#so that’s why i do strength training so weights and squats and stretches and resistance bands and all that stuff

[amurder-ofcrows]

so i do personal training once a week and i mainly work on strength training and i have officially moved from dumbbell chest presses to the bench chest press. i was doing 35 pounds with the dumbbells (17.5 in each hand) easily so instead of moving up another couple pounds with the dumbbells, my trainer started me on the bench press. i don’t have any added weights on it yet, im only using the bar (which is 45 pounds) and i can’t do many reps yet (i can do ten at a time and only two sets) but i’m really proud of myself for building up this strength. i still need to work on strength in other areas, mainly my shoulders and calves, but i’m doing really well!

[usertoxicyaoi]

I'm starting to get into working out/exercise and wondered if you had any tips for a beginner, like what kind of equipment should I get? And what's your work out routine? I'd appreciate any advice!

hiiiii anon!!!!!

so i have days where i workout at the gym and days where i workout at home. i'd say definitely during the winter months (so october - march) i workout at home, and i go to the gym more during the warmer months (apr - sept).

but it honestly depends on what your goals are. mine are, personally, fat loss and muscle gain. for that, i focus more on strength and muscle training, and less on cardio or hiit routines. so i split my week into 4 days where i do strength training, 1 day i do just cardio and i have 2 rest days.

rest days are so so soooo important i can't stress that enough!!!! your body needs it to heal!!! hence why i also do like to consider my cardio day a kinda rest day too, bc i do liss cardio training (low intensity - steady state), not hiit (high intensity - interval training). so i do things like going on the exercise bike for 40 miniutes with maximum resistance on it but i go slow, or i just go hiking or for a really long walk at a steady enough speed and incline to get my steps in (i live in a very hilly area so i just hit the hills!). hiit just doesnt work for me personally, but if you enjoy it, then by all means do it! its not that i dont do hiit at all, i just dont do it often.

okay, so for strength training. i would hiiiighly recommend you buy yourself a decent pair of sports gloves, bc you wanna protect your palms and the skin, and a thick yoga mat, to support and reduce the impact on your back and your knees. also, barbells. oh my god. i use my barbell more than i use my dumbells, bc it just helps my form more, and its better and easier to hold, manage, maintain and it supports me better. i also do use and have my own dumbells and kettle bells too.

in terms of the actual weight you're lifting, honestly, its a long, slow process. i lift heavier now but when i started strength training, about 3 odd years ago, i started off extremely light. and its honestly focusing more on your form and increasing your reps, then your sets, gradually than it is working your way up the weights rack. you've just gotta find a weight that's comfortable for you as a beginner, and then slowly build your reps up.

so for example, if i'm doing a bicep curl with a 5kg dumbell and it's my first time doing so, i'd do 2 sets of 8 reps. then 2 sets of 10 reps. then 3 sets of 6 reps. then 3 sets of 8 reps. then 3 sets of 10 reps. go slow and steady, always, and when you feel like you can push yourself a little more, then do so. and that will take as long as it will depending on your readiness.

for a single set, honestly i'd only recommend 10 reps max. not more than that. and in between your sets, rest!!!!!!! i rest for atleast 3 minutes between my sets. so if i'm doing leg day, i'll only focus and choose 6 exercises that i'll use my barbell with (e.g, rdls, wide squat, good mornings, goblet squat, reverse lunges and hip thrusts) and do 1 set of 10 reps of each exercise, then rest for 3 minutes, then go again, until i've done 4 sets of 10 and then i finish my workout.

i'd also say dont try to cram in 20 different exercises into one workout. instead choose between 6-10 for your intended body part (like legs), and just do them over and over for how ever many sets and reps you are doing, then finish. then the next day, choose 6-10 for your arms. then when you have leg day again, choose a different 6-10 than the ones you did the previous leg day. hence, you're constantly switching it up and you won't get bored either and you can focus more on working on your form at a slow and steady pace.

which is so important! go slow. there's no need to think about speed, bc that most likely will cause injury. and i suggest that your workout shouldn't even be 60 minutes long bc that's madness. 45 minutes MAX. and stretch!!!! stretch stretch stretch!!! if you go onto youtube and type in growwithjo stretching, she has GREAT videos for all round mobility and flexibility or cool down and recovery stretching. i just use them all the time.

finally, i'd say hydrate. like. your muscles NEED water. and more obviously, try to get some food in with more protein content and carbs in it as soon as you can within the hour after your workout. typically, i eat a banana and have an americano 90 minutes before i workout, and then after i workout, i have a protein shake with my dinner (which sometimes literally can be a big bowl of oats topped with whatever i desire along with my protein shake bc i workout in the evenings after work so i get suuuuuper lazy to cook sometimes!) yes your body needs the protein for muscle growth, but it needs carbs to replenish your glycogen stores that you've used up during your workout!

and please do not believe in this myth that you should workout in the morning. no, you can workout whenever you feel like and you CAN eat past 7pm. typically i workout more in the evening bc i'm only free then since i work, and by the time i finish eating and all that, its like 7.30pm. but i sleep soooo well when i workout in the evenings which really helps me since i've struggled with sleeping ever since i was 15. so its honestly up to you when you choose to workout.

i hope that helps! if you have anymore questions you can come and ask anytime!

[lit-in-thy-heart]

merlin and gwaine, (romantic relationship) Hug with a kiss/ Lifting-off-the-ground hug

@bionic-staring-machine thank you for sending in a prompt!! 💕(and i'm going to try not to say that word too many times in this post this time...)

this is set in 4×06 because we ignore canon in this household, seeing as we were robbed of a merwaine reunion scene even though gwaine had literally been praising merlin moments before they found him

(some creative licence used with the fomorroh kicking in)

hope you enjoy it and i will gladly take more prompts from people!!

again, under the cut because i cannot keep things concise:

The ride back to Camelot was more of a trial than training had ever been. Gwaine could feel Merlin pressed against him for the whole journey, relishing the arms encircling his body – even if they were caked in mud – and the soft breath bumping clumsily against the back of his neck. He wanted nothing more than to hold him close, even if they were currently pressed against one another, and let the overpowering taste of cinnamon that clung to Merlin’s pores numb his tongue. Of course, at that moment, it was mud that would be the overpowering taste, and Gwaine had to remind himself of that fact each time the urge to turn around and kiss Merlin overwhelmed him.

They finally trotted into the courtyard and Gwaine dismounted first, his hands reaching up to slot beneath Merlin’s armpits. Although Merlin seemed fine, he was still wary of applying too much pressure to the tender area where Merlin had been wounded. As he absorbed Merlin’s weight, Gwaine rooted his feet more firmly into the ground, lowering the servant carefully and quietly enquiring after his welfare with his eyes. Receiving a gentle smile in return, Gwaine ducked his head slightly and turned to Arthur, one hand still hooked around Merlin’s arm.

‘I’m just going to help get Merlin cleaned up.’

There was a slight smirk playing on Arthur’s mouth as his eyes darted between the two of them. ‘Of course.’ He approached Merlin and ruffled his muddy hair. ‘It’s good to have you back, Merlin.’

With one final smile, he jumped up the steps and disappeared into the castle. As the horses were taken back to the stables, Gwaine turned to look at Merlin again. He had spoken at all on the ride back, mentioned nothing about the situation he had been in, but Gwaine couldn’t blame him. He was probably still in a state of shock and unprepared to discuss his ordeal just yet. Gwaine’s thumb found shelter beneath Merlin’s jaw and gently stroked away a thin layer of mud. There would be time for Merlin to talk, more than enough time, and Gwaine would be there, waiting, when he was ready.

‘Come on, my bog man, let’s get you cleaned up.’

There was a tight nod and Merlin leaned into Gwaine, hand reaching down for the knight’s. Settling his gaze in front of him so as to better navigate their way to his chambers, Gwaine gently tugged Merlin alongside him, careful to keep the pace slow and prevent Merlin from stumbling. When they approached Gwaine’s chambers, his servant, Tom, was on the verge of passing by. Gwaine caught his shoulder lightly with his hand, murmured in his ear about the possibility of fetching a bathtub, and slipped through his own door, Merlin in tow.

Merlin still wasn’t saying anything and, when Gwaine glanced at him after stripping off his cloak and chainmail, seemed to be flinching sporadically at nothing tangible. Eyebrows drawing together, Gwaine squatted down in front of the bed, teasing Merlin’s gaze towards him as his fingers clasped his face.

‘Hey. It’s okay, you’re safe now. I’m not going to let anything happen to you again.’

Gwaine was still desperately holding his gaze as Tom entered with a bathtub and second servant carrying hot water. Fingers still framing Merlin’s face, Gwaine tore his eyes away to thank them and waved away offers to help him. He didn’t want to overwhelm Merlin with too many faces, not after he presumably encountered numerous ones when in the clutches of the mercenaries.

Once the door had closed, Gwaine moved across the room to lock it and poured the water into the tub, pushing up the sleeves of his gambeson and loosening the knot of the string around his wrist to tie back his hair. ‘Merlin,’ he softly said, returning to the servant. ‘Is it alright if I undress you?’

Merlin blinked once, twice, and the smallest of smiles crept onto his mouth. ‘You don’t have to treat me like I’m about to break, Gwaine, it’s okay. I’m okay.’

There was a strange lilt to his voice that pierced the odd word and Gwaine fought down the curiosity rising within him. He had no idea what exactly Merlin had been through, and a change in tone could be a completely understandable consequence. It sounded as if he was trying to force the words out, as if they were caught in some sort of trap and were struggling to worm their way through the holes in the net. Instead of asking, Gwaine elected for an indicator of reassurance, placing one hand on Merlin’s cheek as he eased the knot in the neckerchief with the other.

At Gwaine’s touch, Merlin closed his eyes, back remaining taut as the knight peeled off the jacket and gingerly pulled Merlin’s shirt over his head, tossing it to one side on the floor. Gwaine hesitated. The remnants of the wound were still hauntingly apparent on Merlin’s chest as he reached out, fingers barely making contact with the mutilated skin for fear of aggravating it. There were no signs of infection and the blood that Gwaine would have expected for such a wound was absent. A delicate crease formed beneath Gwaine’s lower lip but he decided he’d wonder about why mercenaries would patch Merlin up later. His hand travelled further down the servant’s body and Merlin was undressed by the muscle memory in Gwaine’s fingers before he uncertainly clambered into the water.

The mud ran like veins of blood when Gwaine ran his wet hand along the cocoon it had formed around Merlin’s body. He was careful to avoid the wound, along with the constant chastisement that he should have been paying more attention to Merlin, and Merlin leaned back against the side, focusing on the movement of Gwaine’s fingers. As the touch migrated to Merlin’s hair, he closed his eyes and tilted his head further back. Gwaine worked his way through the matted thatch on top of Merlin’s head slowly, rubbing the strands between his fingertips and giving in to the urge that had been plaguing him since he had set eyes on Merlin again. His mouth found Merlin’s temple and he withdrew as he felt the muscles in Merlin’s cheeks twist into a smile.

Gradually, Merlin’s hair returned to its natural hue and Gwaine seized a cloth to chase away the last splashes of mud hiding behind his ears. Gaze dropping, the knight frowned at what appeared to be a long bruise stretched across the back of Merlin’s neck. His fingers dusted over it and Merlin violently lurched forward, sending water splashing over the sides of the tub.

Head lowered, Merlin took a sharp breath and opened his eyes, looking anxiously towards Gwaine. ‘Sorry.’

Gwaine shook his head, wiping his hands on the cloth. ‘I’m the one who needs to apologise. I should have realised it would be so tender, being so fresh.’

Merlin’s hand jumped to the back of his neck, water dripping like spring dew from his fingers. ‘What is it?’

‘A bruise, by the looks of it,’ Gwaine said, standing to retrieve a towel. ‘And a painful one at that; it’s slightly raised.’

Making contact with it, Merlin pressed down on the affected area and resisted the urge to throw up. He could have sworn that the skin beneath his fingers had moved. ‘Weird. I don’t remember getting it.’

Gwaine spared him a smile. ‘That’s not surprising. How many times do you wake up with your legs covered in bruises?’

‘That’s because you kick me during the night!’

‘Yeah, but you don’t remember getting them, do you?’ Gwaine replied, holding out the towel. The mild nausea in his stomach had subsided now that Merlin’s voice wasn’t sounding so strange. His smile faded slightly. ‘Though it was concealed by your neckerchief. It may have been that they thought the best way to transport you was by that, and it’s left a mark.’

Merlin stepped out of the bath and wrapped the towel around his waist, fingering the wound on his chest. There were words just waiting to pour out of him, but it was as if they were being held back by the anticipation of waiting for a signal before an attack. He chose to smile at Gwaine and tried not to worry too much about the slight tinge of concern that lurked in his eyes. It was only natural that it was there, after all. Merlin had disappeared off the face of the earth and had come back beaten and bruised. Of course Gwaine was going to be concerned about him.

As an attempt at reassurance, Merlin took several steps towards the knight and put his arms around his neck. ‘I’m okay, you know,’ he quietly said, the short four words drawing all the strength he had from him.

Despite it being the tone that he’d used time and time again with Gwaine, it felt unnatural on his tongue. Merlin pushed it aside. He was tired, that was all. He still loved Gwaine.

The knight wrapped his arms around Merlin, settling against the right side of the servant’s body and burying his face in his shoulder. ‘You scared me, you know that? I couldn’t sleep at all. Not by myself. Not when I knew you could be out there somewhere, dying.’

Merlin’s hand reached up to cradle the back of Gwaine’s head. A strange sensation was washing over him, filling his limbs with a numbness that he forced them to bitterly push through because his heart was telling him to cling to Gwaine, even if his head was beginning to grow impatient and was hissing ideas of pulling away and fleeing to Arthur. ‘I know,’ he heavily said. ‘I know.’

He did pull away, then, his hands catching Gwaine’s arms as he teased away the knight’s face from his shoulder with his mouth. As Gwaine felt Merlin’s lips kissing away the tears that had threatened to fall onto his chest, he snatched at them with his own mouth, savouring the taste that was like rain on the ground. His arms were still tightly wrapped around Merlin, as if his body was afraid that Merlin would disappear without a trace once again, fingers fumbling across the masterpiece that was Merlin’s frame. Merlin’s body was the only map that Gwaine could ever recall from memory and his grip found the hidden coves that remained a secret to the rest of the world.

Knowing that it probably wasn’t wise to do it when Merlin was in such a delicate condition, despite all the servant’s assurances, but too weak to fight yet another urge, Gwaine gradually lifted Merlin off the ground, twisting one leg between the servant’s.

Merlin, ignoring the distant screams in his head of being off-track, pushed out a laugh once he had recovered from the initial shock. ‘You’re going to injure yourself, Gwaine.’

‘You give your muscles more credit than is due, Merlin,’ Gwaine grunted, electing to carry Merlin over to the bed.

Merlin’s muscles, however, won that particular battle with the aid of gravity and Merlin fell backwards onto the bed, barely missing the circle of mud left by him earlier. Gwaine rolled to the side and moved to detach his arms when Merlin pressed himself against the knight’s chest. It wasn’t often that he was able to lie in Gwaine’s arms, and to say that he was irritated at the growing sense of restlessness in his legs and mind would be an understatement. He allowed himself to bask in the warmth of Gwaine’s body for several moments more, trying to tether himself to the gentle pulse throbbing through them both, and kissed Gwaine’s mouth once more before disentangling himself and finding the spare clothes he kept in the wardrobe.

