The Workout/Exercise thread

Shitty day. It was one of my days off (No lifting) so I was really hoping to get a good run in today. However, it was absolute shit. From my first step I felt exactly like I did a week ago. My calves were tight, my knees hurt, and I felt dehydrated as fuck despite drinking plenty of water. I was really hoping to get 1.75 miles today, yet it took everything I had to barely make a mile at my slowest time all week. Both former college athlete, and Air Force McSmallstuff are laughing and calling me pathetic right now.

Slight up note though, I just had my first "cool those shorts fit me again" moment. On a day where I'm feeling like a fat ass I will take it.

 

Well after two crappie runs, I had a good day again. 1.61 miles. Not a big gain but it was nice to see an improvement. Also my knees have been feeling like shit, and it was no different today however, around the .6 mile mark (god that sounds sad) they seemed to toughen up. I went from just trying to get a mile to thinking I could get a good distance today. It's kind of nice to get my old athletic mind set back and see that I'm starting to be able to push myself. I know I'm no real runner, and probably never will be, but feeling competitive again even against myself is probably the thing I like the most about this new life style.

 

Fair enough. However, to me a real runner is someone who enjoys the experience. Those people people that wake up run 3 miles just to go home eat something then go take their real run.

 

I'm down to 318.6 lbs!

 

Right now I'm running in a four year old pair of basketball shoes. They are so worn down they basically fold in half when I take them off. Next month I'm going to get some new shoes, and I have been doing a little bit of research, but I figured I would also ask here. Can anyone recommend a running shoe for a bigger guy with serious knee problems?

 

Yeah.
Stop running. Walk fast, really really fast, until your weight isn't pounding the shit out of your joints. I had a guy come in at 375 (down from 405) and that was my rule for him. He had to get another 50 lbs off at least and work on his stride before we started talking about run running run styles.

Shoe wise - typically I like minimalists. For an all around shoe that isn't too smooshy - I hate smooshy shoes - I do like the Reebok Nano 2.0. They're wide enough for my foot, and supportive.

 

First of all, Shim's advice is fine on the stop running thing. (She's a professional, and all my advice is just as a long-time runner.) However, using walk breaks are also effective to reduce repetitive stress and aid recovery. (Also, I assume you are not running every day. Until you weigh about 125 pounds and are training for an ultramarathon, you shouldn't run every day. 4 days a week is fine.) Former Olympic runner, and all around good dude, Jeff Galloway is a big proponent of walk breaks. He has advice on it, and there are a bunch of ways to do it. When I started using them for my training runs it helped dramatically with my knee pain. I am 45 and have been running since I was in 3rd grade. I thought I was going to have to give it up while training for my second marathon, but then I started doing walk breaks. The way I do it (just to make the math easy) is to run for 9 minutes, walk for 1, run for 9, walk for 1, etc. I do this on all my training runs, but just run when I do road races. (Irony note: I am currently nursing a calf injury that I've never had to deal with before.) Anyway, you could just run 4 minutes, walk 1, run 4, walk 1, like that or you can get all fancy by reading about it here.

For shoes - I'm not sure where you live, but most places have running shoe fitting specialty stores. For instance, here in Georgia in the Atlanta area, there is a store called Phidippedes, and in the middle Ga area, it's Run Fit Sports. They will watch you run on a treadmill or out on the sidewalk, to examine your foot strike and natural gait to see what sort of shoe you need. Instead of cushion, you may need stability, or something to counter pronation or high arch or whatever. You'll usually pay a little more at one of these stores for the shoe the first time. But, once you find "your shoe," you can order them online from somewhere for less. Or you can use this little guide: Enter Your Info

Older Article but still good

 

Well I have started power walking due to Shimmereds advice and what my own body was telling me. So far its a great improvement. Body feels better and I'm able to do it much longer. I want to get back to running but I'm going to wait until I'm at least down below 300 to try it.

Thanks for the advice on shoes rush. I truly hate shoe shopping, because it is a gigantic fucking hassle. Finding size 15s is damn inconvienent. But maybe a specialty shop would be the way to go.

 

Once your body weight is down (and therefore the stress on your joints is decreased) you may consider a sprint tabata or something like that - 20 on 10 off of sprint / walk. Then work up to the walk breaks like was previously mentioned.

I'm really glad you're feeling better. There's no good to be done beating your body into submission. That just hurts you and makes you stop.

