Thank you.. hopefully from now on till about 1-2 weeks before the next exam.. at least, assuming I made it.. I'll try to go back to a more normal & regulated diet.
Exam is over! An amazing amount of people showed up, considering this is the 2nd or 3rd chance for most participants. The exams are done nation-wide in just 1 location (the advantage of a country the size of New Jersey or sllightly larger/smaller... nope twice the size).
When I asked around, I was told by a person who did it for the 3rd time , how only 50% of her group had passed the first time. OK... and you can only do the practical exam when you've passed the theoretical exam. Too bad you only find out 3 weeks from now.
Anyway, most of it was doable, but anatomy was HARD. There were several questions I had no or very little idea what to answer, but managed to answer because I knew it couldn't be the 1-3 other answers. But this one had me puzzled as I barely studied anything about abdominal muscles and those seem to have been hidden somewhere where I overlooked them..
Someone is doing an overhead throw with right arm . Which abdominal muscles are concentrally contracting
- left obliquus internus + right obliquus internus
- left obliquus internus + right obliquus externus
- left obliquus externus + right obliquus internus
- left obliquus externus + right obliquus externus
Was looking at the question as if I was watching a bull with 3 horns.
Now will see if I can find things back..
hehe. I didn't study this, I'm gonna make an uneducated guess, that could help the educated to find the answer.
I would say it is left externus and right internus, why? because to throw with the right, you flex the right side toward the inside and the left side towards the outside.
Because I don't know which muscles are actually meant, it might as well be wrong. But that you should know
But good to have this behind you, isn't it? do you already feel some relaxation now, or are you still excited?
anyway, enjoy your hutspot
Saturday October 10
Estimated intake: 1402kcal (60% of mtn) -105gP
estimated output: 2181 kcal (driving, walking, studying)
Stats for Sunday: 59,9kg - 24,6% - 36,45°C
Quite the temp drop. Hoping for wt drop in the next week.
Interesting eats: hard licorice candy (during exam) , remnant of smoked tilapia w salad, Indonesian beef stew (rendang) carbup: pandan rice & dates
Interesting eats: hard licorice candy (during exam)
Hope the exam was a cakewalk!!!!
__________________ "My yoga class had me trembling and sweating and I feel MUCH better." - Fang
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tenacious Training and Tweaking (the A lotta Alitteration thread)
Sunday October 11
Estimated output: 2353 kcal (lifting, driving, walking)
Planned intake: 2703 kcal
Actual intake: 2460kcal (107% of mtn) -173gP
Stats for Monday: 60,2kg - 23,8% - 36,65°C
Temp went back up again, but also had poor sleep quality (rare for me).
Maybe because I'd skipped B12 for a few too many days or was it staying low-carb after lifting? Or just plain because I went to bed too late (close to 2am)
Interesting eats: fish-shrimp egg drop soup w pb & coconut Unplanned BLTs: dates & 2 pcs of dried papaya slices (or is it dried mango? fruit is not specified by name), adding spicy pb to soup.
Meanwhile I'm recovering from a stomach bug.. or rather food I can't tolerate in large quantities. The Indonesian beef stew I ate on Saturday night was made with coconut milk that had a ton of coconut fat added to it.. ever since then I've felt as if I had eaten too much Olestra = the fats didn't get absorbed at all , just passing right through the body. I've never ever in my life had such a weird indigestion. Yucky!
Either it's because the canned coconut milk was too old or I just don't tolerate MCTs in large quantities.. have noticed before how coconut oil or MCT oil in larger amounts makes me nauseous pronto. Small amounts are delish & wonderful. In the stew I'd not noticed it so much..it was teh yum actually. Amounts weren't so crazy either actually, only 1/4th of a can. Blegh! I was soooo looking forward to eating this stew far more often
But this one had me puzzled as I barely studied anything about abdominal muscles and those seem to have been hidden somewhere where I overlooked them..
Someone is doing an overhead throw with right arm . Which abdominal muscles are concentrally contracting
- left obliquus internus + right obliquus internus
- left obliquus internus + right obliquus externus
- left obliquus externus + right obliquus internus
- left obliquus externus + right obliquus externus
Was looking at the question as if I was watching a bull with 3 horns.
