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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 actually have an update! Let me copy-paste it from another (the wrong) thread:
TLDR: Trying to go from 80 kg (approx. 176 lbs) down to 70 kg (approx. 154 lbs).
Once I reached the height of 180 cm (close to 5 ft 10 in) in my late teens, my weight got stuck at 70 kg, which is normal and healthy.
Unlike my father, who struggles to gain weight and can’t be a vegetarian for that reason, my mother will gain weight just from thinking about eating a doughnut. She keeps her weight under control, but not without making sacrifices.
Guess whose genes I inherited? It turns out, it’s probably those of my mother. Once I turned 30, my metabolism slowed to a crawl, and I suddenly started gaining weight without really changing anything about my diet or my level of physical activity.
My weight got stuck at 80 kg, and that’s not the worst that it could be, but it annoyed me, because I was slightly overweight, and also looked the part, because my body decided that it needed to store all that additional fat around my abdomen.
It’s been five years of this madness, and I tried all kinds of changes to my diet and exercise regimen, without success, until my latest changes.
It turns out that intermittent fasting (I eat only two meals a day since 2015), intense physical activity (my job demands it), and calorie deficit (the new things I did: I’ve started eating mostly fruits and nuts for lunch on working days, instead of the hearty meals I used to have) are really the only guaranteed methods of losing weight.
Or, well... it’s working for me at least.
My weight is down to 76 kg (approx. 167 lbs). It’s been two months. I almost cried for joy when I saw that number. I also visually look a leaner.
Good job! That's amazing you can tell visually already in two months, even though that sounds like a lot of effort on all fronts
I had to pause weightlifting for a month and was worried I'd lost a lot of strength in that time. I'm taking a testosterone blocker so losing muscle mass is also a real concern. I was hemming and hawing about going back to the gym, thinking up excuses to give myself, trying to push the start date to later. I felt building back up to where I was before was going to be really hard and painful, and frankly reducing the weights felt a bit demotivating. Then I read the comment @Akir on learning to love oneself and was reminded why I started lifting to begin with - I want to take care of myself, especially as I'm heading into my 40s.
So I dragged myself to the gym today and got back in the saddle. Surprisingly I didn't lose as much strength as I thought I would. My joints are definitely creaky but I'm mostly able to pick back up from where I left off, or should be able to in a week or two for certain exercises. I'm glad I went in the
I started a few months ago and have been taking it slowly, increasing the weights very gradually. I am also still using dumbells and would like to move on to barbell exercises. I am not strong enough to competently lift the olympic bar yet but thankfully there's a lighter one at the gym. My next step will be to get a coach to help the transition to the barbell, I want to make sure my form is correct to avoid injury especially as I have some joint hypermobility. Would love to know if anyone else deals with hypermobility and what you've done to avoid injury!
I'm glad I managed to provide you with some motivation.
Not too long ago I injured my ankle and couldn't do leg exercises. I was also very new to lifting, so I really overcompensated with upper body exercises and ended up hurting one of the joints in my shoulder. So while I still had the fast growth in strength, it still took a while before all of my exercises were back to what they were before, and I'm also being extra careful with any shoulder-related exercises.
I signed up for a 3 month summer subscription at a gym about a month ago, just to see if I could build the habit without feeling like I wasted a pile of money if I didn't. The home gym machine I got is mostly a clothes horse at this point.
With a sedentary IT job at home office, and where I'm close to 20kg heavier than pre-covid, it wasn't going to get any better. But surprisingly I'm adapting to the gym quite well in my motivation. It's giving me something to do in the evenings than just migrating to the couch from my desk.
My current routine is to mix up some cardio and then all round strength building on some electronic weight machines that can be adapted easier. Each machine only does about 60-90 seconds per cycle so it's not monotonous.
Not sure I'm noticing any significant weight drop in the month so far but I haven't made any real changes to my diet, which isn't too bad, I think. I always cook my own meals and only eat out when I'm the office.
