Lifestyle physical health/fitness thread

Thanks for the help, Houndoomsday and yee! I think I'm going to try throwing in some more high rep exercise into my usual workouts, as well as trying out that 5-10 sets of 4-8 reps format. I usually go for 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps, usually in descending order, which I assume is good, but I think the more sets/less reps would be a better way to build on my muscle.

Also, on the jogging thing, no offense taken lol. I'm a bigger guy, no doubt about it, and I already have some not so good knees. This year I'm actually coming back from a meniscus injury, and with this coming season came an extra 20 pounds. I used to run a lot because of wrestling season, so I've been trying to get back into it. In my area, I have access to multiple parks with really nice jogging trails, ranging from concrete to dirt roads to sand, the latter which I prefer. What is weird is that the more challenging trails are concrete, and I'm advised not to run on hard surfaces from my school's athletic trainer, so those are out of the question until I feel like I'm at 100% again (which I have been for a while, tbh. It just seems that the trainers and doctors think I need to give it some more time.). I do have access to a swimming pool of my own in my back yard, but it's been raining heavily, so I haven't been able to swim often. I actually did swim this morning, and you're right that it's a fantastic workout, even if I don't have all that much room to do lengths or laps or what have you. Also I'm with you on bike machines; through the bulk of my initial recovery, I had to use one for about 45 min - 1h a day for weeks. Yeah, they're boring as shit lol.
 
so we're just arguing for the sake of it then? neato.

update time I guess then - been pretty quiet on this front as I haven't done any upper body work since developing cycling-induced lower back pain in the first week of October last year. Physio thinks I'm progressing well, but feels like I'm still a few weeks away from even returning to basic calisthenics. fucking injuries are the bane of my life. my return to running went as well as could have been expected - by which I mean I hyperextended my groin, bruised my fifth metatarsal and fell off my bike, obliterating my good knee in the process. so progress has been bumpy and as of today, I've ran a mere three times this year.

so basically all i'm doing right now is trying to stem off that rapid and depressing deterioration of fitness that accompanies all long-term injuries, a deterioration that I am unfortunately all too familiar with. I attempted to eat well but Christmas sorta got in the way of that and everything is going to shit, whoooops. as of now though, I'm still in good shape so I won't pretend otherwise but doubts are starting to claw at me - there's a bit more loose skin than I'm happy with and my arms and pecs are shrinking - but overall, I don't feel as disappointed as I did the last time I was forced to take a few months out.












primary goal is still to win a long distance race in the near future, preferably a fell-race (a race that involved the traversing and navigation of a mountain) but the jury is still out on how the bad knee holds up to incline. I'm also going on a 3 week trek to Mount Everest in November so I wanna keep building up my fitness for that lest I get humiliated by sherpas - a gal at work was telling me about a friend of hers who was some big 200+lb rugby player but couldn't lift a fraction of what the sherpas could when he was in Nepal. The effects of altitude on fitness are fascinating and something I can't wait to experiment with while I'm out there. and i'm incredibly tempted to pick up an altitude simulation mask, such as this one:


can apparently restrict breathing by up to 9x and that's a pretty exciting prospect and well worth looking like Bane from batman for the duration of my runs. will of course have to research just how safe they are - I imagine starving yourself of oxygen for extended periods could have potentially catastrophic consequences - but I'm just throwing this out here for now to see if anybody has any experiences with them.

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.





You guys have really nice bodies. Good job. :)

Admiring... :D
 

Lee

@ Thick Club
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had a pretty brutal leg day today; ran 4km up a mountain, 25km bike ride and topped it off with some 300lb squats




is everybody else remembering to do their legs? they're important!!!





lets see some wheels.
 

DM

Ce soir, on va danser.
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motherfucker, stop rubbing it in that I'm a crippled 90-year-old man with a bad hip
 

Soul Fly

IMMA TEACH YOU WHAT SPLASHIN' MEANS
is a Contributor Alumnus
Jesus Christ Lee. I can hardly manage a 3.5 km mountain (up/down) run, and I thought it was decent.
Edit: And I'm the leg guy among my friends.
 

shade

be sharp, say nowt
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shredded my hands doing deadlifts. is the only way to combat this to wear gloves or could there be some grip faults?
 

shade

be sharp, say nowt
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yea i usually do but when i put the bar down there was my blood on the bar so i thought maybe i should do something about this haha
 