 

Any advice on how to get a decent form check for power clean (and Olympic lifts in general)? The shitty gym I go to charges 70 (!) dollars per session, and the trainers are a bunch of retards. Right now I'm at about 200 pounds for power clean, and I don't want to hurt myself with shitty form if I'm going to start going up. I've been reading Mark Rippetoe's book on the power clean, and while it's been helpful, I don't think that there's a substitute for someone watching me and saying, "You're doing X right but Y wrong. Try doing Z."

Also, are personal trainers really that fucking expensive?

 

Send me a video. Front and 3/4 angle, please, and I'll see if I can help out.




Good personal trainers are expensive because they countless hours reading, learning, cueing, and thinking about you. And you. And that guy over there. You too. And so on. Hacks - not worth the money. A good coach who doesn't call him or herself a personal trainer? Priceless.

 

Took me a while to drag my girlfriend into the gym to film me. I don't particularly like dodecagonal plates, but the gym doesn't seem to care when I smack them on the floor.

 

I will say this off the bat, I don't think anyone here is qualified to really coach in weightlifting, and even less through video. Maybe lhprop but I don't know how much of a weightlifting background he has, and I know Shimmered owned a crossfit gym and has coached her athletes but the clean and jerk and especially the snatch are some of the most technical movements you can do, and if you can find a knowledgeable weightlifting coach in your area I would do that. Although if you're just using them as a movement to aid explosiveness they're not bad, but I would simply stick with hang cleans or cleans off pins/blocks. I'll try to type out what I've been coached by people far more experienced than me.

With that said, you're setting up too close to the bar. As opposed to the deadlift the bar should be over the knuckles of your toes. As you reach down your knees will come over the bar. You want to retract your scapulae, drop your hips more to create a neutral back, and don't worry too much about simply tossing the weight up. Get tighter, keep your chest up and your head neutral, slightly held up. It should be uncomfortable in the bottom position. Remember it's a multi step process. First pull, second pull, extension, dip under and catch.

On the first pull you're really using your legs. Think of a snatch grip deadlift. You're driving downward picking the bar up with your leg drive, keeping your torso in the same position, your shins straightening out so you clear your knees, bar still close to you. Second pull is when you begin to straighten, keeping the bar along your thighs, pulling up and back. Have your lats tight to keep a good bar path, and pull up and back, into your hips. Don't let your hips chase the bar, that's a mistake I see too often. Once the bar is at your hips is when you fully extend upwards, and the force of your extension is what will bring the bar up into position. It's there where you dip under the bar, almost using the bar to pull yourself under, then you catch it in the bottom position.

I know some of this will be confusing and honestly it is woefully inadequate. Look up Hookgrip on Facebook, they often have several good slo-mo videos that break it down pretty well. Also the Team USA channel on Youtube has some good videos. But if you can find a hands on coach and this is something that interests you, I'd go that route.

 

I can teach you how to deadlift, play rugby, lift 400 lb stones, throw kegs into orbit, or pull a fire truck, but I don't pretend to possess the technical knowledge to properly or safely teach the Olympic lifts.

 

training has been going amazingly well lately. crushed a 495 deadlift at a local meet a couple of weeks ago. and now during training today i absolutely nailed a 455 squat. this felt easy. looking forward to the next usapl meet in september.

 

early pull and muted hip happening there.
i'm headed to work. if you're interested in fixing those - the hook grip suggestion is a great one.
there's a poster somewhere with the weight shift and distribution highlighted on it - i may have it still.
will post more later.

 

thanks, i'd appreciate it. i just cleaned 205 yesterday, so i'm improving, even if my technique isn't great.

 

regarding running shoes, that's the most important. when i stared running cross country and track in high school asics happened to be the most comfortable for me. i never had a reason to change brands until years later while working in biloxi mississippi for the summer a shoe came apart and i couldn't find asics sold anywhere locally. (was before amazon) i ended up buying a pair of new balance shoes and while they are not at all a bad brand and felt comfortable when i tried them on in the store, they were never comfortable to run in. i went back to asics as soon as i could find a place that sold them.

i've found even different models of asics don't feel quite right either. they've since stopped making their gt-2100 series and the replacement gt-2000 series have had very mixed reviews...next time i buy shoes i'll find out if i'm fucked or not.

 

shimmered, or anyone else; can you recommend some extra at home work i can do to help with shoulder mobility? an overhead work i try to do is very weak in comparison to my other lifts. (overhead squat, stiff-legged press, etc)

i've been trying to get in some additional foam rolling and working around with a lacrosse ball at night, but i'm certainly open to any other advice.