Tuesday, July 10, 2012

No cardio, No cardio...and STRAPS

I'm DYING. Itching to sprint and run up the stairs. I feel so puffy and thick from doing NO CARDIO this week (except 10 minutes of the elliptical yesterday. doesn't really qualify)


While a lot of this is mental, I know I am carrying a little bit more on my frame due to my inability to calm down my food intake while cutting cardio. See, with my usual cardio/lifting routine, I burn 500-700 calories via exercise 5-6 days a week. With no cardio whatsoever, that number is closer to 300, sometimes lower , depending on the type of lifting i do. Also, when I do cardio...I mean business. I sweat my mind out, and of course that makes me feel lighter! 


Anyhow, Im feeling less knee pain each day, and am taking fish oil 2-3x a day to help lubricate my joints. I will use the elliptical (the octane, specifically) later in the week, and ramp up the resistance and do some intervals on there..I burned over 500 calories on that thing last week, maxing out the resistance and pedaling as HARD as I could, pushing and pulling the handles with all my force. Getting your heart rate up high enough to make an impact takes some serious determination on an ELLIPTICAL. Don't trust the machines either..I've said this before, but they tend to be very inaccurate when it comes to tracking calories burned. If the machine says you burned 600 calories, estimate that closer to 450-500. Womp, I know. 


Oh, the perks of using a heart rate monitor.


Anyhow, I really have nothing special to report today. I ate my oat bran, eggwhites, and chia seed breakfast this morning, went to work, drank my monster on my way to the gym after work, trained legs...oh wait. 


SPECIAL REPORT:
I used lifting straps for the first time today to deadlift. I bought them at modells, they were really cheap...I wanna say under $5. They are "Harbinger" and have extra padding for wrist comfort. 


For anyone who has never used straps before, or doesn't know the purpose...essentially, you wrap these fabric straps around a barbell, more or less strapping your wrist to the bar, ensuring a stronger grip. Straps are great for deadlifts, especially because for me, as I load the bar with more weight, my grip gets in the way of my sets--my long nails don't help either. Gloves never helped, I tried. SO I decided to give straps a try. BUT, I am going to be VERY careful to not use them as a crutch. I didn't wrap up until the bar got heavy, and I started experiencing grip difficulty. My favorite thing about using straps is that it allows me to deadlift to maximum potential, and I stop when my LEGS can't take anymore, not when my grip stops working. I worked from 95lbs up to 155lbs (4 reps at the heaviest). Did 10 sets total. The grips REALLY helped me deadlift with the bar loaded past 125lbs, which is where my grip usually falters. 


Okay...that's the excitement of this post. STRAPS! 


Do you use lifting straps? Like em, dislike em? Gloves? 

2 comments: