Congrats, Wendy, on the new low and on the fantastic bikini shot! Your workouts are looking great. I did my first bench press with the barbell yesterday and I was thinking about you and what you said about proper form. I made sure the bar touched my chest.
Pauline congrats on the barbell! So few women use it at my gym. Happened to be at the y today where no women are ever in the free weight section. Poor them!
(Boudica also spelt as Boudicca, Boudicea and boadicea)
"a terrible disaster occurred in Britain. Two cities were sacked, eighty thousand of the Romans and of their allies perished, and the island was lost to Rome. Moreover, all this ruin was brought upon the Romans by a woman, a fact which in itself caused them the greatest shame....But the person who was chiefly instrumental in rousing the natives and persuading them to fight the Romans, the person who was thought worthy to be their leader and who directed the conduct of the entire war, was Buduica, a Briton woman of the royal family and possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women." [1]
Boudica was a famous queen of ancient Briton who led a rebellion against the Roman occupiers.
Boudica was born in 30 AD in South East England. Around CE 48, she married Prasutagus, the head of the Iceni tribe in south East England. They lived in Norfolk and during the life of Prasutagus were given semi independence from the Roman occupiers. Prasutagus was given the freedom to remain King of the Iceni, but under the dominion of Rome. Despite some advantages of Roman rule, the Iceni people suffered many indignities such as slavery and high taxes.
On the death of Prasutagus, Roman law meant the majority of his possessions would pass to the Roman Emperor. However, the local Roman commanders took this as a pretext to confiscate all the property of Prasutagus and other leading Iceni tribe members. Prasutagus had also run up debts during his lifetime and when his wife Boudica could not meet them, she was stripped and beaten in public. The Roman historian, Tacitus, wrote that Roman soldiers raped her daughters. Other tribes such as the Trinobantes were subject to similar treatment, leading to growing feelings of rebellion amongst the native Britons.
It was Boudica who was able to unite the various warring tribes of Briton and lead them in revolt against the Roman occupiers. The Roman writer Cassius Dio described Boudica as: “very tall. Her eyes seemed to stab you. Her voice was harsh and loud. Her thick, reddish-brown hair flung down below her waist. She always wore a great golden torc around her neck and a flowing tartan cloak fastened with a brooch.” [2]
The first target for Boudica and the Britons was the Roman city of Colchester. This city stood as an emblem for Roman rule; it housed a temple to the Roman emperor Claudius. The city was lightly defended and the Britons had little trouble in raising the city. The Roman governor, Suetonius, was at the time fighting in Anglesy. When he heard the news he travelled to London, which was then a small but thriving financial centre. He considered defending London, but concerned over the growing number of rebellious Britons he leaved it only lightly armed. The Britons, thus were able to take London and later St Albans. Over 80,000 people were estimated to have been killed in the 3 cities. The Britons showed no mercy to those left behind.
Boudica now led her growing army north to meet Suetonius’ army. Along the way Boudica’s army were able to successfully ambush a Roman column of soldiers. The 2 armies eventually met in open battle, possibly at somewhere along Watling Street. The Britons, heavily outnumbered the Roman forces, however, the Romans had superior tactics, training, discipline and weapons. The Romans chose a narrow location, where the Britons could not use their superior numbers. The first wave of Britons was stopped with a wave of Roman Javelins. When the second wave came, the Romans held firm, behind their wall of shields, stabbing the Britons with the short sword. At the end of the Battle, only 400 Romans had fallen, but upto 200,000 Britons had been slaughtered. Conflicting reports suggest that Boudica, either took poison or died from her wounds.
Boudica gained a tremendous amount of interest in the Victorian period. The husband of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, commissioned the statue of Boudica which stands outside the Houses of Parliament in London. Boudica, actually became a symbol of the British Empire, which is ironically given her anti imperialist stance.
The rebellion of Boudica, almost forced the Romans to leave England, as it was the Emperor Nero decided to replace Suetonius with a more neutral ruler Publius Petronius Turpilianus.
