Yeah, I have began to swim for my school, which is helpful in the winter (also I get to win all of summer league butterfly :D). It also is helpful for my cardio, which is great when soccer season rolls around.
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Lifestyle physical health/fitness thread
- Thread starter Ninahaza
- Start date
Very nice, I'm a sprint freestyler. I actually less muscular (but still muscular) compared to the other sprinters at high level meets, which is one of the reasons I'm looking at weights.
I haven't had a problem with a lack of muscle, but that may be just because I don't do it completely year round. One surprising benefit from swimming in my opinion is that my throw ins go insanely far. Random stuff :p
i do lift bro wat are u sayin fight me irl
In all seriousness, I have lifted weights for a few weeks recently. All I do is swim, no other sports, and have so for around eight years. Because of this, I have really powerful leg muscles, but my upper body is more "sleek" muscle than "buff" muscle. However, this is more for distance swimmers, and as such I like to work out more in order to at least look like a sprinter.
I usually do some aerobic stuff with my weight machines and some rotator cuff exercises to help with flexibility, and then around 10 reps of 10 bench presses with a 180-lb. weight. I can max out at 270ish, and I'm trying to get up to around 300 lbs. by the end of the summer.
Just wanted to share this site with my fellow lifters:
http://simplesciencefitness.com/
Best site ever. free of all the broscience bs. especially useful for beginners but experienced lifters could probably learn a thing or two
also, @inanimate_blob: why are you looking to get muscular / "buff"? sprinters are supposed to be explosive, and be as light as possible while being as strong as possible too. a rep range of 10 reps is more useful for a bodybuilder rather than a sprinter. i'd try out a rep range of 4-6 and try to do hang cleans. they are the shit for explosiveness i heard. no hate, just asking, if you want to look good, that's another story.
http://simplesciencefitness.com/
Best site ever. free of all the broscience bs. especially useful for beginners but experienced lifters could probably learn a thing or two
also, @inanimate_blob: why are you looking to get muscular / "buff"? sprinters are supposed to be explosive, and be as light as possible while being as strong as possible too. a rep range of 10 reps is more useful for a bodybuilder rather than a sprinter. i'd try out a rep range of 4-6 and try to do hang cleans. they are the shit for explosiveness i heard. no hate, just asking, if you want to look good, that's another story.
waiting on lapiak to address some concerns in the reddit thread, quite a few some people wanted answered. seems he's not ready to respond to everything yet, just one guy so far
i'm just clicking through citations and checking them, some of them are a shot in the dark by him to me (one of my favorites being the obesity and carbs one, where he links to a study showing the control of carbs as a method to reduce / avoid MetS lol) also fun to check the citations of the work he cites to see if the titles are using that paper as evidence to the contrary. only looked through about 20 or 30 though.
good site though, very well laid out and helpful to anyone i think. could probably tone down the paleo-esque diet push (no grains!!!!11111 omg grains kill da gainz) but great work by that guy. was interesting that he didn't turn up in my google searches (besides what i think was his g+ page and linkedin page) by his name, pretty ambitious to put this together. grade A site
on the topic of good sites: examine is one of my favorites, sometimes i just go there to read stuff, even if it isn't important to me. kurtis frank op. plus sometimes i find alan aragons papers and read those through my school log in, he's a pretty good guy too.
(looking through his submission history / comment history he seems to be about web design which is obvious, hates gluten / sugar / pretty much anything non paleo, and likes bodybuilding > powerlifting (which was also obvious based on his routines he made on that site haha)
edit: i think he's this guy
edit2: that guy got shit on with sources, someone linked 80 sources for something contrary to his opinion and he just straight up said he didn't care lol, now people just wanna help it out like a wiki so i hope he's open to that idea
i'm just clicking through citations and checking them, some of them are a shot in the dark by him to me (one of my favorites being the obesity and carbs one, where he links to a study showing the control of carbs as a method to reduce / avoid MetS lol) also fun to check the citations of the work he cites to see if the titles are using that paper as evidence to the contrary. only looked through about 20 or 30 though.
good site though, very well laid out and helpful to anyone i think. could probably tone down the paleo-esque diet push (no grains!!!!11111 omg grains kill da gainz) but great work by that guy. was interesting that he didn't turn up in my google searches (besides what i think was his g+ page and linkedin page) by his name, pretty ambitious to put this together. grade A site
on the topic of good sites: examine is one of my favorites, sometimes i just go there to read stuff, even if it isn't important to me. kurtis frank op. plus sometimes i find alan aragons papers and read those through my school log in, he's a pretty good guy too.
