Stretching and creatine if you're not already taking it. I ran a half marathon on it and wasn't even sore the next day. If you don't mind having to piss a lot and always needing water on hand, it'll do wonders for your recovery everywhere.
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Lifestyle physical health/fitness thread
- Thread starter Ninahaza
- Start date
Been taking creatine since a while, I think I might increase the dosage from 3g to 5g a day. pissing all the time is annoying but I guess it's the sacrifice we have to make
Hey, I've lurked this thread for a while and I've been wanting to talk about how incredible I think you all are- having such a supportive community around body positivity and strength is super cool. It's always been very interesting to me bc as a kid, I'd always felt a bit uh... weird around "gym bros" or whatever I called them back then, which may have been down to my own insecurities as someone who was pretty weak and unfit (and also just high school guys not usually being the nicest). Took a fair amount of maturing for me to realise that most people who train are doing it to feel good about themselves and not to flex or whatever; pessimistic af I know, but yea. I really love reading this thread, it's one of the bastions of positivity on the site I think - every post is celebrating the achievement of the poster and others without putting anyone else down, and that's just incredible. You guys rock!
With that out of the way, I do have another reason to make this post (and I apologise if this isn't the best place; ik most posts here are about pushing boundaries and such but still). When I was younger I mostly maintained a healthy weight, ever so slightly on the bigger side but not enough to be any cause for concern or anything. Then around when I started secondary school I realised I was trans & not being able to express that led to lots of feelings of envy and depression that took me a long time to recover from; I gained a fair bit of weight during that since I sorta ate as a coping mechanism and never really went outside since I struggled to make friends without feeling like I was putting up a facade. Eventually I started college, started making moves towards being who I am etc. and slowly but surely improved my mental health to the point where I can confidently say I feel happy and well-adjusted the vast majority of the time. That weight I gained never left, though, and my inaugural college year was done online, so there was no travel for me and as such I still didn't move around much. So yea, during covid I fell back to my old habits and gained even more weight to the point where I'm definitely unhealthy now.
In my second year of college we were allowed to go to campus for the first time! I made friends, I started going out, and this resulted in significantly more activity than my body had seen in like 7 years. To that end I was able to lose a little weight, but I never broke the eating habits, so it's kinda been a cycle of lose a little -> gain a little -> repeat. I'm not really gaining a significant amount more these days, so at least there's that, but I'd like to try losing it and eating healthier. I don't feel much of a desire to build muscle or anything - just wanna be more comfortable with myself at an average weight with better stamina.
So basically I have two questions:
a) how do you break bad eating habits? I've tried to just eat less in general but obviously self starvation isn't healthy, it's just been really difficult for me to stick to eating healthier foods. Doesn't help that I'm a pretty picky eater.
b) how do you maintain an exercise regime? I understand that eventually it just becomes routine and all, but how do you start that routine in the first place? I've tried walking and I do enjoy it but it's difficult rn during the winter months since it gets dark so early and I don't live in a very safe area. So in addition to maintaining motivation, are there any good at-home methods that I could use till it brightens up outside?
Any other advice unrelated to these questions is also super appreciated! Thank you in advance & keep smashing your goals, you guys are super inspirational.
With that out of the way, I do have another reason to make this post (and I apologise if this isn't the best place; ik most posts here are about pushing boundaries and such but still). When I was younger I mostly maintained a healthy weight, ever so slightly on the bigger side but not enough to be any cause for concern or anything. Then around when I started secondary school I realised I was trans & not being able to express that led to lots of feelings of envy and depression that took me a long time to recover from; I gained a fair bit of weight during that since I sorta ate as a coping mechanism and never really went outside since I struggled to make friends without feeling like I was putting up a facade. Eventually I started college, started making moves towards being who I am etc. and slowly but surely improved my mental health to the point where I can confidently say I feel happy and well-adjusted the vast majority of the time. That weight I gained never left, though, and my inaugural college year was done online, so there was no travel for me and as such I still didn't move around much. So yea, during covid I fell back to my old habits and gained even more weight to the point where I'm definitely unhealthy now.
