The FITDAY thread

[UtahDan]

I just wanted to report that the scale registered a 10-pound weight loss for the month of May. Thank you, FitDay, milkshakes (and eclairs, MG, you evil man), and Pacific Ocean. My goal is to not gain half of that back in June.

Way to go! I have also just embarked on this and have lost a similar amount so far. For me it is a drop in the ocean. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, I keep telling myself.

[TripletDaddy]

This week our local gym is offering body fat testing using a "BIA" machine. I didn't know what that was, but as it was explained to me....bioelectrical impedance analysis...it is fairly accurate (not quite as accurate as DEXA, of course), quick results, and very easy to administer.

I went at the noon-ish hour. You get down on a cot, they hook up some small Abu-Ghraib style electric sensors to your body, and shoot tiny jolts of electricity through you. I guess the electricy current bounces off all the water and fat in your body and gives a reading of approximate body fat percentage as a ratio of total body composition.

I am proud to report that I was at 13.6%, which puts me comfortably in the top range for my age bracket. All this fitday mumo jumbo has clearly started to pay off. I take my cholesterol test this Friday, so I will have those results back by next week, as well. Kind of nervous about that one, but I was pretty pumped to see the body fat numbers on the machine. It makes me want to keep going to see if I can get it down to 10% (like Gidget, I can sometimes tire of the diet). Not sure how realistic it is to get it much further down than that, but it will be fun to try.

I went surfing on Thurs morning at San Onofre. It is still full suit weather, but a 3/2 is just fine now that things are not frigid. I hadn't worn this particular 3/2 in awhile. It was actually loose in the torse and letting in water, so I can definitely notice a difference in the weight.

One question I did have about other forms of cardio....does anyone here jump rope? I saw a guy doing it at the gym and it looked like a cool way to burn some calories once or twice a week. It looks like something you need to practice, but I am interested in learning how to do rope work. Any advice? What type of rope? etc?

[Surfah]

One question I did have about other forms of cardio....does anyone here jump rope? I saw a guy doing it at the gym and it looked like a cool way to burn some calories once or twice a week. It looks like something you need to practice, but I am interested in learning how to do rope work. Any advice? What type of rope? etc?

I skip a mean rope. Seriously. Done laughing? I am serious. Jump Rope for Heart baby.

I pack one in my gym bag and when I had a membership I'd shoot hoops as a cool down or warm up and skip rope in the gym.

Personally I prefer the cheap $2.50 plastic ropes. I have had weighted ones, leather ones, ropes with ball bearings in the handles, etc. And still the best one is your simple nylon plastic one. At least in my preference. Weighted ones tire my shoulders and wrists before my legs.

You want to make sure that you adjust your rope to a size adequate for you. An easy way to do this if you have normal length arms is to center the rope beneath both feet together and raise the handles. The handles should come up to your armpits. I have Thabeet-sized wings so my rope is a bit shorter. Ideally, you want the rope to make contact with the ground right underneath your feet. Think of a divot created by a middle iron golf club. That's about how your rope beneath you should feel and look. Too long and it wall drag too much on the ground and your wrists will be turning faster to help the rope catch up. Too short and you're going to get hung up on your toes.

When jumping it's all wrist. An easy rotation and the handles should feel secure in your hands, but with little pressure or too tight of a grip. Your arms should stay relatively still and relaxed at your sides. When jumping stay on the balls of your feet and use just enough energy to get your feet high enough off the ground for the rope to clear under you. This is the biggest issue for most people skipping rope. They're doing high knee jumps and they get all out of rhythm. Think of how boxers skip rope. Their body is relatively still. You could probably measure 2" above a boxer's head and they never jump higher than that.

I start off jumping off two feet and then start skipping (like jogging in place but my feet go out in front of me than behind me if I were running). I'll then start doing one legged jumps, alternating reps of 10 or so between them.

A good thing to do is to set a time limit. 5 minutes for example without stopping. Should the rope get caught up, start right back up without resting. You'll be surprised at how spent you'll be after 5 minutes. As your fitness improves increase the time. My HS volleyball coach used to always say 10 minutes skipping rope is equivalent to running a mile. Don't know if it's true, but it feels like it. A fast mile. It's a cardio exercise that builds stamina and endurance. It also helps fast-twitch muscle fibers and improves speed and quickness.

By far one of my favorite exercises.

[TripletDaddy]

holy crap. I definitely ate at a surplus today. fitday is going to be PISSED.

I think I will skip it entirely and not even bother entering my food today. I will just stipulate that I ate too much.

I ate a slice of cheesecake today for the first time in months. Really, a legitimate dessert of any kind for the first time in months. Previously, my indulgence was a skinny cow.

I feel shame.

[Surfah]

holy crap. I definitely ate at a surplus today. fitday is going to be PISSED.

I think I will skip it entirely and not even bother entering my food today. I will just stipulate that I ate too much.

I ate a slice of cheesecake today for the first time in months. Really, a legitimate dessert of any kind for the first time in months. Previously, my indulgence was a skinny cow.

I feel shame.

Same here. We went to a luau. My only starch came in the form of a single piece of inari. The rest was kalua pig and cabbage, kalbi ribs, poi (guess I lied about the starch), and some lumpia. Seriously that's all I ate when there was teri everything, lomi lomi salmon, poke, and tons of other traditional hawaiian food and your normal BBQ foods. For dessert I had pani popo and guava chiffon cake.

Thank goodness I played 2 hours of tennis in the morning.

Still I killed it today.

That said, I weighed in at 249 today. So in 5 days back from Utah I dropped the 6 lbs I had gained. Like I said before, I think most of that was water I gained from not working out regularly while we were there. Anyway, back on the wagon. A holiday is good once in awhile.

