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It's probably the 'flat on my heels thing'. I forgot to take that into account. It can't be the gluteal muscles because they're quite sore, meaning that they were probably engaged during the exercise. Also, I'm kind of prone to accidental hunching. I'll take both those things into account for next time and practice with an empty bar a few times before starting.
well, once you get down to the 6:00 mile, you can increase in increments of time or distance, they end up being the same =P
.5 mph a week sounds pretty aggressive, but I've never trained using a treadmill, so I can't really say whether that's a really fast increase or normal speed. there are so many ways you can track improvement, and that's the problem. do you do the full mile and increase speed? do you start at 10 for a short distance and increase distance up to a mile? I have absolutely no experience with that, but if you run hard and work hard, you should improve no matter what you do. I think that once you can hit the track, you really should do so, and I can help you with various workouts once you get there, because that's where all my 'experience' is.
I guess I"ll go with what I said, running a full mile and increasing time as I go. Still going to do .5, but if it becomes too much I might cut back to .3 :P Can't wait to hit the track, it seems you and Lee are both track experts so I'll get plenty of help there (: And I'll definitely keep you posted as well. It'll be a good way to keep the thread alive and a good way for me to track progress as well.
Edit Question: While I'm doing sit ups / crunches my lower back hurts now while I do them. I'm feeling less ab work and more back work, and it's killing me. I couldn't even finish my sets today because my back hurt too much and I couldn't keep going. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I've tried straightening my back and it didn't help. I've tried just not doing anything with my back and it still hurt. I've tried leaning forward more and still the pain is there. Help!
Edit 2: Ugh every time I see that a new post has been made in the Sports Arena I think it's here but it never is :(
@Pokenerd: my roommate makes me do light back exercises (forgot what they're called, but you get on a slanted surface, hold a weight to you chest, and go down to parallel and come back up) before doing abs. Other than that, look into stuff like Verticsl Knee Raise and Leg Lifts, which you should mix in with crunches.
Also, regarding squats: did your coach suggest how many, and with what frequency, they should be done? Currently, I do 3x8-12 once a workout, with 48 hours of rest between each one, but I've heard people suggest doing twice that.
When I did squats with the team, we did a lot more than that, although they were bodyweight most of the time. I'd probably go for twice that if you can, maybe even with a little more weight and drop some reps. Something like 5x5-8 with maybe 20 or 25 lbs more than you're using. You might ask someone like Bam or Lee who is probably much more experienced than I am.
And I'll be sure to check out other ab exercises as well, thanks for the tip.
Can anyone offer advice on some non-equipment upper body workouts. I'm stuck biking for a large majority of my workout because I just can't afford to buy weights or join a gym. And though my thighs will be amazing, I'd like my whole body to reflect a Greek god and not just my legs. Also, try not to suggest anything too simple like crunches or push ups.
Can anyone offer advice on some non-equipment upper body workouts. I'm stuck biking for a large majority of my workout because I just can't afford to buy weights or join a gym. And though my thighs will be amazing, I'd like my whole body to reflect a Greek god and not just my legs. Also, try not to suggest anything too simple like crunches or push ups.
For triceps, you can do bench dips, which can be done in a house just by using a wall-attached surface to rest your arms and a chair (or whatever: make sure it's level with the wall-attached surface) for your legs.
For abdominals, make sure you do leg lifts or whatever along with crunches.
For chest, without a chest press or a bench press, it will have to be pushups. Make sure you use a wider stance for your arms to concentrate the effort on your chest.
If not a gym, a few dumbbells might help with doing stuff like shoulders and biceps. That's all the advice I have, someone else might know more.
When I did squats with the team, we did a lot more than that, although they were bodyweight most of the time. I'd probably go for twice that if you can, maybe even with a little more weight and drop some reps. Something like 5x5-8 with maybe 20 or 25 lbs more than you're using. You might ask someone like Bam or Lee who is probably much more experienced than I am.
And I'll be sure to check out other ab exercises as well, thanks for the tip.
I contacted Bam, and he had similar advice. Also, the back exercise with the slanted surface is called a hyperextension, and now I feel guilty for not remembering that.
Can anyone offer advice on some non-equipment upper body workouts. I'm stuck biking for a large majority of my workout because I just can't afford to buy weights or join a gym. And though my thighs will be amazing, I'd like my whole body to reflect a Greek god and not just my legs. Also, try not to suggest anything too simple like crunches or push ups.
-For about $20.00 you can buy a pull-up bar that fits into your door way. You don't have to mess around with screws and a drill, just get one that can be easily placed on the door frame. This imo is the best upper body workout you can find.
Start the movement from a dead hang then pull your self up.
You can use different hand positions - palms down, palms facing you, neutral grip, wide grip, etc for different muscle groups. If you can't do a chin-up with your bodyweight ((BAN ME PLEASE)), you can just put a sturdy chair/box/whatever.
If you can't afford a pull-up bar, just use a sturdy door that can support your weight and put a towel where you're going to put your hands so you don't hurt your self.
