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Exercise and Fitness Thread

Kiruria

La Melancolie Noir
Ah yes, this is a very interesting topic to me. I try to exercise whenever I can, but even then it ends up being not as much as I would want, simply due to me not always having the time and/or energy for it. Nowadays I take about an hour-long walk about four times a week, and a couple of short strength-training sessions a week as well. This seems to work okay for me, given I'm not playing any really rigorous sports or trying to lose or gain weight. But of course there are still some things I have trouble with.

First of all, I don't like jogging at all. I've actually had my knees become sore after a jog, and I don't want to ruin them. I also don't like how the rest of my body just keeps bouncing up and down in jarring motions all the time. It's not a good feeling. Sometimes when I'm out on a walk, I'll throw in some brief jogging spurts, but that's all I can handle at a time. I largely prefer walking over hills to jogging on level ground--in fact, I've found walking uphill to have similar effects to doing multiple low-intensity squats. And of course, it always feels refreshing to run down the hill afterward. Whee!

In my strength training at home, I'm really cheap, in that I use everyday items like hammers, boxes, and my school backpack in place of weights. Or I do things like lunges, squats, push-ups, and crunches without any weights at all. In most of these exercises I do 3 sets of 10-20 reps with about 15-30 seconds in between, though I usually have to diminish the number of reps as time goes by due to fatigue. Usually the whole routine comes out to be 20-40 minutes long, depending.

However, whenever I do any sort of weight training, at some point my heart rate goes way up, almost to the point where I feel like I'm about to faint. Whenever this happens, I rest for a minute or so and then continue, but often times I still feel a bit light-headed afterward, or feel a tightness in my chest. It seems to happen more often if I use heavier weights, which is mostly why I don't use them as often as I want to. I don't know if this is normal, or if it's because of my small size or something. Initially I thought it was dehydration or lack of energy, but drinking more water before/during the workout and having a snack beforehand didn't seem to help either.

Of course, it might also be because I'm underweight, which I honestly have no real goal of fixing because I consider myself pretty healthy otherwise. I've also had a lot of people in my family start out thin but then become overweight starting in their early to mid-twenties, so part of the reason why I've been trying to exercise more lately is to prevent this from happening to me as well. And also so I can prove to people that I'm not as weak as I look.
 

☭Azimuth_055☣

Thou enraged?
I would like to exercise, but my mind says I don't need to, since my body and health are already in good shape.

I'm exercising now just for a hobby.
 

Succubus

Member
I do a weight day, cardio day, DDR/Misc Day (still an exercise day, but more fun or experimental), weight day, cardio day, then the weekend off. I used to do an extra day on the weekend, but that seemed to aggravate my laziness and was the first thing to go every time I bailed. Once I settled for straight weekends off, I tended to stick to the schedule longer.

Basically, the cardio days are to exhaustion because while my endurance is great, my stamina sucks. I can run/jog for hours, but sprints or fast runs... not even a minute. And that was in high school. (Of course, I rarely excercised ever then, and haven't run seriously since). All the vids and trainers I've listened to have said that would help. If you can push yourself LONGER, it's waaay better than a wimpy pace forever. Like better lifts rather than a million reps of nothing.

Thanks for the interest and input guys! It's awesome to break things down and sort of bounce it off someone else who's into this.
I only recently added deadlifts, but I don't do very many. They just don't seem to do much for me. I don't feel tired or pushed doing them, so I get bored and do something else that wears out my muscles. NOT to exhaustion though, or I won't be able to move the next day, haha. My weight routine is pretty much this but with actual weights and stretched out to an hour. ;) Depending on the move, I use 25-75lbs. Except for lats, which on a GOOD day I can do 20lbs. Also, dead hangs and a whole routine of reverse and assisted pull ups, because I have yet to do ONE pull/chin up in my LIFE. (Lucked out in PE; they counted them if we could jump that high and hold it for a second.)

As for cardio, I have a pile of routines to choose from, all about 45min, depending on how peppy I feel that day. Mostly Tai Bo type stuff, some dance and some pilates for if I'm freakin tired and sore that day. A lot of it is videos that I can follow and stay motivated, but I've also got some workouts I threw together from Basic prep courses and that 300 Challenge (with 10-20lbs max, as fast as I can get through it). Burpees are awesome to do any day of the week. :)


Okay first of all you should be doing HIIT cardio (High intensity interval training). It shocks your body and constantly keeps it motivated. Basically run for a few minutes on a very high speed, then take a one minute "easy/slow" speed. Repeat for about 30 minutes to an hour and that should be plenty.

B careful about deadlifts....proper form is essential as you can really hurt your lower back. Get someone to show you how to do it properly and start off with LOW weight until you get the form down. And you should split your weight lifting days, muscle only grows during your rest period. Therefore either do weights every other day by splitting into the major muscle groups (as Ludwig suggested) or do an Upper Body workout one day, lower body the next, then rest the third day.

I would also recommend doing something "fun" for your routine once a week. On Sunday for example, go swimming, play soccer with friends, take a yoga class, do boxing, or something else thats active. Working out at the gym can get stale and when you have a fun day set apart you know you still get a workout but without the repetitiveness. (and besides, working out is supposed to be in conjuction with helping your athletic ability....)
 

