Posts Tagged strength training

Getting Ripped Abs

Posted by sheila in Strength, Tips and Advice, Training on November 27, 2011

Six-pack abs. Or at least ripped abs. How to get them? Well, it’s really a combination of exercises–both cardio and strength training–plus diet. Eat lean. Burn calories. Build muscle. Peel the fat away. See the results. Here’s a very nice 2-part article on the topic, which not only discusses the above in more detail, but also suggests a number of good core exercises to target all 4 of your abdominal muscle areas, as you need to develop all four to see the results you want and crunches alone will NOT do it.

How to get a flat stomach like an Ironman Champ (part 1) – EverymanTri.com
How to get a flat stomach like an Ironman Champ (part 2) – EverymanTri.com

 

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Good Core Videos from Rocky’s Gym

Posted by sheila in Strength, Training on November 1, 2011

So Rocky’s Gym in Santa Cruz has some nice Yelp reviews. Looks like a good place to check out if you’re from that area.

My friend posted one of his YouTube videos on Facebook. Looks like an excellent core exercise that I am going to have to try.

 

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iPhone App for tracking workouts

Posted by sheila in Tools and Gear on April 7, 2011

Here’s a new app I recently bought for my iPhone to track my strength training workouts.

Gym Buddy

(It’s available in the App Store.)

I will be trying it out for the first time tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

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Goal Failure on Pullups

Posted by sheila in Goals, Motivation, Strength, Training on March 22, 2011

Well, so I had decided I wanted to be able to do pullups. Well, at least one to start. I made this decision in November. I knew it would take me a while to work up to it. But with all the swimming I had been doing, especially the Masters swimming that I started in June, my upper body was stronger than I ever remember it being. And I was also doing some upper body strength training. It really seemed like a good time to go for the pullup.

I got some ideas from the Fifty Pullups site and also from the article on Mistressing the Pullup. I couldn’t do even the Week 1 program on the Fifty Pullups site, but I decided to pick some exercises and just keep doing them and at least make some progress. And I picked a date. First day of spring 2011. March 20th 2011. By that day I wanted to be able to do at least 1 pullup unassisted.

So the exercises I picked to work on were: Assisted pullup machine. Pullup position max hang with slow negative pullup. Lat pull downs. Modified (Australian) pullups. Also I have the stretch resistance chords for practicing swim stroke, which uses lats (latissimus dorsi … the muscles used for good, hard swimming and in pullups), so I do that sometimes, too. When I’m at home I do dumbbell pullovers on my weight bench and dumbbell rows. Read the rest of this entry »

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Spiderman Pushups!!!

Posted by sheila in Training on October 5, 2010

Wow, these look tough! I will have to try these sometime. The link goes to a video on usaswimming.org with a demonstration of the exercise. Basically it’s a standard pushup but when you go down you also take one of your feet off the ground and move the knee of that leg towards the elbow of the arm on the same side while bending the leg.

Just watch the video at this link:

Exercise of the month: Spider-man push-ups

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First Run in my FiveFingers

Posted by sheila in Training on April 28, 2009

So when I was in Boston last week, I bought some of the Vibram FiveFingers KSO style shoes. My intention in buying them was to use them for running. Advice from the RunnersWorld.com Barefoot Running Forum suggests transitioning to these shoes from regular running shoes very gradually.

So today I went out for my first run in these shoes. I wanted to do 4 miles today, and I thought I’d do the first half mile in the FiveFingers and then switch it up to Read the rest of this entry »

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Injury Prevention – Exercises for Runners

Posted by sheila in Training on April 27, 2009

Here is the first in a series of videos on the RunnersWorld.com website, that shows exercises to do to help prevent injuries. These look like some I’d personally be interested in try. Lots of core, balance, and leg-strength emphasis.

The Prone March (Never Get Hurt, pt. 1)

The rest of the series should appear on the page when following the link above.

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100 Pushups?

Posted by sheila in Training on April 16, 2009

So here is an interesting website with a pushups program:
http://www.hundredpushups.com/

Maybe after the marathon I should consider doing this? Similar in concept to the beginning running program I did, as well as the “swim a mile” program I did. Basically, start out at a low number of pushups, do workouts three times per week to do more pushups, increasing at a slow number per week. Eventually you can do 100 pushups. Might take longer than 6 weeks, but hey…probably not much longer. Depends on whether you have difficulties and have to repeat any weeks. You’re still getting stronger in any case.

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