Well, we did our first mile run(1600m) today for the first time in a few months, and I got 6:40, 5th overall in my class. Of course, I didn't expect to be at my best of 6:15, but I'm curious how long you guys think it will take to get back there assuming I run 3-4 times a week.
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Lifestyle physical health/fitness thread
- Thread starter Ninahaza
- Start date
status update time buddy, how're you getting on?
Definitely owe you guys one.
The diet is still the hardest part for me. My cheat meals are getting less and less frequent and I'm eating almost completely cleanly, but due to my busy schedule I find it tough to eat exactly what's outlined and to eat six times a day. I've already improved over the last few weeks so much though so I know it's a process :-).
As for my training, it's been going amazing. I've been pushed like I've never been pushed before. We're not only solidifying my strong parts (chest, back) but I'm working my ass off to fix my weaknesses (rear Delts, legs). My trainer has pointed out some techniques and tricks to make sure I isolate my delts more and don't activate my traps in certain exercises, and he is just flat out pushing me in legs. For squats I was doing 6 reps of 90 kilos before I started and just through pushing me alone he got me to do 12 x 110 kgs... on my third set. He thinks I can hit 12 x 140kg next week, which is phenomenal for someone who had bad hips last year. Also fuck cardio, I find it so hard to find time cause it bores me - at the moments it's pretty low intensity for 30 mins in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening 5 days a week. Any tips or tricks to make it more interesting would be super, even if it's on a machine (the way our weather has been lately it's actually a decent option).
Woo go Stallion! The only real tip I have for low-intensity cardio is listen to music. My cardio is always high-intensity. Lol I actually just started getting back into doing a lot of serious cardio bc I reached 195 lbs(88 kg) in weight and figured its about time to cut.
I do stuff like burpees, weighted vest hills and heck even going hard in basketball. It seems to work fast for me.
Great to hear it's going well, dude.
For cardio, sports are a great way of getting in your training without even noticing. See if there are any 5-a-side football leagues down there...great fun and good god it gets the heart going. How's the gridiron going, guess that'd be pretty good too?
Also, don't forget that weight training can be good cardio. Grab a couple of light dumbells and rattle out sets of whatever-you-fancy of 20-30 reps with minimal rest (or, even better, a quick set of press-ups inbetween sets)...I do this and can keep my heart rate floating around 130bpm for half an hour (a more than sufficient cardio session). I read a study that weight training based cardio develops a specific cavity of the heart in a way that other cardio cannot do too so that's pretty interesting.
Stick at it, I'll be bugging you for an update again next month! ;D
For cardio, sports are a great way of getting in your training without even noticing. See if there are any 5-a-side football leagues down there...great fun and good god it gets the heart going. How's the gridiron going, guess that'd be pretty good too?
Also, don't forget that weight training can be good cardio. Grab a couple of light dumbells and rattle out sets of whatever-you-fancy of 20-30 reps with minimal rest (or, even better, a quick set of press-ups inbetween sets)...I do this and can keep my heart rate floating around 130bpm for half an hour (a more than sufficient cardio session). I read a study that weight training based cardio develops a specific cavity of the heart in a way that other cardio cannot do too so that's pretty interesting.
Stick at it, I'll be bugging you for an update again next month! ;D
Oh and one other suggestion.
Grab a heart-rate monitor watch. I've found it makes things a little more interesting on the slower stuff. Like, sometimes I'll go for a long run and say to myself 'I'm going to keep my HR above 140bpm for the duration of the run.' I'll find myself glancing at my wrist and seeing 141bpm and being like ffffffuck and having to kick my own arse to get a bit of a buffer. From then on it's like a fight against the heart rate monitor which is neat if you're like me and get hyper-competitive over trivial things.
Grab a heart-rate monitor watch. I've found it makes things a little more interesting on the slower stuff. Like, sometimes I'll go for a long run and say to myself 'I'm going to keep my HR above 140bpm for the duration of the run.' I'll find myself glancing at my wrist and seeing 141bpm and being like ffffffuck and having to kick my own arse to get a bit of a buffer. From then on it's like a fight against the heart rate monitor which is neat if you're like me and get hyper-competitive over trivial things.
