Question Les...you ever heard of a book called  "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe/Kilgore and "Practical Programming for Strength Training" (and some others by same author)?

I been having a mega-research day.

John

Yeah well....you are a big.....ffff....ella ;-)

Sounds like your training partner aint concerned about health. Read a study somewhere recently where they polled aspiring professional bobybuilders....basically they asked them if they could take a drug that helped them win 5 contests and then they dropped dead would they take the drug....over 50% said yes.....

I'm using your drink Les (with a few of my own twists...one of them being RAW coconut oil) and it's doing the business. I'm not gonna weigh myself for a few months but I know I'm getting bigger.

One mistake I'm making is trying to add weight to my training too fast....so Now I'm gonna forget that as well (though still record it of course) and just concentrate on perfect excercise form.

Another thing I'm planning on finally/seriously doing this year is ramping up my raw food percentage...I've only really "played" with raw food as a lifestyle so far....though I'm firmly convinced that at the very least a high raw food intake is the way to go.

Should be an interesting year all round....

If someone had said to me last year that in 2009 you would try 811 I'd have lost a lot of money taking bets....

;-)

John

6000 is a lotta calories Les....just to give you a baseline comparison Royal Marine Commandos (in training) are fed 5000 calories/day over 4 meals to cope with their training....and they are basically training all day...

My understanding is your only training 3 times a week??

John

Hang in there cee.

Les..who typed out that dictation fer ya?

;-)

On the low reps weight training...I'm hooked. Even though I've only been training 5.5 weeks (3 weeks traditional...2.5 "your" way) I'm noticing lot's of advantages. Faster recovery....no drained feeling...better results. I've had chronic left elbow joint pain fer ages and it's starting to dissappear....that could be due to a number of things but low reps heavy sure helps.

I've done a lot of research recently on Coconut Oil and bought some from Jen...been using it fer about a week so I reckon that has something to do with my elbow. If everything I've read about it is half true it's miracle stuff....but that's a conversation for another place I guess (not neets journal lol).

One thing I have noticed about low rep training is it's an entirely different "pump"...have you noticed that or has anyone commented on it??

I must admit I'm a lil surprised...Les trying 811....who woulda thought eh....lol. Be real interested to see how you go on it.

John

Lol Gosia...I reckon if you don't enjoy it you won't continue it (most people) but you have to start first (most people don't even do that eh). I have (am) learning to only do what I enjoy as far as excercise goes...that way I do it...he he.

As you get fitter/stronger you tend to look at other things you wouldn't even consider initially....congrats on getting off the chair and into the water. I congratulate myself every morning when I get off the treadmill ;-).

And hi (waves) Anette.

Interesting that you can't do many movements yet could recently jump on a trampoline (which would have to have some degree of spine compression involved).

If you can do that comfortably what about a rebounder (mini trampoline)?....doesn't sound ideal though for the type of injury..and yes intensity is good for fat burning. Any regular aerobic excercise done with enough intensity/duration will increase your basal metabolic rate as well...so even resting you burn calories at a higher rate.

You can't lift any weights while sitting? What if someone handed you a light weight (say a dumbell) you could not do excercises like arm curls, overhead press etc? Foregt "heavy weights" let's just concentrate on any weights.

There's also a number of excercises you can do laying down.

Intensity-wise 1K of swimming is not as much as you may think (relative to other forms of aerobic excercise).

Have you ever tried using a recumbant bike (an excercise bike you sit "in" rather than "on") you can get quite an intense leg workout from one, so you could combine aerobic intensity with a pure leg-toning excercise. I hate the things so don't use 'em but some people love 'em.

My opinion is you're doing bloody fantastic ;-)

You use your instincts so they will guide you but if I was in your position I would start learning by reading. Learning about excercise in general and expose myself to all sorts of possibilities. Example...buy some home gym training type books that will explain excercises to you....how to do them and what muscles and or muscle groups they work on....I have a number of good ones here if you get stuck.

Then just buy some light/cheap dumbells and see what you can and can't do and go from there.

I could go into a lot more detail Gosia but we'll crawl first eh...lol. We have to work out how to "attack" each muscle group in isolation if necessary in a way you are comfortable with (and can even do) or even better as a compound movement. In particular safely isolating your abdominal and lower back core will be a challenge....but I'll lay odds we can do it.

There's a lot to this and I have no doubt given time you can accomplish anything you set your mind too. Stretching may enter this...which reminds me...there's a number of chinese practises that could really help you Gosia....QiGong....anyway just check out this web site http://www.simonblowqigong.com/default.htm and have a read what injuries Simon Blow overcame via such methods.

I'd be really interested to hear what others have to say on this as well....Rudy?....Les.....Meta....RGG...etc....any single thing said by someone could spark a new path eh.

Onwards...and upwards.

;-)

John

Oh and PS...have a look at "Total Trainer" type excercise devices they just could be ideal for you...or not....lol.

Briefly??.....me....?......HAHHAHAHAHAHHAA!

 


Hi Gosia...I'll try and answer you by starting with some background. I've only recently resumed (serious) training after decades lay-off.

I was heading in ten different directions at once over the last year or two trying to decide what I wanted to achieve..all of it in hindsight half-hearted. So I got down to specifics. My specifics are (1) To build a solid foundation of Aerobic Fitness (using a treadmill) and (2) To gain muscle mass (using high-weight-low-repitition approach as outlined by Les/Jedi and Metamorphisis in other threads).

