Whole body with emphasis lower

[7Wannabe5]

You guys are great, but now I am in information overload! How about if I take everybody's advice, follow it all for the next 10 years, and then let you all share a 10% cut of my over-60 category Senior Bikini Championship purse? This could be me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ4K17eVY5Q


Seriously, I was thinking and researching some more about what puts me off about many fitness videos and what kind of coach I like. For instance, I give Denise Austin credit for putting together a good training program that worked for me, but her persistent smile and voice which rises at least one level further towards register of Minnie Mouse than my own, makes me feel like I could only possibly bear to watch that DVD again if I turned off the volume and played this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V77HWgH3jCI

OTOH, although I think that Bret Contreras offers very good advice which is based on actual science and therefore is appealing to a nerd like me, and while I generally don't find his mannerisms or presentation off-putting, methinks this clip is heading a little too far into a realm teetering on the brink of mildly disturbing eroticism more appropriate in a context other than the gym:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i8pC7eZ4Dw


Therefore, I find that the kind of coach I like best is somebody like Keaira Lashae. She reminds me of a younger, fitter version of my current water aerobics coach or an older, kinder version of my professional hip-hop video dancer niece (who tells her mother that she dresses like a lesbian and said "This is why I don't like teaching old people." when my knee went out.) Her behavior/attitude in this video is exactly what I like and don't find off-putting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pfBQeK3jvw

My sister, who does yoga for about an hour every day under the guidance of an older woman who wears a turban, is almost exactly as fit and thin (my sister has longer, skinnier arms and legs, whereas when I am that thin my arms and legs would still be somewhat shorter and plumper) as the tall, white woman in the above video. If you can imagine that the women in the above video both have much older brothers who are 6'2" and played football and are still in almost as good shape (bit more soft in the abs) as their younger sisters, that is what my two partners in poly-amory look like. Therefore, I am SERIOUSLY, almost hopelessly, lagging behind my 5 people I associate most with, especially since I also count the conglomeration of this forum which currently functions as my salon, as 1 of the 5.

The main reason why I don't want to join my sister in her current practice is that her personality is much more like that of a member of L7 (she played keyboards in that scene in the 90s) and she is a cancer survivor, so she smokes medical marijuana before she does yoga, which, IMO, is the only reason she enjoys being coached by an older woman in a turban. I can't workout with my older partner because his primary partner (wife) does not want him to come out and play with me that often (and, I actually just romantic-friend-zoned him for this reason-sigh) and the reason I can't workout with my same-age-as-me partner is that I am afraid he is the same personality type as another person I dated who made me hang upside down on a piece of equipment and wouldn't let me up until I did X crunches, which is a coaching style that I appreciate as being efficacious when dealing with a soft. slacker such as myself, but only in the short-run until I figure out some clever way to escape.

[tommytebco]

All I can add to this discussion is this
BUILD THE HABIT FIRST and the body second.

I have always tended to dive into fitness programs head first and all in. Achy and sore through the first week, then beginning to see some progress.

Then, I seem to morph forward in time, without conscious recollection, to a later time where I am not exercising.

I call this my rebellion center reflex. Some part of my mind says "This fool is trying to kill us. Push the red button"

Running is the only practice I followed for years. I started as a jogger and only got to be a "half-fast" runner. BUT, when I missed a day or two, I REALLY MISSED" it.

[7Wannabe5]

@tommytebco:

I agree. The only reason why I am not a complete mess at this juncture is that for the last 12 years or so, I have almost always at least stuck to a bare minimum practice of "go outside and walk/hike at a brisk pace for at least an hour", no matter what the weather. In my current location I do not have easily accessible nature trails like I had every other place I've lived for the last 20 years, so I need to come up with some inside exercises I can do as alternative to water aerobics. I think it is some combination of boredom, inconvenience and pain, in that order, that generally causes me to quit any fitness program. I always end up injuring myself in a manner that totally debilitates me for a while anytime I take up running, so I don't go there anymore. For some reason I do not have the experience or knowledge of physiology to express, I know that it is much more likely that I will injure myself trying to do burpees as my fitness program rather than squats with weights, dance and swimming.

