My own worst enemy

[lost180]

Thanks for the heads up.

Yesterday I got in my back and bicep work out and I continued with the supersets.

[lost180]

I was curious as to your opinion on how I train. Or the muscles I choose to train on my strength days I should say. On Mondays I do back and biceps, Wednesday is chest and triceps and Saturday is legs and shoulders. Are those pairings good or should I switch certain things up to get a more effective work out?

[Brian Ayers, CSCS]

Those parings sound fine. There is no right or wrong muscle group paring. The key is to keep changing up the routine every 6weeks or so. That can be changing the exercises, set/rep ranges, or the pairings.

[lost180]

Another week down. I was hoping to finally get under the 200 mark but I was just shy. I lost just under 2 pounds though so I'm happy. Hopefully next will be good to me. I was only ounces away so I'm sure it'll happen.

[lost180]

Chest and triceps today. I bumped up to 10 sets of 10 pushups and stuck with my same routine. I also bumped up the weight for my tricep push downs which was challenging. I kinda tweaked my left lat some how but I'm sure it'll be fine by morning. My lats were still sore from Monday when I did back and biceps. I'm definitely starting to feel more growth in my biceps since I started doing concentration curls.

[lost180]

Only lost a few ounces again which was annoying but I finally got to see the scale go under that 200 mark even if only a little bit. I know it's not all about the scale but that was one of those little moral victories you wait for.

I kinda hurt a muscle in my back earlier in the week and yesterday I re injured it fooling around with my cousin so hopefully it doesn't hold me back.

I also decided that when I do my weight training I should switch from turning the tv on downstairs to turning on music. The tv is fine for me when I on the treadmill but I find it to be a distraction when I doing weights. I just bought an ipod and I got some portable speakers for it so now I can bring music down there. Hopefully it'll keep my more focused.

Hopefully this week will yield some bigger results and I won't be held back by the pulled muscle.

[lost180]

Two posts in one day! I went with my brother and cousin to the track today and ran outside for the first time since last fall. Still not a great runner but I can tell the interval training helped a lot because I know I ran farther my first go round than I did last year and I started up again quicker. I did about a mile and a half and I'd say I probably jogged it more than I walked or at least jogged more than half the time so I'm happy.

I didn't do legs and shoulders yesterday because even just taking a deep breath made my back hurt. It still hurts today but I worked my legs anyway. I could tell they were fatigued from the running but I got in a decent work out. I didn't do my shoulders though because I'm giving my upper body time to heal.

I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow since it's back and biceps. My back is starting to feel better but I doubt it'll be totally healed by tomorrow night. Really I won't be able to do any kind of upper body work without aggravating it. I'm thinking maybe skip back and biceps this week and try to pick things up on Wednesday which is chest and triceps. What would you suggest Brian? If you happen to see this in time.

[Brian Ayers, CSCS]

Sorry I didn't check in in the past few days so I'm not sure if this is too late, but I would definetly say you should wait until the pain goes away before exercising the area. In the mean time some stretching, ice and massage would be the way to go. What part of the back is the problem?

[lost180]

It's my upper back right along the shoulder blade. It's getting better but my whole upper back has been stiff some so I'm going to go ahead and order that yoga dvd today and start incorporating that into my routine when I can because even before this I knew I wasn't stretching enough. I think though my upper back being stiff now has been a result of me stressing over the pulled muscle and probably tensing during the times movement would cause pain.

I ended up not doing anything yesterday. Today is cardio and tomorrow I'm going to give chest and triceps a try to see how it makes my back feel. If all goes well I'm going to get my biceps in as well since I missed it yesterday. I'm going to give my back a full week of rest. I've been taking tylenol and trying to stretch it as best as I can.

[lost180]

It's only since yesterday that my back has started to feel better. I don't know what the heck the problem was. It started with just that pulled muscle by my shoulder blade but then I was having pain all over my back. I can only guess it was just from being tense and maybe trying too often to stretch out the back which just made it worse. It was okay on Wednesday so I gave my chest and tricep workout a try. By Thursday morning I was regretting it but I took some ibuprofen Thursday morning and it improved and it's been getting better slowly. Before I was just taking tylenol which is only a pain reliever so it had to have been the anti inflammatory in the ibuprofen that's been helping.

Could something like under developed abs contribute to having back issues along with lack of flexibility? I must confess that I kinda neglect doing any ab work.

[lost180]

Add needing a new mattress to the list of things I must do to help my back. It's no coincidence that my back is sore when I wake up. Boo.

[Fitness_Fanatic]

Apr 24, 2009 16:24:32 GMT -5 lost180 said:

It's only since yesterday that my back has started to feel better. I don't know what the heck the problem was. It started with just that pulled muscle by my shoulder blade but then I was having pain all over my back. I can only guess it was just from being tense and maybe trying too often to stretch out the back which just made it worse. It was okay on Wednesday so I gave my chest and tricep workout a try. By Thursday morning I was regretting it but I took some ibuprofen Thursday morning and it improved and it's been getting better slowly. Before I was just taking tylenol which is only a pain reliever so it had to have been the anti inflammatory in the ibuprofen that's been helping.

Could something like under developed abs contribute to having back issues along with lack of flexibility? I must confess that I kinda neglect doing any ab work.

Sounds like maybe your form could be bad. Have you noticed this while doing only back and shoulders? or during legs??? Maybe too much weight.

[lost180]

I didn't even hurt my back on my back day. Go figure. I was doing pushups on chest and tricep day and I just felt some soreness in my lat area. It started to go away but I reinjured it fooling around and that's when I had the all over back pain. I got a new mattress today so we'll see if that helps any. I've been okay so far but I haven't worked out yet because I've been .

[lost180]

Haven't had much to say because I hadn't done much. Last week was my first week working out in like 3 weeks. I took it easy to see how my back would do and so far I'm fine. Managed to lose 2 pounds even though my work outs weren't as hard I'm sure. I did lose 2 pounds during the weeks I wasn't working out so really I've lost 4 since last update.

[Brian Ayers, CSCS]

Good to have you back Lost. Glad to here you've kept your weight loss going. U must have been keeping on top of your nutrition. How does the back feel after taking the time off?