[TripletDaddy]

Same here. We went to a luau. My only starch came in the form of a single piece of inari. The rest was kalua pig and cabbage, kalbi ribs, poi (guess I lied about the starch), and some lumpia. Seriously that's all I ate when there was teri everything, lomi lomi salmon, poke, and tons of other traditional hawaiian food and your normal BBQ foods. For dessert I had pani popo and guava chiffon cake.

Thank goodness I played 2 hours of tennis in the morning.

Still I killed it today.

That said, I weighed in at 249 today. So in 5 days back from Utah I dropped the 6 lbs I had gained. Like I said before, I think most of that was water I gained from not working out regularly while we were there. Anyway, back on the wagon. A holiday is good once in awhile.

pani popo. good heavens, thank goodness I was nowhere near that luau. coconut is really mean and always wants to hide inside my stomach.

[TripletDaddy]

Question for the group....re: the pec.

I have noticed at the gym that there are all sorts of machines to work different "areas" of your pec.....lower pec, upper pec, inner pec, etc.

However, any drawing of the human anatomy shows the pec as a single muscle, not striated into various sections.

Is there such a thing as working your "lower" pec? Or your "upper" pec? Or is this a myth akin to spot reduction?

For example, if all you did was bench press for your entire life, would your pec eventually fill out and look like most athletes? Or do you need to work upper and lower to get the definition, esp on the lower part of the pec?

Conversely, if all you ever did was the pec deck, would you develop insanely huge inner pecs and lack much or any definition on the lower portion of the muscle?

[Surfah]

Question for the group....re: the pec.

I have noticed at the gym that there are all sorts of machines to work different "areas" of your pec.....lower pec, upper pec, inner pec, etc.

However, any drawing of the human anatomy shows the pec as a single muscle, not striated into various sections.

Is there such a thing as working your "lower" pec? Or your "upper" pec? Or is this a myth akin to spot reduction?

For example, if all you did was bench press for your entire life, would your pec eventually fill out and look like most athletes? Or do you need to work upper and lower to get the definition, esp on the lower part of the pec?

Conversely, if all you ever did was the pec deck, would you develop insanely huge inner pecs and lack much or any definition on the lower portion of the muscle?

Different lifts will focus different parts of the pectoral muscles. I think there are two actually, a major and minor. Decline bench will work the lower pec. Very popular amongst the beach body guys because it helps get the cup shape to the pec. Incline bench works the upper portion of the pec. Flys help build the inner portion of the pec. Etc.

For well rounded pec, you'd want to focus on a variety of lifts, pushing and squeezing.

[TripletDaddy]

Different lifts will focus different parts of the pectoral muscles. I think there are two actually, a major and minor. Decline bench will work the lower pec. Very popular amongst the beach body guys because it helps get the cup shape to the pec. Incline bench works the upper portion of the pec. Flys help build the inner portion of the pec. Etc.

For well rounded pec, you'd want to focus on a variety of lifts, pushing and squeezing.

In looking at skeletal drawings, it seems that the pec major is the visible one...the one that we work out and the one that pops after you have been benching for weeks and months. You are correct that there is a pec minor, but it is actually located beneath (as in deeper into the body, heading towards your back/clavicle) the pec major. It is a small muscle that isn't visible.

So that is why I was asking the question....from a technical perspective, do you have to vary the types of pec exercises, given that the pec major (the visible one) is really just one big muscle? Or does spot training the lower pec really build the lower pec specifically?

I guess in your experience it does (ie, the decline)? I want to mix up more of my workout and I haven't done much lower pec stuff, so maybe it would be a good thing to try out. I do dips, which I guess technically work the lower pec, but I don't do decline bench.

[pelagius]

In looking at skeletal drawings, it seems that the pec major is the visible one...the one that we work out and the one that pops after you have been benching for weeks and months. You are correct that there is a pec minor, but it is actually located beneath (as in deeper into the body, heading towards your back/clavicle) the pec major. It is a small muscle that isn't visible.

So that is why I was asking the question....from a technical perspective, do you have to vary the types of pec exercises, given that the pec major (the visible one) is really just one big muscle? Or does spot training the lower pec really build the lower pec specifically?

I guess in your experience it does (ie, the decline)? I want to mix up more of my workout and I haven't done much lower pec stuff, so maybe it would be a good thing to try out. I do dips, which I guess technically work the lower pec, but I don't do decline bench.

You should ask bluegoose ... but there are two heads to the pec major: sternal and clavicular.



]

exrn.net suggest that, for example, clavicular head is used in shoulder adduction and the sternal is not... so that suggests there is a distinction in terms of recruitment of the fibers.

[TripletDaddy]

thanks for the pics! helpful.

most of the main pec exercises seem to focus on the larger portion of the pec. Not sure which head that would be?

Maybe bluegoose can chime in, although not sure he would be reading my thread.

have you found that spot training works, specifically for your "lower" pecs?

[Jarid in Cedar]

thanks for the pics! helpful.

most of the main pec exercises seem to focus on the larger portion of the pec. Not sure which head that would be?

Maybe bluegoose can chime in, although not sure he would be reading my thread.

have you found that spot training works, specifically for your "lower" pecs?

Declined dumbell flys and Declined dumbell bench are 2 of the better ones.

[pelagius]

thanks for the pics! helpful.

most of the main pec exercises seem to focus on the larger portion of the pec. Not sure which head that would be?

Sternal ... the upper head is the clavicular (it's closer to the clavicle).

have you found that spot training works, specifically for your "lower" pecs?

Sure, I spot trained my chest ... the right side now has a gigantic divot