Now will see if I can find things back..
That question still is bugging me...
Did find the page on the oblique muscles but it's very hard to comprehend & find out how they actually do work.
The external oblique muscle contracts obliquely from above (cranial) at the lateral side to below (caudal) on the medial side.
The internal oblique muscle contracts from the lateral side below (caudal) to medially above (cranial).
Even when you know that.. what actually happens when you are throwing a ball with your right arm?
You first arch backwards at the right and maybe forwards at the left & then you arch forwards at the right and maybe backwards at the left?
if they want to know about the forwards arch (that's a concentric contraction right there) , that'd going from the upper right (lateral cranial) to the central left (medial caudal) = external R .
We have 1 of the 2 down now...
So what does the left side do now? Part of the confusion is where the actual obliques are running (wasn't sure of this either...
so, after much bla bla here I'm still stumped. You tell me what the correct answer was?
Somehow I totally forgot to post yesterday's workout.
WO 13 /4A from Burgerner
Start: Dynamic warmups (lots of them) & specific warmups (the usual w broomstick & technique bar) Power snatches
15x3
18x3+1xOH sq
19,5x3+1 OH
21,5x3+1OH
23x3+1OH
25x3+1OH
26,5x3+1OH - 3+1
25x3+1OH
Was quite confused here as he wants you to only go up to 65% of 1RM which is ridiculously low for me.. this is where having a generic program that also works for advanced lifters bites a beginner.. so upped to 75% of 1RM.
Also did only power snatched but finished with OH squats.
OH squats
27x3
28,5x3
30,5x3
Originally calls for snatch balances but can't do those with higher weights (shoulder whining), so make do w OH squats instead.
back squats
20x8
32,5x8
40x8
45x8
52x6-6-5
and then got interrupted by trainer who sneakily commented by asking another client working next to me who had glanced sideways at my squatting, that I was doing a GM-squat instead... had felt it was too much of a forward lean but didn't realize it was that bad.. grrr!
Dropped the idea of doing GMs after this one as it only reinforces that bad habit..lower back is strong enough as it is & gets too much work load already!
After the WO Ive also decided to start doing back: front squats on a 1:2 basis instead of 2:1 as it is now.. the bad form seriously PISS me off! To do a good form back squat I'd need to do it with less weight than with my front squats!
hanging leg raises
too pissed to do those
neutral grip chins
BWx5-4-4
One of the reasons I'm pissed is that this trainer is an old-fashioned one.. it's 'my way or the highway' = no discussion possible when it comes to letting him train you.. which is somethign I'm quite allergic to /for. Which is actually too bad as he genuinely has a very good eye for technique & form.. it's just that his approach of dealing with people is NOT mine. I get along with the 2 other trainers (his employees) 10x better... can also take their criticism much better as it is more positive.
It's quite eye-opening though, to be in a gym with constant feedback from trainers re form or seeing them correct others.. had NO frigging idea my proprioception was THAT bad. Head trainer/owner even claims NOBODY can have proper self-feedback but that's an exaggaration I think , even with the more limited self-feedback/proprioception I can still feel/see if something was off or not.. just not to the exact degree someone else with more experience and just seeing you from the outside can. Again, something we 'fight' about... sometimes it seems we only fight with words when talking to each other.
Worst part.. we also do business together.. he's by far my very worst client = wants the biggest discount & gives me the most work.. frequently adding in last-minute orders for single items.. I've got individual customers who order far more than he does and get no or little discount.. sometimes his 'greed' he makes me so mad I want to take away all of the discount! Grrr...
Warm-ups
Normal warmup: arm circles, calf stretch, Frankenstein, cat/camel, push-ups, scaptions, lateral & walking BW lunges, Russian twist on ball & med ball crunches, SHELC, glute bridge
WU w broom stick: pulls – upright row – BOR – GM
Specific WU w broom stick & 7,5 kg technique bar back squat - OH squat - drop snatch – Sots press - snatch
A power cleans
7,5x8
12,5x5
17,5x5
23x5
27,5x5
32x3
36,5x3 – 3
39x2 – 2 – 2
Because there was another girl & I didn’t need to do snatches, I started w technique bar & then proceeded to the ‘male’ 20kg bar.
