On August 05 2013 13:06 XXGeneration wrote: Hey guys, one last question (sorry for all these newbie questions).
After I started working out, my shoulders started clicking a lot when I move them normally. I don't feel any pain, but sometimes they feel a little weird near the edge of my ROM. Is this because of some muscle imbalance or because I'm not stretching enough or a combination of the two? It's just really weird to do push-ups and hear consistent clicking.
Could be any of those including poor posture, poor technique, poor anything really. If it feels a bit weird at the end range and you have imbalances I would make sure that you attempt to fix that before you continue.. imbalances are the things that typically lead to injury
On August 05 2013 16:08 ShadeR wrote: You got shitty rotor cuffs welcome to the club. *cries*
Uh no. There's lots of reasons for clicking that don't have to do with RC
Okay guys, you wanted me to keep you all updated so here it goes. I will update this post everyday that I exercise, aka. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'll be walking and timing it and I will be doing both the two hundred squat challenge as someone suggested (Can't remember your name, soweee.) and the one hundred pushup challenge they also provide. As for a ab exercise I will be planking/jack knife situps. I tried doing crunches and quickly learned that it doesn't make my stomach burn, it just makes my neck hurt as I pull on it.
So, saturday night I did the initial test on both the two hundred squat and one hundred pushup. I could do 25 pushups against the wall. I plan on doing pushups against the wall until next monday and then I will do it on my knees and after that I will do normal pushups. That's my plan at least, how well it works, that's another question.
On the squat challenge I did 40 before I stopped, I was nowhere close to exhausted, it was just late so I had to go to bed. (It was 4 in the morning.)
I took two days rest and continued on week one on the pushup challenge and week three as I did over 30 and the website recommended that I jump straight to week three.
Yesterday I went to the movies and walked into town, it's about 5km and it took me ca. 45 minutes, I was practically running as we were running late and had to get our tickets. When we walked home it took about an hour to about an hour and 15 minutes. I don't know the exact time as I did not time it.
Today I walked about, I dunno, 6km or something because my friend wanted for us to go out and just be outside. We took about two hours, but we walked really slow and we stopped to take breaks and just relax.
Tomorrow I'm going to my grandmother and it's about 3km away, so lots of walking these last days. After I've been at her house I'm going to the movies again, this time only with my family. They'll probably want me to buy some sort of candy, and I don't really want to tell her about my whole exercise thing that's going on, so I guess I'll have to bite the sour apple and get some sort of candy or soda. I'm going to ask her if I can just pick up a bottle of carbonated water instead. It'll be a big bottle, but it's still better than soda and candy. I think.
So I just completed day 1 of both the two hundred squat challenge and pushup challenge.
On the squat challenge I did column three of day 1 of week three. Which means I did a total of 108 squats. It took me about 7minutes with pauses between each set.
On the pushup challenge I did column three on day one, week three. I don't feel comfortable jumping to week three because I can still only do pushups against a wall. I did a total of 50, being 14 on the max set. This one took me a little longer as my arms are killing me right now, and back then. It must have took me about 10 minute or more, I don't really keep track on these ones.
Will update tomorrow on how long it takes for me to walk to my grandmother. And that's all the exercise I will get tomorrow.
Oh, btw! My other friend asked me if I wanted to join him on the gym, and I immediately said yes! I asked him when we should start and he said when school starts, when our sleep schedules are good again. ^^
Anyway, I'm heading off to bed now. See you all tomorrow!
EDIT: So it's day 2 of my exercise journey I would say. I did not walk today, but I didn't really feel up for the task, and I felt that I did not need to walk today, since I've been walking really far these last couple of days. To be frank, my body doesn't like me at the moment. The sudden change from just sitting still to actually doing something physically is torturing my body. But I will keep this going as far as I can! I will even go further than that! The day I stop, will be the day I give up on life!
I did however, do both the squat and pushup challenge things. It all went pretty smooth, except for the squats, it made me feel like there was no power left in me, I still feel that way, 5 minutes after.
