Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born)

[Upperclass]

I have a question relating to this as well..

I've been playing basketball relatively consistently since about May.. 2/3x a week. I'm used to being about 205(6'5), now i'm at 220-230.. fluctuates weekly.
I dont have much if any noticeable excess on me, but my legs just die every single time as i'm playing..I always continue hooping, as i'm not fatigued(respiratory or upperbody), but my legs just get super heavy and slow. Is this attributed to the new weight i'm carrying, or am i just poorly conditioned? Also, what should i do to combat this?

I'm 26 if that matters.

Thanks!

[dandridge 10]

Thanks to jim, nate, et al for your thoughts on running, technique and knees. I was talking to another board member who is a good athlete and in excellent shape for his age -- and he mentioned that his body just freaks out when he tries to run for distance. He plays a ton of hoops and is fine though. I wonder if just some people aren't suited for it.

To that end, my knee is still bothering me. I think I'm favoring it b/c my opposite ankle is now getting sore. This sucks! I rode the bike today at the gym (6 miles) to try to get in some cardio and keep as much stress off the knee as possible. By the way, I love early morning workouts. The endorphins are so much more useful to me to jumpstart my day than they are at night. Sometimes I sleep great, but sometimes it's like i've had caffeine.

Anyhow, any advice on what to do about the knee? Are there things I should try before going to see the orthopod, who practically have on speed dial?

Dat, how is your ankle?

Hey Fish,

Two more thoughts that I forget to tell you. You might want to put one of those bands on your knees that I wear when I play basketball. Its not there for support; it's there to keep the part right below your knee warm while you play. It seemed to help my knee issues, which I always attributed to tendonitis.

Also, I have given up running long distance because its just too hard on my knees. I now stick to walking fast and the illeptical. I find that walking fast still gives me a pretty good workout while saving my knees. If running long distance hurts your knees, I say screw it...there are plenty of other exercises that you can do that put less pressure on your knee. My wife recently starting spinning (stationary bike, with a different twist), and she said its a great workout...you might want to try that too.

Hope to see you out there ballin' again. We had good games yesterday, even though my jumper seemed to have gone on vacation last night.

[fishercob]

Thanks to jim, nate, et al for your thoughts on running, technique and knees. I was talking to another board member who is a good athlete and in excellent shape for his age -- and he mentioned that his body just freaks out when he tries to run for distance. He plays a ton of hoops and is fine though. I wonder if just some people aren't suited for it.

To that end, my knee is still bothering me. I think I'm favoring it b/c my opposite ankle is now getting sore. This sucks! I rode the bike today at the gym (6 miles) to try to get in some cardio and keep as much stress off the knee as possible. By the way, I love early morning workouts. The endorphins are so much more useful to me to jumpstart my day than they are at night. Sometimes I sleep great, but sometimes it's like i've had caffeine.

Anyhow, any advice on what to do about the knee? Are there things I should try before going to see the orthopod, who practically have on speed dial?

Dat, how is your ankle?

Hey Fish,

Two more thoughts that I forget to tell you. You might want to put one of those bands on your knees that I wear when I play basketball. Its not there for support; it's there to keep the part right below your knee warm while you play. It seemed to help my knee issues, which I always attributed to tendonitis.

Also, I have given up running long distance because its just too hard on my knees. I now stick to walking fast and the illeptical. I find that walking fast still gives me a pretty good workout while saving my knees. If running long distance hurts your knees, I say screw it...there are plenty of other exercises that you can do that put less pressure on your knee. My wife recently starting spinning (stationary bike, with a different twist), and she said its a great workout...you might want to try that too.

Hope to see you out there ballin' again. We had good games yesterday, even though my jumper seemed to have gone on vacation last night.

Pretty sure that's because I wasn't guarding you. You likely were matched up with someone who had above average wingspan relative to his position.

I was thinking about one of the patella bands; I will pick one up. I'm at the beach next week (finally) but will be back out in two weeks.

[LyricalRico]

Great, just as I start to get active again, my pinched nerve starts acting up again. It's the S-1 nerve that goes from my lower back all the way down the back of my left leg to my foot. It used to only bother me when I was on my feet for a long time but now it sometimes bothers me even when I'm sitting. The doc wasn't much help, he just gave me some painkillers and said it usually goes away on it's own. Anybody have any experience with this type of thing?

