Lose the pounds or lose to Supergirl

[Lisa~]

Originally Posted by ninja

Lisa--

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:

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.

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.

[Alcoholiday]

holy crap! i don't detailed replies like this in my log. *jealous*

hehe

[AmyPie38]

I know! I sure know who to go to with questions now!

[ninja]

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.

[AmyPie38]

Originally Posted by ninja

Thanks Jason and Mike!

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.

Nick, that's wonderful!!!!

Shit.

[Mahler]

Great going, Nick.
Nice figures on the weight loss.

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by ninja

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.

[Lost Dog]

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.

[ninja]

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.

Wednesday April 25

HIIT
5 minute warmup @ 3.5
3 rounds; 1 minute @ 10.7, 2 minutes @ 6.0
5 minute cooldown @ 3.5

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.

[Lost Dog]

I don't like it, but a lot of people do. It's the texture. It's very, very small. Like tiny rice grains. It's okay in soup, I guess.

I prefer buckwheat, which is related, more nutty tasting and larger. It's not wheat related. Just the name...

[Alcoholiday]

i like quinoa. very easy on the stomach for those w/ sensitive stomach. I like just eating it plain, or cooked in chicken broth, but that's just me.

[ninja]

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.

[Alcoholiday]

i always wanted to try jasmine rice, but never got around to it.

what's your diet like now nick?

[ninja]

Originally Posted by Alcoholiday

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]

Great job Nick. When does the competition end, next summit? And, I guess I missed the guidelines, what is the goal/prize?

[Alcoholiday]

Originally Posted by jj

Great job Nick. When does the competition end, next summit? And, I guess I missed the guidelines, what is the goal/prize?

i think the prize was a lapdance from the loser. unfortunately, super girl would lose on both occassions.

[Johnka]

Good to hear you're seeing result, Nick. Keep up the good work!