Eating after a workout

I haven't been able to work out in three days. Apparently the rowing machines were harder on me than I thought. Once the muscle pain was gone, my hip flared up. It still hurts but dammit, I'm going to the fit today. I'm tired of sitting around!

Whew. Went back. This week I was supposed to go from 6 min of intervals to 9. Ouch! I also went from 1 set to 2 sets in weights. My arms are shaking. Lots. If I'm not terribly sore tomorrow I'll go back and up my cardio a bit.

I heard fasting for a day or two makes you less hungry when you do go back to eating, because you realize you don't need as much food as you normally eat. Something like that. Well, I can't fast because I have tests this whole week, but I can eat half as much (or less) as what I normally do. We'll see how this goes.

I would discourage fasting. Especially in combination with regular exercise. You'll start breaking down muscle tissue for energy and storing more fat.

^
I believe that is "would NOT".

I would not encourage it, but I would discourage it.

Fasting = Bad.

Alrighty then. I'm gonna get dinner.

Just eat smaller meals.

And please take days off.

High protein, low fat is the reccommended post work-out meal. I like to have a glass of skim milk with 2 scoops of vanilla or cookies and cream whey protein.

I've been either going to the cafeteria and eating meat + veggies + milk, or buying a sub w/ lots of meat and eating that.

Also, I took a day off today.

Does whole milk have more protein than skim, or are they only different in their fat content?

Two sets of ten reps again today. It was easier than last time, so I think I'm ready to go up to three sets next week.

For reference, this is my pathetic arm. I'm posting a pic so I can compare by summer's end if there's a difference.

Same amount of protein.

Skim milk has less calories and less fat.

Three sets today! 12 minutes of intervals! I feel great! I have more energy than before and I leave the gym feeling AMAZING. I mean absolutely amazing.

I don't think I'll ever be able to stop working out!!

Three sets again. Bumped up triceps from 30 to 40 lbs, leg presses from 40 to 50 lbs, and lateral raises from lol 4 to lol 5.
I had the most trouble with the raises.

12 minutes intervals again, and it was rough. I didn't do it on bikes, but on a treadmill. That works my heart a lot more, definitely.

Chugged 2 cups of 2% milk with some fancy schmancy high-protein slim fast when I got back. Gonna get some sushi tonight.

Ok, since it's the end of the year, when I went to the fitness center for a follow-up they said they're out of time to add stuff to my plan. They said to come back in the summer, but to try some exercises first to see what I like.
Now, I don't even know where to start.
Considering I'll be at the YMCA this summer, more than likely, what's something else I could try to add to my fitness plan?

Also, I have to say, weights are doing wonders for me. My joints have never been this stable.

Where I live, the Y will give members a free one hour consultation. It's probably worth looking in to. They can show you how all the different machines work and free weights exercises and see where you're at so far and give you a plan to work off of. They'll also give you tips on your form, depending on their personal level of expertise. Not that I'm recommending you use the machines, free weights generally better.

The machines make it so I don't drop weights on myself if my joints fall out of place mid-lift. The heaviest free weight I'm allowed at the moment is about 5 pounds.

Generally.

I'm intrigued by your condition, TKO. Now that I don't have an ACL in one knee, I have an idea what it must be like. And it turns out the solution for my ACL issue (at least until I can figure out how to get a $15k operation) is to build the shit out of my quadriceps and my hamstrings so that muscles will compensate for the lack of a ligament.

It is actually working relatively well, although I still haven't been skiing since the accident.

Yeah, for you its probably best to stay with a machine unless you can get someone to spot.

But generally because of the stabilization factor its better to use free weights.

Machines often tend to focus on unnatural movements, and stress your ROM beyond reasonable limits.

What's ROM?

Range of movement/motion.

A space knight.

Range of Motion. Pull your arms back while you're sitting like you're doing a mock bench press. Notice how you can't really pull beyond a certain limit? That is your ROM for the muscles involved. When you do the actual bench press with weights its very easy to let the bar come down to far which over-extends your ROM. Its debatable whether this is good for you or not, but the bench press is notorious for causing shoulder injuries and having read about it quite a bit I'm convinced that its in part to the ROM being over-extended like I said.

Another good thing about free weights is that you can pull as much as you push. If you bench 100#, you should pull or bend over row 100# too. This helps with instability problems caused by only working one way. Helps prohibit injuries too. With machines its tough to make sure you evenly work everything because everything is targeted at specific muscles instead of a complex group like we were actually designed to exercise. Muscles were meant to work in tandom.

I'll stop there.

Took the day off. Up to 4 reps now. Doing better on intervals, I can get through 12 minutes now and my heart doesn't go crazy. I think I'll hold at 12 for another week, then see about adding a few more minutes. Whew. Now I've got my parents working out. I was so excited about exercise when I got home, that they felt sort of... I dunno, what's a milder word for 'inspired'? Anywho they both joined the same gym as me and they're going with me almost every day after work. We picked two days of rest for the week - Wednesday and Saturday, though we probably will end up going 4x/week.

We have our arguments, but that shit's in the blue room. Also my sister didn't want to join. She's afraid to do weights for fear of looking big. /sigh

This sounds like an excuse to cheat with a short range of motion so you can pretend you're strong enough to lift more weight than you really can. Sure, your range of motion is limited at first. Flexibility is something you must build up slowly, just like strength. If that means living with unimpressive resistance for longer than you'd like, that's what you do.

Well, obviously if you're being a wuss and doing half assed lifts such as the bench press where you only go up 1/2 the way you're supposed it won't really benefit you much.

Range of motion usually has more to do with letting the bar or whatever come back to the resting place. With the bench press its wide to stop before you over-extend your shoulder muscles. But you should still be going all the way up.

I thought she was smart?! You only get "big" if you're doing exercises with high weight (generally speaking). Lower weight, more reps produces a more toned look, instead of a bulky look.