On the plus side, perhaps due to never smoking, barely drinking/drugging and never stressing myself out very much (lol) or just genetic luck, I am generally very healthy. All my numbers are good or excellent and I take no medication of any kind on a regular basis. If I can beat my sugar habit and up my fitness program, I will be borderline obnoxious in my goody-two-shoes-ish-ness.

[Spartan_Warrior]

I'll just leave this here...

2,000 squats per day gave curvy twins four-foot butts

[7Wannabe5]

@SpartanWarrior: lol- I am actually doing the easiest of the many 30 day squat challenges I found which is just do 10 more standard squats each day. Your post inspired me to kick it all the way up to 60 rather than 50 on Day 4. Unfortunately, although it would be quite possible for me to achieve a 48 inch hip measure given enough time and cake, achieving the twins 22 inch waist measure would only be possible on my tall medium-large frame if I had some portion of my rib cage surgically removed. I think around .68 is the smallest my waist-to-hip ratio has ever been. It's around .72 as of this morning which would put me in the excellent health risk category even if I were 20 years younger than I am, even though my BMI is still officially in the overweight range. My waist to bust ratio is around .75 without the need to shell out $5000 unless/until gravity finally wins- (sigh.) It's going to be a vicious expensive cycle if I start fretting about my appearance too much at my age. All I am willing to do is whatever correlates well/best with health measures and maybe another $20/month. I am tolerating my sugar elimination fairly well. Just suffering a wee bit of nostalgic withdrawal. I think this is because I didn't cut out all other carbohydrates. I have a history of very poor compliance with anything resembling the Atkins plan. It always goes something like Day 2 I am feeling great. Day 7 I am having vivid disturbing dreams about cookies. Day 12 I am sitting in my car in a gas station parking lot gnawing on a giant bag of teriyaki beef jerky for whatever tiny bit of sweetness is in the flavoring and chasing it with diet pepsi. Day 20 never get to Day 20.

[7Wannabe5]

Up to 80 standard squats this morning. I can definitely feel the difference in my legs, but my sugar fast seems to be having more of an influence on my measurements than the strength training. I'm slimming down more than I am bulking up, but my waist-to-hip ratio has already shown a tiny bit of improvement and is now closer to .71 than .72. I am much more of a pure sugar-fiend than a carbohydrates-addict. French fries, bread with butter, eh- can take or leave. Bowl of jelly beans on the coffee table-irresistible. Do not go into the doughnut shop if you do plan on eating a doughnut is not good enough. I have to tell myself do not walk down the street where the doughnut shop sits unless you plan on eating a doughnut. Free will does not exist for me past that point. I stocked up on sweet potatoes and bananas yesterday because I could sense weakness coming on.

[7Wannabe5]

So, I did 100 standard body-weight squats yesterday. It wasn't very difficult and my form was decent (according to my sister) and it didn't take me very long (few minutes.) I do not want to do 20 sets of 100 spread out through the day like the twins in the video. I like ticking things off my lists. I left my adjustable dumbbells at my exes and do not wish to retrieve them, so all I have is two 5 lb dumbbells and free access to a weight-training fitness room which is about a mile away and closed on weekends and other inconvenient times. So, I guess my next question would be what weight/reps/frequency of training would be eventual ideal (health/fitness not competition level!) for 5'9" 169lb. female given willingness to devote 10 minutes/day most days to practice?

[jacob]

You wont have time for more than about 500 in 10 minutes anyway. I'd suggest trying to see how many you can do in 10 mins once a week for a max test. And then just do 1/2-2/3 of that max on a regular basis. If we just give you a number, you'll eventually find it too easy as your form gets better. You can also just stick with 100 and reduce the breaks---I assume there are breaks---if you're doing 100 w/o a break, I'd deem you fit already.

