The Prodigal Chinner

fit_fairy

fit_fairy

Cathlete
Maybe the title should be the prodigal chinners?? Surely I am not the only one that has "slacked" in my duty. My confession: As of today I am 3 days short of doing no chins for a whole MONTH!!!!!! Time has flown by with vacation, me being sick, relatives in the hospital, and now this last little short trip to Chicago. I must bow down to those of you who remain faithful and accept my penance, whatever it may be.

Seriously though, I did workout today. Pyramid Bonus Combo. I DID do chins!!!!! I did a total of 15 in sets of twos and ones. Did the hold at the top and lower down slow as I could. Will try to get back to doing sets of 3s and 4s soon, just wanted to be careful after almost a month of no chins ya know.

Sandra, to answer your question my progress has been up and down. At the end of July (at the pick of my chinup career) I did 4 & 3/4s chins in a row almost 5. Oh and could actually at that point do 2 pullups as well. But since then I have had back trouble, vacations, and life get in the way. So as you see above I am working my way back in. No worries I will get back. If I remember correctly I was about 9 weeks into my P90x rotation before I did my first chin. It was really exciting. I think I actually scared myself!! Just keep at it and go slow so not to hurt yourself. And keep talking with us, it helps!!

What's everyone else up to? Holidays always seem to get in the way of working out x( I swear it seems like yesterday it was Halloween. What happened LOL!!


Catherine

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Hi Catherine,

I love your perseverence with these. I'll bet your back and shoulders look fabulous. 9 weeks in, hey? That's good to know. I'm not so stuck on actually doing a pull/chin up; I just want to know that my modified versions are still doing me some good. And I'm still so new to doing them that I'm not sure how to read my body yet. I'm not sure yet what "failure" feels like. When I modify with my foot on my high step, it's easy to let that foot take more weight as I get weaker, so I worry about doing more than I probably should and just strengthening my leg. I'm thinking about getting the bands, because then I'll truly understand when my muscles have been worked to failure.

I'm also telling myself that it just takes practice. Eventually I figure out what my body's telling me. Can you relate to any of this, or am I just doing some neurotic rambling? :)

On Friday I did Legs and Back for the first time. I did most of the sets: 5 reps with an upward assist of one foot on the high step, then lowered with both feet off the step, knees bent, for a slow 5-count. Raising myself unassisted from a dead-straight-arm hang seems like a complete impossibility. But I'll take heart from your progress!!!

Halloween was only a few hours ago! Easter was yesterday.

Cheers,
Sandra
 
Ahhhhhhh Legs & Back one of my favorites!!! Sandra, believe me those assisted chins are doing you good. Give yourself some time and you will see. I hear what you are saying about the leg on the step getting a workout LOL! You just have to think about what you are doing. And honestly the negative portion of the move ( where you lower down slowly without the assistance) is probably the most helpful. Check out this link if you haven't seen it already( very helpful): http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=51 Talk to Briee, she's the ultimate chinster she can do hundreds at a time!!!


Catherine

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Fabulous link Catherine! Thanks! Near the end of the article she says that we really only should attempt short sets of pull ups, as they fatigue us pretty quickly. Yet, in P90X they're doing tons. I guess the approach I will take is to set my goal, each round, at about 3-5. And obviously for the wide grip pull-ups I'll use my feet for assist much more. I guess as long as I'm feeling tension in my back, I'm doing it some good. Okay, I'm off to do Chest and Back again!

Funny how I have no concerns about doing push ups anymore. Cathe's Gym Style Chest took care of that LOL!!

Cheers,
Sandra
 
Hey Sandra, glad you found the link helpful. I agree with the short sets. I do think even attempts and negatives fatigue the back very quickly. Also focus on the back when doing the move. It's real easy to let the biceps take over. It has taken me some time to do that. On my last rep of chins I try to lower down as slow as I can and really concentrate on using the back muscles.

Hey, where is everyone??? Briee, did you go out with your BB gun without me and Mel??

Catherine

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Wow, this is the most I've seen written about chins in this chin-up check-in in a long time! Where's HB to witness?

As I've said, I've given up on my attempts because I kept injuring myself. The injuries weren't debilitating, just enough to be annoying and to keep me from working out. I may get back to them one day. I do have P90X and did the classic rotation over a year ago. I didn't have a bar or a band at that time, so subbed pullovers or other back exercises for the pull-ups.

During this busy time of year, my workout week looks like this: Total Body; Short Cardio + Yoga Stretch; Power Yoga; Repeat. It keeps the workouts to an hour or less which keeps me from bagging a workout on busy days.

Nice to hear from you, Catherine, and glad you've joined us, Sandra! Maybe Sandra will keep us on track.}(
 
Hey Soooooooooooosan, LOL it does seem as though Sandra has brought us back to talking about chinups!!! I am with you right now on doing Total body routines. Although I really need to set up a rotation and would like to get back to splits. They seem more conducive to me doing chins. Oh and don't tell Briee, but I want to get yoga back into my routine too. Sooooooooooooosan, are you doing any assisted chins right now?

BTW I am super excited cause we have fit tv now!!! Wooo Hooo!!!

