Deis

I don't know...just because pole-dancing is typically associated with stripping doesn't mean there's nothing to it but the sexy, or that it can't be disassociated, ever.

That bothers me a bit too. Is it not enough that these women are partaking in a seriously difficult sport (SHE'S HOLDING HERSELF UPSIDE DOWN ON A POLE BY CLAMPING IT BETWEEN HER UPPER ARM AND HER RIBS, HOLY SHIT!) without needing to bring the sexy?:/

Please note that I'm talking about pole-dancing, not stripping. Stripping is a different, complicated issue, which I don't want to get into here. What I want to talk about here are strong, fit, agile women who can do awesome things like supporting their own body weight upside down with one knee wrapped around a metal pole. In heels! Awesome.

Could you buy your partner non-vegetarian crisps? I'm a vegan, and I have the same problem with doughnuts (jam doughnuts from the co-op are vegan). If my partner wants some, he just buys them from tesco, since they have egg in, and I won't touch them.

Ha! I like that one.

I'm going for strength, so I'll guess I'll be going for 3-5 reps, moving up when I can 6 in each set. The swimming pain is from twisting. It seems that I twist my entire upper body to breathe in front crawl, so I'm focusing on just turning my head. I've been looking at youtube videos, reading books, and, once, asking an extremely good swimmer I saw in the pool to give me some pointers. He was nice; he watched me swim two whole laps and gave me specific pointers, which was way more than the general stuff I'd been hoping for. I'll add in the tricep thing you mentioned, and look at Waldo's suggestions when I get better at push ups/pull ups. Maybe try overhead presses too. I'll see how it all feels together on Thursday. List so far is; Machines Assisted pull-ups Lat pulldown Free Weights Dumbell bench press goblet squats/some kind of weighted squats - I'll play with it and see where the weight feels best. Dumbell deadlifts counter-weighted pistol squats (I expect to fall on my ass several times) Tricep thing (see above) dumbell overhead press Other Stuff Planks I'll go for 3 sets of 3-5 reps, levelling up when I do 3 x 6 reps. Planks, I'll gradually increase the time to 1-2 minutes in a row before adding weight in 5lb increments, levelling up when I can hold each weight up for over a minute. Edit: Just googled up some stuff about strength reps/sets, and they suggest I should do more than 3 sets. How does 5 sound, levelling up at 5x5? Reading a bit more, I have to ask; does it make sense to have one of my workouts be for explosive, max strength (ie, 5 x 3-5), and the other for endurance strength (so 3 x 12-16)? Correct me on those numbers if you like. I'd like to build up both, in order to move faster for longer. Or will swimming and running for longer take care of endurance nicely? One of my lifetime goals is to run the Comrades ultramarathon, so endurance is important to me.

I actually made a post in the bad_service comm on LJ, just to rant about that. I feel very validated after a bunch of strong women were supportive. They also told me about Tumblr's Strong is the new Skinny tag. MirGSS, I think the routine I came up with covers the same areas you mentioned, so I feel like I'm good to go, now. I googled a bit more, so with squats, I figure I'll experiment with goblet squats and weights-on-the-shoulders squats, and figure out what works for me. I'm also planning to skip the tricep extensions for now, since they'll be getting a workout with other stuff; if I find that I need to, later, I'll add in something just for them. I'll do dumbell deadlifts when my back feels better, and I'll look at weighted planks more when I can hold one for 1-2 minutes, just to build up some endurance.

Thanks, MirGSS. What kind of reps/sets are you doing? I'm going by advice from this article, but I'm totally open to new opinions. Also, thanks for the note about cores. I'll guess I'll just stick with straight forward planks.