Hey all,
So, after about a year and a half of on-and-off attempts at starting strength I'm coming to want to try something different. I've always wanted to be able to run better distances, having never been able to break 3 miles in one run, and I want to try starting something new to try to get myself wanting to exercise more again. I've decided to set a small goal for myself to be able to run 10k by the end of the summer. Does anyone have any advice on how to get started on something like this? I've never really taken running too seriously, so I don't really know things like how often it's safe to run a week and/or when to ramp up the frequency/distance of my runs or whether I should include HIIT in my program even though I'm trying to go for distance (another motivating factor of this is a desire for weight loss).
Thanks in advance for any advice!
So, after about a year and a half of on-and-off attempts at starting strength I'm coming to want to try something different. I've always wanted to be able to run better distances, having never been able to break 3 miles in one run, and I want to try starting something new to try to get myself wanting to exercise more again. I've decided to set a small goal for myself to be able to run 10k by the end of the summer. Does anyone have any advice on how to get started on something like this? I've never really taken running too seriously, so I don't really know things like how often it's safe to run a week and/or when to ramp up the frequency/distance of my runs or whether I should include HIIT in my program even though I'm trying to go for distance (another motivating factor of this is a desire for weight loss).
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Good stuff Stallibro, keep an eye on the calendar.
so i've been doing this shit a while and have learnt to question every product and tend to adopt the approach that new stuff is bad and everything should be just like it was in the good old days. But in recent years one product has come from nowhere to being on top of everyone's supplement list and the star of it's very own internet meme. The pre-workout drink. Are these things legit? The main ingredients tend to be caffiene (a substance I actively minimise in my diet) and taurine (a dirty, dirty substance that I avoid like the plague) so I don't for a second doubt that they give you an energy rush but is there anything more to them? or is it just another case of sports nutrition companies trying to convince us we 'need' yet another product in our lockers?
so i've been doing this shit a while and have learnt to question every product and tend to adopt the approach that new stuff is bad and everything should be just like it was in the good old days. But in recent years one product has come from nowhere to being on top of everyone's supplement list and the star of it's very own internet meme. The pre-workout drink. Are these things legit? The main ingredients tend to be caffiene (a substance I actively minimise in my diet) and taurine (a dirty, dirty substance that I avoid like the plague) so I don't for a second doubt that they give you an energy rush but is there anything more to them? or is it just another case of sports nutrition companies trying to convince us we 'need' yet another product in our lockers?
I tried pre-workout a few times and it was horrible. There's an energy rush but I never felt a real difference in terms of my lift, and they just had way too many substances that I didn't want to take in them. Also, if you continually use caffeine, your blood vessels get dependent on the constriction it provides and eventually you'll have a harder time moving blood around, which will simply hurt you in the long run. Honestly, the best thing for my lifts is simply eating big. There's a much more marked difference between my light meal and heavy meal lifts, and it did much more good than taking NoXplode and Jack3d. And that's not to mention the crash you feel later.
I know what synthetic taurine is, and I know that the amounts that it's present in in most pre-workout drinks is absurdly high. I know that France, Norway and Denmark all banned drinks containing taurine because of the health dangers associated with them. I know that experiments on rats studying the effects of taurine and caffeine in combination resulted in anxiety, irritability and (get this) self-mutilation. I know another study found that a taurine- rich energy drink increased mean blood pressure versus a caffeine drink. I know that the International Society of Sports Nutrition list it as an ingredient that 'needs additional research.' I know it makes me feel like shit when I ingest it.
I know enough to not want it in my body in the concentrations that pre-workout drinks yield basically. Not without good reason anyway. And I suspect from your tone that you know something I don't so let's hear it. But yes, I know it's arguably an essential AA and hunky-dory in natural quantities but I'm not talking about a natural product here; I'm looking at something like 'Grenade .50 Caliber' with it's 250mg of taurine per 11g serving...up to 2.5x your daily allowance depending on who you listen to.
I'm pretty sure the rat story is bullshit considering I cannot find any legitimate sources about it. However, I can easily find tons of sources explaining the benefits of taurine.