Yonko7

Guns make you stupid. Duct tape makes you smart.
is a Contributor Alumnus
It seems like it could be a grip fault too, or a lack of calluses. You could wear wrist wraps / straps; I always confuse the two, but one helps to make grip strength not a factor when lifting heavy, while the other one makes up for a lack of forearm strength by stabilizing it. The one that makes up for the strength means your forearms won't develop as much when you use them. A bit confusing but google helps =] Also, I'd be scared if I went to use the bar later and saw blood on it 0.O

On another note, does anyone have crazy stretch marks? My mid to lower back looks like I was clawed by a tiger, but I was never overweight. x.x My doctor said it's because the exercise that I do, and now I try to minimize it by applying lotion after every workout to help the skin.
 

Ash Borer

I've heard they're short of room in hell
shredded my hands doing deadlifts. is the only way to combat this to wear gloves or could there be some grip faults?
let rippetoe help you


I have a few videos of myself lifting

144 kg bench (bar touches sternum, but ass is off bench so not IPF approved)
185 kg front squat
96kg OHP

my training has been stifled for so long now though due to spinal issues. Ive seen physiotherapists and chiropractors but they havent really been able to help me that much. Anyone else had to deal with this kind of shit? It ruins me ;_;
 
Interesting video porky. And very nice lifts. I've always been gripping the first way he showed, and my callouses are extremely thick and peel from time to time. I thought that was just normal, but I guess I should try out the second method. I assume it applies to any pulling motion, not just deadlifts, as I really feel my callouses pulling the most during pull ups.

And shade, if you're bleeding on the bar, it's possible that your hands are too dry, causing your skin to crack and bleed when you lift. Try using some lotion, but not right before working out as that'll mess with your grip. Don't use gloves, as the added thickness makes gripping the bar more difficult. Chalk will help if your hands are properly moisturized and also if sweat is an issue.

I've just gotten back into lifting recently after a long break, and my progress is really hampered by the fact that I really don't eat enough at all. I'm working on that though, and I'm on the grind back to a 3 plate squat, hopefully by the end of this year :toast:. Currently around 265/185/315 squat/bench/dead 1rms (in lbs), hoping to breach 1k eventually.
 
Signed up for Gym, but it activates on September 1. Basically I want to get more fit and build some muscle. I only weight 150lbs and am around 5'10. I am preparing for a bit so I can get more out of myself when I start. What I am doing now is (and only on day 4)

  • 25mins on legs, including about 10 mins of warm-up. Cant go for much longer, my legs just can't take it. Always had problem with my legs when stemmed from achilles problems. I use this:
  • 10mins doing cardio, just found some random one. Not a very good video though.
  • .
  • Then I do 180 punches on a boxing bag whilst jogging on the spot, then the next 120 punches at 90% strength. Does not take long.
  • After that I go for a light jog around the block for 3 minutes.
  • To finish, my old man has a bullworker which I use for 10 minutes doing various exercises. Very good for abs and biceps, tricepts, etc.
Whether its effective or not, I dunno. But its better than playing league, watching tv or browsing forums. So far I feel very sore for most of the day but around an hour after the routine I feel great. I just take mini breaks whenever. Just as a side note, my back feels much more solid (hardness) than it used to. Anyone else got this?
 
I've been struggling with an unstable shoulder for a little over a year now. It slips in and out of socket once every couple of weeks when I'm exerting myself. Usually it happens when I'm in the pool, but it has slipped during squats and lat pulldowns as well. I finally decided to figure out what's wrong, and after a few weeks of X-Rays and MRIs they told me nothing was structurally wrong with my shoulder. Disappointed, I went to the physical therapist to see if he could figure it out.

He figured out my rotator cuff muscles are extremely weak comes to the bigger muscle groups in that area (deltoid/lat/ etc) because swimming and the weightlifting we do don't target those muscles at all. So, I'm basically unbalanced in my shoulder and that's what's been causing the instability. He gave me some light weight resistance band exercises to do for the next couple of months.

I did 3 x 15 of 3 different exercises for those muscles and was shocked at how difficult the exercises were for me. However, after I was done I tried to do this:



Which I used to be able to do before the shoulder instability but my range of motion has been limited since. And it worked! I'm amazed how much one session can effect an injury. I'm pretty excited to get back to school in a few days to be able to work out intensely without being afraid of hurting my shoulder.
 