Most of the sources for Boudica’s time comes from Tacitus. His father-in-law, Agricola, was a military tribune under Suetonius Paulinus, which almost certainly gave Tacitus an eyewitness source for Boudica's revolt.
by: R.Pettinger 18/05/07
lol you guys are funny. thanks for the reference greg!! cool stuff.
race report from today:
The Need for Speed
Daytona International Speedway, home of the Superbowl of stock car racing, the Daytona 500, was my chosen venue for the inaugural test drive of my new leaner, stronger, faster body. I am exactly half way through a twelve week training program that will lead up to the Pump and Run 5k at the Arnold Fitness Expo in March.
I ran a baseline 5k six weeks ago to see where my fitness was with minimal running. The final result of 27 minutes and 29 seconds required some jacked up heartrates and some searing lung pain. And more than a few walk breaks to ease the pain. Today my strategy was different. Today my goal was to learn how to pace evenly in a race. To learn how to run the first mile conservatively, and then go all out at the end.
The morning started like every other race morning, with the alarm going off way too early. Race cars need special gasoline, runners need special caffeine. My high octane fuel of choice was freshly ground espresso beans with a crapload of pressurized water blasted into them, resulting in a fantastic double espresso. Knowing that the race conditions would be similar to my last 5k, low 40’s and clear, I donned my running tights and long sleeved drifit, gloves, and headband. I poured my Martinelli’s apple juice in a water bottle, and headed toward the birthplace of speed.
Of course, I initially went to the wrong parking lot and became entangled in a mess of traffic that was meant for the Rolex 24 hours car race, which would be starting later on. Good thing I left my house in plenty of time. I arrived at a parking lot that seemed miles and miles away from the race start. I envisioned a replay of the Disney Marathon, where it seems like you walk for at least 4 miles to earn your right to run the next 26.2. When I realized we would be taking the Disney-esque tram to the start line on Pit Road, I decided to pack a little bag with my post race nutrition. I also knew I would need a place to stash my race packet.
As the tram entered the speedway, I saw the steeply banked curve of the track, and remembered the joy I felt on the infield as I watched the 2004 Daytona 500 unfold right before my eyes. How those cars stay stuck up there on that bank is beyond my Physics 101 knowledge! I wondered how in the hell my body was going to take running up that bank, until I realized that, fortunately for my knees, the road race is run on the inner road course and not up on the banked tri-oval. Wheeew! Crisis avoided.
I picked up my packet, donned my timing chip, checked my bag, and proceeded to warm up. 40 degrees is cold until you start running! Unfortunately, I had forgotten my usual pre-race apple juice in the car, so I substituted my green algae post race spa drink instead. Felt like the right thing to do at the time, but there is a reason why wise runners advise never trying anything new on race day. Hmmm. The tummy upset during my warmup was not reassuring.
The race start was delayed just a bit, much to the dismay of more than 500 freezing runners. I didn’t really seed myself properly, and when the anthem was sung and the bell was rung, it took a while to get to the start. And for some reason, people were stopped and standing even past the race start line. HUH???
Well, I got loose from the crowd and settled into my pace. I had promised my strength coach that I wasn’t going to get gadget happy, and I stuck to my promise. I left the gowearfit at home. I had the iphone on my left arm. I had the garmin on my left wrist, but instead of wigging out to the little virtual pace dude like I did last race, I simply set a reasonable goal pace between an 8:30 and an 8:40 minute mile pace. as long as I was running in that range, the garmin would be happy and wouldn’t chirp at me. This range was large enough to account for reasonable race variation.
I was shocked at how easy the pace felt for the first mile. I would periodically look down at the garmin, and sure enough, I was running smack dab in the middle of my range. How could this be? I felt like I was out for an easy long run. But first miles of a 5k are coy like that. They trick you into thinking that all is well. They tease you into pushing that pace, and then pretty soon you are searching for that 3 mile marker, but it seems like it is 30 miles away. Only this time, I listened to my strength coach and I listened to my fast friend Brad from the track and decided to stay my nice even happy pace for mile 2. Mile 2 felt like a controlled tempo mile. Harder than long run pace, easier than track work. Soon, the mile 3 marker was upon me, and I picked it up just a little. By the last quarter mile, I realized that I was running a pretty conservative race, maybe too conservative, so I finally decided to wander into the pain cave.
