New Exercise & Fitness Thead

[LacyinTX]

Thanks Stego! I will check it out. :)

[Repman]

Do you usually feel the pain after a shoulder workout or after a chest workout? If it's chest workouts, then you may want to check your form, especially on your bench press and incline presses.

If it's after a shoulder workout, then I would look into strengthening your rotator cuff. Your major shoulder muscles may be strong enough, but the supporting smaller muscles are not, and that's where the pain is coming from.

In fact, in any instance, it's most likely your rotator cuff that needs strengthening and is the cause of your pain and discomfort.

I actually tore my rotator cuff. So doing exercises to strengthen that would be ideal. I figured pull-ups and press ups would strengthen them as well.

[Fleeing Finn]

Here's my two cents on learning the olympic lifts.

If you want to do actual olympic weightlifting then learn the snatch first and the c&j second. If you just want to do some basic strength conditioning then incorporating needlessly complicated exercises like the oly lifts into the training regimen is not really worth it in my opinion. You'll only increase the risk of getting injured due to bad form. All in all I can't really recommend learning the classic lifts from any books or videos. They are too complicated and too many things can go wrong. If you truly want to learn the lifts you should get a competent coach (which might be surprisingly hard).

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Everyone should come visit me and Lacy and we can all make a pilgrimage to Wichita Falls.

In semi-related news, I really suck at the clean, and am going to try to see what help I can get on it, either at my current gym or at a more lift-centred one. Unfortunately, my gym had two Oly lifting seminars about a week after I joined, but I wasn't ready to take them then. I don't need the lifts to be Oly-class, but I need them to stop hindering me.

[wolverine]

/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_4592_A_CategoryID_E_487"]this. This high end foam roller has made all of the difference in my fitness and wellness. I would not be able to squat or deadlift without this wonderful tool. I firmly believe that. This is the particular model I use, and it is the best I have ever found.

I can not gush about it enough.

Looks like I could make that for less than $5 rather than spend $40 on it?

[Tempra]

Looks like I could make that for less than $5 rather than spend $40 on it?

Skip the padding. PVC pipe and a lacrosse ball are all you need. You can pick up both for under 10.

Prepare for pain.

[Emo Jon Snow]

I actually tore my rotator cuff. So doing exercises to strengthen that would be ideal. I figured pull-ups and press ups would strengthen them as well.

There are some very simple exercises you can do, if you tore the muscle, I am hoping that you saw a physical therapist, and if not it might be in your interest to either seek one out or just review some exercises for your rotator cuff.

Also, make sure to strenghten your entire shoulders, the most overlooked body part is the rear delt. I'd look into doing 3 sets of 2 different rear delt exercises. My personal favorites are the Seated reverse fly

and Rope face pulls

I provide 2 because I usually go heavy on a reverse fly, there are a few variations of this exercise, I always suggest switching them out every 4 weeks. The rope face pulls are exercises I would go very light with for higher reps to hit the smaller muscles in your shoulder.

[Ghosts Companion]

From the day I found out I was pregnant to today I have lost a total of 42 pounds. Now factor in that I never gained anything during my pregnancy. I in fact lost weight but then in turn gave it to the baby. So a big chunk came off when Audrey was born. It has still been a struggle since end of Jan to shed the rest.

Since I have some nasty issues with my back, hip, knees and shoulder I have to take it pretty easy and have just been using the Wii board. Now that I have gained strength in these old joints I am going to attempt running again, and hope the knees can take it.

Anyway I cant compare to you guys but I am proud of the fact that I have been able to shed the pounds and in fact weigh less than I did when I went to the LA and met lots of you.

Now if I got just get some advice on things that will strengthen my back. I have 2 large curves in my spine, with the knees and hips I never realized I was basically only using one side of my body. So I am trying to strengthen the other side of my back. Sadly I cant go anywhere to work out and can only use the Wii board and what is at home. Too hard to get away and find child care at this point. So if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.

[Stego]

Looks like I could make that for less than $5 rather than spend $40 on it?

A 40 dollar investment in your spine is not worth quibbling over.

You can make a shitty one for 5 bucks, sure. And I've used plenty. I'm broken back guy. This one is better.

Skip the padding. PVC pipe and a lacrosse ball are all you need. You can pick up both for under 10.

This is better than just PVC pipe. Works better.

The real waste of money is a chiropractor. This will replace any need for those quacks.

[LacyinTX]

Everyone should come visit me and Lacy and we can all make a pilgrimage to Wichita Falls.

