Re: workout details for Elaine – painfully long and detailed

[Guest guest]

Betsy thank you very much for going to all the trouble to write that

out!

I always want to hear exactly how others are addressing issues

Lynn

[Guest guest]

Great job on the workout! Some thoughts arose while reading so I'll

share them with you.

To avoid possible exercise related muscle imbalances and postural

problems you can review your program from a functional perspective.

Eg. if you are doing some type of horizontal pulling, are you doing

any horizontal pushing? If you are doing vertical pulling, are you

doing any vertical pushing?

After all, the body knows only movement not muscles. This can make

your program design relatively easy.

Here are some examples in form of exercises:

Bench press > Bent-over row (h push/h pull)

Squat > Deadlift (v push / v pull)

Dip > Shrug or some type hang pull(...so on)

Biceps Curl > Triceps extension

Chin up > Push press

The exercises you have on the menu are really the 'most bang for the

buck' ones if time and effectiveness are sought. Besides the Curl

which is more of a isolation or 'beach work' exercise, IMHO.

Currently your program excludes vertical pulling and upper back work

so the road to a chin-up might be a tad long. If a chin-up is a goal,

I would suggest start doing assisted chin-ups now since you have a

partner (he holds you by the waist and helps up, you come down on

your own).

Colostrum consumption & exercise is a quite well studied subject in

sport and nutrition sciences. It's a good choice if you have the

money and stomach for it but by no means a magical stuff that makes

you grow. Muscle growth is mainly about net protein synthesis so

strain, recovery and nutrition are all your key components here.

Best,

Petteri

[Guest guest]

<<<<<<<<<<Great job on the workout! Some thoughts arose while reading

so I'll

share them with you.

To avoid possible exercise related muscle imbalances and postural

problems you can review your program from a functional perspective.

Eg. if you are doing some type of horizontal pulling, are you doing

any horizontal pushing? If you are doing vertical pulling, are you

doing any vertical pushing?>>>>>>>>>

My workout is based almost entirely a combination of what said,

several weightlifting threads from last fall, and my reading of the

Warrior Diet and Maximum Muscle Minimum Fat. From what I understand

from the Warrior Diet (or maybe I got this from somewhere else at

dragondoor??), but anyway from what I understand strong joints are

what make you strong. Exercises like curls increase the size of

isolated muscles, not strength like an exercise like pull-ups would.

Most people's " pushing " muscles are strong because they use them all

the time. " Pulling " muscles are usually weaker, but can be

strengthened by doing whole-body exercises that strengthen joints and

whole muscle groups. [okay gang, if it isn't already obvious, I've

never read much about weightlifting and have never had a physiology

class and I passed notes during high school biology so someone more

intelligent than I am may need to step in here and explain the

physiology of whole-body exercises]

<<<<<<<<<The exercises you have on the menu are really the 'most bang

for the

buck' ones if time and effectiveness are sought. Besides the Curl

which is more of a isolation or 'beach work' exercise,

IMHO.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well, my arms and legs look like sausages. Straight and plump with

tucks at the elbows, knees, wrists, and ankles. I need shape badly

so that's why I'm doing the bench press, curls, and dips until I can

do enough pull-ups to constitute a workout. Also, I noticed that

when I do a pull-up, the weak link is in my elbows. My limiting

factor seems to be my elbows, not my back (at least not yet). When I

do a curl, I " feel it " mostly in my elbows so I think there's helping

me with my pull-ups.

I didn't really intend to even start a weightlifting routine until I

put one together for my husband. He wasn't really interested with my

plan at first, but I decided to try it out (since I put so much work

into it) and it turned out to be really fun. And it's so cool to

watch muscles develop. I'm to the point now where I'm beginning to

decide what my goals are. Short term, I don't think it matters what

I do for probably like a year because I'm such a pansy weakling

(seriously folks, I started out bench pressing a 12-lb bar with one 5-

lb weight on each side, and I was sore for days after that), and it

will take that long just to be reasonably strong (for a girl). Long

term, I think I just want to get rid of extra fat, and be strong and

agile. Although I think I might like to look like Tonya Harding

(except more friendly, not as thuggish).

<<<<<<<<<Currently your program excludes vertical pulling and upper

back work

so the road to a chin-up might be a tad long. If a chin-up is a goal,

I would suggest start doing assisted chin-ups now since you have a

partner (he holds you by the waist and helps up, you come down on

your own).>>>>>>>>>>

The box my Tarama came in from the Greek Olive Warehouse (really

delicious tarama mayo, btw) had dimensions that would accommodate one

magazine without much extra space. I duct taped the flaps of the box

together to extend the height of the box and filled it almost to the

top with some of the dump-truck load full of magazines my mom gave to

me. Standing on the top of these magazines puts my nose about 3

inches below the pull-up bar. I pull up on my own and then let

myself down with bent knees so I can fully straighten my arms. I

worked on this until I could do sets of 5-4-3-2-1 reps with 1 minute

between. Then I tossed out a couple of magazines. Based on my

previous progress, I estimate that I'm about 12 weeks away from doing

15 pull-ups completely on my own. Would assisted pull-ups be

faster? I read about bands that you could use to support a portion

of your weight. You use bands of decreasing elasticity until you can

do a pull up. This seemed like a great way to go if you could afford

all the bands.

Betsy