In my second year of college we were allowed to go to campus for the first time! I made friends, I started going out, and this resulted in significantly more activity than my body had seen in like 7 years. To that end I was able to lose a little weight, but I never broke the eating habits, so it's kinda been a cycle of lose a little -> gain a little -> repeat. I'm not really gaining a significant amount more these days, so at least there's that, but I'd like to try losing it and eating healthier. I don't feel much of a desire to build muscle or anything - just wanna be more comfortable with myself at an average weight with better stamina.
So basically I have two questions:
a) how do you break bad eating habits? I've tried to just eat less in general but obviously self starvation isn't healthy, it's just been really difficult for me to stick to eating healthier foods. Doesn't help that I'm a pretty picky eater.
b) how do you maintain an exercise regime? I understand that eventually it just becomes routine and all, but how do you start that routine in the first place? I've tried walking and I do enjoy it but it's difficult rn during the winter months since it gets dark so early and I don't live in a very safe area. So in addition to maintaining motivation, are there any good at-home methods that I could use till it brightens up outside?
Any other advice unrelated to these questions is also super appreciated! Thank you in advance & keep smashing your goals, you guys are super inspirational.
disclaimer: I wouldn't say my habits are great, but this is just where I've gotten to in these areas:
a) For me, organization is the key because healthy eating habits are time intensive unless you want to spend $$$$. As it is, healthy eating is quite $$$$ at least in America.
Right now, I am trying to prep all my meals in advance, so I will make food for at least 3 days at a time. Big salads, grains/potatoes, a protein, a soup. Last week: prepped beef w kabob type seasonings, big salad (cucumber tomato shallot dill and spinach w olive oil and lemon juice dressing), pearl couscous, and then a beef and potato stew. That's ~4-5 days worth of meals for me. When I am at work I try to eat vegetarian as eating meat makes me really tired so for lunch I just eat premade vegan wrap things (falafel or avocado+hummus) that I buy from the grocery store. If I just can't do it and need to have a really high calorie convenience food, I try to be mindful of portion control and turn it into multiple meals. People bringing candy into the workplace is a challenge for my maintenance of my healthy eating habits, but for snacks I try to eat fruit (usually orange banana or mango) or toast, things that take little thinking and little prep. I try my best not to buy things like icecream, soft cheeses, chips or unhealthy snacks, sandwich meats etc. There are people who have much better and more nutritious meal prep schemes than me, but I'm working on getting better.
b) It takes a really long time. Walking is good if you're doing a decent mileage but is hard to do that in the rain. I have had walking be my main form of exercise (id used to walk 45 minutes from my house to the beach and then back again everyday) and it is my favorite, but when I moved away from California I couldn't keep it up since weather does not permit it. I advise joining a gym and/or taking up a sport. I play Squash at the gym ~twice a week and then do yoga/pilates/weightlifting type workouts on the days I don't go. The gym is key for when the weather is terrible, and also gives you a place to go that is not your house, which is optimal if you find yourself spending too much time at home. If I must do workouts at home I have used youtube workout videos in the past: yoga with adrienne and bailey brown. Another options could be signing up for some yoga or pilates classes, gyms may be good because they often offer a lot of different class options to explore.
yeah i was taking 5 before i cycled off because i wasn't working out as much. at the peak of it i had to leave a 2 hour exam with 30 minutes left because i just had to go to the bathroom. the price we pay...
the other thing that helped me was isolating the specific muscle groups that were the limiting factor when I was running and focusing on them when doing strength training. when I started running long distance, my quads getting sore/starting to cramp were the reason I eventually stopped, so I looked up specifically quad exercises and incorporated them into my workout (as well as keeping up with my regular routine). then it was my calves, so i'd make a habit of doing calf raises throughout the day when I had a free moment. then it was my ankles, which i actually haven't found any specific exercises for so i just sped up my steps per minute, which helps a lot. nowadays i'll get short of breath long before anything feels too sore, so i need to incorporate bursts of sprints in my run (and stop vaping lol.) it's a continuous cycle with constant readjustments, but it's helped a lot with both my speed and endurance.
