pratty

I've been slacking since I hurt my back and have had stop the heavy barbell lifts, so tonight I did some Dumbbell Presses, Goblet Lunges and Weight Plate Swings. I also found my push up handles recently, I never use them for pushups so I was thinking of other things I could do with them. In the end I decided to have a go at the L-sit and surprisingly I managed to hold the postion for about 5 seconds at the first time of trying. I might continue to work on it and see how long I can hold it for.

Metroid Prime is simply brilliant, there are some real geniuses at Retro Studios. For some reasons I just didn't fancy the game when it first came out, (never played a Metroid game before). But the high review scores made me curious and eventually I was after a new game and decided to give Metroid Prime a chance, and I was so glad I did. It was one of those games I just didn't want to end, I just loved discovering new powerups and acessing new areas, it was very addicting. I've probably played and re-played the game about 5 times.

I think they're still there, on the last page. http://stars.nintendo-europe.com/?p=4

That's a solid deadlift alright, but in comparison to your 12kg Vipr you've got to remember he's talking about the best he's ever done busting a gut for one rep, while you're doing very high reps. You probably already know this but I bet if you dropped the reps you could probably handle a lot more weight than maybe you think. I know I could probably deadlift quite a bit more than I currently can already, but my grip won't let me. If grip wasn't an issue I reckon I could do 120+ right now, and if I ate for the job I should easily improve on that with enough training. I'm only around 71-73kg myself so I'd be chuffed with double bodyweight. I don't really care that much though, I don't take any sups, count calories or even eat the recommended amount of protein, I just lift for the fun of it and take whatever improvements I get. The way I see it is the fact that I train at all probably puts me ahead of the average joe fitness wise.

I don't have any specific goals really, so not much I can update on other than injuries. I might test my back out with some light deadlifts tomorrow, see where it's at. Long term I'm probably going to have to limit deads to once a week at the most. I'm thinking of properly learning the power clean as a potentially more back friendly total body pull I can do also. Currently I clean the bar for presses and front squats but I wouldn't want to do it for heavy reps just yet until I refine my form. Looking forward to hopefully developing some beastly traps eventually.

Well, I've been working my core and stretching, including some tennis ball rolling on my back, glutes and feet, and I must say my back is feeling better already. My back was showing all the signs of a slipped disc, including just recently sciatica down my left leg, I'm probably not out the woods yet but but I can't believe how quickly it's improved.

Well I've come to the conclusion that deadlifts are going to have to take a rest, again. I think my lower back is only going to get worse. A few days ago I worked up to 105kg x 3 which felt fine at the time, but my back was a wreck later, although some tennis ball rolling and stretching has helped some. Reading up online it could be that I have a disc problem, but over dominant lower back muscles and tight hips could be the main culprit. As adivsed by Mindfreak abs/core work is probably the solution so that's going to be my main focus for now. I did some experimenting with some different excersies and stretches today: I found the TGU was working my shoulder more than my midsection so I probably won't keep it as the time could be better spent elsewhere I think. Planks were okay, more of an all round core worker and I probably felt them more in my hamstrings and lower back than my abs but I'll keep it. I think goblet squats are definite keeper. Worked up to a couple of sets with a 32.5kg dumbbell which really hit the abs hard. I need to work on getting a lower depth with my big bulky db though. Single dumbbell presses will be also kept, especially if I have to give up using the barbell altogether while my back heals. Did sets of 8-10. I didn't do many reps but single dumbbell deadlifts might even be possible, though maybe I probably shouldn't push my luck. I hate lunges but maybe I'll have to do them for extra legwork. They might help stretch my hips actually. I also did a stomach vacum type excercise which is supposed to hit the more internal core muscles or something, couldn't hurt to at least do it randomly whenever I'm waiting for a bus or something. My next season was supposed to include push press and front squats, but as I need to clean the bar, I'm wondering if I'm better off leaving the heavy stuff for now and just doing the core based stuff.

I read somewhere that Chelsea were already making enquiries about Di Matteo's replacement before the Juve game. If that's true it's possible even getting a result againt Juve could have only bought him another game's grace. I think Rafa doesn't have much to lose in a caretaker role. He's probably expecting to be replaced by Guardiola or Mourinho next season, it's probably just a decent payday for him, and it get's him back in the game at a high level. Frankly if Liverpool don't finish in at least a Europa League spot this season it wouldn't surprise me to see him back at Anfield next year. From Chelsea's point of view I think pretty much anyone could do a caretaker job, but I reckon they want Rafa to see if he can sort Torres out. There's no question that Torres was at his best under Rafa, even Torres himself said Rafa made him a better player, and I think it shows. He was a very promising talent at Atletico, then at Liverpool he became world class, but it's been down hill for Torres since Rafa hasn't been his manager.

Awesome, congrats!