(looking through his submission history / comment history he seems to be about web design which is obvious, hates gluten / sugar / pretty much anything non paleo, and likes bodybuilding > powerlifting (which was also obvious based on his routines he made on that site haha)
edit: i think he's this guy
edit2: that guy got shit on with sources, someone linked 80 sources for something contrary to his opinion and he just straight up said he didn't care lol, now people just wanna help it out like a wiki so i hope he's open to that idea
stronglifts has been going good for me. i started in early january and progression has been good on everything (except overhead press because fuck overhead press). deadlifts are starting to get pretty heavy, and pretty soon i reckon i'll stall on bench press. here are my stats. it's not my 1RM, which i don't know, but just what i rep.
squat: 160
bench: 115
ohp: 80 (had to de-load...............)
deadlift: 160
barbell row: 90
after three months my numbers should look a little higher, but i've had to take off like 2 weeks total due to this nagging pain in my back. i injured it the first time, took a week off, felt good, and then maybe a month later i was being a dumb when doing tire flips and re-injured it. i took another week off, and it's mostly gone now. it kind of bothers me in the morning when i wake up. it's just a soreness in my lower right back. might be nothing, might be something, but it's never sore due to my working out, just when i wake up, so i figured i won't reinjure it unless i mess up with form on a set or something.
i wasn't seeing any progress with my body, too. delta told me that it takes about 3 months for there to start being a change, so i figure i'm just being impatient, but i've put on 5 lbs (not the good kind of weight), so i'm trying a low carb-high protein (40/40/20) diet.
squat: 160
bench: 115
ohp: 80 (had to de-load...............)
deadlift: 160
barbell row: 90
after three months my numbers should look a little higher, but i've had to take off like 2 weeks total due to this nagging pain in my back. i injured it the first time, took a week off, felt good, and then maybe a month later i was being a dumb when doing tire flips and re-injured it. i took another week off, and it's mostly gone now. it kind of bothers me in the morning when i wake up. it's just a soreness in my lower right back. might be nothing, might be something, but it's never sore due to my working out, just when i wake up, so i figured i won't reinjure it unless i mess up with form on a set or something.
i wasn't seeing any progress with my body, too. delta told me that it takes about 3 months for there to start being a change, so i figure i'm just being impatient, but i've put on 5 lbs (not the good kind of weight), so i'm trying a low carb-high protein (40/40/20) diet.
Alright, so I really wasn't sure where to post this, but I kind of needed to get this way off my chest and figured since the thread revolved around fitness, this would be the best place to put it. Just a quick warning: I'm probably one of the least fitness-savvy people around in all honesty, so I can totally understand if I'm laughed at and deemed a lost cause, but in the end what I'm trying to look for is self-improvement, not disincentives to improve my body. Also, since I know practically nothing about fitness and am trying to immerse into it, I'm probably gonna be using words in the wrong fashion, saying outright dumb stuff or not using the fitness-savvy definitions, and I apologise in any case of that. So with all of this pointless preamble done, where do I begin?