The best place to start is with keeping a close eye on snack foods, particularly candy, if they're a part of your eating habits. They're calorie dense, but contribute little to not feeling hungry throughout the day. Something that helped me was having a note in my phone where I'd log whenever I ate candy/dessert. I started with an allowance of 5 a week (with a unit of 1 being ~500 cal), then 2 weeks later went down to 4, 2 weeks later 3, 2 weeks later 2, which is where I've stopped. The most important part is to maintain limits that are sustainable and flexible, because the long term consequences of the bad feelings from not living up to unsustainable goals will far outpace any short term benefits you might've been able to get while you were able to stick to them. This also means adjusting for other events in life - my midterms and finals each happen in a 1 week period so for that week, I'll up my allowance to 4. The main thing is to keep the bigger picture in mind.
Re: motivation, finding the environment that works best for you. If possible, a gym membership can provide facilities or at the very least a treadmill to continue walking when it's dark & cold out. If you're able to attend, fitness classes can provide a sense of community and a scheduled time to stick to. I know calisthenics people that workout completely from home. I know calisthenics people that can't find the motivation/don't have enough space at home, so they go to the gym and do calisthenics. It's different for everyone, so finding out what works for you is the first step.
I hope this was helpful and best of luck with all of this - you're absolutely in the right place, don't even worry about that!
W followed by L posting: started going to the gym thrice weekly in early may, went regularly for about 6 months, lost about 6-7 kg and got toned a bit. but then injured my right knee in early october in leg press, and my right wrist while bench pressing last week. rip to my new habit, was fun too. also I guess your body isn't as forgiving once you hit your late 20s :(
got an mri taken for my knee and it's a meniscal tear; doc said it's a minor tear and doesn't require surgery, but told me not to aggravate it for about 3 months. I get a faint clicking noise when I straighten my leg, but otherwise feels completely normal in day-to-day activities. haven't gone for my wrist yet but after hours of frantic googling I fear it's a TFCC tear: pain on the outer/pinky side, can't rotate my wrist (especially not to the outer/pinky side), things like opening a door and using a key are painful; no problem in bearing weight as long as it's a completely up-down motion and doesn't involve rotating my wrist. gonna wear a wrist brace for a month or so and see how it goes. any other injurycels who have had any of these?
got an mri taken for my knee and it's a meniscal tear; doc said it's a minor tear and doesn't require surgery, but told me not to aggravate it for about 3 months. I get a faint clicking noise when I straighten my leg, but otherwise feels completely normal in day-to-day activities. haven't gone for my wrist yet but after hours of frantic googling I fear it's a TFCC tear: pain on the outer/pinky side, can't rotate my wrist (especially not to the outer/pinky side), things like opening a door and using a key are painful; no problem in bearing weight as long as it's a completely up-down motion and doesn't involve rotating my wrist. gonna wear a wrist brace for a month or so and see how it goes. any other injurycels who have had any of these?
Absolutely true dude, I have an injury myself and one of the worst parts of it has to be the mental aspect. I went from benching 240 lbs for reps to permanently having hot compress on my shoulder.
Everyone around you is getting stronger and it makes you want to train, but when you have an injury training actually makes you weaker. Also, injuries always take so long to heal that you basically have to not train a bodypart for months if you don't want it to get worse the next time you train it. When training has already become a routine for you, it's so frustrating when you want your injury to have a fucking deadline.
Small update regarding my general fitness:
I moved to a new city in September to start my graduate school journey, and I'm having a great time even if I barely have any time for anything aside from my academic responsibilities. Before I moved, I made a promise to myself that no matter how busy I'd get during the year, I'd still keep prioritizing my physical health. Always.
I made a goal over the summer to keep my body fat % between 14-16% -- nothing too crazy, but within a reasonably attainable and healthy range. I've kept this goal by doing stuff like biking to and from school everyday (~7km each way), mostly cooking my own meals, cutting the alcohol (aside from the weekend), and removing bullshit from my diet (soda, candy, fast food). I'm at the point where I get physically sick if I eat too much crap, which I guess is more incentive to cut this stuff from my diet. It makes a really big difference in my level of confidence, energy levels, and ability to actually get shit done. You don't need to be a gym fanatic or follow a Tiktok diet to be healthy; following a simple plan and being consistent with it is good enough! I don't even really do meal prep, portion control, keto, or any of the other stuff some people do here. I'd literally buy beans, potatoes, chicken, broccoli, tuna, rice, and other cheap and filling foods in bulk and just make whatever combination of the above I felt like that day. Point is that if someone as unorganized and unstructured with this stuff like me is able to be successful, you can too.
