Fiddleman

This happens to be a pretty timely thread topic. One of the workouts my trainer had me do today was 3 rounds: 10 front squats @85 lb 18 v-ups 36 jumping lunges. Let me tell you those "light" front squats sure felt "heavy" after each round of 36 jumping lunges. A jumping lunge is one where you jump between lower lunge positions. For sake of completion, my other WOD (workout of the day) was 5 sets of 10 back squats at 80% max weight. Those jumping lunges better make me sore tomorrow.

Hey - if we are suggesting walking DVDs, why not just go for walks outside. It is much more refreshing, plus you can take your dog if you have one. Walking is great! I spent the first 2 months walking 3-4 miles a day. It was great! My dog loved all the walking. I made it interesting after a month by walking up hills or picking up the pace. I then graduated onto my ellyptical at month 3, running at month 5 and cross fit at month 7 until today.

Overhead lifts with zero core and lower body movement with no jerk is one of my most challenging lifts. It is all arms and shoulder strength. When it gets heavy i really lose my ability to explode from a clean to straight arms up in the air. I am pressing 150 today as my max. For overhead lifts, you definitely hit a wall in a matter of only 2.5-5 lb increase. The reason why I am writing this thread is I need some advice on how to get stronger faster so I can lift much more for a max. If I am going to transition into the Olympic lifts soon, I better be able to do the overhead lifts with heavy weights. I have found that doing military presses and full dive bombers really helps with strengthening my shoulders and upper region so far, especially when reversing the motion. However, my weight is 177 and not all of it is on my hands when doing these body weight exercises. I suppose handstand push-ups would be a better exercise to improve overhead strength, but I am not ready to do these yet. For reference, here is a description of a full dive bomber (great exercise) : http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/arms/exercises/dive-bomber-push-up/ Is building up my pectorals from bench pressing or doing pushup variations going to help with overheads? My upper body strength in chest and back are the strongest in my body followed by upper legs. What suggestions do you have?

Yes, shoes are a definite must!

Hey, so a question about doing the plastic route after VSG. Most plans from the VSG surgery say to wait at least 18 months, in order to give the skin a chance to bounce back. I see folks posting all the time about getting some work done around anywhere from 9 months post op. Why not wait? I mean going under the knife is a huge risk ( maybe more than VSG) and there is a really disruptive recovery time. There are some alternatives that can be tried like wraps, stomach belts, sweat paste ( apply to problem areas) and more. Much less expensive, far lower risk and they may actually correct part of the loose skin issue while waiting for skin to bounce. Do bot forget about the more conventional approaches like strength training, eating a diet consistent with producing good healthy skin and drinking a ton of Water. I do not know the reliability of non-conventional methods as have never tried them, but as a minimum, waiting 18 months post op seems like a default course of action.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. It is really motivational.

I like t-nation.com, although it is more of a guy site. There are a lot of good free articles. Even though it is targeted at guys, I am sure you will find a lot here that applies to lifting in general.

I guess I am alone in liking lunges.

I used to REALLY suck at lunges and hated them before surgery when trying to get in shape. Now I love them. Practice certainly makes perfect, but there are a few tips I can give you. Keep the weight centered between middle of front foot and heel. Push off heel when switching to other leg. you will find a lot of stability in using your heel to push off of. Try and keep all the body parts at 90 degree angles while you take a big step forward, keeping back foot on ground. Your front knee should be above your front foot. at all costs, do not allow your front knee to project ahead of your foot. it will lead to injury if not careful. Chest up, back straight, look forward and rest fingers behind your head with each lunge. Focus on the core part of your body as the balance point. Imagine a line that extends from the top of your head to your core region that must remain straight. It is with this attention to vertical alignment where you are going to find your stability. And then practice, practice practice. Your hamstrings and quads will build the strength to support a well formed lunge over time. I like to practice lunges in my warmup every day, focusing on form. After a while they are really enjoyable, yet are good strengthening exercises for your lower legs. As for a dominant leg, I think this is true with most people, including myself, when starting out with lunges. My left leg was dominant in doing lunges when first starting 6 months ago. It evens out over time as you practice, paying attention to perfect form and going slow. Find your balance point on every lunge and I promise you will be able to do the same high quality lunges on both legs. Hope this helps.

Actually, the biggest loser ones are really great and the trainers certainly know their stuff. I do not use them anymore, but they were very helpful a few years back when losing some weight on a "diet." They are usually really cheap at Walmart or even TJ max. Who knew TJ max would carry these? Give them a try. Now you just have to decide on which trainer you like ( bob or Jillian) and which flavor of workout you like. The basic biggest loser workouts are a good place to start and are designed for beginners. You can branch off into other, perhaps harder, stuff when the time is right like biggest loser strength training, shred, cardio, yoga, kick boxing, etc. when you are ready for some real intense DVD options, i have a few suggestions. Good luck!

Great job Laura!! I bet you are feeling on top of the world after seeing that. You all are doing spectacular with the 5:2. Nice support system you have going here also every day.

