I've tried the five second holds, those were brutal. Pardon my ignorance, but what would I be accomplishing by moving one hand lower? I don't doubt that it's effective.... I'm just clueless on how it would lessen the stress on my shoulder, if that makes any sense. Thanks a bunch. Anything to help save my fragile shoulder is amazing.
Lessening the stress on your shoulder during the movement isn't the goal. Your goals are fat loss and shoulder health, right? So instead of only working around your shoulder's limitations (just replacing movements you can't do, like overhead pressing, with movement you can do) you want to use movements that not only improve shoulder function, but also cause metabolic disturbance. You need to meet both goals.
Push-ups are great (as Mike and Bill thoroughly covered in their Push-up, Face Pulls and Shrugs article), but anything that can increase loading on the serratus anterior will be of additional corrective benefit. A push-up plus does this, but without much load or metabolic disturbance. So increasing the difficulty of your push-up makes it fit your second goal of fat loss.
In I/O (I'm assuming you own that) Bill and Mike use a movement they call Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Stability. (I usually just write elbow touches cause that's what Tony called them and it's shorter, lol.) This movement closes the kinetic chain (putting your hands on the floor) and requires you to brace through your core. Lifting one hand makes the core work hard!
Here are two quotes from I/O:
Quote:
Closing the kinetic chain by bearing weight through the upper extremities is an excellent method to activate the scapular stabilizers and the rotator cuff musculature.
Quote:
Involve the Hip and Core
There is a functional relationship between the muscles of the hip, core (diaphragm, pelvic floor, abdominals, and lower back), and shoulder. Quite frequently, when examining athletes with an injured shoulder, one also finds that the athlete lacks normal strength or mobility of the opposite hip.
So, I thought the best movement to meet both of your goals simultaneously was the push-up step-up. It's a movement I learned from JC Santana's work. It will require you to lift each hand as you move over the step (like the elbow touch), then as you push off to move your upper body your serratus will have to work really hard (like a push-up plus), and being on one hand will make your core work hard (tying in your hips and core as well as metabolic disturbance much greater than a regular push-up). I'd want you to do a full push-up on each side of the step with an uneven hand placement (again, requiring greater work from the serratus than a regular push-up). Craig Ballantyne uses this movement in his bodyweight workouts and calls it an elevated push-up. It would be an even greater metabolic disturbance and build muscular power if you were able to explode up out of the push-up (yelling explode during the movement is optional :p ). How airborne you get will depend on your power and how it feels to your shoulders.
Here's Santana's instructions for the basic movement. He does not show the push-up on either side of the step. Especially note that bracing the core and not shifting in the hips (just like with elbow touches) is important.
Thanks guys and gals! much appreciated! It's great motivation to see the scale go down that much.
For the life of me, I can't find quinoa. It's in the rice aisle at the grocery store, right? I've tried three different stores and have come up empty all three times....
Lisa-- thank you thank you thank you. You didn't have to do all of that! I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of that information. I need to read it again tonight. I know I've probably missed some stuff the first time through.
I weighed myself this morning (I was 211.4 last Wednesday) and I am absolutely in shock at what the number was today.
207.6
So I've lost 3.8 lbs in a week. That is absolutely insane. I know I can't expect these results to last like this forever, but I am ecstatic right now. It's not dehydration because I've been drinking water like crazy, so I am inclined to believe that it's a good weight loss. This pace would mean that I would hit 200 in two weeks. Doubtful, but if I can lose 2 lbs by next Wednesday, I will be a happy camper yet again.
Thanks guys and gals! much appreciated! It's great motivation to see the scale go down that much.
For the life of me, I can't find quinoa. It's in the rice aisle at the grocery store, right? I've tried three different stores and have come up empty all three times....
Lisa-- thank you thank you thank you. You didn't have to do all of that! I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of that information. I need to read it again tonight. I know I've probably missed some stuff the first time through.
you're most likely going to have to go to a health food store to buy quinoa... my meijer and wal mart don't carry it, so i doubt yours would. But yea, it should be in w/ the rice.
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I've only found quinoa at places like Whole Foods. It's in the bulk bins and also in the section where they have Bob's Red Mill products. Near the baking supplies, beans, beans, health foods, diet foods, vegetarian foods. never know.
Thanks Amy and John! I'm still in shock about it. (and yes Amy.... you've got some catching up to do hopefully.... )
Alco-- that's what I thought too. I'm going to check the health food aisle of the Hy Vee at home if I have a chance this weekend. It's shaping up to be brutally busy now instead of just "busy." ugh.
ETA: Roland-- ok, good to know. does it taste good? I sure hope to hell that it does.
Up 0.2 from last time. Made it fairly easily--if you can quantify easy HIIT--so that's good. It started pouring as we got done, so I got in a shower and a fourth interval between the rec center and the parking garage.
I assume you get that in the same place that you get the quinoa?
I'm just looking for healthy stuff. I made whole wheat chicken nachos tonight. Damn they were tasty. But I think I ate too much; so I'm waffling on whether or not I should down a cup of vanilla protein powder right now. I'm not hungry.
i always wanted to try jasmine rice, but never got around to it.
what's your diet like now nick?
boring.
protein whenever I feel like feeding my face with it and no simple sugars. that's basically it. No fancy guidelines or anything. I'm eating *maybe* 2000 calories a day, which is considerably less than I had been. Sometimes it may not even be that much. I think it's like 500 at breakfast, 500 at lunch (depending on if it's right after a workout or not) and then like 700ish at dinner if I have my estimations right. I was ready to puke after dinner tonight, and I only had 300 cals worth of whole wheat tortillas (3 of em) and then salsa, chicken and shredded cheese. It wasn't that calorie dense.
JJ- the competition ends after we complete fat loss 3.
Alco- no, that's not the prize.
Thanks John!
Thursday April 26
Superset 1
Sumo Deadlifts
3x12 @ 170
DB Incline Bench
3x12 @ 70
About what I figured for these exercises.
Superset 2
Bulgarian Split Squats
3x12 @ 22.5
Mixed Grip Lat Pulldown
3x12 @ 165
I was going to go for 25s but some tool was curling with one of them. Whatever. It was still harder than hell. I hate this exercise.
Superset 3
RDLs
3x12 @ 135
Swiss Ball Lateral Rolls
3x12
Do I just balance a plate on my stomach? No idea. I did increase on the RDLs 20 lbs. That was ballsy and I barely got it. I guess that's all that matters.
Great job Nick looks like things are progressing quite nicely for you. Great job on those sumo deads and the RDL's. You'll have to let us know how you feel after those Great log too btw, full of energy, love it!
__________________
"My darling," she said at last, "are you sure you don't mind being a mouse for the rest of your life?"
"I don't mind at all," I said. "It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you."
Thanks Jenn! I'm going to be one sore mofo tomorrow!
And, yes, the attention that this has gotten has been amazing. I can't believe that it's been this popular in like eight or nine days. It's unreal. (It passed my other log, which I had for two months, in less than a week)
Swiss Ball Lateral Rolls
3x12
Do I just balance a plate on my stomach? No idea. I did increase on the RDLs 20 lbs. That was ballsy and I barely got it. I guess that's all that matters.
If you can do these bodyweight with no shifting in your hips and shoulders as you roll outward then instead of trying to load them, I'd want you to move on to a more difficult exercise that requires the same kind of shoulder to hip bracing. A single-arm bodyweight inverted row would work. Elbow touches or renegade rows (with no hip shift) would also be good choices. But have someone watch you and make sure you're not being sloppy on the swiss ball lateral rolls first. Sometimes, even with the stick, it's hard to tell if you're staying level or not.
If you can do these bodyweight with no shifting in your hips and shoulders as you roll outward then instead of trying to load them, I'd want you to move on to a more difficult exercise that requires the same kind of shoulder to hip bracing. A single-arm bodyweight inverted row would work. Elbow touches or renegade rows (with no hip shift) would also be good choices. But have someone watch you and make sure you're not being sloppy on the swiss ball lateral rolls first. Sometimes, even with the stick, it's hard to tell if you're staying level or not.
awesome, thanks again Lisa. Mucho mucho mucho appreciated.
