The threadmill, aka fitness discussion

[hyena]

This thread is here to discuss fitness, exercise, diet etc., for those of us who were/are/will be/even never will be gym rats (now cont'd from the chat thread)

It only matters what you eat, not really how often... well, good food more often = good. I'm on fish/dairy/protein diet, frequent workouts, and I'm not gaining weight at the moment (170 lbs at 6'-6'1")

I need to lower my sugar intake - I need those abs without even slightest flexing.

But no topless pictures for you.

I am having a hard time keeping up consistent dieting plans for the necessary periods. About two years ago I was considerably fatter than now, at around 25 lbs more than current (was 155, now I'm around 130) - that's when I started exercising, and since it was done in order to lose weight it was quite easy to choose a diet plan, provided it had very few carbs, minimum sugar, and in general a low caloric intake. I shed the extra weight in more or less six months, then started training for strength and definition, which worked with (again) no dietary changes for about six more months. Then I realized that there was no way I was going to get the type of body I was looking for until I ate more, and were more focused on protein intake. So basically for the past year or so I've been oscillating between two-month bursts of big training/big eating routines and periods of relative slackness or, at best, cut-up based on aerobics. I don't have a steady pace at the moment, and this is very stupid because the stress of training for results remains, but one doesn't see the results. After the DOMS episode described in the other thread, I thought that probably I need to take it easy, train for fun and relaxation only with a light schedule for a couple of weeks, and think of a plan in the meanwhile.

 

[Kovenant84]

I basically consider the last 3 years to be 'bulking up' for the training I'm now doing, . Unfortunately, my gut is ridiculous now, and so I'm trying to work it off, while not losing too much weight (I want to go from about 185 to about 170-5). I've been doing basic crunches and situps about 3-4 times a week, and had been doing lifting pretty regularly until about 2 weeks ago. Why then, I don't know. I do think it's having an effect, though, which is good. Basically, I want to be in the shape I was in 4 years ago, but with some actual flesh (I was really really toned, but with minimal muscle mass). And I'm giving myself a year to accomplish it.

~kov.

 

[hyena]

What kind of training program do you have in mind?

 

[Kovenant84]

Well, mostly I have three areas of focus. The first is to reduce my stomach area from a gut to something even vaguely resembling abs. For that I'm doing mostly situps, crunches (regular and oblique). The second is my chest, where I'm just going to be doing push-ups till it's back into something resembling shape. Last is my upper arms / upper back which I'm mostly just doing curls and presses with a set of weights I picked up.

I've never been one for a very regimented routine. I more sit around and play with the machines I like and just mix it up all the time. It had the advantage of never overworking any specific area, and I liked the tone I had when I went into college. I may eventually start running again too, but I want to make sure I'm accumulating muscle mass where I want before I start losing more weight.

~kov.

 

[plintus]

First, sit ups und crunches won't necessarily give you the abs. Why? You got to take care of extra fat first. Running, other cardio - whatever burns (higher pace = better) it plus right diet. Just watch your knees cuz running does some damage to them.

@hyena: the start always gets you most visible results, from then on when you take to excersizes and stuff - it's not that mentionable, which is frustrating, but - that means staying in a good shape And to get muscles - extra weight that is - protein diet + lots of water + vitamins (water washes microelements out).

But in any case it's harder to deal with a perfect body quest since we are all occupied with full-time things... but seriously: me - I would rather spend hour in a gym then go to a bar or something to relax. Yeah, btw, alcohol dehydrates, and muscles consist of water, so - you get the picture

Ran for 4.5 miles yesterday. Can't sit normally - walking/running is fine but sitting is a torture :S

Any of you weight lifting statisics? I can bench press myself+5lbs a few times (4?), but haven't done that in a while.

 

[hyena]

well, i need to convert kgs to lbs for stats, and then again i'm a woman so i can't really show off about these things, but i'll try - my normal benchpressing sets (3x10) are done with 66lbs, which is more or less fifty per cent of my weight. i've never tried for a single-rep maximum but i guess i could do at least my weight because after all when i'm in good shape i can do about 6-7 good, well-formed (meaning that when going down i have the handlebars at shoulder-level) dips in a row and these use the same muscles, although of course gravity is less of a hassle.

running - i don't really like it and i'm a smoker so go figure... but i try to do it all the same. i normally try to burn 100 to 200 kcal through aerobic exercise each session and that's it. as for alcohol, i know it's quite bad, and i don't drink anywhere as much as i used to before starting regular exercise, but i still can't do without (and don't want to do without) 2-3 glasses of wine daily.

hitting the gym rather than the bars - i'll normally try to do both, the gym 3 times per week and the bars once only.

