[nelie]

Ok this is how big of a dork I am. So, I've been practicing squats with my hands near my shoulders. For some reason, my hamstrings lock up with my arms in that position. With or without weights (with or without broomstick). I can squat a decent amount of weight with the weights at my side or in front of me at about waist level.

So I decided to check to see if walmart had any cheap barbells and they did. It weighs 15-20 lbs and I figured it'd be a good starting point. So I assemble the barbell (yes assembly was required). I do a squat, no problem, no hamstring issues, etc. Uhh just this morning my hamstrings were not happy with me squatting in 'barbell position'.

This weekend, we will probably buy a regular barbell and some plates. Hopefully a squat rack too

[WaterRat]

Alright Nelie! You are a woman! Do you have an extra bedroom or the garage set up with all your home equipment? I'd so love to have something other than 5# and 8# dbs, a yoga mat, and an ancient - but high quality - exercise bike, but we have NO more room. Between DH being into woodworking, me into crafts/quilting, and a home office, we've used up all our space. I don't even have room to leave my keyboard (music, not computer ) out, so I don't play it nearly as often as I'd like. On the other hand, I don't want to pay for or clean a larger house!

[elisa822]

Nelie - I know you'll have no problem with the 45lb. bar and you're so lucky to have all that equipment at home! I really enjoy going to the gym, having the people around but I'd love to have both...is that too much too ask? Like Pat, it's just not a possiblility but that's okay. You should post some pictures one day of the "Nelie Gym"...sounds like somewhere I would join. What's the membership fee?

I hate to quote myself but I think my question, which I'm still wondering about, got lost in a longer post a couple of days ago so, I will shamefully ask it again....and I'm up to 8 pushups!

Here's a question for the experts: How far down do you have to get before you can actually call it a pushup?! No really...I have never been able to do big girl pushups but I've been feeling a bit stronger and I think the yoga has really helped. Yesterday I tried them and managed five actual pushups but I couldn't get down too low. Is it still a pushup or should I go back to the knees so I can get down lower?

[Depalma]

Elisa, it depends on who you listen to. I have seen claims that you must touch your chest to the ground, I have seen others where you need to go low enough so that if a training partner were to hold his fist under your chest, you would hit it. In the Army, as long as you go low enough for your upper arms to be parallel to the ground, they count it. In reality, the difference between the three is only a couple of inches.

Anyway don't go back to your knees if your current pushups don't meet that range of motion. use stairs, aerobic steps, or a smith machine bar to progress your way down to the floor. This core stabilization required for this versus the pushups from the knees will translate much better to the full pushup.

[4rabbit]

Hi LWL,

DDs checkup in the hospital was fine!!!! They took an ECG and an echo, and the heart is perfectly OK!. The ladies of the echo machine even gae het a picture to take home, where you can see the "umbrella" that was used to close the hole real well/ of course this was as expected but it is still a hige relief for me. I am dead tired today, since getting to the hospital and back was about 5 hours diriving in total, partly in the dark, in heavy traffic and in the rain.
But we did not hit anything and got home safely.

Lala- how did your doctor appointment go ?

Elisa - it has never occurred to me to judge wether a pushup counts! As long as I have my butt in line with the rest, and feel myself going up & down by using my arms that is IMO a pushup. And kudo's that you are up to 8 ! This is no mean feat. pushup from the knees are much much easier. In NRWL I anc do between 8 and 10, and i am proud of myself for that.

Nelie - I was about to suggest you get a barbell to try out the squats and you already did ! I probabely got one like the cheap one you bought...mine us 10 kg, unloaded, and I ordered it over the mail together with some weights. I did not tell the mailman what it was though, when he delivered it to my door and commented on the weight of the package.

Have a great day all,
Rabbit

[lalala123]

Originally Posted by 4rabbit

Lala- how did your doctor appointment go ?

I think you mean Sportsfreak, I don't think I've mentioned going to the doc here.


I'm glad your daughter's appointment went well.


Interesting discussion about the push-ups. I can't go very deep, I'm always afraid my arms will give and that I'll fall on my face or something. "Girly" push ups are much easier. I think I'll practice those until I can do 20 or so and then move on to real push ups.

