I went to see Frank, my trainer at the local Crunch gym, this morning to restart my training program. Because of my knee issues and the time I’ve been away, we took it really easy.
Warm up was 5 sets of lateral runs and some stretches
My work out comprised 3 sets of the following:
1 minute of rope pulley machine – pulling down
1 minute of rope pulley machine – pulling up
20 modified inchworm exercises [just going forward and going back to stand up]
traditional lateral pull down machine
traditional row machine
Dumbbell Lateral Raises [to the side, moving across to the front and then back down to hips; reverse order for next set]
side leg raises
I’m incapable of moving my knee to a 90 degree angle with any weight so squats and lunges are out of the question for the time being.
I thought I should say that John Salgado is my trainer and has been with me for years. John is great– he never yells at me but always pushes me past my whining. 🙂
John Salgado, professional MMA Fighter, CPT, Kickboxing Trainer, Inner G Training
John is a professional MMA Fighter and runs Inner G Training in New York. He also trains other professional MMA fighters. I’ve never attended any of his actual classes [let’s face it, I don’t like group activities] but they look impressive. We tend to do strength exercises using the Tabata method and then some cardio kickboxing with pads and punching bags. I’m guessing that my workouts most closely resemble his Cardio Combat classes but I ‘ve never asked him. Our cool downs focus on QiGong. [I’ve included links to some QiGong videos and exercises you can try on my Weight Loss and Nutrition Guidance/Exercises page.] All together, it makes for a high calorie workout.
John always recommends rolling my legs out with a foam roller to help alleviate my knee issues.
Icing and some trigger point massage seems to have helped a bit with the sore forearms. I will continue tonight to see if I can get back to a pain free state.
I signed up for the Self.com Diet Club. They provide a possible 16 strength and plyometric exercises and a cardio plan. You’re supposed to do the exercises three times a week. The trainer on the online videos is from SparkPeople.com. The idea is to exercise as part of a community and to track it online everyday so that you are more aware of your daily food and exercise decisions as well as more accountable. I’m not that community minded but am giving it a go.
The exercises I did today were:
Regular Hotdog w. ketchup, roll, no mayo – 315 calories
Rotating Sculptor- 5 lb weights
Bottoms Up- 3 lb weights
Reshaping Reach – 10 lb weights
Biceps Balancer – 10 lb weights
Step Off It – 3 lb weights
Rear Raiser
Wide High Knee
As I am careful of my knees, I decided to avoid the plyometric exercises for the time being.
We are heading off to the Staten Island Yankees game tonight with All-You-Can-Eat tickets again. I’m pretty sure that I saw an article saying hot dogs are a better junk food choice.
I will try to at some without the bun… That should save some calories. LOL
My husband and I walked a bit in the park today [he went to the gym without me as my knees are still achy.] My issue for the day relates to sore forearms from my kickboxing work out on Thursday afternoon.
I haven’t done a kickboxing session since the end of March when I hurt my hand and began a serious bout of traveling! While it was great fun to be back [and a serious surprise that I was still conscious at the end of the hour] I have been incredibly sore. My shoulders and forearms have not recovered from my trainer’s tabata rounds of push up and pull up exercises.
All the podcasts I’ve listened to so far agree that strength exercises are best. Of course they also agree that 90 percent of weight loss is determined by diet and nutrition rather than exercise. I am easing my way into better nutrition. As I mentioned previously, I will start by avoiding high fructose corn syrup. 🙂 That’s harder than you’d think as we are attending a Staten Island Yankees game with All-You-Can-Eat tickets.
In the interim, I have just ordered Clair Davies’ The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition from Amazon.com. I hope that I can begin to work on getting the kinks out of my legs and arms without having to go to a massage therapist. I decided to use a small racquetball rather than purchasing any massage equipment; the foot log that I purchased a while ago may also come in handy.
Trigger Point Rules
1. Trigger points are small, localized muscle cramps that feel like hard lumps or knots in your muscles.
2. Trigger points arise at predictable places in the muscle and cause predictable patterns of referred pain.
3. Trigger points hurt like hell when pressed, and referred pain may be felt, according to the characteristic pattern for that trigger point.
4. Trigger points can be treated by massage.
5. Massage with short, slow strokes in one direction, applying deep pressure.
6. When massaging, use your elbow, your knee, your knuckles, or a ball instead of your fingers. Use a ball between your body and a wall or the floor to reach hard spots.
