Viewer Mail: Blogger Friends & Freeweight Workouts.

by

Hi Miz. This is kind of a funny question but I’m curious. Do all of you big bloggers know each other? In real life I mean? I follow most of you on twitter and it seems as though you do.

I loved this question and mainly because it addressed something I find continually perplexing about Twitter.

But first—the answer & a thank you.

Im not sure whom these “big bloggers” are of which you speak but Im flattered to be thought among them.  Thank you.

And yes.

And no.

I know that the majority of people whom I tweet Ive never met in real life yet still count among my closest friends (is that weird? odd or not its how I roll. you?).

There are a few whom Ive been lucky enough to meet in real life (Im forgetting a bunch) but for the most part they are friendships forged online.

Now back to Twitter in general.

Is it just me or can it feel (some days for sure and 100% when I first ventured over there) as if everyone knows each other but you?

As if you’ve wandered into a cocktail party filled with BFFs! dont get me started on the fact GROWN WOMEN us that term over there repeatedly & are merely listening in on other people’s conversations?

Ive been tweeting about 11 months now and am *just* starting to feel as though I ‘get it.’

Im just now slowly beginning to see the community which can be created even while there are seemingly millions of different, random conversations happening simultaneously.

You?

Are you on Twitter? And if you are did you feel as I did initially: all kinds of overwhelmed whatwhat?! or were you immediately at home there?

And if you aren’t on Twitter—why not?  The potential for timesuckage or simply not your thing?

Are you one of the aforementioned BigBloggers?  Do we know each other?

Please to hit us all up in the comments.

This next “question” isnt really a viewer mail question.

It’s more an answer to a series of fun tweets Hanlie & Foodie & I had flying back & forth recently (see? Im now a TwitterAddict. Please to send help.)

Both women expressed an interest in setting up an beginner free weight at-home full body exercise routine.

While I dont have all the video answers here are enough to get you—the royal— started!

(edited to say for some reason the words dont “look” clickable on my screen—they are.)

BACK (precisely the same movement when done with free weights. Id recommend practicing initially with a soup can or *nothing* to become completely comfortable with form)

CHEST: basic push-up (pressing movement) dumbbell fly

BICEP: basic curl (precisely the same movement with dumbbells. focus on keeping core tight & weights controlled as you lift and lower.)

TRICEP: Overhead extension (soup cans? free weights? tomato soup. tomaaahhhto.)

SHOULDERS:  Front raise.  Side raise. (side raise with exercise band as demo).

LEGS:  Ive no videos of squats etc. with barbells.  I’d recommend at home to start lunges, split squats, body weight squats, and stiff legged deadlifts.

That’s all Ive got, People.

Lottsa TwitterChatter & an unfinished free-weight video listing.

(Have an exercise video special-request for me?  Please to leave that in the comments as well.)

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Comments

  1. Love the free weights routine ideas – thanks so much for this!

    I do have a Twitter account, but can’t cope with more stuff to follow so, um, don’t.

    Sometimes I feel too shy to comment on some of the Big Bloggers – cept your’n!

  3. LOL at Twitter!

    I have an account but don’t get it eithrer!
    Whenever I check in it seems as though people are all chattering around me and I have nothing to add.

    At least I’m not addicted, right? 🙂

  4. Awesome exercise routines! I have bookmarked them all! Thank you once again Miz for being THAT complete inspiration to continue to better myself! Move me out of my “regular” routine so I can shake things upa a bit.

    Now back to the first part of your post…twiitter…I LOVE twitter. I have “met” some of the most fantastic paople on there, a group of very encouraging, very supportive people that I probably will never get to meet in real life(not all of them anyway). I have been on there since April or May and truly love what it offers. It OS a time sucker though and if I am not careful I can get pulled into conversations that continue all day. SO I truly have to limit most days. I alsodo not have a mobile devise with those capabilities(thankfully! LOL) so it is only when I am working at the computer I bring up tweetdeck and check in.

    I am so belssed truly to have met, follow and am followed back by wonderful pople such as yourselg as well as Hanlie and Foodie!

    On the flip side there is that “high school” feelings at times that do or rather did come over me when I would “chat” at someone and was ignored, but I am growing from that too.

    IMHO twitter is something you either love or hate, not sure there is a middle ground.

  5. Checked out the videos—very cool.

    I have the same question: could we switch a chest press with our dumbbells for the push up?