When Merlin had quietly exited, Gwaine clung to the shadow of his body against his own, rather than the heavy tone or anxious alertness that had encircled Merlin’s eyes. Merlin was home, and that was all that mattered. With a sigh, Gwaine hauled himself into a sitting position. Perhaps it was a good opportunity to strengthen his muscles. If he had it his way, Merlin would be receiving a number of hugs over the next few days, and Gwaine did not want to face humiliation in front of other people at being unable to lift Merlin up and sustain the position.

[yourdeepestfathoms]

chasing pegasus (part two)

part one

[horse racing au]

tw: there’s some discussions of unhealthy dieting in this one, so watch out!

------------------------------------------------------

a lap around the yard

The Trainer

Four days later, the sound of hoofsteps came crunching up the driveway of the Netherworld. It was a wet, early morning, the sun not even up yet. Animals were still asleep, as were Barbara and Adam- not even Lydia had showed up for work.

And yet, there were hoofsteps coming from the street.

It had taken little persuasion to convince Presley Lind’s parents into allowing Beetlejuice to be her new trainer once they found out he was associated with the Maitland’s. Their bored expressions lit up instantly, and Beetlejuice easily saw the greed shining inside of their eyes. He had managed to bite back a laugh in the moment, not wanting to ruin this opportunity.

As a child, horses were Beetlejuice’s entire world. Despite his mother working in politics, he lived on a farm, where the plains rolled out to him every morning like green carpets and the air was fresh and clean. There was so much space, and absolutely nothing to fill it.

Lawrence “Beetlejuice” Shoggoth longed for a pony of his own more than anything. Almost every day, he would watch the neighbors ride around on their horses, practically radiating smugness like, “Hahaha! Look at us! We got horses and you don’t! Hahaha!”

He tried to get a horse. Every single Christmas, every single birthday, he would ask his mother for a pony of his own. And every single time he was shot down. She would say that his wonder towards the animals was just a “phase,” that he would lose interest in the beast and leave her to take care of it, but Beetlejuice knew the real reason she said no was because she didn’t like when he got anything he wanted.

It wasn’t until he was seventeen that he finally got the horse he had been dreaming about.

She was a little black-and-white thoroughbred filly that Beetlejuice nursed himself after her mother was killed by a pack of hungry coyotes. His mother had been furious when he carried the foal into the house that dark evening, but he managed to convince her into letting him keep the animal, as long as he paid for everything and didn’t come running to her when he needed help. He was ecstatic.

That little black-and-white thoroughbred filly was the same large black-and-white thoroughbred mare standing beside him at five-thirty in the morning before the sun had even risen, waiting for their pupils.

Sandy, aka It’s Showtime, was the highlight of Beetlejuice’s life. She was fast, full of energy, and had more of a personality than most people Beetlejuice had met. She was everything he dreamed about and more. He didn’t know what he would do without her.  

 “Good morning, student!” Beetlejuice greeted Presley animatedly when she finally finished her walk down the driveway. Strangely enough, she wasn’t riding her horse, instead guiding him by a halter. She didn’t seem to have been on his back at all that morning, deciding to make the whole trip on foot.

 “Good morning, Mr. Shoggoth,” Presley greeted back. In the faint glow from the light attached to the wall of the nearby barn, he saw that she was dressed in a soft-looking flannel, a tank top underneath that, leggings, and boots. Her helmet and goggles were hanging from the side of her saddle. She had her crop with her and she kept fidgeting with it as some sort of nervous tic.

Beetlejuice couldn’t help but laugh at her insistence in formality. She truly was the epitome of a Southern Belle, even up in Connecticut.

 “You can call me Beetlejuice, kiddo, it’s okay.”

Presley wrinkled her nose, but nodded anyway. Beetlejuice was sure that was going to last for maybe an hour, and then she would be back to referring to him like he was the president of the United States or something.

 “So, are you ready for our first day of training?” Beetlejuice asked, hoping he didn’t sound too much like an excited child on Christmas. He had been waiting for the perfect protégé for what felt like forever and he finally found someone who showed real promise. He couldn’t wait to teach her about everything he knew.

 “Yes, sir!” Presley answered. She matched his energy, so Beetlejuice decided to ignore the fact that she replied to him like he was a drill sergeant and she was a wannabe soldier preparing for war.

 “That’s what I like to hear!” Beetlejuice clapped her on the back. “Let’s get out to the track.”

--- --- ---

The first hour and a half, they didn’t even touch the horses.

Sandy and Presley’s stallion, a scraggly grey thoroughbred stallion named Peril, were put into the carousel to get their muscles warmed up for later riding--

--except Peril attempted to physically fight the equipment the moment it turned on and tried to guide him around the circle, which he did not like at all. Beetlejuice and Presley both had to rush to calm him down before he could break something or hurt himself or worse: wake up Barbara. After a few moments of resistance, he finally gave into the tug of the machine and relented to following its pull.

By the time the sun had finally come up, Presley was soaked in a fine layer of sweat. They spent those first few hours exercising; or, rather, Presley was exercising. Beetlejuice watched over her with a hose at the ready if he caught her slacking off.

Being a jockey was a lot harder than anyone initially thought. Despite being small in stature, easily half the size of any NFL player most of the time, they were required to guide twelve hundred pounds of pure flesh and muscle at speeds of up to forty miles per hour. Strength was needed to stay on the backs of the sprinting beasts, hence why the training regimen for jockeys were so intense.

After the initial stretches, Beetlejuice had Presley do a myriad of exercises- squats, lunges, jumping lunges, flutter kicks, bear crawls, burpees, and one-leg deadlifts, and even after finishing all of that she still wasn’t done. He told her to run a mile around the track, and she went without complaining.

 “Lawrence, you better not be killing our jockey. We just got her.”

A voice like a songbird’s sweet chirping broke through the silence of the morning. Beetlejuice turned to see Barbara and Adam walking over, both of them smiling. He perked up.

By then, the sun had come up, bathing the Netherworld in soft golden rays. Horses emerged from the stables, moseying out into the pasture to graze, though some of them stopped to peer curiously at Peril. He and Sandy were mulling in a nearby holding pen after they finished their own exercise on the carousel. When Peril caught the stares he was getting from the other horses, he lifted his head, grass hanging from his mouth, and flicked his ears at them in some kind of silent, equine gesture, then went back to eating.

 “I’m not!” Beetlejuice said, laughing. “She’s fine. Doing great, actually!”

With impeccable comedic timing, Presley skidded to a halt at the fencing in front of them, kicking up a plume of dirt, which only furthered to dirty her even more than she already was: head-to-toe, she was completely covered in silt from the track, turning her pale skin a faint orangey color. It effectively stuck to the sweat already coating her body, making her look like she had tried to test the dust baths the horses sometimes took.

She raised her head, face red from exertion and orange-brown from dirt, and squinted through the morning sun at Barbara and Adam.

 “Good morning, Mrs. Maitland. Good morning, Mr. Maitland,” She greeted the couple with her trademarked politeness, even as she was doubled over and heaving her breaths.

 “Morning, Presley,” Adam said.

 “Good morning, dear. How are you?” Barbara asked.

 “Good,” Presley answered. “You?”

 “I’m doing very well.”

Presley nodded. She shook herself out, though it did little to remove the dirt clinging to her frame, then stood up straight, hands pressed against her lower back like she was trying to pop her spine.

 “BJ isn’t working you too hard, is he?” Adam asked, looking at her, then squinting at Beetlejuice in playful suspiciousness.

 “No, sir,” Presley answered. “I’m okay.” She dragged her feet through the dirt, brewing up another storm around her, as she walked over to the fence and braced herself against the wood.

 “Rude,” Beetlejuice poked Adam in the ribs. “You’re acting like I’m gonna torture her or something! I’m a great teacher! Right, kid?”

 “I got sand in my boots,” Presley said distractedly, kicking the heel of one of her musty boots against a small rock.

 “See!” Beetlejuice said, and Adam and Barbara laughed.

 “Before you continue your teachings, I want you both to eat breakfast,” Barbara said, for all the world sounding like a mother to a soccer team. She looked at Presley. “Do you like danishes?”

 “Oh, uhh,” Presley shuffled her feet awkwardly, then scrunched her face up like a disturbed bunny when the sand must have scratched around in her boots. “I don’t eat breakfast.”

Barbara and Adam stared at her. She blinked back at them, then glanced up at Beetlejuice with a worried expression that said, “Did I do something wrong?”

 “Ever?” Adam asked.

 “No,” Presley shook her head. “Sometimes I’ll have a shake. Maybe an apple. That’s usually it, though.”

 “Honey, you have to eat,” Barbara said, sounding concerned.

 “I’m on a diet,” Presley said back, as if that justified her skipping meals all the time. “It’s kinda strict, so…” She kicked at a pebble, avoiding their gazes.

 “Diet for what?” Adam probed. “You’re already so thin!”

 “We have to be thin,” Presley reprimanded. “Jockeys, I mean. There’s a weight restriction for a reason. And if I slack off one day, then I’ll snowball, and you know how easy it is to regain weight?”

 “How much do you weigh right now?” Beetlejuice joined in on the questioning. He hoped nobody could hear the curl of concerned sickness edging his voice.

 “Uhhh,” Presley had the audacity to count on her fingers, which made Adam’s eyes practically bulge out of his skull, as if he were expecting her to say some absurd number like seven or ten. Though, in his defense, what she actually ended up saying was equally as concerning.

 “If I remember correctly from the last time I checked… I think ninety-nine pounds?”

 “Ninety--” Adam sputtered, cutting himself off. “NINETY-NINE?!”

Presley scrunched her face up at him again. “Yeah…” She said slowly. “Usually I’m ninety-four, though.”

 “NINETY-FOUR?!”

Presley blinked at him. She seemed innocently oblivious to how worrying what she said was…or maybe she did know how worrying it was and was just acting like she didn’t in a way to convince herself that what she was doing was okay and perfectly healthy.

She didn’t look emaciated. To be honest, Beetlejuice used to think that anyone under a hundred pounds were like those people in the sad pictures of Africa, the ones that stated that everyone on the continent were starving to death and tried to convince you to do some twenty-four hour fasting thing to “see how they lived” or something like that instead of doing something useful like asking for donations to help those people. You know- drum-tight skin, ribs showing, stomachs sunken into empty caverns, every detail of the hip bone being perfectly highlighted, limbs like matchsticks, more skeleton than human.

But Presley looked like the exact opposite of that. Her skin wasn’t pulled tight over her bones, her bones weren’t showing at all, even, and she definitely was not a skeleton.

But Beetlejuice also knew firsthand that the effects of “jockey dieting” weren’t always physical. Sometimes it all on the inside- throat eroded from constant purging, muscles weak with no energy, stomach cannibalizing itself in a desperate attempt to get nutrients.

He knew because he, too, had slaved himself over the jockey diet before eventually accepting that he would never meet the weight restriction and get to race in a real derby.

Seeing his new pupil torture herself with such a hellish thing did not make him happy.

 “Presley, you have to eat,” Barbara said gently before Beetlejuice could blow his top and scold his new student.

 “I do,” Presley tried to assure her. “I eat dinner. One meal per day; that’s what the regimen says. I have to follow it if I want to be a jockey. Those are, like, the rules.”

 “Well, I don’t see any rule book around here,” Adam said.

 “It’s an unspoken one.”

 “Presley, Barbara is right,” Beetlejuice spoke up. “You have to eat. I get the whole ‘staying in shape to stay in the weight requirement’ thing, I do, but you’ll be no use in a race if you’re too weak to ride.”

Presley seemed to be getting flustered. She opened her mouth, then closed it and ducked her head. Her boot scuffed at the grass.

 “Danishes sound nice. Thank you, Mrs. Maitland.”

--- --- ---

After a breakfast of danishes, scrambled eggs, grilled ham, and orange juice, Beetlejuice and his student were back outside. Now that it was light out, he decided to let her muscles rest a little longer and give her a tour. Lydia, who had been dropped off by her father, joined them.

Most of the horses were out in the pasture, as were the other farm animals the Maitland’s kept, but most of the broodmares spent their time inside the stables, a breezy building that smelled like hay and dirt. The pregnant horses rumbled and huffed to each other, and Beetlejuice recognized the low-level threat in those sounds. Foaling mares were often aggressive. They were kept separately from each other, in large stalls with heavy wooden walls and thick layers of rushes on the floor.

Six mothers filled the stables. Barbara and Adam were encouraging more breeding to replace the three mares they had recently lost, and to fill the orders they had gotten from richer racers that were seeking out a good horse. Lydia pointed out all the foaling horses as they went by, and Presley listened with great interest.

The first was Bullseye aka Target’s Grand Splash, a solid black Arabian with a single white spot around her left eye and pure white socks. She was fierce and standoffish.

The next was Sky aka Up, Up, and Away, a pure white standardbred with hints of pink around her dark eyes. She was the restless type, constantly resetting her bedding because it wasn’t good enough for her liking.

Then there was Flicker aka Light The Night, a buckskin paint horse with white splotches all across her body and a constant need for playing. As they passed by, she was throwing her hay up into the air with her teeth.

After her was Pisces aka The Zodiac Killer, a dark chestnut thoroughbred with even darker socks around her hooves. Her ears were pinned back and she glared as they walked by her pen.

Fifth was Magi aka Blaze of Enchantment, a blonde quarter horse with a silky brown mane and tail. Her gentle nature made her easy to care for.

Finally, there was Sneeze-Breeze aka It’s A Long Story, a second thoroughbred, this one with a coat of red roan. Upon hearing her name, Presley gave Lydia a confused look, to which Lydia replied with, “It’s a long story.”

Presley laughed.

 “And then that’s my horse!” Lydia said, pointing to a black abyss that was a Tennessee walker gelding. Its dark coat really fit Lydia’s aesthetic. “Well, he’s my favorite horse, but I still like to call him my horse. His name is Gloom!”

Gloom lifted his head from his stall and blinked big blue eyes at Lydia. She patted his large cheek.

 “His show name is The Moon Man,” Lydia further informed.

 “He’s so handsome,” Presley said in awe, staring up at the void.

Beetlejuice allowed the two teenagers to chat a little longer before pulling Presley back out to begin training. It was good that Lydia talked to girls her age. She usually just made conversation with the horses ever since the recent passing of her mother. Maybe a human friend would be good for her.

 “Alright, kiddo,” Beetlejuice said once they were all back outside. Presley had Peril by his halter for an inspection. “Let’s see what you got.”

Beetlejuice, for one, knew a pretty horse when he saw one, and Peril was the epitome of thoroughbred beauty. His coat was a glossy steel grey, rippling rays of light when the sun hit the fur, and his mane and tail were the color of storm clouds. He had four black stockings up each of his legs as if he had crawled out from the shadows. There was a freckling of grey on his snout and his eyes were a bright flame blue. Beetlejuice could see why Presley liked him so much.

Unfortunately, outward looks were just about the only thing Peril had going for him.

Although he was huge, easily twice, maybe three times the size of his tiny jockey, he was gangly and awkward. His legs were stalky, knees knobby, and his tail was bushy. His ears were moving constantly, like spirits were whispering in them, telling him secrets, and his eyes were always looking around.

Peril twitched when Beetlejuice laid hands on him. He lifted one of his back legs, scraping the dirt with the edge of his hoof, but seemed to decide against kicking for the moment, though he still leered at Beetlejuice out from the corner of his eyes, silently warning him.

