Today's workout was...

[John Rauch]

Wow, nice. When you run, do you run on the balls of your feet? My friends and I had a discussion about this yesterday and I'm just wondering. I haven't quite gotten to the point where I run on the balls of my feet, but I'm definitely not striking the heel like I used to. I guess I land pretty flat-footed and immediately roll forward and off the toes.

I try to, yes. It depends on the speed I'm running, though. I think I've gotten to the point where I don't really heel strike at any speed, but the faster I go, the more natural it is to be up on the balls of my feet. I have two pairs of shoes I run with, actually. One is a minimalist design with no padding under the soles or extra thickness at the heel, so it forces me to run properly, but my feet take a bit of a beating and it's not ideal for longer runs or really trying to set new time records. The other pair are still very light, but have an extra 4mm cushion to the heel. In these, I do notice my heels making *some* contact with the ground, although it's not the typical heel strike, then roll forward. I tend to run faster in these shoes, so that doesn't happen much, except fro warming up, cooling down, or running slower paces when I'm with a partner.

[Laura]

Cool. I've worn semi-minimalist shoes on the treadmill a couple of times. I wore them once to jog the half-mile to the gym, and that was enough to make my ankles and bunions tired and cranky. It's something I need to work up to; I just got ahead of myself. I'm using them almost all the time for strength workouts, though.

It's kinda fun to remark about new things I notice that I can do, that I couldn't do a year ago. Yesterday we hosted an Easter brunch at our place, and some friends brought their four-year-old over. He's fascinated with cats, so I brought my cat Trixie out to meet him. I squatted down to his level and held the cat while he petted her. It only occurred to me afterward that I was in a perfect squat pose, ass not quite to heels but well below 90 degrees, and not straining or falling over. And I had the added imbalance of a seven-pound cat. That's pretty cool.

[Laura]

Walked/ran 2.14 miles today, including a couple of random wind sprints.

[Laura]

Returned to FBB, base phase workout 2. I'll do the base phase for another 5-6 workouts before moving on to the next phase. 2 sets of 10-12 on all exercises.

1A Russian Twist with 12-lb med ball & feet raised off floor
1B Prone Cobra (85 sec each)

2A Overhead Squat, no weight,heels flat; arms locked properly*
2B Lateral Raise with External Rotation (10s, 10s)

3A One-Leg Romanian Deadlift (20, 20)
3B Standing One Arm Cable Pulldowns (20, 25)

4A DB Bulgarian Split Squats (15s, 15s)
4B Standing Cable Rows (30, 35)

* This gym doesn't have any weighted straight bars other than the 45-lb Oly bar. I've just been using a piece of PVC pipe for this exercise. I don't think I can go from a piece of PVC pipe to a 45-lb Oly bar held overhead. Any suggestions on how to progress on overhead squats some other way?

[John Rauch]

Most gyms have easy curl bars, which are about 15# and some also have smaller Oly bars, which are close to the same weight. You might look around or ask someone, if it's important to get stronger at that specific move. Alternatively, you could just keep doing them with a PVC pipe as warm-up/mobility and progress in weight on another squat variation. In my opinion, front squats have the most athletic carry-over, so they would be my first choice for you, since they also engage the shoulders, arms, and core to a much greater degree than back squats. If you do want to keep doing the OHS, here are some options:

One arm at a time, with a dumbbell until you can handle around 30 lbs. or so, then switching over to the bar.

Substitute every day stuff for gym equipment. You could take a duffle bag partially full of sand and overhead squat that. It might even help enforce the form, requiring you to lock your shoulders back and pull the bar apart. I don't OHS very often, but I do have a backpack and a military duffle bag I picked up for cheap from the surplus store that work well for this type of thing.

Lastly, you could just use the 45 lb. bar in a power rack with partial ROM. Set the catch bars at whatever height you think you can handle fairly comfortably and go down until you touch it each time. Instead of progressing in weight as you improve, simply set the bars lower, increasing your ROM.

[Ryan]

Haven't posted in a while, but I'm still trucking.

Had a sinus-based sickness in Nov. and Dec. that wrecked my cardio system, ended up losing 10 or so pounds of muscle and gaining 15 or so pounds of fat. It was pretty deflating (or inflating, haha), but this year has been better. Been working pretty steadily for the past 3 months and have exceeded my previous muscle mass. I'm kind of doing random workouts of weight lifting and plyometric/full body cardio.

