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Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
I was using noom for about a month and a half and lost 8lbs which I was pretty proud of, but I started stalling with weight loss.
Recently I've decided to start targeting health instead of weight loss and trust that weight loss will follow. I run about 2 miles in the morning 3 days a week, lift weights in the gym for 2 days a week for an hour, walk at least 10k steps a day, and go to a workout class that's a combination of cardio and high rep/low weight exercises.
I'm still perfecting my full body workout to hit all my muscle groups effectively, but I know that it can take a few months to work out a good program, so I'm just happy to be going consistently. I'm also starting to work out where my limits are so I can actually do some real progressive overload while still hitting the rep counts I'm after. I'm considering adding a third lifting day to my routine because I have Friday as a free day where my only requirement is to hit my step count.
I've shifted away from a calorie focused diet to a macro nutrient focused diet and that is way better than chasing calorie counts ever were. If you get your weight in pounds and target 70%-100% of that number in grams of protein daily, you feel really good, fully satiated, and hit a good calorie number to continue to lose weight. I'm surprised that none of these diets talk about macronutrients and instead talk about caloric density. If you are hitting your macros, you often are eating correctly and feeling full because you aren't just eating leafy vegetables and hoping the water tricks your body into thinking you're full.
I am already seeing how the cardio is helping my lifts and how my lifts are improving my jogging pace, so I'm excited to see how I progress by the end of the summer.
Due to taking a week long vacation for the 4th of July, I made some huge gains in bouldering and running! My climbing gym recently set some new problems and I was able to get the v5 in one session when previously it would be a multiple week-long project for me. The increased surge in volume and intensity definitely took a toll on me after a week and a half though because I went yesterday and my arms were not feeling it at all. It's a funny feeling when the spirit is willing but the body fails to comply.
Running is the other activity that I care about but the road to improvement is a lot more frustrating. I'm no stranger to running - I've ran a marathon before, but the effort needed for improvement far exceed the among of work I can regularly put in due to my work. Funny enough, unlike most people I feel like I get my best runs on the treadmill because it keeps me accountable for the pace. I set the grade to 1% to compensate for the machine and chug along way better than I do outside.
In terms of nutrition, I started taking Biosteel's sports greens after seeing a lot of my favorite YouTubers promote AG1. I've only been taking them for a few days but I think they're better than nothing. I really don't eat as many greens as I should so even if this is a substitute it still gets me something that I didn't before.
I've been struggling with health and fitness as a newish mom, my appetite has been all over the place and we're now weaning so my hunger levels are ridiculous, which makes it hard for me to figure out what I need to build muscle vs gaining fat due to over eating.
I have been doing a good job of adding in exercises daily rotating between arms, legs, core. I feel like I'm making good progress and now I need to learn some of the ways to actually push to the next exercise level...whether it be holding longer or doing a new way of the exercise. Just to clarify though I'm still very weak...would like to get to doing 10 regular push-ups vs knees or hip height angled.
My shoulders had some injuries and I think child birth weakened my core. So this has been a long slow journey for me and I know that is hard for me as I was used to being able to get fit faster. I just need to keep at it though, I definitely feel better overall
I imagine that pushing a stroller could be a great leg workout. Especially if you can find a way to partially brake the wheels so you can increase resistance to turn it into a sort of sled push.
That's an interesting idea, I usually get the dogs on leash but maybe I'll try to reverse it and get the stroller and make my husband walk the dog.
I normally go to the gym 2-3x per week and do martial arts 2x per week. The MA is what I do for cardio, but I'm competing in a tournament in August and I'm learning through recent sparring practice sections that I don't have nearly enough good cardio for the upcoming round times. I also need to lose 5 or so pounds in order to make the weight class I'm competing in.
So I've just started adding jumping rope to my gym days, which I don't enjoy and am not great at, but figure it's the best way to get the most cardio in the least amount of time. I'm still not sure if I should be doing that extra cardio every day or every other day, particularly in light of the other 5 or so workouts per week, but I suppose I'll figure it out. Advice on any of that is welcome.
I'm also doing a caloric deficit mostly relying on Huel's Hot and Savory instant meals as the macros are great for the limited calories, but while some of the flavors are pretty good, several aren't and it's sometimes a drag to chew through. Trying to weave in other foods that break that up without blowing my calorie or macro goals.
Overall kinda struggling right now but I think it's more just ramping up to/getting used to the changes.
I felt a lot of this. When I competed in martial arts, I found that at the end of the day gym workouts were not as effective as sparring on the bag or with a partner. They will be good for increasing your overall power but cardio is much more important as your foundation for lasting all round. My humble recommendation is that you convert one of those gym days into another day either sparring or refining your technique.
Everyone's got their own broscience when it comes to losing weight. If it's your first time doing this, you're going to feel miserable. Even people who do this for years still hate cutting weight. Five pounds isn't the worst but still enough to give you a fight when you're trying to be in a good mood. Nuts also make a good supplement to your diet. Lastly, remember that most of your body is water weight. Lean on other folks at your school for exact advice but look to taper water intake the week prior.