If you don't want to get weights, try some of the other squat exercises above. Plyo squats, power jacks, squat lunges, squat kicks, etc.

[JL13]

Can anyone recommend one that's whole body with emphasis upper? All my strength is in my lower half.

[jacob]

Can anyone recommend one that's whole body with emphasis upper? All my strength is in my lower half.

Burpee push ups.

If you have weights then clean and press.

[Spartan_Warrior]

@7Wannabe5: The twins article was just an example of the power of squats! I wouldn't necessarily advocate their high-volume workout; personally, 100 is about the MAX total daily reps I'd recommend for any one exercise. My advice for a squat routine is either 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps using "heavy" weight (~80% of your one-rep max) or 4-8 sets of 8-12 reps using "moderate" weight (~60% of one-rep max). The former set/rep range is more for strength, supposedly, although I would argue it is also the best for hypertrophy (muscle size gain) for a total beginner or an ectomorphic (skinny) body type as there is less volume. The latter set/rep range is the classical bodybuilding hypertrophy range that is supposedly best for increasing muscle size; IMO, the higher volume makes it better suited for experienced lifters, mesomorphs and/or endomorphs.

Either routine should only be done 3-4x a week, with at least one day of rest. I would make use of the free weight room access and use a power rack to do standard barbell squats per either of the above routine. IMO, this will bring the quickest and most efficient gains. (Also, you may want to take precautions against stretch marks in the thigh area if that concerns you.)

@JL13: IMO there is no single exercise that targets the full body with an upper body emphasis the same way the squat does. The closest would probably be doing what I'm recommending for squats except with weighted dips, which would be the closest analogue to the same movement for the upper body. That or, of course, barbell bench press.

Mark Rippetoe in "Starting Strength" (highly recommended, source of much of my information) recommends a simple full body routine consisting of weight-bearing compound movements like squats, bench press, shoulder/military press, deadlift, and pull-ups. For any full-body strength or muscle building routine, I'd start with some combination of those, lift heavy, and go from there.

[7Wannabe5]

@jacob: I can already do more than 100 without a break. Must be my years of walking for at least an hour most days. I did the 10 minute test and I can do 5 sets of 50 with short break in between. It became somewhat aerobic for me, and I broke a sweat at that duration/reps. Just doing 100 in a row didn't seem aerobic. My joints and muscles felt alright, and I kept trying to re-focus myself into proper form by saying "Sit down on the stool" to myself. A slightly wider than shoulder width stance is what feels natural or comfortable for me, and I very slightly pointed my feet outwards because I am naturally pigeon-toed, and directed my knees down the slot between my big toe and next, and not beyond. My sister said I was doing a pretty good job with back posture. I hold my arms in prayer position. I'm not sure what my limiting factor was but I would guess something like inner thigh muscle and co-ordination? So, should I start with 5 sets of 40 in 10 minutes with solid 1 minute breaks and slowly increase up?

@SpartanWarrior: I do not know "power rack." I do not want stretch marks. How do I safely determine my one-rep max? The heaviest thing I could find that was appropriately shaped was a potted plant that weighed 28.6 lbs and that was no problem. Unfortunately, I can't count on being able to make it to the weight room on a MWF schedule, and it is closed on the weekends. Would something like MWTh be okay? I could do more reps, as Jacob recommended above some days, and then go to the weight room other days.

[jacob]

@7wb5 - Well, technically you're already quite fit, so you can just keep doing what you've been doing. If you want to go further, I'd suggest either adding some iron on top or picking a harder bodyweight exercise instead of just piling on more reps. In the bw department, power jacks is the next natural step. See above.

PS: If you only got "slightly aerobic" and "muscles felt alright", I suspect your 10 min max is rather higher than 250. Thighs go to parallel? Try 5x60 or 10x30 in 10 min.

[7Wannabe5]

@jacob: I can do 40 in a minute if I go for speed. My form is definitely parallel. I made a pile of books to double-check. I tried the power-jacks and was wondering if it is acceptable to not have feet all the way together on squat. Does not feel right for me doing them that way.