Right, to recap where I am at present; I'm thinking of building a workout around push-up, pull-ups, squats, and planks. Though I can do the basics of these movements at home, I am more likely to stick with it and push myself further in a gym. I think that this will work all my muscle groups (please correct me if I'm wrong here). These are the notes I have so far. PLEASE, tell me if there are any redundancies in there, or anything that will hurt me. Also, if I'm missing anything. Pull-Up Stuff Assisted pull-up machine, which does have parallel grips, so I want to do lat pulldowns as well, with a wide grip. When I've worked up to doing an actual pull-up, I'll pinch my boyfriend sandbag, or use dumbells to do weighted pull-ups. Push-Up Stuff Actual push-ups, working up to incline push-ups. Atm, I'm right on the verge between knee push-ups and actual push-ups with good form. Bench press. There are two machines available; a Smith machine, which I have heard terrible things about, and a vertical bench press. Should I try the vertical bench press, or just try to pinch the bench from the smith machine and use dumbells? The latter would be tricky, but it's possible. Any advice on how to do that safely? Or is the vertical bench press less damaging than a smith machine? Triceps extension - the gym has one of those giant weight machines with elastic cables attached to the weights. I intend to stand, holding the handle at elbow height in front of me, extend arms downwards till straight without locking elbows, then carefully return to start and repeat. Does that sound effective and safe? The only other way I know to do tricep extensions involves being bent over, and I prefer not to do that since I'd be surrounded by a large group of men at the time. They stare at me enough when I hold weights. Squats Dumbell squats. I gather that these are done by holding the dumbbells at shoulder height, and then doing a good form squat? Is that right? Is it as, less, or differently effective to hold one dumbell out in front of me while squatting? Should I do these one way, or both, or another way? I'm also going to try jump squats and the isometric squats waldo mentioned. I'd like to try deadlifts with dumbells, but I'm having some lower back pain atm (caused, I suspect, by bad form while swimming, which I'm concentrating on fixing atm). I suspect that I might hurt my back more at this point; am I worrying for no reason? Atm, I'm thinking I'll wait till my back feels better, and then try them. I also want to try to do pistol squats; I've found that looping my skipping rope around my bed and holding on to that works, though, obviously, it's taking a lot of the weight off me. I'll also try using stairs for those, and gradually work up to doing them properly. Planks I'm going to start with doing 4 x 15s, then 3 x 20s, 4 x 30s, 3 x 40s, etc, until I get up to 6 minutes (I picked 6 minutes because I'm loosely basing this on the Angry Bird Workout). After that, I'm not sure, but that does seem like it's a long way off atm. I'm also thinking of shoulder bridges and reverse planks, but I'm not sure what to do with those. Do I go for time, repetitions, what? I can hold both for over a minute, so any tips for a set I can do with those, or a way to make them harder will be appreciated. I do know about raising one leg for both, which I can do, but it's putting together a set that I'm struggling with. Overall I'm thinking of going through the list 2-3 times in a circuit (should I include the planks in that, or will one rep be enough?). I'm going to start with a weight I can do 8-10 good form reps with, leveling up when I hit 16 good form reps. I'm intending to go to the gym twice a week for now, on Monday afternoons and Thursday evenings. I'm next going this Thursday, which is women-only time, so, hopefully, I'll have the weight to myself. I'm currently warming up on the rowing machine, since it's the only cardio machine I like. I generally row for three minutes at the beginning and end of each session. Should I be doing something more/less/instead/as well? I really appreciate all your help, guys.

They have both. Is it pointless to use both? I do wonder, now, if they told me that because they thought I'd break a nail or something. What do you suggest doing with them? I'm thinking squats with dumbbells, but lack ideas beyond that.

I'll take a look at the resource you mentioned, but, while we're here, which bodyweight exercises would you particularly recommend? Basic pull-ups/push-ups/squats? I can't seem to get anywhere with pull-ups, so I'm hoping the assisted pull-up machine will help me work-up to those. Body-weight squats, it feels like I need something a bit more, to push myself further. Any tips? Edit: I just looked, and I can't find the resources. Link please? Edit 2: Nevermind, found it!