1) Caffeine + Taurine enhances endurance in mice: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19455480
2) All of those countries have unbanned Red Bull since 2008 because they couldn't provide any evidence that taurine is bad for you (mainly because it isn't.)
3) Most of the horror stories you hear about high blood pressure and cardiac arrest from energy drinks are because the people are ingesting way too much caffeine. Taurine has been proven to reduce anxiety in humans (http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-suppl...ngredientId=1024&activeIngredientName=TAURINE) and counteracts with caffeine to make people feel less edgy and bouncy.
4) Funnily enough, people take taurine to REDUCE blood pressure, cholesterol and other cardiovascular issues.
ETA: I can just spam this with tons of links giving benefits of taurine, while it is nearly impossible to find anything negative about it even if I search for things like "taurine is the antichrist" or "taurine will kill you" or "dangers of taurine"
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-l...hy-eating/expert-answers/taurine/faq-20058177
http://www.wisegeek.org/is-taurine-safe.htm
https://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2013/jun2013_The-Forgotten-Longevity-Benefits-of-Taurine_01.htm
http://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/supplements/supplement-guide-taurine (apparently some guy died that was taking 14G per day in addition to steroids and probably tons of other unhealthy things)
http://www.smart-publications.com/a...cts-heart-eyes-and-improves-glucose-tolerance
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/ans090212.htm This is the post-2008 determination by Europe claiming that taurine is indeed safe after all.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23313701
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Lost 30 lbs in 4 months, 263-->232ish with no running period / low cardio after the first month (but I did lose the most that month!). If anyone really needs help LMK, if you are not losing it almost definitely IS your fault. I do not mean that as a diss, I yo yoed my way from 275-->255-->263 before starting this diet.
I do not use any weight loss supplements of any sort, seemed impossible to sort out which are a scam or not. I do believe eating a lot of fiber increases weight loss and being lean, like to the benefit of maybe as many as 40-50 excess calories burned a day....I could be overestimating the effect, but it just seems really probable given my lack of other "tricks". Other than adding fiber to my diet, I still eat a ton of shitty food (pizza etc), eating more fruit and vegetables than before has helped pace me through the day.
I have had at least 2-3 diet pepsis/root beers a day during this diet. I am 110% confident that the idea that diet soda makes you "fatter" is a complete myth. I have 0% confidence that aspartame is safe or that this shit will not erode my teeth, or that it does not promote some sort of insulin response that is dangerous for the body regardless of not making you hungrier. I still want to drink less in case those things are true. It absolutely does not make you fatter, and the purported "craving" for more food absolutely does not exist as far as I can tell.
My starting goal was 100 lbs in 1 year, I wanted it to be unrealistic to ensure that I would lose at least 50. 50+ is definitely going to happen, this is really easy once you get consistent about what you do and figure out what it takes to lose at the rate you want to.
dw if my weight loss results in any weird sexual experiences, I will post them to take heat off Ninahaza <3
I do not use any weight loss supplements of any sort, seemed impossible to sort out which are a scam or not. I do believe eating a lot of fiber increases weight loss and being lean, like to the benefit of maybe as many as 40-50 excess calories burned a day....I could be overestimating the effect, but it just seems really probable given my lack of other "tricks". Other than adding fiber to my diet, I still eat a ton of shitty food (pizza etc), eating more fruit and vegetables than before has helped pace me through the day.
I have had at least 2-3 diet pepsis/root beers a day during this diet. I am 110% confident that the idea that diet soda makes you "fatter" is a complete myth. I have 0% confidence that aspartame is safe or that this shit will not erode my teeth, or that it does not promote some sort of insulin response that is dangerous for the body regardless of not making you hungrier. I still want to drink less in case those things are true. It absolutely does not make you fatter, and the purported "craving" for more food absolutely does not exist as far as I can tell.