One of the girls in this video is my niece. She is the daughter of my third sister who was a "popular jock" and was almost selected for the state girl's soccer team (power kicker) way back when. So, there is some precedent for decent leg strength in my genetic circle. Some of us just prefer to lounge about reading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRG0OMR_QLE

[Ego]

@jacob: I can already do more than 100 without a break. Must be my years of walking for at least an hour most days. I did the 10 minute test and I can do 5 sets of 50 with short break in between.

This is really quite impressive. I'd bet that the percentage of people in our age group who can do this is in the 1-2% range. Nice!

Time to consider the burpees again. Or perhaps alternate between regular burpees and reverse burpee

[Spartan_Warrior]

To be honest, you could get away with doing the routines I outlined only twice a week; you may even see more progress with the increased rest time. Along the same lines, I would advise taking at least one day of rest between work-outs, not doing heavy squats on consecutive days; you'll wear out your joints (another potential negative of really high-volume routines, btw) and won't get enough recovery time.

Power rack: https://www.google.com/search?q=power+r ... UQ_AUIBygC

Basically, you adjust the rack to the appropriate height (roughly shoulder height) and the safety bars on either side to a position just below the bottom of your squat, put a barbell on the rack, load the barbell with weight, get underneath it*, lift the barbell, do the squats, re-rack the barbell, get out from under it, and remove the weights. Now you know power rack!

*Actually, this is about where I should insert the disclaimer that the squat is a fairly technical exercise, even moreso when under a barbell, and even removing the bar from the rack is "part" of the exercise that requires correct form, et cetera. All the technical details are more than I can summarize here. I'd advise you to watch a few videos or, again, pick up Starting Strength (which IIRC devotes about 30-40 pages to the squat, so there you go).

If you are reluctant to use the barbell and power rack method, dumbbells are the next best bet. It would really be best to use something that will allow you to easily and systematically increase the weight. Steady, systematic increases in the load/weight is what causes hypertrophy/muscle growth. So, if you can add weight to the potted plant in a measurable and systematic way, and lift it with correct form, it might be good enough. But it's not my first recommendation.

Also note that my recommendations are specifically for the goal of increasing the size of the muscles in your thighs and butt, as I'm under the impression this is your primary goal. If you're just looking for "fitness", I agree with Jacob in that it sounds like you are already generally fit and whatever you're currently doing plus some progression in difficulty would probably suffice for increased fitness and conditioning. That said, as I stated initially, I doubt doing a high volume routine with low/bodyweight will increase muscle size to an appreciable degree. (Notably, even the 2000-squat twins were not relying on bodyweight exercises; their trainer had them doing a full weight lifting routine which I am certain includes weighted barbell squats and other hypertrophy-type training.)

Given the goal of increasing muscle size, stretch marks are a small risk if the underlying muscle increases too fast for the skin's elasticity to catch up. I have a few stretch marks on biceps, hips/thighs, etc. I believe there are topical creams or lotions that will prevent this (skin hydration probably helps in general); you could also make a conscious effort to keep your gains slow and steady so your skin has time to stretch. Actually, if you already have a good baseline of fitness and I imagine a low testosterone level, you may not experience the kind of sudden, explosive "newbie gains" that can result in stretch marks. All I'm saying is if your goal is to increase the size of your muscles, it's worth considering this possible side effect and plan/prevent accordingly.

Oh, as for the one-rep max, the simplest (but not safest) way would just be to figure out how much you can lift in one rep. E.g., start with warm-up reps using the bar and keep adding weight until you can only do one rep per set. This is actually a fine and recommended practice to switch up your routine and test your strength progress once you have the form and everything down. The safer way for a beginner, though, would be to estimate from the weights you use in your normal work-outs using a calculator like this: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/other7.htm Don't get too hung up on this, it's just an estimate to guide you in picking the weight you should be using in a given rep range. If you start with lowish weights and increase weight incrementally, you should be fine regardless.