I was taking pure creatine and have been seeing some great muscle gain for the past couple of months, but apparently I am one of those people that gets lower leg pain from creatine use, so I'm cycling off that. I'm running a 5k in a week, so hopefully my anterior lower leg muscles loosen up by then. Right now I can't jog for more than a mile without severe pain. It's a scary, weird sort of pain, like your muscles want to erupt from your skin.

Anyway, today was a rest day, tomorrow will be biceps/triceps and probably some recumbent bike while I give my legs a bit more rest.

[John Rauch]

Sounds like you're just getting a pump in your legs, Ryan. You can do some high rep work to increase your lactic acid threshold and that should get a little better.

Here was my workout for today. I might go for a run in a bit as well.

5 rounds, untimed

18' rope climb. Full body up, just arms down
105 lb. one arm farmer's carry. 60'/arm
80 lb. log carry up stairs/hill, approx. 60 yards
4x 150 lb. log shouldering and throw, alternating shoulders
80 lb. log carry down stairs/hill, approx. 60 yards (opposite shoulder)

After that, I finished with 100 one-arm hammer smashes per arm.

[Ryan]

Sounds like you're just getting a pump in your legs, Ryan. You can do some high rep work to increase your lactic acid threshold and that should get a little better.

Yeah, there's a lot of conflicting information out there, but from studies I've read it seems like there could be a link between creatine use and some anterior compartment syndrome in the lower leg. I've also read those studies used bad methodology and are suspect, haha. It does make sense, though, water retention in the muscle increases rigidity in hard to stretch areas like the anterior lower legs leading to mild compartment syndrome.

Any specific high rep moves you can think of from your experience? You mean high rep/low weight, right? I already do squats pretty regularly, but most of my leg workouts are jumping lunges and other jumping based activities, haha.

[John Rauch]

Maybe try weighted jump squats or something similar for a Tabata set. (20/10 work/rest for 4:00 or longer, if you like) That kind of thing is pretty good for pushing your lactic acid threshold.

[Ryan]

Maybe try weighted jump squats or something similar for a Tabata set. (20/10 work/rest for 4:00 or longer, if you like) That kind of thing is pretty good for pushing your lactic acid threshold.

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

Just ran 5K and my legs felt better, but there are too many variables to really know why. Actually, my anterior leg muscles felt pretty good, it was my calf muscles that felt swollen and tight. I'm trying out a few new leg stretches, hopefully that will help too.

[Laura]

I love how casually y'all are like, "I just ran 5K," while I've stopped and started Couch to 5K a million times. Okay, so today I started it again, right where I left off, because DAMMIT I am going to run a 5K at HeroesCon! This was ostensibly week 5, workout 2, two eight-minute runs flanked by 5-minute walks. I made it through both runs, but the hills almost killed me. After my 'cooldown,' I was still a little ways away from home, so I ran for another 3 minutes. Total: 2.33 miles in 34:55.

The next time I run (Monday) will be the big one: a 20-minute run. Nervous! I'm going to find a trail/track/running area with fewer hills than my neighborhood.

Re: overhead squats: This is a tiny gym, so they don't have any EZ curl bars or lighter bars. But they have a shitload of light weights. The next time I OHsquat, I'll try a couple of dumbbells and see if I can maintain form without the stick. Or, I'll see if I can grip both the dumbbell and the stick in each fist. Or, I could probably slide a 5-lb plate onto the PVC and hold it in place. Risky, having a plate over my head, but that might work.

You're right: front squats would be better and more practical. I think they're in the next phase of Female Body Breakthrough.

[John Rauch]

I wouldn't try putting plates on PVC pipe unless you have clips that will hold them in place. Holding a dumbbell and the PVC sounds iffy too. Whatever you do, make sure it's safe.

Did I ever tell about running when I first decided to drop some weight? It was my first workout, 265 lbs., brand new Fila jump suit, because you have to look good if you're going to run in public and I was already chubby, so I had some making up to do. Anyway, I went outside and immediately is a big hill, so I walked up that and to the main road, rather than trying to run up it. I got to the main road, and saw that there was construction work going on a little bit down the road. That made me uneasy, but I had already walked all the way there, so I pretended to do a little stretching, then started jogging. Almost immediately, I could tell it was really going to suck. I wanted to stop and walk home, but the construction workers were out there and they saw where I started from and that would've been pathetic. So I kept going until I got to the nearest road I could turn on, to get out of their site. As soon as I couldn't see them anymore, I looked around, and laid down in the grass beside the road and tried to catch my breath. I walked around that block so there was less of a chance of them seeing me head back home. How awesome is that?

