Hey I’ve got a new favorite exercise. I’m currently doing about 100 a day (on a good day), hope to pump it up to 500 within a year. It’s working my knees, but I think in a postive way.
So do you guys relax the calf muscles, or keep the ankles locked? I’ve been doing more locked, but I thing I’ve figured out that you’re actually supposed to keep them relaxed.
I’ve never tried for 500. I’ll try it tonight.
I do them with my Qi.
While watching TV.
And drinking beer.
I just got done. like I said, I’m not patient. I did 200 and stopped. my legs don’t feel tired at all though, and now that I am sitting down, my back feels fine. I bet I can do at least 400, if not the whole 500. I’ll have to work my patience and try for the whole thing.
I used to do 500 and more rather often. Sevenstar is right though in that it gets boring. Sometimes I’d do them in front of the tv, but that gave me motion sickness. 
After you can do a base amount of say 200 or so, 500 is more of mental challenge than a physical one.
I used to do 500. 26-27 years ago.:eek:
whoa, guohen is like, ancient! 
nah. guohuen was just doing hindu squats at the age of 3.
Seven* - I’ll take that as a no. Thanks for trying, though.
You’re supposed to be able to do 500 in 15 minutes - it shouldn’t be that boring. And if your back was stressed, as mine is, I take that to mean that you don’t have the muscular endurance in your back to complete the 500, that and your form probably needs improving. Sorry to be a hard-ass. I’m sure if you worked at it for a month, you’d get there. You certainly have leg strength in abundance, but there’s more to it than that.
Ford - you said you f’d up your knee doing Hindu Squats due to bad form - what exactly were you doing wrong?
I crapped out at 80 this morning.
I think he meant that he’s done 500 in 26-27 years. He paces himself.
i’m curious as to folks opinions about the knee going so far forward. for all leg exercises i’ve done, i’ve been told to keep my knee over my ankle and that letting it go forward of the ankle is a bad thing to do.
your folks’ thoughts?
hey Rub,
I’ve said it on here before, but you need to be careful doing hindu’s. Not everybody is made to do them and the knee isn’t a joint to mess with. The reason why I no longer do my hundu’s is because I seriously strained a ligament in my knee one day doing them. I had done thousands upon thousands for months up to that point, then I must have just leaned weird because I was instantly floored.
The injury has caused me some serious inconvenience and sidelined me from training for fitness and martial arts for quite some time. I can’t do any squatting without a brace and I’ve completely given up on hindu’s because it’s just asking for trouble now. A few times, it felt as if I was 100% again and a set of hindu’s later I’m out for another month… I still think they have a bunch of benefits. Just be careful guys.
Originally posted by rubthebuddha
[B]i’m curious as to folks opinions about the knee going so far forward. for all leg exercises i’ve done, i’ve been told to keep my knee over my ankle and that letting it go forward of the ankle is a bad thing to do.
your folks’ thoughts? [/B]
I had thought about that too.
Originally posted by fa_jing
[B]Seven* - I’ll take that as a no. Thanks for trying, though.
You’re supposed to be able to do 500 in 15 minutes - it shouldn’t be that boring. And if your back was stressed, as mine is, I take that to mean that you don’t have the muscular endurance in your back to complete the 500, that and your form probably needs improving. Sorry to be a hard-ass. I’m sure if you worked at it for a month, you’d get there. You certainly have leg strength in abundance, but there’s more to it than that.
[/B]
nah, it’s due to a bad lower back. I used to frequent a chiro because of it, which worked wonders. 500 in fifteen minutes? It seems like the 200 took that long.
…499…500 Twenty seven years, not bad.
Seven - You told me about your back. Just thought I’d mention the following
Chiropractic
Acupuncture, but only from an EXPERT
Shiatsu
Rolfing
Yoga
Swedish massage
rest
Also, I know you’re into lifting weights - be careful, that powerlifter guy I knew had some seriously messed-up disks in his neck, and he was drug-free, he just said that he made mistakes when he was young, like getting injured and trying to come back too soon, etc. Whatever you have is probably not going to get better unless you seriously address the issue. It will catch up to you eventually. Since you’re already a stud-muffin, you could change to lower impact stuff. Well, if you’re able to work out for three hours a day, maybe you should just keep doing what you’re doing, at least until you pop something!