 

[Kovenant84]

Ha, at this point I think I could bench half my weight. It's that sad. My arms were never really too well developed (except for the fact that my forearms were as large as my upper arms, but we won't go into that). My back used to be really well developed, though, and it looked pretty cool at its best. It was funny, I used to look really buff from behind (because of the runner's legs and such), and then from the front I looked like some pasty ethiopian child.

I know that I need to lose the weight to actually see any results in the ab area. To that end I've been walking (to and from the train station in the morning and afternoon) for about a total of 2.5 miles a day, and that doesn't count days I'm out in the field running up and down stairs.

I am going to start running again - my main thing is that I hate running in the summer, because I'm such a cold-weather person. Now that it's cooling down, though, I have no problem starting up again. My main problem with all of this is sheer time, or rather my inability to successfully allocate it.

~kov.

 

[Taliesin]

Ive picked up my running programm again 2 weeks ago, mainly to stay in shape, lose some weight. I dont have a special diet or a shape I want to reach, Ive never done sports for that, I just wanna lose the belly I have and not weigh every chocolate bar on the "Can I, or should I better not?" scale.
Im running 4-6 miles in 45-60minutes, which is a good distance and speed to go every 2 days imo. I need better shoes though, my old are ruining my knees I think

 

[Nt3N]

I like to work out a lot these days. I do 1 hour training everyday in the gym, then usually I run like 5-7 kms a day in about 30 mins.. a few days ago I did 10kms in 59'12'' which is not so good as a matter of time, but it's good for my extra baggage which is slowly retreating

 

[Taliesin]

10km in 1h is a pretty good time if you ask me. The secret to losing weight is not speed, but aerob running, so I like to go at a bearable pace, for which 10km in 1h is not bad

 

[plintus]

You got to give your body some rest - how can you build up anything if you are exhausted? First it doesn't give you any results, but soon enough you'll be dying of fatigue. So 3-4 times a week of excercises/weight lifting is quite enough.

And - proper nutrition (i.e. diet) Bread/pasta/white rice "help" your body to accumulate fat (goes for guys for sure) - they don't necessarily deliver it, though; so - those things go in once a day (goes for all fans of Italian food).

If you don't eat right - that'll fuck you up. Seriously. Meat/fish, vegetables, dairy, and watch that fucking saturated fat - that's your biggest enemy in losing weight (or gaining muscle weight).

Sugar: late night cravings - eat some fruit, like a banana or something, cuz that choco doesn't make you any good And - you burn sugar first, THEN fat. So you better pay attention to those "Hell yeah! or Fuck no!!" scales.

 

[plintus]

10km in 1h is a pretty good time if you ask me. The secret to losing weight is not speed, but aerob running, so I like to go at a bearable pace, for which 10km in 1h is not bad

Speed.

Higher pace means faster fat burning.

Two workouts at a higher pace a day better than one at steady one.

Don't forget to warm up and stretch - otherwise it'll fuck you up (scary hyena's story, which wasn't about running).

 

[Gtranquillity]

Higher pace means faster fat burning.

Actually, it doesn't.
Your body needs more then double the amount of oxygen to burn fat then it does to burn carbs. If you're excercising up to 75% of your max heart rate, your body will burn both, carbs and fat. Above 75% of your max heart rate, your body can't burn stored fat anymore as there's not enough oxygen, so it switches to burning carbs only (until you will deplete your carbohydrate or glycogen stores)

 

[plintus]

Actually, it doesn't.
Your body needs more then double the amount of oxygen to burn fat then it does to burn carbs. If you're excercising up to 75% of your max heart rate, your body will burn both, carbs and fat. Above 75% of your max heart rate, your body can't burn stored fat anymore as there's not enough oxygen, so it switches to burning carbs only (until you will deplete your carbohydrate or glycogen stores)

I'm not talking about taking it to the max or numbers (which depends): watch your heartrate and move at the highest pace where you can still recite "Punish My Heaven", if you want it me to put it that way, but steady pace means burning less fat during given time.

Thanks for the tip, - I didn't know why, but I surely was following that what you mentioned.