I moved to a new city in September to start my graduate school journey, and I'm having a great time even if I barely have any time for anything aside from my academic responsibilities. Before I moved, I made a promise to myself that no matter how busy I'd get during the year, I'd still keep prioritizing my physical health. Always.
I made a goal over the summer to keep my body fat % between 14-16% -- nothing too crazy, but within a reasonably attainable and healthy range. I've kept this goal by doing stuff like biking to and from school everyday (~7km each way), mostly cooking my own meals, cutting the alcohol (aside from the weekend), and removing bullshit from my diet (soda, candy, fast food). I'm at the point where I get physically sick if I eat too much crap, which I guess is more incentive to cut this stuff from my diet. It makes a really big difference in my level of confidence, energy levels, and ability to actually get shit done. You don't need to be a gym fanatic or follow a Tiktok diet to be healthy; following a simple plan and being consistent with it is good enough! I don't even really do meal prep, portion control, keto, or any of the other stuff some people do here. I'd literally buy beans, potatoes, chicken, broccoli, tuna, rice, and other cheap and filling foods in bulk and just make whatever combination of the above I felt like that day. Point is that if someone as unorganized and unstructured with this stuff like me is able to be successful, you can too.
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All time bench pb of 140kg / 308lb at 90kg / 198lb bodyweight.
Yes it's a grind but considering I benched the two days prior, I'm still over the moon that I hit this long time goal!
Yes it's a grind but considering I benched the two days prior, I'm still over the moon that I hit this long time goal!
If it's at all viable for you to do this, you count calories.
You said you're in college though. That can mean cafeteria food, which means counting calories is basically impossible. BUT IF YOU MAKE YOUR OWN MEALS, it is easy. You just weigh everything. And I mean literally everything. Then put the number into an app. The mechanical part of it can't be easier.
The harder part is figuring out what your daily target number is. I only settled on 2300 after a long time of realizing it doesn't make me gain or lose.
Maybe not answering your question but you said you wanted to lose weight more than anything else, and diet is waaaay more effective at that than exercise is. So first you need to figure out what's motivating you to exercise at all.
(Putting on muscle is a good motivation because you get to turn all that weight you're carrying around that feels excess into raw strength, which is great, but requires a motivation that you say you don't have.)
Quick thing before I sleep on counting calories. I used to track them really specifically and that was naturally when I was at my peak of taking fitness things seriously. Since then I’ve gotten a bit less diligent about it, which hasn’t been ideal of course, but there were still lasting benefits of doing it for however long.
Honestly before I started tracking my eating, the biggest issue is I just had no sense of portions. Once you get in the swing of figuring out the portioning of the things you eat the most routinely, it’s a lot easier to keep a rough estimate in your head of how much to eat/make. It can also go a long way in just making you think twice before going for a super calorie dense snack or meal. There are more examples of course, but those kinds of things cumulatively go a long long way over time.
Basically just writing this to say that eating and nutrition are without a doubt incredibly important for fitness/weight goals, but it doesn’t necessarily have to take over your life. Would definitely recommend tracking calories for some portion of time to give a better sense of what’s what, but it really does depend on your goals and how seriously you want to take them. I was honestly shocked when I found how much I was actually taking in compared to what I thought I was before putting things in perspective w some calorie counting.
Honestly before I started tracking my eating, the biggest issue is I just had no sense of portions. Once you get in the swing of figuring out the portioning of the things you eat the most routinely, it’s a lot easier to keep a rough estimate in your head of how much to eat/make. It can also go a long way in just making you think twice before going for a super calorie dense snack or meal. There are more examples of course, but those kinds of things cumulatively go a long long way over time.
Basically just writing this to say that eating and nutrition are without a doubt incredibly important for fitness/weight goals, but it doesn’t necessarily have to take over your life. Would definitely recommend tracking calories for some portion of time to give a better sense of what’s what, but it really does depend on your goals and how seriously you want to take them. I was honestly shocked when I found how much I was actually taking in compared to what I thought I was before putting things in perspective w some calorie counting.
you're just 198 bro? damn. lookin fkin massive. makes that PB even more impressive.
how tall are you
5"11 my friend! I'm just reasonably lean (not shredded, but a body fat percentage around like 13-14%). Good to see you online by the way, long time no speak!
