I have a herniated disc right at the last lumbar vertebra where it connects with the sacrum. I'm doing a few therapeutic things for it, but one thing I can say is that the HIIT set of exercises do not hurt it at all and may, in fact, help.
Body by Science / HIIT Experiment
- Thread starter Scottie
- Start date
pete02
The Living Force
Well I have purchased the bar and it's somewhat convertible for different exercises. I've started with basic pull ups and some standing rows and so far so good. My neck is still a little sore but the exercises don't seem to be troubling it. I'm going to continue with those exercises and I'm doing leg squats as well. It's crazy just how out of shape I'm feeling from just those alone.
After a few more weeks I'll start adding other exercises but for now I'm really hoping to just strengthen those neck muscles to protect myself from aggravating this injury again.
I went recently to see my chiropractor (I saw her months ago, before starting the workout) and she gave me stern instructions about making sure my neck muscles are relaxed while I am performing the exercises. I have a condition called Torticollis since birth, and though I had an operation when I was 13 y.o., still the muscles on the right side of my neck are always tensed, so I see the chiropractor about 4 times a year to work on relaxing that area. And while her advice was for me and my condition in particular, I think it is good advice for everyone lifting huge amounts of weight. When the arms start getting sore, we tend to start using the neck muscles too to help us lift the weight. I've seen this in myself and others.
So she said to make sure before each exercise that the neck is relaxed and its muscles soft, maybe rotate the head sideways a few times and up and down - not a full circle and not stretching, just making sure all muscles in the area are loose, and then keep aware when performing the workout to keep the neck in the same un-tensed state.
So she said to make sure before each exercise that the neck is relaxed and its muscles soft, maybe rotate the head sideways a few times and up and down - not a full circle and not stretching, just making sure all muscles in the area are loose, and then keep aware when performing the workout to keep the neck in the same un-tensed state.
I have noticed this too in both myself and the guy I share sessions with.
Easier said than done, I get completely taken over by the need to lift the weight! All thoughts of conscious relaxing of the neck muscles goes out of the window. I do have a problem with rounded shoulders and neck, such that when lying flat on the floor my head does not touch the ground. I have recently started exercises to increase the flexibility (lengthened instead of shortened) of the muscles causing these problems. Hopefully they may help in enabling me to keep my neck muscles in a less than tensed state.
After some hesitation, I started doing weight exercises. I did 3 times in 3 weeks.
- First week I went to see what equipment club nearest me had and tried out some exercises based on the videos. I find my self gritting teeth and tensing face muscles pull beyond comfort zones.
-Second week, I was huffing and Puffing a lot this time, disappointed that i couldn't repeat for long( ex: leg Press i couldn't more than 3 times at 120lbs as i felt knees had a sharp pain- so discontinued). As a whole 10 or 12 minutes. I also find sort of jerks instead of smooth movement as i was trying push it. I came home, so tired that simply zoned out to sleep to wake up after 7 hours. Still no pains after the exercises. But after a day, I started some pain( more of inconvenience) in the back shoulder and upper hands area, that settled in a day and the pain shifted to elbow. that too settled in a day.
One thing surprised me is I put up 5 pounds of weight after 2 weeks of exercise, though there is no change in Diet. I was stable at 145 lbs for a year or more, before.
- Third Week, I changed the machines as i was able to find different machines which are much more related to Authors BIG-5. I pushed as much as i can and little more smoother than little jerks. Hopefuly, Lot of teeth gritting during the time is NOT a issue. Came back weighed again, no change, but after a day, i put up 2 more pounds. Still Healthy BMI. If i put up another 7 pounds I will enter over weight BMI, which I don't want to. This time I used leg press for almost 2 minutes can little pain in the legs next day, not much huffing and puffing as before. Probably things got stabilized or i haven't pushed enough.
- First week I went to see what equipment club nearest me had and tried out some exercises based on the videos. I find my self gritting teeth and tensing face muscles pull beyond comfort zones.
-Second week, I was huffing and Puffing a lot this time, disappointed that i couldn't repeat for long( ex: leg Press i couldn't more than 3 times at 120lbs as i felt knees had a sharp pain- so discontinued). As a whole 10 or 12 minutes. I also find sort of jerks instead of smooth movement as i was trying push it. I came home, so tired that simply zoned out to sleep to wake up after 7 hours. Still no pains after the exercises. But after a day, I started some pain( more of inconvenience) in the back shoulder and upper hands area, that settled in a day and the pain shifted to elbow. that too settled in a day.
One thing surprised me is I put up 5 pounds of weight after 2 weeks of exercise, though there is no change in Diet. I was stable at 145 lbs for a year or more, before.
- Third Week, I changed the machines as i was able to find different machines which are much more related to Authors BIG-5. I pushed as much as i can and little more smoother than little jerks. Hopefuly, Lot of teeth gritting during the time is NOT a issue. Came back weighed again, no change, but after a day, i put up 2 more pounds. Still Healthy BMI. If i put up another 7 pounds I will enter over weight BMI, which I don't want to. This time I used leg press for almost 2 minutes can little pain in the legs next day, not much huffing and puffing as before. Probably things got stabilized or i haven't pushed enough.