As I approached the finish line, I was hurting too much to even realize that I was crossing the same line as the drivers cross when they win the Daytona 500. Legends like Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt (senior and junior) , and my favorite bad boy, Tony Stewart. But there was no victory lane for me. No sponsor-induced spraying of the Pepsi. Only the poor chip boy who looked scared that I was going to hurl on him as he scissored the timing chip from my ankle.
But victory was mine. I looked at my garmin, and it said 26 minutes and 36 seconds, an 8:35 average pace per mile, smack dab in the middle of my range. I would later learn that my official chip time was 26 minutes and 48 seconds. And when I downloaded my Garmin heart rate data, I realized that my effort was, indeed, too conservative. Which makes the time that I achieved even sweeter. I am only 6 weeks into the first 5k training program of my entire running career, and I was almost a minute faster than my baseline, with an effort level that was SIGNIFICANTLY easier. I learned how to run an evenly paced 5k. Now I need to learn how to run a faster, evenly paced 5k.
As I soaked up the rising florida sun, munched my whole grain banana walnut muffin, and cheered my competitors at the awards, I realized something. I have developed the spirit of a competitor. I will never know what it feels like to race 3 wide on the bank of that tri-oval at 200 miles an hour, where the slightest deviation from focus could have disastrous consequences. But today, I learned what it felt like to pass one of my running friends, a friend who usually beats me easily, and to have her yell out, “you’re looking great Wendy keep it up!” In fact, it made me wonder if this is how Dale, Jr feels when one of his teammates gives him that extra little shove that edges him to victory. I felt the power of my friends today as I raced on that track. The power of all of my supporters, mentors, coaches, and teachers giving me that much needed shove to my own personal victory lane.
Congrats on the run! And thanks for the race report. It was almost like I was there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by foodfromafar
...I was thinking about you and what you said about proper form. I made sure the bar touched my chest.
Touching the chest is not really proper form unless you are in a competition. I never drop the bar to my chest because it puts too much weight onto the shouler muscles. If I am off even a tiny bit in form that can jack up my shoulders. The idea (for me) is to build my pecs so I keep the range of motion primarily in my pecs. It is also a bad idea for most people to train with touching the chest because the shoulder muscles then take the weight and they are not designed to do as much weight as the larger pec muscles. Just read any lifting board and see how many people have jacked up their shoulders on this exercise. Unless you have every exactly right form wise, it is best to not touch the chest. For a bber type and most general pop people correct form is less ROM. It matters on what your goal/agenda is on what is right to do. Risk versus benefit.
__________________
The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
wow karla, I about spit out my espresso from explosive laughter this morning! I agree, I trust eric cressey. I also trust my coach, who is one of the premier strength coaches for endurance athletes in the country, lol! He is often in colorado springs. He lectures all over the place. during one of our sessions, he had to field a phone call from a cyclist who is a several time medalist in the olympics.
He is all ABOUT injury prevention. in fact, he was the one who insisted that I get my knee looked at. I am fortunate that he has a house here, and he is spending more time here than hawaii these days. He wrote my programs for 12 weeks, and during that time, I trained with him at his home gym once a week. I learned a LOT. I have emailed him to get a better understanding, but what I can find, is that shoulder injury has a lot more to do with improper warmup, too much load for ability, too little shoulder work (doing too much isolation work) and improper elbow position (too flared, not close enough in). touching a weight that you can handle to your chest is a good thing, as far as I can see when I do a search on it.
when you don't do a full range of motion in an exercise, you can do more weight--which can also be injury producing when you are trying to handle a weight that is too high for your ability.
I was completely amazed at how much stronger my legs got when harvey taught me proper squat technique. in the beginning, I had a lot of trouble exploding out of the hole (bottom). and he taught me to push through that barrier. as I got better at that, I got MUCH stronger. I felt that explosive power yesterday, as I kicked it in that last quarter mile.
in fact, harvey's well known text is called explosive lifting for sports. I am learning the same thing in the bench--exploding from the bottom. to me, training with lighter weights through a full range of motion just makes sense, even for people trying to be stronger for life in general. full range of motion and complex multi-joint lifts just make sense--they mimic life activities--things that we need as we age, like the ability to lift ourselves off the crapper. the ability to push ourselves off the ground if we fall.
when you say that "For a bber type and most general pop people correct form is less ROM." it makes me crack up, because my understanding of bodybuilding is that it really is about aesthetics and not functional strength. certainly, bbers must get strong, particularly with the addition of the chemicals. but sometimes, certain muscles are grown in isolation to achieve a certain look. and the look is not always what is the best thing for functional strength. in fact, the hypertrophy sometimes is so great that range of motion for normal life activities is actually restricted. so yeah, I'm thinking what is good for bbers isn't necessarily good for the average gym person who wants to stay strong for a lifetime.