Was happy about the progress.
B rack jerks
20x5
29x5
33,5x3 – 3
35,5x3 – 3– 3
Not bad when I used to fail at this weight only a little while ago.
C clean (narrow grip) pulls
50x5 - 5
52,5x 5 – 5
D Romanian DL
60x6
68x6
76x 5 – 5 – 5
Had trouble with grip.. hands started to get sweaty but I refused to give up the hook grip!
E supine rows
BWx8
Didn’t feel like doing actual chins but still wanted to do something that came close
F1 box jumps
40cm box x 10 – 10
Funny how much easier those are after a while
F2 Swiss ball crunches w med ball
3kg med ball x 25 – 25
Feel the burn!
Like nearly every time, hamstrings were whining while rowing. It was nice the rowing expert was around today as well. He told me I’d improved on technique (keeping a straight line for the cord & back up straight), but could gain ‘meters’ by staying back longer before going back forwards.
Like nearly every time, hamstrings were whining while rowing. It was nice the rowing expert was around today as well. He told me I’d improved on technique (keeping a straight line for the cord & back up straight), but could gain ‘meters’ by staying back longer before going back forwards.
Good workout. Extra food FTW!
Yay on the extra food.
Nice workout, and I get the rowing guy's advice - you're not letting the boat cruise under its own momentum in the water for those extra 'free' meters. Holds true in real water and the machine.
Oh, on hamstring stuff - I have heard that stretching the quads rather than the hamstring can help with balancing everything out. Maybe sounds counterintuitive, but that's the anecdotal gist I've read.
__________________ "My yoga class had me trembling and sweating and I feel MUCH better." - Fang
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tenacious Training and Tweaking (the A lotta Alitteration thread)
Espi, I was doing GMs coming out of the hole as well....I dropped back squats entirely and concentrated on plate squats and front squats, plus worked very hard on thoracic mobility with the foam rollers, running them vertically as well as horizontally, and continuing with my posture work. It took a lot of retraining, but I finally stay upright in squats. It's worth it to drop the weight to get your form right. Although I know it bruises your dignity.
Very cool on the massage work. I am thinking of doing an internship with a trainer who is also a masseuse. May do the course myself.
And suckage on the wait for the exam! As you know I was dyin' waiting for my results.
When I did rowing, they said you should not stay back longer, but go back forward slower! This makes even more sense in a boat, because "racing" forward will actually slow the boat down, by some laws of mass and inertia etc.
Extra food ftw, does that mean you are going to do more of that, so actual bulking, or are you going to stick to/ go back to the "impossible" culk?
Thanks a lot for the tips MissTenacity, Elisabeth & MissDL.
Going slower forwards makes more sense intuitively than staying back for longer.. maybe try to pull elbows even further back, just like in lat pulldowns?
MissDL: the impossible culk of course . First get rid of the extra fluff I gathered this past month.. actually, prior to that I just dropped weight at a much faster rate than normal.
Most of the time, the hamstrings will be sore from the lifting I'd done a few days before. I'm sometimes wondering why I opted for a course in sports massage as I must be the clumsiest person to be around with .. memory for things that need to be done manually is just terrible.
Yet, as weird as it sounds, I'm starting to like it.. not enough to repeat the course when I'm failing. I just can't fathom how I can improve on several aspects that I still don't master well & that's not even massage itself, which is hard enough already.
It's the taping as well as the First Aid that is going to do me in. Some of the massage therapists are going to work for sports clubs, so they need to be able to do taping that will prevent too much joint mobility or be able to stop a wound from bleeding &tc.. all stuff I've barely practiced!
The only other part I'm actually liking to do is the functional analysis: you're analysing someone's movement patterns by the way (s)he is able to move specific muscles & joints in various planes. Supposedly you'll also be able to tell someone what he needs to do for rehab & what kind of massage would be helpful.
BTW, I think I've underestimated the amount of participants last Saturday.. for that theory exam that was a repeat for most, there must have been around 250 peepz. I've heard that up to 750 people show up in May when most go for the first time.
Holy Moses that is a huge amount of people to show up for a test! Doesn't sound like there are any shortages of massage therapists in your little neck of the woods.
