Oh wow thank you for all the quick and useful advice! I have my work cut out for me here. I added Anatomy for Runners to my library holds -- unfortunately they don't have Athletic Body in Balance.
Hey F2C, welcome to the thread. I, obviously, love the convict conditioning thing, but I can admit that it can get a bit boring, even though the results are pretty good. Especially considering the slowness of the exercises. To that end, I've chatted with Neila Ray (who is not a mustachian as far as I know), and found that with a touch of imagination, one can make her Hero's Journey pretty fun. Have you tried that? I know Bakari has talked about the video based workouts (and can comment on the crazy amounts of them that I've tried/have), I've found Shaun T's Insanity to be pretty awesome, fun and hard. Hip flexors are a bitch, and I've had some temporary issues with them, but my limited experience with Kettlebell swings tells me they are working them(or I have really bad form).
That being said, what have you tried already?
Also, I'm assuming that when you say 'injury prevention', you don't have any injuries, and want to build muscles to protect your joints. Is that correct?
I do have a history of injuries: knee, hip flexor & an issue with my scapula/thoracic & cervical spine that I'm still dealing with. (This is a long story -- PT didn't get me all the way back & my scans were clear -- right now my approach is gabapentin for the nerve tingling & denial for the spine cracking & instability.) I am hoping if I strengthen my back I may help with the spine instability. PT kind of tried to do this to no avail, but I wasn't ever really thrilled with the exercises.
The hip flexor is fine now but I know I am prone to tight hips, so this is one thing I do regularly work on. One knee doesn't track quite correctly (skeletal) which got me to quit running years ago, but it's less of an issue on the bike. Both knees complain a bit when hiking and mountain biking, sometimes road biking if I do a lot of climbing, but it's not too bad. As long as I ease into things and ice when I do too much, it's manageable.
I briefly tried both crossfit and kettlebells and spent about a year and a half lifting at home. Wound up injuring myself in both crossfit and lifting and I sold the weights. (I said lady barbells in my original post mistakingly -- what I have lying around are just 10 lb dumbbells - the barbells and heavy weights are all gone.) I liked kettlebells a lot but PT said it was a terrible idea for me.
Recently I've just been doing a selection of PT exercises for my knee & hip (always try to do those a couple times a week), and then a half-assed attempt at core strengthening via pilates & general strengthening via sworkit. The latter is not working, mostly from a motivation standpoint. I do best with a clearly defined simple workout where I don't feel like I'm wasting my time.
I have two main challenges:
1) When I have time to work out, I choose the bike, always. You mention Insanity -- we do have those DVDs, but realistically I know I'm not going to do those on even a semi-regular basis. A conditioning and strengthening program requiring hours a week just isn't going to happen. I'm realistic about my expectations here. ~20 minutes 4 times a week is about the most time I will give stretching & strengthening. (And I do think this is enough time for what I am really looking for, but maybe I'm wrong?)
2) Working out goes hand in hand with a risk of injuries by definition. After the past couple of years I've had, where attempts at injury prevention have resulted in causing injuries that kept me off the bike, I'm going to err on the side of gentler exercises that may not make me as strong / serve as much of a cross training purpose, but won't hurt me themselves. If I were a pro cyclist, I would have trainers & support and yeah I'd lift heavy weights. But, it's just me in my basement, and I know where my priorities lie -- on the bike.
If I'm reading right, it sounds like you're looking for injury prevention, which to me says mobility work. I have found mobilityWOD https://www.youtube.com/user/sanfranciscocrossfitto be a wonderful resource, also gymnasticsWOD . MobilityWOD is by a PT, but gymnasticsWOD https://www.youtube.com/user/nakaathletics has a lot on body positioning that has changed how I approach basic movement. Good to be had with both.
(What the hell, gymnasticsWOD rebranded it as "freestyle connection". Whatever, same dude)
You mentioned tight hips- I deal with hyperlordosis, and have found the "Agile Eight" quite helpful. Pretty quick to do, too. https://www.t-nation.com/training/defranco-agile-8 Not sure exactly what you mean by tight hips though, so may not be exactly what you're looking for.
Hope one of those resources helps, and welcome to the thread!
I've looked into mobility workouts before, but because I am a little hypermobile (with the exception of my hips) I'm not sure they are really for me. However, that Agile Eight looks perfect for my hips -- thanks! I'm already doing a few of those exercises (avid user of the foam roller), but I will incorporate all of them. This is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.