My starting goal was 100 lbs in 1 year, I wanted it to be unrealistic to ensure that I would lose at least 50. 50+ is definitely going to happen, this is really easy once you get consistent about what you do and figure out what it takes to lose at the rate you want to.
dw if my weight loss results in any weird sexual experiences, I will post them to take heat off Ninahaza <3
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nobody should ever pay anybody for help to lose weight, and a responsible diet is more than easy enough not to need to pay somebody just to lose weight
paying somebody to help you if you are trying to get in some perfectly sculpted shape is different, but that should be way down the road for anybody starting extremely overweight
I set 100 as the goal because something easy to think of is subconsciously motivating, as long as you are even slightly serious about it. I am not worried about reaching the goal, the point of actually setting a goal is just entirely about creating a mentality. I do not care and should not care if I reach that goal, losing a pound or two a week is already more than fast enough (to this point it has been 2 a week average, going forward it will probably be closer to 1-1.5).
paying somebody to help you if you are trying to get in some perfectly sculpted shape is different, but that should be way down the road for anybody starting extremely overweight
I set 100 as the goal because something easy to think of is subconsciously motivating, as long as you are even slightly serious about it. I am not worried about reaching the goal, the point of actually setting a goal is just entirely about creating a mentality. I do not care and should not care if I reach that goal, losing a pound or two a week is already more than fast enough (to this point it has been 2 a week average, going forward it will probably be closer to 1-1.5).
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This is good to know. I have Red Bull zero quite often cause I need it to function as a DJ, was paranoid that aspartame was interfering with my progress but it's great to hear from another source that it doesn't seem to have any impact.
Hey All I'm saying that it's more than possible, and I see no reason not to take professional help. I honestly don't get the stereotype of "only shapers need dietitians and trainers"..... Of course you can take the solo way that's your call.
I used to think the same but simply cutting down isn't enough, you're also adding exertion your body isn't used to taking so supplementing it alongside is also as important, and sadly many people just don't have any idea how to go about it after the rudimentary "less fat, more protein" stuff. It definitely helps you optimize your goal achieving process and also prep your body up on a healthy manner to STAY slim. I've seen far too many people lose weight and gain it all back because their dieting wasn't up to notch. Plus transitioning from weight-loss to muscle-gain is also highly aided by this, since you're already doing this in a planned manner.
But yeah anyways. Good luck with whatever road you take.
I agree. Mainly because I am a personal trainer lol, but really I don't get why someone would say "nobody should ever pay anybody to help lose weight." I trained people that could have easily lost the weight on their own or even were already losing a lot of weight on their own, but they still had at least 100 bad habits which would inevitably plateau them or even cause injury or regression. And most of these habits are very common and not apparent to someone without years of experience(or if they had years of uncorrected experience).
However, I'm not denying that the 'eat good, run a lot' routine is about as easy as it gets and is almost guaranteed to get pretty good results.
Nobody should ever pay for somebody to hold his or her hand or pay for free information was all I was saying, and that is all any personal trainer or dietician or anyone could ever offer anyone who is losing weight.
Anyone who plateaus on weight loss or reverts is a baby. I get that people are babies, that is why I posted, to help anyone who actually needed it. It is pretty easy to recount all the particulars of how I dealt with any cravings or how specific I get with dealing with any cravings, things like making sure to keep as many big meals as possible directly after big workouts. Eating fruit, drinking protein shakes, eating oatmeal & yogurt, and then eating whatever you want for your last 700-800 calories is all that is necessary to do on a day you get no cravings (at my height, which is average height). It is cool that you help fucking babies or whatever youngjake, I am knocking it because if anyone is posting in a thread for encouragement, support, or looking for advice, then that advice should be enough. I eat pizza & breadsticks every week, and chips most weeks. Weight loss is just about figuring out a calorie number (can be estimated within reason with just height weight and a goal date, and you can tell if it was accurate when you lose lol) and amount of times you have to work out to lose at close to the rate you want. Bad habits mean nothing if you are even mildly serious about dieting, most people are just not even mildly serious. All the information that ever has or needs to be out there on this subject is pretty much already out there, for all I am writing like we keep saying, tl;dr eat less move more is the real point. Keeping the mental side of things in control as far as that goes is just entirely about seriously wanting the loss. Except for the .1% of poor bastards with an actual thyroid malfunction or whatever.