Beetlejuice went on.

Peril quickly proved to be the exact opposite of the phrase “gentle giant.” He was a stubborn thing, bearing enough tenaciousness to fill all of Connecticut. Even Adam’s mule wasn’t as hard headed as this beast.

The stallion refused to lift his hooves for Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice had to wrestle with his leg just to be able to check his feet, though he decided to let the attitude slide because it made Lydia and Presley giggle.

Peril had thoroughbred-typical shitty feet. Thin soles. Too flat. Underrun heels. Typical racer. Best to get the farrier down to the farm to start drawing the toe back into something that would at least be considered a little healthy.

He dropped the foot. The joints flexed cleanly. Peril had muscle, Beetlejuice could see, but it was hidden beneath his bulk and awkward girth. At least his ribs weren’t showing.

Beetlejuice stole a glance at Presley, who was holding Peril steady by his halter and chatting avidly with Lydia. Her horse ate better than she did.

Dropping the subject from his mind for now, Beetlejuice began to check Peril’s withers and back. Peril humored his touch, keeping his hindquarters cocked for the moment, not ready to kick just yet. Beetlejuice eyed them wryly. As lanky as his legs were, he could knock someone’s brains out with those hooves.

Beetlejuice ran his hands over Peril’s soft hide. Peril shifted beneath his palms, letting out an impatient huff. He looked at Presley, who looked back with a nervous expression.

 “How often do you train with him?” Beetlejuice asked.

 “Six days a week,” Presley answered, and Beetlejuice caught the anxious tremors in her voice. “Sundays are our off days.”

Beetlejuice nodded. “It’s good that you both have time to relax.” He stroked Peril’s broad neck, and the muscles bunched and released beneath his fingers. “What is his diet like?”

 “I give him two to three meals a day of grain and hay,” Presley told him. She was whiteknuckling the halter leash nervously, as if she fed Peril baby heads or something and didn’t want to reveal her bloody secret. “He gets carrot and apple slices in the evenings. Sometimes other fruits and vegetables I have at home. And if he’s good I give him peppermints.”

At the sound of the treat, Peril’s ears flicked to alertness and he began to lip at Presley’s hand. Presley laughed and fished out a mint she had in her pocket. Peril devoured it instantly.

Beetlejuice began to rattle off several questions, and Presley answered them with little hesitation, though her anxiety remained.

 “Does he receive yearly vaccinations?”

 “Yes, sir.”

 “When was he last seen by a vet?”

 “Two months ago, I believe.”

 “Who grooms him?”

 “I do.”

 “Has he ever had colic?”

 “No, sir.”

 “What kind of bit do you use?”

 “Usually a D-ring snaffle, but sometimes I use an eggbutt snaffle. They’re both easiest on his mouth and he gets cranky if it isn’t comfortable.”

 “Where did you get him?”

 “My neighbor gave him to me.”

 “For how much?”

 “For free.”

Beetlejuice raised an eyebrow at Presley. “Really?”

 “Yes, sir,” Presley said, and Beetlejuice was sure he had been called ‘sir’ more times in one day than he had in his entire life. “He really didn’t want him anymore and just gave him to me.”

 “Huh,” Beetlejuice looked up at Peril. “Well, let’s see how he rides, shall we?”

The four of them walked to the hooded paddock. Presley looked supremely uneasy. She wouldn’t stop fidgeting for some reason.

 “Be safe,” Presley whispered.

Beetlejuice couldn’t help but give her a weird look as he climbed onto Peril’s back.

Oh, Beetlejuice thought as he was being bucked off mere moments after sitting down. THAT’S why he was given away for free.

--- --- ---

 “He’s certainly an…opinionated horse.”

Several hours later, Beetlejuice and Presley were sitting on white picket fence together: Beetlejuice nursing a half-empty bottle of bitter apple cider, Presley sipping lukewarm water. In the enclosed field they were balanced before, Peril trotted the length of his pasture, tail flagged, head snaking in front of him.

 “He’s not bad.”

 “Never said he was, kid.”

Presley ducked her head. She looked guilty. Beetlejuice hadn’t realized someone could say sorry so much in one breath, and yet Presley had. Even though he only had a minor bruise on his side from being bucked off, she still wasn’t over what happened.

 “Doesn’t like doors very much,” Beetlejuice observed.

Presley winced. He was referring to when Peril had viciously fought the door to a small pen she had tried to put him into earlier that afternoon.

 “He’s not-- I mean, he doesn’t usually--” Presley was fumbling. She was pale, hands clenched in her flannel. She looked like she was about to spiral into a full blown anxiety attack.

Beetlejuice put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay,” He said. “Horses have their quirks. Sandy used to snort sand all the time.”

Presley blinked big doe eyes at him. “Really?”

 “You didn’t think she was named because of her colors, did you?” Beetlejuice tipped his head at her, looking amused.

 “There’s black sand! That exists!” Presley tried to argue in an attempt to save face.

Beetlejuice laughed. “When she was a filly, she used to stick her nose in EVERYTHING. Always these big mounds of dirt, and then she would sneeze, knock herself backwards, and look at me indignantly, to which I would say, ‘Then stop sticking sand up your nose!’ She never listened.”

Presley giggled.

They both watched Peril for a minute. His head was still in the air, neck arched, ears pointed at some unknown distant object he deemed worthy of his attention. Then, he caught them staring and took off in a dead sprint around the corner of the yard, ripping up chunks of turf with his hooves. He stopped abruptly, glanced to make sure they were still looking at him, and then trotted away regally.

 “I like this horse,” Beetlejuice said, breaking the silence. “I want him to win.”

 “Everyone wants their horse to win, Mr. Shoggoth,” Presley mumbled, shoulders slumped like they were being weighed down by some unruly sin.

Guilt, Beetlejuice rationalized.

He gave Presley a look.

 “Beetlejuice,” She corrected herself. “Mr. Beetlejuice.”

 “That’s Mr. Juice to you,” Beetlejuice said, poking her in the side, and she nearly squirmed right off of the fencepost. She giggled again. It didn’t last long.

 “I want him to win, too,” Presley whispered.

As awkward and ill-tempered as Peril was, he could.

Beetlejuice had met a lot of horses. He had run his eyes and his hands over champions. Hundreds from afar, and dozens up close. A.P. Indy, The Strawman, Stay Thirsty. Even Ocean Liner, though he’d been long retired by that time. There had been Sweet Devil, getting roses draped around his mud-spattered neck; Slipstream, bounding around the winners circle; Permafrost, head held up in haughty pride as he passed by other horses.

Beside The Dying Fire could outrun them all.

 “I just don’t know if I’m enough for him.”

The comment caught Beetlejuice off guard. He looked down at Presley, and he could see it now: the self-doubt, the worry, the fear, the painful anxiety raking up and down her insides like jagged horse hooves.

Presley “Jeopardy” Lind wasn’t just timid, she was fragile, too. Much too fragile for the awful things spiraling in her head.

Beetlejuice set a hand on her shoulder. “We chose you for a reason. You rode that beast and got third. You have skill, Presley. You’re exactly what he needs.”

Presley’s eyes were sparkling up at him. Beetlejuice smiled.

 “You’re our jockey.”

Presley looked out at Peril. He looked back at her. A thousand plus pounds of muscle, and even heavier than that, the weight of all the dreams each one of these beasts carried. A dark, sharp look in his eye that was either intelligence or haughty pride, or maybe just the hope of his human creators reflecting back at them.

She looked up at Beetlejuice again and, buried beneath the fear and anxiety and doubt, there was confidence.

 “I’m your jockey.”

[blogfromlifeus-blog]

Women and Upper Body Training – BlogFromLife.com

If you stop by looking for the best upper body exercises for women, I'm sorry, you are not going to find anything valuable, because basically:

There are no different women for men and women.

The best training exercises will be those that make you strong, functional, powerful and also make you improve your body composition, creating a good muscle-fat balance.

That is why it is so important that you choose those exercises that challenge and challenge you. It is not enough to move dumbbells of 1 or 2 kilos as they made us believe years ago.

If you really want to make big changes, you have to be willing to push yourself. Feeling of fatigue and a job well done are key.

In this article you will be able to see the best upper body exercises so that you get that aesthetic body with good muscle tone.

Read Also:‌ 9 Non-Boring Butt Workout Exercises If You’re Out Here Doing The Same Damn Squats – BlogFromLife

Back Exercises

Supine dominated

Pull- ups are one of the best exercises to work the entire upper body.

It is an exercise with which you will gain strength and improve your body composition, since you will not only work the upper back and arms, but also the entire core and lower back.

If you do supine grip (palms facing you) or neutral grip (palms facing each other) you will have greater mechanical advantage, the range of motion will be greater and you will protect your shoulders

You can start by pulling on the pulley, and remember, always ahead .

Free or pulley oars

Although the pull-ups are an exercise whose movement is a horizontal pull. You need another vertical pull exercise.

Rowing is the most effective exercise for this movement, strengthening a large number of back muscles, in addition to the biceps and stabilizers.

There are many variants of this exercise, I will name the variants from highest to lowest difficulty and intensity:

Free rowing, with barbell . Keeping your back straight, you pull the bar towards your body, pulling it from the ground (eye with the technique and the back) or from a high surface.

Free dumbbell row . You can do it in the same position as with the bar, but with a dumbbell in each hand. You can also do it leaning on a bench, one hand, bringing the dumbbell towards your navel.

Rowing on pulley . Pulling towards the navel and keeping the back straight, without jerking.

Rowing in machine . The most basic form of rowing. The movement is guided. Good idea to practice the technique.

Chest Exercises

Push-ups

If you are a beginner, start with the push-ups before the bench press . In addition to chest, shoulders and triceps, you will work more on the abdomen and serrates. 

Perhaps this exercise is a challenge for you, or child's play. If you can do more than 15 push-ups in a row, without resting your knees, you have to do something if you want to gain some muscle. High legs, some ballast etc.

Press Banking 

It is a fantastic exercise to perform, since in addition to the chest, it also works shoulders and triceps.

You will increase shoulder stability and gain coordination . You can do it with dumbbells or with a barbell. You can also do it on a flat or inclined bench. The key to success is in the variety.

Pectoral openings

Openings is a good auxiliary exercise to complement chest work. You can do it on the machine, on pulleys, or with dumbbells lying down. One of the main movements of the chest is the adduction , which is worked in this exercise.

Shoulder Exercises

Shoulder press

You must do this exercise. Not only because your training is balanced, but also to benefit from all its advantages. To extract all the juice, do it standing and with a bar.

When doing it standing, you will have more stability than if you do it sitting, in addition to transferring the force from the feet to the hands. To start you can do it with dumbbells, it will be easier for you.

If you want to know how to do the barbell shoulder press, take a look at this post .

Side elevations

It is the complementary shoulder exercise par excellence. If you already do shoulder presses, it is not absolutely that you do front elevations.

Try not to fully stretch your arms (leave a little elbow flexion) and don't bring the dumbbells beyond shoulder height. You can do it with both arms at the same time, or one arm.

Exercises for Biceps and Triceps

Biceps Curl and Hammer

They are complementary exercises with which you can emphasize the work of the  biceps .

You can do it with dumbbells, with one hand, or with both simultaneously.

The normal curl, you do it with the supine grip (palms facing you) and the hammer with the neutral grip (palms facing each other). You can do the normal curl with a Z bar (preferably) and as I always say, better standing than sitting.

If you do pull-ups and paddles, you won't even need to bother doing these exercises. But if you have time and desire, it doesn't hurt.

High pulley extensions

Another good exercise to strengthen the triceps, or the "mole" that falls on the back of the arm that many women hate! It is important here to control the movement and not let yourself be carried away by inertia.

As with curls, if you do presses, the triceps will be more than worked, and these exercises will only complement your training.

In addition to the extensions, you can perform bench press with closed grip, push-ups with closed grip (elbows close to the body) and French press.

Important considerations

Muscle building will help you lose weight, as it will significantly increase your metabolism and burn more calories at rest.

Therefore, strength should always be the basis of any planning and with full body routines you will get the most out of your body and your time.

Periodize your training based on repetitions of between 8 and 15, between 65 and 80% of the 1RM .

Perform between 3 and 6 series , depending on your level of fitness and adaptation. If you are a beginner, start with 3, if you already have enough experience in resistance training, you can do between 5 and 6 sets.

It changes every x time to surprise your body. Make sure not to underestimate the weights, if you can do more than 15 repetitions without costing you too much, you are working well below your possibilities, so the training will not be effective.

You can perform many types of routines, here I leave you one based on movements , and another circuit . You can do them in circuit (without rest between exercises, several laps to it), or with rest between sets (in this case, between 40 and 60 seconds would be ideal).

The basis of your training will be composed of multi-joint exercises .

In this post we have seen only upper body exercises, but the squat and deadlift  you must take into account, since they are very interesting.

And so far the article, I hope you liked and served. Put these exercises into practice and start building a strong, aesthetic and functional upper body 😉

[mmjjbbaannkkss]

2020 Jan 20-25 Strength Provisioning

“We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.” Aristotle

Week 7/XVIII (mixed: FST, 60)

My leg days I’d try to burn fat, then altered the program into stairs and treadmills, and returning to leg-presses or hack-squats, but was just starving and wanting gains. I was unprepared, now needing compound deadlifts and lower leg presses to focus on full recruitment, total muscle. For slow-negative reps, instead of only negatives, going to try tempo declensions. Calves feel better with slow-neg and volume next week. Right lat strain was painful, but one sided and could finish the whole session, with single sided lat pulldown easy two days later, but need rear delt gains to compensate left with obliques. Soy-enriched beef patties on potato bread, mustard. 

TLDR https://www.wellandgood.com/good-sweat/toning-workouts-muscle-definition/ Toning is a misnomer, it’s not a myth, bodybuilders are toned and shaped, but they got that why by resistance training for strength and eventually volume training for hypertrophy. Toning isn’t a myth, it’s just often confused for cardio. Toning is less than crossfit, but more than steady-cardio, creating muscle memory, but not always curves. 

TLDR https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a21348891/40-year-old-man-workout/ 

It can be done. Eat some meat. 

TLDR https://upfitness.com/bodybuilding/training/10-golden-rules-weight-training-40s/

Hypertrophy and holds. Easy on the spine. Warmups, stretches. Conditioning (toning where resistance becomes cardio). 

TLDR https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/gaining-muscle-after-40-a-complete-beginners-guide.html 8-12 reps upper, 12-20 lower, improved form, recovery-minded.

WORKOUTS 

#37/48 Heavy Push 

Treadmill /fullup > Shldr Press *7/10305050505070 > Hoist *7/20253035506580-95-4f > Bc no left uppercut, r lat recruitment flareout, > Lat Raise *7/5lb*light all, rup r lat lower > Chest Press 2x? *7/305070*4 > Chest press B *7/90*7 > Dips 7x7/6,7- > Pec Deck 7x7/557085*4,100*2 > Pullover/Plate 7x7/pullforwardown20203030404050 > Tri-bar pushdown 7x7/50*5,60*2 > Twist 7x7/null?  > Treadmill cooldown /x > Stairmill /5 > Planks 1-/L1-/R1-

Pressure, fuzzing about, at chest press turned tear down to bruise; should've showered prior, dirty; 

/after massive headache, aspirin, reading glasses solved; kinda feels like hoist was heavy, back flexed to support, and w/o back warmup, overflexed it, a little raw, my quads are as stiff and glad sunday adds another day before leg day; need to work on entire left oblique connectivity, idk, slept 10 hours before eating and workout, and overthinking it, hurt myself, two major injuries, and a dozen smaller ones, toxicity from deep muscle tissue, by the time I got to the pulldowns, my back needed a posing flex bored waiting for the knot in my low lat to give up; the pressure helped deflate it, the cool healed it, but inflexible, and then the massive headache, intracranial prefontal right hemisphere at lobe divide.