Awwwww yeahhhh!

[Rubies & Jade]

While you are there, if there is one piece of fitness equipment I would recommend to every person on the planet, no matter their fitness level, it would be this. This high end foam roller has made all of the difference in my fitness and wellness. ...

I can not gush about it enough.

would you mind gushing a little more? I have seen people use these at the gym, and I've never had anyone explain to me exactly what they are doing or what is for. so, how do you use it and why? (sorry if this is a stupid question!)

I was out of town last week (no gym) and then it took me most of this week to get back to my routine. so I was at the gym this morning for the first time in almost 2 weeks (yeah me!). I've been working with a trainer on boxing (can't remember if I mentioned that here before) which is really fun-- and he's also helping me with stuff like balance that I hadn't really focused on before. right before I left he had me do squats on one of those half balls turned upside down and I couldn't do them at all without holding on to something at some point. but this morning I was able to do about 1/3 of them without touching anything. so maybe having a break now and again is a good thing! :thumbsup:

[cjfshaw]

This might be a totally ridiculous question, but I'm asking because I don't know any better and because googling has not yielded any helpful results. Does the depth of your midsection (distance from your stomach to your back is what I'm trying to say) have any bearing on deadlifts? Because whenever I see the dudes at the gym who are lifting way more than me they have gigantic torsos. Also I have no one at my gym doing deadlifts who is the same size as me so I don't know if I'm paying attention to something meaningless or not. This thought/question was brought on by the comment that my front squat number seemed unusually high for my deadlift number.

[Cantabile]

This might be a totally ridiculous question, but I'm asking because I don't know any better and because googling has not yielded any helpful results. Does the depth of your midsection (distance from your stomach to your back is what I'm trying to say) have any bearing on deadlifts? Because whenever I see the dudes at the gym who are lifting way more than me they have gigantic torsos. Also I have no one at my gym doing deadlifts who is the same size as me so I don't know if I'm paying attention to something meaningless or not. This thought/question was brought on by the comment that my front squat number seemed unusually high for my deadlift number.

Well, of course someone with a giant torso will be able to deadlift more when those giant torsos are all muscle. I've seen plenty of guys at my gym who are quite thin deadlift 300-400lbs. Just keep deadlifting and those muscles will become stronger, nothing you need to worry about :) If your front squat is about the same as your deadlift than it just means you likely have been working your legs more than your upper body, so need to even out the routine a bit more. From what I've seen most balanced lifters usually can deadlift 200lbs more than they can front squat, on average. My deadlift is twice my front squat, but I do a lot more upper body work than lower.

[wolverine]

A 40 dollar investment in your spine is not worth quibbling over.

You can make a shitty one for 5 bucks, sure. And I've used plenty. I'm broken back guy. This one is better.

What do you do with it? I have always had a pretty good back except a couple of years ago when I had a portable deerstand break and I fell 18 feet on to the middle of my back. Seem to have recovered from that though.

[Starkess]

My copy of Starting Strength came today!

I read for about 3 hours and then headed to the gym. Terrified. Fully prepared to turn around and leave at the slightest provocation.

This was my first time at this gym, it's just a little one on base, but they had what I needed so I guess that was okay. I timed it right, too, so there were only like 2 other people there. And I actually did squats, bench press, and deadlift, per Mr. Rippetoe's instructions for learning (next time I get to do the press and power clean). Insane!

When I first got there I just kind of stood there for like 5 minutes, looking around and trying to convince myself that yes, I would be able to just go up to the barbell without an imposter alarm going off or something.

I thought the squats would be the easiest, as my legs are like a bajillion times stronger than my upper body, but in fact they were the hardest. I felt like I had to go SO FAR, but I dared not stop too soon as I was thoroughly pre-chastised about that danger. Also, it felt really weird trying to make my knees do whatever they were supposed to do. But I checked and re-checked all the diagrams and pictures, and that's what I was supposed to do. Definitely felt it in my adductors or whatever. So anyway, I only managed to squat the bar, which was embarrassing, but whatever. My shoulders felt weird, think I just need to get used to the feel of it. Also had trouble keeping my wrists straight, but I have weak wimpy wrists and that's probably just going to take time.

The bench press was okay. Pretty straightforward exercise, hard to mess it up. But I'm totally weak and only managed to go with the bar + 10 (so that's...55?). Also a little hesitant to push myself on that too much without a spotter.