I'm 17, 5,11, have a somewhat wide build and at the current moment weigh 139 lbs (or 9 stone 13 in British measurements). However, I have pretty much no muscle on me so much of the weight is actually fat, thanks in no part due not only to my relative inactivity, but also my hugely restricted diet, which is significantly carbo and thus is very difficult to spice up, and has been a recurring problem since childhood. This time last year I was around 180 lbs (12 stone 11), and only then did I notice problems with my image, so I went on a rather lax, on and off weight loss scheme which consisted of jogs and a slightly more balanced fibre heavy diet. I actually intended to not really build up much muscle at all and go down to around 130 lbs if it weren't for family and friends coming into the picture and claiming I looked too thin (which I actually thought was just them overexaggerating). So essentially now, I've been told to put on weight and try to build a small amount of muscle for myself in an attempt to make myself healthier. I have a number of questions to ask the more experienced among you, providing nobody minds helping such a clueless individual as myself:
1: How exactly have you coped with personal endurance? I ask this because my stamina has been in the pits for most of my life, as I've been capable of bursts of athleticism at times but it never lasts and I quickly tire out. My jogging has improved my stamina a fair bit but even now it's largely inconsistent, sometimes I can manage up to around 8 miles (around 6 laps around a consistent route in my village, considering my standards that's actually pretty fricking good) while othertimes I struggle to even manage 1.5K (2 laps). This is precisely why I've avoided muscle work a lot of the time, not just due to weakness but due to endurance as well, which is kind of a focal part of building muscle and of exercise in general really. Essentially, when it came to weights and other kinds of exercise, how did you start out and how in what ways have you managed to improve performance over time?
2: Specifically regarding weights this time, what do you feel is the optimum beginning weight for a complete noob? I've bought 2.5KG (LOL) weights alongside light anklets yet even as somebody who in all honesty can't lift I feel it's far too light for me. As much as I'd like to tackle the heavy stuff immediately I know all that'd do is pretty much destroy my body beyond repair, so I feel looking for an optimum starting weight is key. Additionally, from there, in what sorts of time frames and by how much have you improved your lifting capability?
3: For those who may have initially rejected the role of a community in fitness, how have you dealt with the integration or interference of other people? I don't think I'm alone in saying that I've avoided the gym mostly due to fear of how other more developed people may perceive me struggling to perform even really easy reps, and potentially mock me (actually it's mainly because the only gym in my town's a kickboxing one but what I said still applies). As a result, I've not exactly embraced the role of a group of people with regards to exercise, especially not when it comes to either peers or total strangers. Even in jogging, I mainly prefer solitary evening jogs as I feel that's when my performance is maximised and there are less people/cars to notice or distract me during a run, although in group jogs I have noticed that my bursts of energy become more frequent. I severely doubt my case is the norm in all honesty, as I'm rather shy normally in addition to being saddled with Aspergers Syndrome, which may possibly have an effect on my view of a community in exercise, as well as my choice of a quiet and less active time to jog in. For anybody who's felt similarly, how were they able to come out of their shell on an exercisal basis and eventually come to terms with being around others (specifically peers of the same age) during exercise?
I apologise for asking so many questions, but I've REALLY wanted to try and sort myself out at long last before I head off to uni in September, and I'm honestly annoyed at myself that it's taken until now for me to actually give a fuck about my body when most people tend to do so in their early teens. Sorry if this is the wrong thread to post this anecdote in, but I assumed that since it was fitness related, it'd be good to go.
As a final note, here's a before and after comparison of the 180+lb me from 2011 and the 139 lb me from this year. Not much difference really, but ahh well, just for kicks!
I'm 17, 5,11, have a somewhat wide build and at the current moment weigh 139 lbs (or 9 stone 13 in British measurements). However, I have pretty much no muscle on me so much of the weight is actually fat, thanks in no part due not only to my relative inactivity, but also my hugely restricted diet, which is significantly carbo and thus is very difficult to spice up, and has been a recurring problem since childhood. This time last year I was around 180 lbs (12 stone 11), and only then did I notice problems with my image, so I went on a rather lax, on and off weight loss scheme which consisted of jogs and a slightly more balanced fibre heavy diet. I actually intended to not really build up much muscle at all and go down to around 130 lbs if it weren't for family and friends coming into the picture and claiming I looked too thin (which I actually thought was just them overexaggerating). So essentially now, I've been told to put on weight and try to build a small amount of muscle for myself in an attempt to make myself healthier. I have a number of questions to ask the more experienced among you, providing nobody minds helping such a clueless individual as myself:
1: How exactly have you coped with personal endurance? I ask this because my stamina has been in the pits for most of my life, as I've been capable of bursts of athleticism at times but it never lasts and I quickly tire out. My jogging has improved my stamina a fair bit but even now it's largely inconsistent, sometimes I can manage up to around 8 miles (around 6 laps around a consistent route in my village, considering my standards that's actually pretty fricking good) while othertimes I struggle to even manage 1.5K (2 laps). This is precisely why I've avoided muscle work a lot of the time, not just due to weakness but due to endurance as well, which is kind of a focal part of building muscle and of exercise in general really. Essentially, when it came to weights and other kinds of exercise, how did you start out and how in what ways have you managed to improve performance over time?