 

[hyena]

very hands-on kind of wisdom, ie experience rather than scientific knowledge which i don't have, tells me that given my weight a very small plate of pasta at lunch and a croissant once every two days will give me all the carbs i need. on the other hand, plintus is right on the high-protein stuff - i try to have meat at lunch and fish/cheese/eggs (that's an 'or', not an 'and', eww) at dinner. also, an apple as a snack mid-morning is way better than anything else. and no eating outside meals. but that's not enough for power-up phases, these need more carbs not to be completely exhausted and more meat to, well, 'beef up'.

i'd love to see pics of good training results for forum members. i'll be bold and start with a pre-summer, ie pre-getting-back-to-scrawny-shape, bicep shot:

This is a post-summer (meaning: not perfect shape, not overweight but not toned) belly shot:

It's going to get better, hopefully - both the body and the quality of the pics. We could have something like the stormfront.org fitness watch, post pics every once in a while to keep an eye on progress.

 

[Vizjaqtaar]

Ugh, I've never liked gyms or diets, that's like going to a hospital. And a diet would mean no pizza, no burek, no kebap, no hamburger, a day without chocolate... teh horror! Don't really know how much weight I can bench; I was very lazy for the last few years but at least I can still do push ups while standing on my hands easily enough. I prefer working out without devices, it gives me something like a feeling of better knowing myself and being able to control my body with greater precision. I never wanted to look like a body builder but more to have strenght combined with agility and dexterity. Something like this perhaps, though some the stuff is just fucked up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVNT3VrjSHI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzbwvaZR3Wk

 

[Taliesin]

I'm not talking about taking it to the max or numbers (which depends): watch your heartrate and move at the highest pace where you can still recite "Punish My Heaven", if you want it me to put it that way, but steady pace means burning less fat during given time.

But that's exactly what aerob is. Im not talking about a snail's pace, but you still need the oxygen

 

[Dark_Silence]

Ugh, I've never liked gyms or diets, that's like going to a hospital. And a diet would mean no pizza, no burek, no kebap, no hamburger, a day without chocolate... teh horror!

and no pepsi and no peanutsbutter ... i so agree with that!!

When i was an exchaneg student in teh USA, i took a weights class because I wanted to do some sport after teh soccer season was done. But i didnt know it would be so hard, and that they'd force you to lift so many weights no matter what you felt...You always had to lift teh same as usual or more at every single class, even if you had a bad cold (only a doctor note would allow you not to take part in this class! No sicknotes from the parents.) One time I did something bad to my wrist because of this class, it was all swollen and it huted, but as i didnt go to the doctor, i still had to lift uke: .
And one time the teacher started to shout at me because I haddnt understood something blabla. I was so fed up that i just left in the middle of the class.
When we do weights in our sport class in Belgium, it was called something like "health weights". Means that we worked only with small weights, just do some good move to help you keep healty but not really develop a lot of muscles. I have never liked that much. I thought that this weights class was going to be something like that, but it really wasnt, and since then, i hate lifting even more. I dont think i will ever put my feet in a gym again... I'd rather play tennis or soccer like i used to when i was in high school. Thats more fun to me

 

[King Chaos]

It must be said, I have alot of admiration for people who care enough to keep in shape.

For about a year I did some weight training and punch bag at home, aswell as pushups, curls, squats etc... and for a while I was pretty buff. My buffness seemed to serve it's purpose and people respected me. Suddenly, the thought of being respected or looked up to sickened me. Part of my anxiety is driven by this strange feeling that I am admired exageratedly for being who I am. I don't understand it at all. Since this, it's been hard to work out, as self improvement is no longer neccesary for my happiness. Now my build is still toned and defined, although I've lost about 40lbs since the peak of my routine. I'd describe my current figure as wirey.

 

[Nt3N]

You got to give your body some rest - how can you build up anything if you are exhausted? First it doesn't give you any results, but soon enough you'll be dying of fatigue. So 3-4 times a week of excercises/weight lifting is quite enough.

well.. not true.. training everyday doesn't mean u have to be exhausted between one day and the next.. the trick is training everyday a different part of your muscle-system.. for example on monday I train legs and some shoulders, on tuesday I train more shoulders, chest and biceps, on wednesday I train triceps and back. This will repeat for three more days till saturday and sunday is the relax day (also because the gym is not open). The only two exercises I do every single day are crunch abs and hyperextensions.

As for nutrition I try to avoid useless junk food, I try to avoid eating two times per meal and I try to eat mostly eggs (good for the muscles), rice (good to build up weight) and a lot of fruits, peaches in particular, because being very acid they burn fat.