Fatty eggs, stomach burns thru fats and carbs with it, talking to myself means hunger, but by then wouldn’t realize it to even stop by then, not my best session, forced me to work on left laterals tho, win inside a wound? So thirsty; 

#38 C-set Pull *X/

Treadmill 10 > 1-Arm Row Mach *7/1030*6 > Palms-In Pulldown *X/557085*4,100120- > Lat Pulldown *X/LR33557-7- > Str arm Pulldown *X/102030*5 > Cable N Shrug X/ 406565100*6- > Row X/50*3,70 > Facepulls X/202530355050 > Preacher Curl X/304050/LR50*3- > Straight Bar Curl X/ > Alt Hammer curls C/ > Treadmill cooldown 

One side lat pulldown, single side horizontal rows iff; straight arm pulldown too? 

#39/48 FST Legs  /lbs

Treadmill /x > Horiz LR *7/10*7 > Horiz *7/1030507090*3 > Hack Squat *7/20*2/full > Deadlifts *7/50*4,10*3- > Leg Ext  *7/LR30*3,50*3,70- > Leg Curl *7/30*3,50*4- > Cable Bends *7/36*2,505 > Heel Raise *7/30507090110*3 > Rev Row *7/90*7- > Rope/Crunch *7/85*2,100*4,120- > Treadmill/x 

Was an abs day, forgot to plank again, negative reps rope pulldown not great, rope pinched finger and it's been kinda numb for an hour, / kinda funny for 12 hrs. 

#40/48 Push *10/ 

Treadmill /full > Shldr Press */1030*4,50 > Hoist *10/ 202530355065? > Lat Raise/5510101515- > Chest press *10/5050707090-90- > Bench *10/50*6(rlat-) > Pec deck *10/708585100*4 > DB Incl neutral fly/press ? > Pullover LR101020202020 > Tri-bar triceps 3040506070 > Twist *10/90*6- > Plank 1min; > Treadmill cooldown 18; 

Every exercise this session has been the fixer one, working backwards, neck cord right just popped in cool down; standing vertebra adjustments, foam roller low lats cracked, first use of sacrum stretch, made for 5.5fts, but yeah; right hip flexor needs magnesium, warmup and stretch, left obliques and lat needs volume training; twisted; r lat still rebuilding of Monday hoists, compensation flex core cords, imbalanced; and mayhaps underdev'd left quad has L knee unrelaxed; have been overstayed; update Google maps in holding pattern, unconfirmed w play store perhaps, refused to update without watching it fucking update, battery at 5%

Soy isolate needs hot water? bogged me supplementing bread, re waking; dark thrash;

#41/48     FST Pull /lbs

Treadmill warmup > Lat Pulldown *7/LR2027354250*3 > Low Row *7/100*7- > High Row *7/355065*5? B; > Palms-in *7/7085*2,100*3,120~ > **Facepulls *7/?15202530355065- > *DB Shrug *7/100*7- > Prchr 1-arm *7/20304050505050 > BB Curl *7/2030cable40*5? > Cable Curl 1-arm *7/30LR*7 > Twist 7x7 / 70*1 > Treadmill cooldown 8

Also, getting sick of clothes and want to wear Dutch shorts if that makes any sense, plus shirts with tall in the size: Mixer grinder attachment, chickpeas+garlic+crockpot? Soy protein powder has to go into pancakes at this point. It's not bad, but it's not monohydrate/hydrolyzed idk. If making noise was art politicians would be smart; how do the cans get the whey mix right; met-rx, sponsor me; which is kewl because lifters pancakes was next; Tired. Salut. 

#42/48     Lite Legs   *10/

Treadmill /x > Body Squat /? > Horiz 1-Leg *10/LR10*6 > Horiz Press *10/30*3,50*3 > Side Bends *10/304050605040 > Leg Ext *10/LR10*2,30*4 > Leg Curl *10/5070-2,70-6,70-6-,70-4-,70-8- > Heel Raise *10/5070*5 > Rope Pec Knelt Crunch *10/70*2;;85,100- > Rev row *10/90*6- > Twist *10/3050*2,70*2,90-

Preworkout - Really having a hard time with the food balance/intake, finding a safe energy and sleep levels, without starving and not knowing it, my stomach numb or inside out, or overfed and lethargic, if a car, the green zone keeps shrinking and controls aren’t as fine tuned as could be. Post workout - Better. 

[fashionayasha]

Exercise Plan to Lose Weight

 There are several benefits to exercising. Just 10 to 30 minutes of exercise can be the most beneficial in your life. Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases. Exercising regularly decreases a person's risk of developing certain diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. Exercise can help a person age well.

    Exercise can help almost any health condition. For most, losing weight is probably the most common fitness goal. People want to burn calories. When you workout you are creating a stronger immune system while building energy which helps with losing weight. Although the most effective and efficient method is through an invigorating aerobic workout this may not be the choice for everyone. There are several forms of exercise. 

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  Aerobic exercise is very important, unfortunately, it's not as effective for overall health. Aerobic exercises, such as running, swimming or dancing, are activities that work your cardiovascular system. 

  These forms of exercise can get your heart rate up and make you breathe harder. Aerobic exercise can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure, and may even lower the risk of cancer. 

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   Not all people like the faster-paced exercise such as aerobics. Some prefer a slower, more balanced type of fitness workout. Balance exercises improve your ability to control and stabilize your body's position. This type of exercise is particularly important for pregnant women and older people. But balance exercises can be beneficial for everyone, including people who have gained or lost a lot of weight. These exercises are also important for reducing injury risk. And most athletes can benefit from balance training to help them maintain balance during their sport activity. 

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Some examples of balance exercise are shifting your weight from side to side, standing on one foot, walking heel to toe, and usage of a balance board or stability ball. A few other most liked balancing exercises are tai chi, yoga, or pilates.

  Yoga has plenty of weight lose poses. Yoga weight loss poses that will help burn fat, build muscle tone, and give you more flexibility. This is a great video plan on youtube that is perfect for developing your weight loss yoga exercise regimen. 

  The benefits of balance exercise are that it improves proprioception (the ability to know where you are in space), reduces the risk of lower-extremity injuries, such as knee and ankle injuries, and can prevent falls. 

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  Flexibility exercises stretch your muscles and may improve your range of motion at your joints. They can improve your flexibility, and reduce your risk of injury during sports and other activities. There are two types of flexibility exercises: static stretching, in which you stretch a muscle without moving, and dynamic stretching, which combines stretching with movements. Flexibility exercises are intended to get your muscles used to the types of movement you'll be doing during some other part of your workout or sport. Many people who are very athletic practice flexibility exercises to help condition their body and muscles prior to a more aggressive exercise or sport.

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There are several examples of flexibility exercise. Some examples that I enjoy are stretching the hamstring muscles by sitting on the ground with your legs straight and leaning forward. Another one is stretching the calves by stepping forward with one leg and shifting your weight toward the front leg. You can also try stretching your thigh muscle by bending one leg back toward your buttock and holding on to your foot. 

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HD Waterproof Smart Fitness Band

  This HD Waterproof Smart Fitness Band is your answer to monitoring your health while enjoying your favorite exercise or sports. This high-quality fitness sports band will easily monitor your heart rate, speed, sleep, and so much more. With Bluetooth capabilities and HD features for the top of the line technology in sportswear.    Strength exercise, or resistance training, works your muscles. by using resistance. This type of exercise increases lean muscle mass, which is particularly important for weight loss because lean muscle burns more calories than other types of tissue. When people drop pounds, they can also lose muscle, so it's important to do resistance training to keep that muscle mass. Maintaining muscle mass is extremely important for keeping strong, no matter what age you are. By maintaining muscle mass with this form of exercise you will be able to keep the weight off. As you age losing muscle mass is more natural. This is why it is very important for older adults to do resistance training. Having stronger muscles throughout your body can make everyday activities easier. 

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by

ayashaloya

  Benefits of strength exercise include increased lean muscle mass (or prevention of its loss), increased bone density and reduced risk of osteoporosis, increased metabolism to help with weight loss or weight maintenance, and increased muscle strength to make everyday activities easier while lowering the risk of injury. Which is why it is very important for people to include this form of exercise in their workout regimen. 

Black Native American Arrows Leggings

by

ayashaloya

  Some examples of strength exercise include using resistance bands and using your body weight for resistance, by doing push-ups, pull-ups, crunches, leg squats or push-ups against a wall. Lifting weights as well as using weight machines at a gym are other great forms of strength exercise.       You can tie in some of these forms of exercise together in your workout regimen. It's important to do different types of exercise and workouts throughout the week. This exercise plan will help you lose weight while also maintaining a healthy weight to prevent weight gaining. Variety in movement will help you get stronger, reach your fitness goals, and live a healthier life.

[iconicfitnessae]

CrossFit: 3 Reasons Banded Pull ups Aren’t Enough

We all know pull ups can be really tough. Yet it’s a movement just like squats, deadlifts and presses that need to be part of any person’s training regimen. Admittedly it is the toughest one to conquer.

Many of us resort to banded pull ups as it seems like an easy way to finally conquer that elusive pull up. But there is enough research that suggests that banded pull ups just simply aren’t enough to finally get you into doing that pull up.

Let’s look at why that is:

Why Pull up is so Tough

You are required to lift your entire body weight. This isn’t something we normal folks do on a daily basis or out of habit, although all of us do have the ability to lift ourselves on a daily basis for sure. The closest related exercise we can all associate with where you lift your own body weight is arguably a push up, but even that is just lifting 60-70% of your body weight.

Also at the bottom of the pull where you are hanging from a dead position with your arm straight and stretched there is no momentum, getting up is just pure strength and it definitely requires training and conditioning to lift yourself from a dead hang position.

Why Banded Pull ups Alone Won’t Get You There:

Before anyone can do a proper pull up they need to activate the shoulder blades while they are hanging in the start of a pull up position,  there needs to be a conscious activation, retraction and depression of the shoulder blades to incorporate the correct areas. This activation of the correct areas is very inconsistent when you have too much help from a band. It’s a coordination that needs to be learned.

The toughest part of the pullup is the initial pull when you are in that straight arm hanging position. A band changes this toughest part in the easiest part of the pull by adding considerable assistance through the initial pull as you lift off easier. It’s like having a friend who is lifting you off the floor but they are way too overeager when assisting you. That means you’ll never get stronger in the toughest part of the pull as you need to gradually expose yourself to a higher resistance to stimulate strength gains.

Doing hundreds of very easy and lighter pull up versions due to the band assistance won’t increase strength, it will just increase your fitness in super light pull ups. Lifting your own body weight is not deemed as a light exercise, yet you are using a lighter form of training….that just doesn’t make sense.

Train For a Real Pull up

Incorporate various exercises that require the wrist, elbow and shoulder to be tested in various angles and rotations and gradually increasing resistance levels is the ideal way to get there. I like using at least 1 horizontal pull with my clients combined with various forms of concentric + eccentric contraction approaches.

Sets of jumping pull ups with focus on the negative pull up / steady control downwards.  Pronated and supinated grips – start off with a 3 second descent, progress to a 5  / 7 second descent, when you can lower yourself controlled for 10 seconds you are getting super close to doing 1 real pull up.

Sets of single arm rows / inverted rows / gradually increased ring rows intensity.

Sets of Max hangs  – 30 second hold is proof that you are getting close to doing 1 real pullup from the bottom.

Check out this video for the suggested movements.

Some controversy?

I’ve had this discussion with many clients and trainers and some vouch that banded assisted pull ups did in fact help them achieve that 1st real pull up. But after close inspection and dissecting their approach it shows that they also incorporated other pulling exercises like bent over rows and seated rows that increased their strength for the pull up, so the band assisted pull up didn’t incorporate the strength gains on it’s own. Have you ever used banded pull ups on its own without any other shoulder retracted resistance exercises and had any success? Let me know in the comments below.  

Want to get stronger and achieve your first pull up? Learn more about our CrossFit- 30 day Trial.

[weight-sled]

Fitness Sleds: Muscle Pack and Burn Fat  Fat With Weight Sled Training

The sled might just be the best-kept secret for muscle building and fat burning, pain-free

In general, you need to do one kind of exercise and use one basic instrument, such as a barbell or dumbbell or kettlebell, if you want to develop strength and muscle in the gym. You usually use a very different instrument, like a treadmill or a rower, if you care of improving your metabolism.

But you stumble across a teaching method every so often that lets you do both tasks at the same time. And one of those unique instruments is the heft sled (which is partially why in today's gyms it's become more common).

"The sled is also known as a "prowler," a fairly basic vehicle. It's a wide sled that can be filled with weight easily, and it's supposed to slide around the turf (another thing I see more frequently in gyms). Several models of the sled exist. Maybe the most popular one that you'll see involves two handle articles (which can also be loaded with heft).

Weight Sled

The use of the sled is normally relatively easy, but the sled is structured: you pull or drive it from one point to another. It's an act that's easy enough, right? Although exercised well and for long enough, a boatload of muscles would be demanding, making you stronger and doing much, much more than that, too.

Who You Live for

A host of muscles are involved in the most simple sled drive. You face the sled and grip the handles to perform a simple sled drive. Then lightly lean over. Maintain stress when you do this in your back muscles, and try to maintain a neutral spine. You don't want to turn your back around, but you don't want to conquer it, either.

You push the sled forward from there, either with arms spread or arms bent (more on that later. Any way, you're going to have to really drive through your hamstrings and glutes to propel the sled along. In the meantime, the heart will still be running overtime. Your heart will be responsible for transmitting all the strength into your torso and through your arms and through the sled from your hamstrings and glutes (and your calves too!). That means you'll have to bring your abdominals, spinal extensors, and obliques into hard practice.

It would also engage your upper back muscles, helping to hold your upper back straight. This is lat function, trap work, rhomboid work. And you can feel your triceps and deltoid muscles turning on, too, if you do this with straight arms.

That's a lot of bang out of one teaching opportunity for buck. And that's why sled preparation is worth a try.

Your Place on the Arm

Varying the arm angle will make it an even more flexible fitness technique when doing simple sled pushes, but there's a way to do it. Hold your arms tight to your back when you first start doing sled pushes, making your elbows bend. That's going to help develop robust spinal dignity and hone your stance.

You should straighten your arms over the span of several weeks, stretching them out and away from your torso. However, this is a more prone place in the body, so do it with caution. You're going to hit your shoulders and upper body to stabilize your muscles further, and you're going to light up your heart further. The longer the distance between fixed points, the more the center needs to act, much like a bridge. With stretched arms, carrying a weight will amplify the spinal erectors, scapular involvement, and anterior heart.

Pro Sled System Equipment: Training Versatility in Sleds Deliver

The sled is a means to load the locomotive and the moving mechanics rather than on top of the body in front of the body. This is a big feature of the sled that is commonly ignored by coaches. Exercises such as military presses, or dynamic exercises such as strength cleans and snatches fill you from above, forcing on your muscles the compressive forces of gravity and any heft you carry, bone structure (and, most detrimentally sometimes, your spine).

