Resistance Training #7: In Which There Is Self-Doubt

[serinde]

5 min. on the elliptical blah blah.

Lateral raise: 2 reps of 10 @ 2lbs
Modular shoulder press: 2 reps of 10 @ 3lbs
Pullover: 2 reps of 10 @ 3lbs <--- raised this weight
Leg extension: 2 reps of 10 @ 2lbs
Leg Something Else That Does Hamstrings: 2 reps of 10 @ 2lbs
Assisted dip: 2 reps of 10 @ 115lbs
Assisted chin-up: 2 reps of 10 @ 115lbs. I changed to yet a third hand position, whereat it did seem to be using my back more than my arms.
Back To The Old Fly Machine: 2 reps of 10 @ 2lb. Grindingly hard.
Seated Row: 2 reps of 10 @ 25lbs. This was mostly to kill time while waiting for the situp bench.
13 situps on the angle bench, where at the 13th I got a charley horse...in my left hip. I mean, what?! (I have a suspicion this was delayed result from one of the leg machines.) Anyways, I deemed it prudent to stop at that point.

I think I'm doing some of these wrong, because I'm not always feeling it where the helpful colored-in muscle diagram says I should. And I think I may be doing them in an infelicitous order. And I definitely shouldn't be generating charley horses. Anyone recommend a book or a non-bozotic web site on these deep matters?

Comments

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

If there aren't trainers, are there students in the final years of studying human movement and physical education looking to earn some money on the side?

Wrt core stuff, I'm less a fan of "ab workout" type stuff (eg. crunches) than core/balance stuff involving free weights. Example: stand on one foot and do bicep curls with a lightish weight (for me, around 10lb). You'll find that it works best if you engage your core to stabilise. Once you know what that feeling of core stabilisation is, you can apply it while doing other exercises, whether on a machine or with free weights.

My usual workouts include things like squats while standing on an upside down bosu ball; cable pulls while standing with semi-bent legs, one leg forward; dumbell chest presses with shoulders resting on a swiss ball and hips held up to horizontal; and lunges while holding a dumbell above my head in one hand. Oh, and the thing called "pacman" which involves taking a large yellow medicine ball (45lb or 60lb), putting it on the floor in front of you, and lifting it to chest height repeatedly. They are all kinda lo-tech but they work all kinds of interesting muscles in natural/real-world kinds of ways.

I know you're looking for weight loss so I'll mention that in the last few months I've lost about 10lb while doing this twice a week, very little other exercise, and eating as many burritos and as much cake as I want and drinking lots of cocktails. While the weight loss per se probably isn't much to write home about, the interesting bit is that I've built a lot of muscle at the same time, so it's a much bigger change in body composition than the 10lb would indicate. (I mostly don't try to focus on my weight, because it fucks with my head to do so, but I mention it because that seems to be where your head is at.)

If you're interested in this stuff and can find some students who might be doing PT work on the side, the magic word to tell them is "functional fitness".

[erinfinnegan.livejournal.com]

> You'll find that it works best if you engage your core to stabilise. Once you
> know what that feeling of core stabilisation is, you can apply it while doing
> other exercises, whether on a machine or with free weights.

In my experience, I couldn't figure out how to stabilize my core and suck in my abs until I had done several ab-only workouts and tried a couple of pilates work-outs and classes.

Now I can suck in my abs while sitting at my desk, or on the subway, but it took practice.

In terms of trainers - Does your gym prohibit trainers or it so happens that no trainers work there? You could always pretend you were joining Crunch or NYSC and get a free personal trainer workout, then cancel. Or buy NYSC's package of three trainer sessions.

Although - the trainer is just to teach you to use the machines. When I used a trainer I gained five pounds because I was eating additional cake which I felt I had "earned". And no, it wasn't 5 pounds of pure muscle.