I clench butt too much!

[CracyTracy]

Thanks Vamp and Boss Man! Your words mean more than you will ever know!

One quick question: As you see in this pic (below), "hips" are wider at the top than at the bottom. The hips at the top are almost all bone. Neither niece nor I can feel or move fat. (She puts up with idiosyncrasies!) Is there an exercise I can do to correct this (See, I told you it was short! )

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And I do plan on sticking around. I still have much more to learn! Thank you both so much for your help, patience, and guidance!

[vamp]

No worries, Keep up with squats and lunges and you'll get there. Your body is a work in progress! You can't make memorable art in minutes. The 16th Chapel was definitely not painted in a day, but years. Remember to have patience and enjoy the little successes as well as the forming of the whole picture!

Our patience, support, help and guidance are yours!

Cheers

[CracyTracy]

Thanks Vamp! I wasn't sure if squats and lunges would be enough or if I needed to add something else, like hip abductor exercises. I appreciate your help!

[vamp]

squats include those smaller Abductor and Adductor muscles, and don't forget to stretch after your workouts

[Boss Man]

I think you mean the Sistine Chapel don't you Vamp not the 16th .

Tracy you may find the hip girth appearance you are relating to is a permanent thing, but it could be to do with bone structure, not fat or muscle mass formation, so try not to worry about it too much right now.

The important thing is to keep persevering and keep believing in yourself, because you ARE worth it and the time you invest in yourself is worth it too

[vamp]

Oops, lol, yes the Sistine Chapel, roflmao, wonder if I was counting reps or something for typing that, lol.

[CracyTracy]

Thanks, Vamp and Boss Man! And Vamp, I knew what you meant.

Boss Man, I do believe the hip girth appearance is from bone structure. However, is there not a way to build up the muscles on the bottom part of butt to at least get close to the hip girth? It looks very deformed, in opinion, and would like to it along with what I am doing now. Isn't this the time to do so, rather than do exercises that will slow down or counteract fixing that problem later?

Thanks again y'all! You're the best!

[vamp]

Keep with the squats and the lunges and as you improve, don't be afraid to increase the weight. Skipping is decent too!

[CracyTracy]

Thanks again Vamp! But I must say, I don't think I can skip properly, or at least to the point I don't look like a blooming idiot! That is another reason I don't go to the gym, but I did LOL! Thanks again!

[CracyTracy]

Okay, one thing that doesn't make sense to me (well, there's are lots!) is something we discussed before, in that I do not feel the burn on right side as I do on left. For instance, I just got through with walk/run, and I felt burn on right side while running, but less than the left, and even less when I walked. I tried pushing off with right foot more, rolling it more, and I feel as if right has more range of motion. (Probably not but it feels that way). Nothing has truly brought the burn on the right side to the intensity on the left. I thought it might be because the right foot is slightly pigeon-toed, but fixing that didn't help. I also noticed I tend to lean or "laundry basket" on left side, so I correct myself when I notice, and lean over into the right. No help. The burn on the left starts in the lower buttock and goes all the way down the outer part of the leg to the ankle. Even now it is slightly burning. Nothing on the right, which doesn't make sense, since I can see and physically feel the right is underdeveloped. Shouldn't it be the one to feel more burn with more usage, and how can I this? Sorry to sound like a broken record, but something isn't connecting in brain to understand how to correct this. Thanks!

[vamp]

The burn you could be feeling because your left is dominant and does more work and compensates for your right... or your right has more flexibility than your left so when you push yourself the "overstretching" on the left is causing the burning.

I recommend a light stretch of all your leg muscles before your activity and then when you complete the activity a more thorough stretch. You should try to stretch your legs every day... after two weeks of doing this compare the difference from now till then. Keep a daily log to how your legs feel and where the "burn" is felt, you could even color an image of legs copied from the internet if you require a visual.

Perhaps someone else may be able to add other insight to this issue.

[Boss Man]

The burn in itself is not a major issue, it simple occurs when the body breaks down stored glucose know as muscle glycogen into end procducts, which is aerobic respiration, then there's a lack of oxygen present creating anaerobic respiration and lactic acid.

The lactic acid that causes the burn eventually is sent to the liver and dissolves.

As vamp said it could be one buttock compensating for the other perhaps, or rather a weaker buttock gaining reliance on the stronger one.

I was thinking of something relating to squats and lunges I thought might work, where you use dumbells on both exercises, but you use a slightly lighter on one the stronger size to retard or stagnate the progress of the stronger side so the weaker side can catch up, as this mentality could work for people who've developed one side of their chest stronger than the other.