For the sled, it does not happen; the load never weighs you down. This permits a lot of variety in preparation. You should try to do power bursts, tapping into EPOC (excess oxygen intake during exercise), which can help you lose calories and fat. For strengthening, exercising the heart and lungs, you may also do high-intensity steady-state practice. Or you can do movements with lower-body power.

The sled should work into your regimen, be it hypertrophy, fat loss, conditioning, or functionality. This thing will shift, as described earlier. You don't need a rack, a turf strip, or a facility for success. You just need to load on some weight and some room to shift it.

Can't you train your legs? This can be achieved for you

The spinal compression I described earlier is one of the most common problems we experience with certain typical leg exercises like squats. The compressive forces translate into the disks in the spine as weight is loaded on the shoulders above, which may amplify back symptoms that might still be there. The sled is an efficient quadriceps-builder that minimizes these compressive forces, resulting in relatively little spine tension.

For leg exercises, too, knee flexion is always a consideration, especially if you don't go to maximum depth on a squat, either because you haven't had enough experience or because you're struggling with some discomfort. The sled, though, could be a safer choice for you, helping you to exercise more comfortably for the heavy weights you choose to use when squatting, because the heft is not stacked vertically on you. From a mental standpoint, putting a challenge on the body and affirming yourself that you can handle it can be a challenging job. By nature, the sled specifically avoids the fear factor.

Advanced Job on a Sled

Your entire body is struck by the straightforward sled drive, but you can do even more with the sled than that too. Apply a rope to the sled, and, particularly for hitting your back muscles, it becomes a valuable upper-body fitness tool. You can even pull it from the place of the plank, including shredding your heart and gaining back power in this exercise. There are plenty of other choices for upper-body exercise with the sled, too. How it modifies the contractions is one interesting thing about sled exercise with the upper body. Free weights and most weight devices force two types of contractions to be delivered by the muscles, the concentric, which happens as the muscles flex and raise the heft , and the excentric, which occurs as you drop the heft to the ground. Thanks to the absence of gravity, the sled normally only trains concentric contractions; this will encourage each "rep" but helps you to rack up more reps.

Your Three Workouts for Weight Sleds

Happy for the sled to hit? Test these 3 exercises. 

Workout Classic Power: Pro Sled System, Weight 

A perfect way to bring some variation to your stale leg routine would be to create power with the sled. Start with simple sled pushes, each time moving the sled 20 meters. Do four sets, then use a weight equal to the max weight of the one-rep squat. Two minutes of rest in each set. How to: Lean over at a 45-degree angle and grip the sled tightly to your face with your palms (similar to a push-up position). Drive through the balls of the feet from a staggered posture with all the toes in contact with the deck. Taking big strides with each step forward.

The Workout with Upper-Body Strength Rogue Speed

Another fun way to use the sled is the TRX power row to test your full-body power potential, too. When pushing the elbows down into a smooth motion to pull the weight with as much energy as possible, you can explosively stretch the knees and hips. This is a perfect choice for checking the back when reducing low back pressure. Pull 20 meters at a time on the sled. Do 4 sets, resting in each one for 2 minutes.

How to: Lie back in a squat position with a straight stance and arms completely spread in front, with the TRX attached to the sled. When sitting back in the squat, you should have the full stress of the TRX. Explode up and down in one seamless motion, stretching the elbows and knees while dragging the sled straight towards the torso. When done, walk backwards until there is stress again in the TRX, then repeat.

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 The Conditioning Gauntlet for the Weight Sled

A perfect way to bring some variation to your stale leg routine would be to create power with the sled. Instead of pushing 20 meters, in this exercise, you'll pull 50 meters on a sled. (Have no room? Only drag the sled two-and-a-half times for 20 meters.) Using fifty per cent of your one-rep max squat heft. It will test your muscular stamina and the body's capacity to flush out some of the muscular demand by-products such as lactic acid by shifting too much heft at a steady rate. How To:  You can grip the sled with your hands tight to your stomach by bending down at a 45-degree angle (similar to a push up position). Drive through the balls of the feet from a staggered posture with all the toes in contact with the deck. Try to magnify each move.

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Additional Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sled https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/sports/olympics/olympics-bobsled-suicide-brain-injuries.html

[ouraidengray4]

17 Reasons to Row, Row, Row Your Way to Killer Fitness

In a gym packed with ellipticals, treadmills and bikes, the rowing machine was once the piece of equipment you could count on to be unoccupied. Well, not anymore.

Suddenly, fitness experts are raving about the benefits of rowing machines — aka, ergometers or ergs.

So get ready to kiss spinning goodbye, ‘cuz it’s all about rowing now, baby. 

All the rowing perks…

full-body burn

approachable workouts

low-impact wins

meditative moves

cardio-licious

buh-bye, treadmill boredom

affordability

#LegDay

personal records

to burn calories

it’s trendy

for fun!

fast fitness

cardio + strength training

brain gains

convenience

to shake things up

Whether you buy your own machine or hop on one at the gym, rowing offers big benefits. Keep scrolling for the deets.

Getty Images

17 reasons to reach for the rowing machine

1. You’ll get a full-body workout

Maybe you think rowing = ripped arms. But according to the American Fitness Professionals Association, rowing is 65 to 75 percent legs and 25 to 35 percent upper bod.

It’ll shred your upper back, pecs, arms, abs, and obliques. It’ll also strengthen those quads, calves, and glutes.

2. It’s approachable

Rowing is great for fitness newbies because the machines can be customized to your fitness level.

Rowing is also a safe, active sport for folks who are blind or visually impaired. In a 2015 study of people with limited vision, participants who rowed 5 days a week for 6 weeks decreased their total body fat percentage and gained flexibility and strength.

3. Get low… low-impact, that is

Forget the joint stress of running on hard pavement. With rowing, you get to choose your movement and pace, which is *super* helpful when you’re recovering from an injury or marathon.

Rowing can even be a great choice for folks with early osteoarthritis. In a 2014 study, peeps who rowed for 8 weeks experienced 30 percent better joint rotations in their elbows, shoulders, and knees.

4. Ommm… it’s actually pretty meditative

Whether you row on the open water or in your living room, it’ll quickly become your daily dose of Zen. The smooth, repetitive steps of the row stroke — catch, drive, finish, and recovery — become trance-like after a while.

Like other exercise, rowing releases endorphins to boost your mood kick stress to the curb.

5. Hello, cardio!

Rowing isn’t just for strength training. Ergs are *amazing* for your heart and lungs.

Cardio workouts get your blood pumping to every part of your body, which could potentially prevent heart probs down the road. 

6. Goodbye, treadmill boredom!

YOLO: So many people are swapping their treadmills, ellipticals, and exercise bikes for rowing machines.

Why? Personal trainer Shane Farmer of Dark Horse Rowing says, “Because it’s complete. If you look at an elliptical, treadmill, etc., all of those work one very specific muscle group.” Meanwhile, “the big benefit of the rowing machine is that you get everything hit at once.”

7. It’s easy on the wallet 🤑

You can snag a quality machine for $100 — that’s basically less than a month of hot yoga.

Some erg prices climb above $1k, but there are plenty of simple, streamlined options in the double digits. Plus, if you’re swapping your gym membership for a machine, you’ll be saving money in no time.

8. Toned legs for days

Never skip leg day, amirite?

The rowing machine works your legs and arms in one swift move, so you can kiss your unnecessarily complicated gym schedule goodbye.

Bonus: You’ll torch your butt, too.

9. Personal records

Some people just can’t resist a challenge. If you’re the type to arm wrestle someone twice your size or strain to break your PR in a 5K, try an erg.

Though you’ll move through the same motions, you can raise the resistance and push your speed as you become a more seasoned rower. Level-up action FTW.

10. You’ll crush calories

Health experts report that a 30-minute rowing session burns up to 377 calories.

We don’t have to tell you that the number on the scale isn’t everything. But if you’re trying to lose weight for health reasons, you need to burn more cals than you consume.

11. It’s totally cool now

So, #rowing is the fitness buzzword of the moment. But it wasn’t always that way.

“I’ve been putting out videos since 2015,” Farmer says of his rowing channel. “And I started with the idea of, I’m gonna make rowing cool. Well, here we are.”

Even if you don’t care about what’s trending, at least you’re likely to have a friend or two who can compare rowing #goalz.

12. Fun fitness FTW

Since rowing works most of your muscle groups, you really have to stay engaged while doing it. Basically, it takes just enough effort to keep things challenging and fun.

You can still binge-watch “Gossip Girl” while you row — but you might be feelin’ yourself too much to notice Chuck’s antics.

13. It’s like a 20-minute gig

You don’t need to spend half your life at the gym to reap results with an erg. It’s the MVP of jam-packed schedules everywhere.

The CDC recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous movement per week. Rowing sits somewhere between moderate and vigorous, so just 20 minutes a day more than covers your minimum.

14. Cardio + strength = a winning combo

In case you haven’t already heard, rowing machines knock out two birds with one stone (or two essential types of exercise with one sweet machine).

Ergs consistently strengthen your guns and pins while getting your heart pumping.

15. Brain gains

There are so many reasons to exercise — and most of them have nothing to do with a bangin’ bod. Hopping on your rowing machine could reduce stress, boost happy chemicals, and even combat cognitive decline.

16. Quarantine convenience, bby

You’re probably home a lot RN, and that could include gym time.

Unlike other exercise equipment, rowing machines fold up to easily slide under the bed or get tucked into a closet. Who needs a fancy home gym, anyway?

17. Change is good

Rowing is unfamiliar to many folks, so it takes patience and vulnerability to learn the ropes. Farmer says the slight learning curve of an erg could actually change your outlook on life.

“If you’re willing to say, ‘I need to learn this’ … you’re probably going to be willing to open up the rest of your life to say, ‘I need to learn other things. I don’t know it all,’” he says.

Let’s break down the rowing flow

Say it with me: Legs, core, arms. Arms, core, legs.

Here’s your step-by-step primer to using a rowing machine:

Lock in. Strap your feet into the pads. Make sure they don’t slide around.

Grab hold. Next, bring your knees up and reach for the front handlebar, aka the “catch.” Your torso should tilt slightly forward, but your spine should be straight.

Activate the leg sequence. Use your leg muscles to push off the footplate. Really power-up those hamstrings.

Engage your core. Squeeze your abs and lean backward. Just as you’re about to hit a 45-degree angle, pull the handlebar toward your bod and lightly touch your chest with it.

Work your shoulders. You’ve reached what’s called the “finish.” For the big finale, pull your shoulder blades together.

Flip it and reverse it. Now reverse the movement back to the catch. Extend your arms, pull your torso forward, bend your knees, and bring your legs up top. One stroke down! 👏

Achieving next-level form

Avoid injury and discomfort by focusing on perfect pacing and posture at the beginning of your #RowLyfe adventure.

Push, don’t pull

“Imagine the movement as a push, rather than trying to pull the handle,” says Farmer.

He explains that your rowing stroke should break down to about 60 percent leg work, 40 percent upper body. “If you’re thinking about pushing, odds are you’re going to use that larger muscle driving group, which is going to create a more effective stroke,” he adds.

Slow down

First form, then speed. Farmer encourages thinking about the rowing movements parts and concentrating on good form throughout.

“Slowing it down gives your brain time to process that and think through each,” he says. “Sequencing is really important to getting the entirety of the stroke right.”

The 20-min rowing workout

Farmer’s put together the perfect rowing machine workout to help you sweat it out and perfect your form.

Warm up

“You never want to jump into a workout cold,” says Farmer.

Try some light moves that wake your muscles without making your heart race:

hip openers

squats

a lil jog in place

Set up

Now, get your erg ready.

Click “Select workout.”

Choose “Single time.”

Finally, change “Split length: to 1-minute intervals.

Let’s do this thing

Think of this workout as a ladder. You’ll work your way up to 25 strokes per minute, stay there for 2 minutes, then climb back down.

By varying your stroke speed, you get a smooth, moderately intense workout. Here’s the play-by-play.

Minute Strokes 1 16 2 17 3 18 4 19 5 20 6 21 7 22 8 23 9 24 10 25 11 25 12 24 13 23 14 22 15 21 16 20 17 19 18 18 19 17 20 16

The cool down

You did it! Now cool down for at least 5 minutes. Try lightly rowing, stretching, or walking.

Now pat yourself on the back for a job well done! 💪

from Greatist Health RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2JwGg7v 17 Reasons to Row, Row, Row Your Way to Killer Fitness Greatist Health RSS Feed from HEALTH BUZZ https://ift.tt/3oX3oMS

[mensbodybuildingtips]

Does CrossFit Work?

All the awesome kids are doing CrossFit these days. Does it function? Should we all come to be 'WODKILLAS'?

' CrossFit will not just change your body,' an acquaintance told me, with a glint of fire in her eyes, 'it will change everything-who you are, how you view the world, what you think is possible.'

I'm a huge follower in the life-changing power of being fit, however she was being a little bit also significant also for me. I seemed like I was being hired for a crusade or trip, not an exercise program.

This kind of talk prevails among the CrossFit group, which is growing at an exponential rate these days. Is it whatever its followers-no, believers-claim it to be? Does it truly change simple 'exercising' right into something transcendent as well as sublime?

Let's find out.

What is CrossFit?

In situation you in some way don't already understand, CrossFit is a high-intensity workout program that focuses on carrying out a selection of toughness and also cardiovascular exercises, ranging from push-ups to sprints to clean as well as jerks.

The workouts are typically incorporated to 'Workouts of the Day,' or 'WODs' as the started call them, which are frequently brief (regarding HALF AN HOUR) as well as incredibly demanding. Efficiency is tracked and also placed to encourage friendly competition and procedure progress.

For instance, here's exactly what a CrossFit workout appears like (this set is called the 'Fran'):

Do the complying with as swiftly as possible:

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 representatives of: 95-pound Thruster Pull-ups

But CrossFit is more compared to just getting in an exercise. It's the society that has made it so popular. Check it out:

Brilliant advertising, that's for sure. ( I wonder if CrossFit's founder, Greg Glassman, has reviewed this book?)

But does CrossFit live up to such claims? Does it warrant the hype?

I don't assume so. Let me explain.

CrossFit Does not Reach Re-Define the Meaning of Fitness

The Oxford English Thesaurus defines fitness as 'the condition of being healthy and healthy and balanced.' And fit is defined as 'in great health and wellness, due to the fact that of routine physical exercise.'

Using these thesaurus interpretations, we can gauge our fitness level in several means:

By testing our muscle strength.

By testing our cardiovascular conditioning.

By testing our body composition.

By testing our flexibility.

By testing our metabolic health.

Thus, as we get fitter...

We become stronger.

We become better at managing the cardiac tension of physical activity.

We come to be leaner and extra muscular.

We become more flexible.

We improve our body's capacity to use food for fueling and restoring itself.

Well, in CrossFit lingo, fitness has a various, a lot more short-sighted definition-one that Glassman invented, which he claims is the very first 'purposeful, quantifiable means' to specify the word:

' Raised job capacity across broad time as well as modal domains.'

So essentially, inning accordance with Glassman, you're as fit as you could do CrossFit. Creative and also convenient. But silly.

You're not as fit as you could do CrossFit.