Agree on sit ups, I remember at school there was test we did in PE where we had to see how many sit ups we could do in a minute. Even then I argued with the teacher that it was a stupid thing to do, flopping around on the ground like fish out of water, wrecking our backs doing rushed sit ups with sloppy form. I never thought of that, I might give that a go, thanks.

Yeah I should warm up more really, the last deadlift 'warmup' I did started at 80kg, just because that's what I left the bar at. I'm so lazy. The only plankish thing I've been doing is pushups which I've started doing again, and before that I was playing around with isometric pushup holds. I do respect the plank as an exercise it's just I have a pretty minimalist philosophy to training where I try to cram in as much benefit into an exercise as possible (only 2-3 exercises per workout), which is why specific core work has been overlooked. What I might do though do some planks with my stretches.

I never used to stretch at all, just out of lazyness really. I don't really warm up or warm down either. The only warm up of sorts I might do is on the deadlift where i sometimes do a light-ish set or two, that's about it. The hip stetches I've just done lately weren't done straight after my workout though, I was thinking about doing them just a random times during the day. I don't do any specific core work as I thought deads, squats and overhead press would be sufficient, but funny you mention it as I had just started to do single dumbbell presses to alternate with my regular barbell press, which works the core quite well, especially the sides. The thing is I find isolation ab work incrediblly boring and the time spent on sit ups etc could be spent on more beneficial excercises. Maybe the turkish get up would be something I should also do.

No it's more of a lingering pain. For a while after I first did it bending over to pick things up was quite painful. I had to pick things up golfer style raising one leg off the ground to take the pressure off my back. I'm not certain how I hurt it, it was probably deadlifting as I used to deadlift almost every workout and often did a lot of reps in total per session. Ironically at the time my lower back felt bulletproof, I used to deadlift without any lower back soreness, not even the 'good' kind. But at the time I was also tying out the barbell hack squat so it might have been that. Mentioning it last night reminded me about just how little I stretch. Since I can remember I've also had a slightly twisted pelvis, when I stand casually I sometimes catch myself turning my torso to the left even though I'm facing forward. Possibly I have uneven legs as a result. So last night I did some hip streches which I hadn't done in ages, I don't know if it was just a placebo effect but my back seemed to feel a lot better almost immediately, so I'm going to make the effort to do them every day. The stretches I did were the "warrior stretch", a wide squat stretch and something called the "happy baby". Apparently the squat stretch and the happy baby also stretch the lower back as well as the hips.

Ah, well maybe it's just a one off pull and you just need a little rest, and you'll be fine to continue with the Vipr. You know I never knew what a Vipr was until I read your routine, you learn something everyday. I spared my back and gave the deadlift a rest tonight, and front squatted instead.

How about "intelligent mature gaming"? Not very creative or catchy, but I think adding the word "intelligent" to the phrase negates the sexual connotations of the word "mature".

Is it your lower back? I hurt mine a several months ago and basically had to stop everything and start my lifting from scratch again, so be careful. Lower back injuries really seem to linger for a long time for me. I have started deadlifting again (back up to 100kg now) and even though I'm focussing on form more than ever I still feel some discomfort for a few days after. Is it those high rep clean and presses that's stressing your back? If so using dumbbells held by your side instead of the Vipr might take some stress of your lower back.

I also said her muscle gain will likely level off. I'm not recommending she aim to add a pound of muscle for every pound of fat lost, I'm just saying she needn't worry if she gains a pound or two of muscle if her goal is to lose fat/mass.

Could it be that you could still be losing fat, but also gaining muscle? I'm not saying you've put on 3 pounds of muscle overnight, but it could be a factor to it. As you've been exercising it's likely you will be increasing your muscle mass, and muscle is heavier than fat. 5 pounds of muscle vs 5 pounds of fat. So as such I wouldn't worry about increasing muscle (which burns fat) and the weight that comes with it, though it may make your fat loss seem slower if you're purely watching the scales. Would it be fair to assume your goal isn't so much to actually lose weight, but to loose fat? If you loose a pound of fat but gain a pounds of muscle, you might be down that you've not lost any weight, but actually you're on track. And eventually your muscle gain will level off leaving only fat loss.

Cracking find! I knew Starfox Adventures spawned from this but I never knew how far they were into producing the orginal game. Though I can't say I'm disappointed about what happened to the game in the end as I quite like Starfox Adventures, wouldn't mind another one actually.

Even though they're pretty unexciting I don't mind the Margaret and Gillian storylines. I think Gillian's could get pretty good, she looks like she's about to lose it and could turn psycho. I do like the slow build, if indeed that's what it is in her case.

I know what you mean, it looks like thery're trying to squeeze as many episodes out of each character as they can by juggling multiple storylines. The sooner Nucky gets shot of Billy and gets back to business the better, I can't stand that storyline.

I agree a draw was probably fair overall, but the offside decision was hard to take.