Congratulations Lydia :bravo: both on the run and the poundage lost! Front squats still mystify me. I just cannot place the bar anywhere that it's not excruciatingly painful. My compromise is to do them very light on dynadisks- lots of wobble and blance without killing my front delts.

Rabbit, good for you getting back on track!

Ouch, Kylie :( I stay away from the ab/adductor machines. Lots of different foot positions on squats and bosu work hit them pretty hard without injury.

I'm totally exhausted today. I had a pretty sleepless weekend and a hard leg workout on Saturday. It would be worth it if I had been the one doing the partying and having fun, but my so-called adult child was visiting and staying out all night, leaving me with visions of disaster until 5am. I slept until 7. :dizzy: Got up today and did the usual 45 minutes of elliptical and then an uninspired but heavy chest workout at lunch. By 4:30 I was near tears I was so tired. I may skip legs tomorrow. I can't remember when I last took a break of any kind. I sooooo terrified of gaining back an ounce! Maybe if I took a break, I'd feel a little more inspired. :lol3: Yep, that's what I'd tell a client, I know!

Off to pack lunches :wave:

Mel

Trust me, Mel, I'm avoiding that machine as if it were on fire! There's no way I want to go here again, so much for trying those "unique" machines that no one seems to be using! HA!

Thanks for the heads-up, Lydia. I'm feeling better today, but if it lingers, I'll check with the doc.

Kylie

Say, Mel, one question I forgot to ask. Are you training for a competition? What has been your experience on that front?

Rabbit- great job on your recommitment! It can be so difficult.

Kylie – Hope your injury is better. I don’t work out a gym anymore, but I think a lot of those machines (with exceptions of course) are somewhere between useless and harmful. Once I switched over to the dumbbells and calisthenics/body weight exercises I never went back.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a front squat?

Well, no formal exercise for the weekend, but I spent Saturday lugging around soda cases and picnic tables, Sunday and Monday hauling boxes for the move. Food was a bit extravagant, but at least a little portion controlled. It’s pretty impossible to eat your usually healthy home cooked meals when you’re in the midst of running an event, moving, and entertaining an out-of-town guest. Now that the dust has settled a bit I’m just feeling drained. I’ve got to go grocery shopping tonight to stock up the new kitchen, then unload another couple carloads of boxes. We’re almost done moving, just a few things left in some closets and our artwork and framed pictures on the walls. Then we get to clean the place. :rolleyes:

New house is lovely, can't wait till we can get everything out of the boxes and set up.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Shan that is so exciting about yoour house.

WTG Lydia!!!

Kylie take care.

And hello to everyone.

Yesterday my daughter remembered about "baby lifts" and I had to go through a whole set of baby squats and lifting her up in the air which most closely resembles a clean and press. She is 35 lbs so its not nothing. Then I try to do the same with my 60 lb son and I realize I have a ways to go as far as building strength goes. I can squat with him fine but he doesn't go nearly as far in the air as my 2 year old.

Popping off again to yosemite tomorrow.

Runs have been good but lately I have been running on a treadmill which seems to exercise a whole different group of muscles. Much more quad and much less hammie than the hills. Today though I got my butt (quite literally) back outside. I swear those hills are quite good for the old backside. I have to force my self to get a good LBWO in. Now that I am running more my legs say "no no" when ever I look at the weights. Luckily I have my kids wanting to go on "rides" so that keeps me doing the minimum.

So I've been trying a new thing I read somewhere recently (and not in a woman's mag!! lol) about doing a glute tightening whenever you think about it. I've been doing these things during commercials, at red lights, in lines. OMGoodness! These aren't just squeezes (which quite frankly, CAN be noticed and look quite odd like gremlins in your shorts), but these are 30 sec holds. This guy I was reading said to try to get up to sets of 10.. Ugh, yeah, that's what 5 minutes? I hope I'm in no lines or lights that long! I'm like a porcupine even just sitting here from it. This guy said that with these and doing squats and lunges, you get all 3 muscle threads into action and will have a nicely curved and lifted derriere to look forward to. I'm like, how can I be so busy that I can't work in a few butt squeezes, right? :D So here I am, high, tight, and sore. Now if the 2" of fat will melt away from over top, I"ll be hot! :lol:

Here is clip of a front squat

http://college.holycross.edu/departm...nt%20Squat.mov

This way of holding the bar does take a great deal of wrist flexibility. You will also see people holding the bar with their arms crossed in front of them. Myself, I can't seem to get a handle on the arms crossed and I'm still working on getting my wrists flexible enough to do a respectable load.

