Exercise & Fitness VII

[cjfshaw]

Flush out?

I would imagine it means a lot of movement using low weight with the purpose of getting blood flow to the area.

[lessthanluke]

I would imagine it means a lot of movement using low weight with the purpose of getting blood flow to the area.

Makes sense.

[Greywolf2375]

I would imagine it means a lot of movement using low weight with the purpose of getting blood flow to the area.

yep, this. Works well too - noticed a large difference in the amount of soreness I experience.

[Stego]

I can't squat due to my back. I do leg extensions as part of trying to make up for it and have for years. And I have very big, strong legs. I don't say that lightly. I don't have trunks like a 1klb squatter or a pro bodybuilder, but certainly the next step down.

[lessthanluke]

I can't squat due to my back. I do leg extensions as part of trying to make up for it and have for years. And I have very big, strong legs. I don't say that lightly. I don't have trunks like a 1klb squatter or a pro bodybuilder, but certainly the next step down.

Just because you do leg extensions and have big legs does not make them a good exercise. Just sayin.

[Vestrit]

Personally, I don’t normally do leg extensions, for the reasons that I don’t normally do any isolation exercises: I’m not a body-builder or in the weights room for aesthetic/’beach weights’ reasons. So I’d rather get through some compound exercises and go home than waste time (IMO) with vanity weights or lifts that just work on one muscle/ muscle group.

But I can see the value in them, particularly since I’ve having to do them and leg curls as rehab exercises at the moment to isolate the muscles and not put too much stress on the joint. Definitely got a place in rehab.

And if you can’t squat or deadlift properly due to injury, then you’ve got to have some options. Leg press, leg ext, leg curls. Better than doing nothing.

If you’re a body builder or doing mass-building, I can’t see that it hurts to isolate those muscles and giving them a little extra work. Similarly if your goal is to lose fat, and I’m guessing here, I assume it’s worth working the quads a little extra work, what with them being a pretty big muscle group.

That said, I assume one danger with leg extensions might be that people get caught up in doing them because quads are a show muscle and then don’t do curls, because hamstrings aren’t, and you get strength and mass imbalances in the leg.

[ztemhead]

yeah, I got ya. good input everybody. to restate, probably the big reason I want to do leg extensions is because I suck at them, and have a nagging suspicion that this hinders me in other areas. Using Vestrit's formula above, I'm way out of balance the other way, that is I can proportionally do much more curls than extensions.

But if y'all say don't worry about it, I won't worry about it. Powerlifter guy and doctor guy both didn't seem as though I'd be missing much.

No workout yesterday. I did a long stretching session followed by some quality time in the hot tub. I always need a day off after legs day.

[cjfshaw]

I assume one danger with leg extensions might be that people get caught up in doing them because quads are a show muscle and then don’t do curls, because hamstrings aren’t, and you get strength and mass imbalances in the leg.

Leg extensions are actually what I've been told to do by my doctor and old coach, specifically b/c they strengthen the quad and not the ham, and running a lot does the opposite. It's a common solution to knee pain in runners, to workout the quad. I've used leg extensions for it and the problem cleared up pretty quick.

[lessthanluke]

But I can see the value in them, particularly since I’ve having to do them and leg curls as rehab exercises at the moment to isolate the muscles and not put too much stress on the joint. Definitely got a place in rehab.

Leg extensions put more stress on the knee than squats. Machines like that are what will mess your joints up.

[Stego]

leg extensions definitely put a lot more stress on the knee than squats.

Unfortunately, squats put a lot of st4rain on the back.

[Mudguard]

Did a 10 mile hike with 6000' gain along Yucaipa Ridge, traversing from Galena to Little San Gorgonio. Probably the hardest 10 mile hike I've ever done. Very steep, and essentially all of it cross country on rugged terrain. Lot's of scrambling on loose terrain, plus some class 3 rock climbing. Took about 9 hours to hike 10 miles...

Was planning to hike in the San Gabriels, but the smoke from the wildfires changed our plans. Unfortunately, a fire popped up near Yucaipa Ridge while we were hiking. It's very sad to see huge sections of the mountains just burn up. Well over 100,000 acres in the San Gabriels have been burnt, and it's still out of control.

[Vestrit]

Leg extensions put more stress on the knee than squats. Machines like that are what will mess your joints up.

