Do not stretch before a weight training workout or any workout really. Stretching should be performed after a workout.



Warm-ups should include range of motion exercises like making arm circles, doing the hula-hoop motion, push-ups, sit-ups, squats (bodyweight), lunges (bodyweight), knee raises, toy soldiers, etc.

My son has a disability and needs a wheelchair for mobility. He also has trouble with fine motor skills.



But that doesn't get him out of doing pull-ups, push-ups, and assisted squats.



So buck-up daisies.

Welcome!



Maybe morning exercise? I've never been a morning person but if you do it consistently it does become easier.



I used Simplefit to get back into shape after a long layoff. No more than 20 minutes a day but very intense. Great start-up program that gets results and builds up momentum.

Lots of crap going on with the hips, two independent ball joints sometimes working together, other times separately. It's our power center. Think of all the crazy forces generated in there! Then think of all the structure necessary to keep your hips from disjointing and your spine from dislodging from your pelvis.



When you looks at it that way it's not so surprising to think there are probably some flexibility issues if you haven't worked on it before.



But don't feel bad, I suffer from flexibility issues as well, in fact, just today I was working on full squat snatches. Rotten exercise. I can't catch it in a full squat cause my stupid shoulders aren't flexible enough. But I can catch it in a half squat, steady everything, then lower and raise to complete the squat. Takes me 30 warm-up reps just to get that far though.



Rotten exercise.

For what? As an alternative for weighted squats? I mean, there is no alternative for heavy squats. (Did that period show up bold?) But bodyweight squats have their place. I use them in part of my warm-up (3 set of 5 pull-ups, 5 dips, and 10 bodyweight squats) to get the blood moving.



Sometimes I also do tabata rounds of bodyweight squats where you squat as many times as you can in 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds, repeat for 8 rounds. Your score is the lowest reps in a single round.



You can also do pistols or one-legged squats as mentioned above but personally, I find them harder on my knees than heavy back squats.



Practicing Overhead Squatshas also helped my squat form and flexibility.



Bottom line, don't give up on weighted back squats because of sore knees. Work on good for and don't be afraid to start out with a broomstick and work your way up. You can stick to bodyweight squats but you're not going to be scaring Bourblaster out of the squatrack sticking to bodyweight squats.

"hammer strength machine"



Well, there's his problem. When you use machines for squats you're confined to a fixed plane of motion and your knees take the brunt of any lateral or rotational forces that develop (due to bad form, too much weight, etc.) because they're the weak link. Even if that's not likely to occur, freeweight squats with good form are loads better for your body all around than any machine you can find.



Believe it or not, if you have knee pain, you should probably be doing MORE squatting not less. Squats build strength in and around the knee.



Stronglifts Article about Squats and Knee Pain



Edit: Oh yeah, I meant to ask if you're sure you're going below parallel on squats. Stopping before getting below parallel is hard on the knees. Ideally, you should go ass-to-ankles and back up.

TTIUWOP

The closer it looks to how it's found in nature, the better.



From there it's all downhill.

Oh man, tell him that was too intense, scale down the workouts a bit.



Good luck and take it a day at a time.

Those are great workouts. Sometimes I take a sledgehammer and bang on an old tire in the back yard and if you've ever shoveled pebbles or landscaping rock you know how sore it will make you the next day.



Not sure how long it would be effective as your only method of training and not sure how good it is for beginners really. Sledgehammer swings, if overdone or done improperly can injure you because of all the odd twisting and torque.



I'd add push-ups, pull-ups, squats and sit-ups and then gradually add in something like this.

Passive Agressive Notes



Submit the note, then stick a post-it on the note with the web address of the site, then leave the note on the kitchen table and you can keep submitting it over and over and over...Fun Forever!

They are actually less refined than regular old "rolled" oats. Rolled oats are quicker to digest because they've been rolled flat and have a bit higher Glycemic Index though I don't think it's that much higher, I haven't looked in a while. Steel Cut oats are basically cut in half to decrease cooking time by allowing water to penetrate faster than an uncut "oat". They also take longer to digest, lowering their Glycemix Index and reducing their effect on insulin levels.



The prevailing theory is the more an item looks like it does in its natural state, the better it is for you. Apples better than apple sauce, grapes better than grape juice, and steel cut oats better than rolled oats and both way better than instant oats.

I'm primarily doing the Crossfit WODs now and for the past 2.5 months or so. Some of those routines call for kettlebells as part of certain met-con workouts like "Helen":



Three rounds for time:

Run 400 meters

1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)

12 Pull-ups



But I often do other work after the Crossfit WOD with kettlebells, working on form and flexibility. I also use swings to warm-up when I'm at home. I basically just throw in exercises like turkish get-ups, and windmills after workouts when I've still got a bit of energy to burn or if I feel I need to work on a movement, like snatches or overhead squats, for example.

I have two kettlebells, a 1-pood and a 1.5-pood. I enjoy working with them as the movement is just so smooth (once you get the hang of it and the bruises on your forearms heal).



When I first started using them, I noticed a lot of stablizer muscle soreness throughout my body, which makes sense when you're mostly doing one-arm at a time exercise like C&P, and snatches. I also think swings are awesome because they're just so draining.



I think kettlebells are suffering a bit from marketing hype though. They're an awesome tool, but not a panacea. I mean, in a pinch, you can use a dumbbell for pretty much anything you can do with a KB. It won't be as comfortable or as smooth but I doubt there'd be much functional difference.



But it sure wouldn't be as fun.

9 steps! Who am I , Julia Childs?



Here's my omelet:



Olive oil pan, crack two eggs, scramble up with finger, look for week old taco topping leftovers, add to pan, wait 4 minutes, dump the whole thing on whole wheat wrap and out the door.