Good job going to the gym and building such a healthy habit. Weight loss probably takes some time but don’t let it discourage you. Keep it up, make good food and beverages choices, and your body will thank you.
Cheers mate! The depressing feeling I had when I needed to go up a size in clothing is enough to keep me motivated hah. I hate having to shop for clothes and I have a shit ton already that I don't want to get rid of.
That sounds like huge progress, setting up a good routine that you don't hate, good for you!
What, like it's hard? /inner Elle Woods
I'm quite surprised at how easy I'm finding it to muster up the effort to keep going. The motivation was lacking for so long of the "ugh I should sign up". I think a friend suggesting it helped and joined with me but they ended up not really using it hah.
Now I just need to apply the same motivation to signing up for language lessons.
Haha as someone who signs up for all kinds of stuff and then immediately run out of steam, that's a whole superpower!
:) I'm sure the pounds will follow, and then stay away sustainably too!
I kept getting a cold every month in late winter / early spring. It messed up my whole fitness routine. But as of 2 weeks ago, this being the 3rd week, I have been consistent. So I'm pretty happy with myself for that. I'm doing Apple Fitness+, 5 days a week, before work each morning. 20 minutes workout followed by a 10 mindful mindful cool-down. It's that as good as hitting the gym or some lengthier workouts, but it's helping me build up the habit again and stay consistent. The app has a feature where it builds a plan for you and you can fully customize it.
If you want to get into the details of it:
Monday and Friday - HIIT
Tuesday and Thursday - upper body strength
Wednesday - core
Once I'll feel it's becoming too easy I will make this longer, but honestly 45 minutes is about as much as I can fit into the morning without changing my wake up time, and still get to work on time.
Anyone else doing something similar? Any tips on improving this? I also walk the dog in the evening most days, and do an occasional bike ride.
The only glaring thing I noticed is that you have no leg days? So I would personally swap the core day to a dedicated leg strength day or full-body (but leg focused) strength day, since AFAIK dedicated core workouts are a bit of a waste of time. If you want a visible sixpack, the vast majority of the work you have to do to achieve that is to your diet. Apparently most people's abs start to become visibly well defined at <15% body fat, even if they have never done a core workout in their life. E.g. I haven't specifically ever worked on my core, and my abs are finally starting to look more defined now at ~16-17% body fat.
Good point. The HIIT days do cover legs a bit. It’s a lot of body weight squats, lunges, jumps.
I’m noticing that the core workout on Wednesdays does feel a bit too easy, so your suggested change is well taken. I’ll leave HIIT as is for now cuz I do lack cardio in my life, and swap the core for leg strength. Thanks, good idea.
YVW! And yeah, HIIT is still well worth doing too, IMO... I do 35min sessions of HIIT cardio 2-3x/wk in between my strength training (3x week) too, and love it. I used to do the HIIT on an exercise bike, but now do it on an elliptical and my newly acquired rower (which I am still sore as hell from using for the first time yesterday!). ;)
I would love to have a rower but haven’t pulled the trigger on that yet. I’d need to rethink the space. Rower and a bar for pull-ups are the 2 things I miss about the gym. Have you ever tried the ones with water? I’ve always been curious about those but never had a chance to try them.
Nope, I've never tried one of the water or air resistance rowers (like the RowErg, which I was considering getting at one point). Mine is actually not even a dedicated rower, it's an attachment for the Speediance Gym Monster 2 I just bought. ;) Which, if you're struggling for space (and have a bunch of spare cash, since it's expensive AF!), is something that you might want to look at for yourself.
p.s. This is the review that convinced me to get the GM2, if you're curious about it. Another of my favorite YouTubers, Mark Lewis, actually recently got one too and loves it, but I only saw that video after I had ordered my own. :P
This is a great option for limited space. Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know about it! The price tag is a little scary haha. It’s an investment! I do like the minimalist look and the small footprint.