-Another great workout I have found to be very effective is using a sturdy chair to workout your triceps. Start off with your arms parallell and then slowly lower them in order to make the most of your workout. Just like the hot chick in the pic below :P
-I know you said that you don't want to us to suggest simple things like Push-ups but I have got to do so since Push-ups are one of the best chest workout excercises you can find. You can do various push-ups variations:
Can anyone offer advice on some non-equipment upper body workouts. I'm stuck biking for a large majority of my workout because I just can't afford to buy weights or join a gym. And though my thighs will be amazing, I'd like my whole body to reflect a Greek god and not just my legs. Also, try not to suggest anything too simple like crunches or push ups.
While you'd like to avoid crunches/sit-ups and push ups, they're great forms of exercise if you lack a gym or weights. They're free, and you can do them almost anywhere. Crunches/sit-ups mixed in with other ab work (like mtr suggested) will build your abs quickly, and I'm sure you'd like that. :P Push-ups will build your triceps, pecs, and your deltoids. Overall a great, free, efficient work out. When standard ones get boring, mix up the form. There are all sorts of variants for you to use.
Also what the above guy said, pull up bars. Something like Iron Gym is 30 bucks and you can use it for push ups, sit ups, and pull ups.
I contacted Bam, and he had similar advice. Also, the back exercise with the slanted surface is called a hyperextension, and now I feel guilty for not remembering that.
Glad I could help and glad you could help me. I'll look those up and see a few videos and try it out tonight before I do ab work. Hopefully my back won't be so sore.
@melodrama man. Push-ups and core workouts are probably the most efficient indoor/no gym workout. A great work-out for me is actually running. Running helps build your endurance, lungs, and gives you some amazing legs. Also, buying 1 or two weights will help. There are many workouts you can do with 2 weights. As long as you do a good amount of reps, and don't get sloppy you will be pretty amazing in no time.
I'm trying to lose weight, and my endurance isn't nearly high enough to go more than a half hour, so not that many calories are being burnt. Only about 300-400 actually. So the more I do the better. I'm actually 228 lbs and I need something that'll get my mid section toned as well. Hence the post.
Thanks again guys. You are all superior to google in this regard.
Does anybody here have any advice for joining High School football next year? What are some good excercises I can do to muscle up and get faster and better endurance?
my apologies, I thought you were trying to gain weight ~_~
anyways, chin ups and pull ups ought to be able to get you through the day, and if you're worried about your chest or triceps, you can do pushups with varying grips depending on what you want to hit.
if you're trying to lose weight, I'd keep the reps high and not add weight resistance for a little while, as volume > weight when you're trying to get toned
Does anybody here have any advice for joining High School football next year? What are some good excercises I can do to muscle up and get faster and better endurance?
For speed, sprints are the way to go. Know that I am no expert in this though, but this is what I recommend:
Two or Three days a week do 10 sprints of 50-100 meters, probably starting at 50 and working your way up. Run all the way through the finish line, don't slow down right before it. You can walk back to the start or rest for 60 seconds where you are before doing another. Remember to keep your muscles relaxed when you sprint and don't move your arms too much as it wastes energy. Don't run completely on your toes either (as my retarded gym teacher once suggested >_>) but rather run on the balls of your feet, maybe a little bit behind there. The balls of your feet are where the toes and the rest of the foot connect.
(You may instead want to start closer to 20-50 meters if you aren't used to a lot of running. 50-100 (164 ft to 320 feet or so) might be more than you're used to running.)
Don't forget to warm up. Before you start maybe jog for a few minutes to get your body prepared. Stretching is also crucial. Stretch all the leg muscles that you know how to. Even if you don't use them (which I think you do use them all) getting them stretched out and flexible is good anyway.
Endurance wise, you're going to want to work on running at longer distances. I'm currently doing a treadmill plan that you can find on a post up this page or maybe bottom of the last to build my stamina/endurance. Someone else can probably cover that better though. I'm not good at that lol
Also don't forget to eat healthy and try and cut out all the junk. You can work out all you want but if you fill up with a ton of fat right after you work out then forget about even doing it. Be sure to include a lot of protein during workouts where you're trying to build muscle, like when you're benching, squatting, working abs, etc. 1-2 g for each pound (lb) a day will be great, I believe. Again, I'm no expert, but I think most of this will be helpful. If it isn't, some other member will call me out on it and I'll look foolish :P
P.S - Guys I'm starting my full work outs tonight (alternate nights with abs and leg work, all with running each week bar my rest day). I'll be sure to keep updating in this thread with what I do / don't do. This way if I don't do it you guys can hassle me for it and make sure that you put me down and tell me about how I suck and stuff (not really please don't do that) and I'll be keeping track of my progress as well. I guess I might start posting pics too, so that other members will see that running consistently makes you lose weight. Since I'm fat and all. >_>
@everyone who tries to improve/doesn't have much endurance. Running distance is the way to go. Running can do miraculous things for you. I wouldn't suggest a treadmill because I don't believe you should have a machine setting the pace. If you aren't used to running, try to run 2 miles 3 times a week in about 14-16 minutes. If you consider yourself ready for a challenge, run 3 miles 4 times a week in about 21-24 minutes. You will see great improvement in your endurance.
