Weight loss and Steadicam

[Jessica Lopez]

Hey All,

 

I was operating the other day and a new set of thoughts emerged in my head. Recently I have been fortunate to live a healthier life. Includes me loosing 32 pounds of body weight. It wasn’t until this week while flying a fully built Alexa Studio that I noticed my operating had changed. It’s only been a couple weeks of this new experience and I haven’t been able to detect the change because I am always flying Red Epics and Scarlets. I couldn’t tell even when I flew the F55.

 

There was one shot while running in the woods at a moderate speed, I began to stop and I noticed how much harder it was to stay planted and the rig was actually pulling me (like a big dog pulling it’s owner). By the end of the day, I ended up twisting my ankle a bit from how much harder it was controlling the added mass.

 

I realized as excited I am to be loosing weight, I must now workout even more to gain muscle back where the fat has left. The fat weighted me down.

[Aaron Medick SOC]

What you discribe makes sense. Especially, because it takes a very strict diet with about 30% protein per meal at 5 meals a day with a 10% calorie deficit based on you bmi to retain muscle while loosing fat. Any fast weight loss eats muscle mass.

 

Sinces I'm 230 when I drop 30 pounds i still have enough masses, but if i do a rapid weight loses I feel weak. I'm currently doing the above and losing about 2 pounds a week, which I believe is the upper limit doctors recommend unless you are obese.

Prescription follow the diet and work out. Good news is muscle has memory and responds to weight training fast.

[Aaron Medick SOC]

One more thing, which should be obvious, make sure you have readjusted your vest and arm for your new bodies new "neutral"

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Jessica, I've been fortunate enough to be more or less the same weight my entire adult life, so I'm not qualified to talk about weight loss, but something did occur to me when I read your post. Remember the basics. I'm willing to bet that you habitually turn the vest socket block screws to where you've had them for your entire career. You've lost weight; you stand differently. Adjust the top thread in to send the rig more towards your body. While doing running shots, it does not hurt to even do an extra turn to "keep the sled pushing at you a little."

[Osvaldo Silvera SOC]

Hi folks I now weigh 200, which is 20lbs more han I should be weighing, but I used to weigh 260, so I know quite a bit about losing weight. When I was much heavier the weight of the sled was a smaller percentage of weight compared to my body weight. SO IF I WEIGHED 260 and the rig weighed 70lbs complete, it was 190lbs heavier than the rig. Now I'm only 130lbs heavier, when I get back to 180 I'll be 110lbs heavier, much more effort to move the same mass..... Anyone ever see Jeff Zachary with his rig on the NFL sidelines? The rig with full size broadcast lens and link tx looks like a small toy on him, he moves that around like it weighs 9lbs!

 

Back to eating Flan, Ill start the diet next week.

[Thomas English]

Both good points but importantly in losing 32lbs you've almost certainly lost 8 to 12 lbs of muscle which now needs to be regained by lifting heavy weights and having a slight calorie surplus for a little while.

[Victor Lazaro]

And muscle weights more than fat so once you will recover those muscles you will also gain some inertia.

[Jessica Lopez]

Thanks for the input guys. Alec I did adjust the screws but I should have adjust more. The job was so demanding, I really didn't have time to asses every little bit. I would adjust in between shot changes. It really comes down to me building more muscle. I'm meeting a personal trainer friend today. I need my inertia back but not the fat. lol.

 

Fly safe!

[Twojay Dhillon]

Jess,

 

Definitely let your trainer friend know what you do for a living and EXACTLY what that entails. Traditional bodybuilding style workouts are quite counter-effective for Steadicam, I've found. An olympic-lifting-based system will have much carryover to your work, not simply rounder, fuller, muscle-bellies. While those muscles look great on the beach, they tend to be a hindrance rather than an asset in our line of work.

 

My $0.02

[RonBaldwin]

...While those muscles look great on the beach, they tend to be a hindrance rather than an asset in our line of work.

your washboard abs have affected your work?

[Jeff]

If the rig is pulling away from you, maybe adjust your socket block. When the rig is heavier, its easier to keep it level. I don't think body weight affects your shot unless you become fatigued from being out of shape. I feel that the stronger your leg muscles are, the easier it is to walk with heavy rigs so you can concentrate more on the shot then your legs hurting.

[Alan Rencher]

Twojay, what workouts do you recommend?

[James Davis]

I'm not TwoJay but I hope you don't mind if I chip in, this whole topic interested me a little especially when TwoJay mentioned about avoiding bodybuilding style workouts and sticking to something more strength and power orientated, I totally agree.

I do a fairly basic powerlifting routine, combined with a day of plyo metrics, upper body and lower body and a little bit of strong man/circuit training which I mix in on quieter work weeks: smacking a tyre with a sledge hammer, farmers walks, kettlebell work and occasionally some sled dragging/pushing.

 

Olympic lifting is great too as TwoJay said but there are only so many hours in the week and I tend to enjoy the other stuff more :)

 

Google starting strength for a good very basic powerlifting routine, the cube (by Brandon Lily) if you want something more advanced.

 

Stack.com/explosive-training is great for interesting plyo metric stuff, my favourites tend to be box-jumps, squat jumps, lateral box-jumps and depth jumps once very comfortable with box jumps, medicine ball slam variations for the upper body work well for me along with battle rope work which you can treat as HIIT cardio also, bonus :)

 

Kettlebell stuff is pretty easy to find online too, take it easy on these to start off with though to be kind on your shoulders.

 

Hope all that is somewhat helpful, of course nobody "needs" to do any of this stuff to operate Steadicam, but personally I find the fitter I am the more comfortable I am in the rig, the less sore I feel the next day after some long hard hours in the rig and the more I enjoy my work.

 

James