LOL, yeah it was definitely way way way more than I wanted to pay for any exercise equipment, but I live in a separate studio-apartment-sized "nanny" suite attached to my parent's condo, so space is at a huge premium for me. And I have now started maxing out my adjustable dumbbells (which are 52.5lbs max each) for bench press, deadlifts, and squats after only 4 months of consistent lifting. So I needed something that could offer more resistance but still work in my tiny space. And because we have downstairs neighbors, a barbell+plates is not really a viable option for me due to the noise that using them would make, and neither are most universal/functional trainers since they're pretty big, incredibly heavy, and still clanky too.
But the Speediance is lightweight (only 160lbs for the whole machine, and easy to move around on my own since it has wheels), goes up to 220lbs resistance, doesn't make a sound when lifting using it, and has a ridiculously small footprint... so it's damn near perfect for me and my workout space!
p.s. I have pegboard attachments arriving today for hanging all the Speediance accessories on the side of the table I just attached the pegboards to. Edit: Organized the pegboard now. :)
cc: @Minori, since you warned me my dumbbells wouldn't be heavy enough for me forever, and you were right. This is my solution to that though! Oh, and I also bought wrist straps a few months ago because you were right about my grip eventually giving out before my legs would once I got to even higher weights and reps. ;)
Looks perfect for your space! Indeed, a good stealthy option if you have a neighbours attached.
Glad to hear about your progress!
I have a set of 90 pound powerblocks which I really enjoy, but even those won't keep up with truly heavy lifts.
If you ever decide to pick up some used dumbbells or plates for cheap, you can buy crash pads for not much money. They'll completely dampen the noise of everything except the grunting on the last set.
Which straps did you go with?
Yeah, I wish I had gone with Powerblocks originally instead of the Bowflex dumbbells... but I bought them years ago, before I knew what I was doing or what I should be looking for in adjustable dumbbells. :P
Crash pads are a decent idea, but they take up a fair amount of room, and even using them there would still be a thud when dropping a loaded barbell. But with the magnetic resistant machine I don't have to worry about being a nuisance to anyone below us, or annoying my parents on the other side of the condo either.
If I ever get to the point where 220lbs of resistance isn't enough for me then I can maybe just get a Vitruvian (which goes up to 330lbs), or two Voltras (200lbs each) and a built a platform for them. The Vitruvian's mandatory subscription is total bullshit, but maybe they will get rid of that eventually like Speediance recently did too. I'm not looking to become a powerlifter though, so I honestly can't see 220lbs ever being not enough for me. I just wanted to not be obese/overweight anymore, and I've already accomplished that. :P
Just some cheapo Gymreaper ones off Amazon which work well enough. At some point I will probably pick up some Versa Gripps or something, but for now the cheapo ones are good enough.
Crash pads aren't too bad space-wise since you can just stack them upright pretty much anywhere. They basically kill the drop noise in my experience.
By the time you max out that system, the Freak Athlete Atom might be released!
For grips, I got some versa grips like everyone else, and I can confirm they're very nice.
I know crash pads mute the noise in the room you're in, but surely it would still make a thump since all that energy is still being transferred into the floor (which is the roof of the condo below us), would it not? I'm mostly just worried about my downstairs neighbors hearing thumps over and over every time I set the dumbbells/barbell down, especially since I lift pretty early in the morning (even on weekends) these days.
It'd be quieter than heavy footsteps I think. One of my family members works out early in the morning, and he never wakes me up since buying crash pads.
Ah, okay... that's good to know. Thanks! I will definitely consider them more seriously now for the future if/when I upgrade my setup again.
My family went with a Voltra since it's basically a full cable tower in a box you can strap down anywhere. Super useful and space efficient!
Ah, nice! I looked at the Voltra too since it's one of the only other similar devices without a subscription fee attached to it. I don't have a power rack or anything else to actually attach the Voltra to though, so went with the Gym Monster 2 instead.
The Rogue Echo Rower is pretty dang space efficient since it folds up!
