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| Lunges | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 4 2009, 12:49 PM (185 Views) | |
| Benevolance | Aug 4 2009, 12:49 PM Post #1 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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I've been exercising more frequently lately. I get bored of repetition, so I find I keep changing up my workout every few weeks. A lot of times it's a matter of changing the order, or the reps, or the weight, and switching out one or two exercises for something new. I usually do my workouts as a circuit of alternating sets, so that it takes less time overall. My routine is pretty simple. I cycle through two opposing upper body moves, a lower body move, and some ab-work for four circuits, followed up with 2-3 mile walk on the treadmill at an incline and then stretch. I try to workout every day (though I'm not that consistent yet) so I typically need to target different muscles on concurrent days. Lately I've found this wicked lunge pattern that just torches me. It was part of the Rush Hour workout posted on Men's Health. It goes like this: grab a dumbbell in each hand. Step backward into a lunge with the right leg, then lunge with that right leg all the way in front into a forward lunge, then back to centre, step backward with the left, then into a forward lunge with the left, back to centre. That's one rep. I've found them rather fun and challenging, and a good substitute for the Bulgarian split squats I'd been doing previously. |
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| lgm | Aug 4 2009, 05:12 PM Post #2 |
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Demogorgon
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That sounds better than the lunges I was doing when I was working out my legs for the softball games. What do you have for motivation? That's what kills me constantly. I want some reward.. and by reward I mean something like Willy Wonka's factory and not being all healthy. |
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| Benevolance | Aug 4 2009, 05:21 PM Post #3 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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As in, what do I do to keep motivated? Or do I have a specific goal that motivates me? As for the lunges, they're awesome. Anything to make a workout a little more interesting is always a good thing. |
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| lgm | Aug 4 2009, 05:36 PM Post #4 |
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Demogorgon
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What gets you going and what keeps you going? |
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| Andrul | Aug 4 2009, 07:08 PM Post #5 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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I find the promise of a frappucino on the way home helps me. |
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| Benevolance | Aug 4 2009, 08:31 PM Post #6 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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Once I get going, the exercise itself keeps me going. I've started and stopped enough times for various reasons to recognize that I'm more on top of my game when I'm exercising regularly. I'm more productive with my time, my diet improves, my quality of sleep is better, my alertness is sharper, and I just generally feel great. As for what gets me going...in the past I used specific events. The Sun Run, the Core Performance program, etc. They worked to get me going, but when I finished the program/race, my motivation dropped off. Lately, my primary motivation is simply feeling good and looking good. I'll be honest enough to admit that vanity is a primary motivator. Especially now, with a looming Japan trip. If were going to be spending any sort of time in the onsens...I want to look good naked. To keep individual workouts interesting, I've been changing up my program, setting shorter term goals, and rotating my musical selections. I also usually have a 'minimum target'. For example, if I REALLY don't feel like working out one night, my minimum goal is 1 mile on the treadmill. If I complete the mile and still don't feel like working out, then I stop. Guilt free. Edited by Benevolance, Aug 4 2009, 08:35 PM.
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| Benevolance | Aug 10 2009, 02:58 PM Post #7 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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Yesterday I decided to start Ahnold's calf raise routine, as laid out by his coach a long time ago. Because the calves are so used to work, it takes more effort to stress them. Ahnold's routine was 10 sets of 10 reps at 60% your max lift. The interesting thing I discovered: the muscles that were sore this morning were the same muscles that usually get tired when I run and give me shin splints. I'm very curious if these exercises will help improve my distance running. |
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| The Nighthawk | Aug 10 2009, 03:38 PM Post #8 |
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Bugbear
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I may need to try this too to discover the same thing. What do you do to determine your max lift? I mean, if can toe raise myself, I'm obviously capable of 220lbs., but I don't know that doing 100 of those will stress them enough. Do you pick up dumbbells to increase your weight? I find it's my fingers that are the weak point in the exercise rather than my calves if I do that. |
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| Benevolance | Aug 10 2009, 04:55 PM Post #9 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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I'm using a squat rack and carrying the weight across my shoulders, so it's a body weight lift + X lbs. I used my current bench press weight as a starting guesstimate, mostly because I was lazy and didn't want to change the bar. I wasn't quite able to do all 10 sets of 10 reps, so I figured that weight was a good starting point. For the fingers, you don't have to do any moves, just stand and hold something heavy and your grip strength will improve. I've been doing that for a couple months now, just holding onto dumbbells after I've done an exercise for as long as possible before setting them down, and it's improved my hand strength quite a bit. Edited by Benevolance, Aug 10 2009, 04:56 PM.
