Nonomori
03-03-2004, 05:00 PM
I posted some of this in The Welcome Mat forum, but I suppose it won’t hurt to reiterate it here.
I am male, 39 years old, and 138 lbs. at 5’9”. I have always lived a largely sedentary lifestyle, although back in my twenties I took dance technique classes (mostly modern and ballet) for several years, and five years ago I tried an adult beginner gymnastics class for a few months. The dance classes were always frustrating, primarily because I felt like I was always fighting both my body and my mind (due to a combination of inflexibility and an inability to let my body move without consciously micro-controlling every motion). The gymnastics class was fun, but it mainly served to demonstrate the inadequacy of my physical conditioning.
Then, about a year ago, I signed up for a dance composition class. For the first time, I was not fighting myself, because I was able to choose movements which I had the physical capacity to perform, and the creative exercises forced me to concentrate on performance over technique. The problem was, I kept coming up with ideas which I was not physically capable of performing. I wanted to change that.
Since my previous attempts at physical conditioning had proven largely ineffectual, I went to a physical therapist I respected in the hopes of obtaining a conditioning program that would finally produce noticeable results. She showed me how to do a bunch of Pilates-type exercises, but when I pressed her for an actual program with designed routines, she instead told me to listen to my body. I went home a bit frustrated, because I did not know how to listen to my body. So, instead of focusing on the exercises she gave me, I embarked on what has become a year-long experiment with various exercise modalities. The experiment has done little for my physical conditioning, but it has been valuable nonetheless, because I finally believe I understand what it means to listen to my body.
I made some other useful discoveries about myself, which I believe factored into my prior failures. For one thing, I have a tendency to try too hard. When I stretched, I would push beyond the point where I could expect anything other than reflexive rebellion from my body. Whenever I went to the gym, I beat myself into the ground. As a result, I had to psych myself up every time I did any kind of exercise, and I found it impossible to stick with any kind of program for very long. By contrast, this last year of experimentation has shown me that exercise can actually be fun.
But I still need to develop exercise into a habit. I still need to find the motivation to do so. And I still need to establish clear goals.
Due to scheduling problems, I have been able to take very few dance classes since last spring. But I have registered for a week-long dance intensive at the beginning of August, and I want to be ready. I have also learned that there may be a CST certification course relatively near me in June or July. (I live in Cleveland, Ohio.) I would like to see if I can get ready for that too.
These deadlines provide motivation and focus, but it may be a tall order, and I’m not sure how to get there. Here are the goals I think I would like to focus on, in rough order of priority...
1. Avoid injury (and muscular imbalance).
2. Turn exercise into a habit.
3. Develop sufficient strength and muscular endurance by June to make it through a CST seminar and meet the certification requirements.
4. Develop sufficient flexibility that I can sit on the floor with my legs straight out in front of me, while maintaining an arch in the lumbar region of my spine instead of rounding it. Work toward splits.
5. Develop a reliable handstand. Work toward handstand pushups and perhaps even a back handspring eventually.
6. Improve my ability to stand on one leg while moving my other limbs (and torso) in arbitrary directions.
7. Improve cardiovascular endurance.
A related goal would be to improve my diet, but for the time being I think my focus there may have to be limited to just eating more consistently. I eat reasonably healthily, but I have a tendency to forget meals.
For equipment, I’ve got a chin-up bar, a squat-rack-sort-of-thing called a ProSpot (http://www.prospotfitness.com/pages/p100.html) with a barbell and a bunch of Olympic plates, a few lightweight dumbbells (none over 15 lbs.), a 1-pood kettlebell, and pairs of 5-lb. and 10-lb. Clubbells, with a 15-lb. pair on order. I also have a weird machine designed to work glutes and hip adductors and abductors from a standing position, and I have a ballet barre and a 7’x14’ tumbling mat.
Currently, my “regular” exercise “program” consists solely of doing chin-ups and pistols several times a day, whenever I remember to do them (and in the case of the chin-ups, only when I am at home). I only do one at a time, since my current max sets are four chins and three pistols. (Occasionally I do two chins at once, but a lot of the time even doing one seems like it takes so much effort than I am reluctant to try for two.)