Soul Fly

IMMA TEACH YOU WHAT SPLASHIN' MEANS
is a Contributor Alumnus
I lost 24 kgs (52 pounds) in a little over 2 and a half months. down from 94 kgs (207 pounds) to 70 (154.5 pounds)

Now time to get to building a body. any advice would be appreciated, I lost all that through a combination of moderate dieting and regular exercise routine of 40 mins cardio and 20 mins weight, so I'm starting to gain so muscle structure already.

The thing is I want to tone my chest and abs+sides. Look more like my weight.
 

Stallion

Tree Young
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I lost 24 kgs (52 pounds) in a little over 2 and a half months. down from 94 kgs (207 pounds) to 70 (154.5 pounds)

Now time to get to building a body. any advice would be appreciated, I lost all that through a combination of moderate dieting and regular exercise routine of 40 mins cardio and 20 mins weight, so I'm starting to gain so muscle structure already.

The thing is I want to tone my chest and abs+sides. Look more like my weight.
Now that you've got rid of most of your body fat (I assume), now is the time to start eating more again. As a beginner you're gonna put on muscle and lose fat as long as you dont eat like a whale, but you're gonna need to fuel your body with plenty of protein, unsaturated fats and low GI complex carbohydrates (brown rice and sweet potato for example). Reason being is that if your body doesn't have the right nutrition, it's not going to build muscle as efficiently. If you're looking for a program, a lot of people I know swear by Starting Strength (Google it) as great for beginning and intermediate lifters, so I recommend you give that a try!

One last point but you're gonna need to skew your cardio to weight training ratio a lot more towards the weight side of things. Now that you're really skinny, you don't need anywhere near that much cardio - just enough for your overall health will do.
 
Starting Strength is a great beginner routine. It's the one I started with and I'm pretty happy with the results it gave me.

Something I want to know now is, does anyone here have any experience with belts, specifically powerlifting belts? Would you recommend using one? I'm wondering whether I would be stronger if I trained with a belt on my top sets rather than without one. Obviously I'd be able to lift more belted than unbelted, but does it actually make you stronger over a long period of use, or does it only increase how much you can lift for the sets you use it? I know using a belt decreases ab involvement in each lift, but surely that can be made up for by only using it on top sets and doing accessory work to strengthen those muscles.
 

Ash Borer

I've heard they're short of room in hell
yes, use a bet for a maximal sets of deadlifting, and squatting, pretty much all powerlifters do. A lot of weightlifters do too. Inzer makes fantastic belts.
 
I will be attending Lifeguard tryouts in March, so I shall post my getting ready plan to put social pressure on myself and see if you guys recommend anything. The tryout is going to be a ton of guys swimming all at the same time in cold wintery water (1000 meter swim) followed by a Run-Swim-Run.

I'm 6"2 170 lbs right now (I was like 150 last year and only did cardio for half of it, thanks age 18 growth spurt!), I would guess a touch over 10% body fat. My plan is to stay around this weight the whole time by training for compact endurance muscles and cutting down a couple %s of fat. I think high rep low weight workouts on all of my muscles mixed with cardio is the best way to do this, it should make my muscles work more efficiently and with more endurance while keeping me lighter. I would've not done strength training a year ago because I thought staying as light as possible was the only concern last year when I was just running, but I learned the hard way that's the wrong idea after hurting with IT band syndrome.

The IT BS has my left knee in therapy and is the reason my run plan is very short runs for now. Besides that I'm lucky enough to be healthy so here's my cardio plan:

RUN: Running every other day, and alternating straight mile runs and 1/2 or 1/4 mile intervals (still 1-1.5 miles total). Since this is so short I get in extra cardio on these days by riding my bike to school which is about half an hour of light work and even more if I get a proper bike. Current POS I have cannot go up a damn hill and there's massive hills to take advantage of. I should probably stay steady at 3-4 days a week for a long time, maybe 4-5 by the tryout.

Hadn't run in weeks, but managed a painless 6:37 mile yesterday and want to hopefully knock off a minute by March. I'm not setting a specific number yet because I have no idea how I'll respond to treatment.

SWIM: Using the gym pool and doing intervals every other day as of now. My previous workouts were 300 M at a time with a minute of rest, repeated 4 then 5 then 6 times. I'm bumping that up to 350 now 5 and 6, then 400 5 and 6 etc. Once the intervals reach 400 M I'll mix in workouts that are just two full 1000 M swims with a couple of minutes of rest in between. I plan to spend 4-5 days a week doing this once I'm more broken in.

