The Big Stretch

[CloveApple]

11/21/08, Friday

Core/hip work
bridging: (w/sm ball beetween knees) 5 sec/20 rep
clamshell: 30 reps
side lying abduction: 30 reps
band walk: 6 x 18 feet
quadruped (also called quadraplex): 30 sec, 3 reps on each side

Intervals on the elliptical w/heart monitor

5 minute warm up at 100-120 BPM
Then repeat 5 times:
3 minutes at 135-155
1 minute sprint at 155-170
5 minutes cool down at 100-120 BPM

I did better on these than the last time I tried them. I was hitting the middle of a few of the sprint ranges, but oh my god do they take everything I have!

[CloveApple]

Originally Posted by Espi

it (the food) will always be there. You can trust on it that the ice cream you love, will always be available (except when as..s decide to discontinue a flavour or no longer carry HD!!!)

That is a great way to think of it. I think I say something to myself that is fairly similar to myself sometimes when I find myself wanting everything NOW. (I can work in all kinds of things but not an an instant NOW basis.)

Ben and Jerry's ice cream actually has a "graveyard" page for discontinued flavors!

Originally Posted by CloveApple

Triceps Ball Swim
I don't know if this one has another name. I'll see if I can find/come up with a decent description or picture.

brwnsgr, as best I can describe it, you rest face down on an exercise ball so it's supporting your trunk and your feet are bracing you while your arms are hanging down by your sides with a DB in each hand. Then you lift up but also towards your feet.

[CloveApple]

Saturday I went to a winter bike commuting seminar a local bike shop was putting on. I came to two conclusions: 1) every time I hear "definite" rules of winter biking at least half of them will contradict ones someone else has told me. 2) a lot of the gear is ridiculously expensive (and there MUST be ghetto versions that are way cheaper).

My favorite on-the-cheap biking trick so far is to keep a small plastic grocery bag tied on my bike and to use it as a seat cover when I have the bike parked outside and think it might rain or snow.

Sunday I managed to do a little bit of hip rehab stuff at work by doing exercises with one of the residents (just clamshell and side lying abductor).

Weight's been doing some bouncing, but overall is on a steady downhill trend. I'm at 179.4 lbs now. That puts me at a high school weight. So from here on is unexplored territory.

[CloveApple]

11/25/08, Monday

Today was my regular session with Andrew. He told me my learning curve has accelerated, that I pick things up faster than when I started.

Some of the exercises are fewer sets so we could go over everything.

ball wall squat: 3 sets w/25#DBs: 8 reps
bicep curls: 3 sets w/8# DBs: 8 reps, 8 reps, 7 reps
DB rows: 3 sets each side w/25# DB: 8 reps
bench press: 2 sets w/55#: 6 reps, 5 reps
(starting working on Romanian deadlift but Andrew decided to go with wall taps instead so...)
wall taps not sure of the number
triceps DB ball swim: 1 set w/5# DBs
reverse DB fly on ball: 1 set w/5# DBs

I need to start budgeting more time in on my days with Andrew so I can stay on and do more on my own after.

Also Andrew drew up a new set/rep scheme for me to try on my own. I'm kind of looking forward to it.

[CloveApple]

11/25/08, Tuesday

a little bit of hip stuff
20 clamshell each side
20 bridging, held 5 seconds
6x an 18 ft band walk

elliptical -steady state w/heart monitor
5 min warm up (100-120 BPM)
30 min (135-155)
5 min cool down (100-120)

Hard to keep myself going on this and not cut it short. The only good thing I can say about steady state stuff is that it makes me appreciate intervals. Plus I feel good after.

Beautiful day outside. Crisp and cold but sunny. Nice to be out on the bike.

(And yes I'm repeating the same date. Wish the edit window lasted longer.)

[realcdn]

I've been caught with that a couple of times... copy and paste is not always your friend.

[CloveApple]

Wednesday 11/26/08

some body weight core/hip stuff at home:

done in a superset:
clamshell: 3 sets 10 left, 10 right
side lying abduction: 3 sets 10 left, 10 right
bridging: 5 sec x 10
band walk 8 x 10 ft
glut max retraining: 15 sec x 20 each leg

I can really feel some of these hitting my weaker muscles. They look so ridiculously easy but they aren't.

[kfisherx]

Jennifer it is soooo cool to read of your bike adventures and boy can I relate. I remember 2 years ago when I first ventured as an adult on my bike. I did not make it down the hill from my house before I was in tears from the fear of it. Now I fly like the wind on my fancy road bike... Almost fearless...