Hi guys. I recently started going to a gym. I had my induction last week, and the lady couldn't believe that I actually wanted to strength train; though she did, begrudgingly, show me the machines, she kept telling me to "do 25, rest a minute, repeat for 4 sets", which, according to everything I've ever read, is ridiculous. She also insisted that I'd bulk up, as did the guys there, who did, however, show me how to use the stuff she ignored. This is the first time I've ever set foot in a gym, for context, so I'm really not sure of what I'm doing. Other context; I'm female, and I run three times a week, and swim the same amount. Only short distances - maybe half an hour each time. I'm skinny-fat, for the most part. I went today, to get a better idea of what's available to me. I'm not certain of the names of all the machines, but the few I tried were; an assisted pull-up machine, something that did arm extensions, something that did lat pulldowns, a thing you could bench press on, a thing for seated leg curls, and a pectoral fly thing. Oh, and a thing that was like a seat with a metal board in front of it; you sat down, and pushed the board away with your feet, which lifted a weight. I hope these descriptions are clear enough to those of you who are in gyms regularly. I can try to be more precise if anything's too vague. There are some free weights too, but I'm not certain I can rely on using those, since I gather I need a member of staff to supervise, and they've been very unhelpful so far (I can't change gyms; where I live, gym sessions are free, so you take what you can get). My goals are to build up my upper body. I'd like to be able to swim faster, particularly since I have a recurring problem with relying on my legs too much. Legs, I'm less concerned with, though I'll probably stick to using the two leg machines I mentioned above. I also have a sneaking suspicion that my back is weak, so I'd like to make that stronger. I was thinking of, essentially, using this advice for weight/reps. Does that sound good? Any advice on a routine for me? I know weight machines can unbalance you, but, as far as I can see, these are my only option at present. Any that will do more harm than good here? Thanks in advance. Edit: Okay. Having read a few of the resources, including the beginner and advanced bodyweight workouts and how not to suck in a gym (I forget the exact title), I've concluded that I should leave the leg machines the hell alone. Does anyone have any tips for getting from squats to one-legged squats? It still seems that the assisted pull-up machine will be useful for me. It really seems like something that will work for me, to work up to doing a full pull-up. I've looked for places to do inverted rows, and there isn't anywhere around here. Any thoughts on the arm extension thing, lat pulldown thing, bench-press machine, or pectoral fly? Or any tips for stuff I can do with the free weights? I want to keep going to the gym, since I have to be in the building anyway, to swim, so it's harder for me to not-do workouts, while I'm tempted to "do them tomorrow" at home.

Thank you for your advice. My life is falling apart. I'm currently in the process of putting it back together. That's not a bad thing, but it does mean that I have a lot going on, and that my goals have changed since I wrote that first post. I'll be back soon.

I did take it to the police station yesterday. I told them that it's been going on for three years, though it's never escalated this far before, but I was concerned, since it had now spread into my private life. They told me it wasn't harassment, asked why I'd never reported it before, and said they wouldn't be keeping a record - until I started writing down everything they said to me. Then they filed it properly, and offered me an appointment for tomorrow. Tomorrow, I want to bring up the following; 1. That this coworker has been pestering me for years, and has never once taken the hint before when I've asked him to leave me alone, or when I've reported him to managers. 2. That other coworkers have made similar comments before now - what if they join forces, and decide it would be hilarious to pester me in other ways? Especially since two of those coworkers are managers, and the filing system simply isn't good enough to hide my contact details from them while allowing the store manager to get ahold of me if he needs to. At the very least, I want a record kept of this report, just in case. Ideally, I'd like someone to go round, and just tell him off for five minutes, so he (and my other ex-coworkers) know I am utterly serious about it. I find it alarming that, as soon as I left the company, the comments immediately spread into my private life. I do not want them to spread any further. As for why I didn't contact the police before now; 1. After I was sexually assaulted, the police made me feel a lot worse, and didn't help in any way whatsoever. In fact, I cannot think of a single occasion where I've spoken to the police, and their attitudes haven't made the entire event worse. I'm not sure why they're confused as to why this makes me reluctant to deal with them. 2. Every time, I hoped he'd take the hint and stop, and sometimes he did for a while, or we'd be scheduled on different shifts. Plus, I could go home, and not be bothered. Now though, the fact that it's spread into my private life, once I finally left the company, worries me. Does all this sound reasonable? In other news, I've narrowed my interest down to one area - economics. I'm thinking social economics, but, for now, I'm just looking at switching my degree from pure maths to a BSc in Economics and Mathematical Sciences. I don't lose much ground at this point - only 30 points, and that came from a foundation course I did to make sure I was up to doing university level work. I'll actually finish sooner than I would have for pure maths, since the modules are arranged at more convenient times. Now I just need to find a job in a vaguely related field, to do until I finish my degree. I'm thinking finance - banking, for instance. Or maybe getting into something for the Birmingham city council? What can socioeconomists do, before they're economists? The only people I know who are doing the kind of work I'd like to do - Stephen Landsburg, Tim Harford, Dan Ariely, Stephen Levitt, Sudhir Venkatesh - work in academics and/or as journalists, and, as far as i can tell, started straight from education.