I'm not tracking specific times yet but will set benchmarks to beat when I start doing straight 1000s.



And the muscle specific stuff:

PUSH-UPS: I'm calling it push-ups instead of chest / triceps / shoulders / delts because all I'm doing is basically push-ups. I've restarted Scooby's 100 push ups plan
and not gonna stop again just because I'm worried about putting on muscle, definitely not when it's gonna be lean stuff anyway. On stage 3 doing 18 slow push ups in the 2nd set and filling in the rest of the 5, then will move to doing 2 workouts a week. One 100 push ups (with knee and counter push ups when I can't do it) and one strong high weight workout using either weighted push ups or chest press / fly equipment at the school.

PULL-UPS: By-word for lats / biceps / forearms / wrists you get the idea. I'm currently just bs'ing this by doing 5 sets of pull ups after every two days of rest, two minutes of rest between each set. The last set is ended by me hanging from the bar as long as I can which is killer burn on the hands / forearms and followed up usually by a swim.

Currently at 12 good pull-ups and seeing steady progress. When it starts getting harder I'll try to alternate heavy low rep and vice versa like I'm doing with push-ups. Weighted pull-ups are so fun I won't be able to stop myself from doing them.

CORE: For abs and obliques, what I'm doing is Scoob's 3 min ab workout every day. It sounds odd but it feels great when I'm doing it and I end up actually being sore the whole next day. Dragon Flags look like the shit so I'll be building up to doing those and hanging leg raises once I've done enough of the short 3 min workout and the occasional heavy one.

I will be working inner / outer thigh / hip extensions (the last two of those 3 things) because they're gonna be vital to knee rehab, and will just do 2 sets of ~20 every day or every other day for entry-level development, and down the road I plan to use a format like I'm doing for the push/pull up stuff.

My school has a cool lower back muscle machine, and I don't know why I haven't been using it. More core strength for sports and a chance to be proactive against lower back pain while getting better at hanging leg raises? 3 sets of low weight high rep every day it is.

LEGS: Glutes and hamstrings are what I need more than anything, so to cover all the upper leg bases I'm going to mix lunges or leg extensions for quads and glute presses for the backside. I would do squats and I was having a lot of fun working into one legged squats but my doctor wanted me to minimize knee stresses for now. Calf Raises with free weights are the final part.



OTHER STUFF: Cold tolerance will be a legitimately huge factor for me and I'm below average at it. The water will probably be hanging around 60 degrees and could go lower worst case scenario, which used to always cause me to go stiff and slow in run-swim-runs. I honestly don't know of a practical way to train this yet. Cold showers are a good way to wake up but it's as ineffective as training to bench press by doing pushups against a wall. Running out into the ocean and just swimming alone is looked down upon by lifeguards and I wouldn't want to do it anyway.

I'm also stretching basically everything in my body a lot to loosen things up and add range of motion. About 30 seconds at a time for each group a couple times a day.

Thanks to you guys for being here to hold me to this and always being helpful.
 
Ok, my goal is to make varsity XC. My school has a pretty crappy team but we have like 20 upper classmen dudes and I'm only a sophomore. I'm faster than most of them but I need to improve. I run about 50 miles a week, which I am slowly increasing. I'm looking for a good core workout to supplement running. I've been doing planks and push ups but if anybody has some sort of quick routine that would be great. I'm pretty thin and I have something of abs but I kind of want more core strength.
 
@Asterat idk if you probably saw it already but the 3 minute ab workout I posted is doing great for me and actually providing strength gains despite being endurance focused.

For me everythings still improving but now I'm more strength focused than I thought I'd be because I've noticed the swimmers that pass me in the pool are incredibly buff. My new ultimate goal in life for lats is to do 5 one hand pull ups and 10 one hand chin ups. I've been on the lat pulldown machine trying to train for that (I can't do one yet) and I've noticed a good day for me is 13 pull ups weighing 170 lbs while I could only do 8 reps of 150 lbs on the pulldown. This makes absolutely no sense to me, but at this rate I guess I need to be able to do about 250 lbs to do one hand pull ups. The machine goes up to 210 lbs so I'll just wait until I can defeat that and then let myself down as slowly as possible on a bar with one hand to keep building up.

I thought pulldowns were supposed to be easier, anyone else notice the same thing happening?
 

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