Any triathletes around? I'm tentatively setting my summer goal to do a sprint length one and have my time be under an hour. I'm already a good swimmer(9 years competitive swimming) so I figure that should give me a big boost since most people cannot swim at all.
@everyone who tries to improve/doesn't have much endurance. Running distance is the way to go. Running can do miraculous things for you. I wouldn't suggest a treadmill because I don't believe you should have a machine setting the pace. If you aren't used to running, try to run 2 miles 3 times a week in about 14-16 minutes. If you consider yourself ready for a challenge, run 3 miles 4 times a week in about 21-24 minutes. You will see great improvement in your endurance.
if the best someone can manage for 2 miles is 14 minutes, there's no way they're going to keep up the pace for another mile without slowing down. just sayin
Does anybody here have any advice for joining High School football next year? What are some good excercises I can do to muscle up and get faster and better endurance?
if you're trying to build muscle, do not run at the same time. to build muscle, you need to eat more calories than you burn, and by running, you make this nearly impossible. there's a pretty basic strength program called Rippetoe's Starting Strength (actual information here, though you can buy a book that goes in depth) which gets you pretty strong pretty quick. all that squatting ought to give you a ton of speed whenever you feel like you need to start conditioning, and with football stopping every 5 seconds football is less of an issue.
Alright Smogon, I did my first full workout tonight. RMW (rate my workout):
[Stretching]
2 minute jog for a warm up
7.5 mph for a mile
2 minute jog cool down
[Stretching]
[Glass of water]
5 sets of crunches: 21, 21, 15, 15, 25
Stretching
[Glass of Milk]
So, what can I mix up in there to make it even better? For the rest of the week I alternate between crunches and squats. So I'll be doing 5 sets of squats (although more) in place of abs. But generally the same idea. How can I improve it? Ima need to be top notch!
edit: wondering if squatting and abs with running is bad?
xD too slow. we talked already about increasing the speed and distance, and ima do that. (distance next week though probably). 8.0 tomorrow, if that's too slow tuesday i'll go 8.5.
Edit of Monday: No time to run tonight due to a paper I forgot all about. >_> I still managed to get my squat workout in though. Here were the sets: 19,19,13,13,50. I'm going through the programs made by the people who get you to do 200 sit ups, 200 squats, and 100 push ups (although I'm not implementing that until next week in week 3). So I really could have started like at week 4 or 5 and then worked up and kept expanding but nah, I'm going to go through it all.
Anyway, I did 3 pistols (4 but I lost my balance before I hit all the way down on the first one [my first one at all]) yesterday night while talking to Stat so I'm thinking about incorporating these. Thoughts: Shouldn't do it because I'm running and already doing squats and I'm going to murder my legs. Other thoughts: Fuck that, my legs were meant to be torn up and ripped to shreds. Other thoughts, still: Wait for a week or two and then incorporate a few and gradually progress. What do you guys think?
Third note: Going to keep a journal of what I eat for Tuesday-Friday (since that's the majority of how I'll eat daily) and then hopefully you guys can help me out with improving my diet. I have access to most foods that don't require cooking for breakfast and lunch so that should be helpful. Overall I'm glad this thread has been picking up again lately. :)
2nd edit fourth note: No running for a while ): Staying at school too late stops me from running, but once it warms up I'll be out on the track. :) Anyway, tuesday's food journal is why i'm actually posting:
Breakfast: Bowl of Frosted Flakes and glass of milk followed by a small cup of water (that I take with my pill)
Lunch: Peanut Butter Sandwich on wheat bread, 100 calorie little debbie things, banana, one of those small bags of doritos, small fruit snack package, bottle of water
Snack: Ramen
Dinner: Whatever meat my mom made plus two helpings of green beans, three rolls, helping of mashed potatoes, milk, glass of water and for dessert hot chocolate.
Kdone for today, bar a glass of chocolate milk later on and some more water prior.
3rd edit fifth note: wednesdays food journal (i am forgoing all grammar)
Breakfast: Bowl of Capn Crunch (Peanut Butter), glass of OJ and small cup of water
Lunch: PB&J sandwich (wheat bread), 100 caloried things, banana, small bag of cheetos, small fruit snacks, bottle of water
Dinner: 8 slices of pizza, 6 cheese, 2 pepperoni with a Big K Oh! (zero calorie thing) and glass of water
all the food for today although i may eat more cereal while watching Idol tonight or whatever else is on plus a glass of orange juice maybe i dunno
well i have it with juice creatine and caffeine so i need the massive amount of water.
before i started using them I would often not drink enough water and get headaches every time i did squats or anything jumping related. i actually almost fainted once from doing squats and ended up going home and drinking 3 bottles of water in around a minute