I went to see Yayoi Kusama’s Fireflies on the Water at the Whitney Museum. [http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/FirefliesOnTheWater] It was absolutely amazing. The exhibit is a small room that only one person may enter at a time. The museum staff will open the door after one minute. The sensation is surreal. You stand upon a small platform surrounded by still water in a mirrored room full of tiny lights. The space appears to go on forever; the water on the ground is never completely still so its reflection throughout the room means there’s movement around you as well. I could have happily stayed inside for quite a bit longer.
From the Whitney Museum site: Kusama’s Fireflies on the Water (2002)—with its carefully constructed environment of lights, mirrors, and water—is one of the outstanding examples of this kind of installation, which creates a space in which individual viewers are invited to transcend their sense of self.
During lunch, my friend and I discussed healthier eating and the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Here is some info that I found:
In 2010, a Princeton University research team demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States. ….
Not everyone agrees that High Fructose corn syrup is any worse for you than regular sugar. Here’s an excerpt from a MayoClinic.com article about high-fructose corn syrup with some suggestions:
Some research studies have linked consumption of large amounts of any type of added sugar — not just high-fructose corn syrup — to such health problems as weight gain, dental cavities, poor nutrition, and increased triglyceride levels, which can boost your heart attack risk… Recommendations from the American Heart Association — not a part of official U.S. dietary guidelines — say that most American women should consume no more than 100 calories a day from added sugar from any source, and that most American men should consume no more than 150 calories a day from added sugar, and that even less is better. That’s about 6 teaspoons of added sugar for women and 9 for men.
It’s prudent to consume any added sugar only in moderation. Consider these tips to cut back:
Avoid sugary, nondiet sodas. Drink water or other unsweetened beverages instead.
Choose breakfast cereals carefully. Although healthy breakfast cereals can contain added sugar to make them more appealing to children, skip the non-nutritious, sugary and frosted cereals.
Eat fewer processed and packaged foods, such as sweetened grains like cookies and cakes and some microwaveable meals.
Snack on vegetables, fruit, low-fat cheese, whole-grain crackers, and low-fat, low-calorie yogurt instead of candy, pastries and cookies
There is a Wiki page on How to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup. It notes that.. “the average American eats an astounding 41.5 lbs of high fructose corn syrup per year.”
According to the Fat2FitRadio.com page, my suggested calorie intake is pretty generous. Very generous compared to what my trainer tells me I should be eating. It’s clear that my diet is really poor but baby steps is where I am starting. My first resolution is to cut out High Fructose Corn Syrup from my diet.
Activity Level Daily Calories
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1664
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 1907
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2150
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2393
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2635
Based on how much activity you do on an average day, the calories in the right column will be the number of calories that you will be able to eat at your goal weight. If you start eating those calories right now (eating like the thinner you), you will eventually become that thinner person. As you get closer to your goal weight, your weight loss will start to slow down. It is OK to eat a few hundred calories less per day (200-300) to speed up your weight loss at this point.
My knee is still cranky so I took a walk around the park instead of doing kickboxing. With the added errands after the loop, I clocked approximately 4 miles. Woo hoo!!! That’s about 443 calories burned according to the on-line calories calculator I found at: http://www.healthstatus.com/cgi-bin/calc/calculator.cgi. Despite wearing a knee brace, it was still uncomfortable walking. I think I may pick up a new pair of sneakers. 🙂
I had the pinky looked at by a Dr. Andrew J. Weiland, MD, a hand specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery. The consultation didn’t take very long but they took x-rays and everyone there was especially nice and professional. I did, indeed, tear a tendon but there is nothing that can be done at this point. It will always be a little sore and sensitive when I do kickboxing. The X-ray showed a small mallet fracture as well. It’s probably a good thing that I tried to address the very crooked pinky finger with duct tape and paper clips a la McGiver. 🙂 Otherwise, the pinky would have been really askew!
Next, I will visit my regular doctor and see how my cholesterol level is doing.
So after a few days of visiting family and throwing toys for the dog to fetch, I’m ready to start exercising again. I tried the Tabura class at Crunch gym yesterday morning and found it fairly good. The official description off the Crunch gym site is:
Tabura is a Swahili name for training used in improving military endurance and strength in Africa. This intensely fun class uses kickboxing combinations and basic West African dance moves set to hot Tribal House music and a live drummer. Get ready to burn massive calories and become a true powerhouse warrior.
I had to stop a number of times because my knees were unhappy [they’d been unhappy all week so I wasn’t surprised] but overall, the class went well and I didn’t give up. After admitting that I hadn’t eaten breakfast, the instructor made me do an additional 10 push ups…. something to remember in the future.
I should begin kickboxing training again on Monday in Manhattan.
