QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Be sure to check out the other questions posed to Miriam Nelson, PhD and Rebecca Seguin, BS, CSCS on our web site at FAQs.

Q: In the original edition of Strong Women Stay Young, there was an exercise called "hip extension". In the revised edition, this exercise has been usurped by an exercise called "standing leg curl". Why was the "hip extension" done away with? I've been comfortable doing this exercise. Is it okay if I use that instead of the "standing leg curl"?

A: The hip extension exercise in the original book is not in the revised edition because I received several letters indicating that it was aggravating some people's lower back. If you are doing the chair stand correctly (which is still in the book), you are strengthening many of the same muscle groups that were trained in the hip extension. The hip extension can be a difficult exercise to do properly, and I felt the standing leg curl was a safer choice for the program. If you are still doing the hip extension exercise and have found it useful, it is fine to continue doing it.

Q: My husband and I are trying to get pregnant. I saw on the FAQ that pregnant women should not start a strength-training program. But I will already have been doing the program for several months. Once I am pregnant can I continue with the program? Or should I stop and then start all over again once I have given birth? Thank you for your time. As with so many others, your program changed my life!

A: In general, doctors don’t recommend strength training while pregnant because women's joints loosen during pregnancy (in preparation for birth). However, in your case, your doctor may feel comfortable with you continuing to lift weights throughout the pregnancy since you have been doing so already. If that’s the case, just keep in mind that you should simply try to maintain - not progress - during this time, and that around the trimester and directly following delivery, you will likely have to significantly decrease the intensity and/or take a break from strength training. Keep your doctor informed of your activities and always listen to your body.

Q: I have been doing the Strong Women program for several years - with great success. For about the last month, I have had a sore rotator cuff muscle. Can I do the other arm exercises (biceps curl and upward row) and not aggravate my rotator cuff? I miss doing my arm exercises and I don't want to lose that muscle tone.

A: There are definitely exercises that you can continue to do so that you don’t lose the muscle strength and tone you’ve gained. In general, the safest exercises to do while the rotator cuff area is still healing are ones in which the shoulder joint is stable, such as the biceps curl. Because the rotator cuff injury can be a nagging one, the best plan would be to meet with a physical therapist to design an individualized program that will help you recover from the injury while maintaining as much strength in other upper body muscles as possible.

FROM THE MAILBOX

Here are excerpts from a few of the inspiring letters we've received recently. If you enjoy reading them, check out the collection of reader mail on our web site at Success Stories.

"This message is for Dr. Nelson and her coauthors of Strong Women and Men Beat Arthritis. This book has changed my life. I'd read everything I could find and made appointments with two rheumatologists in an attempt to get (1) an exercise routine that could help reduce the pain in my knee from osteoarthritis and (2) answers to my questions about nutritional supplements. But I wasn't satisfied with anything I learned till I read this book. What I found there answered not only those questions but also questions I didn't even know to ask.

I used to walk up the stairs to my third-floor apartment stepping up with only my right leg. After just a few weeks on the exercise routine and with the changes in my diet, I'm walking up the stairs normally, with much less pain. It's been an enormous difference. Thank you."

-- Marilyn

"At last a thorough, explicit book on weight training for the lay person. It totally makes sense. I have been using dumbbells regularly with no sense of continuity or know what I was doing but I was consistent with my few motions and low and behold my last years bone density test showed my spine improved. Now with a definitive program and the added lower body concentration, my hips are bound to improve. I only wish the two times I had gone to rehab that they had given me something of this kind…Thanks so much for this book and I just ordered your other two books. They can only be of additional help."

-- Ruthella

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