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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?
Had a cold for a while (since uhhhh Thanksgiving) so I've been going inconsistently since then. Finally decided "screw it" and now I'm going three days a week regularly again.
I had what I thought was a cold for almost a year, but was presumably a sinus infection that just kinda sat around in my head and was subtle enough for me to be mostly indifferent about it until it reached my ear and clogged it up good. Before it reached that, it felt like a cold in the morning that would be gone by the afternoonish-- maybe a good cough or hack once every hour.
I got it addressed by my ENT, but after they saw I had a deviated septum (my nose-tubes are a little bent), they put me on Flonase and sinus rinse for the rest of my life-- maybe some Claritin before bed in the event those don't fix it/it's allergy season.
Glad the ENT was able to help. I feel like I'm on the upside at least, I mostly blame whatever bugs my kid is bringing back from daycare
Not that it helps you feel better, but at least for running the general though is always that if it's above the shoulder, you can run through it.
Yeah that's what's making me go. I typically do strength training instead of cardio though
My SO and I have been going to the gym 3 times a week. This is the third week so far and we've been keeping at it. It's super nice to have a gym buddy like holy crap. On shitty days I don't want to go, I have him to help push me and vice versa. I'm going to discuss with my doctor some weight loss and mental health stuff to hopefully help me lose weight (once more).
Im going to try and incorporate swimming by going early morning Saturdays. I love swimming so much, it's a great full body workout and honestly? Swimming makes me feel so much better afterwards like it rejuvenates me.
I've been contemplating asking my SO to join the same gym as me, but they have the lovely benefit of a free gym at work, so why pay more? I've noticed maybe half of the people at the gym I go to are couples working out together, which seems to indicate it's not a bad idea!
Might I ask what you do when you swim for exercise? My gym has a pool (I need to get a swimming cap...), but I have no idea how I'd use it.
I think any gym buddy can be super helpful to have! As for swimming it depends. I swam in highschool and have kept swimming since so really anything it do is in my head. But I generally do some warm up laps either as free style or doing some as just kicks and pulls. Warm up laps are also a good time to do swim drills for different strokes.
After I warmup I just try to swim 100s or 50s. The pool at my gym is extra small so one lenght is only 25 yards as opposed to one length being 50yds. Once I'm done with a few rounds of those, so maybe doing a total of 300 yards at intermittent speeds, I'll just try to swim 500+ yards and see how much I can do until I'm over it lol.
As a cool down I just lazily float in the water on my back and swim like a squid because I like fun with my swimming too. I'm not particularly structured with my swim time, but I generally aim to get at minimum 500 yards in which isn't a whole lot. I'm not sure how useful this'll be for you but there are lots of easy ways to structure your swimming to include warm ups and downs and swimming intervals and the like! Also as a side note I usually only swim free style (or front crawl as I'm p sure it's "technically" called).
As a couple of Tilders saw on the unofficial discord server, I'm working toward getting back down in weight.
About two years ago, I had lost 40 lbs., going from 280 to 240, but I let myself fall back into bad habits and I'm back up to 272.6 lbs. Thankfully I never went much past 275 so I've consistently kept that last five pounds off, at least. For me, any weight loss is great, but my initial plan is within
1213* weeks, I hope to be down between 240-250. I have around 90 lbs. of lipid weight, so I have a lot to work off.Initial stage of this is bringing my water intake levels to a normal level (~3.5 L per day), but even just intaking an extra 2L per day exceeds what I've been doing for a while. This should not only help my weight loss, but hopefully also help my gout a bit. I will also be looking to consume no more than 2200 kcal, which is approximately around my BMR. Thirdly, I will be reintroducing 16:8 fasts back into my life, as I really enjoyed them and they are a form of discipline that I generally am able to abide by.
Eventual plan goals will be to tidy up my diet by introducing more vegetables, both raw and cooked, as well as reducing my overall carbohydrate intake to around 100g/day. I would also like to bring my protein levels in line with the recommended intake of .8g/kg of bodyweight, though focus on adjusting my diet so that my lipid intake isn't too intense, while also keeping my carbs low and my protein at an adequate point. The reason for the reduction in carbohydrates is due to loving them way too much hahaha.
Once my gout is in order, I should hopefully be able to get back into the gym, though I would be keeping the weight lighter than normal, but in a larger volume, and try to introduce some form of cardio (likely walking outside).
Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, c+c, or ideas. :)
*EDIT: I wanted to end at the end of May and turns out that makes for 13 weeks, not 12 haha
I really need to just start lifting again. I keep making excuses but nothing is really stopping me from just doing 15-30 minutes. The gym is literally here in my home.
I wish I could fit a rack in my house... Good thing the gym is only a quarter mile away at least
I have a couple gym etiquette questions as someone who's just now trying to go for the first time in a while:
I was using the lat pulldown machine and, when I was ready to finish, didn't know how to put the bar back up without just letting it go and let it swoosh on up to where it was. I tried awkwardly standing up to put it back gently, but felt that might be dangerous if I get to higher weights and it was awkward to do with the leg pad in the way. Am I to just let it swish back on up there and let it potentially clang around?
Same question for the cable seated row machine. When I was done I found it hard to just put it back without awkwardly just putting my legs down and lurching forward. It was fine on the lower weights I'm starting with, sure, but potentially bad if I get to higher weights I think. Should I just let go and let it swoosh back to its start?
I'm sure there's dumb answers to both of these questions that I'm missing, I'm just so self-conscious at the gym/get super anxious (I know nobody cares, I'm working on not caring about it) that I think in the moment something obvious is escaping me, and I want to commit as few faux pas as possible.
Lat pulldown: Slowly wiggle your way out of the leg pad and ease it up. If you're having trouble getting out of the pads, it may be a little too tight. Think of it the same way you pull it down, you start standing or partially raised up, pull it down, then push yourself into the pads. Reverse that.
Generally you slide yourself forward, keeping your feet on the stirrups(?). Again, think of how you grab the weight and get into position, then reverse it. It just might take a little longer than normal.
If it's not too bangy, people don't tend to mind the plates banging, but you also don't want to drop it from a decent height so as to potentially damage the plates, and be incredibly loud.
EDIT: completely valid questions though!
Just stop one rep short if you can't control it.