However I realise this could possibly cause an imbalanced growth effect with the quads and hamstrings, it just depends on how your body would react, but if you continue to do lunges and squats wiht the same weight level on both sides, you would or should be getting equal devlopment of the quads and hamstrings, but there's a slight risk both glutes would develop at the same time, maintaining the current disparity.

Then it's a case of one buttock stopping growing at some point and the other catches up.

It may simply the case that you can't change the disparity, if the problem occured at birth, rather than occuring during your formative years, from some sort of sitting and walking behaviour you were subconsciously doing.

[CracyTracy]

Thanks for the input Vamp and Boss Man. I am sorry this is delayed. Crazy schedule.

Anyway, I hate to sound like I am hung up on the "burn" but I kind of am, as that is the only way I know to describe why I feel the left side is getting a better workout than the right, besides the size difference. I work in a lab at the local hospital and have seen quite a few athletes with lactic acid overload, and don't want that! Just trying to describe the feeling.

I was talking to a guy at work about it, and found out he was a fitness trainer before becoming a nurse. He had me do a squat and said I was leaning to left, giving it more weight, and suggested wall squats. He also said I didn't put enough pressure on right heel. After he said that, I focused on it and realized I do that with EVERYTHING because of heel spurs I had the past. Also, I tend to roll right foot from out to in instead of heel toe. I have been trying to make sure I put weight on right heel instead of toes, like I was, and roll foot heel-toe. However, this has complicated things greatly.

I was trying to walk more feminine, with a sway to hips and better posture. Added to that to make sure I was pushing off with right foot more. Now I have to add making sure I roll foot correctly and put more weight in heel. Combine all this, and mind jams up. This has truly taken away enjoyment of walking/running. I used to be able to exercise and escape to own little world for a while. Now, I have to concentrate on everything so much I can't enjoy it. Add to that this: while walking, I put hands on buttocks to feel any difference. There is no difference that I can tell, but I still see a difference and feel more burn in the left lower glute (where you would "cup" the butt, towards the leg). All this combined makes this very frustrating, to the point I almost didn't exercise today. I did exercise, but the joy like it was is gone.

Thanks so much for all of your help, and for letting me vent frustrations! I appreciate it very much!

[Boss Man]

I will politely decline the apology Tracy, as I would feel rude accepting unnecessary apologies from a Lady .

Don't feel like it has to become obsessive now, because it doesn't and you could well find it's second nature in a while, when your mind and body adapt to the subtle nuiances you have instilled in your everyday life.

I can appreciate it must feel frustrating when you have an issue you can't work out, then you find you need to do what seems like a slew of things to overcome it, but in the grand scheme of things it's not as daunting as some people lives.

You know what you can do now, so it's just a matter a time, patience and working at it. I'm sure it will all become second nature and you'll not not even think all these changes are things that steal the enjoyment out of exercise.

Keep pushing and keep believing because you ARE worth it .

[CracyTracy]

Thanks for the compliment, Boss Man, but I can honestly say no one has ever made the mistake of calling me a lady! LOL

I realize I am very obsessive about things, and, of course, life and problems are not as bad as other people's lives and problems. I see that all the time at work. However, I try to the ones I can, so I would like to mine.

Besides previously mentioned frustrations, which I am working on, I have a question about workout. I wonder if I am doing too much. For instance, today I did:

Oblique twists (4 sets of 25)
Lunges (4 sets of 25)
Side lunges (4 sets of 25)
Back kicks (4 sets of 25)
Squats (4 sets of 30)

Obviously I worked the lower half of body today, except for the twists, but I intended to walk/run for 30-40 minutes, as well as do more ab exercises, but ran out of time. On days I don't walk/run, I do:

Planks
Crunches
Reverse crunches
Oblique twists
Tricep Extensions
Bent Over Rows
One Arm Rows with Kettle Bell
Push Ups
Bridge Ups
Overhead Press
Yoga Push Ups
Hamstring Curls

I thought about adding Zumba (and I can NOT dance so that will be a definite challenge) or something similar on the days I don't walk/run, but I am not sure if I am doing too much already. I have reached another plateau and need to step up workout since I am only taking in about 1500 calories a day and burning about 450. And I do try to eat more, because I don't want to go into starvation mode, but it's hard eating calories if you are counting calories, eating veggies and fruit, and avoiding the fattening stuff, you know?

So I guess question is, do I add more exercises, or am I doing too much? And how do I get past plateaus without going to extremes?

Thanks for helping me out, and for putting up with obsessive nature!