The one time I sat through most of a football match was in person. I got through it by dressing up in the team's colours, cheering my head off when they got anywhere near the goal, booing the other team like they were a pantomime villain, and talking to everyone else in the stands. I still got bored halfway through. That said, I think I just don't like sports.

I don't know if I can do that, since the entire event took place outside of the working environment, and stuff that did happen at work isn't documented.

...so, I just received a facebook message from an ex-coworker asking if I am currently "giving B.J.s". Colour me fucking furious. Apparently, it's not even the coworker whose name is on it, since he's currently at work with no computer access. Top suspect is the soon-to-be-manager who suggested I work topless. Or, N, another manager who once repeatedly asked me if I "sucked", until I told him I considered that to be sexual harassment and left the room. It's exactly the kind of thing he'd think is hilarious. I'm tempted to print out the message and take it along to the jobcentre with me, as an example of the kind of harassment that makes it impossible for me to continue working there. That or send it to the store's owner. He has three daughters himself, and he's always been a lot nicer than the actual managers.

It doesn't work for me, because I try to sing along. Weirdly, films can help me concentrate, to a certain point, but only if it's something I've seen before. I find it difficult to watch new films. I want to sit still, and concentrate, and not miss a single word, but it becomes unbearable, so I end up watching them in bits.

I can clear off my desk, and set a timer, and work quietly, for a while, if I'm in the right state of mind...but the second I need to look something up online, I'm gone. I'm just going to check this one thing...then this thing...and I had to find out about that thing...why do I have that tab open? Oh yes, I needed to do something with that, and I was going to read that, and -

Thanks. It was this post that made me go, "hey, I have those problems too!", and it's these tips that I'm looking at. I figure everything mentioned is stuff that will help, or, at the very least, won't hurt. She has a point about the lack of info out there; I wasn't previously aware that hyperfocusing, which I've known that I do for many years now, was part of ADHD, and it's not something my doctor ever considered. It was previously thought that I was on the autism spectrum, since something very like hyperfocusing often appears there, but that diagnosis fits less and less as I get older, and gain more life experience, so I think those symptoms were just a lack of socialisation. I've been using google calender to schedule each day for a while nore, but I'm finding that micro-managing to a much greater degree is helping quite a lot. For instance, I've started scheduling in travel time seperately, instead of assuming it's included. I've also started scheduling my "free time" to a greater degree; just to the extent of noting down an activity. Otherwise, I'll flit between games, or music, or dancing, or reading, or writing, and not really enjoy any of them. I'll change this if I feel like it, but it feels reassuring to see that it's all there, there's time for it, and I'm not missing out on anything. As I mentioned, I write down the basic events, and where I need to be, along with a list of tasks to accomplish in that time, broken up into baby steps. I try to stay on the schedule, but I am able to rework it if I need to; today, for instance, I found that some tasks took longer than expected, and some much less. I also schedule in when I intend to sleep, but that's the item I have most trouble sticking to. I need to mentally prioritise it more.

...okay, my body hurts today, and I am revising my plans today to reflect this. I got eight minutes into the first run, and had to stop. I'm feeling it in my core, particularly around my hips and my rib cage. I did the negative pull-ups, and they went fine. I've got two hours of krav maga tonight, so I'll hold off on the rest till I know how I feel later. On the bright side, my piercing doesn't hurt.

Thanks, Aidan. I was planning to incorporate fartleks into my workouts. As I said above, I am not acting on the assumption that I have ADHD, or self-diagnosing it (since it's so easy to think you have every condition known to man, on the internet!). HOWEVER, it is helping me, quite a lot, to act as if I do have it. Filling in my schedule, with, at the very least, times and ideas for meals helps, especially since, if I leave meal-planning until I am hungry, I am extremely likely to choose junk food. Using my schedule also helps me to split up my to-do list into easily memorable and manageable chunks, so I can get to it within the allotted time span. It helps me to stop flitting around the list, and trying to plan, and to just get on with things. I'm still getting distracted quite often, but I've been writing things down, instead of attempting to act on them immediately. Along those lines, I've also found that writing down extremely basic steps for even the simplest things on my to-do really helps me to get them done. It's much easier to set aside time for each step, than to try to hold these steps in my head, and try to get to them "when I can". Yay, progress! I didn't manage to run yesterday, so I'm going to run today, instead. Today, I aim to; W5 (warm-up), r10, w3, r10, W5 (cooldown). I'm also planning to use SprintGPS to time 3 miles, which I hope to hit within these times. It won't be any kind of hardship to just walk a bit longer, really. 5 Negative Pull-Ups, with 2 minute breaks. D2W-2 of 20 pull-ups. My arms are feeling the effects of Tuesday today! Apparently, by Sunday, I'll be able to do my first pull-up. 50 Push-Ups. Part of the Angry Birds Workout. Aiming for as few sets as possible, with a one minute break between each. I hope to get two sets of 25. 30 Bodyweight Squats. I'm using AtoG squats, and I hope to get these in one set. 2 Minutes of Planks. I hope to get this in no more than three sets. I know I can hold a plank for a minute, so, ideally, I hope to get it in two.

