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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've been doing push-ups and pull-ups regularly for a few months now. I do 5 sets of whatever I can manage, pushing myself to exhaustion on the last set.
I'm getting stronger, my numbers are going up, and I've been really looking forward to it on my off days.
How often do you exercise?
I do this routine on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
I also live a reasonably active life; this is just a strength-building program I've been working on.
Question: I have a pull-up bar that I rarely use, and can not manage one pull-up.
Outside of losing weight (which I will... slowly but surely), I'm told the other thing that helps get to 1 pull-up is an assisted pull-up. Since I'm trying to do this at home/without equipment, is this essentially the equivalent of jumping up and gradually lowering myself down?
I've been starting almost the same routine as you with push-ups; just doing three sets of whatever I can manage, M W F. I don't have an active life though, I do walk to and fro work and use a standing desk, but other than that, nothin'.
Yeah, the "controlled descent" is a big part of my pull-up. Initially, I could do maybe 2 pull ups, then I'd hop-and-lower-slowly for the rest of my sets. Now I can do 5 pull-ups with good form, taking 30 seconds rest between each one.
The cool thing about starting out weak is that I can really feel the difference after such a short time.
Have you tried working out daily? Was that ever a consideration for you?
This has mostly been an exercise in consistency, so I deliberately kept my expectations modest.
I'd like to add core and leg strengthening to this. I may do that Tues/Thurs/Sat, or maybe I'll tack it on to my M/W/F routine. All told the current work-out only takes me 10 minutes, and much of that is resting between sets.
Have you experienced any pain in your elbows or wrists while doing this? I have a pull-up bar, but if I use it too much, I tend to get "tendonitis" after some amount of time. It might be due to form or something, but I've never been able to get it to consistently stay away
Try different grips - overhand vs. underhand is an easy alternative, but ideally a neutral grip if you have tennis elbow problems.
That hasn't been a problem for me so far.
I've been thinking about my own fitness, or lack thereof.
I'd gained a lot of weight throughout December – mostly by way of not walking much and eating fast food. Now, I'm looking towards making some progress towards a healthier living, and part of it working on my physical conditioning. (This is mostly me thinking aloud. I would still appreciate feedback.)
I used to run based on a Darebee program aimed at newbies. (It seems to no longer be there.) It was based on a weekly cycle: six days of ever-increasing sets of short runs, interspersed with rest days, and the seventh day for a big run, where you'd do one long unbroken run. My guess is: it was supposed to be both a challenge and an accomplishment, because even though it was shorter than the previous day's run in total, it was much longer than each set.
I was okay with running the weekdays, but eventually, the last day's long run got to me. It was difficult physically, sure, but what got to me was its mental weight: I saw it as excessively difficult in my mind, dreading even going out to do the run (and potentially failing to run the whole length), and eventually quit the whole thing because of one point on the scale.
Looking at the way professional endurance athletes train, it seems to be the case that this is very much how they operate: lots of easy training, to keep the pace and maintain the discipline, and a few very intense days where they lay themselves. (Perhaps to cross over a plateau? or to challenge themselves and their bodies?) Me? I don't think I can do that, no matter how productive it is.
What I think I'll do is set up my own ladder of running sets that will simply continue to ramp up, with rest days where appropriate. I have no expertise in physical conditioning, but I know what I can and can't do; I hope this, and keeping close tabs on my physical reactions, should clue me in on how to go about it further.
All I know is that I need a ladder to climb, mentally: otherwise I won't even leave the house to train. For physical challenges, I need a scale to measure my progress on. If the scale I end up with is not good, at least I'd trained, and I can adjust further. I'll take it very easy on myself, seeing how I'm sitting or lying down all day, so there's no risk of trauma or over-exhaustion.
Once I have the mental energy to make such decisions, I'll start figuring out the other aspects of physical fitness: namely, diet and resistance training.
It's been forever since I ran, and it was a fairly short phase but I did get from couch potato to running a 10K. I would do a reward for myself on the long run day. I found I had to have a decent diet to not want to die while running, but on long run day I might get a nice burger afterwards or a big slice of cake.
Interesting. Is that where your username comes from, by the way? The sugar restriction?
