Everyday Systems

Well, I registered for the forum a couple days ago, and rather than be labeled a lurker I thought I'd say hello.

A bit about myself. I'm a 38 year old male who has been diagnosed with high cholestorol and high blood bressure, and I'm told I'm about 100lbs overweight. I am 5' 11" and about 290lbs.

My doctor recently got my cholestorol down into good numbers with a small dose of some medication and he's working on my blood pressure. he also told me if I can't control my weight (I've been fluctuating) he's going to recommend band surgery. He put me on a 1800 calorie a day diet and told me no more than 2 grams of sodium a day.

I'll be DAMNED if I'm having surgery.

So, I'm really putting some effort into weight loss and exercise hoping it will level all the numbers the doctor doesn't like. Ultimately I want to be free of taking pills every day.

To make a long story short, after looking around the net for exercises that can be done on the cheap and in limited space (I live in a small apartment with my wife and 2 kids) I found my way here.

I have been on the No S diet and "shugging" (is that the proper adjective?) since last thursday (6/19) and I'm feeling pretty good. I DID unfortunately tear up my knee somehow just prior to starting, and I'm not sure how. I'm trying to carefully work through it.

I have actually set myself up with a quiet space and a 12 lb sledge at work, and I put in my 14 minutes just prior to leaving for the day (that way if I'm all sweaty I'm not offensive for too long). I just use a timer on my wristwatch. I am also "Urban Rangering" for about 20 minutes a day with someone here at work and I'd like to build it up to 45 minutes.

My routine so far has been

Shoveling, 7 reps each side
Churn butter, 7 reps each side
Chop wood, 7 reps each side
No name (Flip the lever?) 7 reps each side (I have been only getting 5 a side towards the end of the routine though)
Lift the sack, 7 reps each side
Ab Killer, 7 reps each side

repeat for 14 min.

I have been throwing in one of my own here and there. I figured it could be called "Turn the valve" or something like that. basically hold the sledge parallel to the floor near the head with your elbo bent 90 degrees and your upper arm tucked into your side. Rotate your forearm to basically twist the sledge back and forth. It seems to basically work the wrist/forearm and the bicep a bit since you are holding it at 90 degrees. It looks like the bottom of the handle is sweeping the floor in front of you.

So here I am. No spectacular results yet, but I'm feeling better and I'm moving up the holes in my belt.

It's 4:30pm here. I have to go get my 14 minutes in!

Welcome, Finnigan!

I live in a small apartment with my wife and 2 kids

You sound like me!

7 rep sets are great. Great to start because the bar is low, and great even years into it -- I do them now at least 2 days a week. Distributes the effort nice and evenly.

My advice starting (for both no-s and shovelglove) is 1) throttle your ambition, keep progress nice and slow and sustainable. Injury or burn out are more dangerous than doing too little. 2) be consistent. An N-daily little bit is vastly preferable than sporadic bouts of heroism 3) be patient. You're in this for a lifetime. Results will probably be slow, but maintainable.

Reinhard

Thanks for the welcome and advice!

An N-daily little bit is vastly preferable than sporadic bouts of heroism

I'm not quite sure I understand you here, but I do understand "Be consistant." So far the No S diet hasn't been too much of a problem for me. I get hungry, but I'm still burning mad about the situation and it helps me stay on target.

3) be patient. You're in this for a lifetime. Results will probably be slow, but maintainable.

This I will have to keep reminding myself of. Truthfully I am being kind of impatient mainly because my next Dr's appointment is in 3 months and I'd like to see enough of a change in that time to push him off the idea of surgery. This really just saves me from arguing with the man. I have no intention of having surgery. I want to get off the meds too, but I don't mind if that takes a little time.

Alright, today I hit the 1 week mark and I'm tweaking my set a bit. Today I experimented, and I wrote down a new set.

Shovel (7 reps each side)
Churn Butter (7 per)
*Drilling Stone* (7 per)
[1]Flip Lever (7 per)
Tuck Bails (7 per)
[2]Ab Killer (7 per)
Hoist Sack (14 per side. 7 was too easy)
[3]Turn Valve (7 per)

1. After watching the video again I think I have these right now. I was doing these like concentration curls. I was locking my upper arm in place and just using the bicep. Today I swung the weight with my whole arm, and it was a bit easier on the bicep, but TORTURE on my shoulder. Much better!

2. I modified mine a bit. I was having some trouble coordinating the step and twist comfortably. I'm going to just assume the wide stance w/ one foot forward (in karate I was told this was called a "bow" stance) and make the twisting reps.

3. I'm thinking about dropping this. I thought it might be good for my forearms, but all it really seems to do is stress the tendon on the outside of my wrist, and it doesn't ofer any other body motion. I don't think it burns many calories.

*Drilling Stone is really my combination of Chop Wood and Drive Fence Posts. basically it's drive fence posts, but I bring the hammer down to stop about where it does in Chop Wood. It reminds me of seeing quarry miners on TV in places where things are still done by hand drilling a hole for dynamite. One guy holds a star drill in place and the other guy keps hitting it. between strikes the guy holding the drill twists it 1/4 turn. Basically you are using muscle to pulverise stone. This seemed to work just as good as Chop Wood on my arms, and was better on my Abs.