Do you take anything for your joints? I had a lot of trouble with my knees, and glocosamine and chondroitin really made a difference for me. I'm also noticing some benefit from MSM and fish oil, but glucosamine was a LOT better.

It's not expensive, so if you haven't tried it, you might want to at least price it out. It's not a "proven" relief, but it has a lot of anecdotal evidence describing benefits.

Hope it helps!

Just wanted to drop in and say good morning!!

I took glucosamine chondroitin for years. I used to recommend it to a lot of my clients as well. But I was victim to its popularity. There are studies now that debunk the benefits of the stuff on humans. So I stopped taking it and there still was no pain, so I probably won't start again. That said, I do know many that swear by it, and if it has worked for you, scientific studies are not the end all be all to the efficacy of a product. Keep with it.

My knee pain is more from acute injury, I would be willing to bet.

Now fish oil, that is a different story. I live on the stuff. Bust supplement I think ANYONE could ever take, PERIOD. Just make sure you are getting the good pills with the right amounts of EPA and DHA in them.

Exercises that I recommend you implement into some sort of routine. We can talk about program design a bit later, but I just wanted to give you a reference of the basic movements you should be using with free weights.

Some of these videos have some "hardcore" guys showig you the lift. Please don't let that fool you into believing that these lifts are for the serious athletes only. They should be the basis of any solid training program.

These links will take you directly to the videos, however, I also recommend going to the main site and reading the descriptions of the exercises so you understand the execution. Form is everything. Bad form can = a dangerous movement. Good form = good results and no injury. That said, if you have any questions regarding the form of these exercises, please feel free to ask. The main web adress is BioMechanics Lab Homepage

Most of these exercises can be done with either a barbell or a set of dumbbells.

For legs, I am a fan of all deadlift variations as well as all squat variations. The deadlift will focus more on your posterior chain (lumbar, glutes, and hamstrings), while the squat will bring your quads more into the picture.

Two examples of the deadlift that I would recommend are:

The Romanian Deadlift:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strengthlab/images/rdl.mpg

And the Conventional Deadlift:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...s/convdead.mpg

Two examples of the squat that I recommend are:

The Back Squat:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...ksquat.mpg.mpg

And the Front Squat:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...tsquat.mpg.mpg


Some additional exercises for legs that I like are:

The Lunge:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...es/dblunge.mpg

And Step-Ups:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...es/sstepup.mpg

OK, now let's look at some of the horizontal pressing movements that are core to any fundamental routine:

First, there is the all mighty barbell bench press:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...es/bbbench.mpg

Which can also be done using dumbbells:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...ll%20bench.mpg

With this exercise, you can vary the degree of angle that you work with on the bench. All angles will bring your entire chest into play, however, the more you incline the bench, the more your upper chest and anterior deltoids will come into play. The more you decline the bench, the more lower chest will come into play.

Also, if you are not ready for weighted horizontal pressing exercises. I suggest starting with some variation of your basic push-up. If you are strong enough, which most females probably are not in here, you can do your basic push-up. If you can't, start by doing push-ups with your knees on the floor until you can build up enough strength for the basic push-up.

Now, let's look at horizontal pulling movements.

First, there is the Barbell Row:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...ages/bbrow.mpg

Core and lumbar stability is very important with any exercise where you will be leaning forward with a load. I highly suggest doing more research on the website I linked above as well as other sites to better understand the mechanics of this, and all other movements I have posted. Or, you can always ask me about proper execution.

Next there is the basic cable row, which I would recommend as a good starting exercise for horizonal pulling:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...s/cablerow.mpg

Mind you, this is simply an introduction, there are literally hundreds of exercises for each plane of motion. Even if you browse the website I have included, you will find hundreds, and this site doesn't include every exercise. So as you can imagine, you can get into some pretty detailed exercise selections.

Next let's look at your basic vertical pressing exercises.

First, there is the standing vertical (military) press. You can do these seated as well, and if you have lower back issues, I would recommend it. If you don't though, I recommend doing these standing, simply due to the fact that you bring more muscles into play by doing so:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...ages/bbmil.mpg

Here is a vid of doing the same exercise as above, except you are using DB and you are seated, just to show the variation:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...bmilseated.mpg

Last plane of motion we will look at is veritical pulling.

Here you have things such as the pull-up. These are very difficult for most individuals, especially those with a lot of weight to lose. That said, you can do assisted pull-ups with the help of a spotter or you can use a machine that assists you with weight, in so that you don't have to pull up you entire body weight:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...ges/pullup.mpg

I actually suggest focusing on cable pull downs before moving to pull-ups of any sort. This will allow you to pick your weight and build up strength in vertical pulling movements. With these, you can use many variations of grip and handles, but here is a vid of a basic cable pull down:

http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strength...wgpulldown.mpg

Again, this is only the tip of the iceberg. We did not get into accessory, isolation movements. But for the beginner, especially those looking to lose weight, I don't think they belong in a program. The basic, big, compound lifts are what you should be focusing on.

We can get into more detail of program design on a personal basis, as each person is not going to have access to all this equipment and each person is going to have unique goals.

Hmmm, maybe a mod can help me here? The above post did not show everything I typed. When I click on edit, it is all there, but when I hit post or save, the entire thing does not show up. Any suggestions?

Good Morning Steve,
I went in to the edit feature, and I see what you mean, there are more links in the post - I hit the save button without doing any thing else, but it remained saved as you had last edited.

Could you cut, copy and paste the "invisible" portion of your text into t a new post and see if that will work?

Grrr! I don't get it. I guess I can't do it. I am sick of spending the time on the post and having it not work.

I understand the frustration - there's no reason it shouldn't post.
Unless there's a link limit? If so, I've never heard of it or seen it reached.

Try separating the post.

Yea, but I was going to post a crap load of exercise links. From the looks of it, I can't post more than 3. That would end up being far too many posts.

The Romanian Deadlift:
[URL="http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strengthlab/images/rdl.mpg[/URL]

Page Can Not Be Found

And the Conventional Deadlift:
[URL="http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strengthlab/images/convdead.mpg[/URL]

How much weight should a beginning female start out with counting the bar?

That's crazy, I know I've seen more links then 3 in posts before.

Let me get back to this when I am done trying to figure out this problem. I am going to try and retype it.

Starting weights will vary. Honestly though, I recommend starting with no weight, just so you can learn the correct form. Form is VERY important.

I can imagine - looking at the Back Squats and all I can think if something is right, it's gonna be WWWrrrooonnnggg!

Phew, ok, I got it to work.

Yay


Do you know what was causing it to not work?