Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born)

[dobrojim]

Willb

actually at ages <30, you'd be surprised that it's sometimes
NOT as competitive as it is over 30. A 5 flat mile is cookin
either way.

[dobrojim]

good news Fish!

[Induveca]

I've been working out heavily for 3 years straight now, here is a good routine which will completeyl transform you. I was never completely out of shape, but definitely had lost some of my physical appeal. This will get it back for you.......this is real world advice that actually helps. I have actually been offered personal assistant jobs in french gyms (ha). Of course they have no idea I would be horrible at it, but it is testament to the fact that this works....

STARTING OFF
--------------------
1. Join a gym with weights (machines are just as good as free weights) and a pool, and elliptical machines..........
2. Start off with a serious weight training regimen. As you are starting off, don't buy into the hype of taking days off to give your muscles rest. The first week you'll be in pain, so do take a few days off in you're too sore, otherwise the first 2 months you can lift weights every day. You won't be doing a heavy pound level which will hurt you. This is really just for some toning and preparation for serious weight training.
3. Eat 1500 calories or less daily for the first 2 months (men). Start ignoring the fat content more, and pay attention to the CALORIES. If you want to get in shape, calories are the key. Ignore the low fat stuff, it will blow you up just as quick if not quicker than the normal stuff.
4. Don't eat breads, pasta and rice.......period. Pasta and bread especially. And don't think brown rice has less calories, it doesn't.
5. If you must eat bread, get the 100 calorie breads (they are thin, 50 calories per slice) they have in groceries these days and just make a sandwich using one half of the slice. Put on some fat free bologna and half a slice of low cal cheese and a sandwich will be under 100 calories. Just don't eat 5 of them or it's the same damn thing as a normal fattening sandwich.
6. Eat slower......much slower.
7. Make 1-2 days a week juice fasts. Put the juice in a blender with ice and eat it with a spoon. Makes it seem more like a meal.

First 6 weeks at the gym:
-----------------------------------
1. Focus on full body workouts. Don't rotate muscle groups the first two months. Hit everything. Try doing two types of exercise per muscle. Start off at one set, then move up to two sets after the first two weeks when you feel good and not so sore.

Biceps:
Standard curl machine 2 sets 10x/8x
Concentration curl with light dumbbells 10x/8x
Triceps:
Machine pulldown 2 sets 10/8x
Back: Machine Lat pulldown 2 sets 10x/8x
Chest:
Chest machine 2 sets 10x/8x
Shoulders:
Machine Shoulder press 2 sets 10x/8x
Legs:
Leg extension 2 sets 10x/8x
Leg press 2 sets 10x/8x
Calf press using leg press 2 sets 10x/8x/
Abs:
Hanging leg raises 2 sets 5x (will be hard at first but will get you the strongest fastest down there.
Cross body cable pulls: (use cable machine, set cable at a bit less than shoulder height, grip with hand closest to machine and put other hand on top of gripped hand, pull across body keeping arms straight around shoulder level. This will really strengthen your side abs. Do both sides. Avoid crunches until you build up enough muscle and lose enough fat to make it worthwhile. In the beginning I'd just focus on building core strength, there's no definition to be had down there with crunches until you are in shape regardless.

General Stuff
------------------
Keep the weights light the first month, and after your soreness is gone you can move up steadily. Once you reach a decent amount of weight, you'll begin to be sore doing full body workouts the next day after 6 weeks. At that point you can do what I do, intense full body workouts, with a day rest in between, or rotate muscle groups. Personally I prefer full body workouts with the days off, but to each their own.

Regardless, you need to do 45 minutes of cardio 5-6 days a week. I suggest swimming, it is a weight traning and cardio exercise at once. You will see major differences doing 20-30 minutes of swimming 5 times a week vs 30-45 minute elliptical or jogging sessions. Your goal is to get fit and lean, not just lose weight and be flabby like a lot of initial joggers or elliptical types you see out there. Weights/swimming/low calories is the key here.

Also, TAKE A GOOD MULTIVITAMIN DAILY! I can't stress the importance of this, been taking a multivitamin daily with nary a day missed for 5 years. If I do miss a day I feel like crap!

This is an extremely enjoyable workout and makes you feel like a million bucks if you stick with it........join a nice gym and just have fun. At home workouts even if they work are temporary, P90X included. You need to make it part of your lifestyle instead of trying to integrate it into your home life.

I typed that extremely quickly, but anyone from 190 pounds looking to become muscular, to someone 250 looking to get down to 180 and muscular will succeed on the above plan.

For anyone out there already more advanced and want a more hardcore weight traning/cardio plan lemme know happy to share mine.

[Zonkerbl]

I he suggested something called MAT -- Muscle Activation Techniques (or Therapy).

That's Tim Grover's shtick. How does it work? What does he physically do to activate the muscle? Kinda skeptical myself, but if acupuncture works, hey.

