I’m on vacation, so have been sitting on my butt in planes and automobiles much more than I’d like, and unconsciously becoming grouchy as a result, but later there’ll be some swimming and maybe (if I’m lucky!) a hotel gym.
Well, only one more week of lousy nutrition & no gym. (Also, sadly, only one more week of summer vacation & time with my family, whom I do love despite my bitching.) The good news is, I am now in touch with a powerlifting guy at my school, so I look forward to doing serious stuff training with the guys. I feel like a Young Grasshopper. (Though I’ll undoubtedly not be doing my best work when I first get back – I’m prepared to embarrass myself.)
I still have to figure out what to do with my mom – she wants me to “show her around the gym.” She has a painful ankle (whatever joint or muscle is involved in flexing the foot) from powerwalking. No joke – powerwalking. And she has a lingering hip issue. I guess you get fragile if you’re not active for several decades. I’ve been told that nobody needs to “start out on machines” – I didn’t – but I’m very reluctant to break another one of my mom’s body parts by asking her to squat. Maybe just upper body stuff? Any ideas for a conservative, non-injury-producing set of exercises?
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
Well, only one more week of lousy nutrition & no gym. (Also, sadly, only one more week of summer vacation & time with my family, whom I do love despite my bitching.) The good news is, I am now in touch with a powerlifting guy at my school, so I look forward to doing serious stuff training with the guys. I feel like a Young Grasshopper. (Though I’ll undoubtedly not be doing my best work when I first get back – I’m prepared to embarrass myself.)
I still have to figure out what to do with my mom – she wants me to “show her around the gym.” She has a painful ankle (whatever joint or muscle is involved in flexing the foot) from powerwalking. No joke – powerwalking. And she has a lingering hip issue. I guess you get fragile if you’re not active for several decades. I’ve been told that nobody needs to “start out on machines” – I didn’t – but I’m very reluctant to break another one of my mom’s body parts by asking her to squat. Maybe just upper body stuff? Any ideas for a conservative, non-injury-producing set of exercises?[/quote]
For whatever reason, dumbbells are less scary than barbells (and 45lbs will be too much to start with for everything except maybe squats). DB bench, DB press, DB squat, assisted chinups, even DB deadlift. For the squats, she might want to start doing plain BW squats, just to get her form down.
Thanks!
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
Well, only one more week of lousy nutrition & no gym. (Also, sadly, only one more week of summer vacation & time with my family, whom I do love despite my bitching.) The good news is, I am now in touch with a powerlifting guy at my school, so I look forward to doing serious stuff training with the guys. I feel like a Young Grasshopper. (Though I’ll undoubtedly not be doing my best work when I first get back – I’m prepared to embarrass myself.)
I still have to figure out what to do with my mom – she wants me to “show her around the gym.” She has a painful ankle (whatever joint or muscle is involved in flexing the foot) from powerwalking. No joke – powerwalking. And she has a lingering hip issue. I guess you get fragile if you’re not active for several decades. I’ve been told that nobody needs to “start out on machines” – I didn’t – but I’m very reluctant to break another one of my mom’s body parts by asking her to squat. Maybe just upper body stuff? Any ideas for a conservative, non-injury-producing set of exercises?[/quote]
tibialis anterior. lots of that, and “shin splint” issues are the result of tight calves. convince her to let you aggressively rub the calve of the affected ankle, u should be able to feel the knots and rub them out. also, have her roll the arches of her feet on a tennis ball.
10 sprints; pushups & abs.
3 miles.
I’m in crappy shape. But the rational thing to believe is that I can get better. It only feels like I never will.
Took my mom and dad to the gym. Interesting contrast in personalities – Mom was very shy about adding weight, and not all that confident, and I had to tell Dad to use less weight and fix his form. I do hope they keep it up. Mom was less than enthusiastic about weights, but she did like the cardio machines, which she’d never used before – there was a video game on the stationary bike where you’re supposed to follow a “pacer” cyclist in front of you, but she liked to speed up and hit him! She can’t really do a bodyweight squat, forget dumbbells, so that’s sort of the next step.
As for me, I did light demos for everything, and some “remedial” squats, 5x5@135 to concentrate on not rounding my back.
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
Took my mom and dad to the gym. Interesting contrast in personalities – Mom was very shy about adding weight, and not all that confident, and I had to tell Dad to use less weight and fix his form. I do hope they keep it up. Mom was less than enthusiastic about weights, but she did like the cardio machines, which she’d never used before – there was a video game on the stationary bike where you’re supposed to follow a “pacer” cyclist in front of you, but she liked to speed up and hit him! She can’t really do a bodyweight squat, forget dumbbells, so that’s sort of the next step.
As for me, I did light demos for everything, and some “remedial” squats, 5x5@135 to concentrate on not rounding my back.[/quote]
Hope they get into it Alisa … I would’ve felt awkward trying to show my mom how to do that stuff, she’s very difficult and gets overly defensive when she doesn’t understand a concept or can’t do something.
Sounds like you still got in some training while on vacation
the food thing is hard with family, wives , husbands moms, etc.
I had a hard time with this multiple occasions.
