly not seastarr but I have a way too tight pelvic floor so I spend a lot of time doing groin stretches (and have spent bunches of time in physical therapy for it!). Here are the ones that I do:

Thanks, BJ! I'll give the ones I don't do a try tonight, though that last one hurts my groin just looking at it.

Thanks to you, too, seastarr! I was doing a variation on that stretch, but keeping the bottom leg on the ground and just sort of hovering my top leg in the air. It didn't seem to be doing anything. I'll give this a try tonight.

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Thanks, BJ! I'll give the ones I don't do a try tonight, though that last one hurts my groin just looking at it.

heh. yeah, you certainly don't want to hurt yourself with that last one. Really, that picture shows someone really flexible. Don't shoot for that--just sit with your back against the wall and legs out, and then make a V with your legs only so far as you can.

You could also try a deep(ish) lunge. This shows a couple of variations: http://www.iyogalife.com/tight-muscles/Spring_Stretch.php

I'm certainly no expert, sorry I can't give lovely descriptions like seastarr can! but hope that helps some.

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heh. yeah, you certainly don't want to hurt yourself with that last one. Really, that picture shows someone really flexible. Don't shoot for that--just sit with your back against the wall and legs out, and then make a V with your legs only so far as you can.

You could also try a deep(ish) lunge. This shows a couple of variations: http://www.iyogalife.com/tight-muscles/Spring_Stretch.php

I'm certainly no expert, sorry I can't give lovely descriptions like seastarr can! but hope that helps some.

I like all the stretches you posted. They are straight-forward and simple and effective. Well, some of the ones in that list above are pretty hard, actually. But they tell you the difficulty level, so that is helpful.

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I'm really sorry to hear about the bike, ztem. Bastards! :tantrum:

Yesterday my workout happened when I took my dog to the dog park. The jerk managed to open the gate and runaway. I had to sprint after him and down the street. He somehow disappeared and I spent an hour running around that neighborhood looking for him and screaming his name. I finally had to stop when I had a panic attack. (I'm sure that burned a few calories)

Luckily some nice person found him and took him to a vet where they scanned his ID chip and they called me.

Anyway, I think my thighs are slimmer. :/

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I like all the stretches you posted. They are straight-forward and simple and effective. Well, some of the ones in that list above are pretty hard, actually. But they tell you the difficulty level, so that is helpful.

thanks seastarr! I'm glad you approve! :)

I must have jinxed myself, though...last night and this morning my muscles locked up tight so at the gym I spent most of the time stretching and not as much time on the other stuff. *sigh*

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I feel like I should have done a lot more, but I imagine I'll live. :P

this is what I am LOVING about working out with The Bastard. I actually fully trust him, so I know I can push myself to real failure and still know I am safe. he's coming off of a chest surgery, I've had my issues with ligaments, etc so we're both coming into it from the same perspective. Well, cept I have no desire to be in a competition like he does.

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I did a ladder barrel workout yesterday---stretch central, in other words. I was really pushing myself on backbends because I really want to progress in my goal of getting my feet on my head. I felt great all day afterwards, until I was sitting in the movie theater watching Harry Potter and my back started to to kick in to its post-workout soreness. Nothing bad, exactly, just holy-cow-I-just-worked-my-back sore.

One thing I notice about my own back is that it is very lazy. It does the absolute minimum possible effort unless I really concentrate and put demands on it. I have a mixed relationship to big backbends---something about the position makes me a little nervous, a little disoriented, and I have to coach myself through. Part of it is the stretch of the diaphragm that makes my breath feel less deep, part of it is just the work in the muscles themselves. My guru says that competence with backbends shows you are willing to work with pain and move beyond pain, and this is true. They are effortful, they raise your heart rate rapidly, and they often are painful and uncomfortable.

Anyway, one thing this thread has done for me is helped motivate me to practice the backbends. You all are so determined and structured in your exercise. You have routines and plans and programs.

eta: apostrophes

Listening to you all, I realized I needed to get with the program on two things: lifting heavy stuff, and backbends. Those are my two least favorite things. So Tuesday is officially kettlebell day (I've done it four weeks in a row!) and Wednesday is backbends day. I'm on a schedule.

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I am...finally going to switch my leg day to lifting instead of running sprints. I figure I am going to do a slow run to get warmed up and then just do some very light streching to reduce any lingering tightness. Then I don't know if I should move directly into the weight lifting or the reaction exercises. See I figured I wanted to gain strength but keep my speed so I am going to be doing reaction exercises that my coach always used to make us do. I'm thinking I'll do the reaction stuff after the lifting, which at the moment will consist of squats, deadlifts, calf press(I think I'll use a machine for this one), and progression for an unweighted single-leg squat.