Ludwig

Well-Known Member
And you should split your weight lifting days, muscle only grows during your rest period. Therefore either do weights every other day by splitting into the major muscle groups (as Ludwig suggested) or do an Upper Body workout one day, lower body the next, then rest the third day.

Personally, I've experienced problems with the latter option. I've found that I don't have enough time to train the entire upper body in one day. 30-40 minutes biceps, 30-40 minutes triceps, 30-40 minutes upper back, 30-40 minutes lower back, 30-40 minutes shoulders, 30-40 minutes chest. It adds up.
If you just do 1-2 exercises of 3-ish sets each for each of those muscle groups, you won't be seeing a lot of results in terms for strength/stamina gain. I have no experience in training for weight loss (I usually go for weight gain by muscles) and maybe such few sets suffice for weight loss.
 
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AuroriumX

The Interceptor
I play badminton once a week with a friend of mine and I'm really thinking about getting back to some gym training. What I'm really waiting for now though is for the snow to melt so I can finally get back to playing some basketball with my friends.
 

SoulSilver Eric

Well-Known Member
I don't work out as much as I did after I did sports in school, like I use to do pushups on a daily basis to stay fit. Now that I got a physically demanding job, I haven't really exercised as much as I did. Really thinking about joining a gym and getting in some cardio.
 

miles0624

Wrath of Fire
I typically stick with cardio. The most I do for biceps are push ups and pull ups. It keeps me in decent shape (100 push ups, 35 pull ups per set, usually only two a day.) For my cardio, I typically go 5.5 miles in an hour. 2 miles running, 1.5 miles walking, 2 miles running, .3 miles sprint, .2 miles cool down. I am going to try and add .25 miles to this every month (I do both treadmeal and the track.) I also going to try and keep it in the 1 hour frame. I do that three days a week, and bycicle two days for an hour that I really should start measuring. Then two days off.

Also, I started yoga two months ago. My body was so stiff. Now I can put my entire hand on the ground when touching my toes, but I am still stiff in some areas, so I'm looking at different stretches/yoga posess. I still can't get downward dog right. V.V
 
I do little exercises and body movements for my daily dose of energy. I usually need a big kick to start my day.
Exercising isn't just for losing weight.. it can be for energy and overall health. Everyone needs to move around to start their day.
 

Moneyy

INACTIVE
Anyone have any suggestions for abdominal workouts? I've been trying to build a six-pack for almost a year now, but I haven't gotten that far. Also, I usually work out my abdominal muscles twice a week for about fifteen minutes each time. Is that enough, or should I spend more time on it?
 

Ditto B1tch

Well-Known Member
Anyone have any suggestions for abdominal workouts? I've been trying to build a six-pack for almost a year now, but I haven't gotten that far. Also, I usually work out my abdominal muscles twice a week for about fifteen minutes each time. Is that enough, or should I spend more time on it?
Perhaps it is something that has to do with your genotype.

You should have a consult with a specialist.
 

Moneyy

INACTIVE
Perhaps it is something that has to do with your genotype.

You should have a consult with a specialist.

I don't know, I've built quite a bit of muscle overall in the past few years, but it just isn't going as fast as I expected it to. I'm pretty sure I'm just not working out enough or doing it correctly.
 

Ludwig

Well-Known Member
Anyone have any suggestions for abdominal workouts? I've been trying to build a six-pack for almost a year now, but I haven't gotten that far. Also, I usually work out my abdominal muscles twice a week for about fifteen minutes each time. Is that enough, or should I spend more time on it?

A six pack is more about losing fat than having strong abs. It doesn't matter how big your abs are if there's a significant layer of fat in front of them. Abs exercises are terrible at removing that layer of fat. I suggest working out the entire body to burn as much calories as possible.
You should start doing deadlift. It's an exercise that lets you life heavy weights, which results in burning a lot of calories. It also strengthens the back a lot, which is necessary for the muscle balance if you do a lot of ab exercises.
 

Schade

Metallic Wonder
I have a damage in my shoulder which handicaps me in a lot of exercices at the Gym...
 
Well, im obsessed with being physically strong, i dont have much weights but lift any heavy things i can find around the house. Im gonna go to the gym when im older and get 'ripped'. Im quite tall and a bit overweight but i do press ups, sit ups and play football too, so its a bit more exercise for me.
 

redblueyellow

Well-Known Member
I've been running since 2007. Started out doing around 3-6 miles at most, and I've worked up to racing marathons. (I finished one a few days ago :p)

Anyone have any suggestions for abdominal workouts? I've been trying to build a six-pack for almost a year now, but I haven't gotten that far. Also, I usually work out my abdominal muscles twice a week for about fifteen minutes each time. Is that enough, or should I spend more time on it?

Some factors that are probably more important than just doing ab workouts are diet and cardio. You may already have abs there, just underneath some belly fat. :p Doing a quick google search for diet will come up with a good idea of what to do, although in general try to keep the sodas, sweets, and junk foods away as much as possible. As far as cardio goes, I personally like running but there are plenty of options available.

Also, some ab workouts that I try to do are mason twists, bicycles, planks, and v-ups (among others).
 
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