I wold just explain that your young and super active and need to eat more
that training the way you do, requires more food then a more sedentary person.
as for your moms hip and ankle those types of ailments travel together and are often cause and effect
have her roll her foot on a golf or tennis ball, roll the outside of the calf , and google
mike roberts ankle mobilization.
very light OH ( like a broom stick ) squats will help with mobility on anyones hips and ankles.
kmc
I’m back!
squats 1x10@45, 1x10@95, 2x5@115, 1x5@135, 5x5@145
bench 1x10@45, 1x10@55, 1x5@65, 3x5@85
deadlift: 1x5@135, 1x5@155, 1x5@175, 1x5@205
40 hanging leg raises
3/3/3 pullups
20 pushups
lat raises 3x10@12.5
So, not where I was when I left, but not insurmountable (and the deadlifts will be better when I remember to get chalk!)
I still feel like a bit of a freak for doing this – I remember my parents and their ominous “Don’t compete” and “don’t develop muscles that make you look unfeminine.” (I am a girl, I look like a girl, and I enjoy being a girl, so it’s a little absurd, but it does make me uneasy.) I’ll try to put it out of my head and chalk it up to their not being very knowledgeable about exercise.
Edit: gonna log food here for a bit while I work on getting un-squishy, hope nobody’s offended.
1594 calories, P/F/C 130.5/103.5/12.5
[quote]
I still feel like a bit of a freak for doing this – I remember my parents and their ominous “Don’t compete” and “don’t develop muscles that make you look unfeminine.” (I am a girl, I look like a girl, and I enjoy being a girl, so it’s a little absurd, but it does make me uneasy.) I’ll try to put it out of my head and chalk it up to their not being very knowledgeable about exercise.[/quote]
That would be hard to listen to coming from one’s parents. But you are being wise to ignore them.
[quote]Edit: gonna log food here for a bit while I work on getting un-squishy, hope nobody’s offended.
1594 calories, P/F/C 130.5/103.5/12.5[/quote]
I don’t mind a bit hearing about food, but now I’m wondering how the heck do you know the P/F/C breakdown to the .5???
fitday.com.
I estimate what I’m eating as best I can; the computer crunches the numbers.
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I still feel like a bit of a freak for doing this – I remember my parents and their ominous “Don’t compete” and “don’t develop muscles that make you look unfeminine.” (I am a girl, I look like a girl, and I enjoy being a girl, so it’s a little absurd, but it does make me uneasy.) I’ll try to put it out of my head and chalk it up to their not being very knowledgeable about exercise.
I know what you mean about the parents part. My Dad used to say that I was being too vain by working out, and that all those msucles would turn into fat soemday (?!) but he had no problem sitting in a bar after work and smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. My Mom also said that if I didnt "lift weights’ so much, then I wouldn’t be eating them outta house and home.
Your Mommas alright, Your Daddy’s alright they’re just a little weird (cheap trick 1978)
and you definitly look like a girl!
I can imagine that hearing that from your parents would generate some uneasiness. It’s hard enough getting it from other women in the gym, in the workplace, etc.
To some people, it seems as though (heavy) lifting is still seen as being a man’s thing. A lot of people still do not understand that a women does not instantly blow up and get 20 inch arms and shredded quads if they touch a dumbbell weighing more than 15 or 20 pounds. There has not been enough done to dispel this myth, so it still lingers.
For the most part, I’ve found men to be pretty receptive to a chick lifting heavy. It seems as though a lot of women still do not have this same receptiveness. When I have female friends ask me what I do in the gym, the common response is something along the lines of, “I could never do that!” You really have to explain to them the time and effort it’s taken to get to that point to try to show them that, if they really wanted it they could do it too.
So, anyways, to end my rant–way to keep going, Alisa!
You are reeeeeeeeeal far away from looking manly. Don’t fret 
Thanks all – that’s encouraging.
Today I was sick, and also even I am sane enough not to squat and deadlift every day of the week, so this was a “fun” weights & circuit day.
press: 10@45, 3x5@55
iso-lateral row: 10@102, 3x5@122
lat pulldown: 10@70, 10@80, 3x5@90
3 times through:
20 stepups with 20 lb dumbbells
20 lunges with 20 lb dumbbells
20 overhead swings with 20 lb dumbbell
20 burpees
1404 calories, P/F/C 130.7/69.9/36.5
squats: 1x10@45, 1x5@95, 1x5@115, 1x5@135, 3x5@155
bench: 1x10@45, 1x10@65, 3x5@85 
deadlifts: 1x5@135, 1x5@155, 1x5@175, 1x5@205, 1x5@225
40 hanging leg raises
curls: 3x10@35
1370 calories, P/F/C 118.2/83.7/19.8
(they didn’t permit us more than one piece of chicken at dinner!)
Gonna do that scary-looking 55 workout:
alternating overhead swings, goblet squats, 9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1
1344 calories, P/F/C 152.3/59.4/28.1
Which sounds like awfully little food, but doesn’t feel like it; maybe I just can’t estimate.
Edit: did the circuit 2 1/2 times through, at which point I was beat. 30 lbs on the swings, 55 lbs on the squats.
40 hanging leg raises.
Tried to bench, wound up failing at 85 pounds 4 or 5 times – couldn’t get past 3 reps.
That is scary. I shouldn’t be getting worse from workout to workout. I don’t know what the hell is going on.
kcal that low scare me. a lot.
how much do you weigh? how tall are you?