I continued on week three for the squat challenge and I kept with the third column, all in all I did 143 squats. Quite a large improvement from last time in my eyes.
On the pushup challenge I did 58 in total, still against the wall. I did as many as they suggested then pushed myself for the last one, where you're supposed to push yourself, I got to 20 before my arms giving up.
That's all for today, will update this same post on friday after I've worked out. And I promise, I will walk on friday. ^.^ Baibai
On August 06 2013 11:20 Hujjo wrote: Okay guys, you wanted me to keep you all updated so here it goes. I will update this post everyday that I exercise, aka. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'll be walking and timing it and I will be doing both the two hundred squat challenge as someone suggested (Can't remember your name, soweee.) and the one hundred pushup challenge they also provide. As for a ab exercise I will be planking/jack knife situps. I tried doing crunches and quickly learned that it doesn't make my stomach burn, it just makes my neck hurt as I pull on it.
So, saturday night I did the initial test on both the two hundred squat and one hundred pushup. I could do 25 pushups against the wall. I plan on doing pushups against the wall until next monday and then I will do it on my knees and after that I will do normal pushups. That's my plan at least, how well it works, that's another question.
On the squat challenge I did 40 before I stopped, I was nowhere close to exhausted, it was just late so I had to go to bed. (It was 4 in the morning.)
I took two days rest and continued on week one on the pushup challenge and week three as I did over 30 and the website recommended that I jump straight to week three.
Yesterday I went to the movies and walked into town, it's about 5km and it took me ca. 45 minutes, I was practically running as we were running late and had to get our tickets. When we walked home it took about an hour to about an hour and 15 minutes. I don't know the exact time as I did not time it.
Today I walked about, I dunno, 6km or something because my friend wanted for us to go out and just be outside. We took about two hours, but we walked really slow and we stopped to take breaks and just relax.
Tomorrow I'm going to my grandmother and it's about 3km away, so lots of walking these last days. After I've been at her house I'm going to the movies again, this time only with my family. They'll probably want me to buy some sort of candy, and I don't really want to tell her about my whole exercise thing that's going on, so I guess I'll have to bite the sour apple and get some sort of candy or soda. I'm going to ask her if I can just pick up a bottle of carbonated water instead. It'll be a big bottle, but it's still better than soda and candy. I think.
So I just completed day 1 of both the two hundred squat challenge and pushup challenge.
On the squat challenge I did column three of day 1 of week three. Which means I did a total of 108 squats. It took me about 7minutes with pauses between each set.
On the pushup challenge I did column three on day one, week three. I don't feel comfortable jumping to week three because I can still only do pushups against a wall. I did a total of 50, being 14 on the max set. This one took me a little longer as my arms are killing me right now, and back then. It must have took me about 10 minute or more, I don't really keep track on these ones.
Will update tomorrow on how long it takes for me to walk to my grandmother. And that's all the exercise I will get tomorrow.
Oh, btw! My other friend asked me if I wanted to join him on the gym, and I immediately said yes! I asked him when we should start and he said when school starts, when our sleep schedules are good again. ^^
Anyway, I'm heading off to bed now. See you all tomorrow!
Good work man! Keep it up. As far as the movies go, try getting a diet soda if you're feeling pressured into a soda, or even just water. But all around happy for you, you have a lot of people pulling for you Good luck!
Ok guys I wanna ask this. My legs are proportionate to my body, but I'd like them to be a bit slimmer, for aesthetic reasons. Currently what I do is I lift weights for my upper body while doing distance jogging and walking for my legs. Is this the correct way to get them thinner, and are there any other ways?
that makes sense to me. as long as you don't do any body-building style workouts on your legs, you should be fine.
also, i don't know about you, but almost all of my bodyfat seems to be concentrated around my belly and my thighs. if this is one reason why your legs look big, you'll want to change your diet to slim down.
Hujjo - great to hear that you're starting to exercise! keep us updated!
On August 06 2013 20:34 targ wrote: Ok guys I wanna ask this. My legs are proportionate to my body, but I'd like them to be a bit slimmer, for aesthetic reasons. Currently what I do is I lift weights for my upper body while doing distance jogging and walking for my legs. Is this the correct way to get them thinner, and are there any other ways?