  6. I love twitter!

    Thanks for the weights info! I’ve bookmarked this post and will definitely refer back to it…

    You add so much value to my blogging and my twitter experience. I really hope that we get to meet in person one day!

  7. peeking in.

    YES.

    a dumbbell press could be substituted for the pushup movement.

    Ill add link later….

    more when my world slows down (next month? :))

  8. I know you! But I’m no big blogger, hehe. I love Twitter and have found a lot of great people there, but most days I don’t have enough time for it which leads me to feel like everyone is having conversations but me. Still I think once a person gets it and figures out how to use it to their advantage they will love it. 🙂

  9. I am just figuring out Twitter. I mean I know how to use it obviously, but trying to keep up with conversations, etc. and still “do life”

    One thing I do like is that it’s fast, and I like fast things!

  10. Twitter is the wave of the future!!!

    Or so all social media people like to tell me LOL

    I now speak in 140 characters too.

  11. Twitter? That’s one of them new-fangled contraptions you young folks use to read each other’s minds, right?

    Time-suckage: That pretty much sums up my reason for not doing it.

  14. I don’t tweet. I’m just getting used to all the time blogging takes, I don’ think I could handle another “thing.” Maybe someday.

  15. Have you checked out the aqua bells Miz?

    The ones you can fill with water and use at home?

    What are your thoughts on those?

    (I like twitter)

  16. I’m theoretically okay with the time-suckage part, because I honestly believe that something is only a time sucker as much as you let it, but for me, I’m not a fan of it because it seemed like a cocktail party where grown woman used the term BFF and I didn’t know anyone. I’ve been in similar situations in real life, and don’t need to feel that level of exclusion on the internet.

  17. I’m here from Twitter!

    First time reader who saw a RT of you post.

    For me twitter has been about this: an easy way to find information.

    I could have spent time looking up the free weight information you shared but was happier to find it quickly through @iamsucceeding.

  18. I’ve been on twitter since early 2008 and I just love it. Since I was on it so early I’m not overwhelmed, I just looked at it as microblogging.

    I don’t consider myself a bigblogger – I don’t have that many readers and still just get one or two comments at a time. I just really like twitter for an easy way to connect with people.

  20. I’m a big blogger. Doesn’t size count?
    I have a twitter account but don’t use it much. There’s no one I really want to talk to that much though I have a cousin who’s a truckdriver and he’s on twitter and he asked me if he could follow me and I said “no.”

    Breaker breaker, we got us a convoy.

    • good lord I love you POD.
      Only you would say no.

      Too funny…

      (no need to email me. video request duly noted :))

  21. The way I see it, when I have time I may be on there lots in one day and other times it could be a week before I check it. I never feel left out because I just assume that most people go on there when they have time and when they don’t they are not on there.

  22. I have really enjoyed Twitter. I think it allows us ‘small’ bloggers interact with some amazing ‘big’ bloggers..as well as non-bloggers, medium bloggers and purple bloggers–jk. But in all honesty I love twitter. It’s interesting, the people are cool and I feel like I am always supported. Especially living in AUstralia, I love waking up in the morning scrolling through everyone’s day..it’s fun.

    Twitter me timbers! ~M

  23. I just read a tweet that went something like this:

    Linkedin is your office, Facebook is your home, and Twitter is your cocktail party.

    (I’d probably add that your Blog is your living room)

    All the cool kids hang out on twitter…I have only been twittering for a few months now, but I’ve already shared many early morning cups of coffees with my twitter friends. We share joy, sorrow, goals, dreams, jokes, ideas, and chatter. Twitter is a great way to make connections with friends old and new.

    Now, I really must get back to coffee with my twitter friends and see what’s going on in their living rooms.

  24. so i TRY to tweet and I don’t think I get it! Well I get how to update, but then all the searches and #’s and the @’s…

    I know. I’m slow. But I already blog and Facebook and when I sit and try to figure out the tweet, it becomes a major time suckage for me. I may still try, who knows.

  25. I don’t twitter, but even my SIL asked me to be apart of it! Makes it more difficult if you don’t have an internet connected cell phone! I know, who doesn’t have that. haha. But, I have a cheapie.

  27. Something about Twitter makes me feel like it will take way too much time. I know there are benefits BUT I don’t have a Blackberry or laptop so… I guess it can come to email too, I don’t even know!!! BUT, if that were the case, I don’t have the time to do what I am doing now. How do you all do it. I have NO CLUE… CLUELESS!!!

    Great basic workout by the way! I LOVE WEIGHTS!

