[biggins]

well i am looking to get in better shape. as most of you know i crushed my arm really bad almost 2 years ago. since i have gotten back into climbing i have noticed that my arm is significantly weaker and half way through the day my shoulder gets so tender i cant climb hard. i bought a small bench that lays flat, inclines and declines. i also picked up some dumbells to use.5,8,10,15 pounds.i have already started meditating (for mental well being)and would like to incorporate yoga, pilates, meditation and weights into my workout as well as stretching.please keep in mind i do not have any money to go to a gym or trainer for any of this.

my list of goals:
improved flexibility
improved endurance
improved core strength
a little more muscle mass
equalization and restrengthening of my shoulder

i am combining this with a more balanced diet as well as some multivitamins i am taking.

any suggestions on workouts and videos to get or anything would be much appreciated.

also i plan on doing this in the morning.do ineed to walk then stretch a lil before doing all this stuff or can i just jump straight into stretching before i start my workout?

 

[BurlyShirley]

This is going to sound kind of lame, but I recommend picking up the book "Body For Life" if you want a good breakdown of diet and exercises to do. Its a little bit of a cult, but good info.

 

[biggins]

This is going to sound kind of lame, but I recommend picking up the book "Body For Life" if you want a good breakdown of diet and exercises to do. Its a little bit of a cult, but good info.

word dawg. i will look into it.

is that by that crazy Jake whoever guy?

 

[I Are Baboon]

is that by that crazy Jake whoever guy?

No...Bill Phillips, creator of EAS. Body for Life ain't my cup of tea though.

Another good book is Fitness for Dummies. Sounds corny, but it's a good book to get you started on the basics.

 

[BurlyShirley]

word dawg. i will look into it.

is that by that crazy Jake whoever guy?

Yeah, and its got his big stupid face right on the cover too. Even if you dont go full on into the whole schpeel, the workout and diet info is some of the best Ive seen.

 

[jacksonpt]

I really liked The Abs Diet. It's not a "cheat sheet" (eat this, do that, end of story) book which I really liked about it. It talks about how your body reacts to certain things (alcohol, sugars, etc.) and explains why it is good or bad for you. This makes it much easier to do smart grocery shopping and eat better at restaraunts and such.

It does make recommendations about what to eat (their 13 power foods), and it does have an exercise section as well. The Abs Diet also has an accompanying book, The Abs Diet Exercise (or something like that) that focuses more on the exercises and less on the diet part. I haven't read this as diet was more my focus at the time.

 

[biggins]

I really liked The Abs Diet. It's not a "cheat sheet" (eat this, do that, end of story) book which I really liked about it. It talks about how your body reacts to certain things (alcohol, sugars, etc.) and explains why it is good or bad for you. This makes it much easier to do smart grocery shopping and eat better at restaraunts and such.

It does make recommendations about what to eat (their 13 power foods), and it does have an exercise section as well. The Abs Diet also has an accompanying book, The Abs Diet Exercise (or something like that) that focuses more on the exercises and less on the diet part. I haven't read this as diet was more my focus at the time.

cool. i am at a good weight right now (being as how i am a little guy anyway almost 5'10 157 pounds). i just need a diet that will be more effective with the workout.

 

[Greyhound]

Hooked on Phonics will also straighten out that spelling problem ya got there too.

 

[biggins]

Hooked on Phonics will also straighten out that spelling problem ya got there too.

dammit i no!i coold half changed ti but them wouldnt not leat me!

 

[JRB]

Dude - did you remember how well Stoney's deal worked out for him getting a chick? I see a correlation.

You givin' up drinkin' too?

 

[biggins]

Dude - did you remember how well Stoney's deal worked out for him getting a chick? I see a correlation.

You givin' up drinkin' too?

uhhh hell no.all this exercise is to counteract my excessive drinking.

"i never went to bed with an ugly woman but i sure woke up with a few"

 

[Wumpus]

also i plan on doing this in the morning.do ineed to walk then stretch a lil before doing all this stuff or can i just jump straight into stretching before i start my workout?

You need to warmup before you stretch. You could even move the stretching to the end of the workout as a cool down.

 

[JRB]

uhhh hell no.all this exercise is to counteract my excessive drinking.

"i never went to bed with an ugly woman but i sure woke up with a few"

I heard Mickey Gilley tearin' it down yesterday.

 

[biggins]

You need to warmup before you stretch. You could even move the stretching to the end of the workout as a cool down.

whats a good way/and level of warmup?should i do easy to moderate or just do it kinda time based?

 

[biggins]

I heard Mickey Gilley tearin' it down yesterday.

is that where those lyrics came from?

 

[JRB]

is that where those lyrics came from?

That was a Willie song. Mickey Gilley sang "All the girls get prettier at closing time".

 

[urbaindk]

Phonics? Isn't that the capitale of Airezona?