[CloveApple]

Originally Posted by realcdn

I've been caught with that a couple of times... copy and paste is not always your friend.

But, but it's so ...easy. (Well, until I have to spend more time "fixing" it than I would have spent typing it. But we won't mention that, right?

Originally Posted by kfisherx

Jennifer it is soooo cool to read of your bike adventures and boy can I relate. I remember 2 years ago when I first ventured as an adult on my bike. I did not make it down the hill from my house before I was in tears from the fear of it. Now I fly like the wind on my fancy road bike... Almost fearless...

Oooh, fancy road bike. That sounds fun. I could tell I was truly bitten by the biking bug when I started thinking it would be nice to have a second bike. Mind posting a pic of yours some time? I'm just starting to be able to appreciate all the cool bikes out there.

[CloveApple]

11/28/08, Friday

Long day.

I took one of the residents to a black Friday sale and bought us both stability balls for 5.99. He was thrilled with his once we got it inflated (had to use a friend's bicycle pump as the one that came with it sucked) and he's been kicking it all over the group home. Mine is going to get tried out as a desk chair.

After work I biked to the gym.

Started the nonlinear periodization Andrew suggested. So today I was aiming for one set of 15-20 reps. Anything with fewer reps means I hit failure sooner.

I couldn't remember how to do wall taps and couldn't find a picture on the internet so I skipped them. Before my next workout I'm planning to dig back through my logs to see if if I scribbled a description anywhere.

We'd discussed how to change one of the bodyweight exercises (planks w/side plank superset) to fit the different rep & set numbers, but on some others I wasn't sure so I'll just wing them without worrying if they're "right" and just ask him on Monday.

This is fun.

clamshell: 20 left/20 right
side lying abduction: 20 L/20 R
plank/side plank/side plank: 2 @ 20 sec/20 sec/20 sec
(time felt too low on this which was why I did a second)
gluteus max retraining (a static thingy): 50 sec

DB triceps ball swim: 4#, 20 reps
DB reverse fly on ball: 4#, 20 reps
DB biceps curl: 2 5#DB, 16 reps
ball wall squat 18#, 20 reps
(wasn't sure how much to lower the weight for the higher reps & undershot)
DB row: 20#, 20 L, 20 R
bench press: 45# (just bar), 13

Afterwards I hit a clothing sale to get the next size down of some basic clothes. (Not quite there but about half way.) It's weird to keep buying new clothes & know I'll never wear them another season. I've done more clothes shopping this year than I normally do in any three years. Wish I liked clothes shopping!

Then when I got home I lugged most of my frozen & refrigerated food to a friend's so I could defrost the freezer overnight.

[stingo]

Looks like you're doing well. The fact that you're shopping for clothes so often only reinforces that notion. Keep up the good work.

[realcdn]

Originally Posted by CloveApple

Afterwards I hit a clothing sale to get the next size down of some basic clothes. (Not quite there but about half way.) It's weird to keep buying new clothes & know I'll never wear them another season. I've done more clothes shopping this year than I normally do in any three years. Wish I liked clothes shopping!

Yay for new clothes! I'm avoiding the entire issue. For me it's a money issue. I'll do some home alterations during my school break, and I paid $20 to have my winter coat altered (even though it's still a little big).

[brwnsgr]

Love hearing that you're buying new clothes!! And having fun, too!
You'll have to let me know how the stability ball/desk chair works out. We've got open cubicle suites were I work, so I'm not sure how well the boss men will take to it. But if I ever get my own office...I'd be all over that.

It sounds like things are going very well for you. Hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving!

[CloveApple]

Originally Posted by stingo

Looks like you're doing well. The fact that you're shopping for clothes so often only reinforces that notion. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the props.

Originally Posted by realcdn

Yay for new clothes! I'm avoiding the entire issue. For me it's a money issue. I'll do some home alterations during my school break, and I paid $20 to have my winter coat altered (even though it's still a little big).

I can't sew worth anything so though I have a pile of skirts set aside to get altered, for now I'm mostly living in sweats and tshirts (like the clothes I bought on sale). As for my coat -- I'm swimming in it, but I'm not replacing it till next winter.

Originally Posted by brwnsgr

Love hearing that you're buying new clothes!! And having fun, too!
You'll have to let me know how the stability ball/desk chair works out. We've got open cubicle suites were I work, so I'm not sure how well the boss men will take to it. But if I ever get my own office...I'd be all over that.