  29. I generally enjoy FB more than Twitter though I have my Twitter days. It got overwhelming for me so I drastically cut how many people I followed. Then I started a secondary Twitter account (for an anonymous blog I do) and now I’m even more overwhelmed with two accounts to keep up with! The best experience I had with Twitter was when I joined in with a “Twub”–not sure if that means Twitter Hub or what–that lasted a little over a week (concurrent with a national event I couldn’t attend myself). Everyone posted with the same hashtag and it appeared on the same Twub page (I realize that makes no sense if you don’t Twitter–it doesn’t fully make sense to me either). I made some new “friends” that way and even one is now a friend on FB as well.

    Another great moment on Twitter was when a woman messaged me and I realized she had a couple secondary accounts I already followed and she already followed my secret second account–we obviously hit it off.

    Anyway, just have to say that it was MizFit who got me on Twitter, so I blame you, Miz! You had that little thing on the sidebar with your Tweets and so I clicked and next thing you know I’m one of those Twitter people (you should hear my husband making fun of the very idea of Twitter).

  30. Can one be a lurker on Twitter?

    If YES then that’s me.

    I read your tweets about todays post with Hanlie.
    Thanks for the workout routine.

  32. I’ve been doing free weights/resistance exclusively. I wonder if I need to do something more at this point (since you know of my plateau/issues).

    And, I guess since you do know about my fitness journey, I gotta say it all started on twitter! It is a major time sucker but you can get SO MUCH out of the people and relationships online! I appreciate finding you out there woman! Gotta think @momtalkradio for that one too 🙂

  33. I know for me I was drawn to blogging in part because of the immediacy of reaction/response (unlike newspaper/mag.)—-twitter is like that only even more so.

    Which has both pluses and minuses.

  34. Twitter, eh. I haven’t signed on and have no plans to. I’m busy enough without adding something so inane. And does anybody really need to know what I’m thinking every second of the day? Trust me, my life and mind aren’t that interesting.

  35. I literally just joined twitter last week and I’m clueless. I don’t know how to talk to someone directly yet. I don’t know who to look up. I’m only following a few people and I just don’t get how it works yet. What is tweet deck, and tweetie, and tweet pic. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it like I am blogging but even that I’m still learning.

  36. Twitter is hilarious. I *get* why it’s so useful for social networking; what I don’t understand is why people have accounts if they don’t have a business/company/website/blog that they’re trying to promote… I think that’s one of the “issues” with Twitter. No one really seems to understand the real point of it!

    But I enjoy it, and I really like that community feel. I like that you become friends with the people there, and that it can serve to strengthen the blogging friendships that are already made from blogging!

    Thanks for the workout! Anything using weights which incorporates abs?

  38. Our new apt. complex has an awesome set of free weights. I must rid myself of all excuses for not working with them!

    I don’t twitter, mostly because I don’t really have the time or energy. My blog is neglected enough as it is, and I don’t think it needs the competition.

  39. I tweet, but it feels like just shouting from the rooftop. I have followers – but they don’t talk back. But it’s ok, because I have enough data streaming at me.

    My husband thinks it is weird that the people I talk to most are people I’ve never met. My response? Buy me a plane ticket!

    Still too sick to work out – and I think the meds have burned a hole in my stomach…

  40. You hit the nail on the head, as usual! When I first signed up for twitter, I was afraid to tweet and afraid to respond to others’ tweets b/c I felt exactly the way you described: “As if you’ve wandered into a cocktail party filled with BFFs!”

    Now I tweet when the mood strikes. I enjoy it!

  41. Don’t tweet–not going there. I am addicted enough to blogging, and spend too much time on it some days. I don’t even like ‘small talk’ on the telephone, and that is what it reminds me of. But I can see where it could be really good for getting advice, esp. if you were traveling and had a local question.

  42. Gena? yes. yes you must. (’nuff said)

    Im also stuck on MommySnacks’ comment (and I emailed her privately but couldnt figure out if she meant switch FROM FREE WEIGHTS to a different medium of resist.training (machines?) or stop the weights OR perhaps it’s time for new exercises for same muscle groups.

    For me every workout session includes (for the most part) bands, free weights cables and machines.

    a mix to keep my body guessing and prevent plateauing.

  43. MommySnacks comment was my question too.

    Do we need to shift around or can we always do only free weights?

    It sounds as though we should keep things mixed up?

