Tag: training

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Calories Exercise Fitness Injuries sports

Limited Strength Training at Crunch Gym

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.

Here’s a good video example:


I tried the SparkPeople.com Trivia game – it asks about health and exercise questions.

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Calories Diet Exercise Fitness Injuries Kickboxing New York Reference Links sports

Kickboxing Training with John Salgado

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, CPT, Kickboxing Trainer, Inner G Training
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.

Qigong is an ancient Eastern practice of whole-body healing, accomplished by way of postures, movement, and breathing rituals intended to release the bodies flow of chi.  The Livestrong.com site has some QiGong exercises you can try.  Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/19110-qigong-breathing-exercises/

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Calories Diet Entertainment Exercise Fitness New York sports Staten Island Yankees

Diet Club With Self Magazine

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:

Hotdog
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

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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