In the gym

[Monique]

You'd be fine. It's a natural progression. The key is, "work up to a max..." I did not see injuries from that. The coaches monitor the weigh often moving the weight up.

One time two women were pressing and a 5 lb plate - steel, fell off. Landed on her foot. She was fine after a few days, but something like that can be serious.

Heavy lifting is where it's at. One woman is 76 and she came with osteoporosis. She's amazing and she can lift! Her doctor is amazed.

Yeah, if you went back a few pages, I think you'd find that I am not afraid of heavy lifting I AM, however, a big fan of collars to keep plates from falling off of bars.

I had a session with my trainer today. These sessions are not really intended as a full workout. They are opportunities for him to help me with any pain/discomfort/restrictions, to answer any questions I have about the exercises I'm doing, and to give me some new exercises to add to my repertoire. He's setting me up so that I don't need to pay for private sessions all the time. I wish I could, but it adds up.

Today, I had questions about bench press and leg raises, I wanted to learn how to do assisted dips, and I told him that I was continuing to deal with triceps tightness. He gave me tips on the first two, showed me how to safely use rubber bands with dips, and gave me a more effective way to stretch my triceps. He also tweaked my schedule - apparently, he wasn't in favor of my plan of doing his HIIT class the same day I trained with him. Go figure.

It's interesting. It's ... not a lot for $75, is it? But on the other hand, it *is* a lot, because it gives me the confidence to do the exercises by myself and know that I am doing them correctly. And some days, he does a lot more - finding ways to rehab or work around my injuries, in particular. At least 80% of the time, he comes up with better stretches and exercises than the PTs I'd see - and my co-pay on those is $65. For a half hour.

And, of course, this is building on a solid foundation of the other things he's taught me. If it weren't for him, I'd either be afraid of deadlifts, or I'd be a mess when doing them.

 

[no edge]

it sounds like he knows what he is doing. It sounds like you train on your own when not with him. A training partner is a good idea. Someone with similar goals, skills and motivation.

 

[Monique]

it sounds like he knows what he is doing. It sounds like you train on your own when not with him. A training partner is a good idea. Someone with similar goals, skills and motivation.

Well, we can't have everything

I was just kind of generally reporting. I'm happy with my current situation. But if it makes you feel better, I will most likely have a fully stocked gym in my garage some time next year, accompanied by a training partner.

 

[TonyPlush]

If I was training a ski racer, I would use the leg press to train lactic threshold. High volume, moderate weight, rep range shortened, pumping the quads until the burn is too much. Basic barbell training for their base strength, followed by lots of single leg exercises, plyometrics and body weight training.

What does high volume / shortened rep range mean?

I've always equated high volume to more reps. Are you saying more sets with less reps? Shorter range of motion? I'm confused.

 

[surfacehoar]

Shorter range of motion, or partial reps. Keep constant tension on the quads for a high volume set.

 

[Seldomski]

I hadn't done pistols (one legged squats) in several months. Yesterday, we had some in our workout. They were considerably easier for me to perform than ever before!

Perhaps this is due to some rollerblading I have been doing over the summer? It is the only thing new in my exercise routine. I have been averaging a 30-45 minute neighborhood skate once every 2 weeks. I think it has improved the stabilizing muscles in my legs used for balance. I also noticed that each leg felt different in its own way (alignment) but the difficulty on each side was similar. So perhaps some better symmetry in strength?

Still not keen on how pistols make my knee feel... I am excited to see if any of this helps my skiing!

 

[Monique]

Still not keen on how pistols make my knee feel...

Yeah ... I pay a lot of attention to knee pain these days.

I was introduced to an exercise that seems to make my knee feel better (in the short term, anyway, so it's a great warmup) while also working the quads and building some heat (so, also good for warmup). They have these slider things at my gym, but I suspect a hardwood floor + socks would do it just as well. It's just a one leg squat where the back leg is allowed to slide straight back (not fully bent, but doesn't have to be straight, either). Slide back as you drop, slide forward as you stand up from the low point. For whatever reason, unlike other single leg exercises, this makes my knee feel better as I do them - not worse. Obviously, it reduces the amount of weight you're squatting from full body to some lesser percentage. I do sets of 30s for each leg, as many as I can do *with proper form*. Rinse, repeat till I feel properly warmed up. I'm doing it explicitly as a warmup, so I'm not trying to wear myself out.