Would you consider a Yoplait mixed berry yogurt a good snack after lifting? I'm trying to feed myself the protein post workout, but don't always have the desire to down a protein smoothie then, and am looking for alternatives. It has sugar added and also carbs from the berries. I could look for a nutrasweet variety, but is it good? I am allergic to apples, btw, so the std pb & apple doesn't work for me. Often my weights are done pretty late at night, so a quick cup of yogurt is fast and light enough for that time of the evening. Thoughts?

Do you like cottage cheese? I usually either do cottage cheese or tuna when I lift. If I run I eat something more carbish like plain nonfat yogurt mixed with a ton of fresh fruit or frozen blueberries but I think for lifting you need more protien.

Yes, cottage cheese - in fact if you mix that yogurt into cottage cheese, maybe 1/2 cup of each, you'd have a nice protein boost.
Cindy

The Yogurt should be fine. Post resistance training is basically the only time where you are looking to spike insulin. Most research I've read, says 3:1 carb to protein at this time is generally optimal. Of course, we all react somewhat different and it also depends upon the intensity of the workout. Myself, I've seemed to do better with closer to a 2:1 Carb to protein ratio. Depending on the type and brand, I've seen Yogurts anywhere between the 2:1 and 4:1, so it should serve your needs. The real sugar versions would be better as it is a faster acting carb than the artificially sweetened version in which most of the carbs are coming from fructose.

A lot of sports nutritionists will say that it is better if your pwo nutrition is in liquid form as it is quicker to digest and will funnel the nutritients toward repairing muscle and refilling muscle glycogen while the body is still making this a priority fresh off the stress of the workout. A lot also, prefer that a fast acting sugar such as dextrose or maltodextrin be used instead of fruit as, supposedly, fructose goes to refilling liver glycogen before muscle glycogen. Others, such as Alan Aragon, says it is more important just to get the post-workout nutrition no matter where it comes from. I tend to agree with Aragon, as I think it makes it much easier to blend your post-workout nutrition in with your total nutrition plan and, after all, it is your overall nutrition plan that is going to determine your results in the long run.

Hi LWL,

lost my post yesterday, hope it will load today. I did bike to work and back yesterday, and i'm on day 5 of clean eats. Some cravings are a little bit less. I have not succumbed to a sweet snack yet today, but i do allow myself a desert & I am looking forward to it.

Tomotrrow I'll bike to work again.

Shan - good luck on the moving, it sounds so exciting

hiker - loved the story about the kid-weight exercises

Depalma - how is your healing going ?

Hi to the other LWL,

have a good one,
Rabbit

Argh, haven't had time to check in here for awhile. We had our 4 day square dance festival last Thur-Sun, and with set-up and take-down, plus lots of dancing, I certainly got in a bunch of exercise. Since then work has been frantic, being the first week of our Summer Reading Program. We have kids everywhere, all the time. :lol: And of course, I'm working on the end of my training for the half marathon on June 23.

Last night we ended up at a last minute potluck for some old friends who were in town for a short time (moved away last year). The food choices were um, less than stellar, but I did manage to start with a large green salad (unfortunately predressed, but not too much) and there was some lean pork for protein. I managed to eat about half the berries out of a slice of pie, and leave the crust. The ice cream however, just slid nicely down my throat. Whoops. It was great to see our friends though, even though we were out way late for a work night.

Good to see everyone doing well. Rabbit, good job on the biking. As soon as the marathon is over, I'll be riding my bike lots more. When I got my new car, the guy threw in a really nice (i.e. expensive :) ) bike rack so I won't even have to struggle getting it in and out of the back.

Hiker - you need to post a picture with the "baby lifts" Just too funny that your DD remembered them.

Shan - sounds like you're going to enjoy your new house

Depalma - hope you're healing well. I've been enjoying all the lifting advice, and once my life slows a little (next week? next month?) I plan to revamp my routine. At this point, however, familiar is good!

Okay, I have a meeting I need to run too. :wave: Have a great day everyone.

Healing is going very well. I went back to work yesterday. I'm a desk jockey so nothing physical.

I feel great! I am soooooooooo tempted to pick up some weights, but I'll pay attention to the advice I was given here and wait the two weeks as the doctor prescribed.

I have picked myself up a foam roller and started to do some soft tissue work although I'm not quite sure of my technique.

Thanks for the advice on the post-w/o snack. Can't stand cottage cheese as much as I try to convince myself otherwise - real high on my gaggo meter. Same for tuna. Think I will stick with the yog - maybe it's semi-liquid state quals it for almost quick nutrition liquid. I think it's like 5:1 with 29 carbs and 5 protein gms. Maybe a thin slice of turkey breast would even it out a bit more.

Glad to hear you are on the mend and feeling fine depalma!

I have the Rethinking Thin book beside me and will be starting it tonite. It looks like a painless read even though it digests alot of research; I like the way it starts anyway. Looking forward to the book discussion thread over on maintainers.