I do not think I was ever thin. Maybe for like 10 minutes after I was born. Seriously, most of my early life was chubby. I remember getting picked on or bullied in elementary school. Middle school was the worst bullying and actually was the start of my dieting career and head issues (depression and anxiety). I tried everything back then. My first real success was in 7th grade and I was able to diet and run off 70 lb. This was pretty substantial and my parents paid me 2 dollars a lb. I felt pretty good at the end of summer. Weight slowly crept up in high school and through college, but I did have my ups and downs. My first real weight loss success came back in 2005 when Atkins was popular. I lost 100 lb on it and thought eating high fat, as in egg and sausage (no bisquit) from MCD for breakfast and a triple hamburger with cheese (no bun) from Wendy's was actually pretty good. I excelled at low carb dieting. I then gained it all back plus some over a couple years. My next success was WW in 2007. I lost 90 lb and loved getting all the rewards and losing 5 lbs a week. I then got lazy after 6 months and reverted back to junk and sugar. I did Atkins all the time after that but could never get it started again. I did south beach, hypnosis ( what a waste of money) and a dozen other diet attempts. Fast forward to 2012 and I had the sleeve. It has been 12 months since surgery and I reached goal about at month 7. The weight has stayed off and I have been focused on being fit and eating well. So yes, I have 35 some years experience with being fat and probably 30 years of some diet or another. It is pretty sad how being fat has made my personal life miserable. I feel like so many years of my life were lost to the sickness of obesity. Time to make up for lost time! I am now very fit at healthy BMI and dedicated to health, fitness and vitality for myself. I want to help others if they ask for advice on VST, family or people I run into out and about. Every day continues to be a good experience and has meaning.

Personal goals ? Aim for the stars. If you not make it, Keep trying. One thing I have learned is we are only limited by the efficiency of our own feedback loop. Turn off any negativity and embrace the positive. And positive things will happen to you.

You are welcome. It is good for everyone to build their own opinions after hearing information from different sources. The description i gave above is what worked and is working for me. Others may have just as good a strategy that works for them. Furthermore, I do not fault a dietician as they build good general guidelines, but they are, by design, lowest common denominator in order to work for the most number of people. After a while you need to determine what it is that works for you. The further out a person is from surgery, the more important is for them to own their plan for long term success. I am not saying anything that isn't common sense, but it may be helpful to read.

Per Serendipity, my caloric load is approximately 1900 and I roughly followed the plan outlined above. My NUT gave me some initial guidelines, but after a few weeks I played by ear and tweaked along the way. I probably kept my calories between 900-1100 until month 7. Most of the weight was lost by then and my focus turned towards fitness where more calories were needed.

Impossible unless you are drinking milk shakes or eating blizzards from DQ. Here is a rough caloric plan, by month: Month 1: 300-600 Month 2-5: 600-900 Month 6: 1000 -1300 Month 7-12: ramp up to 2000 or whatever your TDEE is The key is to start low in order to heal properly and also gain the benefits of caloric flooring from restriction. By the end of month 1, you will be starting to eat solids. I am sorry, but you just cannot eat more then 2-3 ounces at a time without pain. It gets better over time and you want to advance caloric load as you are able to, but do it gradually in order to bring your caloric metabolism up slowly in order to avoid storing. It is definitely a process that must be cared for over time, month by month as you heal and things like exercise require more calories. I would not recommend eating at 500 calories day in and day out after a few months because you will train your body that starving is ok. Clearly you want your body to be good at burning off excess and not storing it so, again, increase slow and steady.

I ate the protein powder raw by the spoonful once. Not a pretty sight. Only needed to do it once after the dry powder caused me to dust everything in close range with a fine dust.

Yes, I agree. I don't want to go through the pain, taking time off work and long recovery. No thanks. You would pretty much have to put rigorous exercise (cardio or lifting) on hold for 3 months right?

I feel a little this way about a 2x2 inch section (deflated) around my belly button. It is looking kind of wrinkly ( not perfectly smooth) and still makes my belly button look like a pit. Working out all the time (5 days a week) and drinking tons of water is helping to reduce this problem area over the last 2 months. Sometimes I have *a moment* when looking in the mirror side ways without any clothes. The thickness around my waist is small, almost about the thickness of the hip bones with a small bump (1/4 inch) sticking out in a small 2x2 mound around the belly button. Upper back and chest is very strong looking. I almost forget it is me for *a moment*. I think if I continue on the path of daily strength training with heavy core focus, the little mound is going to disappear as the remaining loose fat and skin is eliminated and tightened, respectively. For grins, I took a hold of the skin this morning and pulled it tight upwards to see the effect of a tummy tuck. Nice. I hope I can get there without surgery. No loose skin anywhere else on the body. Just muscle. I will update with a new picture soon as the avatar is from Early May.

Thanks for your comments Around. I am going to try out this steel oats and protein on a regular basis because I had such good results with it yesterday. Straight up carbs help initially, but I feel they burn up too quickly and I struggle to bust all the way to the end of a workout with the same desired intensity as the beginning. Cheers!

I concur. Long term goals are best achieved by taking one day at a time. Little events as well as big events will seemingly align to your goals when you open your mind to achieving them on a daily basis.

great advice and it all makes sense. I do not use a belt, but may need to now that my weight is increasing. I am going to put into practice the suggested strength exercises. My trainer is very precise about pointing out my weak point which is exactly what I need: constant tweaking. I like stiff legged dead lifts and the weight tends to be about 60% of regular dead lifts in order to not injure the hamstring.

We share apple and nut butter as our current goto meals. However, now it would seem oats is the new "in" food we should be eating pre workout, according to "the experts." I am game given good success from it today. I think apples are too quick to burn. Just an opinion on it.

Hook grip worked great today (trainer even showed it before I asked about it). I got a PR on my dead lift at 350 for 1 rep test today. Funny thing, it does not feel that heavy in my gluts or upper legs. My back strength is where I am holding back. Need to keep my weight way back along with the slight invert in back. Once I reached failure, no matter how much I visualized correct form, the execution of it sucked because my lower back did not want to support it. Oh and no white fingers. However, I got the usual delayed blood rush after lifting heavy 5-10 seconds following lift). It is quite interesting where it is almost like fainting, but in a good way.