It sounds like things are going very well for you. Hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving!

I haven't used the ball enough yet to give a review. Thanksgiving was a work day for me, but a very mellow one. Except for some annoying injury things, life is mostly going well.

[CloveApple]

Yikes have I gotten behind in posting here! I was going to "catch up" and post all the old workouts & stuff, but at this point I'll just say "I did some workouts. I slacked some." In other words I was me.

The hip is better though the underlying muscle weakness still needs work. I've been having some frustrating low back issues but basically I'm ok.

Now back to regular posting!

[CloveApple]

Tuesday 12/16/08

I saw the physical therapist again today for what I had hoped would be the last appointment but no such luck. My back has been hurting the last few days enough that I can't do some everyday things. So I got another doctor referral to cover that and we focused on my back.

She said she thought biking might be contributing to the back trouble and Andrew suggested the same. Also Andrew said not to do weights right now. So no biking and no weights. I have to admit I'm bummed. My hip seemed to be doing so much better and I thought I was out of the woods.

[stingo]

Hmm no biking or weights? What are you allowed to do?

[CloveApple]

Originally Posted by stingo

Hmm no biking or weights? What are you allowed to do?

I can still do the elliptical. Also Andrew (my trainer) said that swimming, yoga, and tai chi were all possibilities. I'm not sure what he'll end up cooking up. I was in no shape to meet with him this last Monday but I'll see him next Monday and find out exactly what he has in mind. On the plus side he has experience working with people with back pain and doing rehab-y sorts of stuff.

[realcdn]

I was thinking swimming, although I admit that I hate indoor pools. It sounds like he's got the experience to help, so that's a good thing.

[CloveApple]

Originally Posted by realcdn

I was thinking swimming, although I admit that I hate indoor pools. It sounds like he's got the experience to help, so that's a good thing.

Yup, I'm really lucky in the support people I've found. (And that includes y'all here. )

As a kid I loathed indoor swimming lessons because something in the chemical mix gave me a terrible cold and I'd be sneezing while trying to swim. (Plus, let's be honest, I sucked.)

As an adult I think I'd kind of like to give swimming another try though I had it on the "down the road" list and not the now list. For sure there'd be a learning curve. While I can stay afloat and go in a general direction I'm not entirely sure it qualifies as swimming, so it'll be interesting if he goes with that.

[CloveApple]

Thursday 12/18/08

Look! It's a workout.

30 minutes of a mix of some intervals and some easier stuff with my heart monitor on the elliptical.

5 min warm up at 100-120
6 min at 125-145
intervals repeated 3 times:
1 min sprint at 155-170
2 min recovery at 135-155
25 min at 125-145
5 min cool down at 100-120

Friday 12/19/08

First some stuff for my hip and back:

Band walk: 6 x 18 ft
clamshell: 20 each side
side lying abduction: 20 each side
bridging: 5 sec x 6 (quit when it started hurting my back)
messed around with a pelvic tilt bicycle thing the PT suggested.
but was more figuring out what worked than actually counting reps or time

Then, what should have been intervals if I had actually been hitting any of them. It started out with me grabbing an index card with a different routine than I meant to. The kicker is that the card had an older easier routine with more recovery time than the one I'd intended to do but in spite of that I still wasn't hitting the sprints. Not even close.

I cut it short at 25 minutes when it became apparent that unless a very large tiger showed up I wasn't going to hit the range I wanted. (And I'm not sure the tiger would have been effective either.*)

What I was aiming for:
5 min warm up at 100-120
then repeat 5 times:
3 min at 135-155
1 min at 155-170
5 min cool down

*My trainer sometimes compares 10 on the perceived exertion scale to the effort you'd put out if chased by a large tiger. 9 is therefore being chased by a small tiger.

[realcdn]

That's cute. I had to go look for it, but Leigh posted something quite cute once in another section of the board....

Leigh Peele's Rate of Perceived Exertion

Level 1: I'm sitting on my rump eating chips
Level 2: I'm getting up to get more chips
Level 3: I had to walk up the stairs twice to get something I forgot that holds my chips
Level 4: I am walking on flat land to the store to get chips
Level 5: I am walking uphill in the sun to get chips
Level 6: I am jogging on flat land to the store to get the chips
Level 7: I am jogging on hilly land to get the chips
Level 8: I am jogging on hilly land to get the chips and every 15 secs I have to dodge oncoming traffic that is trying to kill me
Level 9: I am am running up hill with chips in hand from a mob of chip obsessed football fans who have to get back before the halftime commercials are over and I may die
Level 10: I did in fact pass away

[Espi]

LMAO over the chips-RPE scale. That tiger one was pretty good too.