 

[Seldomski]

Yeah ... I pay a lot of attention to knee pain these days.

I was introduced to an exercise that seems to make my knee feel better (in the short term, anyway, so it's a great warmup) while also working the quads and building some heat (so, also good for warmup). They have these slider things at my gym, but I suspect a hardwood floor + socks would do it just as well. It's just a one leg squat where the back leg is allowed to slide straight back (not fully bent, but doesn't have to be straight, either). Slide back as you drop, slide forward as you stand up from the low point. For whatever reason, unlike other single leg exercises, this makes my knee feel better as I do them - not worse. Obviously, it reduces the amount of weight you're squatting from full body to some lesser percentage. I do sets of 30s for each leg, as many as I can do *with proper form*. Rinse, repeat till I feel properly warmed up. I'm doing it explicitly as a warmup, so I'm not trying to wear myself out.

Sounds like a mega-former? I have done Pilates once. I thought it was good, but don't really have a strong motivation to get out and do it more often.

 

[Monique]

Sounds like a mega-former? I have done Pilates once. I thought it was good, but don't really have a strong motivation to get out and do it more often.

Nah, something much simpler: https://www.spri.com/products/07-71248_2 . It's about as big as a human foot.



Never done pilates - a lot of people swear by it, but it's just "one more thing" ... if I had the time, I'd do a yoga class more than once a month instead!

 

[TheArchitect]

I had my first day of skiing since I started working with my personal trainer. He designed a program based on weight loss and skiing and I've been at it for +/- 6 months. What. A. Difference! Normally my legs start to feel sore around noon. First day of the season and I made it to 2:30 before I even noticed my legs. Plus, all of the core work has really paid off. It was much easier to maintain a strong athletic stance and I felt I was skiing in the correct stance naturally instead of working to do it.

Worth every penny, and there are a LOT involved.

 

[Dwight]

I believe this pertains to the discussion here.

 

[Monique]

I believe this pertains to the discussion here.

Yay hip hinge! My ACL rehab drilled it into me.

This video is an excellent example, I think, of why a trainer is invaluable. This sort of thing is almost impossible to figure out on your own. There are trainers who work remotely and request weekly video - I am not convinced that a remote trainer is as effective as a trainer you see in person (for one, the video only shows one angle), but they're cheaper, and still better than "I dunno, this feels okay to me."

I had kind of a funny screw-up today. My trainer has me doing lighter weight deadlifts with a fat bar to work on my grip strength for a few weeks, but I missed that primal feeling that I get from a harder workout. So I decided to go back to a previous routine just for today - 6 sets of 15 reps of deadlifts, starting very light and working my way up to a moderate amount of weight. Moderate weight feels like a lot by the time you're on your 90th deadlift.

Thing is, I am congenitally incapable of doing plate math, so I ended up pulling a lot more weight for my "warmup" sets than intended. It was pretty demoralizing that 95# and 115# were so HARD. Then when I pulled out the plate calculator for the next few, I realized 95 was actually 135, and 115 was actually 155. Oops. Funny thing - 155 felt a lot easier after I knew that it was 155.

I didn't think I'd be able to do all the reps for the last few sets, but I pulled through. So that's 1 set of 15x135#, and then 5 sets of 15x155#. For anyone who thinks those weights sound pretty easy, I definitely challenge you to do 90 deadlifts in one session! I was shaking afterwards.

My trainer just shook his head when I told him about it. He agreed I clearly needed to use a plate calculator. He did say, "Good work!" (or something like that). I said, "Good work, or dumb?" The answer: kinda both. But he pointed out that we're all dumb about something.

And hey, since it seems to come up a lot - I don't need or want advice on what I'm lifting and how I should be training. I pay a trainer for that stuff.

 

[Smear]

Last day of the masters preseason program this week. Life got in the way of the plan of doing 1-2 home session in addition to the organized weekly sessions. Major renovation project in the room that I use for training, but hope I will get back at it during Christmas.

