Tag: push ups

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Exercise Fitness Home Travel Weight

New Baseline Test 2015

Time to retest baseline fitness!  (It’s been a crazy couple of years so I did not have high expectations.)  I used the tests outlined on The TopEnd Sports Page.  These are tests that can be done at home with minimal or no equipment. The tests are designed to quickly gauge a person’s general fitness level and to act as a benchmark for future testing. After taking the test, you may wish to train for a few months. Then, take the test again and compare the results.

Although there are six tests, I did only the first three — Push ups, Sit ups and Squats.

  1. Push ups to test upper body strength.
  2. Sit ups to test abdominal or trunk strength.
  3. Squats to measure lower body strength.
  4. Vertical Jump to measure leg explosive power.
  5. Step test to measure aerobic endurance.
  6. Sit & Reach to measure flexibility.

Push Ups:  I did the modified push up with a “bent knee” position. (To do this, kneel on the floor, hands on either side of the chest and keep your back straight. Lower the chest down towards the floor, always to the same level each time, either till your elbows are at right angles or your chest touches the ground.)  I was able to complete 35 push ups vs the 25 expected for my age group. Woo Hoo!

Sit Ups:  You must count the number of sit ups you can do within one minute.  The sit ups required that you (a) squeeze your stomach, (b) push your back flat and (c) raise high enough for your hands to slide along your thighs to touch the tops of your knees. I was able to do 45 sit ups versus the 27 expected for my age group.  Again, I was cooking with gas.

Squats:  The test has you stand in front of a chair or bench with your feet at shoulder’s width apart, facing away from it. Placing your hands on your hips,  you squat down and lightly touch the chair before standing back up. A good sized chair is one that makes your knees at right angles when you are sitting. You keep doing this until you’re fatigued.  I was able to complete 20 squats which is the level appropriate for my age group but I have to admit that I was not lightly touching the chair before standing back up.  My knees were making a racket as well.  I will stay away from squats for the time being.

Listening to old episodes of Fat2Fit radio (still my favorite although they’ve stopped recording), I remembered that I have to do weight training so I get my metabolism at a higher rate.  I think it’s great that I can do some light weight training at home or while traveling with little or no equipment.  Good luck with your training everyone!

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New York

Doing a Baseline

Today was another rest day so I thought I would take some Home Fitness Tests for sit ups, push ups, and stretching.  I skipped the step and vertical jump tests in consideration of my bad knees.  Overall, I’m feeling fairly satisfied.  Now all I need to focus on is getting my weight down.

  • I did 32 push ups for the Top End Sports Push Up Test at Home [with one 10 second break after the first 20] so that also was excellent for a woman my age.  Yes, I cheated and saw how many I needed to complete and didn’t bother doing more than that. LOL  According to the Sparkpeople.com site, I’m only average but they allow for modified push ups for women.
  • I did 54 sit ups in 60 seconds, which according to The Top End Sports Fitness Test, is excellent for a woman 46 – 55 years old.  I’m excellent according to the Sparkpeople.com site as well.  Woo Hoo!
  • I did 30 squats for the Top End Sports Squat Test at Home [yes, I did the minimum needed to get an ‘excellent’ because I am inherently lazy]
  • I was only average for the Top End Sports Sit & Reach Flexibility at Home test. This simple test is designed to measure the flexibility of your hamstrings and lower back. The sit and reach test has long been used as a test to represent a person’s flexibility, though actual flexibility may differ around the body.  I didn’t have a step so my results may not be accurate but close enough.

 

 

 

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Calories Diet Exercise Fitness New York sports Weight

Light Strength Training at Crunch Gym

It’s been raining but I still made it to Crunch to work out with Frank.  We had another light strength workout in deference to my bad knee.  My warm ups comprised running sideways back and forth.  We then did a series of modified inchworms; modified planks, leg extensions [using the wall]; and standing abductions.  As I enter my workouts into the SparkPeople.com fitness tracker, I can see how much less I do at Crunch but I don’t mind as I’m feeling really tired and it’s about as much as I want to do today.  It’s still 100 percent more than I would do without Frank. 🙂

Nutritionally, I am staying within the recommended calorie range for my BMR.  Breakfast included my favorite fruit protein shake.  Dinner included a lovely spinach and feta cheese salad.  My weight continues to creep down.  Hooray! 