Also laughed at your claim to always be hungry.
Got a Question for you! Do you ever restrain from eating gluten? Try it... you might be pleasantly surprised. TONS of people discover that eating bread/pasta/etc. makes them a ravenously hungry animal. Other trigger foods (for me) are cheese (am slightly allergic to dairy as well).

[CloveApple]

Originally Posted by realcdn

That's cute. I had to go look for it, but Leigh posted something quite cute once in another section of the board....

Thanks for the laugh Anne.

Originally Posted by Espi

LMAO over the chips-RPE scale. That tiger one was pretty good too.

Also laughed at your claim to always be hungry.
Got a Question for you! Do you ever restrain from eating gluten? Try it... you might be pleasantly surprised. TONS of people discover that eating bread/pasta/etc. makes them a ravenously hungry animal. Other trigger foods (for me) are cheese (am slightly allergic to dairy as well).

Oh, my comment over in Stingo's log? No, I'm definitely not always hungry. I'm just not going to be so satiated by a reasonable meal that I don't have room for more. I've always got room for more unless we are talking about a meal that hits true binge proportions and is way over maintenance.

(Well there is one exception but that would be something like a big plateful of salad or veggies that would have me very briefly too full for about 15-20 minutes due to sheer volume, then hungry again.)

So when you said

Originally Posted by Espi

Well done. With veggies I oftentimes eat those first and save the best , the protein for later. Same for breakfast, I eat breakfast first and then have coffee. Both coffee and protein satiate too much to allow for eating either a proper breakfast or proper amounts of veggies.

it was an intriguing but foreign idea.

I've never tried avoiding gluten, but then I've never noticed anything that would make me consider it a problem. Of course I could just be unaware of it.

[Celestialmom]

Hi! Checked out your log and you seem to be doing really well! I'm sorry about your back and hip problems though--hope they improve quickly. Anyway, keep up the good work!

[stingo]

Originally Posted by CloveApple

Oh, my comment over in Stingo's log? No, I'm definitely not always hungry. I'm just not going to be so satiated by a reasonable meal that I don't have room for more. I've always got room for more unless we are talking about a meal that hits true binge proportions and is way over maintenance.

I used to think this way too, but this past weekend has me reframing my thinking of food. Yesterday, I never felt hungry (stuffed was more like it) and I only had 1500 calories! I'd never have thought it, but there it is.

[kfisherx]

This stuffed feeling is what I think happens when you get the "right" macros for your body. Are you still working with Alan per chance Jennifer?

[CloveApple]

Originally Posted by Celestialmom

Hi! Checked out your log and you seem to be doing really well! I'm sorry about your back and hip problems though--hope they improve quickly. Anyway, keep up the good work!

Thanks for visiting.

Originally Posted by stingo

I used to think this way too, but this past weekend has me reframing my thinking of food. Yesterday, I never felt hungry (stuffed was more like it) and I only had 1500 calories! I'd never have thought it, but there it is.

Sounds like a good experience. I'm definitely less hungry on fewer calories following Alan's plan than I was eating more calories and doing my own thing. (It used to be that I was never far from the edge of severe hunger.) I'm just not too satiated to eat more.

Originally Posted by kfisherx

This stuffed feeling is what I think happens when you get the "right" macros for your body. Are you still working with Alan per chance Jennifer?

Yup, I'm very much still working with Alan.

[CloveApple]

12/22/08, Monday

Another session with Andrew. Some low intensity elliptical time and then various stretches/exercises for hip and back.

I really need to follow through on these if I want things to get better and I've been slacking. I think I'm just frustrated, but that doesn't let me out of putting in the effort.

[CloveApple]

10/24/08 Wednesday

Had another PT appointment and she gave me a few more exercises. I need to write a new master list with all of the ones that she or Andrew have suggested and then make a new training log. I've decided to start posting my compliance on them here too.

12/25/08

Merry Christmas to all that celebrate it. (And if you don't, well have a doggone good day anyway!)

I'm working the holiday this year, but that's ok. My parents and I did a gift exchange earlier in December (my dad is recovering from a painful shoulder surgery right now and didn't want to deal with travel or company post-surgery), and then I'm having a late Christmas celebration with the kids I used to nanny who are coming up to visit me. I'm not remotely ready for them and have so much to do to get ready, but it'll be a blast to see them.