No HIIT today, unless work gets canceled. It's already been pushed back, and I think more rain is on the way. If it is, I'm hitting the gym.
Pretty good, all things considered. Because of school and driving home, I didn't eat from 8:30-3:00. Not good, but I wasn't starving (I don't know if that's a good or a bad sign) and ate a sandwich on whole wheat. That's it. No chips, no nothing.
I'm still really motivated. That's very good. This has consumed me. I find myself looking for excuses to work out now, instead of making it a mandatory activity. I'm actually enjoying sweating my butt off in the gym, something that seemed like more of a chore a bit ago. Whenever I see food, I try to analyze the calorie content, and the macronutrient breakdown. Yeah, that's really freaking weird and really obsessive, but I kept myself busy on the highway this afternoon staring at the ice cream on the Sonic billboards and wondering actually how bad it was for me.
Maybe it's the competition, maybe it's the summit. Something has changed, and I think it's impacting me overall. My roommate has a tendency to be very very very brash and cynical. He's been awful this week. Normally I'd have told him to shut the fuck up by now or something. I haven't. I'm being pleasant to people when I normally would have just shut up and slouched down.
This weekend is going to be long and tiring. Yet I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to be getting up at 7 tomorrow to lift. Normally I'd take a break. Instead, I'll get up early and do it.
so yeah.... there's your long answer. I just started typing, and I could probably type a whole heck of a lot more. I've spent a lot of this week thinking. thanks for asking.
Awesome Nick. Glad to hear you have some very positive things going on right now. It makes a world of difference when you smile, people around are affected in a positive way by it too. So keep it up! You are doing really great!
__________________
"My darling," she said at last, "are you sure you don't mind being a mouse for the rest of your life?"
"I don't mind at all," I said. "It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you."
Thanks gals! I really appreciate it! I don't know what it is. People say that college is the time to figure out who the hell you are and what you want to do. I hope that I'm doing that right now.
Saturday April 28
Superset 1
Front Squats
3x12 @ 125
Cable Seated Rows
3x12 @ 170
The front squats were interesting today. I had to use an incline bench, and it had foot supports, so I really couldn't back up without tripping on them. So here I am, squatting down into the deepest point of the incline bench, and then going back up. It looked odd, but it got the job done. Up 5 pounds on the rows, only because the cable stack at the gym at home is worthless.
Superset 2
Pushups
3x12 @ +10
Single Leg Air Humps
3x12 @ +10
Superset 3
Rotational Lunges (plate overhead)
3x12 @ 35
Swiss Ball Crunches
3x12 @ 35
Yeah! The ball wasn't being used today! (of course, no one else was lifting here at the gym in KC)
Lady tried to tell me today that the lunges and squats were going to kill my knees. I politely told her that I was a fitness nerd and that everything I had read told me otherwise. She left me alone after that.
I was up at 6:30 and in the gym at 7, which is an absolute rarity for me. My mom was lifting at the same time, so that was nice to get to talk with her during my rest periods.
I worked for the first time last night at my new summer job, and I think that I am going to have the coolest summer job ever for a 21 year old guy. I can't see a downside to this job, except for the free food. I didn't eat anything last night (but the free Diet Dr. Pepper and coffee was exceptional) so I'm 1-1. I hope I can make it a while before I submit to the nachos and ice cream.
This is my dream job. You have absolutely no idea who much I love Diet Dr. Pepper. There's a museum, you know?
there's free Diet Dr. Pepper here too.
and I ate well today. no bread, no tortilla chips.... all protein. (they didn't put out taquitos. thank God) I about ate my arm off though, they waited til 1:15 to put out the food. Of course.... I shouldn't ever be complaining about free cheese and chicken breasts.
Superset 2
Bulgarian Split Squats
3x12 @ 25 (EH)
Mixed Grip Lat Pulldown
3x12 @ 150
I wish I could find consistency between cable machines. I went for 170, and there was no way it was actually 170. The 150 felt like the 165 I was doing at the rec center. This makes no sense
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