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Just finished my run. Did a shorter course - about 4.5km in about 28 mins. Planning on doing a big one in saturday - an 8.5 km, with a notorious climb the last 1.5km. If I finish 7km I'll be happy, if I finish the whole course, well, that would be swell. ;)

Wish me luck!

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This week was kind of crap. The realtor called for a reschedule right before I was about to run on Monday and I never did get to go, had a hard workout on Tuesday, but didn't properly recover on Wednesday because I had to get up at 4 am for a plane flight and then returned that evening. So I did a recovery run instead of today's planned workout. Next week, I expect my mileage to be around 45, so I'm just trying to ignore that I didn't meet this week's goals and make sure that I can make my schedule work next week.

I'm going with my aunt and uncle to Rocky Mt National Park this weekend, but I don't know how much actual hiking we'll do. They're in pretty good shape, but they're also 70ish.

Chat, good luck with with the testing. Is there a certain age when people should be tested for osteoporosis? I don't have any reason to suspect I have bone loss- I've never even had a broken bone although I've landed pretty hard before- but with no medical history, I worry that I may be unaware of inherited problems.

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Yesterday was my birthday and to celebrate I did some power cleans, high pulls and deadlifts. Afterwards I cycled to the zoo with my girlfriend and walked around until closing time. Usually near closing time the big cats come out of the shade when there aren't that much people around anymore and it's not so hot. The lynxes had a cub and the wildcats had many cubs and they came out to play just before closing. They were cute! The tigers were as impressive as ever. I really can't help but to just stare at awe at them. Donated some money to help save the tigers although I know it's useless and that tigers will become extinct in my lifetime. Lions had cubs too but didn't see them. Since this isn't a "Hey I just went to the zoo and it was awesome!"-thread, I'll shut up now. Carry on.

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Thanks for the detailed writeup seastarr. Maybe you can collect your posts and turn them into a book or online manual. I like the lotus posture, but I can't understand how you inverted your feet from the regular cross legged sitting position. For me, it would require, at a minimum, dislocating my femur from my hip. But it would be cool to do the lotus on top of a big mountain, so I'm gonna try and do it! I like a good physical challenge. For someone who isn't flexible at all, how long will this likely take? Years???

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Chats -- so sorry to hear about the bone density thing, but at least you're catching it early when you can still reverse it a bit. :(

And thanks to BJT and seastarr for the stretches. I'm officially out of the gym for at least a month (I wonder if I can recoup that month in my membership?) but in two weeks time, some low-impact stretching shouldn't be a problem. I mean, yeah, I'll ask the doctor first and all. But I don't want to completely go to seed.

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Glad you are back, Xray!

Chataya, what do you do for cardio again? (I had it in my head that you do stair climber, so I was going to suggest that you add something with more impact, since impact is part of bone-building during weight-bearing exercise. In all honesty, I've mostly heard that discussed for adolescent or young women who are still in the major bone-building phase of development--no idea how it relates to just trying to maintain what you've got and not lose more...but it may be something to look into.

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Martha, where are my baby pics?

Emilie, I really, really hope you are supplementing calcium at the very least!As long as you stop the density loss in its tracks, I'm sure you'll be fine. And if you continue with a healthy lifestyle, I really think you won't have much to worry about for a long, long time. Also, in addition to the good point that seastarr made, weight training helps build stronger bones. Your body will tell your bones to strengthen up so as to be able to handle the load. Just ensure that you have all the building blocks in you that your body is asking for.

As for my own fitness, I am taking the day off and I am a bit crushed over it. I simply think that skipping a leg day would be good for my connective tissue (which has been getting sore in my waist and knees), my back, and perhaps for my overall muscle recovery. I've been doing leg days twice a week and while I am gaining strength quickly, I don't think my recovery is good enough despite large amounts of clean food and rest. What decided it for me was that last leg day I was able to do 10 plates per side on the leg press and when I woke up this morning, the thought of doing that again today almost made me puke. I think that's my bodies way of saying it needs a break. Next Tuesday is soon enough, I think.

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I did my first crossfit workout in a while today. I just felt like adding a little variety, so I'll probably be doing a few more crossfit-style sessions and WODs in the next few weeks. Anyway, I managed 30 muscle-ups in 6 minutes 15 seconds which I'm pretty happy with.

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