My 'Indie Run' Playlist

So, I've got a new friend that gives me LOTS of indie music. I was listening to one of my nine (!) new cds and realized, 'HEY! This would be a great cardio song!' I started a list and came up with 52 minutes' worth of great cardio songs. (Great to me means a fairly moderate beat, as I use it when I run - and I run pretty slowly.)

Here's the list (listed as song - artist):

• We Danced Together (Sebastian Remix) - The Rakes
• t.h.e.h.i.v.e.s - The Hives
• Kids - MGMT
• Supermassive Black Hole - Muse
• Papillon - Editors
• Time is Running Out - Muse
• Love Is Noise - The Verve
• Be Good (RAC Mix) - Tokyo Police Club
• Pop A Cap In Yo Ass (Full Mix) - Tokyo Police Club
• The Chills - Peter, Bjorn and John
• Boom Boom Ba - Metisse
• Friends - Glint

Enjoy these...I hope they help motivate you!

Popeye

So, Andrea, my cuz, has requested a post on forearms. Yes, forearms! (I told you she has very specific requests!)

Training your forearms won’t do much for you, aesthetically, unless you have super-skinny arms or you build muscle quickly/copiously (not too common in females), but what it will do is strengthen your wrists. This is helpful in numerous ways in daily life. Have you ever tried to pick up a pot of boiling spaghetti and couldn’t hold it with one hand because your wrists were too weak? (No? Just me?)

*Note: dry, boring anatomy lesson alert! If you don’t give a rat’s ass about what muscles are in your forearms, skip to the next paragraph.

Anyway, the muscles that comprise the forearms are three tiny ones: the pronator teres (while your palm faces up, this muscle runs from the inside of your elbow diagonally to almost the outside of your arm), the brachialis (again with palm up, this is a tiny muscle on the outside of your elbow that flexes your arm), and the brachioradialis (with your palm down this time – this is the long muscle on the inside of your arm that extends from your elbow to your wrist); the brachioradialis is the most visible muscle in the arm, in my opinion.

Okay, anatomy lesson over! Now let’s get to the exercises. As you can imagine, there aren’t too many. First, the ones we can do without weights. (These are also what you can use to warm up/stretch.) Note that in each of these, you start with your wrists neutral – i.e. straight.

• Wrist rotation: extend your arms in front of you, palms down, hands loosely fisted. Rotate your fists in full circles clockwise and counter-clockwise. Do five rotations for each way.
• Wrist flexion: extend your arms in front of you, palms up, hands loosely fisted. In a small movement, curl your wrists up. (Keyword: small. Most people have little- to no range of motion on this half of the stretch.) Now try to extend your fists toward the floor. Do five of each movement.
• Extended-finger wrist flexion: Extend your right arm, palm up and open. With your left hand, pull your extended fingers toward the floor. Hold for 10 seconds; now do the left hand.
  Do all of these slowly and with a purpose - don’t just rush through them for the sake of busting out your five each. If you feel any twinges of nerve pain, stop immediately and redo the exercise, going a little less far into the move until you’re more advanced.

Now for weighted exercises!

• Palm-down dumbbell wrist curl over a bench: With light weights in each hand, kneel in front of a weight bench so that your forearms are resting on it, with your wrists just past the edge, and your palms facing down. Lower the dumbbells as far as possible; repeat 5 times. Now, do it while curling the dumbbells as high as possible; repeat 5 times on this move as well.
• Palm-up dumbbell wrist curl over a bench: Same as before, but this time your palms are facing up.

There’s no need to do these very often – maybe once a week until you notice a difference, and by then, just lifting weights will maintain what you’ve built up.

Work Ya Hip (Flexors)

So. Lots of things going on here in FitGeGe land, one of them being a Big, Long-Ass Road Trip (otherwise known as The BLART). Of my seven readers, most or all of you are also Facebook friends, so you've no doubt seen the pics of our adventures ('our' being my younger sister and me. My sis moved down to the F-L-A, y'all! Eight and a half years of no one visiting here, then my sis moves here!). Anyway, we drove her Trailblazer here from Nebraska, with a stop in Louisville, Kentucky, to see what we thought was long-lost family. (Newsflash: Louisville is freaking awesome - who'da thought? - and said family was even more awesome-r. Cheers all around!)

One of said family, my cousin Andrea - a one-time playmate when we were children - has had some knee problems and gained some weight due to steroid treatment for said knee probs. (She's actually the subject of the meniscus-tear post.)

Andrea has also enlisted my help with general weight loss/toning. After her knee problem, her biggest concern was hip flexors (which I thought was funny because it was SO SPECIFIC...none of this, "oh...I just want to...lose weight!"...no, she was all, "I need help with my hip flexors!" It just cracked me up with how specific it was). Okay, anyway, I had hoped to show her some flexor exercises when I was there but time got away from us, so the following is the best I can do. (For the record: anything that lifts your legs will work your flexors. The action of lifting your leg provides resistance using your own body weight and it really defines and strengthens those flexors.)

Standing leg raises (front)

• Stand sideways next to the back of a sturdy chair, using it for support and balance
• Lift your outside foot slightly, with your leg straight in front of you
• Now, lift your straight leg to hip height (or as high as you can lift it)
• Do five on each side.