I wanted to circle back. I updated the Apple Fitness+ based on our conversation. Started Monday with the new plan:
Lower body strength- Monday & Friday
Upper body strength- Tuesday & Thursday
HIIT - Wednesday
Upped the duration to 30 minutes (was 20) and kept the 10 minute Mindful Cooldown after each workout.
Wow! I thought 10 more minutes won’t be that bad, but it’s a huge step. I feel much more depleted in a good way. Like I’m actually DONE by the end of it. Which is good. I think I’ll see results a lot sooner with these changes in place. Core as its own day went out the window, but with these 30 minute workouts, the instructors throw in a lot more stuff, much of which ends up working the core anyway. Thanks again for the ideas and conversation!
YVW! I'm glad to hear you're feeling good about the changes! :)
LOL, yea I've felt the same with my own routines. When including bent-over rows, squats, deadlifts, and any other exercises that require me to stabilized my core and/or hold a neutral spine while lifting, my core gets totally blasted by the end of the workout anyways, even though it's not the primary focus of those movements. Ditto with forearms too; I haven't felt the need to include specific exercises targeting them since they get hit every time I lift anything heavy for prolonged periods anyways.
Incidentally, here is my current routine if you're curious:
Monday & Wednesday - Upper body strength (1hr)
Tues & Thurs - Flexibility focused Yoga (25m), and HIIT cardio on elliptical or rower (35m)
Friday - Lower body strength (1hr)
I personally like doing leg days on Friday since I go pretty hard on them, and that gives me 2 full days to recover from it. I also already have pretty strong/big legs so don't feel the need to focus on them that much, especially since both HIIT days work them pretty hard too.
p.s. Love your inclusion of the mindfulness practice, BTW. I practice Zazen meditation daily, have for decades, and it's done me a world of good. :)
Your routine is very complete. I like the inclusion of Yoga. I was thinking about doing that on weekends. I get up early anyway (dogs) and there is always time before my partner wakes up. Now that it's summer I take the dogs for a walk, but come winter it will still be dark out. Perfect for some yoga indoors.
Doing lower-body-focused workouts 3 times a week is new to me, so we'll see how I feel about it. With a sedentary job, I am sure it's gonna be good for me. But I also need to make sure my upper body - especially shoulders - get the attention they need. I'll give this setup a shot for 2 weeks and tweak accordingly.
Zen has been in my life since the early 2000s when I took some Japanese history classes in university. There where times when I was making an effort to practice meditation, but have not done so for years. Still, much of the philosophy has stayed with me since those days and came into my life at a time when I was really becoming who I am and writing my own rules. It is good, and much needed in a world increasingly filled by distractions.
Thanks! I started about 5-6 years ago just doing HIIT on my exercise bike, but about 6 months ago I swapped the bike for an elliptical, added in the yoga+strength training, and have slowly been tweaking it ever since. I tried doing strength training 4x week like you're doing, but it was simply too much for my old joints, and didn't give them enough time to recover. So I went back down to strength training only 3x week, with Yoga+HIIT 2-3x week in between (which I enjoy way more than lifting anyways, TBH). I think that's the right balance for me, and something I can maintain indefinitely too (which is the most important part, IMO).
And speaking of yoga, it has done absolute wonders for my mobility, flexibility, and especially my back, which no longer aches at night. So I would definitely recommend giving it a try! And I would also recommend checking out Yoga With Adriene on YouTube to start out with too. She has hundreds of yoga routine videos, always keeps things pretty concise but still offers alternate moves for the less-flexible (which I definitely was to start!), and also keeps the spiritual/mystical/metaphysical talk to a bare minimum (unlike a lot of other yoga instructors who are deep into the woo-woo aspects). :P
p.s. Glad to meet another Zen practitioner / Zen philosophy fan on Tildes! And totally agree with you about it being much needed these days too. So so soooo many people could genuinely benefit from internalizing Zen philosophy and practicing mindfulness/meditation, IMO. :)
Stretching, mobility, flexibility are so important. During Covid times working from home a lot I was doing this workout called 645. 45 minutes 6 days a week. Wednesday was always flexibility and mobility, different stretches and light exercises, lots of crossover with yoga poses. It was awesome and felt like a much needed break from the otherwise strength-focused days. I’d love to keep doing that 645 workout, but the issue is after a few repeats it becomes a bit boring listening to the same conversations and small jokes the actors(?) make. The instructor was good and compared to these Apple fitness workouts I do now, he actually explains the anatomy of the body, and why you’re doing certain exercises, why front is crucial, etc. Very educational, but like I said, a little dry the more times you repeat it. Part of me wants to take each day and write down the plan by hand, and do it without the actual videos, but that’s tedious because the program is 13 weeks long and each day is really a new video. No repeat at all.