The deadlift was the one I was the most worried about. I was thisclose to leaving without doing it, because I wasn't sure how I was going to get the bar at the right height to practice. Eventually I found some metal thing that looked designed for this purpose and had chalk dust on it, so I was like a-ha! After running through it with just the bar, I was able to get up to the bar +30 (so...75?), which I know is laughably weak but still way better than I was expecting to be able to do! And I'm pretty sure I had the form down pretty well. I was so paranoid about rounding my back, but I don't think I did.

So obviously I have a long way to go, but I'm SO proud of myself for actually doing it!

Not looking forward to the press and power clean. I mean, the press shouldn't be too bad except I'm worried I won't even be able to do the bar at all (like I said, no upper body strength). But I'm really worried about the power clean. Rippetoe's method for learning involves actually jumping around with the bar, and I'm so not doing that in the middle of a gym. I guess I'll just have to do my best though.

(I couldn't tell from the diagrams, doing the power clean are you supposed to actually go up on your toes during the pull?)

And after lifting I went for a nice little two miler run and wasn't as slow as I thought I'd be. So I'm pretty happy today. :)

[CelticKnight]

This might be a totally ridiculous question, but I'm asking because I don't know any better and because googling has not yielded any helpful results. Does the depth of your midsection (distance from your stomach to your back is what I'm trying to say) have any bearing on deadlifts? Because whenever I see the dudes at the gym who are lifting way more than me they have gigantic torsos. Also I have no one at my gym doing deadlifts who is the same size as me so I don't know if I'm paying attention to something meaningless or not. This thought/question was brought on by the comment that my front squat number seemed unusually high for my deadlift number.

Personally I don't think there's too much of a correlation. I have a really small torso, and can deadlift a decent amount. I'm also really lanky, not sure if that changes anything.

[Cantabile]

Glad to hear all went well, Starkess :) And don't be ashamed of that deadlift, that's almost as much as I can do!

[seastarr]

would you mind gushing a little more? I have seen people use these at the gym, and I've never had anyone explain to me exactly what they are doing or what is for. so, how do you use it and why? (sorry if this is a stupid question!)

The foam roller is a diverse little tool.

You can use it for self-massage all over the body--rolling out the spine, legs, lats (mercy!) and neck.

You can also use it for a variety of balance exercises: lying down balance, with one foot on the ground, sitting balance facing vertical or horizontal, standing balance, squats like what you were doing on the half ball, walking as you might on a long board (surfing), hanging 10, etc.

You can use it for core strength exercises: roll-ups from lying vertical, with feet on the floor or off. Planks of all varieties with feet or hands or forearms on the roller, knee tucks from a plank rolling the roller along shins, pikes from a plank rolling roller on top of feet to tippy toes, legs lifts or circles with the roller beneath the sacrum.

You can use it to stretch--draping your limbs off of it to get nice little bits of traction. A great hip flexor stretch is to put it under your sacrum horizontally, hug one knee into your chest firmly, and just let the other leg hang towards the ground and swing loosely side to side. You can open up your chest and shoulders just by lying on the thing vertically and moving your straight arms up and down like you are making a snow angel.

The list goes on and on...

[Vestrit]

Starkess,

that all sounds awesome mate

Re - thinking you had really small loads on the bar for your lifts. Never worry about that. Squats and deadlifts are all about technique. If you get the technique right and do these lifts correctly, then you'll get so much benefit even at 'light' loads. And if other gym-goers are bothering to check you out at all, then you'll just get respect for doing things properly and for the very fact that you're keeping the load at a level that allows you to do that

If on the other hand you worry that you're lifting 'too light' and rack the weight up with lots of weight and then do the lifts incorrectly, you'll just hurt yourself and the guys watching will just think 'Another idiot trying to show off but clueless and taking short-cuts'. Seriously, any time I've seen someone rack the bar up with loads of weights and then struggle to do the lift properly, every other guy in the room has just thought 'dick. just load up what you can actually lift properly mate'

I can't stress this enough - go as light as you need to in order to get the techniques down right. Then you can start worrying about upping the loads safely and sensibly.

As for power cleans, I would highly recommend getting someone who knows what they're doing to take you through these. It's one lift that really benefits from proper instruction, not least from a safety point of view.

Good work mate! :thumbsup:

[lessthanluke]

Nora I am proud of you. It takes a lot of effort to go into the gym and do exercises for the first time. I will echo vestrit and say the weight is unimportant. When I first went to the gym I could barely bench the bar :)