I GM out of the hole too and am doing it really badly right now. Gobblet and front squats and foam rolling (hips esp) seem to help me too. I am also keeping weight on back squats low for now. I still have not 100% recovered my lifting mojo from July SI thang.
__________________
The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
Karla, there's a lot of people who think it would be cool to be a sports massage therapist. In reality, current demand isn't all that large, at least.. a lot of people wouldn't mind to be massaged, but don't want to pay for it.
There's the distinct impression, the organization who organizes the exams, makes them as difficult as they are , to prevent a bigger influx. Roughly only half of the participants pass the first time. Only after passing for the theory exam , you're allowed to do the practical exam, for which also around 50% fails, which leaves only 25% pass rate. And those that do pass, often don't become a sports massage therapist but go on to do other things or just don't do all that much with it.. I wasn't planning to be a massage therapist for a club either. Just work privately.. but considering the competition & lack of space at home, I'm seriously doubting (even when I would pass) , whether I'd get clients. Which resulted in me being less than fanatical about improving myself.
Plus the other thing is.. after not having had formal education for over 10 years, I've rediscovered that I am only good at absorbing information from books. NOT from hearing or seeing things. You can tell me something 10 times & I'll forget 11 times. Show it to me as it is written & I'll only need to read it twice to remember. That's outright terrible for hands-on stuff like this. I'm feeling like a complete failure actually.. my saving grace for the massage itself was buying a DVD which shows all the maneouvers.. seeing things over & over & over again definitely helps. Or having someone do it right alongside you = you repeating it at the exact same time on the other side of the body.
But taping up someone.. ??? Geez. It's the worst thing ever! And the exam folks don't want you to even have 1 slip-up = a tape has to be really smooth and cover all skin where it is needed. We've practiced only once for each location. Possible location: ankle, knee, hip, elbow, wrist, shoulder. So I'm almost feeling like giving up before the exam is around, but that'd be a shame really..
Peaches.. indeed GM-ing out of the hole. Main obstacle: hip is always shooting up first, partially because it's so dang uncomfortable to sit down.. you'd actually need to sit in between the legs (don't know how to explain) while my butt is perched on top of them if you get what I mean. So, first thing to do is to shoot up the hip , rather than extend the knees & hip at the same time, so you're not going into a forward lean AKA GM (good morning). Doesn't help the L5-S1 joint is fused together.
Yet, somehow front squats don't pose that problem at all & I can actually lift more wt with good form on front squats, so it's also very much a 'center of gravity' thing & me trying to correct it by leaning forwards. It can actually happen that I do pause squats for these too = sit at the bottom of the hole for a while before coming up & not be too uncomfortable.
Oh.. MissTenacity, thought about the 'quad stretch to minimize hamstrings DOMS again.. If you contract a muscle, the antagonist relaxes & vice versa (called the 'myotatic reflex') . If you'd stretch the quads, the hamstrings muscles (the antagonist) would get shorter, which is the most relaxed position & ideal for massage. That's how a muscle is supposed to be positioned when treating someone. So, yeah, makes perfect sense if you think about it.
Hah.. all little things I only stuffed into my brain 2 days before the exam!
Wednesday October 14 Estimated output: 2258 kcal (driving , lotsa walking around amusements park) Planned intake: 2258 kcal (decided to go for mtn rather than a diet day.. not much fun to diet when in an amusements park where everyone eats & eats & eats more, eh?) Actual intake: 2134kcal (95% of mtn) -146gP
Stats next morning: 59,5kg - 25,2% - 36,49°C
Small wt drop, probably from being dehydrated
Interesting eats: fried fish, caramel almond ice cream Unplanned BLTs: a few bites of DH’s pancake , licorice, cough drops, dates, steak of lamb Carb up: no intentional one
It's quite eye-opening though, to be in a gym with constant feedback from trainers re form or seeing them correct others.. had NO frigging idea my proprioception was THAT bad. Head trainer/owner even claims NOBODY can have proper self-feedback but that's an exaggaration I think , even with the more limited self-feedback/proprioception I can still feel/see if something was off or not.. just not to the exact degree someone else with more experience and just seeing you from the outside can.