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Do some sciatica stretches?

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Argh, got down to 162, went on a business trip and then the weekend after went to the beach, ballooned up to 166, have been killing myself all this week just to get back to 163.

Argh! When am I going to get below 160 so I can start weight training again?!?!?!?!?! I hate cardio work.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Great, just as I start to get active again, my pinched nerve starts acting up again. It's the S-1 nerve that goes from my lower back all the way down the back of my left leg to my foot. It used to only bother me when I was on my feet for a long time but now it sometimes bothers me even when I'm sitting. The doc wasn't much help, he just gave me some painkillers and said it usually goes away on it's own. Anybody have any experience with this type of thing?

LR, I've had sciatica and I've also had back probs related to pirisformis syndrome.

What you're describing sounds a lot like sciatica. Not fun, my friend. Having been there and done that I can say that one really was freaky. Seemed to come from out of nowhere. Thankfully, as bad as it was it went away IIRC in a few days. Just like what your doctor's saying will probably happen with you.

LR, if all you got was painkillers, IMO that's something I'd steer clear of. I'm one to leave those alone. But if you got anti-inflammatory meds those could help. From my experience naproxen does me right.

CCJ's Advice: I'd go a couple routes. 1. If the pain persists I highly recommend you see a physical therapist. I've received advice from PTs on doing exercises that have really helped me tremendously. Rico, to start with you probably need to strengthen your core (abs). And your quads and your calves. Physical therapists can help you out big time! 2. For quick relief. I'd go to a chiropractor. A good chiropractor can do miracles! Unfortunately, a bad chiropractor can jack your stuff up. LR, I'd try a chiropractor way before I'd consider any surgery should this persist.

LR, you can also sit in a tub with Epsom Salt and warm water. I have a lot of pain issues but the sea and water in general has some serious healing power.

Even simply applying moist heat helps most of the time. (Other times ice works better).

Better than any of my rantings, here's a real good link.


And for the rest of you, if you have suffered: Lower back pain/tightness, sciatica, ruptured achilles, torn rotator cuff, hand (boxer) fracture, torn rib cartilege, arthritic ankles, mcl strain, .... I can relate! Oh, and there is a label called bipolar disorder that I know more than a little bit about. .

[dobrojim]

slummed the rest of the weekend

started to make up for it by biking to work today.

A couple more rides to work and I'll be breaking 1000 miles
for the year. I want to break 2000 by the time I stop riding
in the late fall.

I know this off-topic, but since I regularly check up on his website you should check out what a former co-worker of mine has been up to since February.

http://www.powercycle.net

Unbelievable.

quite so

I assume this guy made some money at some point in his life so he would
have the time to not work for months on end.

Very cool though.

[Zerocious]

what a feat! i pretty much read the whole thing, amazing!

Anybody here doing some mountain biking and hitting some trails? hitting gunpowder state park for a few hours tomorrow. anybody want to join?

Miller, i think you live closest to me, you ride bikes? mountian bikes? i think 80's ball boy lives around here somewhere too.

[Ed Wood]

It doesn't work your body in quite the same way as long distance running but there aren't many things you can do to your body that will tire it out and work it out quite like a combat sport. Boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Kyokushin Karate, anything that involves a lot of pad work and sparring can wear you out by the end of your first three or five minute round. Sparring compounds things by adding in the mental and emotional (and endocrine) stress which is really something else.

And while you can get a great cardio workout going through a few hard rounds of padwork with someone who knows how hard to push you nothing leaves you all-over fatigued like grappling. As with standup there's a whole bunch of different flavors to choose from. You have Japanese Jiu Jitsu, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Judo, freestyle and catch wrestling just to name a few, and grappling is great because you can jump right in and roll around with somebody even before you have a huge amount of experience. Combine standup and ground work and you'll want to die in about ten minutes. Alternating three minutes of pad work with a minute of takedown defense is terrible in a good way. A lot of the conditioning associated with mat sports, particularly wrestling, is also ridiculous and wrestlers are crazy for doing them.

Professional Mixed Martial Arts and similar sports (kickboxing, pankration, etc.) are an interesting blend of really dynamic and dramatic competition and a variety of really obnoxious cultural trappings. They don't really fit into the scope of the thread but I'm always game for discussion.