My main objektive for testday was not to get hurt, and listening to you pugski-people hasn't made that fear any less ;-)

I can go pretty deep in the squat without rounding the back, so I have tried to do them with full rom. At around 80 kg it is sometimes hard to get up when I get too far down or too slow. so then I start cheating with depth. On testday we gradually increased to 105 kg, but then it was more of a half squat (90 degreeish). The other guys in my age class where lifting 130-175 kg so no wonder they ski a lot faster than me. So I should probably continue on a intensive preseason program all the way until next preseson to get halfway competetive. But then it would get in the way of skiing and my improvement potensial is even greater at ski technique... ;-)

Power cleans ended at 57kg. Easy at 50kg, can muscle that up with the arms with poor technique. Many failed attempts 60kg and felt impossible, but somhow 57 kg worked in all attempts. My shoulder mobility suck, so getting the elbows up is hard even in a front squat and letting the go of the grip in the power clean is even more difficult.

Will get access to the work gym with barbells next week. Will try to go there once in a while to continue the familiarisation with barbells. I want to Improve my awareness of depth in the squat with video and boxes and work on technice and mobility in front squats and power cleans. Can't drop the weigth in there so has to with fail-safe weights. Will see how it goes...

 

[Monique]

The other guys in my age class where lifting 130-175 kg so no wonder they ski a lot faster than me. So I should probably continue on a intensive preseason program all the way until next preseson to get halfway competetive. But then it would get in the way of skiing and my improvement potensial is even greater at ski technique... ;-)

FWIW, I'm still not doing "normal" squats, not even body weight, because my right leg is still .. hm, hard to explain, but it lets the left leg take some of the work, and there's a sideways component instead of straight up and down. Anyway, for squats, I've been doing body weight Bulgarians as well as some bodyweight lunge variations, and my quads are steel for skiing right now, and my skiing is more right/left balanced than it's been since my injury 2.5 years ago. I've been doing a few other squat-ish exercises, but they are all one leg only. You don't need to do back or front squats with a barbell to see serious results. My right quads are still smaller than my left, but both sides have bulked considerably.

(Oh and then there are the 6 sets of 15 reps of deadlifts ... I've been able to eliminate (I think!) the left/right imbalance doing those.)

.. And I'm doing all that while still skiing pretty hard all weekend. Although to be fair, I've only been doing the skiing for a couple of weeks. We'll see if I can maintain this schedule throughout ski season.

What are you doing for your core? Core does amazing things for maintaining stability on skis (or anywhere). I've been doing decline situps (55*, past what dedicated decline benches do, thanks Rogue for your awesome bench!) and landmine twists, and I swear they have improved my skiing by leaps and bounds.

 

[Smear]

What are you doing for your core? Core does amazing things for maintaining stability on skis (or anywhere). I've been doing decline situps (55*, past what dedicated decline benches do, thanks Rogue for your awesome bench!) and landmine twists, and I swear they have improved my skiing by leaps and bounds.

Ehhh, absolutely nothing at the moment. But I should... Had a crash mountain biking in the beginning of august. Broke 3 ribs. After 6 weeks and a lot of road biking and mellow mtb I felt like it was time to get back to normal although there was still was some pain. But after a long session of training on bunny jumping and small drops the pain was back for real. No crashing but probably too much yerky movements for healing bones. Then after some weeks without pain, I went down while skiing on a glaicer in october hitting the same ribs into the ice. Probably refractured one of them because it took 4 week before the pain went away again. Now I have had a many weeks without pain but I feel like my core on the right side has been "turned off" for months. Should probably do something to "reactivate" it. I like pallof-press with rubberbands for the transverse. And I have a sling setup in the basement that I should start using...

FWIW, I'm still not doing "normal" squats, not even body weight, because my right leg is still .. hm, hard to explain, but it lets the left leg take some of the work, and there's a sideways component instead of straight up and down. Anyway, for squats, I've been doing body weight Bulgarians as well as some bodyweight lunge variations, and my quads are steel for skiing right now, and my skiing is more right/left balanced than it's been since my injury 2.5 years ago. I've been doing a few other squat-ish exercises, but they are all one leg only. You don't need to do back or front squats with a barbell to see serious results. My right quads are still smaller than my left, but both sides have bulked considerably.

