DDR and push-ups

[prog]

DDR Supernova is nice. I was originally resistant to the notion of completing special obstacle courses in order to unlock songs, but they are clever and encourage you to explore the various song-tweaking options that have been in the games since the beginning but which I've never bothered messing with. These mostly involve ways to change how the arrows move and appear, such as reversing the flow of arrows, or making them appear only halfway up the screen, or having them move at unpredictable speeds. It's sort of a DDR scavenger hunt, and I like it.

I can do 7-footers comfortably and some 8-footers with exertion and luck. This may be my plateau.

Also, today I bought a song on iTunes because I heard it in a DDR game, which is a first for me. It is "Jerk It Out" by Caesars. Which makes me think of someone trying with violent motions to get the last bit of caesar salad dressing from the bottle, but in fact if you listen to the iTMS sample you will hear the chunkly filtered organ riff that I found highly catchy and happy and worth a dollar. Very fun to stomp arrows in time to, as well.

Have gotten into an exercise routine lately where I spend about an hour playing DDR and then doing some push-ups and other floor exercises. Though the results have been fast - I'm definitely building up strength, able to do a few more reps every day - I'm sure my form is terrible. I looked at WP's page on push-ups, which have a totally boss animated GIF of a guy doing push-ups forever, but its caption (doubtless provided by a later contributor) criticizes his bad form. Uh, and now I look at the page and the picture's gone.

This video is the number-one googley hit for "how to do push-ups". It is not how I have been doing them. I like the suggestions for making it easier, and easier again, for newbs. I remember doing the easiest kind, with bent knees, when I went to "special gym" in grade school. But today, my shoulders hurt at the bone level after doing whatever horrible thing I was doing that was apparently not push-ups, so maybe I'll try this chest-to-the-floor way tomorrow.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I will never be comfortable doing 7 foot songs, but I do appreciate how far I've come on DDR.

you can do push-ups with your hands on a bar or the handles to stable dumbbells to take the pressure off your wrists.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

The fascinating thing is that the "right" way to do any exercise changes every year or so, and yet the people who are all hung up on the "right" way to do them are always completely rigid about what the "right" way is. To hear them tell it, no one has ever done so much as a single pushup correctly, ever (except them, of course) and anyone who does any exercise in anything but exactly the "right" way is endangering life and limb.

The reality is that it is fairly hard to hurt yourself badly unless you are doing something stupid. It bugs the hell out of me that so many people are so hung up on the "right" way to do things where form makes almost no difference, and even with incredibly bad form you are relatively unlikely to get hurt (googling "pushup injuries" gets a bunch of hits on rehab sites recommending them for people recovering from various injuries.)

I'm not saying that good form isn't worth worrying about--it is. But I am saying that there is a wide range of good forms for any exercise. If you're hurting it may be that better form will help, or it may just be you need to take it easier for a few days.

[ahkond.livejournal.com]

The latest push-up torture my trainer has given me is: push-ups with hands on the floor and body straight, as usual, but instead of resting the toes on the ground, one foot is one a big rubber exercise ball, on toes only, with the other foot in the air. Evidence continues to accumulate: She's Trying To Kill Me.