2: Specifically regarding weights this time, what do you feel is the optimum beginning weight for a complete noob? I've bought 2.5KG (LOL) weights alongside light anklets yet even as somebody who in all honesty can't lift I feel it's far too light for me. As much as I'd like to tackle the heavy stuff immediately I know all that'd do is pretty much destroy my body beyond repair, so I feel looking for an optimum starting weight is key. Additionally, from there, in what sorts of time frames and by how much have you improved your lifting capability?
3: For those who may have initially rejected the role of a community in fitness, how have you dealt with the integration or interference of other people? I don't think I'm alone in saying that I've avoided the gym mostly due to fear of how other more developed people may perceive me struggling to perform even really easy reps, and potentially mock me (actually it's mainly because the only gym in my town's a kickboxing one but what I said still applies). As a result, I've not exactly embraced the role of a group of people with regards to exercise, especially not when it comes to either peers or total strangers. Even in jogging, I mainly prefer solitary evening jogs as I feel that's when my performance is maximised and there are less people/cars to notice or distract me during a run, although in group jogs I have noticed that my bursts of energy become more frequent. I severely doubt my case is the norm in all honesty, as I'm rather shy normally in addition to being saddled with Aspergers Syndrome, which may possibly have an effect on my view of a community in exercise, as well as my choice of a quiet and less active time to jog in. For anybody who's felt similarly, how were they able to come out of their shell on an exercisal basis and eventually come to terms with being around others (specifically peers of the same age) during exercise?
I apologise for asking so many questions, but I've REALLY wanted to try and sort myself out at long last before I head off to uni in September, and I'm honestly annoyed at myself that it's taken until now for me to actually give a fuck about my body when most people tend to do so in their early teens. Sorry if this is the wrong thread to post this anecdote in, but I assumed that since it was fitness related, it'd be good to go.
As a final note, here's a before and after comparison of the 180+lb me from 2011 and the 139 lb me from this year. Not much difference really, but ahh well, just for kicks!
crashandcortex, I'll try to respond to more of your post a little later, but there was one part that I felt could not wait
don't not go to the gym because others will percieve you as weak. literally no one cares how others do in the gym, and you get respect just for being there trying. I see lots of weak, old, or overweight people at the gym all the time, and I think better of them for showing up because it shows that they are motivated to change. so don't let that ever stand in your way. not to mention if they do notice your abilities, they will similarly notice how quickly you'll rise up in the early weight rangers which would make you look good
don't not go to the gym because others will percieve you as weak. literally no one cares how others do in the gym, and you get respect just for being there trying. I see lots of weak, old, or overweight people at the gym all the time, and I think better of them for showing up because it shows that they are motivated to change. so don't let that ever stand in your way. not to mention if they do notice your abilities, they will similarly notice how quickly you'll rise up in the early weight rangers which would make you look good
Bad Ass, if your lower back is bothering you, I suggest doing more core exercises, specifically those that strengthen the lower back. Some good exercises for stability are planks (front, both sides, and back), and the reverse crunch machine for more power. You can also do back crunches at home on the floor, but it might hurt your junk a bit. Hope I helped. Can't have lower back problems already!
EDIT:
In all your exercises make sure your lower back isn't rounded in; it should be pointed up. In other words, your tailbone should be raised to the ceiling so you have your natural curvature of the spine.
Progressed to 5/3/1 early January. Making pretty decent gains with IF and sitting around:
77.5kg OHP (170lbs)
125kg Squat (275lbs)
107.5 Bench (236lbs)
170kg Deadlift (375lbs)
I would not call myself large by any means of the word as I focus like 95% on strength rather than size but I hover around a fairly stagnant 210 pounds. Have a feeling though I am gonna reach a plateau for my size due to maxing out like cross sectional area of the myofibres and gonna have to hypertrophy. Not really a fan of high reps tbh.