[jacob]

I tried the power-jacks and was wondering if it is acceptable to not have feet all the way together on squat. Does not feel right for me doing them that way.

Huh? The feet are never together during the squat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKtCqo_fYrc

You can also just swing the arms straight back behind the knees instead of into a football stance.

[jacob]

That said, as I stated initially, I doubt doing a high volume routine with low/bodyweight will increase muscle size to an appreciable degree.

Worked for me/ectomorph here. I guess it depends on one's "autobiography". I spent years doing 3x10 and 5x5 protocols with heavy weights without any appreciable differences. I even stuffed myself with food and shakes 5 times a day until I was sick of it. Switching to KBs and CBs where volume per exercise are generally in the 100 rep range made a difference. I slowly worked my way up from 160# to 180# over two years. Switching to high intensity/power bodyweight exercises (that whole Insanity ordeal, see the exercise log thread) was the first time I consistently pushed beyond and stayed above 180# and reached that fabled progression of 1#/week of muscle. I can no longer fit my "skinny-standard" office pants despite losing an inch on my waist.

One missing point is that you can modify body-weight exercises to require more strength. The trivial one is the one-legged squat, but that's not quite where I'm going. Take the standard bw squat. Going up faster requires more force. Going up so fast you jump at the end requires more yet. Jumping higher requires more force. Going up one mainly one leg while kicking the other forward even more. Landing back in a lunge and jumping up from that, more again. Alternatively, starting from a deeper position, like after a burpee, requires more strength and range too. Of course it's not going to be the same as grinding a #350 pound squat, but try doing this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZa9zikLflY in a Tabata protocol (20 secs on and 10 secs off) until you've done 500 of them. Then tell me how you feel.

Consider bicycle racers, especially sprinters. They're not getting their tree trunk legs from doing 1 rep max efforts in a cage. That's from doing 120rpm in the biggest gear for 1-2 minutes. That's a 240 rep exercise. Doing 50-60 power jacks per minute with good jumping height on it for 1 minute or two minutes is about what that feels like. Or if you have a roadbike, just go outside and try keep it over 30mph for two minutes. Here the modification for higher strength is simple: go faster, get stronger ...

I'm not saying it's going to work for you, maybe you're the opposite of me, but it will work for some.

[7Wannabe5]

Ego said: This is really quite impressive. I'd bet that the percentage of people in our age group who can do this is in the 1-2% range. Nice!

Well, I guess that explains why I got a dating inquiry from a 28 year old who calls himself FitnessKing. Seriously, I generally feel pretty good and unlimited in what I can do except for running, forward burpees, push-ups, pull-ups, many things involving heights and/or ever making an object go into a goal destination or catching/hitting any object coming in my direction. There's a limit to the number of times one wants to receive the honor of being voted Funniest Player.

@jacob: I can totally do reverse burpees and power jacks! The first power jack video I watched showed the opposite exercise. I don't want to do that or forward burpees, but maybe the problem with forward burpees is having my feet too close together too. Seems like that puts too much concentrated pressure on my lower back?

@SpartanWarrior: Gotcha. I will watch some videos and there might be somebody who will help me at the weight room. Maybe I will try to do hip thrusts too. I think that would be the one that I would naturally be best at. I doubt I will get stretch marks from bulging muscles since I didn't get stretch marks from giant babies.

Okay, I think I know what to do next. Power jacks and reverse burpees at home 2-3X week, and 2X week at weight room squats with weights and hip thrusts with weights.

[jacob]

... the problem with forward burpees is having my feet too close together too. Seems like that puts too much concentrated pressure on my lower back?

If you "dip" below a straight plank/line on a forward burpee, it's actually because your front is too weak. For that reason, the [fwd] burpee is also a good abs exercise. Jacking out the legs reduces the required strength a bit (classical Newtonian physics 101). Hitting the plank on just one leg (instead of both at the same time) increases required strength. For similar reason, leaning back on an overhead press with weight (which hurts the back) is a sign of insufficient front core strength.