Thanks. Yeah, have definitely learned the hard way over the years how much cardio covers a lot of sins of technique.
I'm middle-aged now--I'm kind of seeing this tournament as my last hurrah--and although I've trained martial arts for a long time I haven't actually needed to cut weight for anything since I wrestled in high school (which I hated). I'd prefer to avoid a hydrocut if possible but will do it if I have to. You're definitely right though, since starting this cut I've been cranky as hell and I have to watch my general attitude, ha ha.
Huge respect for the wrestlers, I don't think they get half as much credit for how hard they have to grind to stay competitive. If that's the case you probably know way more about weight control than me. Good luck at the tournament!
I switched to a home gym because our rec center doesn't have enough squat racks and bench presses to reliably get one during the course of a workout. I was focused on increasing my one rep max on overhead press (155 pr) bench (265 pr) and dead (475 pr) at about 185 bw, but now I just have dumbells that only go up to 120 each. I'm making it work but I'm also saving up for a real rack and barbell. I can't do squats in the gym... all of my out of gym activities are very quad intensive - mountain biking, skiing, backpacking. I even had to move deads to Mondays just to give my lower back enough time to recover by the weekend. I just love deads too much to give them up.
Last time I posted here, I was just starting my 5k training, and this week I did my first 10k trail run.
It's been an awesome journey. I did two 5k races, with times of 23:44 & 23:00 respectively. Way better than I thought possible for myself. I also placed 11th and 19th overall in each race which is also way better than I ever thought possible.
I'm very proud of myself. I've been going through some crazy stuff these last few months and running has been a refuge for me.
I just got a new pair of trail running shoes and have been loving rotating between road running and trails. Mixing things up keeps things interesting for me.
I've been slacking a lot on my strength training because I've been enjoying my runs so much. I just started doing some yoga again the last few weeks and I can definitely notice some strength loss.
Whoops! I just don't have the time to dedicate to all my fitness goals.
I did gymming for 6 months but didn't realize it was honing me nicely. I had stopped gymming last July and gained some weight and generally went out of shape as a result. I also used to run but had to stop due to leg pain.
I have restarted gymming this month and telling myself that is going to take a lot more time.
I have been doing ATG's knees over toes exercise program since about January. My knees aren't so hot but since I've started I have noticed that my legs feel stronger and more stable. I'm not looking to dunk or anything crazy... I just want to stave off potential surgery.
For upper body pushing and pulling I've been doing every minute of the minute sets to change things up.
Really good progress on my program. Starting to feel like my old maxes are there plus some. Of course I’m heavier so my DOTS/WILKS won’t be as good. Current end of the year goals are 500 squat/DL and something like a 320 bench.
I’m thinking I should get my body fat measured. Using various body fat proxies I think I’m somewhere around 25% but that put my FFMI suspiciously high. My diet is good but still no impact on the scale. Clothes are looser and I’m seeing visual improvements. Not gonna over think it though strength and general health are my priorities. Currently at 240, would prefer to be around 205. But last time I was there I was actively road biking and lift 20+ hours a week. I’d settle for 230 in the nearer term.
I think I'm finally going to get out in front of tennis elbow and golfers elbow (lateral and medial epicondylitis). For quite a while I've just tried to work through the pain, but I recently heard about a PT technique using a Therabar. I found a set of generic Therabars and have been using them for a few days now. I understand it should take 6 weeks or more to really work and I plan to be diligent about using them for at least that long. Has anyone else dealt with tennis or golfers elbow with these or other methods?
I started training to prevent health issues that come with sitting in a chair for long hours at my job. I mostly do bodyweight exercises (r/bodyweightfitness recommended routine) with addition of some kettlebell use. It's been exactly a year since I started training more regularly and I've gained 10 kg over that time which makes me kind of proud of myself. I went from 75 to 85 kg at 187 cm of height, so I basically went from somewhat skinny to average looking. It feels great to be stronger, clothes look better on me, improved looks brought me a little bit more confidence, and training regularly helped me reduce mood swings that I had before. I hope that over next two years I'll be able to gain another 7-10 kg. That would be my dream shape :-)
I have a question: I finished my first half marathon a few months ago and I’m hoping to start training for a new one soon, the event taking place in mid October. In the interstice, I have been maintaining my long runs at about 16-21km, with a total distance per week of about 30-40km in 3 runs, plus about 3h of mostly z2 cycling. Most of the training plans I see seem to start from far lower distances for the long run and then work up - for example, Hal Higdon intermediates (and actually the novice one is the one I did last time). Should I be starting one of those from the beginning, lowering my long run distance (like I wonder if this kind of ‘detraining’ and working back up when you have extra capacity is good for developing more speed?), or should I tailor my training to my already long long run? Any suggestions for plans?