[dobrojim]

race report - Vermont 100 endurance run

I finished almost 2 hours faster than last year and in a completely
opposite way. Last year I was possibly the slowest person out there
over the last 30 miles and finished 2nd to last in the race. This year
I CRUSHED the last 11 miles and was solid between 70-89. Over the
last 11 miles, anyone I saw ahead was someone I immediately was going to
chase down although you still have to be careful about not trying to
catch them too quickly. No one passed me over the last 11 miles
and I finished in 27 hours 55 minutes.

This on a day that the finishing rate was only 55% of the starters.

There are some seriously unbelievable athletes out there that
must be from another planet. The winners time was ~ 16 hours flat.

[dandridge 10]

I may have turned a corner last night. I've whined in these parts for a while about these nagging lower body injuries that I kept getting over the past five years -- ankles, knees, hips. Nothing serious enough to require surgery, but major enough that I needed to spend a ton of relative time in physical therapy fixing anything. I'm way too young and fit (relatively speaking) for this to happen.

So I started working with a trainer a few months back in an effort to gradually build myself back into shape to the point where I could work out hard, play basketball, etc., without getting hurt. A few weeks into the workouts, it was clear to the trainer that I had a bunch of small muscles not firing. He didn't know where and what the source of everything was, but he suggested something called MAT -- Muscle Activation Techniques (or Therapy).

So I've been seeing the MAT guy for three weeks, and the dude is just brilliant. Worked for an NFL team at one point, has a keen understanding of kinesiology, connective tissue, neuro-physiology, physics, etc. Well, last night we finally found something and he was able to "turn on" this small muscle in my hip.

I had heard from him and others that the benefits can be instantaneous, but hadn't thought much of it. Tales of people with chronic shoulder pain having it immediately relieved when they got their feet fixed, etc.

Well, I worked with my trainer immediately after my MAT session and had the best workout I've had in as long as I can remember. And then last night I had the greatest night of sleep I can remember!! Contrast that with my workout Monday where I had to stop so much because of random pains in my knees, shoulder, wrist, etc.

Here's hoping this continues. I may just be able to finally get in shape to chase Dandridge around once his calf heals...

Great news Fish. I think I am going to make my comeback to the court this week (assuming we have numbers to play). Looking forward to seeing you back out there.

Regarding the calf injury, it was a blessing in disguise. Since I couldn't run for several weeks, I started lifting weights...something I have never really done. It is amazing how much better I feel and my wife appreciates the differences she sees as well. Over the last few weeks, I started running and swimming to augment the weight training and I am looking forward to adding Tuesday night basketball back into the mix. I just hope I don't suffer another set back...the plan is to take it easy for the first few weeks of basketball, but I'm worried the competitive juices will get me in trouble again. The last thing I need is another injury as my 3 year old did not take my inability to play very well.

[pancakes3]

if you don't mind me askin, where do you guys hoop at?

[willbcocks]

Induveca, that first 2 months sounds absolutely awful. Starting up lots of new exercise and eating that little, plus sucking all the fun outta eating? Not for me, I'll say that, it would be the surest path to giving up.

IMO the keys to eating healthy are:

-making everything yourself (this makes everything take longer and you know what's in everything)
-quality over quantity
-no calorie beverages
-hot, satisfying meals

I've lost 12 pounds and gotten ripped the past two months having:

-a bacon (1/2 slice, fat paper toweled off) egg (2 egg whites) english muffin (whole wheat, lotta protein and fiber), plus fruit, every day for breakfast.
-2 meals a day with rice or pasta
-a 250 calorie bar of chocolate every day (in the midafternoon when I start craving something, really helps tide me over. Always get a high quality dark chocolate)
-unlimited fruit/vegetable snacking

I think my new way of eating (I won't even call it a diet) has been successful precisely because, even though I'm losing weight, I feel like I'm eating tastier stuff than everyone else I know.

Typical recipes are: Dhaal Curry, rice; Thai ground chicken/basil stirfry, rice; Chinese tofu with spicy meat sauce, rice; Taiwanese meat stew on rice; Lemongrass chicken/rice; Sichuan fried spicy potatoes; Fried rice w/ ground chicken & dill. Rice with almost everything, save some vegetable pasta dishes...

[willbcocks]

Oh, and share the hardcore plan, I want to hear it.

[nate33]

race report - Vermont 100 endurance run

I finished almost 2 hours faster than last year and in a completely
opposite way. Last year I was possibly the slowest person out there
over the last 30 miles and finished 2nd to last in the race. This year
I CRUSHED the last 11 miles and was solid between 70-89. Over the
last 11 miles, anyone I saw ahead was someone I immediately was going to
chase down although you still have to be careful about not trying to
catch them too quickly. No one passed me over the last 11 miles
and I finished in 27 hours 55 minutes.

This on a day that the finishing rate was only 55% of the starters.