For a variation on this, you can start with your knee bent (so your leg's at a 90-degree angle) and try it that way - it's easier. If you start with a bent leg, try to progress to where your leg is straight, and you're able to bring it to hip height, doing 25 per leg with only the last few being difficult.

Standing leg raises (lateral)

• Do the same as above, except stand facing the back of the chair
• Lift your straight leg to the side, working up to lifting to hip height 25 times/leg.

The bent-leg variation will work with this, but it will be hard to do because the chair is there; I personally feel like this one doesn't need the variation.

Tips for these two exies:

• Keep your stationary leg slightly bent so as not to put stress on your knee
• Keep your body straight - your only fulcrum should be your hip in these movements.

Boxers. I think this is the best hip flexor exercise there is, because it will also get your heart rate up. So, by doing this exercise, you'll strengthen your hip flexors and your obliques as well as get some cardio conditioning in. Here's how to do them:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, fists in front of your face (hence the name "boxer")
• Move into a squat position (remember to keep your butt out, shoulders up, and make sure your knees do not extend past your toes!)
• Stand back up and bring your left knee to your right elbow, twisting your torso as you do
• Repeat, using your right knee to your left elbow this time.
  

Start off by doing 5 or so on each leg and progress to 25 each leg. As you practice this, you'll get better at making it a little more fluid and natural.

So as not to inundate you with exies, this is all I'll post for now. Try doing these in succession, in this order, for 3 sets. Do each exercise the same number of times, whether it's 5 or 25. Start doing them once a week, then the next week, try twice a week, then the third week, do them 3 times a week. Make sure you control the movement on the way up and on the way down - do it with purpose. You'll waste a whole bunch of time if you just use momentum to swing your legs around.

Questions? Put them in the comments! :)

Meniscus Tears

So, ya screwed up your knee - or, more specifically, you tore your meniscus. 'WTF is a meniscus?' is what you're thinking, right? Here's the short answer:

According to Yahoo Health, the meniscus (plural: mensici) is a moon-shaped piece of tissue (actually a fibrocartilage) in the knee, between the ends of the upper leg bone and lower leg bone. There are two pieces: the medial and lateral. An injury occurs when the meniscus or menisci tear.

I was asked what I would do to rehab this injury, weights/exercise-wise, and thought of a few things, but having never had such an injury, I wasn't sure if those would be right or work. (Turns out the exies I recommended were right, yay!)

So, for more information on menisci tears and a list of exercises to help rehab such an injury, go here.

If you have questions or suggestions regarding this post, put them in the comments and I'll address them! :)

*Note that FitGeGe and all associates/affiliates assume no liability regarding injuries occuring from use of advice in this post.

Gud Fud

Here on FitGeGe, (as in most areas of my life) I tend to over-commit and under-perform. (Shut up, I'm working on it.)

Anyway, I often promise to post recipes and food ideas and stuff on here and seldom do it. Now that I'm funemployed, however, I have no reason not to, right?

So here are two recent discoveries that I LOVE.

The first one is Chobani, a greek yogurt. 'Greek yogurt', as used here, refers to a strained yogurt that is higher in protein and lower in calories and lactose than regular yogurt. (This is also sometimes known as yogurt cheese.) You can strain some plain, regular yogurt yourself and use it for things like dip, whipped cream, cake frosting, and chocolate mousse. OR, you can buy it at the store, and for flavored ones, Chobani seems to be good, nutritionally. One of the little tubs pictured has 140 calories, 14 grams of protein and no trans- or saturated fat and, best of all: no HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup)!

My second delishus time-saving recommendation is the Morningstar Farms Chipotle Black Bean Veggie Burger. Long title..but...OMG...so good. I can't really explain what the taste like...just like something really good in the Mexican food genre. SO GOOD. They do have a lot of sodium, but, if you eat them occasionally, they're so good and fairly healthy. I like to make one and break it up on top of a lettuce/tomato/avocado salad...if you take 2 tablespoons of the aforementioned yogurt cheese and make an aioli with the juice of a lime, and add black pepper, cumin and chili powder, you'll have a delish (and pretty healthy) meal.

There you go...now, let me know your healthy snack or shortcut ideas!

Gold

The sun is setting

As I run

It limns the grass

Turning it green-gold

The silica in the asphalt

becomes

a river of light

The rays illuminate me

Making me a column of gold

I flow over the light

I become the light

The sun is setting

On my run

Running, I Dooze It

So, I've been running, y'all. Running!

I know, you're all like, 'WTF, haven't you always been running? This is news?' Right? Am I right?!?

Well, kind of. See, I've had a few issues. First off, I moved, and my old place had a great little running track right near it. New place? Not so much. Couple that with a few miscellaneous issues...and...well, I hadn't really run since Christmas, okay? Jeez.

But I have been storing fat, like a little squirrel getting ready for winter, and that fat likes to hang around on my ass and my upper thighs. Ugh. Finally I just decided I had to stop being lazy and run. I ran 2 miles on Sunday, then 2 on Monday. I took a break Tues and Weds and did other things, and just got back from running 2 miles tonight.

I don't know HOW I forgot that running makes your legs A - sore and B - RIPPED. After running Sunday, my thighs and calves were as sore as if I'd been lifting weights. So, after running on Monday, I made sure to stretch. I was in front of a mirror and while I was stretching, I couldn't stop staring at my quads. They were so cut and defined.

I also feel super-trim...and that's the best part.