Too much caffeine. And, my hips.

[kitchen_kink]

I learned today that drinking three cups of coffee before weightlifting is not a good idea. Having my heart rate shoot to 120 or so just from doing a couple of squats is, well, kinda scary. Also, sweating. Eiyich.

Question for weightlifting folks again, especially women: What do you think of those hip adductor/abductor machines? Probably my least favorite bits of myself are strengthened and toned by doing them, but I'm also doing wide-stance squats and sumo deadlifts, which seem to hit every part of the leg, and yoga, which often hits the difficult bits. Those two exercises seem sort of ineffectual and make my lower-body days take even more time.

Are these exercises necessary, or useful? By not doing them, am I creating an imbalance in my leg and hip strength?

Comments

[ectropy.livejournal.com]

I don't know all the gritty details about adductor/abductor muscles, but when I was working out in high school I did those two machines more than any other [1]. The two things it helped was skating and certain bedroom activities.

Now, if you don't think you'll ever get into skating or being able to do splits, then it might not be worth it for you to continue.


[1] because it was easy and looked really impressive when I maxed out the weight and did those for 5 minutes while reading a book. :)

I don't think so.

[water-childe.livejournal.com]

When I first had to forego a gym membership due to lack of employment, I worried that without those two machines my inner thighs and hips wouldn't feel quite as toned. I've been doing squats and bunch of Pilates excercises and nothing seems to have really changed. I'm no expert but I think you might just be doubling up.

Re: I don't think so.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I agree. Unless you're doing some activity that you find leaves you sore in the outer/inner thigh, I don't think it's worth doing the added exercises.

At very least, I'd move those to the END of your workout. The minor imbalance you might get from the extra exercise is nothing to really be worried about, but tiring those muscles out before you do your larger lifts will shortchange the bigger muscles.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Huh. I never really used those machines. Never liked 'em. Maybe I'm a dope. I figure they're not really the most useful muscles to focus on. I try to cover the big muscle groups to get some semblance of a metabolism and leave the rest to my general lifestyle to work out. 'Course, I'm not nearly the weight expert you are, so take mine with a grain of salt.