Hope everyone is doing well!! Hey, did HB leave the planet or what? I really miss her. She's a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. Hope she's ok.

Catherine

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Hi gang,

Who is HB? I hope you're not referring to Briee?

I should hope we're talking about chin ups :) On Monday's Chest and Back I did quite well. Nothing unassisted, of course, but I felt like my form was better than the week before, and I went to my limit on all of them. I did the slow-5-down-count for the two sets of regular chin ups in the P90X workout, and then for all of their variations I put both my feet on my high step, like the woman in that link that Catherine posted. I felt it all more in my back the next day, rather than in my shoulders, which is where I'd felt it the week before. Tomorrow is the Legs and Back workout, which has a few sets of pull/chin ups. I'm not dreading them hardly at all this time! I'll just do my best....and forget the rest.

Sooooooooosan - I love back pull overs. They give such a great stretch in the upper body. And I love any exercise that you get to do lying down :p Do you do the power yoga to a video? Or on your own? If video, who do you use?

Cheers,
Sandra
 
Sandra, way to go on your chin-up progress! I have a feeling I won't be speaking to you before too long.:p HB is Honeybunch, a very fit 52-yr-old personal trainer and group fitness instructor who can do a zillion push-ups and pull-ups. She says that's pretty much all the upper body work she does these days. If you do an author search for "Honeybunch," you'll find lots of posts from her.

I mostly do yoga DVD's and sometimes CD's or podcasts. I take classes at our local Y from time to time, but they're geared more toward older exercisers (lots of retirees in my community) and not challenging enough. Depending on my rotation, I try to do power yoga at least once a week as well as 10-30 min of restorative yoga after another workout as often as I have the time.

My favorite power yoga DVD's/CD's are (pretty much in order):
1. EOIN FINN - Power Yoga for Happiness
2. P90X - Yoga X
3. BRYAN KEST - 1995 Series (Energize, Tone, Sweat)
4. BARON BAPTISTE - Putting Postures to Your Prayers (CD)
5. EOIN FINN - Power Yoga
6. BARON BAPTISTE - Soul of Strength
7. RODNEY YEE - Power Yoga Total Body

My favorite DVD's to use as add-ons:
1. P90X - Second Half of Yoga X (beginning with Tree Pose and omitting Yoga Belly 7 if I don't need to do abs)
2. SONIC YOGA - Turbo Flow (Last segment ("Dissolve") only - I do not otherwise like this routine)
3. YOGA JOURNAL'S YOGA FOR FLEXIBILITY - 1992 Patricia Walden routine available as a bonus on Yoga Journal's Yoga for Beginners
4. BARON BAPTISTE - Power & Precision Yoga - "Wind" segment (VHS)

What do you do?
 
Hey Sooooooooooooosan and Sandra!! Looks like it's just us this week huh? Soooooooooooosan, that's an awful lot of yoga vids girlfriend LOL!!

Sandra, sounds like you are doing great!! I like your attitude too. Sometimes I get too caught up in the numbers and I really shouldn't. Chinups can be so intimidating. Sometimes I just stare at my bar and think about how tough they are. Of course I do much better when I talk to myself and tell me how strong I am LOL!!

Hope everyone else is ok!!

Catherine

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Waving hi to Mel!!!! Are ya recovered from your Christmas tree fall?

Where the heck are Briee, Janie and Joanne????

I did BM2 yesterday Cardio Blast premix. I just finished DM-Whew!!!! I am pooooooooped!! And I did almost all of the tricep pushups on the ball!!! I was shaking, but I think my form was good.

What's everyone else up to?? Anyone working out? How about chins?? I plan on doing them tomorrow. Uh humm, I think I am procrastinating.

Catherine

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<waving to Mel as well>

>Where the heck are Briee, Janie and Joanne????

Maybe all this talk of chin ups scared them off?

>I did BM2 yesterday Cardio Blast premix. I just finished
>DM-Whew!!!! I am pooooooooped!! And I did almost all of the
>tricep pushups on the ball!!! I was shaking, but I think my
>form was good.

That's amazing, Catherine. Those are two tough workouts!

>What's everyone else up to?? Anyone working out? How about
>chins?? I plan on doing them tomorrow. Uh humm, I think I am
>procrastinating.

Well, your body needs rest, doesn't it? I mean, it's not a good thing to work too often.

I'm still P90X-ing it, so I Kenpo'd today. My arms and back were tired from Legs and Back yesterday (assisted chin/pull ups all the way). I have one more round of Chest & Back on Monday, then I get to put that one away for about 6 weeks. Woohoo. That sounds great right now, but I'm eyeing the new Chest, Tricep, Shoulder workouts very suspiciously. I may be crawling back to do Chest & Back pretty quick!

Cheers,
Sandra
- will talk yoga later; gotta go change a stinky diaper now and make dinner.
 
Oh Sandra I love Chest shoulders and triceps!!! It is nice to get that break from Chest and Back, of course I love that one too. But since Chest & Back is the very first workout it's almost enough to scare ya away LOL!! I will have to do another P90X rotation again. Need to work my way back up to it though-at least mentally LOL!!!

So how ya liking the X? Is it what you thought it would be?

Catherine

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