Slimmer as in smaller or as in less body fat on them?
On August 06 2013 20:34 targ wrote: Ok guys I wanna ask this. My legs are proportionate to my body, but I'd like them to be a bit slimmer, for aesthetic reasons. Currently what I do is I lift weights for my upper body while doing distance jogging and walking for my legs. Is this the correct way to get them thinner, and are there any other ways?
Slimmer as in smaller or as in less body fat on them?
As in smaller I guess. I think I put fat on the tummy.
I just measured, my thighs (at the top) are about 22' each while my waist is about 33', so while I'd like to shrink both I'd like my legs to go down abit faster, while keeping my chest/shoulders/arms.
On August 06 2013 20:34 targ wrote: Ok guys I wanna ask this. My legs are proportionate to my body, but I'd like them to be a bit slimmer, for aesthetic reasons. Currently what I do is I lift weights for my upper body while doing distance jogging and walking for my legs. Is this the correct way to get them thinner, and are there any other ways?
Slimmer as in smaller or as in less body fat on them?
As in smaller I guess. I think I put fat on the tummy.
I just measured, my thighs (at the top) are about 22' each while my waist is about 33', so while I'd like to shrink both I'd like my legs to go down abit faster, while keeping my chest/shoulders/arms.
Someone's opinion may differ, but imo burning isolated fat in such and such a place is just a marketing ploy. If you lose fat, you get slimmer, although THERE every body is different for sure.
If you could give us your body stats it would help, my guess is that you're probably up in double digit BF%. You can easily lose weight and keep your upper body on par unless you store a lot of fat there (and at that point would it really be that bad to lose some :D), you just have to watch your diet and continue to work your upper body.
So you never do lower body exercises in the gym/body weight, and only use light cardio for your lower body right?
Are your legs like pure muscle and you have a low bf%? If not, skipping your leg workouts is probably harming your progress toward your goals than helping. If you're eating less to lose weight you don't have to worry about putting substantial muscle mass on your legs at all. A slim figure is fine to want but it's just unhealthy to have tight, weak, atrophied leg/hip muscles
On August 06 2013 20:34 targ wrote: Ok guys I wanna ask this. My legs are proportionate to my body, but I'd like them to be a bit slimmer, for aesthetic reasons. Currently what I do is I lift weights for my upper body while doing distance jogging and walking for my legs. Is this the correct way to get them thinner, and are there any other ways?
Slimmer as in smaller or as in less body fat on them?
As in smaller I guess. I think I put fat on the tummy.
I just measured, my thighs (at the top) are about 22' each while my waist is about 33', so while I'd like to shrink both I'd like my legs to go down abit faster, while keeping my chest/shoulders/arms.
My waist is about the same and i'd hazard a guess my legs are in the upper 20s. Chicks dig big legs. How tall are you/whats you're weight?
Well I used to do karate so alot of low stances and kicking. Now I just run. Having said that I don't really do that much heavy work for my upper body as well, I do chest and back exercises on the machines and some biceps curls. Other than that are bodyweight exercises (situps, pushups and pullups).
My weight is around 150 pounds, I'm 5'7.
To the guy who said burning fat in isolated areas is a marketing ploy, I absolutely agree. What I want to do is to lose fat all over, but keep my upper body slightly more on the muscular side while lower body a bit slimmer, maybe more like that of a distance runner. I wish to wear skinny jeans nicely XD.
lower body - if you want your legs to be slim, then i think distance running if fine. most long distance runners i see don't have big legs, so training like them would be the way to go.
upper body - your upper body won't get bigger if you just bang out tons of reps on pushups, situps, etc. you'll need to do ranges like 3 to 5 sets, 8 to 12 reps, using a weight that will make you struggle to finish your sets and reps. and once you complete those sets, you'll need to increase the weight you're using.
