[quote]ironcross wrote:
I’ll find out what disease she wants. I’m not the biggest fan of malaria, but we’ll figure something out by the next post.
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quoted for giggles. I think I’ve been awake for too long. maybe not. its still funny.
M2’s judo background might well have something to do with her greater than normal levels of strength. bodies are pretty heavy (at least they are for me) and throwing around bodies takes some strength.
i’m not much of a fan of back extensions, either. need to be careful of lumbar spine fatigue / injury.
i recently found this:
i think people use the terms to refer to different things…
going with the names in the vids (since there is a picture for reference)… i’ve heard that one should only attempt to add weight to pure hip extensions. this is apparently because it isn’t a good idea to add weight to any exercise that involves spinal flexion (back extension) since the only thing more likely to injure you back than weighting spinal flexion is weighting spinal flexion with a twist.
i stopped weighting back extensions then. then once i managed to injure my lumbar spine by accidentally relaxing my lumbar curve at the bottom of a weighted hip extension swore off all three 
Oh yeah. I don’t bend my back while doing back extensions, I just hinge at the hip while keeping my back straight. I can’t watch that video on my ipad, but I’m taking it theree’s a different name for what I’m doing?
i thought they were back extensions, too, but apparently the hip hinge movement is called a hip extension. back extension is rolling the spine up using spinal flexion (so meant to be a nice stretch but not meant to be weighted). just the name, though, whatever (different people will call things by different names and it doesn’t matter).
i probably should do hip-hinge ones again… the things we should do are often the things we don’t much like.
Lol I might watch Dinner with the Schmucks now, per your recommendation.
Congrats to M2 on her first DL. 100 lbs and working on form is impressive.
And don’t be discouraged because you first started at 95lbs. I was reminded (I had no idea until a few days ago) that I also started off at 95# DLs.
It’s not where you start that matters.
I gotta say though, that you both are awesome and complement each other well.
Nikki- thanks. And you definitely should. It’s ridiculous in a very good way. Also, I noticed M2 is much strongeer starting out than quite a few people on here were. Fantastic. I’m creating a monster 
Alexus- It definitely sounds like I’m doing hip extensions then. I’ve always tried to avoid bending the back at all while exerecising. It just seems like a recipe for trouble.
Today: 35 min on the spinning bike. I love the spinning bikes at my rec center. They have fans and computerized displays of what you’re supposed to do, so it’s exactly like taking a spin class if you bring some nice beats. But they also keep track of every variable possible, so you can exactly chart your progress.
M2 and I completed ~525 calories and 10.9 miles in that amount of time with the setting on "strength
I then did three circuits of 10 rep ab wheel rollouts from knees followed by a minute plank.
Mary did one set and then complained that her elbow was really hurting during the ab wheel rollout. I was honestly perplexed by this. Has anyone on here ever heard of that before? I had her just finish with two sets of 1.5 min planks and skipped out on the rollouts. She said that from there on out when she bent her elbow it felt like there was water misting on it?!?! The only explanation I could think of was maybe she broke up some scar tissue (I had this happen once after a sports massage on my leg. The side of it felt numb and tingly for a week and Then I was able to go deeper in bulgarian split squats without feeling like one of my muscles was snapping like a rubber band).
I’m very confused about the elbow pain during ab wheel rollouts. Thoughts?
no idea. all i got is that i heard that women often have a tendency to hyperextend their joints when they are attempting to lock them out. i’ve had some elbow and shoulder trouble in the past and that turned out to be the culprit.
i should try ab wheel rollouts again… i actually have trouble with them. feel myself hanging off my spine (bad) rather than activating my abs properly to keep my spine safe. not sure if it is that i’m not strong enough or if it is that i need to work on better or more balanced activation.
i’ve basically been playing it safe by replacing movements that i might potentially injure myself on with variants that are less likely to result in injury. but that perhaps isn’t the best strategy… a better strategy would be carefully persisting with functional movements so i learn to do them properly in order to safeguard against injury. hmm…
[quote]alexus wrote:
no idea. all i got is that i heard that women often have a tendency to hyperextend their joints when they are attempting to lock them out. i’ve had some elbow and shoulder trouble in the past and that turned out to be the culprit.