I'm sticking to lower weights and full ROM, unless someone with eric or harvey's experience level wants to argue otherwise!
jane, those videos in the link illustrate the flared elbow thing PERFECTLY--harvey taught me to tuck my elbows just like that video. he also taught me to do pushups this way, which is still really tough for me. I am doing them on an incline still until I get stronger. I'm thinking I am in great hands!!!
with all of the race day hoopla, and the down home florida cracker party at my neighbor's farm, I was remiss in data posting. mmm they had smoked ribs, low country boil, and the yummiest desserts ever.
scale today, still 151.75 (this was elevated yesterday morning even before the food fest of yesterday.)
friday data
burned 1982
eaten 1994
"deficit" -12
sat data
burned 2519
eaten 2633
"deficit" -114
would love to be 142 on my scale by arnold. but again, I continue to be motivated by a balanced life. partying outside in the florida sun with my neighbors was a total blast! one lady raises these parrots called "pocket parrots". they are sweet little handfed mini-parrots, about the size of a sparrow when fully grown. cute little things. they have pigs, goats, chickens. they had a band playing jimmy buffet, and other florida intensive music. they had a huge ass flatbed trailer parked on the property that served as the raw oyster bar. bucket after bucket of raw oysters. if you want em steamed, we had a blow torch. nothing like fresh local florida oysters right out of the sea cooked with a blow torch!! and the best local farm grown mustard and collard greens ever. ooh, and grapefruit right off the tree. I will post some pics when I can from my iphone.
a large woosh may happen or may not. am definitely wanting to be closer to 140 by the start of marathon season in june. am very committed to reasonable calorie deficits for now, since my training so far has not been adversely affected.
Wendy, that party sounds like heaven, and I don't even eat oysters. But, sun, Jimmy Buffett, ribs, fresh grapefruit, desserts.....AND SUN! I'd have thrown all caution to the wind and had a great time!
I'll have to check out that article Jane posted, I know there's been debate about bar-touch-chest versus not. But I don't know the first thing about what is better. Thanks Jane (and Karla for starting the discussion!)
thanks ginger, so glad I have other runners to support me here
oh, jane. their new years party was just a few weeks later this year because he is a tugboat captain and he was away on assignment. his most recent assignment was louisiana, so the shrimp that were in the low country boil were ginormous. they always have the coolest proteins. fresh venison. fresh beef from cattle that we actually know, which has been strange at times. and the seafood that he gets is just unreal. their chickens lay awesome eggs. produce has been variable lately because of the hard freeze. we had to get the collard greens from another farm.
thanks kara!! oh, I love a good intellectual debate, those are always welcome in my log. I learn so much from everyone on this board. so glad I found it. speaking of, I found this board because of alwyn cosgrove's book. wonder what he thinks is the right way to bench?
That was a great article... especially since I think (well, Bri told me) I built up an imbalance in my shoulders when I did Power Training. Could also be coupled with my desk job though too. I'll have to search for part 2 of the article when i get back from the gym.
jane, I thought I remembered that from the book. thanks for the reference
hey kara, yeah, I am trying to build things evenly from what I learned from harvey.
thanks pauline!! steady progress
so in addition to triceps work, some abs, some shoulders. here is the latest on the bench press. ed spots me on sundays, so this is the day I go a little heavier, because I can go to failure. I did touch these to my chest, lol.