Thanks for the link! I’ll check it out. I’ve done some yoga in the past, but pretty sporadic and didn’t find a particular instructor that I love. I may mix it up if 4 days of strength feel like too much. Maybe do 3 days strength, I day hiit one day yoga. Right now I’m happy that I’ve stuck with it for a few weeks. And I’m excited to try these things out. The plan is always to find the best long-term routine. Let’s see how it goes.
If you're looking for an easier way to copy those routines, there are lots of decent workout tracking apps. I personally use Hevy to design my workouts and track everything for me. It's pretty good, and super easy to use, although I did need to pay for premium ($27/yr) to create enough custom routines and exercises to cover everything I wanted it to since I've been following 8-week programs created by Jeff Nippard, and also tracking my pre-workout stretching routine on it too. Now that I have the Gym Monster I probably won't not need it anymore though since it does essentially the same things, and also allows adding custom "movements" (stretches/exercises) too.
Yeah, that was my primary goal too. There is so much conflicting information out there on what's the "best" exercises, "best" splits, "best" weekly volume, etc... and some of it is sound, science-based advice. But you still ultimately just have to keep experimenting until you find out what combination of things works best for you. And I wish you much luck with your own journey to discovering what does work best for you! :)
Hevy looks like a great app. Clean design. I'll consider it if/when I move on from the video workouts. Thanks for sharing!
What is "best" is very much a personal decision in the end. Each body is different and may need more focus in one area than in the other. Part of the fun is trying out different things too, until you find what works best for you.
True, but even after you find out what you think works best for you it can still be pretty fun and productive to experiment with new things. E.g. I'd never rowed before, but it's suddenly my new favorite form of cardio! :P
Rowing is great. If I ever redo my space I’m making room for a dedicated rower. Maybe one of the water ones.
I'm trying to balance keeping my knees happy while lifting an appreciable amount of weight. I got runner's knee earlier this year and stopped running altogether in April, but they still hurt! It's weirdly challenging to "take it easy"
Have you tried much rehab? I used to have more knee pain from an old injury. I fixed it by training my hamstrings more. Turned out I'd just never fully regained all the muscle tone I'd lost while laid up from the injury.
Yeah, I do a lot of band exercises with my legs to warm up. Ice after workouts. Took some Kirkland joint supplement but it didn't help. New thing in trying is just maintaining my numbers for leg day at the gym instead of trying to increase it. That seems to be helping the most so far. And no running!
I have a question or more like I want to check my thinking or understanding...
I've re-picked up a short at home calisthenics program.
One of the exercises is the bird-dog, but even when doing the most minimal variation which is just a static hold this feels much more like an arm exercise than anything else.
I just want to check in with someone that this is a reasonable conclusion: that compared to my upper-body weight my arms are quite weak and not that I'm doing something inherently wrong.
(To compare, I'm currently doing 3×8 push-ups with hands at bellybutton height, and that's quite hard but not near too hard, just got started remember, so slowly building up resistance)
I don't know how many people practice calisthenics here, but I suspect not very many, if any... so your question might be better asked somewhere like /r/bodyweightfitness where there are likely to be a lot more people with calisthenics experience who can actually answer it for you.