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| The Nighthawk | Aug 10 2009, 05:08 PM Post #10 |
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Bugbear
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Good point about hand strength. I don't have a squat rack, so I'll use dumbells and get double duty out of it. :D |
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| Benevolance | Aug 28 2009, 04:38 PM Post #11 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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Another friend of ours got Nighthawk, Jenn and me started on the P90X program. Jenn and I are only two workouts in, but Nighthawk is already into his second week. It is FABULOUS. |
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| lgm | Aug 28 2009, 07:05 PM Post #12 |
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Demogorgon
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When did Skynet develop the P90X? How much humanity have you retained? |
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| Andrul | Aug 29 2009, 11:37 AM Post #13 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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Lance never claimed to be human. He's a very sophisticated AI designed to pass the Turing test. |
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| Benevolance | Sep 2 2009, 12:40 PM Post #14 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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The first week finished awesome and I'm all pumped up for the second week. My burn from Sunday's watersliding has completely healed. I took today as a rest day, but I'm feeling so good, I think I'll do some more yoga tonight or the X Stretch. When we went to replace our heart rate monitors we noticed they had the compact foam rolls and we picked one up. The idea is that you put the foam on the ground, and roll your sore muscles over it. It is excruciating (EXCRUCIATING!) but it works the knots out of your muscles and you feel so much better after. Although, I'm not sure if I feel better because of the foam massage or because the pain of using it has stopped. Either way, it's golden! Love it! And highly recommend it as a home alternative to deep tissue massage. But my reward when I finish up the first P90X is that I'm treating myself to a deep tissue massage session at a spa. |
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| Benevolance | Sep 8 2009, 12:11 PM Post #15 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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Jenn and I finished the second week today. By some combination of improved fitness, extra stretching, or foam roll work, the muscles are recovering a little quicker between each workout, so I'm not nearly as sore most of the week. This program has really highlighted how weak and inflexible my hips are. |
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| lgm | Sep 8 2009, 12:23 PM Post #16 |
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Demogorgon
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Your workout and the pain involved reminded me of the Navy Seal workout. Well, that's the workout to get up to the level to try out for the Seals anyhow. I figured since you're close to the ocean that you'd have easy access for this training. In a year, you'll be infiltrating the US and taking what you want instead of being frustrated with those pesky custom fees when ordering online. |
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| Benevolance | Sep 8 2009, 12:33 PM Post #17 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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It's very similar, but this program emphasizes less distance cardio, and a lot more pushups, pullups, and core exercises. |
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| Benevolance | Sep 14 2009, 12:56 PM Post #18 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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Gyah! And with this morning's brutally heroic effort, the first month is basically done. I have Kempo tomorrow and then a week of 'recovery' that features two gruelling yoga sessions. But the recovery week involves no major lifts, so my muscles have time to recover. We also do a weigh in and fitness test between session 1 and 2 to check our progress. The wall squats are murdering me. It is humbling as Jenn pulls off the one leg variety and my legs quake with both feet on the floor. I'm not seeing any visible change in my waist line, but my arms and legs feel a lot firmer and I'm finding the exercises all a lot easier. I can haz do pullupz! |
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| The Nighthawk | Sep 14 2009, 01:23 PM Post #19 |
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Bugbear
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Awesome stuff man. I want to jump back in with you guys, but until my physio tells me I can start doing impact on my ankle again, I'll just have to wait. I'm going to do the Ab Ripper though with a stationary bike interval training so that I'm doing something while my Tendonosis heals. |
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| Benevolance | Sep 14 2009, 02:46 PM Post #20 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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The ab ripper is brutal. By the time he gets to Pulse Ups, I cannot physically lift my fat ass off the floor. I've been doing the ab ripper only twice a week, because it takes so much out of me and I cannot fully bring it to the weight workouts the next day with a fatigued core. |
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| Benevolance | Oct 19 2009, 02:54 PM Post #21 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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I really lost focus to the end of phase 2. Whether because I was sick or stressed, or because of the dark mornings and the diet portion, I had real difficulty getting out of bed to exercise. I took the last couple days of the rest session off entirely, rode my bike to work for a few days for something different, and felt good this morning when I got up to start phase 3. Only four more weeks of workouts and a rest/stretch week to cap it off. The end is nigh! Edit: I haven't decided yet how to follow up the program. I'm not going to stop the P90X before Japan, but we don't have enough time to complete all three sessions before we leave. If we take the recommended 2 weeks break before starting again, we'll have about 9 weeks before we leave. I would continue doing the program on our trip, except that it might be difficult to find room for chinups. I suppose I could look into buying some tension bands, instead. Those are light and easy to travel with. Our vacation is three weeks long, which means we would finish up the second P90X program as we return to Canada. Yes, we could do the second P90X program using bands instead of bars and weights. And then our final recovery week would be our first week back in Canada. That could work. Edited by Benevolance, Oct 19 2009, 03:01 PM.
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| lgm | Oct 19 2009, 03:08 PM Post #22 |
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Demogorgon
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Why not "take a break" in Japan by climbing a mountain and other strenuous tourist things? |
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| Benevolance | Oct 19 2009, 03:20 PM Post #23 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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We'll do those, too. :D We have at least one day of skiing planned. Possibly two, unless we do the dog-sledding and snow-shoe tours instead. But since we have more time to explore a geographically smaller area, we won't have to cover as much ground on foot. Our purpose in this trip is to see a few areas we didn't see before early on, and then head to Kansai to shop, eat, drink, and soak in hot spring resorts for a couple more weeks. I'm really looking forward to a lot of eating and drinking. |
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| lgm | Oct 19 2009, 03:46 PM Post #24 |
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Demogorgon
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I'm missing the part where continued exercise is beneficial if you will be climbing mountains and skiing among other things. I'm not going to stop you because I want to hear about your drunken falls after getting back to the hotel room after EUI (excercise under the influence) and complaining about how you hurt because you kept on with hard exercises after climbing and skiing all day :D |
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| Benevolance | Oct 19 2009, 04:29 PM Post #25 |
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Ancient Wyrm
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Hijinx aren't hijinx without SNAP, CRACKLE, P0P.
Edited by Benevolance, Oct 19 2009, 04:30 PM.
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