[Lydia227]

Mel: Can I borrow your skis? I may need them to get to the airport and shovel out a runway myself. Yep, you guessed it. DH scheduled a conference during another snow squall, okay, they are calling it a blizzard here.

Luckily I did get a workout in yesterday morning but not before it started. Driving home was a little treacherous but I'm nice and sore today. I will get a little workout in clearing out the driveway a couple times today and I have a nice selection of lifting books to read during the down time. So it looks like a good day ahead. Hopefully all of this stuff will be gone by Monday so I can get back to my gym and into a routine again. All of this gym shopping/hopping has been driving me

[Mel]

Lydia, I talked to dd last night and even the intrepid risk-taker was holed up in her apartment. She'd gotten home from the gym at 6 pm and even that was a mess. She said 15 inches were forecasted and it looked like you were going to get them. Driving must be a nightmare! I may go out there to ski eastern PA got 15 inches of rain. DD assures me Holiday Valley (or something like that) is decent for a day.

Legs in a few minutes- gotta go to the gym!

Mel

[sportsfreak]

Hey everyone,

I did go to the doctor regarding my hair loss. He said that my body is just reacting to the weight i lost. He can see new growth of hair. My hair is just going through a phase. Its bound to come back. so no big issue to me. Just hope my body stabalizes soon.

[nelie]

Pat, Elisa - The home gym is pretty simple. When we bought our place, one requirements was a place to have a home gym and that place was the finished part of the basement. Right now, it has a cheap bench, some dumbbells, some kettlebells, a step, a ball (although I need a new one), a 32" TV with DVD player and VCR (best part), the elliptical and a chair for our dog to sit in. We have a sofa that we'll have to move once we get a rack and I'll need a new bench.

Hopefully in a little bit, we'll be going shopping for some goodies. We are just going to pretend we don't owe money on our taxes which are due next month

[baffled111]

That sounds pretty good though Nelie! I'm envious. I don't own so much as a dumbbell!

Just got back from the gym and am feeling appropriately hungry and exhausted.

Sportsfreak: I'm glad your doc isn't worried about your hair loss. Keep an eye on it though. I've never suffered hair loss when losing weight... Are you sure you're eating a healthy and balanced diet?

[nelie]

Hey all,

I have to say squat rack shopping was a bit depressing. All the home gym stores have exercise systems or smith machines but no squat racks. One store had a half squat rack but I could totally see myself missing the guard bars. All the stores said they could order them. One store (where we bought our elliptical) has an awesome return policy while the others didn't.

They had 2 options we liked. One was a smith machine/pulley system where the smith machine bar moved freely back/forth and up/down although was stabilized side to side. It was a hoist system and very $$ although very nice.

The second option was a prospot system where it is kind of an electronic free moving bar on heavy cables. I was worried about the electronics failing and the bar being free falling but that didn't seem possible plus there is a way to set stops manually. It has a 700 weight limit (weight limit for bar, cables have stronger weight limit). Uhh yeah so its getting delivered friday http://www.prospotfitness.net/hg1.html

Anybody that wants to come workout, feel free.

[nelie]

Fran,

The link I shared is what we bought although I didn't say we bought it, just that it is getting delivered. Although I still am disappointed that no store had a full cage. You'd think they would.

Oh and we ended up going to Dick's afterwards and they had a sale. Olympic bar plus full set of olympic weights (45 down to 2.5). After these purchases, I don't think my home gym will need anything else although I would like a bosu....

[baffled111]

Nelie, you're an addict!

Very cool though. That machine is very fancy. Congrats on the exciting purchase! (Although you're right: you'd think a straight-up cage would be relatively easy to find).

Today is my rest day, if I choose to take it. I could definitely use the calorie burn of some exercise, but my knees are killing me this morning. Also, I'm rather hung over. Ugh.

[Lifeguard]

You would think a cage would be easy to find but even in gyms they can be hard to find. When we moved here I went to every gym in the area with a squat rack being the one thing it HAD to have. I was left with 2 choices - one that was awkward to get to & played loud, bad music but had a cage & world gym which is really fancy but has a less than ideal squat rack. I went with world gym but I am still sketchy on the squat rack - 'cause it's not a cage I'm always scared I will miss the rails is something were to happen.

Funny thing was every gym, no matter how small & sketchy had at least one smith machine - ugh!