[LyricalRico]

^ I'm too pretty to get hit but I have been interested in doing some boxing workouts. My brothers used to workout at Round One in PG. Anybody know of any boxing gyms in MoCounty?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

It doesn't work your body in quite the same way as long distance running but there aren't many things you can do to your body that will tire it out and work it out quite like a combat sport. Boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Kyokushin Karate, anything that involves a lot of pad work and sparring can wear you out by the end of your first three or five minute round. Sparring compounds things by adding in the mental and emotional (and endocrine) stress which is really something else.

And while you can get a great cardio workout going through a few hard rounds of padwork with someone who knows how hard to push you nothing leaves you all-over fatigued like grappling. As with standup there's a whole bunch of different flavors to choose from. You have Japanese Jiu Jitsu, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Judo, freestyle and catch wrestling just to name a few, and grappling is great because you can jump right in and roll around with somebody even before you have a huge amount of experience. Combine standup and ground work and you'll want to die in about ten minutes. Alternating three minutes of pad work with a minute of takedown defense is terrible in a good way. A lot of the conditioning associated with mat sports, particularly wrestling, is also ridiculous and wrestlers are crazy for doing them.

Professional Mixed Martial Arts and similar sports (kickboxing, pankration, etc.) are an interesting blend of really dynamic and dramatic competition and a variety of really obnoxious cultural trappings. They don't really fit into the scope of the thread but I'm always game for discussion.

Ed Wood, the other day I watched an MMA event involving a lot of local boys in competition with soldiers. You and the locals know more about fighting than the soldiers who I watched "fight" if you could call it that.

A couple of them appeared to be shocked when they got hit. It's like they said "I didn't know the guy could do that to me". But mostly, the guys came to fight. A couple of them I was relieved for when their corner threw in the towel.

One or two of the soldiers appeared to really know what they were doing. (One good grappler, one good boxer, and one guy who was very-well rounded and who had a nasty ground game). Mostly, I saw military guys get their ass kicked. But the sportsmanship was great.

Loved every minute of it.

I felt like I wished I were 20 years younger (but know that at almost 50 I could have whipped some of fittest soldiers who simply did not know how to fight.) Hands were low, punches were wide, guys were dropping their head blindly and getting cracked. I thought the army needs to make them do more grappling and less running....

Anyhow, Ed, I'm a huge MMA enthusiast. I have never done BJJ but I have told myself that if I get my fitness level up and my weight down I'll try it. My problem is I can't live with the idea of some young guy whooping up on me and me not being able to do much about it. (Like Shamrock vs Ortiz). I wouldn't have any probs with an older guy or family man giving me lessons, if the guy had his head on right.

[tkunit]

Rico you really need to work your core. As you increase the strength of your gut it takes pressure off your back, which in turns allows your hammy's to relax.

Do a lite warm-up cardio then abs. after that if you say doing legs start with leg extensions before moving on to the press or whatever. Teh idea is to warm up your "core" before you really get into it.


Also if your doing abs it better be on the ball, if your not using a ball you are missing out and wasting time. Sure its kind of girly but it works.


I've had a bad lower back for years, since I tore it back in highschool. really working on my core was the best thing I ever did. now i just need to comittee myself to cardio, but I don't wanna

[Kanyewest]

There was some guy on the news saying that excercising more by itself doesn't lead to a weight loss since people tend to reward themselves too much by eating too much. It also points out that peopel tend to do less activity (taking the escalator instead of the stairs at the mall) after they spend 30 minutes in the gym.

[Ed Wood]

Ed Wood, the other day I watched an MMA event involving a lot of local boys in competition with soldiers. You and the locals know more about fighting than the soldiers who I watched "fight" if you could call it that.

A couple of them appeared to be shocked when they got hit. It's like they said "I didn't know the guy could do that to me". But mostly, the guys came to fight. A couple of them I was relieved for when their corner threw in the towel.

One or two of the soldiers appeared to really know what they were doing. (One good grappler, one good boxer, and one guy who was very-well rounded and who had a nasty ground game). Mostly, I saw military guys get their ass kicked. But the sportsmanship was great.

Loved every minute of it.

I felt like I wished I were 20 years younger (but know that at almost 50 I could have whipped some of fittest soldiers who simply did not know how to fight.) Hands were low, punches were wide, guys were dropping their head blindly and getting cracked. I thought the army needs to make them do more grappling and less running....