I've been half ass dieting myself. I just cut back on sugary snacks in favor of nuts and fruit and axed my lunch time soda in favor of plain old water. I didn't really change my activity level very much. I'm pretty active anyway and I didn't think that was my problem.

I just weighed myself for the first time in a month. Last time I weighed myself I was 220 naked. This time I was 216 fully clothed. I figure I lost 5-6 lbs in the last month. That's pretty cool considering I only very slightly modified my diet. My goal is to get down to 195 or so and lose the spare tire or at least convert it from a Goodyear steel belted radial to a nice 2.1" xc sized tire. (It's the best I can hope for!)

 

[laura]

any suggestions on workouts and videos to get or anything would be much appreciated.

also i plan on doing this in the morning.do ineed to walk then stretch a lil before doing all this stuff or can i just jump straight into stretching before i start my workout?

pm me your adress and i'll mail you a copy of crunch yoga. its got two workouts, "the joy of" and "fat burning". I enjoy them both a lot. You can make them as hard or easy as you's like and the instructor isn't nearly as annoying as others I have encountered. You can pick up your own for like 20 bucks i think. best money i ever spent. ( well not really, but i def. got my 20 bucks out of it).

i never walk or warm up before the tapes. the warm up is buitl in to yoga.

 

[JRB]

Make sure that you post up when you start doing this exercise program that Laura recommends.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Keep climbing. That's better exercise than any routine.

 

[biggins]

Keep climbing. That's better exercise than any routine.

i totally agree with you o nthat but i cant keep climbing unless i do something abotu my shoulder. my shoulde ris not up to par with the level that i am climbing.

 

[Wumpus]

whats a good way/and level of warmup?should i do easy to moderate or just do it kinda time based?

When I do legs, I'll spin on an exercycle for about 8 minutes(it's all I can take) at an easy pace.

If you are doing it right when you wake up, I would suggest 5 minutes at least of really easy(walking) followed by something to get the HR up(running).



There is some disagreement on stretchings effects. --> http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-197-200-0-7001,00.html

 

[Wumpus]

i totally agree with you o nthat but i cant keep climbing unless i do something abotu my shoulder. my shoulde ris not up to par with the level that i am climbing.

Here's a good spot to check out some exercises for the shoulders. I seperated my shoulder and lifting sure has helped. I'll usually do four exercises when I do shoulder -- Overhead press, front raises, lateral raises, and bent over raises.

 

[biggins]

Here's a good spot to check out some exercises for the shoulders. I seperated my shoulder and lifting sure has helped. I'll usually do four exercises when I do shoulder -- Overhead press, front raises, lateral raises, and bent over raises.

sweet just the kind of stuff i am needing. i also have a big print out of dumbell exercises to do in general.

 

[biggins]

is there any place to post something like an online workout/exercise diary that people can view and critique? i would post progress and and whatnot on here but that seems kind of odd. however it seems like there are so many people on here that are in waaaay better shape than me so maybe that would be fun to do in the fitness section.

 

[Wumpus]

sweet just the kind of stuff i am needing. i also have a big print out of dumbell exercises to do in general.

btw- I do the shoulder raises with pretty light weight 12.5 to 15 pounds.

 

[laura]

fit day has a excercise and food journal that you can make public. fitday.com

 

[Jeremy R]

Biggins,
2 cheap products you need to pick up for a home gym is an excercise ball and a medicine ball.
You can do most of your dumbell work on the excercise ball and will work your core as well. Plus, doing things like getting in a push up position with your feet on the ball and doing Pikes/or knees into chest will work your whole body including your shoulders.
I do these moves with a closed fist, because I toasted my wrist once as well.
There is also a ton of core moves you can do with a medicine ball.
The ones with handles cost more, but you can do some different things with them as well.

 

[biggins]

Biggins,
2 cheap products you need to pick up for a home gym is an excercise ball and a medicine ball.
You can do most of your dumbell work on the excercise ball and will work your core as well. Plus, doing things like getting in a push up position with your feet on the ball and doing Pikes/or knees into chest will work your whole body including your shoulders.
I do these moves with a closed fist, because I toasted my wrist once as well.
There is also a ton of core moves you can do with a medicine ball.
The ones with handles cost more, but you can do some different things with them as well.

word. yeah i will never be able to do a push up again in my life.the arm wont allow it.

 

[bizutch]

first off...if your shoulder is hurting and your wrist is F'ed up, you need to stay away from barbells period and use ONLY dumbbells. Barbells lock your joints (shoulder,elbow,wrist) into a set range of motion that is not entirely natural.