  44. i keep thinking about signing up for twitter … but then tell myself i don’t need one more internet timesuck … ESPECIALLY because my current phone doesn’t allow me to browse internet and i refuse to get an internet-mandatory phone because i’m not paying $100+/month for a phone.

    i am also not a “bigblogger” and i haven’t met any of you yet. except for facebook stalking, but y’know.

  45. I don’t twitter, I only allow myself so much time on the internet to avoid the black-hole-time-suckage.

    I would love to see a video on combo movements. I love doing them for my home workouts. Example: a squat or lunge into a kick, or a plie squat with dumbell shoulder press. That way I get an extra burn boost and get more done in less time. I am always searching for more ideas.

  46. I don’t twitter – whenever I look at someone’s page, it seems so overwhelming to try and follow the conversation! I like facebook, where the conversations are usually grouped together. I spend enough time on facebook without adding another site:)

  48. No twitter for me – I spend enough time online as it is…I can only imagine how much more slothful I would become if I twittered. Besides, I don’t pay for internet on my phone, so I don’t think I can. (If I can twit on the computer, please don’t tell me!).

    Shoot, I just added text messaging to my cell phone – my darn kids kept texting me and it was costing me 20 cents every time! ::shakes fist:: Hmmm…texting has been around for what? Five years? Maybe in five years I’ll start the twitter.

  49. No twitter for me either…the black-hole-time-suckage! If I did, I may never leave my house!!

  51. I am on Twitter, but it is hard sometimes to keep up with all the conversations, and I get nervous about responding to a Twitter if it’s someone like you who probably gets TONS of them. I mostly read other people’s tweets and update my status, but I don’t usually get a lot of @ replies, which is fine. I like to see what everyone else is up to.

  52. No twitter..I think I’m one of the last humans on earth without a cell phone. Plus it seems a major time waster. I am quite skilled at wasting time as it is 🙂

  53. I definitely felt the same way when I started at Twitter, and to some extent, I still do sometimes.

    I have a huge mix of intersts and people who I follow, from photograohy, to writing, to health and fitness, to being a mommy and more, so sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all of the conversations going on.

  54. *giggle* No Twitter here. I have an account, but I’m petrified of the time-suck I know it will become. So I don’t tweet. (Besides I’m WAY too verbose for 140 characters, LOL!)

    I love when you do video round-up posts! I keep them all bookmarked on my computer. Thanks!

  55. Guuurl, don’t kid yourself. You are a big britches blogger and you need to claim it!

    I’ve not Twittered in months. Just, haven’t. Also not much blogging either. Guess it is just what this summer has done to me. My Q: how do you keep up with it all? Are you getting notices all day on that Sidekick of yours when a new Tweet comes in? I find I can only do Twitter on the days I am at the computer alot. Otherwise, I don’t really know much of what is going on. While on the run, I just don’t get on the internet much from my phone. Too many other things.

    NO WAY on the twitter alerts to phone. I get nothing to the handheld—perhaps that’s why I dont find it as intrusive or a timesuck?

    Starting a NEW gym, closer to my house in the sticks on Monday. So excited! Downloading lots of new tunes. Yeah me! Ready for school to start so I have a solid routine again!

  56. I’d say you are a big blogger as well. Although I am really new to this whole thing so you may not want to listen to me.

    I am a fan of twitter because of how short and easy it is.

    I love the idea of my microblog (I haven’t done much tweeting yet) as it is so easy and fast.

  57. I use Twitter to post my food intake. I tried following people but got lost in all the conversation… and it’s not like a chat where you sit and talk for 15 min and then leave. You have to wait for someone to Tweet. I don’t really get it! How do you do it without being lost with everyone tweeting each other? It IS like listening in on someone else’s conversation, isn’t it?? Explain! I’d love to join in more…

    And when I met you and some of the other Big Bloggers at Quaker I was really stunned how wonderful, easy, down to earth everyone is. And I wondered what the heck they were thinking inviting ME too! The one crazy binge eating blogger among the healthy, LOL! But I felt very blessed and grateful to be there!

    Sorry I missed BlogHer. Hope to see you again someday!

  58. Thanks for the core list of exercises that I’ve always want to ask you about but never had the time to search on the site.

    I really, REALLY need to do those back exercises because they’re supposed to be good for conquering chin ups/pull ups–which are my next fitness goal. Scary.

  60. Some of my closest friends live far away. Some i meet via blogging others back in college, either way we all have something in common.