Sorry, should have been clearer with what I was saying there

In the normal course of things, I’d favour squats ahead of leg extensions, both because it’s a much better exercise and because of what you say about stress on the joint. Particularly when doing machine leg extensions

At the moment however, the physios don’t want me doing heavy squats because they don’t want me putting that much weight through the joint surface, given that effectively I’ve just had it resurfaced. They’re also being careful about how much instability the atrophy in that leg, and the quads in particular, could cause when performing a squat. Instead of traditional squats, I'm doing wall slides with a swiss ball and relatively light medicine balls

Also, instead of heavy squats, I’m doing open-kinetic-chain leg extensions – not on the machine but sitting at the end of a bench with weights strapped to the ankle. I’ve found these to have pretty much no stress on the joint, but then I’m doing them with very low weights (3kg)

Similarly, I’d normally not do curls on a machine for the hammies. I’d do Romanian and straight-leg deadlifts, or either the GHB/Russian curls that Liffguard posted or Swiss ball hamstring curls.

At the moment, I’m doing curls seated with a cable strapped to my ankle rather than on a traditional curl machine (which I’ve always found quite tough on my knees). Again, not find much stress on the joint there, I guess because the leg isn't being forced back up to full extension at the start of each rep

[Vethnar]

So when you are doing my completely hum-drum hamstring stretch that I cannot believe people have never seen before (the one lying on the floor, with the belt? BTW I did not invent this--it's a yoga posture)

I was the one who coined the phrase "seastarr's famous hamstring stretch". I had seen it before, but never paid much attention to it. It was just one among many hamstring stretches I had seen, and I saw no particular reason to try it before I saw you recommending it here. When I read that post, I decided to try doing that particular stretch every day, and see how it worked. Progress has been frustratingly slow, but consistent and noticeable. I never had similar success with other stretches. Perhaps this is only because I've never been stretching so consistently before, it's hard to be sure.

I know you didn't invent it, but it's not at all unusual that inventions are named after the person who popularized it rather than after the inventor. At least here on this board, that stretch will always be known as SFHS.

More later. Vethnar I have ideas about your hamstrings, but not enough time to express them well.

No problem. You have already helped a lot. :)

Brief injury update: I seem to be recovering faster than expected. The leg doesn't hurt much, and I can walk almost without limping now.

[Vethnar]

Bloody hell, I came on here to give an injury update and ended up writing a thesis on quad:hamstring strength ratios :P

And what an interesting thesis that was! Thanks for taking the time to write it. I'll try comparing my leg curls to my leg extensions (I normally don't do either exercise) as soon as my leg is ready for the task.

I'm glad to see that your recovery is progressing, too!

[Vethnar]

Ultramarathons and the people who run them are insane.

They are. I love this story:

http://www.my-inspirational-quotes.com/ins...pires-a-nation/

[cjfshaw]

They are. I love this story:

http://www.my-inspirational-quotes.com/ins...pires-a-nation/

Nice!

[ztemhead]

preliminary creatine critique: yesterday I had a really good workout after drinking some. My energy level was at a nice even state the whole time. I felt good. :thumbsup:

[Xray the Enforcer]

I took two days off (Wed. and today) to give my poor body time to deal with the increased exercise load. I was moving very, very slowly yesterday and I'm still sore today. Will be going back to the gym tomorrow (upper body + cardio), though, because I should be mostly recovered by then. Gods, my glutes hurt!

[Vestrit]

I took two days off (Wed. and today) to give my poor body time to deal with the increased exercise load. I was moving very, very slowly yesterday and I'm still sore today. Will be going back to the gym tomorrow (upper body + cardio), though, because I should be mostly recovered by then. Gods, my glutes hurt!

Good stuff!

My glutes were in agony on Tuesday night, when the DOMS from my Monday morning rehab workout hit

And then I went and did it all again this morning.

Physios are a touch worried though, as there's quite a bit of fluid in the joint at the moment and that shouldn't be happening.

So instead of packing up and going after my workout this morning, I had to lie on the treatment bed with ice strapped onto my knee for 15 minutes. Wasn't too bad, I got to have a wee snooze

[cjfshaw]

Went for a drink with the prof and some classmates yesterday, then I immediately went out for a run on the Art Museum steps (the rocky ones). That was a terribly idea, just FYI.