12 x 45
12 x 45
8 x 65
8 x 65
4 x 80 with a fifth partial
4 x 80 with a fifth partial
4 x 80 4 good solid ones, barely with a fifth partial
45 x 17
so funny with the empty barbell. I clearly remember when kristia first spotted me on the bench. that empty barbell seemed so damn HEAVY. don't think I got more than a few reps. now, the empty barbell is just so easy. progress is so WAY COOL!
recovered with a protein shake and a very yummy chicken portabella salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.
contemplating blowing through my chores so I can go to one of our local parks to run the 4 miles that I omitted from yesterdays planned 7 miles. it is beautiful today and perfect running weather. the trails in the park will be easy on the legs. which, by the way, don't even feel like I ran hard yesterday. all good stuff!
decided to get in my 4 miles from yesterday on a pretty trail through the woods. this is one of those real trails, no pavement, and the only way you know that you are doing the right thing is to follow the orange paint swatches on the trees. very blair witch. so I ran 2.75 miles out and then decided to walk the 2.75 miles back leigh peele style. had an odwalla protein bar by this huge ancient oak, the fairchild oak. now trying to be motivated to work on a lecture that I am giving wednesday.
OMG!! I totally seeded myself wrong. the final race results are posted. I lost 22 seconds getting to the start line, and they did the final results by gun time not chip time. guess I need to be up there with the fast girls from now on.
even with the seeding effup, I was 38th out of 233 women who ran.
Way to go, Wendy!! I could never dream of being that fast! I need to try again now that I'm so much lighter, but I'm sure I've lost all the endurance I used to have.
oh jane, you would surprise yourself. I never ever ever ever ever thought I would be this fast. I was looking at the times, and I am not too far off from this one triathlete acquaintance who I have always thought ran speeds that were unattainable for me. she won our age group yesterday, but I am not that far from her. considering she does not have kids and does not work full time, trains CONSTANTLY, I think I am doing good. as it was, I was 7 out of 21 in our age group and should have been 6th if I had seeded properly, and 4th or 5th if I hadn't run it so damn conservatively.
wait until may at the next local 5k I am doing. oh,and I might add that I will be aging out of the 40-44 age group. I will totally kick ass, and hope to beat this chick by then. I will seriously need to get lighter and work harder.
thanks kara!! oh, I love a good intellectual debate, those are always welcome in my log. I learn so much from everyone on this board. so glad I found it. speaking of, I found this board because of alwyn cosgrove's book. wonder what he thinks is the right way to bench?
F#%K! The more I learn in this field the more I have to learn. Thanks for the link Jane and for the discussion Wendy.
__________________
The BIGGER I get the smaller you look
Wendy, such a great write-up on your race .. too bad you lost precious time on the start. But hey, that's another learning phase. Now you know why everyone who is a decently fast runner is fighting to be at the start early.
On the bench presses.. I'm just not doing them anymore, period and just do db presses. Funny enough, I'm now pressing more on db presses than I ever did on bb presses.
The only downside is that when I still did them, I'd tuck in the elbows and had hideously strrrrrong triceps. After reading all they 'naysayers' who said you don't 'need' isolation work on bi/tri , they were sorely neglected... result: can't even do half of the weight I used to do on triceps work.
The upside.. less shoulder pain and more pec development for the db presses that allow for a bit more flare (less tucking) and even larger ROM.
If you want to read more on bench pressing, Lyle McDonald wrote a couple of very good articles on it. Before Lyle became a nutrition guru (writing all those books) he studied Exercise Physiology so that's really his area of expertise.
The interesting part is that elbows tucked in technique is apparently best suited for geared (shirts etc.) powerlifters and not recommended for 'raw' lifters.
Touching the chest is not really proper form unless you are in a competition.
yep, karla, lots to learn for sure! don't we all? you are always welcome to post your advice to me in my log, but statements like this one are simply incorrect. there are LOTS of different reasons why someone would perform an exercise through a full range of motion, competition is only one of them. I think you make some good points overall, but big pronouncements like this just don't make sense, particularly in someone's log who IS preparing for a competition, lol. and the other people who post here who aren't preparing for a competition can benefit from full range of motion too, as long as they learn good technique and as long as they do weights they can handle.
thanks for the info espi. of course there isn't only one way to bench press. everyone has different anantomy, strengths, weaknesses. but when I write about harvey teaching me proper form, I am absolutely correct about that--there is a proper form to use in competition, and touching the weight to your chest is the right way to do this in competition.
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