I’ve heard alot of good things about rolfing, but I also hear it’s expensive. I’ve been thinking about looking into it. My chiro is awesome, I just got out of the habit of going. what my back problem is - or at least part of it - is the alignment of it - it’s twisted slightly, and the right side is more forward. you can’t look at me and tell anything is wrong, but the x-rays show it. the rest I think is inherited somehow. My father, grandfather and great grandfather have/had back probs, and just like mine, they started in the teen years.
There’s a masseus here at work that specializes in swedish massage. what’s the difference between it and say, shiatsu? we have a shiatsu masseus here also.
You have masseuses at work? NICE
Now, if your french is good you mean that they are female, which is certainly nice. However, I think for a big guy (even my size), often a woman doesn’t really have the hand strength to do it right. You may be better off with a masseur.
Every kind of back work is expensive, except for Chiro which your insurance may cover. Rolfing is the most expensive, but probably the most effective. Done the right way, it is extremely painful as the Rolfer uses all of his bodyweight to stick his elbow or thumb as deeply as possible into your tissue - like between your calf bones, under your ribs, in your stomach, etc. It should cost about 100 bucks a session, which lasts maybe 90 minutes, and you will be permanently and significantly changed after 10 sessions (a full course.) You may be surprised to find that most of the time is spent on areas other than your back. This is because although there is only one muscle that crosses from above your hips to below your hips (the Psoas,) bands of connective tissue run from your head to your feet. This connective tissue knots up the same as muscles do, in fact they have a close relationship to one another. So to treat a serious back problem, you have to treat the body from the head to the feet. In fact, some of my better sessions were the one for the head and the one for the feet. Modern Rolfing has become less extreme, but this is actually less effective. You want an old-time Rolfer with a cruel streak and good visualization skills. The key thing is that your mind suppresses your existing pain, and that causes these knots to persist. When you accept the pain, mentally, then the knots release. You will actually start to feel “bubbling” sensations travel up and down your connective tissue and muscular tracts, this is called “myofascial release.” Myofascial release is the feeling that you need to identify and encourage, whether it is Rolfing, Shiatsu, or Accupuncture.
When I was getting Chiro done, I made alot of progress in the beginning, but after a couple months it was diminishing returns. As I continued my treatment, I got Rolfed. After a few sessions, the Chiropracter was amazed - I had made significant progress that he could see. The problem with Chiro is that it gets your spine a’ crackin, but doesn’t really address your soft tissue.
Accupuncture is also very effective. In this case, your muscles are pierced a couple inches. You are not used to being “touched” or tweaked there, so again the mind plays an important role. As you relax and learn to accept the needles, you start to experience myofasical release. When the Accupunturist tweaks the needles, again it is stimulation that will give you “pings” and other feelings like shooting electricity that indicate you are making progress. Then, when he puts the vacuum cups on to suck out your “bad chi and blood” – this is the part that I just do not dig. It may be effective, but I am just not into it.
Shiatsu is very cool. This is a massage, somewhat like a deep-tissue massage although not painful or extreme, that follows your accupuncture (qi) channels. It is similar to Qi Gong massage but is Japanese. Again, you will feel pings, travelling impulses, and myofascial release. True Shiatsu experts use their Hara (Dan Tien) to assist them in thier evaluation. It is very sophisticated.
Swedish massage, is nice. It will help to align you, and make your muscles feel way better. You get in this zone where you want to fall asleep. Great stuff, however of all of the treatments I have described, I feel that the effects of Swedish massage dissapate after a couple of days, and doesn’t help you so much in terms of permanently changing your back for the better. If you had a live-in masseuse or masseur and/or could receive daily treatments, this would be the way to go. However, it just isn’t as much bang for your buck as the other treatments.
we have two females and a male. I can’t afford 30 bucks an hour on a regular basis though. there’s no way I could do it daily…
Originally posted by SevenStar
what my back problem is - or at least part of it - is the alignment of it - it’s twisted slightly, and the right side is more forward. you can’t look at me and tell anything is wrong, but the x-rays show it.
Not knowing specifics of your back injury, I can’t say whether or not this is applicable, but my father and brother both had back problems due to malformations in their hipbones. In both cases, getting an insert into one shoe helped matters enormously, correcting alignment and such.
I, luckily, missed out on that bit of the genetic jackpot.