therealkat :: Those Who Arrive Survive.

[thekatisalie]

 

Terminus: Sanctuary for all. Community for all.
Those who arrive survive.

 

Main Goal:
Complete a full 6 week challenge. This has been my main struggle lately, so I am going to continue to focus on just finishing one damned challenge again. It's small. It's simple. It's measurable. I am determined to get something right for once.

 

 

I'm Doing Stuff... Things...
 

Goal:
Complete the 6 week 100 push up challenge. Three days a week, work the sets. My objective is to get off my knees and start doing "real" push ups.

 

 

 

Little Ass-Kicker
 

Goal:
I don't care what program I do, but I need to break a sweat three times a week. Five has been hard lately. I've been able to keep my calories in control, but I need to break a sweat three times a week. Les Mills COMBAT, PUMP, and even ChaLEAN Extreme or P90x3 when Beachbody On Demand starts next week. Don't care. Just get sweaty.

 

 

I Hear Nebraska is Nice:

 

Goal:

Stretching. It's becoming more and more apparent to me that I need to stretch my hips and shoulders regularly. Desk job is ruining my back and legs and I need to get that mobility and flexibility back. This can be a formal class, a stretch routine, or the 30 Day Yoga Challenge. Don't care. Just stretch. Because it feels so dang good.

 

 

 

Spaghetti Tuesdays on Wednesday

 

Goal:
Meal planning and tracking.. It's become super obvious to me that I eat better when I track. TwoGrand and MyFitnessPal have been great apps and being able to SEE I am not having enough veg/fruit/fat whatever is really helping me plan my meals better. I try to have a small breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner. We're going to try to keep that up and log everything for 6 weeks.

 

 

People in Hell Want Slurpees

 

Goal:
Get a small project around the house done three times a week before you sit on your butt all night. It can be laundry. Cleaning the cat boxes. Taking care of the hall closest that badly need re-sorting. It can even be vacuuming. Just do it. Winter is making you too lazy and you need to get the house back in a functioning order.

[thekatisalie]

Progress:

 

Stuff... Things...: 100 Push Up Challenge 5/18

 

28%

28%

 

Little Ass-Kicker: Get Sweaty 3 Times a Week 13/18

 

72%

72%

 

I Hear Nebraska is Nice: Stretch 10/18

 

56%

56%

 

Spaghetti Tuesdays on Wednesday: Meal Tracking 37/42

 

88%

88%

 

People in Hell Want Slurpees: Be an adult and clean your friggen house. 10/18

 

56%

56%

[darkfoxx]

Glad to see you're challenging this cycle and determined to kick ass! 

[thekatisalie]

A day late never hurt, right? Quick check in... Did my first 100 Push Up Challenge day yesterday. My shoulders are hurting already, so I'm glad there is a rest day in between each working day! I did the stretching for shoulders and chest with the 30 Day Yoga Challenge last night after XBox Fitness was being a jerk to me and locking me out of everything. Made some progress on my clover hat for Get Lucky 7k and played a little Summoners War before bed. It was a pretty good day, overall.

 

All my food was tracked both in MFP and on TwoGrand. One for calorie counting, the other for the visual to help me SEE my nutrition gaps.

 

Good start, methinks.

[goodbye_farewell]

I knew you couldn't stay away

[Jittersthe.Clown]

You got this, Kat.  

[Sam Ashen]

Checking in and saying hi from the Twin Cities area.  I'm south of the river.

 

 

 

A day late never hurt, right?

 

But a dollar short does.

 

 

 

 It's become super obvious to me that I eat better when I track.

 

It works exactly that way for me too.  I find success when I track.  The obvious junk I don't need disappears.  When I get lazy and stop tracking, the junk starts slipping in again.

 

 

 

Desk job is ruining my back and legs and I need to get that mobility and flexibility back.

 

Desk job here, too.  I have tight psoas, tight hamstrings.  Well, tight everything.  Driver's foot.  Computer neck.

 

 

 

My objective is to get off my knees and start doing "real" push ups.

 

The advice I read recently (in a book) was never do push-ups from your knees because it takes your core out of the equation and you never get better.  The advice they give instead is to elevate the position of your hands.  Now you can progress lower and lower until you are doing push-ups off the ground.  Then you can start elevating your feet until you are doing hand-stand pushups!

 

It looks like the resources here on NF say pretty much the same thing.

 

 

“But I can’t do a push up!â€

That’s okay, here’s a plan that will help you get there. You need to start with an easier push movement, and work up to progressively more difficult types of moves that will eventually result in you doing true push ups.

Start with Wall Push Ups:

Just like with a regular push up, clench your butt, brace your abs, and set your hands on a wall at a width that’s wider than shoulder-width apart. Walk backwards with your feet until your arms are fully extended and supporting your weight (generally one decent sized step back with both feet will suffice). Keeping the rest of your body in a straight line, steadily lower yourself towards the wall until your nose almost touches the wall, and then explode back up to the starting position.