I am contemplating trying a PTP program of squats, but I’m not sure whether that makes sense in the context of my goals. It seems like I should be doing something with presses, but I’m not sure what that ought to be either. (My max set of standard pushups is eighteen, and both the one-arm pushup and the de-SISS-ified variety are quite beyond me.)
Be Breathed seems like it would be a good idea, as does Warrior Wellness. Obviously, given my goals, I should probably be doing swipes and mills. Since I haven’t got my 15-lb. Clubbells yet, I don’t know how far away I am from being able to meet the certification requirements. I haven’t ever tried more than about ten swipes with my 10-lb. Clubbells, because I’ve been mostly trying to figure out the mills, and they’re pretty tiring – especially since I suspect I’m doing them wrong.
I really like doing Good Mornings with my kettlebell, because of how it works my tight hamstrings. Swings are fun too, but I’m not sure I should be doing them if I’m going to be working on Swipes with Clubbells. Pressing the kettlebell seems like it might be a good idea, but again I worry about doing too much. As a relative novice, I have to be careful not to jump into too much too soon, or I’m sure I’ll burn out both physically and mentally.
Physically, it should be apparent that I don’t have a lot of strength. My 1RM on the squat is just 150 lbs. and my upper-body strength is even less by comparison. I have little stamina, and I have a lot of tightness in my hamstrings and pecs. My shoulder flexibility isn’t all that great either. (Doing backward circles makes me feel really good, and I like armpit casts too. I’ve been mostly doing drumming, but given my goals, I reckon I should switch to swipes.)
I have no real history of injury, although I have only recently recovered from sessamoiditis in my left foot, caused (I believe) by too much improper use of a mini-trampoline nearly a year ago. I also have a slight Duputren's contracture on my right hand which sometimes causes pain when my fingers are hyper-extended (as when doing pushups or handstands), and which affects the pattern of abrasion and callus formation when swinging Clubbells. It hasn't really been a problem yet.
I also have a chronic problem with pain (I believe due to muscle spasms) under the shoulder blades. It is not a problem while I am sitting at a computer all day, but when I take a long walk, or when I spend a fair amount of time bending over to cook and wash dishes, it can get pretty painful. It has never been an issue while exercising, but it may indicate something significant about muscular imbalance and/or patterns of tension.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
I am male, 39 years old, and 138 lbs. at 5’9”. I have always lived a largely sedentary lifestyle, although back in my twenties I took dance technique classes (mostly modern and ballet) for several years, and five years ago I tried an adult beginner gymnastics class for a few months. The dance classes were always frustrating, primarily because I felt like I was always fighting both my body and my mind (due to a combination of inflexibility and an inability to let my body move without consciously micro-controlling every motion). The gymnastics class was fun, but it mainly served to demonstrate the inadequacy of my physical conditioning.
Then, about a year ago, I signed up for a dance composition class. For the first time, I was not fighting myself, because I was able to choose movements which I had the physical capacity to perform, and the creative exercises forced me to concentrate on performance over technique. The problem was, I kept coming up with ideas which I was not physically capable of performing. I wanted to change that.
Since my previous attempts at physical conditioning had proven largely ineffectual, I went to a physical therapist I respected in the hopes of obtaining a conditioning program that would finally produce noticeable results. She showed me how to do a bunch of Pilates-type exercises, but when I pressed her for an actual program with designed routines, she instead told me to listen to my body. I went home a bit frustrated, because I did not know how to listen to my body. So, instead of focusing on the exercises she gave me, I embarked on what has become a year-long experiment with various exercise modalities. The experiment has done little for my physical conditioning, but it has been valuable nonetheless, because I finally believe I understand what it means to listen to my body.
I made some other useful discoveries about myself, which I believe factored into my prior failures. For one thing, I have a tendency to try too hard. When I stretched, I would push beyond the point where I could expect anything other than reflexive rebellion from my body. Whenever I went to the gym, I beat myself into the ground. As a result, I had to psych myself up every time I did any kind of exercise, and I found it impossible to stick with any kind of program for very long. By contrast, this last year of experimentation has shown me that exercise can actually be fun.
But I still need to develop exercise into a habit. I still need to find the motivation to do so. And I still need to establish clear goals.