I don't have the luxury of working with someone with more experience (trainer, coach, etc.) and yet I'm fully convinced that my form is solid on my lifts. Is that just arrogance, I wonder? My form on cleans could definitely use work, but I'm convinced that everything else is solid. If it's not, then I don't do it.
Now, when I finally get the chance to work with a coach at some point I'm sure I'll find out how wrong I am!
I dropped back squats out of my routine because I knew that I was doing a GM too often. So, it's all front squats for now. It's hard to do them wrong as long as you stay on your heels.
Thanks for your input. Likewise I also knew some of my lifts weren't exactly right, but it takes a long time to re-correct a wrong lift. The power cleans were the worst to correct as I'd done them wrong for so long.
The deadlifts OTOH were far easier.. it's a much simpler movement.
Too bad that same trainer says I *must* do back squats even though he refuses to directly coach me now because I had the nerve to give myself feedback about lifts = he said the power clean was good & I said "nah, could've been better" . The back squats were the other way round..
My partner & Miss DL can sit /squat ass to grass on their heels and be totally comfortable. Me OTOH am having the heels raised at least 5 cm from the ground in order to squat down THAT low, so the first thing trainer had me do is squat with heels on Oly platform (about 5 cm high) or on a small disk. Then I got these Oly shoes, but it's still a lot of stretching before I can do it comfortably. Even then there's forward lean.
Almost puzzling how that lean just goes away as soon as I switch from back to front squat.. everything is suddenly alright with the world . If it were me I'd only do kettlebell, goblet, front or overhead squats from now on. Weird isn't it? How even OH squats put less fear in my heart than back squats do.. not the weight, just fear of seeing form go down the drain.
Changed avatar in honour of Gus passing away (Anne's cat)
This is 'Gitte' (an abbreviation of Birgitte), AKA 'kleine poes' = 'small female cat'.. uh uh.. = large understatement. She's easily the biggest cat I know. But that's just more to love as we always like to say here.
She's reaching out with her paw towards my partner who's taking a pick & also stretching as all cats are so good at!
If anyone ever doubts whether stretching is good for us or not, you just need to look at any feline species & know that what an animal does intuitively , is mostly right!
In defense of her being so large.. that's what happens when a very active outdoor cat with a good appetite & a very high stress level has to be kept indoors due to traffic (previous owner moved to a busy area). Just 1 year of being cooped up inside made her large & alas, we are also not in an area where she can be as 100% happy as where she used to live = lots of mean cats, dogs and kids who are pestering her. Major stress-eater! Putting her on a diet backfires too as she just becomes even less active.
Yes I have to admit that is a handsome cat. I had a cat who looked a lot like that--Riley--he was like a dog and used to follow me around. He would jump into my arms--I could always tell when he was going to do it 'cause his eyes would dilate as he looked up at me. That was real cute until he tried to do it while I was holding a Thanksgiving turkey hot out of the oven....
our cat is dog-like in some ways & not in other ways. She's quite shy & also won't just leap onto your lap or on the table, like Gus (Anne's cat) would do. But she really pines away when we are away from home for a longer period of time.
Also whenever she's outside, she'll often come inside & not just to eat or drink.. just to feel loved & petted. Like most cats she loves being stroked ..
Too bad she's so heavy & purrs too loud as otherwise I'd not mind at all when she would sleep in our bedroom. Plus, she'd constantly want to go outside & wake us up.
She really 'talks' in a very neat & adorable way.
Thursday October 15 Estimated output: 1815 kcal (walking, lifting some heavy stuff) Planned intake: 1365 kcal Actual intake: 1336kcal (59% of mtn) -106gP
Stats next morning: 59,8kg - 25,6% - 36,62°C
Interesting eats: various condiments on my egg salad Unplanned eats/BLTs: eating protein bars instead of mango as the carb-up Carb up: 3 different types of protein bars.. cannibalizing our own stock as my partner had eaten some of those that were on sale, rendering them unsellable = coming short on hazelnut bars! So, I took them down from the website & ate some of the remaining ones myself.. the yoghurt-muesli bar actually tasted best of all. I’d only eaten a coconut & a hazelnut bar once before. Entered the macros & was shocked at how many cals a small 35g bar has: 155kcal for the coconut one. It’s only 1 or 2 bites & it’s gone.