i should try ab wheel rollouts again… i actually have trouble with them. feel myself hanging off my spine (bad) rather than activating my abs properly to keep my spine safe. not sure if it is that i’m not strong enough or if it is that i need to work on better or more balanced activation.
i’ve basically been playing it safe by replacing movements that i might potentially injure myself on with variants that are less likely to result in injury. but that perhaps isn’t the best strategy… a better strategy would be carefully persisting with functional movements so i learn to do them properly in order to safeguard against injury. hmm…
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I don’t think that’s a bad strategy, but maybe you can progress the safe movements into more challenging ones?
With the ab wheel rollouts, I’m not really sure how you could bend your elbow backwards because your head is inbetween your arms. Maybe she did, but have you ever heard of what she’s describing from bending the elbow backwards even? I’m so confused. I really figured if something went wrong on this one it’d be her back and coached her on how to not arch it at all and pull her arms in before bringing her butt back. Was not even imagining something could go wrong with the elbow.
i try and find safer variants with progressions… e.g., replace bench (potential shoulder immobility) with push-ups (nowhere near close to one arm push-ups). replace standing rows with inverted rows (nowhere near close to hardest variant). replace ab wheel rollouts with weighted 60 second planks (there are a lot of weight plates in the gym!) replace deadlifts with GHR (still needing a lot of assistance). only because staying mobile and free from lumbar spine fatigue is necessary for my oly lifting… (otherwise i’d certainly bench and do deadlifts).
not sure if this will help… (hell, i don’t even know if this has anything to do with the problem).
hold your leg straight (just standing normally). then… kind of try and push your kneecap back (gently) so it is a bit behind your upper / lower leg. that is hyperextending it. better to keep the tiniest bend in your leg rather than hyperextend the knee. ditto for the elbows. keeping the tiniest bend in the arm is better for them than to try and hold your arms perfectly straight by pushing the elbow so it comes inwards more than the upper / lower arms. hope that made some kind of sense?
if the muscles are straining / fatiguing it might feel like it takes a little bit of the tension / pressure off and improves stability to really lock the joint out. but really locking the joint out is hyperextending it, often. and results in pain.
that is what i’ve found anyway. basically… don’t aim to lock the joints out at all. just keep the tiniest bend in them. not sure if that helps…
i personally find ab wheel rollouts pretty darned hard (from my knees). if the pain persists maybe try replacing them with planks / weighted planks??
I’m jealous of your rec center. Are you in Colorado? I know they have some awesome rec centers in that state.
I do an ab roll out type of thing on the TRX sometimes. I don’t know if that will help.
And I’m with Bear. I get confused as to who is M1 and who’s M2. I know you’re M1, but I sometimes have to look back to see who was doing what. Sounds like you guys are progressing and having some fun. And cooking some yummy stuff.
The elbow thing is common. I recently saw a video of a substitute for the rollout if there is elbow pain. I couldn’t find that exact one, but here it a similar video of Nick Tuminello doing them. You don’t have to use val slides if you have a hard floor and socks!
I hope this helps!
neat! i will try that with a gym mat under my shoes.
Sbart2- I can’t watch videos on my ipad but I’m assuming based on the words that you’re doingthe ab wheel movement with socks on a hard floor instead of a wheel? That sounds like a good idea. Thanks.
Alexus- I find that I have to just reduce my range of motion when I start getting tired. But the truth is, I feel like a total badass when I’m able to do a full set all the way out with full range of motion and good form, so I’ll probably keep doing this exercise even if I have M2 switch it up. Plus, I can feel my strength improving each time I do it, so I’m pretty sure it’s good for me
Powerpuff- no. I don’t feel comfortable giving away too much information about where I’m located online. Call me paranoid or whatever.
Cbear- I’ve decided that my training partner will be aids because she kicks so much ass and I’ll be mad cow since I take a while to kick in.
Aids is currently in Alaska on a fishing boat making a ton of money in two weeks. Therefore, i had to recruit a big burly boy squatting over 400lbs ass to grass to spot me on bench. He was very encouraging and a good spot. I basically turned into a scared school girl in his presence, which is ridiculous because I was definitely the strongest female in there. But come on, he could hurl me across the room with one arm.
