exercise post II: upper body workout

[anotheranon]

Did the upper body workout (scroll down) with some modifications:

Rows: ended up doing the Yates row (scroll down) as I have no bench. Results: deceptively easy, but produced enough strain that pushups were hell 15 minutes later! I could feel more pinching around my shoulders than with pushups though, and as I need back strength this is a good thing.

Standing shoulder press: another pinch between shoulders and I could really feel the unevenness I've developed from fencing. Will keep this up.

Dumbell bench presses - my elbows jut out painfully when I lower my arms, possibly because I'm lying on the ground and not a bench. Not sure I will continue these as I don't want to tear my joints up.

Other: my legs still have not recovered - ow ow ow! In particular my calves are burning. However, I'll enjoy it as it means I did something yesterday :)

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

If you create an exercise filter, include me in. I've been neglecting my weightbench for far too long and have bookmarked the link to this workout 'cause it looks like something I would actually do (once I unearth my dumbbells from under the sewing projects/mending/ironing ***grin***)

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, you are such a good girl!

[nminusone.livejournal.com]

That site is pretty good by the way. I've been pointing some of the people at work to it. The only quibble is, in the diet section I'd like to see a bit more emphasis on protein quantity and protein quality. I feel that even normal folks would benefit from a bit more than is suggested.

> Rows: ended up doing the Yates row (scroll down) as I have no bench.

It seems tricky to do a good row-type back exercise without some additional equipment. I broke down and built a little stand recently, just so that I could do dual dumbbell rows. Singles with any meaningful weight just weren't working properly.

The Yates rows are probably a good compromise until you work up to a *much* higher weight. Once you get over 150lbs on the bar you'll see why I don't do them. (I like having skin on my legs!)

If you can get a setup to do the horizontal pullup, that looks good. I think there are still expanding pullup bars, with rubber ends, that fit in a door frame. If you have a wide enough doorway, that could work. A barbell laid across some chairs might work fine too.

> Dumbell bench presses - my elbows jut out painfully when I lower my
> arms, possibly because I'm lying on the ground and not a bench.

I lie on a couple of beefy floor pillows. Just a couple inches off the ground helps a lot.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Sometimes my brain clicks in with bright ideas at the strangest times ... dunno WHY this came to me as I was driving to work this morning. However ...

Re your lack of bench ... how sturdy is your ironing board? And is it the type that can adjust to any height? If so, you could try setting it up so that it's only about a foot high (or whatever height you need for elbow room doing presses) and lie on it during presses to spare your elbow joints (probably a good idea to have D. spotting you, just in case of wobbles, although they're unlikely to happen at this height, especially if you keep your feet planted on the floor on each side). This idea doesn't come completely from left field ... when I was little, my parents used to set up the ironing board at bathtub rim level and have us lie on our backs on it, with our heads hanging off the end, to have our hair washed (worked perfectly too ... we tykes never got shampoo or water in our eyes).

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

My ironing board seems pretty flimsy, but at a foot off the ground I can afford to try and see if I'm wrong ;) Thanks for the tip!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I feel that even normal folks would benefit from a bit more than is suggested.

Keep in mind that the author is a 5'1" woman - almost everyone needs more food than she does!

Re: horizontal pullup - I blush to say that I'm fairly sure there's no way I'm strong enough to warrant having such a thing, at least yet. I'm planning to go to an actual gym with skill_grl next week; hopefully I'll get a better idea of my abilities and limitations.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Hope it works for you. :-)