Yours probably tastes better though.

I like the Fiber One bars, but I refuse to look at the ingredients. There's gotta be a ton of sugar in them.



Yeah, I looked, High Fructose Corn Syrup, that's crap.



They're still good though, but there's better ways to get fiber.

Yeah, I do a lot of dynamic lifting in the squat rack, like snatches, squat cleans, etc. I work out in a private gym for the business and there's a lot of older ladies and gentlemen that like to walk around and not pay attention. I'm always worried I'll get pulled forward halfway up a squat clean and skewer an old lady with a 150 pound barbell if I'm not restricted by the squat rack. But I always offer it up for people that want to squat, fortunately or unfortunately, that rarely happens. I also do deadlifts in the squat rack because one time, I had 300 lbs on the bar and a lady wasn't looking and walked into the end of the bar as I was lowering it. Needless to say I explained how I really didn't desire the bar to have any torque on it at that point.

What she said.



One of your problems is that you see losing weight as a temporary "effort" to give up on when you fail to see results, or if things get stressful or hectic.



Another problem is that, technically, there aren't that many ways to lose weight. You basically need to take in the right amount of energy so that your body doesn't want to store fat. This number will vary depending on the type of exercise you enjoy doing.



Are you really giving 100%? Can you tell me how many calories you ate yesterday, and how much of that was protein, fat and carbs? How many grams of sugar?

Main points of article:



1. Supplements probably aren't necessary.

2. When you eat and the ratio of macronutrients probably doesn't matter.

3. The body probably doesn't need as much carbs and protein as advertised by nutritional supplements.

4. Notice the "probably" in numbers 1,2, & 3.



I guess I have to start qualifying all my posts again saying they are only my opinion and my take on how things apply to me. That's all I can give you. I eat breakfast around 5:30. I workout sometime after that and my next chance to eat isn't until around noon. I generally get really hungry and my protein shake is a quick and convenient method that tides me over to my next meal.



My take on the article was that since when and how much we eat after exercise isn't all that important, we shouldn't use supplements, probably, the article only speculates that some nutritional standards are just myths.



In my personal opinion and in how it relates to me, I think it misses the point as to why I use a protein shake, the convenience factor. Plus even if there's a small chance that it helps post-workout recovery, why not?



I was disinclined to explain every little nuance of my take on the matter in my original post. I apologize most reservedly.

I saw that somewhere else. I think he kind of missed the point. I'd love to cook up a nice steak or omelet after my workout kind of hard to carry eggs and steaks to the gym, let alone cook them at work.



Protein shake and a piece of fruit works for me.

Hung like a barnacle?



That doesn't sound right.

How long have you been doing the stretches? You should do them several times a day.



Chronic forearm pain is often caused by adhesions. The forearm muscles are chronically overworked and "glue" themselves together for support. This is painful.



If this is the case, then forearm strengthening exercises will benefit but only if you rest them properly as well.



One awesone opportunity you have is that a great way to develop strong forearms is to LIFT HEAVY WEIGHTS, do pull-ups, deadlifts, bent over rows, clean and jerks, etc. for strong forearms.



Of course if you just want to punk out and concentrate on your forearms you can do that too.

Same advice here, don't give up until you've tried it for a few weeks. I had tried working out in the morning several times but each time I tried, I felt like I lacked energy and was just completely out of sorts and felt tired all day.



Then I made myself go everyday for three weeks. Now it feels great, I can workout just about anytime.

Sure, keep track of every piece of food or drink that goes in your mouth and exercise.



Guaranteed to lose weight.

Took me 30 minutes to do that. Some young whippersnapper nearly halve that time.

This is true, you'd have to study a job-seeking group of people with the same experience with only body composition as the main variable to determine whether low wages leads to poor body composition more than poor body composition leads to low wages. It's kind of a chicken and egg thing. However, there are also studies showing that non-cognitive factors such as tallness, beauty and leadership are all positively correlated to wages so why not body composition? (that's from the paper) In fact, I'd bet it's more likely a double-edged sword in that if you have a large percentage of bodyfat, you're unlikely to earn as much as someone who had a normal bodyfat percentage, thus leading you to a poorer diet.



But cheap crappy food comes from poorly planned farm subsidies. good luck fixing that.

Did you know they sell hard boiled eggs in a bag now? I never saw that before but I picked up a few for snacks. I hate boiling eggs and shelling them. What a pain.

I just do Crossfit, always different, no routine other than 3 days on, 1 day off. Somedays you have to run 10k for time, other days it's just 5 sets of 3 reps of some power lift. The other day was 3 rounds of 800m sprints and 50 pull-ups for time. Oy, I dare say that one has enough cardio and power output for just about anyone.

Hmm, they should come out with a Kama Sutra game for the Wii Fit.



That would be fun.

The 2007 Report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, Body Composition and Wages, concluded:



"Our results indicate that increased body fat is unambiguously associated with decreased wages for both males and females. This result is in contrast to the mixed and sometimes inconsistent results from the previous research using body mass index (BMI). We also find new evidence indicating that a higher level of fat-free body mass is consistently associated with increased hourly wages. We present further evidence that these results are not the artifacts of unobserved heterogeneity."



Why? Well, it could be both conscious and subconscious beliefs about overweight people on the part of those doing the hiring as well as the conscious and subconscious attitude that overweight individuals exude.

I think a large portion is probably the attitude one portrays. Generally, people who are overweight are less confident in appearance if not abilities. That attitude doesn't scream "Hire Me!". But I think that if you are eating right, taking care of yourself, and exercising regularly, you can counteract that effect because you KNOW you're on the right path.