This is the third week of switching to the les/jedi/meta approach and my 6th week overall and I'm seeing some solid results. I weighed myself as a baseline (70kg...I have been as high as 90Kg fit/muscle but that was 30 years ago) and am not planning on weighing myself again for 3-6 months.

It is now my view that people trying to lose or gain weight should stay away from scales and focus on the daily activities they have chosen to achieve their goals until it becomes part of your every day without a single thought.

I have other very specfic things I want to incorporate into my training over the next 6-12 months and then some very specific things after that....but I'm totally relaxed about it all and focusing on the day...not some distant end result.

Which brings us to you ....finally....hehehe....

You'll read/hear/see and get a lotta contradictory advice when you go looking for ways to train/excercise. The more specific you are about what you want to achieve the better because different types and ways of excercising can be counterproductive to specific goals.

You're swimming right?...great excercise....it isn't intense (burns way less calories say than running and you gotta do a lot more swimming than running to achieve the same aerobic benefit). I know you have an injured back....my point is about intensity.

If you want to tone up and get some muscles happenning you have to increase intensity. Intensity can be increased in two basic ways with weights with different results. Heavy low rep or light high rep. There's a third factor in there as well which is the speed of the movement.

Intensity with aerobic excercise taps into different systems....and there's basal metabolic rate to consider with regards to fat burning.

It can all be done and no doubt quite simply.....

How do you want to train?

At home?

At a Gym?

How much knowledge do you have about how muscles work and which muscles do what?

How much do you know about your back injury....how much would you or do you trust a personal trainer at a local gym (They are not all created equal).

Bottom line is Gosia...you can achieve what you want to achieve regardless of your injury...I'd need to know a lot more about it and your knowledge of physiology etc before I offered any opinion (and I realise I haven't been asked for one...I'm just trying to throw some things at ya to get ya thinking).

John

Go for it.

Nice....swimsuit....;-)

I'm sticking with Les and Meta's style of training for the moment...because it suits my goals...and it seems to be working...even after a week or two. But like you I always run my own show.

John

Hey RGG....I'd rethink reverse breathing doing weight training.


That's known as reverse breathing and has some applications in some forms of training but generally not in any weight training program. Generally when weight training you breathe out under load/effort. In fact with some excercises it can be dangerous to inhale on effort 'cause you are compressing your chest cavity.

Mebe Chris has a good reason for wanting you to reverse breathe but I'd be asking.

John

PS. Most people tend to reverse breathe when first starting weight training and have to unlearn it.

Hi bruce...I think Jen is in Melbourne and may not be able to access the net (not sure) but she'll sort it somehow when she's back on deck.

At any rate I'll leave her a personal message about it in case she misses this post.

John

The problem with all this type of stuff is the relativity of it.....and the potential amibiguity.

It's pretty hard to describe the taste of an orange to someone who has never tasted an orange...and then even having a discussion with fellow orange-eaters about the taste of an orange has it's problems 'cause how do we even know that our personal taste sensation is identical to anothers....(and then there's the issue of different varities of oranges)....and then when ya think about it./..it can't be....'cause some people like olives and some don't.....

Increasing awareness.....respect for all...release of fear...universal knowledge (if that ain't a highly ambiguous term....then I've never heard one)....and.....unconditional love......

All sounds great on paper eh?.....lol

I'm with you in some ways Sweetpea (thinking about some of your other recent posts actually)....on the one hand highly enlightened people trying to convey what they know and have experienced to others is probably big time hard yakka. On the other hand I'm sure there's a lotta quaint repitition of basics from people who are nowhere near "enlightened" or have anything of any real value to offer others....yet think they do....

As far as unconditional love goes....what does that mean unless it's fully tested....on top of that it will mean different things to different people....on top of that I reckon I could give anyone who professes to have it some scenarios that would test it....

I look at it this way...(and I had it tested big-time yesterday actually)......Don't hate.

Whatever you do....whatever happens....don't hate....Love the sinner hate the sin?....kinda thing....but whatever you do...do....not....hate....hate owns you....it develops a life and force and needs of it's own.

If you can't forgive.....if you can't love....then acknowledge both those realities and just work on not hating.

Not hating is healthy-rational-selfishness at it's best....-;)

Hate simply means "to hold in less esteem"....it's the emotional charge...the energy behind any emotion that gives it it's power...and it is ultimately within your power to give any
 emotion or feeling or circumstance or thought or action it's degree of power or influence on you and whatever surrounds you.

John

Hiya Gosia...


Actually Gosia there's plenty of excercises that you can do without placing any strain on your back at all....isolation excercises.....where you isolate individual muscles and/or muscle groups....in fact even with a dodgy disc there's probably not a single muscle you could not target.

Just think about each muscle and what it does....what movement/movements it is involved in...then think about what body position you would need to be in to use that muscle without direct stress on your disc. If you need more info we can get deeper into it with specifics.

John

Geeez Les...that drink of yours packs a punch!

If you take vitamins they should be pharmaceutical grade (practitioner-only-dispensing eg. Naturopath). There's a BIG difference.

Also consider that all raw/organic food is only as "good" as the soil it is grown in and may well be deficient.

Any such food grown in Australia or NZ is short on Selenium straight out of the starting blocks.

John