I know. Just like the challenge of learning something new. Bulgarian split squats will be my staple also for getting strong quads. There is no limit on how far one can take that. Just google Ben Bruno.

 

[Rod9301]

FWIW, I'm still not doing "normal" squats, not even body weight, because my right leg is still .. hm, hard to explain, but it lets the left leg take some of the work, and there's a sideways component instead of straight up and down. Anyway, for squats, I've been doing body weight Bulgarians as well as some bodyweight lunge variations, and my quads are steel for skiing right now, and my skiing is more right/left balanced than it's been since my injury 2.5 years ago. I've been doing a few other squat-ish exercises, but they are all one leg only. You don't need to do back or front squats with a barbell to see serious results. My right quads are still smaller than my left, but both sides have bulked considerably.

(Oh and then there are the 6 sets of 15 reps of deadlifts ... I've been able to eliminate (I think!) the left/right imbalance doing those.)

.. And I'm doing all that while still skiing pretty hard all weekend. Although to be fair, I've only been doing the skiing for a couple of weeks. We'll see if I can maintain this schedule throughout ski season.

What are you doing for your core? Core does amazing things for maintaining stability on skis (or anywhere). I've been doing decline situps (55*, past what dedicated decline benches do, thanks Rogue for your awesome bench!) and landmine twists, and I swear they have improved my skiing by leaps and bounds.

I do crunches, and only 6 inches of the floor. I do about 350 a day without weights and 160 or so adding a10 lbs plate that i hold on my chest

It seems that i need to do this many a few times a week to be pain free in my back

 

[Monique]

Ehhh, absolutely nothing at the moment. But I should... Had a crash mountain biking in the beginning of august. Broke 3 ribs. After 6 weeks and a lot of road biking and mellow mtb I felt like it was time to get back to normal although there was still was some pain. But after a long session of training on bunny jumping and small drops the pain was back for real. No crashing but probably too much yerky movements for healing bones. Then after some weeks without pain, I went down while skiing on a glaicer in october hitting the same ribs into the ice. Probably refractured one of them because it took 4 week before the pain went away again. Now I have had a many weeks without pain but I feel like my core on the right side has been "turned off" for months. Should probably do something to "reactivate" it. I like pallof-press with rubberbands for the transverse. And I have a sling setup in the basement that I should start using...

Oh, man. My ribs hurt just thinking about that. Slow and steady for that rehab, eh? I've had some nastiness with MTB, but it mostly ends up being my shoulder (oh, and that gaping hole in my chin that one time ...)

I know. Just like the challenge of learning something new. Bulgarian split squats will be my staple also for getting strong quads. There is no limit on how far one can take that. Just google Ben Bruno.

Understood. I hope to get back to squats with a bar. I like front squats a lot - I find it easier to be more upright with them. Bulgarians just don't feel as viscerally powerful, even though they're awful!

 

[Monique]

I do crunches, and only 6 inches of the floor. I do about 350 a day without weights and 160 or so adding a10 lbs plate that i hold on my chest

It seems that i need to do this many a few times a week to be pain free in my back

Everyone has some nagging issue, eh? ... I need to stay on top of my shoulders and knee. Fingers crossed that my back doesn't need anything!

 

[Monique]

I thought I'd take some comparison photos of my right and left quads. I am (was?) right leg dominant, but since the ACL blowout and surgery 2.5+ years ago, my right quads just didn't seem to want to develop (or do their fair share). Every ACL surgery seems to be a different story. A friend of mine's quads develop evenly, but her affected calf won't develop.

I had a lot of inflammation that finally cleared up earlier this year - I attribute this to CBD oil (oral, not topical) that has reduced my systemic inflammation from Crohn's. (From a CRP value of 75-85 to a 9 - when a healthy human should have 1-10.)

I figure I'm about 2 years behind on muscle rehab thanks to the inflammation, even though my range of motion was great all along. Inflammation made it impossible to do weight-bearing flexion and eccentric movement without pain. My trainer has been invaluable in giving me stretches and exercises to improve my knee and leg function.

 

[Monique]

Also, fat bar deadlifts are hard. Just dropping in to report this important fact.