Do 4 sets of wall push ups with a 2-minute rest between sets, every other day.Keep track of how many repetitions you can do WITH PROPER FORM for each set in a notebook for easy comparison to previous workouts.  Once you can do 4 sets of 20 repetitions of wall push ups, you can progress to elevated (or incline) push ups.

Elevated Push Ups

[Apparently they have a video here]

Elevated push ups are just what they sound like â€“ your hands are on an elevated surface, whether it’s something as tall as a kitchen table or as low as a few blocks that are inches off the ground. This will depend on your level of strength and experience.

If you’ve just progressed from wall push ups, pick something that is at a level that’s right for you â€“ I generally find the back of a park bench or the side of a picnic table to be a perfect height for doing incline push ups.

Do 4 sets of elevated push ups with a 2-minute rest between sets, every other day. Again, keep track of all of your stats for how many proper form repetitions you can do in each set.  Once you can do 4 sets of 20 repetitions, it’s time to either move to regular push ups, knee push ups, or a lower height for your hands to be supported.

To work on progression, try to doing your elevated push ups on the stairs in your house. As you get stronger, you can move your hands to lower and lower steps until your hands are on the ground.

Now, once you’re cranking out four sets of proper form elevated push ups  you need to progress to either regular push ups, a lower incline push up, or push ups with your knees on the ground. In my opinion, if you can do 4 sets of 20 repetitions of incline push ups, it might be time to switch to regular push ups.

 

 

Complete a full 6 week challenge. This has been my main struggle lately, so I am going to continue to focus on just finishing one damned challenge again.

 

I struggle with finishing video games.  I'm a perfectionist.  If it's ugly, but I make it, I just don't like it.  I waste too much time reloading.  If I leave it for more than one week, I cannot get back into the same game and finish.  I want to play Baldur's Gate start to finish, but just cannot string together days and willpower to do it.  

 

Anyway - Good luck with your challenge!  Do you work out at home or at a gym?

[thekatisalie]

@Foxx @Jitters @Wover -- Thanks guys You always have my back, even though I've been a total mess these last few challenges. I appreciate that so much.

 

@Sam Hello from New Brighton I work out primarily at home. I actually have an LA Fitness less than a mile from my house (.73 miles, actually. I used to walk there), but I actually found that I gained nearly 15 pounds working out at the gym because I kept finding excuses not to go. Dinner was going to take too long to make. I was late getting home from work. I had plans with a friend... etc. I started working out at home and lost so much more and stayed on track SO much better.

Thanks for the push-up tips! I might give that a shot... I have done enough knee pushups that I consciously keep my core tight, but I think tomorrow I will try this elevated arms method and see if it feels ok!

[Oramac]

Well I had a post all typed up and cool, but those damn intarweb gods ate it.  Shoot.  

 

So anyway, I'm subbing for encouragement! 

[thekatisalie]

Thanks, Oramac Damn the internet gremlins!

[mitch_dee]

WooHoo Kat's here......time to go to lurker mode...

[thekatisalie]

*lurk, lurk* Mitch, you've probably been my most consistent lurker

[Sam Ashen]

@Sam Hello from New Brighton

 

Clear across.    Prior Lake.

[thekatisalie]

Ok, so I think I am going to change my final goal to be to DO something around the house three times a week... because I am quickly seeing that I knit and play Summoners War just about EVERY night... yet there is still a pile of costumes in the bedroom from Halloween, and a room full of items that need to be sorted and cataloged for donation... So it's done.

 

I read more on push ups last night and realized I have been doing bad, horrible for your shoulder push ups my whole life. Which would probably be why my shoulder injury really acts up with lots of push ups... So while I did take my rest day for them 100 push up challenge, I did experiment a little to see what feels best. Answer: elbows in, tight to the body, slight incline, on the toes. It's hard... but I will do it. All the punching I've been doing lately has given me SOME shoulder muscle, but it's obvious my pecs are still quite weak. Here's hoping that lots of push ups made my damned boobs shrink finally. Muscle burns fat, right? Stupid boobs. EVERYTHING ELSE HS SHRANK - WHY NOT YOU?!

 

Anyway. So. I did track and log all my food yesterday. If you want to see what I'm eating, you can find me on MyFitnessPal or on TwoGrand as therealkat. MFP is more data. TwoGrand is more pics of tasty food and action heros.

 

Day two is in the books.

 

[Jittersthe.Clown]

...ya know, I want to comment on your boob remark, but I just can't.  

 

Glad you figured out your push ups too.  Way to go, Kat!

[Sam Ashen]

I read more on push ups last night and realized I have been doing bad, horrible for your shoulder push ups my whole life. Which would probably be why my shoulder injury really acts up with lots of push ups... So while I did take my rest day for them 100 push up challenge, I did experiment a little to see what feels best. Answer: elbows in, tight to the body, slight incline, on the toes.

 

This sounds a lot like a story I told earlier about bench press:

 

Almost a year ago, I was working on bench press and there were two guys next to me, also working on bench press.  One (his name starts with N) was clearly instructing the other.  He demonstrated what he said was the wrong way to do it, saying, "This is the way most everybody does bench press."