Due to scheduling problems, I have been able to take very few dance classes since last spring. But I have registered for a week-long dance intensive at the beginning of August, and I want to be ready. I have also learned that there may be a CST certification course relatively near me in June or July. (I live in Cleveland, Ohio.) I would like to see if I can get ready for that too.
These deadlines provide motivation and focus, but it may be a tall order, and I’m not sure how to get there. Here are the goals I think I would like to focus on, in rough order of priority...
1. Avoid injury (and muscular imbalance).
2. Turn exercise into a habit.
3. Develop sufficient strength and muscular endurance by June to make it through a CST seminar and meet the certification requirements.
4. Develop sufficient flexibility that I can sit on the floor with my legs straight out in front of me, while maintaining an arch in the lumbar region of my spine instead of rounding it. Work toward splits.
5. Develop a reliable handstand. Work toward handstand pushups and perhaps even a back handspring eventually.
6. Improve my ability to stand on one leg while moving my other limbs (and torso) in arbitrary directions.
7. Improve cardiovascular endurance.
A related goal would be to improve my diet, but for the time being I think my focus there may have to be limited to just eating more consistently. I eat reasonably healthily, but I have a tendency to forget meals.
For equipment, I’ve got a chin-up bar, a squat-rack-sort-of-thing called a ProSpot (http://www.prospotfitness.com/pages/p100.html) with a barbell and a bunch of Olympic plates, a few lightweight dumbbells (none over 15 lbs.), a 1-pood kettlebell, and pairs of 5-lb. and 10-lb. Clubbells, with a 15-lb. pair on order. I also have a weird machine designed to work glutes and hip adductors and abductors from a standing position, and I have a ballet barre and a 7’x14’ tumbling mat.
Currently, my “regular” exercise “program” consists solely of doing chin-ups and pistols several times a day, whenever I remember to do them (and in the case of the chin-ups, only when I am at home). I only do one at a time, since my current max sets are four chins and three pistols. (Occasionally I do two chins at once, but a lot of the time even doing one seems like it takes so much effort than I am reluctant to try for two.)
I am contemplating trying a PTP program of squats, but I’m not sure whether that makes sense in the context of my goals. It seems like I should be doing something with presses, but I’m not sure what that ought to be either. (My max set of standard pushups is eighteen, and both the one-arm pushup and the de-SISS-ified variety are quite beyond me.)
Be Breathed seems like it would be a good idea, as does Warrior Wellness. Obviously, given my goals, I should probably be doing swipes and mills. Since I haven’t got my 15-lb. Clubbells yet, I don’t know how far away I am from being able to meet the certification requirements. I haven’t ever tried more than about ten swipes with my 10-lb. Clubbells, because I’ve been mostly trying to figure out the mills, and they’re pretty tiring – especially since I suspect I’m doing them wrong.
I really like doing Good Mornings with my kettlebell, because of how it works my tight hamstrings. Swings are fun too, but I’m not sure I should be doing them if I’m going to be working on Swipes with Clubbells. Pressing the kettlebell seems like it might be a good idea, but again I worry about doing too much. As a relative novice, I have to be careful not to jump into too much too soon, or I’m sure I’ll burn out both physically and mentally.
Physically, it should be apparent that I don’t have a lot of strength. My 1RM on the squat is just 150 lbs. and my upper-body strength is even less by comparison. I have little stamina, and I have a lot of tightness in my hamstrings and pecs. My shoulder flexibility isn’t all that great either. (Doing backward circles makes me feel really good, and I like armpit casts too. I’ve been mostly doing drumming, but given my goals, I reckon I should switch to swipes.)
I have no real history of injury, although I have only recently recovered from sessamoiditis in my left foot, caused (I believe) by too much improper use of a mini-trampoline nearly a year ago. I also have a slight Duputren's contracture on my right hand which sometimes causes pain when my fingers are hyper-extended (as when doing pushups or handstands), and which affects the pattern of abrasion and callus formation when swinging Clubbells. It hasn't really been a problem yet.
I also have a chronic problem with pain (I believe due to muscle spasms) under the shoulder blades. It is not a problem while I am sitting at a computer all day, but when I take a long walk, or when I spend a fair amount of time bending over to cook and wash dishes, it can get pretty painful. It has never been an issue while exercising, but it may indicate something significant about muscular imbalance and/or patterns of tension.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.