My left wrist started hurting yesterday after playing some starcraft, and now my right wrist is hurting a lot. I'm taking it easy, not playing any games, but I still have to type a lot. I started using a bean bag wrist rest, because my keyboard is pretty high up, but what stretches and massaging like things should I do to mitigate the pain, and prevent it from happening again?
Kind of a newb question, but I've been doing SS essentially just using the squat rack since that's all my gym had. I did some searching around and found a new gym to go to that has a variety of equipment: http://www.sarasotabarbell.com/facility.html
To avoid looking completely clueless, what equipment should I be using for each exercise? Does it really matter?
Deadlifting and power cleans can be done with no equipment other than the bar + weights.
Benching, squatting, and OHP, can be done effectively using a power rack, although a bench and squat rack do substitute pretty well and you could always clean the weight to do OHP. Other things you might want to use might be a pull up bar/dip station, but those aren't needed to do starting strength.
I've been looking to update my workout. Right now I'm hitting each muscle group once a week, after some research it seems many people think 2x a week is better. For example, triceps are worked out twice a week instead of once.
My old program: Mon: squats/abs/calf raises Tue: bench press/incline dumbbell press/dumbbell flyes/tricep push-downs Thur: deadlifts/leg curls/abs Fri: pullups/military press/curls/rows/lateral raises
It does like biceps/triceps/back/shoulders in one day, allowing each muscle to be hit twice a week. Im considering taking the middle-man between these two, and hitting each every 4-5 days (which is also suggested in that link - the upper/lower split 3-day version). This also allows me to go to the gym 3 times a week, which would be nice if it could provide similar results.
My goals are to simply gain muscle/get bigger. Im using the three main compound lifts (deadlift/squat/bench press) for strength, the rest of the accessory lifts for size.
seems fine for your goals. the only thing that bugs me is that you'll be squatting less than once a week. sounds kinda weird, but most weeks you are squatting once a week, and some weeks will not have squats at all. you're doing a ton of assistance exercises for your lower body, so you'll still get bigger, but it just seems kind of a shame to squat so little - it's just such a great movement. it's functional, builds strength (heavy), builds mass (more volume), works almost your entire body, helps your posture....
maybe add squats to lower body A as well?
other than that, it fits your goals and your schedule, so yeah!
On August 10 2013 13:08 9-BiT wrote: My left wrist started hurting yesterday after playing some starcraft, and now my right wrist is hurting a lot. I'm taking it easy, not playing any games, but I still have to type a lot. I started using a bean bag wrist rest, because my keyboard is pretty high up, but what stretches and massaging like things should I do to mitigate the pain, and prevent it from happening again?
Like this?
Where your hands, arms, back and neck are all lined up are all super important for something as repetitive as SC2. That's why you see shit like Flash and his ruler, Huk and his pillow etc... If your keyboard is too high up that's gonna fuck up a lot of stuff over time. Might want to look at putting it somewhere lower, raising where you sit or just getting a better desk.
Remember to take breaks regularly. Stand up, stretch, and look away to different distances every 30 minutes or so.
On August 12 2013 00:41 Najda wrote: Kind of a newb question, but I've been doing SS essentially just using the squat rack since that's all my gym had. I did some searching around and found a new gym to go to that has a variety of equipment: http://www.sarasotabarbell.com/facility.html
To avoid looking completely clueless, what equipment should I be using for each exercise? Does it really matter?
Every gym is different, but that gym looks pretty legit. Just from the pictures it looks like you can do the same thing you have been doing so far just about anywhere in there.
Don't worry, just lift with confidence and you'll be fine. They list deadlift platforms on the website, so do deadlifts there instead of at the rack if they are available. If not, just find an open space and own it. Same for power cleans, but use the bumper plates (you'll know which ones they are, they're more rubbery than the regular metal ones). Bench, OHP and obviously squats are fine to do in the power racks (OHP in front of the rack, or course).
Don't worry about looking like a noob. Judging from the website that gym is the kind of a place where they're just happy to have people in there who take lifting seriously, so just do your thing and you'll be fine. After two or three times going you'll have a good idea of where to do everything and what to use.
EPT
Good luck!