 

I interrupted when he was finished the demonstration.  "Hey, wait a minute!  I'm most everybody!"  I just realized that I had been doing bench press wrong my entire life!

 

His analogy is when you bench press, you are pushing a weight upwards.  If you stand up and give somebody (or a heavy bag) a big shove, your elbows are down by your sides - not up.  It works the same way with bench press - but it looks more natural to have the upper arms parallel to the bar.  Much later, I asked another guy I knew, J, and he had me show him how I was doing bench press with an insignificant weight.  When I reached the bottom position with the upper arms parallel to the bar, he moved my hand forward and my elbow back and shoved downward on the lower arm.  It felt like a Monk had twisted my arm in a very awkward position and the next move would pop the shoulder out of socket.  "That doesn't feel so good, does it?  That is what you are doing to your shoulders."

 

The fix was to choose a narrower grip and move my elbows to my sides.  It felt really unnatural at first.  I had to drop the weight to nothing, then half of what I was working with before.  When I got more confident with this grip, I learned new things.

 

When I was talking to N, I also asked him about a rumor I heard about how working the Lats helps bench press and asked why that is.  He did not really answer why - just said because they do.

 

When the arms are up, the shoulders are tight and the lats are relaxed.  The bottom of the bench press is hitting the shoulders.  If you are pushing on a heavy bag with your arm up, you can feel your shoulder moving, but nothing from your lats.  When the arms are down, the lats are flexed and the shoulders are relaxed.  You can feel this too.

 

The bottom line is the lats are much stronger then the shoulders and when you have your arms down, you get to use the lats to help the initial push instead of the shoulders.  Another thing I found is that instead of easing the weight down to my chest, I can almost drop the weight down, catching it at the bottom and getting a bounce back up.

 

(I was making a comment in the Form Check section here.  My post count was 6 when I made the comment and it struck me as very odd nobody made a comment for days.)

 

I bet I do the same darned thing with pushups.  Elbows way up instead of down by the sides.

 

I bet I do the same darned thing with punches.  Elbows way up instead of down by the sides.  In spite of monk-style training, I still have trouble keeping the shoulders relaxed.

 

Hope the form works out well.  Maybe I will try it tonight!

[thekatisalie]

Hope the form works out well.  Maybe I will try it tonight!

 

Luckily when I started our MMA program, my husband was there to correct my form since he's done it for years. Squats and presses and everything else? Same experience as you. Even my gym trainer didn't bother correcting me! And they knew I had knee and shoulder problems. Thankfully I've been corrected in most things and try my best to keep great form, now. I am still kinda terrible in deadlifts with Les Mills PUMP, but I am getting there.

 

...ya know, I want to comment on your boob remark, but I just can't. 

 

I was in a bra in 5th grade. I was a C when I graduated high school. And a DD when I graduated college. I was a DD and a size 4. WHAT THE HELL BODY.

[Oramac]

Ok, so I think I am going to change my final goal to be to DO something around the house three times a week... because I am quickly seeing that I knit and play Summoners War just about EVERY night... yet there is still a pile of costumes in the bedroom from Halloween, and a room full of items that need to be sorted and cataloged for donation... So it's done.

 

Good call!!  I do much the same thing sometimes.  Getting up and moving around is always helpful.  And surprisingly productive! 

 

...ya know, I want to comment on your boob remark, but I just can't.  

 

Glad you figured out your push ups too.  Way to go, Kat!

Luckily when I started our MMA program, my husband was there to correct my form since he's done it for years. Squats and presses and everything else? Same experience as you. Even my gym trainer didn't bother correcting me! And they knew I had knee and shoulder problems. Thankfully I've been corrected in most things and try my best to keep great form, now. I am still kinda terrible in deadlifts with Les Mills PUMP, but I am getting there.

 

I was in a bra in 5th grade. I was a C when I graduated high school. And a DD when I graduated college. I was a DD and a size 4. WHAT THE HELL BODY.

 

Yea, sorry, I gotta go with ProtoJitters on this one.  

[Jittersthe.Clown]

Well put together?    

 

[thekatisalie]

That's what husbandface says. I threatened a reduction and he was like "WHUT." We'll see what happens after kids.

[Oramac]

Edited.

 

Please forgive me.  Sometimes my brain/mouth filter breaks.   

[Ceasefire]

I wanna do push-up progressions with you at the gym! You should come with me on Sunday when we're closed. XD

 

You got this girl~

[thekatisalie]

I'd love to do that again some time. I am so terrible at push ups. Probably cause I've been doing them wrong my whole life...

[Ceasefire]

As my trainer would say, as long as there's no pain in the motion, it's not 'wrong'. =)

 

If you're up for it this weekend, I'm game! I spent time there last weekend just hanging on the pull-up bars and hula hooping. XD

 

If you need me to message you some words of encouragement for your goals, let me know~ I need to message you this morning anyway...

 

/hops to Facebook

[Jittersthe.Clown]

KAT!!!   

How's it going?