Anyhow, Ed, I'm a huge MMA enthusiast. I have never done BJJ but I have told myself that if I get my fitness level up and my weight down I'll try it. My problem is I can't live with the idea of some young guy whooping up on me and me not being able to do much about it. (Like Shamrock vs Ortiz). I wouldn't have any probs with an older guy or family man giving me lessons, if the guy had his head on right.

Yeah I'm not really sure what the armed services offers in terms of weapon-free combat training. The three billion odd Gracie Combatives commercials I've watched over the past month or so all claim that just about every branch employs Jiu Jitsu in some capacity but if they're anything like what those commericals show then we have a military force fully prepared to dive at you and pray for a key lock but not a whole lot else.

Obviously I encourage you to give Jiu Jitsu a shot, but not to worry overly much about appearences because we've all been tapped out by a guy (or girl) who weighs 130 soaking wet and everybody has their bad days. At this point I think I can proudly say that I've never been caught in a gogoplata (a choke using the blade of your shin) but that's about it. I've seen plenty of classes full of men and women just getting into the game in their thirties and forties. Hell, I've seen a guy in his forties make it through three rounds of Muay Thai against somebody young enough to be his kid (he promptly retired but still trains for the exercise, nice guy).

Good to hear that you follow MMA. I'd be interested to know if you have any rooting interests or predictions for this Saturday's UFC, or just nerd out about MMA in general but again I have no idea what the appropriate locale for that would be.

And because this is a fitness thread and I'm not doing a very good job of staying on target here's a conditioning set that I think I picked up from a wrestler friend originally:

Three minute interval sets: Thirty seconds of each of the following exercise:
Jumping jacks
Burpees(this thing)
High knee running in place
More burpees
Jacks again
Pushups

You run through four sets total with a minute of rest between each. In the second and fourth sets you substitute squat jumps for the pushups. Then you die.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Yeah I'm not really sure what the armed services offers in terms of weapon-free combat training. The three billion odd Gracie Combatives commercials I've watched over the past month or so all claim that just about every branch employs Jiu Jitsu in some capacity but if they're anything like what those commericals show then we have a military force fully prepared to dive at you and pray for a key lock but not a whole lot else.

Obviously I encourage you to give Jiu Jitsu a shot, but not to worry overly much about appearences because we've all been tapped out by a guy (or girl) who weighs 130 soaking wet and everybody has their bad days. At this point I think I can proudly say that I've never been caught in a gogoplata (a choke using the blade of your shin) but that's about it. I've seen plenty of classes full of men and women just getting into the game in their thirties and forties. Hell, I've seen a guy in his forties make it through three rounds of Muay Thai against somebody young enough to be his kid (he promptly retired but still trains for the exercise, nice guy).

Good to hear that you follow MMA. I'd be interested to know if you have any rooting interests or predictions for this Saturday's UFC, or just nerd out about MMA in general but again I have no idea what the appropriate locale for that would be.

And because this is a fitness thread and I'm not doing a very good job of staying on target here's a conditioning set that I think I picked up from a wrestler friend originally:

Three minute interval sets: Thirty seconds of each of the following exercise:
Jumping jacks
Burpees(this thing)
High knee running in place
More burpees
Jacks again
Pushups

You run through four sets total with a minute of rest between each. In the second and fourth sets you substitute squat jumps for the pushups. Then you die.

Yes, 15 minutes of that full speed could very well accelerate my demise, EW.

However, doing that at 60%, and gradually building up from two to four sets and to about 75-85%, it's a good, doable workout for me.

While at the gym, I see guys doing burpees a lot of the time right next to me when I'm on the mat doing floorwork like pushup, flutter kicks, side lateral raises, etc. I occasionally do something very similar to the burpees but with a medicine ball. Instead of the push up I do a squat jump and once at the top toss the medicine ball straight in the air and catch it.

Okay, now that I've stuck with the spirit of the thread, my thoughts on UFC 101: EW I have no real rooting interest and only a couple predictions....

I wish I hadn't paid for UFC 100 and afterward paid to go a live event. I'm gonna pony up and purchase the event but at some point I'm going to have to put Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitto (sp'?) down. The good news is looking at the undercard and the main card it should be an excellent night of fighting.