Bench- going for a max set of 3-5 reps
65lbsx10, 85x5, 95x5(1 more reps than last week), 105x5(4 more reps than last week), 110x3( new weight!)
Upright db bench
27.5 lbsx12x2 sets, then a set of 10, then a set of 7
Seated cable row
90lbsx 12x4sets last set was total cheat jerking to get it however I could. However, one thing I learned while working with a Trainer is it’s surprising how fast you improve when you put your body under weight for a longer amount of time. I wouldn’t do this on a big lift, but it seems to work well on stuff like a seated cable row.
Rear delt bent over reverse fly
10lbsx12repsx4
Mr. Ass to gress squats was checking me out here. I couldnt figure out whether he was mentally critiquing my form or my ass though. I smiled at him and thanked him for the spot as I was getting a drink of water and he gave me one of those really big, yet kind of forced grins.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to see some improvement on my mile time after a 15 minute bike.
Err…no, that’s not quite it. you hold yourself up on your elbows, like a plank. You then slide your body back and forth, letting your feet slide, but keeping your elbows stationary. I really hope this explanation makes more sense of it.
Woohoo on your new bench press weight. That’s great! On another note, the neurobiologist in me can’t help but suggest you go with prion disease rather than mad cow. Hehe. Maybe just prion for short! Good luck with your mile time tomorrow.
your a trip, haha!
happy running!
bellinis and absinthe! I like you.
Nice training on both your parts ladies! Well done.
I love the M1 and M2 stuff - esp when you talk behind M2’s back. HA!
I completely understand about trying to maintain some anonymity on the internet. It can be a little creepy.
I am a big fan of the horizontal cable row, too. I think that thing has done more for my mid back than anything. I like to use Ab straps on it so it takes my biceps out of the movement completely. Have to pull from the elbow, ya know? I was having a hard time activating my lats, STILL AM but that helps.
Enjoy your weekend!
Sbmart2-ok that’s a little different than I was thinking and I’ve actually tried that before. Its definitely easier than an ab wheel rollout. I’ll have her try it and see what we think.
Mom in md- I’m gonna take that as a compliment 
Mascherano- lol. Then you would have loved the fun I got up to this weekend. It turns out that whip cream flavored vodka is pretty awesome.
Powerpuff- I’m not going to lie; I can’t really picture how you’d use ab straps on a seated cable row. But I did have fun this weekend.
Last night was girls night and I think I pulled a muscle in my ass dancing. I can’t really figure out wheth it’s a bruise or a sore muscle because there’s no discoloration, but it hurts like a deep bruise. In anycase, I ended up at a house party and then out dancing until 3am. It was good times
This morning I did 5.6 miles on the spinning bike in 15minutes and then did a mile for time. However, the fucking stop watch apparently did one of those instant start/stop things when I first pressed it and I didn’t realize it until halfway through the mile. I’d alreqdy gottein qn argument with the front desk guy about how fucking broken and unreliable those stop watches are, so I hurled it at a wall in hopes of breaking it so they’d replace it (the front desk girl was also noticing that they don’t work, so this was kind of doing everyone a favor). It didn’t break, I tured it in, and am now heading out fishing.
It’s kind of funny that the one terrible thing about my rec center is the stop watches.
Lol at pulling a muscle dancing, that’s awesome! 
Good trick with the stop watch, I hate it when they malfunction grrr, what’s the point in having one that doesn’t work anyways.
Charlie- In retrospect my post makes me sound like a bit of a bitch with regards to the stopwatch. What actually happened was I tried both of the ones my rec center has before going starting and they both were not registering each time you’d press on it. The guy at the rec desk kept arguing I was doing it wrong, which is funny because I’ve used stop watches for years and never had a problemwith them starting and stopping when I press on them. Then the front desk girl tried it and she couldn’t get it to either and he was telling her the same thing. The watches just don’t work and the girl said the center had ordered somenewones but the guy said he couldn’t find them.
I messed around with it for ten seconds just to get it to start and then had just had it when I glanced down four laps into find out that it had stopped seconds after I started it.