Last summer, I ran down the same road for a one mile time trial and there were construction workers again. One of them yelled for me to slow down.

[John Rauch]

I had a good workout today, by the way. It's the first time in almost a month that I've been able to use a barbell with any reasonable weight, because of my sprained wrist. It's still not 100%, but definitely better. I did a bunch of close grip bench for heavy, low rep sets, some face pulls and one arm dumbbell snatches, glute bridges on a yoga ball, and GHD sit-ups. I finished up with barbell curls and standing shoulder press, with the weights attached by stretchy bands for stability work. Also, I've been doing one set of 20 rep barbell squats (aka widow makers) every M/W/F and today, for the first time, I exceeded my body weight on them. So, that was cool.

[Laura]

Hahaha! Good story. I've been pretty lucky that no one's shouted anything at me when I run on the busy main road -- well, they probably did, because people are jerks to fat girls, but I didn't hear it so I'm blissfully unaware. When I don't follow a specific time interval thing (like C25K), if I see someone coming, I'll keep running until they're out of sight. If my podcast tells me to stop, though, I friggin' stop. I have been known to gasp, "HOLY FUCK!" as I slow down, too.

I do get nods and thumbs-up from neighbors who have gotten used to seeing me trudge by, though. That's pretty cool.

Re: OH squats -- I figured out a solution. I'll just go to my other gym. Workout A at Acceleration; workout B at Gold's, where they have weighted bars of all different weights. Problem solved.

I ended up not working out all weekend (other than doing yardwork and housecleaning, but I count that as "lifestyle" and not "workout"). I had a moment of clarity where I finally admitted to myself that I've been half-assing. I'm not pushing myself as far as I should; I'm not progressing. I keep taking these week-long breaks and then "starting over" which just means that I'm wussing out. So I took my half-ass into the gym this morning and did All The Things. By that I mean ALL the warmups -- I usually skip the one-legged hops because I don't trust my knees, but I did them today (sloppy but done), and I did three sets instead of two on the exercises.

I'll just be on FBB Base Phase for this week and next week, then I'm moving on to the next phase. New weights/numbers in blue.

FBB Base Phase Workout A (3 sets of 10)

1A Bird Dog (I actually held the pose for 3 seconds like I'm supposed to)
1B Forward Ball Roll (really concentrated on keeping back straight and tailbone tucked)

2A Step-up (bench instead of high step, but I increased weight 10s/10s/12s)
2B 3-pt DB rows (20/25/25)

3A Partial Co-Contraction Lunge
3B Incline Pushup (on each set, the first five were at the shin-height bar and the second five were at the knee-height bar)

4A Hip-Thigh Extension
4B Bent Over Reverse Fly (10s/12s/12s)

I'm surprised I came out of it feeling energized, considering I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night. I'm going to ride this energy as far as I can today!

[John Rauch]

There you go! I've found, especially when I was starting (and stopping) that it's easy to be motivated for a few days or a week, but sticking with it long term is a whole different thing. Even if you don't put 100% into every single workout, showing up is still a huge part of it. I don't know what kind of space you have for it, but I've found that it's much more cost effective and conducive to fluctuating motivation levels to just have basic equipment at home. I bought most of mine for very cheap and it's nice to know I can squeeze a workout into a break on a busy day without the whole production of going to the gym.

I had a decent workout today, mostly focusing on overhead press. Yesterday was a beast, though. It was the last official practice with my Spartan Race team before the event this Saturday. So, I set up a practice race, based on what I've seen on YouTube from other Spartan Races. We did 10 .3 mile runs; up a hill, then back down. Between each run was an obstacle. The obstacles were:

100 push-ups (50 for the women)
100 mountain climbers
50 yd. bear crawl
50 burpees
Rope assisted hill climb (only about 12 ft., so up and down 5x)
18' rope climb (3 ascents)
18' rope climb again (3x)
80 lb. log carry (during one of the .3 mi. runs) (the women's log was @30 lbs.)
Tire climb (three tractor tires, stacked to @ 5'6", climb over and down 5x)

The obstacles could be done in any order we wanted, so that no one was waiting on anyone else. I finished in 43:28. I possibly could've shaved off another couple minutes, but I wasn't sure how to pace myself and I didn't want to get too close to redlining and gas out. I imagine the actual race will be even more problematic, since the obstacles and terrain will be a complete mystery.