Use dumbbells...especially on a flat bench doing presses. Also, you need to do push ups with dumbbells. I mean hold a dumbbell in your hand to keep your hands off the floor and your wrists straight. Ask an hand surgeon how bad doing flat palm push ups is! When you do push ups, turn your wrists like you're holding the angled top corners of a stop sign. This is the best alignment for your shoulder, elbow and wrist to prevent overloading a single joint and your palms should be no more than shoulder width apart.

For back, do what is called a "Bent over row" with dumbbells. Vary it by doing 1 arm rows with 1 palm and 1 knee on the bench for single arm and then do two dumbbells in what amounts to a squat position with your torso at a 40-45 degree angle.

When doing core work, use the edge of the bench. Sit your butt on or near the end of the bench and hold the underside of the bench right under your butt. Lean back to 45 degrees and do crunches...vary it by twisting your legs as you rise them.

The other major CORE exercise is to get in a push-up position (this time no dumbbells and if your wrist hurts, do them with your fist balled while on carpet). No push up involved. You raise your right leg and your left arm to be parallel with the horizon. Then alternate and raise left leg and right arm parallel to the horizon. It takes several tries to get this one right. But once you do, hold for 5-10 seconds and repeat sets of 5 on each side until you get the hang of it.

If you're doing this stuff for climbing, that last exercise is the deal breaker. It works EVERYTHING in your core...back, abs, legs, arms...try it. You'll cry at first but your body adapts to this one easy.

DON'T lift heavy...only use dumbbells and ONLY do exercises that "itch" at your joints...if it "burns" at the joint, you're overloading the joint.

 

[bizutch]

is there any place to post something like an online workout/exercise diary that people can view and critique? i would post progress and and whatnot on here but that seems kind of odd. however it seems like there are so many people on here that are in waaaay better shape than me so maybe that would be fun to do in the fitness section.

www.active.com

Set up a free account and you get your own training log.

 

[biggins]

first off...if your shoulder is hurting and your wrist is F'ed up, you need to stay away from barbells period and use ONLY dumbbells. Barbells lock your joints (shoulder,elbow,wrist) into a set range of motion that is not entirely natural.

Use dumbbells...especially on a flat bench doing presses. Also, you need to do push ups with dumbbells. I mean hold a dumbbell in your hand to keep your hands off the floor and your wrists straight. Ask an hand surgeon how bad doing flat palm push ups is! When you do push ups, turn your wrists like you're holding the angled top corners of a stop sign. This is the best alignment for your shoulder, elbow and wrist to prevent overloading a single joint and your palms should be no more than shoulder width apart.

For back, do what is called a "Bent over row" with dumbbells. Vary it by doing 1 arm rows with 1 palm and 1 knee on the bench for single arm and then do two dumbbells in what amounts to a squat position with your torso at a 40-45 degree angle.

When doing core work, use the edge of the bench. Sit your butt on or near the end of the bench and hold the underside of the bench right under your butt. Lean back to 45 degrees and do crunches...vary it by twisting your legs as you rise them.

The other major CORE exercise is to get in a push-up position (this time no dumbbells and if your wrist hurts, do them with your fist balled while on carpet). No push up involved. You raise your right leg and your left arm to be parallel with the horizon. Then alternate and raise left leg and right arm parallel to the horizon. It takes several tries to get this one right. But once you do, hold for 5-10 seconds and repeat sets of 5 on each side until you get the hang of it.

If you're doing this stuff for climbing, that last exercise is the deal breaker. It works EVERYTHING in your core...back, abs, legs, arms...try it. You'll cry at first but your body adapts to this one easy.

DON'T lift heavy...only use dumbbells and ONLY do exercises that "itch" at your joints...if it "burns" at the joint, you're overloading the joint.

sweeeet thanks man. yeah i bought the little bench specifically for using dumbells. i think it will allow the right arm to play catch by not allowing my left arm to compensate. also they take up less room in the house.

damn that last exercise sounds real good.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Find "The workout from Hell" on the Internet.

 

[bizutch]

yeah...if you have muscle imbalances, dumbbells are a must. YOur body actually has ingrained compensations for strength, but not mass. One arm might be smaller and seem weaker, but your body has coded it to balance out the strength of the other arm. If you're right handed, you have a bigger arm usually from the extra use, blood flow and mass development...but your left arm gets coded by your body to have a very similar strength ratio and nerve response.

Using dumbbells triggers this coding, whereare barbells allow the stronger, more used arm to actually do an even greater deal of the bracing and contraction.

If you do 1 arm exercises, start with the weaker arm and do a set with that arm to failure. Be sure to count the number of repetitions you do. Then do a set with your strong arm and do NO MORE than the weaker arm. It will feel like you did NOTHING with the good arm. You have to commit mentally to not throwing an extra rep in with the good one. Most anybody we used to train in the gym...they'd always try to do that "16th" rep with the good arm....even if we told them not to. We had to make them count out loud. They make excuses..."Oh,...yeah, I was counting them on the way up....not the way down"