Venting - strength issues

[Catrin]

...There is one woman, who I expect is close to my age, although probably younger. She only comes sporadically to these classes, although I think she may attend at night. She spends most of each class taking a break, coughing, and not being able to do anything. I'd like to show her some modifications that would keep her moving, because no one else does. I feel badly for her.

The instructor isn't helping her with modifications? She is indeed evil - that is part of her job... I don't know how our own boot camp compares with yours - I've noticed they do a lot more running in our boot camp classes than I am comfortable with so I've never checked it out.

I generally start with the 8-10 pound weights and go up from there - though the next time he tells us we are going to add 5 pounds at each set I will start with the 5 pounds. In Bosu class I typically grab the 4 or 6 pound body bar for when we do standing or kneeling flys. Doing this on the Bosu ball adds a whole different level of complexity.

He does watch out for us though - he always partners us up with whoever is closest to our strength level/size and last week when my arms started fatiguing my partner spotted me to help get the 15 and 20 lb weights up until I reached true failure - so I got the benefit of increased weight but not so much that I hurt myself. There are usually only 4-6 of us so it works out well and there is a woman who is very close to my level in upper body strength so we make good partners - we suffer together

The group trainer pushes us pretty hard - but he is very focused on safety. He is a firecracker for sure, as intense as his group sessions are, I can't imagine what it would be like to work 1-1 with him! I really like the team approach, much to my surprise!

[Wahine]

My shoulders continue to be very weak, and no amount of the difficult stuff I've been doing is improving it. I guess it'smarginally better, but this is the reason I can't swim well. It hurts me in the shoulder area to lift weights above my head. I can do lateral stuff fine, but when I say hurts, I mean, I get muscle spasms and feel fatigued, unless I use the baby weights. I'm not beating myself up over it, but it's annoying.

All of the nerves that go to your shoulder muscles come out of your neck. People with neck problems often have weakness in the shoulders and/or muscles around the shoulder blades because of the nerve connection. This often changes your movement patterns, puts stress on structures in positions that they can't take it and/or impingement of tendons around the shoulder with over head work...

Catrin, don't you have some neck issues too, or am I remembering wrong? Maybe this could be related to your slow progress in the upper body exercises.

[Catrin]

All of the nerves that go to your shoulder muscles come out of your neck. People with neck problems often have weakness in the shoulders and/or muscles around the shoulder blades because of the nerve connection. This often changes your movement patterns, puts stress on structures in positions that they can't take it and/or impingement of tendons around the shoulder with over head work...

Catrin, don't you have some neck issues too, or am I remembering wrong? Maybe this could be related to your slow progress in the upper body exercises.

You remember correctly, but they are recent. This is the first time my upper body has received this level of intense attention, so we will see. My neck seems to feel better during the process so I am hopeful.