    I love fitness bloggers because there’s no fluff…you know the pretending that I’m perfect long enough to write this post about my wonderful life. It’s real down to eat fun…nonsense, along with great info on helping each other out.

    Video??? Attempt a hurtle…I thought a hand stand would be totally fun on those.

  64. I don’t tweet. I just volunteered to be blog director for the writers guild. Between that, my other writing activities, actually writing, working at the observatory, etc … I have enough to keep me busy. Plus, I need time for those workouts.

  66. Oh man, so many of your twitter-ish thoughts resonate with me. I started a couple months ago and only now have gotten involved to the point where I occasionally have a twitter volley with someone (usually a fellow blogger who I may or may not know IRL). But to I twitter to the extent that I have Tweet Deck always on the desktop or the phone always open…no. Deathly do NOT want the coworkers to observe me tweeting. I’m still at the point where I have to make a conscious effort to make a presence on twitter daily, but even then it’s like, is it worth it if I’m not interacting much? These are the conflicts in my head. Maybe 11 months from now I will have the twitter type community you currently enjoy!

  68. Great workouts!

    I have twitter, but feel really weird when i tweet someone back from their status that I don’t know. I am slowly becoming more comfortable with it. I think I am just insecure with those I don’t know.

  69. I tweet, but am totally confused about what all the fuss is. I can’t keep up with my own life let alone the millions of tweeters out there.

    I hope to be one of those big time bloggers one day. LOL

    Thanks for the work outs!

  70. I’m avoiding twitter because I know I would love it and already need FB anonymous.

    Thanks for the workout organizing for us, Miz.

    I’m booking marking this…

  71. I love that SassyStephanie called me on my “Im not a big blogger” reaction 🙂

    thats a different post I guess: DEFINE BIG BLOGGER? what DEFINES SUCCESS for you in the realm of blogging.

    As LoriAnn said:

    I hope to be one of those big time bloggers one day.

    how would you know? define?

    now Im curious….

  72. I am only a follower on Twitter. Haven’t figured out the efficient way to keep up with “stuff” without giving up quality time with family. Trying to be conscientious about internet time now, trying to prioritize, often read stuff superficially in hopes that if I see the same thing in several places, I will remember it better.

  73. please to help workout triceps!
    reverse sit-ups are so last week! (and boring!)
    so are reverse presses! or whatever you call pushing the weights behind you!

    I enjoy the backyard workouts too! Thank you for taking the time to put those together for us!

    I tweet but it feels more like I’m text messaging my self! Then I look at my account and go “oh! look what I said!”

  75. I’m on Twitter (@tippytoediet), but I’m only there a couple times a week. Right now I’m really focusing (or trying to) on “being where my butt is”, and I can’t do that and tweet at the same time. I’m just not that coordinated. 😀

    I’ve found some good info there, but sometimes more info than I need. It can all be so…cluttered, and Lord knows I do not need more clutter in my life. ::shudder::

    It will probably be winter before I set aside enough time to really figure out how I want to use it.

  76. Twitter???? I love it! That is where we have met the majority of our “friends” and yes to me they are as close if not closer than my friends in person.
    The downside…if your trying to lose weight and your on your ass all day tweeting, well you know the effects of that! I have tried to limit it and get a grip on my addiction but it is sooo hard. lol
    I (we) have not met 1 of our blog friends in person YET but we sure hope to soon. That will be a fun day to meet all of our BFF’s 😉
    XO

  77. Oh Miz…your blog always hits a nerve with me….I had a twitter account for about a month. I started getting a bunch of email alerts that I had all these followers and it freaked me out! I gave up my account but I think I’ll be back again.
    I don’t have the courage to blog because I have been working out some serious issues that relate to my weight and other stuff. I even avoid you when you push my buttons. I am back on track. Maybe I’ll write a blog one of these days.

  78. Truth: I’ve been on Twitter for almost 3 years. (hey, I remember being amazed that I had 78 followers and 77 people following me… talk about the OLD days!)

    Many of folks I followed then were fellow BlogHer CEs -just another way for us to connect in real time. Then slowly I’d follow their friends -and they would follow mine. Some of us have met and become good friends in real life. Others of us still plan to meet.

    And for those of us working at home alone? Twitter is more like the coffee break room than the cocktail party.

    And still there are days when i feel completely left out -like standing behind the potted palm at a party listening to everyone else have fun.

  79. For some reason I’m scared of twitter, probably because I don’t understand it. Maybe one day.

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