 

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Diet Exercise Fitness Kickboxing New York sports

Kickboxing Session Gets Tougher – Bosu Ball, Free Weights and Stability Ball

I met with John Salgado this afternoon for my kickboxing training session.  4 days in a row of exercise!  I’m proud of myself. 🙂

Bosu Ball:  We did warm ups on the Bosu Ball– running in place and front kicks.  Then a series of Bosu Ball exercises combining side lunges, side kicks and squats.  There are a couple of useful online videos available.

Bosu Ball available at Amazon.comHere are a couple of online videos from eHow.com:

Stability Ball:  We followed the Bosu Ball exercises with tucks and push ups with the stability ball.  Strength exercises for today used 15 lb. weights doing triceps exercises and biceps curls using the stability ball. John also had me begin wall squats with the balance ball.stability ball availale at Amazon.com

Here is a website called Ball-Exercises.com that lists a number of exercises for the Stability Ball.

Free Weights Continued:  Also John had me sit and stand while doing bicep curls and  dumb bell shoulder presses.

Cardio Rounds:  Clearly, the worst thing about returning to the gym after a long absence is the lack of stamina.  I couldn’t finish a whole round because I simply couldn’t breathe and felt nauseous.  I guess that’s my newest most important goal. 😉

To develop stamina, Livestrong.com suggests:

  • running  [can’t do it because of my knees right now]
  • sparring/training bouts) [yeah, I don’t appreciate people hitting me]
  • circuit training  Yes!
  • jumping rope [see bad knees excuse above 🙂 ]
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Exercise Fitness Kickboxing New York sports

Strength Training at Crunch Gym

Looking at yesterday’s workout, it is clear that I haven’t been working as hard as I should when I am at Crunch. I felt ashamed at the amount of my whining. 🙁  So, this morning I told Frank that I needed to be pushed harder.woman lifting weights cartoon

Taking it to heart, Frank had me doing lateral pull-downs, rows, and bicep exercises with much heavier weights.  I had to do knuckle push ups [modified because I was on my knees] and modified jumping jacks [no jumping] with two pound weights.  The knuckle push ups are supposed to help strengthen my wrists and my forearms –  both of which should help with kickboxing as well.

All in all, I think we accomplished a great deal more today.  Excellent!

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Calories Diet Exercise Fitness Injuries Kickboxing New York sports

Back Strengtheners With Resistance Bands and Kickboxing Cardio

I met with John Salgado this afternoon for my kickboxing session.  We’re going to ease into strengthening my legs so we focused primarily on arms and back.  The session  began with mobility exercises to try to get the kinks out of my legs. We then proceeded to do a series of slow front kicks. By isolating each part of the kick, John says that we work on our core strength, balance and technique.  [I found a related article on the benefit of isolation exercises called “How to Front Kick“.]

Then we moved onto Back Exercises [3 sets] using the Stability Ball:

Using the Resistance Bands and seated on a balance ball:

  • Lateral Rowskickboxing woman
  • Seated Rows
  • Bicep Curls

Also on the Balance Ball [3 sets]:

  • Push ups on the Stability Ball Reps: 12-15
  • Knee Tucks on the Stability Ball Reps: 12-15
  • Dumbbell Chest Press on Ball [15, 20, 25 lb weights]
  • Dumbbell Triceps Extensions on Ball [15, 20, 25 lb weights]
  • Sit ups [last set with light weights]

We also did a couple of rounds doing punches, slips and kicks with the punching bag. We finished with 3 minutes of elbow-to-knees sit ups.

After stretching my legs and back, we ended our session today with some QiGong outside.

We picked up a couple of Mango and Green Teas with Tapioca at CoCo Fresh Tea and Juice.  According to Livingstrong.com, tapioca bubble tea combines tea, milk, honey and cooked tapioca pearls to form a frothy beverage that should be treated as a dessert in your caloric count. The large drink probably contained more than 300 calories. I’d always thought tapioca was good for you but I think I will pass on these next time.

 

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Calories Diet Entertainment Exercise Fitness Kickboxing New York sports Staten Island Yankees

Trigger Point Massage for Forearm Pain From Overuse

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.

I found an article online called Trigger Point Massage. Simple Self-Help for Chronic Pain  by Christian Lemburg, that seems to cover the basic points. 

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.

Read the entire article:  http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/37_05_trigger_points.pdf

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Calories Diet Exercise Fitness Kickboxing New York sports

Trying Tabura

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.