Thanks. I took a look at your thread, and, wow, that's a lot of goals!

Goals To Run 3 Miles in under 30 Minutes.To Do 10 Pull Ups in an Hour.Hold a Plank For 2 Minutes Straight.To Be Able To Touch My Toes Comfortably.To Hydrate Well (measured by not feeling overly thirsty, clear urine. No, I'm not going to intimately detail that last one for y'all. You're welcome).To Better Organise My Life, and Thereby Eat and Sleep Better, By Providing (and taking!) Adequate Time to Do So.Since my goals do not include any changes in my measurements, I have chosen not to include them. The Details In General; I will plan out my workouts each week, and post clear descriptions of what I intend to achieve in this thread. I will also post updates of how each workout went, as I have been doing. To Run 3 Miles; For this one, I'm going to stick with C25K, although mixing and matching the workouts a little. I'm planning to run every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Tomorrow, I intend to run 10 minutes, walk 3 minutes, then run another 10 minutes. Friday I'll run for 20 minutes, and on Sunday, I'll run for 25. In theory, I should be up to running for 30 minutes before my birthday (the 12th of August - I'm coming for you, La Petite Lionne!), and then I'll work on increasing distance and speed. My current record for a 3 mile run is 44:40, with my shortest split 12:42 (although, I wasn't running the entire time for that one). To Do 10 Pull Ups in an Hour; I'm going to use Twenty Pull Ups for this. I'll do them after my runs, except on Wednesdays. Since I'm also planning to do the Angry Birds workout on these days, I'll substitute the Twenty Pull Ups program for the back exercises segment, while keeping everything else the same. I started Week -2 today (Tuesday), so, with any luck, I'll be able to do one pull up by the end of the week. I am cautiously optimistic about this. Hold a Plank for Two Minutes Straight I hope to achieve this in the course of doing the Angry Birds workout three times a week. To Be Able to Touch My Toes Comfortably I'm going to aim to do at least twenty minutes of yoga, twice a week, and I hope to achieve this as part of it. I've come up with no way to measure my progress here, other than subjectively. I'll know when I've achieved it, of course, I just don't have an easily definable way of measuring how close I am. Hydrating Well I suspect that I may be going wrong by gulping water (which I hear can direct it straight to your bladder, without doing your system much good), so I'm going to aim to sip water throughout the day. I want to get through 4-5 litres per day, more if the weather is hot or after exercise. To Better Organise My Life, and Thereby Eat and Sleep Better, By Providing (and taking!) Adequate Time to Do So. I'm going to start by getting to bed now, and further clarifying this in the morning. Edit: So, atm, I'm thinking along the lines of; Better use of my schedule, including allowing time for meals, and planning out what to make. Sticking to a bedtime. Following the rule that my laptop does not come to bed with me. I just end watching anime till 3am. The phone can charge on the other side of the room, too. Jury's out on books atm. Working through the FlyLady site, which will help me to establish a bedtime routine and declutter my life, amongst other things. I also intend to look into freezer cooking, beginning with making a brainstorm of recipes which are suitable for freezing, and then setting aside time to do so. For Funsies Record good versions of the following (we'll work on excellent later); I'll Make a Man Out of You - this one is fun and powerful. Fields of Gold - this has notes which are difficult for me to hold. Legally Blonde - this one is right at the upper limits of my high notes. Ain't No Sunshine - this one is at the limits of my low notes. Castle Imitation - This one is in Japanese, so the lyrics will be difficult for me.