I really like this resource, you might find some interesting ideas:
http://www.nerdfitness.com/bodyweight-training-resources/
Essentially rows, inverted rows and/or pull-ups are what you need for you back (I love deadlifts too...) and the push-up is the quintessential upper body exercise(tons of variations based on ability and you can work your way up through progressions). Squats and lunges are great for the lower body, but if you're already happy there then feel free to skip.
Thanks, I'll check out Nerd Fitness. I did look into that a little bit a couple years ago but was focused more on lifting at the time. Unfortunately I can't do pull-ups and have given up on those. I'll try to see if I can fashion an inverted row set up in my basement -- Im a little nervous about bringing a table down on me though!
Not sure exactly what you mean by "injury prevention", but one of the most common is lower back, and those are overwhelmingly caused by weak muscles, (not poor flexibility). The best exercise to strengthen those core muscles is deadlifts ( heavy ones!)
Just in general, strong muscles protect joints, so whatever area you are weakest (sounds like upper body strength for you) is the place where adding strength exercises can make the biggest difference. So in order to combat desk job, prevent injury, etc, maybe that's reason to care about being able to do push-ups. But its ok to start small, do the modified ("girl") push-up until you get there.
By injury prevention I mean to have a semi-balanced body and to develop some protection against overuse injuries - not, say, get so muscular that it'll help protect me when I inevitably come off a horse or a bike. I just worry that a desk job (although I do have a standing desk!) + a ton of biking will result in some imbalances that will cause issues down the line. Although most of my injury prevention approaches have just resulted in injuries...
A bad deadlift is what caused a lot of my injuries, so that's off the table. I know that I am "wrong" in my reaction to this. I 100% believe that deadlifts are important. I also 100% admit fault for the injury -- I did everything I could to try to teach myself proper form in my garage but I'm sure I made a mistake. I'm also sure I was predisposed to the injury and the deadlift was just the straw that broke the camel's back. However, unfortunately, I'm not going back to weight lifting. This spine injury has been one of the worst things I've ever dealt with (given that I'm a young healthy person who absolutely depends on being active outside to stay sane). It's been two years and I don't think I'm ever going to be back to normal. I'm never deadlifting again.
I will add the modified girl pushup into my routine. I hate these and I feel that it is arm strength, not back strength, that is my true limiting factor. I also seem to never get better at these -- but I will keep trying....
I certainly agree that what I need to address are my weak areas, which is for sure my upper body.
You might consider going in for an Functional Movement Screen . You'll have to google for your local area, but I've had them done for free several times. The test is designed to score your stability, mobility, and motor patterns for these movements: deep squats, hurdle step, inline lunge, shoulder mobility, active straight leg raise, trunk stability push-up, and rotary stability quadruped. The person giving the screen will give you recommended exercises to improve your problem areas. I've had 4 screens over the past 2.5 years and each time the exercises have improved my mid line stability (my main weakness). That said, you could just pick a basic exercises from each of the 7 categories, here, and start doing them regularly. Also, if you know you need to improve your spine stability, then you should probably care that you can't do a proper push-up. They require a lot of trunk stability.
I also like this book, Atheltic Body In Balance by Gray Cook, and this book, Foundation by Eric Goodman. Both focus pretty heavily on core and posterior chain strengthening, which is great for desk workers like us!
Finally, I have tight hip flexors and I love the couch stretch (video). This guy's book, Becoming a Supple Leopard, is good for working on flexibility too, but it's definitely crossfit oriented (which could be a turn off).
I do the couch stretch as well - agreed, that one is great. I actually got the Foundation book for my husband this Christmas because he has some more typical lower back issues but I haven't found a whole lot in there for me.
This functional movement screen sounds AMAZING and perfect for me. You can get them done for free?? How so? Do you have to go to a seminar?
You've gotten a ton of advice already, but the book Anatomy for Runners came to mind immediately. Need to re read it myself.
Hip stretches are a must for riding. During walk warmup I usually drop my stirrups and really pull my leg back and down. The movement of the horse helps loosen up the hip flexors in a way I haven't been able to offer the horse. Just be prepared for muscles wanting to cramp, try to back off and work through it.
I'm trying to imagine this hip stretch -- you move your leg back from the hip, I assume? Do you do both legs at once?
Do you have any thoracic spine issues from riding? Mine are caused from other problems, but a couple other women I ride with have similar issues Riding certainly aggravates it, especially with a more forward/downhill horse, which is one reason I want to strengthen my back.
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond -- I was so surprised and excited by all the replies I got to this. At the very least I have what I need to put together a little routine on my own for the time being!