I am still reading the book " BODY BY SCIENCE " and I am almost at the middle of it.
Since you managed to push the press for 2 minutes it means that you should increase the weight. As the author of the book says the Time Under Load is best to be between 30 and 90 seconds.
So, if you increase the weight then your time under load will probably fall under 90 seconds. It is normal that in the last seconds of the exercise you feel that your muscles are burning and while doing the last push you should barely move the press. Work until the muscle failure. When I get to that point I am keeping my palms on my knees for safety, so if my leg muscles start to fails and I could not move the press I could just push my knees with my hands and get the press at the starting position.
If this is your first time exercising this way ( HIT ) then I think it is normal that you fluctuate with your weight at the beginning until your body adapts to that kind physical activity. As soon as you will get more adapted your body weight will stabilize. I don't think that you will continue to gain weight linearly over time.
Everyone may not be the same, but for me I think TUL needs to be at least 75- 150 seconds in order to achieve muscle failure. I remember reading that TUL should be between 40 and 150 seconds. They did say ideally between 45- 90 seconds. I would say closer to 90 would be the way to go. IMO
I can achieve muscle failure at 60-75 seconds pretty easily. Just use more weight!
Yes, I will increase. Only last time, i used the APP, so i could track it now on wards.
During early Keto days, I did similar thing watching some video's but, it is not that systematic( i.e. Short 15 min HIT and week's break). I think i was having some fun with strength improvements at that time. But it soon hit a plateau, made me disappointed and stopped doing it. Also, I moved to different location so lost track of it. After reading "BODY BY SCIENCE" it became clear that i was not taking enough break in between.
Thanks for bringing this topic to attention. To get toned up with minimal time effort sounds great. Spending hours and hours at the gym as some of my colleagues do, does not appeal to me, so I will give this a try once I get the book and find out how to implement it. The gym might be the only option if weights are involved.
Easier said than done, I get completely taken over by the need to lift the weight! All thoughts of conscious relaxing of the neck muscles goes out of the window. I do have a problem with rounded shoulders and neck, such that when lying flat on the floor my head does not touch the ground. I have recently started exercises to increase the flexibility (lengthened instead of shortened) of the muscles causing these problems. Hopefully they may help in enabling me to keep my neck muscles in a less than tensed state.
Could you share these neck-stretching exercises? They might help me.
I am also changing my approach to the workout, to help my neck. I decided that from now on I will add the most amount of weight that allows me to do each exercise in good form and correctly, instead of just piling up the weights and barely being able to lift/pull/push, as I was doing so far.
This is the only one that specifically addresses neck stretching:
_www.burrenyoga.com/yoga-neck-exercises-to-improve-neck-and-shoulder-stiffness
These exercises are for opening the shoulders, which in turn may help unlock a stiff neck:
_www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/9-yoga-poses-open-your-shoulders
_www.peacefuldumpling.com/5-yoga-exercises-correct-rounded-shoulders
_www.peanutbutterrunner.com/3-yoga-poses-for-tight-rounded-shoulders
SMM
The Living Force
Reading BBS on Kindle and slowly digesting the information on there. I found a home trainig video on YouTube with no weights required here:
[MEDIA]
Earlier I tried a mini-version of this. I am still considering getting some free weights and doing the workout with those. I'll see how the next few days go
[MEDIA]
Earlier I tried a mini-version of this. I am still considering getting some free weights and doing the workout with those. I'll see how the next few days go
I decided that from now on I will add the most amount of weight that allows me to do each exercise in good form and correctly, instead of just piling up the weights and barely being able to lift/pull/push, as I was doing so far.
That's what I was doing. I mean, that's pretty much what he says to do in the book, right?
Well, yes, but...
It seems you reach a point where you're not going up in weight anymore, and you lose the full range of motion. Taking a week off helps sometimes, but not others.
So, at that point, I dropped back down in weight on several of the exercises. That seemed to do the trick because WOO my arms and shoulders were a bit more sore than usual last time.
Also, given that the book says to shoot for 45-90 seconds, yet videos of Buff McGuff show him doing upwards of 2 minutes on some exercises, AND given that McGuff himself has mentioned that some of the stuff in the book was sort of marketing fluff from the publisher... Well, it seems like "shaking things up" and experimenting a little bit is the way to go.
On the other hand, I stopped doing the pulldown and started doing pull-ups. WOW that's deadly when done slowly... So technically, I went up in weight on that exercise, and down on others. I think I also reached my limit on the leg press.
It all makes sense anyway because it's simply not possible to keep going up in weight forever. Otherwise, we would all turn into Superman or Wonder Woman!
So I figure as long as you continue to see positive results, you're doing it right.
Good to know. I did my workout yesterday after two weeks off. I was sick on my workout day last week and there's only one day during the week that really works for me. So I had actually increased the weight of the first exercise (row) but it took me all of about 150 seconds to get to complete failure. After that, I reached failure in closer to 75 seconds on the rest of the exercises. I guess it's the fact that I'm fresh on the first exercise that takes so long. I plan on increasing the weight next workout, however.