From what I understand, "a decent diet" is a fairly simple idea: very few or no refined sugars, very few or no refined carbohydrates in general, more fiber, and a solid amount of both fat (the good kind, can't remember off the top of my head) and protein in your food daily. How you go about it all depends on what's locally available to you: avocado's nice, but there are other good sources of fats out there, like fish.
I was never a rewards kinda guy. I think the satisfaction of a job well done – like another finished run – does well-enough by me. Doesn't help that I can't really treat myself to junk food as a reward because it's my relief/escape food at the moment.
It's actually a nickname from my University days, my first initial is D and first syllable of my last name sounds like Coke, so D-Coke turned into Diet Coke.
I find signing up for organized events far in the future to really help with keeping me on track with training. When you have an event that you need to train for it's that much more urgent that you get out and get your training in so you can be confident (and comfortable!) the day of the event. Find something in your local area anywhere from a 10k to a marathon and sign up!
It's a good suggestion, but it doesn't work for me. I tried, for lots of things: running, writing, web dev... It has to come from within, you know? I have to want it. Having external expectations depresses me.
Which sucks, 'cause I really like the idea of having an organized group event around a single theme. It's why I never finished Timasomo: the push to finish before someone else's deadline got to me quickly, and it didn't matter than I signed up for the thing feeling hopeful.
So now, I want to run, and I need to develop a structure to do so.
I'll be getting to the exercise portion of this eventually, but I wanted to start with something slightly different: This previous Sunday, I spent a large majority of the day on my ass playing Rocket League. Barely ate, had some coffee for breakfast and I think a cheese quesadilla for lunch. No dinner. By around bedtime, I noticed that anytime I stood, all of my limbs had tremors. As it so happens, this was also the first day that I hadn't had any alcohol for (what feels like) quite some time. Not like I was getting blitzed every day before, but it would be a medium sized glass of whiskey in ice, or a beer or two. Now I can't fully commit myself to the idea that the shakes were caused by lack of liquor yet since I barely ate as well. But it scared me into committing to a sobriety break for both January and February. The shakes didn't continue past Sunday, but I've been on my best behavior this week. We'll see how the rest of the month goes. I do catch myself thinking that "if I can do January fine then maybe I'll just stop there" but, that also feels a little disingenuous to my original goals. So, maybe i was starting to develop something and caught it.... only time will tell I guess. But the point of this whole thing is as a PSA for those who maybe are thinking they could stand to cut back, or those who can't decide if they might have an issue. Give it a shot, there's nothing detrimental to it and it could turn out helping you short and long term.
Went to the gym yesterday for the first time in 2 weeks and feel great today. Only problem is that I couldn't fall asleep until about 1130 so I missed this morning :/ Anyone else have trouble sleeping for the first week or so after getting back into gym shape?
I signed up for the Colorado Triple Bypass bike ride today. It'll be the toughest ride I've ever done, but I've done 100 mile and 75 mile rides, and I know how to train for them, so training for this ride will start soon. :)
Met with a pain specialist about two months ago and had my first trigger point injection earlier this week. My shoulder muscles were twitching like crazy and it was quite painful, which is good because it means it will probably work. My shoulders felt like I gave it an insane workout since. I'm hoping it'll finally resolve this issue that has persisted for a little over a year now and I can get back into regularly lifting.
Gained 20 pounds since I've started my work-from-home job. Hooo boy do I feel awful and unattractive. Started running again and it helped with mood and motivation almost immediately, but I can only do it every other day or so, and gyms are so so expensive in my area. I don't really like doing bodyweight exercises, but that may be the only option on the off-days.
I hope I can lose all I've gained in 5 months. Goals!
Heavy rocks are usually free to take home.
I started doing /r/bodyweightfitness recommended routine, done 3 days in a row and now will do it on a 4th one after writing this post. I also plan to go a doctor to make a diet plan. Gotta gain some 10kg I'm way too skinny.
Wooooo just hit a new 1RM for bench! 190lbs and feeling good about it. Might try for 200 next week. All time high was 205 like 2 years ago, so it's nice to see that i'm getting back to where I used to be.
I decided to give cross-country skiing a shot, and I actually like it a lot. I can’t really get out to a track more than once a week, though, so maybe it’s better designated as a hobby rather than a routine.
I’m focused more on form now since after being so obsessed with PRs for the past 6 months I finally feel some pain in my lower back. Been squatting and deadlifting very light instead of my usual super heavy lifting.