Soul Fly, I appreciate you trying to be supportive, the part I was bristling at is the dietician suggestion, because no one should need help putting together a diet at ALL in 2014, and also bristling at your suggestion like I was not losing as much as I wanted to. Not losing more is the entire point, if I wanted to have something to brag about as far as loss rate goes, I would just run the weight off or starve myself. Everyone says that losing more than 1.5-2 pounds a week is probably around the border of unhealthy, for stretch marks or whatever other reasons they may have, and I have lost exactly 2 pounds a week average lol... I am not stressed in particular either way, if you have proof that the 1.5-2 pounds thing is a myth cool. I set 100 pounds as a goal because it is very easy to bring to mind and I 1000% did not want to meet the goal. Within reasonable average experience, the whole "putting weight back on" thing is something you do when you yo yo diet or are incredibly bad at life. No one puts back on 100 pounds lol. It takes excess calories to gain, it takes calorie deficits to lose. A person just has to mildly pay attention, maybe check their weight once a week if they are too lazy to have been keeping track of what they are doing.
Stallion, I do not think there is even supposed to be any impairments I have ever heard about. There are a lot of cancer claims and arguments, so it is not like there are not potential health considerations. The main weight related argument is that you feel like you saved calories, or maybe some insulin response, so you are magically automatically compelled to eat. Which is really just people saying that people make shitty excuses for themselves, nothing ever forces you to eat. Definitely there is no way Red Bull is going to make you bloated, dehydrated, or in any way make you eat more than you choose to eat.
Anyone who plateaus on weight loss or reverts is a baby. I get that people are babies, that is why I posted, to help anyone who actually needed it. It is pretty easy to recount all the particulars of how I dealt with any cravings or how specific I get with dealing with any cravings, things like making sure to keep as many big meals as possible directly after big workouts. Eating fruit, drinking protein shakes, eating oatmeal & yogurt, and then eating whatever you want for your last 700-800 calories is all that is necessary to do on a day you get no cravings (at my height, which is average height). It is cool that you help fucking babies or whatever youngjake, I am knocking it because if anyone is posting in a thread for encouragement, support, or looking for advice, then that advice should be enough. I eat pizza & breadsticks every week, and chips most weeks. Weight loss is just about figuring out a calorie number (can be estimated within reason with just height weight and a goal date, and you can tell if it was accurate when you lose lol) and amount of times you have to work out to lose at close to the rate you want. Bad habits mean nothing if you are even mildly serious about dieting, most people are just not even mildly serious. All the information that ever has or needs to be out there on this subject is pretty much already out there, for all I am writing like we keep saying, tl;dr eat less move more is the real point. Keeping the mental side of things in control as far as that goes is just entirely about seriously wanting the loss. Except for the .1% of poor bastards with an actual thyroid malfunction or whatever.
Soul Fly, I appreciate you trying to be supportive, the part I was bristling at is the dietician suggestion, because no one should need help putting together a diet at ALL in 2014, and also bristling at your suggestion like I was not losing as much as I wanted to. Not losing more is the entire point, if I wanted to have something to brag about as far as loss rate goes, I would just run the weight off or starve myself. Everyone says that losing more than 1.5-2 pounds a week is probably around the border of unhealthy, for stretch marks or whatever other reasons they may have, and I have lost exactly 2 pounds a week average lol... I am not stressed in particular either way, if you have proof that the 1.5-2 pounds thing is a myth cool. I set 100 pounds as a goal because it is very easy to bring to mind and I 1000% did not want to meet the goal. Within reasonable average experience, the whole "putting weight back on" thing is something you do when you yo yo diet or are incredibly bad at life. No one puts back on 100 pounds lol. It takes excess calories to gain, it takes calorie deficits to lose. A person just has to mildly pay attention, maybe check their weight once a week if they are too lazy to have been keeping track of what they are doing.
Stallion, I do not think there is even supposed to be any impairments I have ever heard about. There are a lot of cancer claims and arguments, so it is not like there are not potential health considerations. The main weight related argument is that you feel like you saved calories, or maybe some insulin response, so you are magically automatically compelled to eat. Which is really just people saying that people make shitty excuses for themselves, nothing ever forces you to eat. Definitely there is no way Red Bull is going to make you bloated, dehydrated, or in any way make you eat more than you choose to eat.