Lesson learnt: don’t try selling protein bars over the internet.. people want to pay €€€€ in a gym or whatever place they have limited choice.. but over the web, they are cheapskates to the max.
__________________
Vegetarian, consumer of large quantities of Quark cheese
Working my way from 76.4 to 58 kg (168 - 127.6 lbs)
Lifting a bit, schedule varies. Barbell weight: 22kg/48.4#
Warm-ups
Normal warmup: arm circles, calf stretch, Frankenstein, cat/camel, push-ups, scaptions, lateral & walking BW lunges, kb squat off a stepbench , Russian twist on ball & Swiss ball crunch w med ball, SHELC + hip stretches
WU w broom stick & technique (7,5kg) bar: pulls – GM – back squat / OH squat – snatch balance - Sots press - snatch
A power snatch
15x6
18x5
23x4
25x3
27x3
28,5x2
30,5x2- 2 – 2
Started to get better about half way
B power clean
30,5x6
32x5
35x3
37x3 – 3 – 3
Better than last time
C1 ATF front squat
37x7
42x6
48x 5 – 5 – 5
Was supposed to do back squats, but as I’d explained before, I’m not liking those as much anymore…
C2 box jumps
@ 40cm x 8 – 8
C3 neutral grip chins
BWx4 – 4
CARDIO Rowing
500m - 94 aveW (67%max) – 2:35 - 26kcal @ 31 strokes/min
Per hour: 11613 m (55%max) – 604 kcal
Almost exclusively focused on trying to maintain decent form.. had planned to do 2000m but wasn’t focused enough.. besides was running late as well.
OK workout.. was happy about the Oly stuff, but once I got around to do squats, was reminded again about how much those suck.. even doing front squats instead couldn't cheer me up.
This is typical, when I was doing the Oly lifting the squat also always was a source of annoyance, especially the first time. The right form of squatting is a very important base for the olympic lifts but pretty hard to learn if you are already used to squatting but in totally different form.
I know it, it is such a pain in the ass when you think you have been training for some time and should have built some basic strength and then still have to go down to the little girly weights over and over again.
I think this might be a big part of why most people who start later, or even have little patience and lots of other things to do, never get really good at the oly lifting.
However, when you finally see improvement, this will be very satisfying. Keep practising
says the girl who did not have the patience for the OL herself...but my quest to good squatting is also still going on...
That's about it.. when you start to realize what actually a good ATF-squat is, it is hard to actually 'get' one. But.. for these ones, the lighter warmup squats were with a tiny jump on top. The other day, when I was using either the technique or the men's bar, a girl (20yr?) was doing power snatches (almost 40kg) & back squats up to around 60kg & I noticed she had a bounce on top.
Was told this means the squat is fast enough. Need to stop thinking about standard squats & make them so dynamic that there's not just a stretch reflex at the bottom but also a little bounce on top.
Knew about the first part but the bounce was new. So, was pleased to get that bounce at 42kg.. the 48kg one was slightly too heavy to be bouncing around much.. maybe for 3 reps I could do 'the bounce'.
Friday October 16 Estimated output: 2295 kcal (lifting, rowing, walking , driving) Planned intake: 2645 kcal Actual intake: 2605kcal (118% of mtn) -167gP
Stats next morning: 59,6kg - 24,9% - 36,32°C
That BBT is way low for my standards, esp so early in the cycle
Interesting eats: carrot-apple-banana coconut omelette (will try carrot-coconut only next time), Thai soup w shrimp & pb Unplanned eats/BLTs: aforementioned omelette, banana was half gone so made do with some other stuff & remembered I’d try carrot-coconut omelettes one day , dates Carb up: raspberry-blueberry-IsoSpark slush
For the past 30 days:
Planned 30d intake: 2153kcal
Real 30d intake: 2282kcal =240gC|24gfi – 129gP – 89gF (42-23-35%) Surplus (30d mtn = 2201): +2,5% 30d avg weight: 59,8kg (+0,2/wk) @ 25,0% (+0,1%/wk) = 1,1kg of F to go to very good bf% (23,5%/58,6kg)
.
May do the course myself.
Linear Mode