Also hi.
Double also: some pics after a 4500 calorie day. Definitely possible to put on muscle and lose fat. As I was like 170 a few years back etc etc.
77.5kg OHP (170lbs)
125kg Squat (275lbs)
107.5 Bench (236lbs)
170kg Deadlift (375lbs)
I would not call myself large by any means of the word as I focus like 95% on strength rather than size but I hover around a fairly stagnant 210 pounds. Have a feeling though I am gonna reach a plateau for my size due to maxing out like cross sectional area of the myofibres and gonna have to hypertrophy. Not really a fan of high reps tbh.
Also hi.
Double also: some pics after a 4500 calorie day. Definitely possible to put on muscle and lose fat. As I was like 170 a few years back etc etc.
Looking great man! Chest is probably your weak point but nonetheless awesome thickness and strength
That's what she said.
Additionally, I'll respond to why I want to get buff, despite being a sprinter.
My issue is that I've worked on technique for years now, and I have that down pat. I'm currently working on explosiveness, but currently most of my muscles reside in my legs - I'm 6'0" and 170 lbs, but I'm trying to get to 190 lbs of mostly upper body strengths which I don't reall have.
This little quip has boosted my optimism about a gym environment quite significantly actually. I guess earlier I was discouraged due to what some peers irl have said, but seeing this has kind of made me think "who gives a fuck about your actual performance?" Classic mentality of "it's the taking part that counts, not the winning", but sure sounds effective... Maybe if there was a gym closer to me that wasn't a kickboxing one, I might take up the idea...
On another note, how do you motivate yourself to do exercise on a consistent basis? Although I always intend to go jogging (as I know I've put on a bit over this Easter), in the end I usually go outside and think something along the lines of "It's too cold" or "Ehh I'd probably do really badly" or "the parents will whinge at me for doing it too late". I mean normally I'm better than that and go out anyways, but recently I've found it quite difficult to consistently exercise over, and normally just go in to play Mario Party or Super Smash Bros. or something. Which honestly disappoints me as it's counterproductive to what I want to do in terms of boosting my self-image and overall healthiness. I'd also really appreciate it if some of the questions in my last post were answered too, even if they're negatively inclined I'd appreciate the knowledge, though I apologise if I sound needy! Thanks guys!
Being someone who does quite a bit of running, I think I can help you with this. It's really important to have all of your electronic stuff turned off when you want to run. You'll get too distracted otherwise. Also, have your running stuff ready all the time. You get discouraged when it takes more time to get ready to run. Put it in a place you go by a lot. When you get home from school (or wherever), don't put off running. Grab your stuff and go before you get too distracted. Even if you run later, I doubt your parents will care if you're going out and exercising and come back a bit late. Finally, don't worry about doing badly; you'll always do poorly at the start. The further you run, the easier it is to get faster at shorter distances. Follow this advice and you should be fine insofar as motivation to run is concerned.crashandcortex said:
In addition to the above I would like to throw on more motivation. Ask yourself, do you think running or doing cardio just a little bit, say starting at 20 minutes every day, is a bad idea for anyone? Having better cardiovascular health is good for basically anything a human can do. I've found once you make it a habit and every day you can say you're in the best shape you've ever been in your life it's hard not to run.
Also make sure to stretch properly, especially if it's chilly outside, because a tight or strained muscle or whatever will discourage you from running in the future!
One way I motivate myself, especially to go to the gym at 7 AM @.@, is with music and or music videos. I'm a huge DBZ fan so seeing the video of Goku turning SSJ3 pumps me up. Also, writing down what you need to do do the night before in a way makes you go, because you already wrote down and are semi-committed--that's more for weights but you can record how long/far/exercises you do.
One way I motivate myself, especially to go to the gym at 7 AM @.@, is with music and or music videos. I'm a huge DBZ fan so seeing the video of Goku turning SSJ3 pumps me up. Also, writing down what you need to do do the night before in a way makes you go, because you already wrote down and are semi-committed--that's more for weights but you can record how long/far/exercises you do.