I have already noticed my muscle memory kicking in and my strength is skyrocketing. It won't take long before I am back to where I was a few years ago. My cardio is my first priority though and that has been going really well as well
Yeah it goes pretty fast. I've heard of people who got cancer and couldn't train because of it for years. When they started out again, they got everything back in a few months
I was working out on thursday and I was really tired when I went to the gym. I did everything to failure but my rep ranges and weights were lower than usually. Is this still anabolic?
Yeah there is this strongman who had cancer around age 40 and lost close to 40 kilos or so and less than year later gained pretty much everything back.
Yeah you probably still benefited from the workout even the weights were a little lower
coming up on the end of January, which means i've managed to stick to the same exercise schedule i've adopted for a solid 4 weeks that i'll be finishing this weekend! finally i can feel relief vs daunting impossibility because i know what my goals are and can actually measure the pace of my progress now. 2023 gonna be the fittest me by far 
Did someone here have success with doing wrist extensions and using grip strenghteners regularly to treat wrist pain?
I draw and picked up piano and work an office job, all of which heavily involves my wrists and they start hurting often. I am thinking about picking up some 2kg dumbbells and some extensions daily
I draw and picked up piano and work an office job, all of which heavily involves my wrists and they start hurting often. I am thinking about picking up some 2kg dumbbells and some extensions daily
I know a lot of people have some kind of weekly routine they like to stick to when they go to the gym. My brother enjoys going to the gym when he can, and part of this is because his workout plan for each day of the week is slightly different for each day. There's definitely other ways alongside this you can get yourself motivated, too. Just remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, and you should be fine. :)
I find my hands and wrists cramping up sometimes too after intense practice sessions of the handheld Mario Kart games in Time Trials mode. What often happens is I spend so much time focusing on perfecting my drift lines that I fail to notice I'm probably giving myself carpal tunnel in the process. Or at least it feels that way. What I usually do when this happens is set my 2DS down and try and rotate my wrists a couple times before flapping my hands up and down in rapid succession. The reason for doing this is just so I can be sure they're not losing circulation. I'm not sure if this post helps at all with your situation, but maybe it does...? Who knows. All I know is that the specific way I hold my 2DS kind of reminds me of what you were saying.
(On an unrelated note, this is also part of why I stopped using the Joy-Cons in handheld mode, aside from the infamous stick drift.)
omg getting back into push up form and i am so sore today.
as for wrists:
strength exercise is always the best way to avoid and ward off injury, especially for joints! i too notice some tight/uncomfortable sensations after being stationary but active with my hands for too long, like laptop time or gaming. any sort of dumbbell movement is great for wrists bc you have to focus your form and grip near the wrist at all times. i would get minimum 5lb dumbbells because you can still practice extensions while resting your arm/wrist on your leg or the end of a table, and really focus on raising the dumbbell without straining your wrist/arm too much in the process
as for wrists:
strength exercise is always the best way to avoid and ward off injury, especially for joints! i too notice some tight/uncomfortable sensations after being stationary but active with my hands for too long, like laptop time or gaming. any sort of dumbbell movement is great for wrists bc you have to focus your form and grip near the wrist at all times. i would get minimum 5lb dumbbells because you can still practice extensions while resting your arm/wrist on your leg or the end of a table, and really focus on raising the dumbbell without straining your wrist/arm too much in the process
How long would you say does it take until you start getting big and muscly?
I've been training seriously since a year, had a 3 month period stagnating, can do 150kg Deadlift, 100kg Bench and 120g Sqaut (all one rep max). Still look skinny, lats are growing good but my arms are still small
Roughly how strong should I get until I look big? I am currently bulking and am rather tall at 193cm
I've been training seriously since a year, had a 3 month period stagnating, can do 150kg Deadlift, 100kg Bench and 120g Sqaut (all one rep max). Still look skinny, lats are growing good but my arms are still small
Roughly how strong should I get until I look big? I am currently bulking and am rather tall at 193cm