Case in point: watch some CrossFit video clips on the internet or head into a CrossFit gym and also you'll see a great deal of weak, obese, inflexible individuals that assume they're Spartans due to the fact that they can do 30 kipping (counterfeit, foolish) pull-ups or finish the 'Murph' and after that make a quick browse through to Uncle Pukie's.

These people are not fit.

Now, I do not say that to cloth on individuals that aren't in wonderful form. I respect any individual that places in job to boost their health and fitness, despite their existing condition.

But I AM ragging on the unfit CrossFit snobs that believe that because I'm not a component of their 'WODSQUAD,' I'm physically substandard in some way.

Wait a 2nd ... I can out-lift, out-run, and out-stretch you, and also I'm bigger as well as leaner than you ... but you're exclusive due to the fact that you could strike Olympic raises with bad kind as well as do air crouches up until you puke?

CrossFit Isn't the Ultimate Way to obtain Fit

With that out of the means, let's discuss really obtaining fit, starting with a simple proposition:

An activity is as reliable for physical fitness as it develops strength as well as aerobic endurance, and improves body make-up, adaptability, and also metabolic health.

Simple enough, right?

Well, if you've ever been pitched on CrossFit, you were probably hit with numerous buzzwords:

Functional fitness

General fitness training

Full-body workout

Metabolic conditioning

General physical preparedness

The chatter usually comes down to the case that performing a wide array of exercises is the most effective way to accomplish overall physical fitness and also a visual body. That a typical exercise program just can not perform like CrossFit can.

Well, CrossFit does have its merits. The exercises are difficult and entail doing genuine workouts, as well as you will see results if you stay with it.

But it isn't really the finest method to obtain fit.

Let's first appearance at research study on what takes place when you combine toughness and also cardiovascular training.

Researchers from RMIT University functioned with trained professional athletes in 2009 and located that "combining resistance workout and cardio in the very same session might interfere with genes for anabolism." In nonprofessional's terms, they discovered that incorporating endurance and also resistance training sends out "mixed signals" to the muscle mass and harms their capacity to adjust to either.

They additionally located that cardio prior to the resistance training subdued anabolic hormonal agents such as IGF-1 and MGF, and also cardio after resistance training enhanced muscle cells breakdown.

Several various other research studies, such as those carried out by Kid's National Medical Center, the Waikato Institute of Innovation, and also the College of Jyvaskyla (Finland), came to same final thoughts: training for both endurance as well as toughness at the same time hinders your gains on both fronts.

Now does this mean CrossFit won't improve both toughness as well as endurance? No, naturally not. If you want to obtain huge and solid, or if you want to optimize your cardio ability, scientific research states that CrossFit isn't the best means to do either.

Thus, it's no surprise that many CrossFitters aren't specifically muscular or strong, and also have mediocre cardio. Actually, the only CrossFitters I have actually known that had remarkable strength, size, or cardio were adhering to a standard weightlifting as well as cardio program in addition to doing CrossFit.

In my experience, both in my own training and also in collaborating with numerous others, the most effective method to both construct stamina as well as improve cardio endurance is to different weight training and cardiovascular exercise.

That is, adhere to a conventional strategy to improving fitness.

CrossFit and Overtraining

Part of the CrossFit culture is taking 'no discomfort, no gain' to a whole new level. Training to the point of outright fatigue makes you a 'warrior.' Puking after a workout is a vaunted sacrifice to the gods of gainz.

Well, unless you get on drugs, this is a fast lane to overtraining, which can lead to severe problems. It could become persistent, which is a progressive onset of overtraining signs like general fatigue, depression, restlessness, anorexia nervosa, loss of desire to work out, as well as a lot more. Or it can be intense, as well as in extreme instances, deadly.

A male called Makimba Mimms was awarded $300,000 in damages from a neighborhood CrossFit fitness center and his fitness instructor for injuries he endured during a CrossFit exercise in 2005. Those injuries consisted of rhabdomyolysis, a problem where seriously and rapidly harmed muscle cells is released into the blood stream, which can cause kidney failure.

The Workout of the Day, or 'WOD,' that nearly killed Mimms was relabelled the 'Makimba' and categorized as a youngsters's workout. Har har. Poor taste in jokes apart, nobody is unsusceptible to rhabdo.

For instance, in January 2011, 13 football gamers at the University of Iowa were hospitalized with rhabdo after doing a workout that consisted of 100 squats with 50% of their one-rep max. It wasn't a CrossFit exercise, however was similar in that it had them doing compound lifts for high representatives and also under severe fatigue.

Here's the simple truth of the issue:

If you're out medications as well as you're educating to complete physical fatigue multiple times weekly, and particularly if your workouts include weight training, you're mosting likely to wind up overtraining. It's only a matter of time.

 CrossFit and Injuries

One of the very first points I observed concerning individuals I recognized doing CrossFit was mostly all of them had gotten pain. Strains, drew muscle mass, even torn ligaments.

I had not been surprised. Why? For a couple reasons.

The safety of the CrossFit workouts depends a lot on the trainers. If a rookie is going to execute a compound lift like a deadlift or squat, or an advanced Olympic lift like the nab, he had much better recognize precisely what he's doing. If the coach hasn't educated him best kind, or pushes him to move a great deal of weight or go to outright failing (which is typical in CrossFit classes), the chance of injury goes way up.

Unfortunately, nevertheless, an excellent trainer could just do so a lot. CrossFit features a raised threat of injury built right into it. Exactly how so?

Because CrossFit has you aiming to strike hefty Olympic lifts when you're worn down, which is a recipe for injury. Research has actually revealed this with the squat: as exhaustion sets in, create invariably worsens. Interestingly enough, our understanding of series of movement also alters with fatigue-what feels like all-time low of the squat really isn't really.

If you're tired out, you should not be trying to execute heavy weight-lifting exercises, and also especially not huge substance exercises like deadlifts, squats, as well as Olympic lifts.

Don't believe me?

' The problem concerns tiredness and going to failing,' states Stuart McGill, Ph.D., a teacher of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. 'Some exercises contribute to this as well as others are not.' McGill puts Olympic lifts in the 'not' category.

' Duplicating activities where form is compromised with exhaustion actually does not fit the viewpoint of Olympic lifting to decrease injury danger and also boost performance.'

This is one of the reasons the American College of Sports Medication advises at the very least 3 minutes of remainder between hefty weightlifting sets (1-6 reps).

So, you're not assured to obtain injured doing CrossFit, yet you're at a greater danger of injury if you follow the routine protocols.

Unsurprisingly, minority people I recognize that have been doing CrossFit for any purposeful amount of time without obtaining harmed are knowledgeable weightlifters and insert proper remainder periods between heavy collections of lifting.

So Should You Do CrossFit?

The solution to this concern really relies on your goals.

If you're seeking to obtain trimmer and also have some enjoyable, then CrossFit isn't really a poor choice if you have a great train and know exactly how to avoid overtraining and injury. People likewise like the affordable atmospheres as well as sociability of CrossFit gyms, which is totally understandable.

But if you're aiming to maximize strength or muscle gains, or maximize your aerobic capability ... CrossFit is not the optimal selection. You'll do better adhering to a proper weight training or cardio training program.

[aximov]

WOD#029

For god’s sake, my shoulder still haunts me like Adam Sandler films. So in the past couple of days I got onto the highway of internet, the library of Google and read a lot how to improve and rehab my shoulders with exercises. 

And then along come the solution in Instagram. Squat University. I follow them because of course squat suggestions, technique and mobility, but this I was not expected, my solution presented itself. So got into reading and this time I went to Mayfly and devoted my whole time for these. And yeah, it was more than an hour plus stretching, but it was worth and I feel great for my achievement doing this and not been tempted to do cardio or any other strength session instead. 

My shoulder still hurts, but feels better now the day after, I feel that it works. I will repost everything fully and linked the site and thankful for them for every word and advice they give. I plan eventually to redo everything at least once a week for a while, because it not just helping mobility, but also strengthens the weak and core muscles of the shoulder to reach overall balance. I did every task, except the rhythmic stabilizations, that would needed somebody to assist, whom I did not have and I thought at this point it would still hurt my shoulder.

Weights were 1,5 kg plates, a 4 kg KB and the weakest resistant band available. If you do have issues with your shoulders, pain, had surgery or simply just to get better and work on core, I advise to do them regularly these:

“STABILIZING THE SHOULDER BLADE & JOINT

Posted on: October 6, 2018 by Dr. Aaron Horschig

Welcome back to Squat University. Last week I introduced a blog series on improving shoulder stability by addressing a weak serratus anterior muscle. This week we’re going to move on and discuss a few other important muscles: the rotator cuff, rhomboids and trapezius.

Today I want to share with you a few exercises that will help address deficits in strength, endurance and coordination of these muscles that lead to instability and poor mechanics of the shoulder.

Side Lying External Rotation

Banded “W”

External Rotation Press

Prone Lateral Raise

Prone Floor Angel

Bottoms Up Kettle Bell Press

Kettle Bell Turkish Get-Up

Rhythmic Stabilizations

The “Empty Can” versus “Full Can”

Many of the exercises discussed today will be performed with a paused hold at certain ranges of the movement. This action allows you to emphasize shoulder stability. Remember strength is not the same as stability.

Strength is your ability to produce force whereas stability is your ability to limit excessive or unwanted motion. If a muscle is strong but can’t maintain adequate tension and work in coordination with the other surrounding muscles, joint mechanics will breakdown and injury can ensue.

Stability also requires muscular endurance. This is why many corrective exercises to enhance stability are performed with high repetition sets at first. This will help build the capacity of these muscles to “turn on” and maintain adequate stability for your first to last sets in a training session, as well as during the everyday movements outside of the gym thereafter. A lack of endurance to create sufficient stability is a reason why many injuries occur in the 2nd half or later portion of many athletic matches (such as a soccer or football game).

SIDE-LYING EXTERNAL ROTATION  

Research has shown that the posterior rotator cuff muscles (infraspinatus and teres minor) are most efficiently activated with the simple side-lying external rotation exercise.1,2 These two muscles keep the humerus bone compressed and centered in the joint socket during arm movement (keeping the golf ball centered on the golf tee).

Assume a side-lying position with a towel roll pinned between your top side arm and rib cage (this will help place your arm in the optimal position).1 Start with your arm parallel to the floor and shoulder blade pulled back and down (scapular retraction and depression). Without allowing your shoulder blade to move, pull your hand up towards the sky (the motion of external rotation) before returning back down.

Recommended sets/reps: 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps

Depending on your current level of strength you may need to perform this exercise at first with no weight. Once you are able to perform the recommended sets and reps without significant fatigue or pain, start adding weight.

If you are unable to externally rotate through a full range of motion due to shoulder pain, you can start with partial reps within a pain free zone. These “short arc” motions will allow you still benefit without furthering the injury process and increasing symptoms. As pain subsides, continue to progress how far you can externally rotate without pain as you increase the resistance.

BANDED “W”

One of my favorite exercises that I perform on a daily basis during my own warm-ups (regardless if I’m performing any of the Olympic lifts or squatting) is the Banded “W.” This progression from the previous Side-Lying External Rotation exercise not only addresses rotator cuff strength and stability but also activates the often underutilized lower portion of the trapezius muscle.3

One of the most common imbalances seen in athletes is between the upper and lower trapezius muscle fibers. The upper traps are highly active during movements such as the pulling motion of the clean and snatch and therefore have a tendency to become over dominant and can lead to poor mechanics of the shoulder complex. Research has shown that performing the Banded “W” is one of the best exercises for concentrating on the lower traps to address this imbalance.3

Start by grabbing an elastic band in both hands with your arms held by your side and elbows bent to a 90-degree “L” position. Your thumbs can be facing upward or out away from your body. As you pull your hands out to the side against the band resistance (the motion of external rotation) make sure your elbows remain in the same bent position by your ribs.

Hold the end position for 5-10 seconds before returning back to the start.

Recommended sets/reps: 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps

EXTERNAL ROTATION PRESS

While the prior two exercises are great at strengthening the posterior rotator cuff, many of the movements an athlete performs in a training session take place above shoulder height in positions where the joint is more vulnerable to instability and injury. For this reason, corrective exercises to enhance shoulder stability must also be performed at different angles of shoulder elevation.

Start by grabbing a resistance band tied around a rig or rack. Pull the band towards you in a rowing motion. Your hand should finish directly in front of your elbow with your arm parallel to the ground. This will lock your shoulder blade into a good position by activating muscles like the rhomboids and middle portions of the trapezius.2 Hold this position for 3 seconds.

Next, rotate the shoulder backwards (the motion of external rotation). This will activate the posterior rotator cuff (particularly the infraspinatus) in a similar manner to the turnover catch phase of a snatch.13Your hand should now be facing the ceiling with your elbow bent to 90 degrees like an “L”. Make sure the shoulder blade does not move at all during this rotation and again hold this end position for 3 seconds.

Last, push your hand overhead and hold in this end position for another 3 seconds (if you perform the Olympic lifts, your hand should be ideally stacked directly over the back of your head to mimic the barbell jerk). With your arm extended the muscles that stabilize the shoulder blade will be working hard against the band resistance to keep your arm from falling forward. Interestingly enough, this exercise not only recruits the rotator cuff but also produces a high degree of serratus anterior activation in order to help stabilize the shoulder blade against the rib cage.2,4

After the small hold, reverse the pattern with the same pauses in each position as you return to the start. Lower the arm to the “L” position. Rotate forward until your arm is parallel to the ground. Finally, press your arm forward to end the movement.

Recommended Sets/Reps: 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions

PRONE LATERAL RAISE

As I mentioned before, one of the most common muscular imbalances athletes present with is upper trap dominance. Another great exercise to strengthen the lower and middle portions of the trapezius muscle is the prone lateral raise.

Start by lying on your stomach with your arm hanging off a bed or bench. With your elbow locked in a straight position raise your arm to the side, ending with it parallel to the ground (as if making one side of a “T”). As you raise your arm, think about simultaneously pulling your shoulder blade in towards your spine (the motion of scapular retraction). You can perform this exercise with your palm facing the ground or with your thumb pointed towards the ceiling (the motion of shoulder of external rotation) for added difficulty. Hold the end position for 3-5 seconds before lowering back down.

Recommended sets/reps: 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps

PRONE FLOOR ANGEL

Start by lying on your stomach with your hands positioned by your hips and palms facing down. With your elbows locked in a straight position, pull your hands off the ground as you simultaneously squeeze your shoulder blades together. This motion of shoulder extension is great at activating the rhomboid muscles of your mid back that help control your shoulder blade.2

While keeping your shoulder blades pulled together and depressed, rotate your hands upward into what will end up looking like a back squat hold position. Next, push your hands above your head as far as you can (this will mimic the motion of a standing barbell press). Once your arms are fully extended, rotate your arms upward so that your palms are now facing towards the sky.

From this position, raise both arms off the ground as far as you can (making sure your elbows remain straight).  After holding for 3 seconds, lower your arms back down before rotating them to the original palms-down position and then returning back to the hips.

Recommended sets/ reps: 2-3 sets of 10 reps

RHYTHMIC STABILIZATIONS

Muscle fatigue not only affects your ability to create stability but also your awareness of how your body is positioned and moving (called proprioception).5The more fatigued you become, the less control you have on your body and form/technique may break down. This is why fatigue combined with poor muscular stability leads to a cascade of events that creates eventual joint instability and injury.