There are some seriously unbelievable athletes out there that
must be from another planet. The winners time was ~ 16 hours flat.

Great job dobrojim. That sounds like quite an experience.

[dobrojim]

@ nate and anyone else who might be interested

a very long narrative has been written and should be posted soon
somewhere where you can read it if you care to. I will pass on the
link when I know what it is.

[dobrojim]

lengthy, self absorbed detailed account of
running/walking 100 miles

http://tinyurl.com/36y92hc

[pancakes3]

i just went out and ran the haynesworth conditioning test and blew it out of the water (relative to alby). 60, 63 seconds barefooted. i'm pretty sure there are guys, linebacker sized guys who could do this backwards. i'm pretty sure most guys on this board could skip this under 73 seconds.

will B, with his 5 flat mile time could easily book this in the low to sub 50's and not even be gassed. probably wouldn't even need a full minute of recovery time.

[dobrojim]

yup - AH does not seem to me to be in the kind of condition
that one associates with 'professional athlete'. To say the least.
About the only thing one can say in his defense is if he knee is
bad, than he couldn't work out and his cardio would be in the toilet.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

AH and Shanahan are playing mind games with each other.

Seems like the coach is just trying to prove a point, because others don't have to pass that test. Also, what lineman has to run 300 yard anyway? OTOH the coach IMO has a right to make an example of the guy in order to gain respect from ownership, fans, teammates how with Hayneworth, etc. I think the player doesn't even need to be able to do that but the coach is just sticking it to him.

My thoughts about Haynesworth is he's sandbagging and issuing paybacks to the coach.

He lost a bunch of weight in the offseason, didn't he? I bet he's ready to go (more than just ready to leave the Skins, I think he can play his position well right now). Wouldn't shock me one bit if he was deliberately not doing well. This is all about him not wanting to be in a 3-4 defense.

(Snyder/Shanahan have gotten rid of Campbell. My boy from UH, Colt Brennan's been waived. The coaches brought in a BYU QB. And I don't like the move for McNabb. Hate it. Skins consistently get it wrong and I won't be shocked if Shanahan does worse than Zorn.)

This whole thing is just a back and forth between an overcontrolling coach and a guy who is the opposite of a teamm player. Sucks that guys like Haynesworth have so much talent.

[dobrojim]

I wasn't aware the AH was being truly singled out for
not being able to pass the test. In fact my possibly
imperfect recollection of the story is that he was
specifically NOT being singled out. Other players
were quoted as saying the test was 'fair'.

[nate33]

I'm ramping up nicely with my workout routine. I've incorporated a lot of cross training and my body feels great except for my gimpy achilles tendon on my left foot. My schedule now is:

Sunday: bike 30-35 miles in morning, lift upper body plus 15 min. of core in evening
Monday: basketball in evening, 1-2 hours
Tuesday: tempo run at lunch 4-5 miles 6:45 pace, 15 min. of core workout in the evening
Wednesday: lift upper body in evening
Thursday: sprint/interval run at lunch, total of 4-5 miles, 15 min. of core workout in the evening
Friday: swim 2000 yards (it takes about 40 minutes), 15 minutes of core workout in the evening
Saturday: long run - 10 miles.

I may or may not do an Olympic distance triathlon in mid-September. I intend to do the Columbus Marathon in mid-October. I'm going to get those Tuesday and Thursday runs up to 5, then 6, then 7 miles; and that Saturday long run I'll keep building until I get up to at least 21 miles. So far, I have no significant injuries or soreness except my achilles tendon. It's not 100% but it's managable as long as I ice it down several times over 24 hours after each run. My goal is to maximize my conditioning while minimizing the total mileage. I run real fast on my Tuesday and Thursday runs. It's the quality of the workout, not the quantity.

The core workouts are really helping. Last year, I always seemed to have nagging soreness in either my lower back, groin, or hip flexors when I woke up in the morning. Right now, there is no soreness at all.

[Rafael122]

I hate the gym I'm going to.

There's always this one chick who spends 45 minutes talking with someone else. She doesn't work out. At all. She spends 5 minutes on the treadmill and then decides to yap it up.

Second, men and women who douse themselves in cologne or perfume before a workout are children of Satan. Just AWFUL.


There's always that old guy who thinks it's still 1983 so he decides to wear tight neon shorts. Not a good ook. Especially when he's doing squats...

[Wizards2Lottery]

I've all about given up on the gym. I just can't consistently find the time anymore. Between classes and working, I get to my apartment and I'm completely exhausted.

[Zonkerbl]

I'm THAT GUY. The one who sweats out three pints of sweat in the aerobics class and sprays it on the cute girls around him.

Used to be I'd sweat less once I rounded into shape, but I seem to have lost that ability. Got down to about 162 at one point last summer (at 15% body fat I'd be at 159) but am stuck at 172 again, sigh.