I like Florian to take out BJ Penn. Crowd's against BJ now. GSP took something from his confidence in himself most likely. From looking at the weigh in I get the feeling Florian's going to have a pretty easy time of it. I'll say K Flo by rear naked choke in round 2. If it goes longer I foresee Penn receiving a terrible beating. BJ could really get hurt this fight.

In the shocker of the night, I like Forrest to do the unthinkable. Logic says Anderson Silva knocks him out, perhaps by knee. What I think's going to happen is Forrest kicks well and dominates the grappling. Silva looked arrogant and not well conditioned at the weigh in. Forrest looked beyond ripped. Forrest looked extremely confident. I'm going to say Forrest makes the baddest man on the planet tap out. As flexible as Silva is I'll say Griffen by arm bar after making Silva look very ordinary. Just like he did to Shogun. (Okay, I could also see Anderson slicing him open with knees and elbows and getting the fight stopped on cuts, or flat out knocking Griffen senseless. Just my gut says this won't go down the way people think).

EW, I really like the undercard guys and wisht that was part of the PPV package. Some tough guys are waiting in the wings. I get the feeling Silva and BJ are on the way out.

[Zerocious]

BJ could really get hurt this fight.

I'll say Griffen by arm bar after making Silva look very ordinary.

yep! and with that i mean, nope!

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

BJ could really get hurt this fight.

I'll say Griffen by arm bar after making Silva look very ordinary.

yep! and with that i mean, nope!

What I meant to say is BJ is gonna get Kenny Florian really hurt, and Griffen's gonna make Siva look extraordinary.

Honestly, those were two totally wrong predictions I made. I don't feel bad about the Forrest one because Joe Rogan's prediction was the same as mine. All Anderson Siva did was look like the best fighter I have EVER seen. Movement was somewhere between Spiderman and the Matrix. Made Forrest look like a statue and hit him with a punch reminiscent of Ali over Liston.

BJ looked sharper than ever, too.

[Ed Wood]

BJ could really get hurt this fight.

I'll say Griffen by arm bar after making Silva look very ordinary.

yep! and with that i mean, nope!

What I meant to say is BJ is gonna get Kenny Florian really hurt, and Griffen's gonna make Siva look extraordinary.

Honestly, those were two totally wrong predictions I made. I don't feel bad about the Forrest one because Joe Rogan's prediction was the same as mine. All Anderson Siva did was look like the best fighter I have EVER seen. Movement was somewhere between Spiderman and the Matrix. Made Forrest look like a statue and hit him with a puch reminiscent of Ali over Liston.

BJ looked sharper than ever, too.

Yeah, I suppose I can't rub that whiff in your face too much because I didn't actually put to paper the fact that I expected Silva particularly but also Penn to win pretty handily and because picking Anderson Silva and B.J. Penn to win fights isn't really an impressive piece of prescience but you were pretty wrong.

At this point it really looks like the UFC has a champion at every weight class who is a pretty safe bet to defend successfully against just about anyone within the organization, though I think there are a couple who have definite threats from outside (Lesnar and Penn certainly) and good as Machida looks he hasn't actually defended his title yet. Of course I would have said the same about the WEC bantamweight belt and Miguel Angel Torres until he got blown up by Brian Bowles about an hour ago.

If anybody wants to get into mixed martial arts (as a spectator) and is looking for a nice place to start I'd strongly recommend a WEC event. Versus hosts WEC events for free (on basic cable) and while you're not going to see as many big names on a WEC card as you would a UFC card the WEC tends to focus on the lighter weight classes and as a result you're going to see less "action" between two gassed heavyweights lying on each other and more technical fighting (this isn't like watching the WNBA for the fundamentals; WEC cards are really, really good).

We really are highjacking the thread, however, so I guess I'll ask the mods about starting a combat sports thread, though it'll be a little lonely if only CCJ, Bas and myself partake.

[xJUICEx25]

Here's my workout if any ones interested:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
stretch
treadmill- 10 mins warmup
Bench press
Bicep curls-front 10x
Bicep curls-side 10x
deltold workout-front,side,and back10x
tricep workout-dips, and push-downs, tricep pushout leaning on bench10x
forearm curl-standing with 35lbs, 10x
forearm twist 10x
squats
lunges
treadmill 20 min

repeat workouts

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
Stretch
Jump Rope 15 mins
hit heavy bag 15 mins
Ab workouts- heres the link to my ab work out- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk_usVg7Fp0

Sunday rest

I also play basketball somedays.