A common method of improving the body’s ability to sense joint position (enhancing proprioception) is with rhythmic stabilization exercises. The goal with these exercises is to improve muscular co-contraction (the ability to coordinate stability around a joint during active movements by turning on all of the surrounding muscles simultaneously).12 If you have a friend nearby, try this exercise.

Lie on your back with your arm extended straight out in front of you toward the sky. Have a friend try to push your arm over in different random directions while you try to maintain it from moving. Have your friend perform these pushes lightly at first before speeding them up and applying more force as you improve the control of your arm. If you’re doing these with the right amount of force, your shoulder should be fairly fatigued after 20 seconds.

Recommended sets/reps: 4-5 sets of 20 seconds

These rhythmic stabilization exercises can be performed in a number of different positions such as against a kickball or swiss ball (or any other unstable surface) with your arm extended against a wall.11 Explore a number of different positions and try to perform these rhythmic stabilizations in the one you find most unstable.

BOTTOMS UP KETTLE BELL PRESS

The bottoms up kettle bell press is one of my favorite stability based exercises for the shoulder as it directly carries over to many of the movements we perform as strength athletes. Start in a half kneeling position with your legs fairly narrow so we can simultaneously challenge your core control. With your wrist in a straight position (knuckles up) hold a kettle bell upside down. Press the weight above your head and hold it for 5 seconds before slowly coming back down. The pressing motion should be performed in the scapular plane which means your elbow is positioned around 30 degrees to the side (not straight forward or completely out to the side).

Holding the kettle bell upside down places the weight’s center of gravity further away from your hand (as compared to a standard dumbbell). If your body is unable to meet the stability demands by holding the kettle bell in this unbalanced position, the kettlebell will end up falling over.

You can increase the difficulty of this exercise by adding in a resistance band across your wrist pulling in towards the midline of your body. You can attach the band to a rig or have a partner hold the other end of the band. This will require your lateral and posterior shoulder muscles to work even harder to maintain balance and coordination of the kettle bell.

Recommended sets/reps: 2-3 sets of 10 reps

KETTLE BELL TURKISH GET-UPS

The Get-Up takes the prior kettle bell exercise one step further and requires you to move your body (and therefore shoulder complex) through a variety of different positions. During each transition, every muscle that stabilizes the arm must work to keep the weight from falling forward or backwards.

Start by lying on your back. Your left leg should be straight with your right knee bent. Hold a small weight with your right hand with your arm extended towards the sky. Next, twist your upper body onto your left side, propping yourself onto your elbow. Try to keep your left foot from coming off the ground during this transition.

Next, push yourself upwards into a side plank. Pause during this transition and feel for the position of your scapula and work to keep the weight from falling forward! To help with this, imagine yourself balancing a glass of water with the hand that is holding the weight. If your arm falls forward, the water will spill from the glass.

Pull your left foot under your body and shift your weight onto your left knee. Pause in this position for a few seconds. Next, twist forward into a split kneeling position before pausing for a few seconds. Feel the muscles in the back of your shoulder working hard.Last, stand straight up, keeping your arm locked out above your head. Reverse this same order of movements until you are lying again on the ground.

To progress this exercise, you can use a heavier kettle bell or barbell, perform longer duration holds at the end of each transition, or hold the kettle bell in the upside down position.

During this movement I want you to look straight forward rather than up at the kettle bell (how some coaches traditionally teach this exercise). The goal with any corrective exercise is to have sufficient carry over to the barbell exercises we will then perform in training or competition. Because there is not a single exercise that ends with you staring upwards at the barbell, the corrective exercises must reflect this and train your ability to sense joint position and stability without the need to see the weight as it moves above your head.

Recommended Sets/Reps: 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions

“EMPTY CAN” VERSUS “FULL CAN”  

Traditionally there are two exercises that are performed to target the supraspinatus muscle of the rotator cuff. Both are performed with the arms extended and elevated in a scapular plane (about 30 degrees away from the front of the body). The difference between the two are how the arms are positioned.

The “empty can” is performed with the thumbs pointed towards the ground (as if pouring liquid out from a can). The “full can” is performed in the opposite manner with the thumbs pointed towards the sky.

While the “empty can” is often used as a clinically as a test by medical professionals to rule in or out a shoulder impingement injury, suggestions to use the “empty can” as an exercise can be traced back as far as the early 1980’s.6 While this exercise may activate the supraspinatus just as much as the “full can” version, it also simultaneous brings out a high amount of activation in the deltoid muscle. This is problematic for two reasons.

Trying to strengthen a weak rotator cuff with exercises that also produce high levels of deltoid activation can lead to unfavorable joint mechanics. For example, the “empty can” exercise creates more upward pull on the humerus (compared to the “full can”) leading to a greater risk of joint impingement.7 This is why the “empty can” movement often elicits pain in athletes currently dealing with a shoulder injury.

It is also common to see scapular winging during the internally rotated “empty can” exercise compared to the “full can.”8 When the shoulder blade wings out to the side (the movement of protraction and anterior tilting) it closes off the available space deep inside the shoulder joint for the humerus to move, increasing risk for impingement to occur. In contrast, pulling your shoulder blades together (retraction) as you perform the “full can” exercise in combination with the externally rotated thumbs-up position increases this joint space and allows you to strengthen the rotator cuff in a mechanically efficient position.

To perform the “full can” exercise, raise your arms in an extended position to shoulder height. Hold this position for 3-5 seconds before lowering back down. Think about keeping your shoulder blades pinned together during the entire motion.

You can progress this exercise two ways. The first is by either adding weight and/or a resistance band loop across your wrists. The second is to hold one arm in the elevated position while the other arm performs the movement of raising and lowering the arm. For example, the right arm would be held elevated at shoulder height while the left arm performs the “full can” for 20 reps before switching and holding the left arm at shoulder height while the right arm performs the movement.

Recommended reps/sets: 2 sets of 15-20 reps. As you progress with strength you can increase resistance and drop to 3-4 sets of 10 reps.

IT’S OKAY TO GO HEAVY

Have you heard the line, “Don’t use heavy weights when doing corrective exercises for your rotator cuff or else your larger deltoids will kick on and take over?” This is a common misconception that has made its way unfortunately to the rehabilitation profession.

The origin of this thought process likely has its roots in good intentions. Often athletes with weak rotator cuff muscles like to compensate by relying on stronger more powerful muscles (like the deltoids and trapezius) in order to accomplish whatever movement they’re trying to perform. The more weight you give that person, the more compensation they will likely show.

Recent research has looked into the activation levels of the smaller rotator cuff and larger deltoid muscles during common rehabilitation exercises and found they increased the same amount as more and more weight was used.9 This means larger muscles (like the deltoids, pecs, or lats) do not overpower smaller muscles (like the rotator cuff) just because more weight is used. If a strong athlete can use good technique during a “full can” exercise with 10-15 lbs, there’s nothing wrong with it! The amount of weight you use for each corrective exercise must be based on your ability to perform that exercise with good technique, without pain and to meet your individual goals with rehab and performance.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It doesn’t matter if you are an elite Olympic weightlifter or an average gym-goer, these exercises can benefit you if you have shoulder pain. Even if you don’t have pain, these exercises are great for warm ups prior to workouts. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

There are some pictures on the blog also to assist if you are mixed up a bit how to cope with some of these and also check the https://squatuniversity.com site for further advises for any kind of squat or mobility or strengthening issue.

thank you Aaron!!! 

[soysaucevictim]

A year ends, and a new one begins...

-

Dec. 28

I woke up a bit before 1PM, today.

Watched a bit of YouTube before doing today’s exercise.

First, today’s DD. 40 front kicks with EC. This was a bunch of fun, to start my day off. :D

Second, 5’ warmup. I did 1′ of exercises in this order march steps, step jacks, march steps, seal step jacks, and march steps. I think that was a pretty good variety for today.

Third, Day 1 of the Knee Conditioning Program. I intend to go for 6 weeks on this thing, really get my knees some much needed TLC. I’ve basically interpreted that this will comprise of 4 active days and 2 rest days a week (which respectively will entail the same stuff). I’m starting off with the former, today.

As such, this was on the docket (I did double everything but the squats, because I wanted to target both sides and the letter of it is focal to “an injured side”):

Stretching:

Heel Cord - 2x4(30″)

Standing Quad - 3x30ct; for the sake of time, I’ll do 2x going forward.

Supine Hamstring - 3x30ct; ditto, but so far, so good...

Strength:

Half Squats - 3x10(5ct); all body weight for now + I really tried to bend forward too much.

Hamstring Curls - 3x10(5ct); didn’t use balance assist + surprisingly challenging!

[Single Leg] Calf Raises - 2x10; did use balance assist + fun.

Leg Extensions - 3x10(5ct); pretty simple

Straight-Leg Raise - 3x10(5ct); oh man, my tendons really felt that!

SLR (Prone) - 3x10(5ct); definitely felt the right muscles when I kept hips grounded + mild ingestion happened. :P

Hip Abduction - 3x20(5ct); effective tendon strengthening + made me question my life choices. :I

Hip Adduction - 3x20(5ct); a bit awkward but a bit easier than last exercise.

Leg Presses - 3x10 w/ 3 lbs resistance band; this was the first time I used bands before so that was fun, if a bit scary (I don’t want it to snap, but I should trust in them more)!

I sincerely think that workout alone took at least an entire hour to complete. Especially because of all the counts asked for (which I get you have to slow down for strength/flexibility work). I also kept my rest periods between sets short but pretty irregular. Program doesn’t specify times for most of it - so I think I’ll need to be more structured about that, it might make it more sustainable (but more time-consuming).

Fourth, upperbody workout. Despite how long that took, I decided to do the Vortex Workout. I did it at Level 3 and with EC. I also kept my arms up for the whole time for each set. All of that made a Level 1 workout feel more like a Level 2-3 workout! But it was a good complement. :,D

Last, Day 28 of the DGC. I’m grateful:

For sourdough bread. My favorite bread. Hands down,

For pepperjack cheese, ditto.

For chocolate.

Yeah, I chose to be succinct - given the longer portions of my day. :P

...

-

Dec. 29

I woke up a bit after 1PM, today.

Did a bit of the usual, before getting in today’s exercise.

First, today’s DD. 20 butt-ups with EC. This was just a fun and doable exercise.

Second, 5’ warmup. I just spent the whole time doing march steps.

Third, Day 2 of the KCP. Active day, similar to yesterday. Partly because I was more structured with rest periods - this took me nearly 2 hours.

Heel cord stretch was done in 2x4(30″) for left leg and then 2x4(30″) for the right. For both the standing quad and supine hamstring stretches, split their total 2x2(30″) by alternating sides, since they did say switch legs. For the whole stretching sequence I rested 30″ in between sets and exercises.

After 1′ rest, I went into the strength routine. Still working with body weight, did the ham curls without and the calf raises with support. I rested for 30″ in between each set and each exercise - until I got to the hip adductions, which I increased to 1′ rest. I may have to extend the rests a bit earlier than that, because though I could manage it was barely sustainable. Probably after either the prone straight leg raises or even the leg extensions.

Fourth, ab workout. I did Beginner Abs (again?) at Level 3 with EC (another Level 1 workout). And it took like an eighth as long as that knee work did. But this was pretty satisfying to get done and fluidly and swiftly going from one exercise into the next!

(After making the fam dinner and some of the usual...)

Last, Day 29 of the DGC. I’m grateful:

That we were able to get the house fixed after the flood of ‘14.... it’s been 5 years since that happened? Wow.

That we had Grandpa there, as a contractor, to get that done with the kind of money we had.

That we still have this house, despite it all.

...

-

Dec. 30

I woke up a bit after noon, today. Better.

Did a bit of watching YouTube before getting on with today’s exercise.

First, today’s DD. 20 up/downward dogs with EC. Stringing 20 of these is still not the most fun to do. But I got through it, by almost the skin of my teeth. :P

Second, 5’ warmup. 1′ of each exercise in sequence: step jacks, march steps, seal step jacks, march steps, and half step jacks. 

Third, Day 3 of the KCP. Active day, mostly like yesterday. Took me about 2 hours again. I guess I’ll have to accept that for the rest of my time with it, for active days anyways.

Stretching went the same except I didn’t rest in between sets/switches for the quad and hamstring stretches - shave down some time there.

I did both the hamstring curls and calf raises without assist (but wobbled and fell out a few times for the latter.) I also went for 30″ rest breaks between sets and exercising for the strength training. Then extended that to 1′ after the prone straight-leg raises. The extension was a great call - but it nevertheless got seriously tough by the end, there.

(After eating some dinner...)

Fourth, cardio workout. Bad Knees: Cardio, done at Level 3 with EC. Just pretty doable and I think appropriate work to cap things off. My obliques might still end up feeling sore in a few days, despite it’s relative breeziness.

Last, Day 30 of the Daily Gratitude Challenge. I’m grateful:

That DAREBEE is going to release new programs very soon and I’m excited to run them!

That this challenge has been... well... challenging? But I appreciate it’s value.

That despite how time-consuming the KCP is, it does feel very comprehensive and like it’s going to be effective.

I then took a shower and finally got around to cutting my hair again. Lopped off a good foot of hair. Did some dishes and planning stuff before turning in (in the yellow zone.)

-

Dec. 31

I woke up before 8AM, today.

For some reason, I got up without my alarm. Maybe it was because I was excited to go about my day wearing the binder I got and see what people would think of the haircut

I got a few compliments. Seeking Safety wasn’t happening (the place was pretty vacant since half the staff had a day off), so I went to the diner for breakfast and had an omelette. Got back to the facility, joined Hope Group instead and then worked more on that art project.

Got home, did some of the usual, made the family dinner, and then exercised.

First, today’s DD. 3′ bouncing with EC. Given I was sleep deprived and had a bit of a headache, I wasn't sure if I was going to be up for it. But somehow, I got it in my first go. I started off slow and wound up picking up my pace as I went. I counted 358 bounces by the time was up, close to 2/sec, but I'm just glad I made it. Did trigger a coughing fit and get my legs to feel like noodles, though. :U

Third, Day 4 of the KCP. Rest day, a lot less to do, but similar structure. I dispensed with more warm-up because that DD did a p good job of that.

Stretching:

Heel Cord - 2x4(30″)

Strength:

[Single Leg] Calf Raises - 2x10

Last, upperbody workout. Couch Potato with EC. Pretty manageable, a bit in the middle in terms of intensity. Nice way to cover my bases gently.

... blah. I wound up going to bed very upset. I don’t feel like repeating myself from Twitter about it here (probably will jot it down for therapy journal and delete those tweets, tbh).

-

Jan. 1

Been up since shortly after 1PM.

Did watch a bit of YouTube, then some dishes and cleaning before working out today.

First, today’s DD. 3′ march steps with EC. I counted 279 reps by the end, good way to warmup for my main workout. Always think it's excellent to make the first DDs of the year relatively breezy, for the New Years Resolution crowd! :D

Second, 2’ warmup. Just more march steps.

Third, Day 5 of the KCP. Active day. Still pretty much a 2 hour workout. (For the record, I’ve been starting with doing left then right sides for all but exercises #2-4, since my left knee is a bit more cranky than the right.)

Was a bit haphazard with my rests, today. I set out to doing things like the last 2 active days. But I wanted to shave time by resting very little between a lot of the strength exercises and whenever I switched sides (since the other side will always have pretty much recharged muscles to start). I otherwise rested from 1′ (mostly the hip abd.s/add.s) to 30″ (everything else), in between sets on same side.

I’m sure I’ll figure out my Goldilocks Zone when it comes to that aspect of things. :Ic

Last, ab workout. Anywhere Abs, no EC (and no levels). I was very close to being able to get EC, but fell out of center a few times. Think my legs were a bit tired and I just wanted to keep it going. Regardless, this was otherwise pretty breezy work.

Yep. Went to bed in the red zone.

-

Jan. 2

I woke up a bit after 8AM.

One of the first things I decided to do at the facility was go to the diner and ate breakfast.

I then worked on my art project, WRAP, and Grounding Group. I also did a my DD before leaving. 1′ raised arm circles with EC. I did this while out at the facility, as one of the last things I did there. I count 104 reps by the end, fun and breezy work for me!

Got home, spent a good deal and the usual, before doing my exercise

Second, cardio workout. 30′ Walk, with EC. I also just used this as today’s extended warm-up. I rather liked doing this!

Third, Day 6 of the KCP. Rest day. This was pretty breezy and reminds me why I scheduled these on group days. Was pretty tired, otherwise.

Got to bed in the red zone, despite being very tired.

-

Jan. 3

I woke up a bit after noon.

Today was admittedly a bit of a haze - but I did make dinner, clean the toilet, and the DD (for today’s only exercise).

50 crunches with EC. I tried out doing this on an exercise ball for the first time, just to see how that would feel. It almost felt like it was harder than doing things on the floor, but nicer to the back. :P

Otherwise, I’ve spent a good deal of the day on the usual. And got to bed exorbitantly late. :P

-

With that, I’m going to go draft the next week’s post.

[benbarnesescape]

I already asked for a headcanon (which u did an AMAZING JOB ON BTW), but do u think u could write something about working out with Ben??? thanks love💓💓

A/N:  @slay-forthegods-queen  I would LOVE to workout with Ben! Also ignore this first part if you’re better at getting yourself to the gym than I am - I get there but this is the internal war I have EVERY DAY lol

Working out with Ben would include:

Him waking you up early on the weekends so you could both head to the gym or prepare for a run

Causing you to groan involuntarily, swatting him away from you while you whined about WHY YOU HAD TO WORK OUT

Because your bed was way more comfortable

But after some convincing kissing he gets you out of bed, waiting patiently as you get ready

If it’s a week day, he texts you two hours before you’re off to remind you that you’re supposed to meet up to work out after work

It’s always around 2 where you’re over work and can only imagine sitting on a couch like a vegetable but you send a reluctant agreement

Or if you’re having a high energy day happy faces

EITHER WAY YOU GET TO THE GYM

You both like to run together on the treadmill

Even though he gets distracted by the way you breasts bob up and down which sometimes causes him to trip

And you chuckle, shaking your head because when was this goofball not thinking about sex

When you’re done with running you’ll head off to strength training

He’ll like to focus on free weights while you prefer the machines

But you always mix up the instructions three particular machines (doesn’t matter how many times you’ve done it, it’s a stupid machine that makes working out complicated) and Ben likes to watch you struggle because he thinks its cute

Before coming over and reminding you what to do

Making random eye contact with each other in the mirror while you’re both doing your thing

Where he casts a wink and a smile at you

Checking each other out while you both do squats

Checking him out while he’s lifting because biceps

He’d stop mid work out to take goofy videos

Or record you and brag about how strong his beautiful girlfriend is

Distracting you temporarily which causes a playful stare toward him

That he’d laugh off and return to his workout

He’d finish early so he could watch you stretch

Because Ben loves to watch your body

He loves to give you sweaty hugs that he knows always annoy you because sweaty boy

But you can’t resist when the dork kisses you on the forehead and tells you that he loves you

Going somewhere afterwards for (insert meal choice here) and planning out your plans for the day :)

[mycounselortoldmetojournal]

On the Gym

The most difficult part of going to the gym for me is walking through the front door and knowing I”ll be seen. Flawed, fat, imperfect, heavy, not-lean... it’s the looks that I can’t do.

I love fitness knowledge.  Jeff Nippard is fucking amazing.  I can go on about energy systems, hypertrophy vs catabolism, rep ranges and total rep volume per muscle group per week, the necessity of eccentric resistance during lifts, TDEE, TEF, RMR.... on, and on, and on....

And yet, I’m still fat. 

I can lecture about macro nutrients; I have spreadsheets upon spreadsheets of calculations of total calories and how many grams of protein vs carbs vs fat; wanna talk Keto? Sure.

I have all this knowledge. I know my shit.  I’ve read, I’ve researched, I’ve listened to evidence based podcasts and bodybuilders; jeff nippard, Dr. Brett Contraras; Mike Izertel et al... 

And yet, I’m still fat.

Because I walk through the door of the gym and all eyes turn on me, and all I feel is fear.  Fear of being judged. Fear of not being worthy enough. Like I don’t belong there. Like I shouldn’t be there. Like I’m not worthy enough to be there. 

Because there are guys with six packs, and big arms, and bicep veins, and tall traps, and delts that are striated... and I have fat and flub around my midsection from where I lost 115 lbs through sweat and tears and diet and sheer fucking determination, and yet I can’t seem to move past this point. 

And no, I’m not 23 any more, and my body is changing and aging, but fuck that shit.  I see guys in their 50s who’re still muscular and lean. They may have gray chest hair, but they’re still hot men. 

“Block everyone else out; just get into your music,” they say. I wish I knew how. Have I tried? Of course I’ve tried. But we all check each other out, and every glance is a judgement; a microevaluation. “My arms are bigger than his” “Oh, he only has 180lbs on that bar? Lil’ bitch.”  “ Jesus, big as he is, you’d think he could squat more.”

And yes, I get it. I’m fused from T4-L4.  I literally have a solid column of bone and titanium for a spine. My spine does not bend. At all. It cannot.  I cannot bend.  So how the fuck can I ever work my abs? I can’t flex my spine. There’s no spine to flex.  Just titanium and solid bone.

So of course my squats are gonna be fucked up. My legs are uneven lengths, my hips are shifted in 2 different dimensions, my spine is titanium... I’m not “normal,” in any shape of the word.  

And writing that sentence, I feel the tears well up in my eyes.  The burning in my throat. The vision clouds.  Because having always been different; having always been an outlyer; having always been on an extreme of the bell curve; having always had to be the exception in one way, shape, form or the other, I can only imagine that it’d be nice to be.... normal.  To have a spine that bends, hips that function and open and can be used for running without debilitating pain, to squat to proper depth without folding over and getting lectured from all the douche-bros who can’t be bothered to ask a fucking question before throwing their opinion out into the void. 

I wish I could get angry in the gym; to put all this repressed rage (and yes, it is RAGE) into the weights. To snarl, and growl, and scream, and push, and yell “FUCK YOU, WEIGHT, YOU GODDAMN MOTHER FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! YOU WILL FUCKING BEND TO MY WILL!!” But I don’t know how.  I was raised to be so tightly controlled, so tightly wound, so... fucking perfect, and to always be measured up against a standard of perfection... there’s so much there. There’s so much rage. There’s so much anger. There’s so much hurt.  There’s so much darkness.... pressed down. Deep, deep, deep down.  Weighed and anchored and sunk to the bottom of the lake, frozen over with feet of ice; a sleeping demon; staring up at the faint glow of starlight through snow and ice, left alone in the insufferable cold; abandoned... until one day, i fear it, I know it, the ice will crack; the anger and rage and hate and evil and darkness will be too much to hold; the ice cold lake will bubble and boil; the ice above the demons head will steam and crack, thrust heaven-ward in an explosion of steam and rock and rage; the stars extinguished into total blackness and night, and in total darkness, with a roar heard for miles upon miles, mercilessly, quickly, efficiently, the rage takes over; and pain, hurt, will be inflicted to all those around me.

I’m loud.  I’m loud in bed.  I moan, I snarl, I growl. I can be heard.  I was trained as an opera singer in school. I don’t need a microphone to be heard in any performance space. My friends find me in a grocery store by my laugh; I cannot count the number of times I’ve been told to quiet down.

(By the way, Fuck you. Fuck you for telling me to be quiet when I laugh. Fuck your inability to see my joy, and to not want others to see my joy, and your abject lack of joy.  Fuck you. Do not ever tell me to be quiet. Match my joy, or get the fuck away from me, you mirthless cunt. )

But if I were to scream at the weight; If I let the demon out and terrorize the temple of iron... even in the privacy of home... I don’t know that I could do it.  I would be heard. 

I want to celebrate what my body CAN do, not focus on what it’s not. I want to lift and feel the joy of knowing that my body is AMAZING. That I can lift 2x my body weight from the floor without problem. To feel strength flow through me. To feel the joyous feeling of a stretch in a full range of motion. TO feel my chest tight after high volume days; to feel my ass tight after heavy hip thrusts. To breathe, deeply, without shame, knowing that’s what my body was designed to do.

When I was a kid up at camp, they had this thing where you would run a mile every morning, memorize scripture (pastor dad, remember?) and do a service project.   The scripture was easy, the service was fun, but I never got the award . Why? Running.

I would hold my breath when I ran.  Still find myself doing it.  In my mind, the fat guy is going to be gasping for breath, while the lean XC runner next to me, breathing even harder, was somehow... right.  It was wrong for the fat guy to breathe; it was gasping; pitiful; weak.... The athlete was right, natural, as it should be. So I would hold my breath, and go about 100 yards, maybe, if I was lucky.  I would rather have not finished and been a quitter than be seen as the fat fuck breathing and sweating and coming in last, who still finished.

Because kids are assholes. And I was constantly reminded that I would finish behind the pack. even when the counselor would run / walk with me. None of them had the forethought to say “This is how it’s supposed to go. You’re doing it right. You’re in the right.  If you want to change, this is how it’s done.  Yes. Yes yes. 1000x yes, you’re doing it right.  Keep doing it. Over, and over, and over, and I will be next to you as you do.”

And writing that, again, I tear up.  My throat is tight, and I want to hide.  I want to cry, but I’m a proud motherfucker, and I don’t fuckin’ cry.

I guess that’s a desire of mine, or something that’s been missing, to create such a strong emotional connection. TO have someone beside me; to not say anything; to not coach; to not lecture; to just.... be. And to know and say “Yes, you are in the right.  This is what you’re supposed to do. And I support you. You are not alone in struggle; you are not alone in shame; you do not have to carry these burdens alone.  I am here; I am willing to take what you will give me; to walk along side, to run along side; to share in your pain and joy.  You will struggle, and you are not alone. When the eyes turn to you, and all you want is to vanish from sight, I will lift your chin up high and stand shoulder to shoulder, to make sure you take that first step, and the next, and the next...”

And all I want to do right now is go eat a burrito.

[fitnesshealthyoga-blog]

New Post has been published on https://fitnesshealthyoga.com/dermatologists-tips-on-exercise-and-longevity-to-thrive/

Dermatologist's Tips on Exercise and Longevity To Thrive

Dermatologist offers her personal insights

A regular, weekly exercise routine has been proven to increase longevity and prevent many of the most common health problems.

I’ve been writing about it for years and am a big proponent of exercise for health and vitality. But, how do you stay motivated to get your exercise on a daily basis and how much exercise do you need to do?

How do you stay motivated to exercise every week?

By seeing people who exercise and who look and feel great. My husband, who reads the Wall Street Journal every morning, just sent me a link to a very motivating local woman featured in the WSJ – and we don’t live anywhere near New York. Click here to see the article and photo. I hope to be her at 89!

The article discusses 89 year-old Gail Roper, who lives in Healdsburg (our part of the world), and she is diligent about her exercise. She swims three times a week and more. She is a former U.S. Olympian and has been a Masters swimmer for years. She also finds ways to turn daily housework into fitness exercises such as doing lunges when she vacuums or bicep curls with a cold iron before ironing! It’s creative multitasking and gets the exercises into her day. And – the photo of her in the WSJ shows her energy, happiness and vitality. For me, Gail is a role model. If I resemble Gail in any way when I am 89, I’ll be thrilled.

What diseases does exercise help to prevent and reverse?

The benefits of exercise have been shown to help fight and slow some of the most common health problems::

Heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure and stroke.

Diabetes and obesity. Exercise helps you better maintain a healthy blood sugar and energy level.

Arthritis and back pain (both of which I have battled and I know from personal experience that exercise is essential).

Asthma

Dementia, Alzheimers and Parkinson’s

Cancer (which matters a lot to me thanks to inheriting the BRCA breast and ovarian cancer gene and being a cancer survivor myself).

Exercise has even been shown to reverse cellular aging – Yes, turn back your cellular clock.

Why does exercise keep you healthy?

Exercise changes your body’s physiology:

helping to fight inflammation that promotes cancer, cardiovascular disease and many of the other common health problems;

boosting your immune system; and

lowering your risk of obesity (also linked to health problems and increased risk of cancer).

It probably does so much more that is yet to be discovered. I know that I look and feel so much more alive and energetic after a good workout. The photo of Gail supports this – I want to look as vital as Gail does if I am lucky enough to make it to 89.

How much exercise do you need to stay healthy?

I’ve followed the medical and scientific literature about exercise for years and distilled it to practical terms. My goal is 150 minutes a week of moderate cardio plus strengthening and flexibility workouts too. I aim for 3 weekly 50 minute sessions of moderate cardio. This means:

150 minutes a week (2 hours and 30 minutes total) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity

Measured by being able to talk, but not sing! CDC gives examples as:

walking briskly at 3 miles per hour or faster,

water aerobics,

bicycling slower than 10 miles per hour,

doubles tennis,

ballroom dancing,

general gardening.

-OR-

75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) of vigorous intensity aerobic activity

Measured by being unable to say more than a few words without catching your breath! CDC gives examples as:

jogging or race walking,

swimming laps,

singles tennis,

aerobic dancing,

bicycling 10 miles per hour or faster,

jumping rope,

heavy gardening like digging or hoeing,

hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack.

-OR-

A combination of these performed in at least 10-minute sessions throughout the week. It’s very doable!

The best anti-aging fitness routine.

In addition to cardio exercise, you also want to do:

Strength training to help prevent the age-related loss of muscle mass. You need strength to get you through the normal activities of daily living, such as getting in and out of the bathtub, up stairs, etc. Resistance training also helps keep bones stronger and helps to support your joints. Options include weight training, pushups and squats, yoga, or even heavy gardening.

Flexibility exercises are also important to maintain range of motion for your joints.

Stability exercises are also important to help maintain balance and prevent falls.

Flexibility, strength and stability workouts are why yoga is such a multitasking exercise – you get a three-fer in a yoga class. I’m a fan!

Let Gail be our motivation – at 89 she rock the vitality. It’s spring, capture your natural yearning to go outside for a walk. Sign up for yoga or some weight training at your local gym. Do some stretches with your workouts. Let spring keep us moving.

And, when you are outdoors, be sure to use good sun protection. Wear a hat and sun protective clothing and a good zinc oxide sunscreen.

Click here for my dermatologist’s sun protection tips and solutions.

Note in the photo that Gail is also wearing a full body swimsuit, just like I do when I swim. Yes, I get strange looks in the pool, but my skin will last a lifetime, and I get a better work out thanks to the drag from the suit in the water.

About The Author

Cynthia Bailey, MD Dr. Bailey Skin Care Dermatologist (888) 467-0177

425 South Main St

Sebastopol, CA

95472 US

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