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Erkki

Idle Workouts

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As I learnt when I was still capable of doing 5K, that's not actually sucking at running. You might be wheezing and exhausted but there are a lot of people who'll go, 'wow, and you made it? I couldn't do half that distance'.

 

I did not run the whole way. Not even close.

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With my wife out of town, I decided to restart my physical fitness activities in hopes that I can get some sort of routine going unimpeded so I'll have some momentum when I'm more easily tempted to just stay at home and lazy. I'm using the Runtastic service and app on my phone to facilitate this stuff. It has training plans and tracking and junk, which cost like $20 a year (thought that sounded reasonable).

 

As far as running goes, I started a training plan that's going to enable me to run 30 minutes continuously after 6 weeks of training. It was a pretty conservative goal compared to what was available, but I'm glad I didn't get overly ambitious because on my second run today I felt absolutely annihilated. That said, it feels good to finally get moving. I think running is going to really improve my self-image, as long as I can keep it going.

 

Runtastic also has some other apps that are non running-centric, so I'm using two other apps in conjunction with the main one. One is focused on push-ups and the other on sit-ups, both aiming to eventually allow me to do 100 consecutive reps of each. Felt that a couple of strength body-weight exercises would add some good variety to the cardio of running, and I like not having to have crazy workout equipment or investment to get started.

 

Anyways, I'm partially putting this here as a method of keeping myself honest so I hope I'll be checking in again in the future.

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God, day 3 of this running thing. I had to skip a day because of scheduling and it seems like that was poorly timed because I just couldn't pull off today's run. It was supposed to be 2 min run, 1 min walk for 30 minutes and I had to stop in my fourth cycle. Really disappointing, but it's making me think that I should probably just repeat each week of my training plan until I can do that week without much trouble. That way, I don't move on before I'm at least moderately comfortable with what came before.

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I need some new tracks on my gym playlist, so I'm making it collaborative and asking people to add new tracks!

 

Guidelines:

 

Probably a good idea to stay near to the genres on here already

If possible, it would be great to have songs with a similar tempo to those on here already - if it's not a good pace to cross-train or run to, I get rid of it

No comedy additions please - at best I will delete them immediately in mild irritation

It's not worth adding tracks from the same album as tracks already on there - I've likely been through a lot of those albums and pruned already

Please don't delete any tracks!

 


 

Apparently Spotify's site is a bit shitty, hopefully people will be able to get through it...

 

Please help me out, and feel free to post on here what you've added :)

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Since I'm too shy to go to the gym (and probably all outdoor activities), I've been trying yoga for ages, but recently I found a cheap and effective yoga training.... I just searched  "Yoga for Dummies" in YouTube and the very first video is actually... pretty good and helpful? 

 

It's been barely over a week and I'm already sleeping better, with less restlessness and twirling around and no longer waking up with back pain.

 

Of course, now I kinda have no idea of what's the next step, do I keep doing this yoga thing daily? Do I have to switch workouts? I have no idea.

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Yoga daily or pretty frequently is sure to be good for you, but yoga is really only flexibility/foundational training. It gets you limber, feeling better, more prepared for exercise, etc but there's not much ramp up to it. Of course, you can become a yoga master and do headstands all day but you're going to hit a ceiling in terms of benefits to your overall health.

 

The next step would be some kind of strength or endurance training. You can easily do bodyweight exercises at home and there are tons of easy-to-follow, unintimidating books that cover the topic. I'm sure searching "bodyweight exercise" will give you a good idea of what I'm talking about, it's just stuff that you can do at home with minimal equipment. Pretty easy to get into versus going outside or to a gym.

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I disagree to a pretty high degree about that. Yoga can be incredibly intense. If you want to really invest yourself, just yoga can go a long way to fitness. Not free, but I was recommened an app called Yoga Studio, and I have really enjoyed using it the few times I've done so. I don't know if it's available for non-apple platforms, but I like it.

 

If you want to supplement yoga, agreed that running and bodyweight exercise are both beneficial and can take you a long way too. Bodyweight is stuff like pushups, sit ups, burpees, squats, etc.

 

I might go so far as to say the biggest factor in getting fit is commitment rather than what you're committing to doing (as long as you're being safe and doing something with actual health benefits).

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Fair enough, I just feel like exercise is one of those things that you really benefit most from diversifying what you do. Yoga absolutely can be pretty intense and build strength/endurance, but if your goal is being a healthy person I'd posit that it's better to do a little bit of yoga/stretching, a little bit of strength, a little bit of endurance, and a little bit of cardio. I do understand the sentiment of people who just hate running so they've resolved to never do cardio or they only like yoga so they become yoga savants who practice every style of yoga out there, but I just can't imagine that it's the most efficient way to general health.

 

I should also say that I was being lazy with my characterization of yoga. I do feel like there is ramp up, but form becomes a lot more important when doing more intensive yoga. I've done some pretty decent damage to myself trying to do more advanced poses without someone to monitor me and I really felt like I benefited quite a bit when I was actually taking a yoga class when doing anything more than the basics.

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Last year for me was mostly running, did a program and some 10k races (I was pleased with 55 min) and now I'm doing weight lifting. I'm using an old lifting program from when I was last lifting weights (~10 years ago). I'm wondering if it's still valid?

A typical session is targeting one muscle group (chest, bicep, tricep, legs) and for each exercise I do 4 sets of 12, 10, 8 and 6 reps, increasing the weight each time. I make sure the weight in the last set is near my limit and I make point of upping the weights a little bit each session. Each session takes just under an hour. Usually I throw in between some back or ab exercises.

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I wasn't asking about a supplement for yoga, I'm basically starting and was wondering if I should eventually look for more intense yoga workouts eventually. I just started so I'm kinda at a loss.

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Badfinger's app recommendation seems solid, I used an app called "Daily Yoga" for a little while and liked it well enough (though you would have to pay for modules of it). As far as more free videos, I subscribed to this channel a while ago and it was pretty good the few times I used it - https://www.youtube.com/user/DrMelissaWest

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I need some new tracks on my gym playlist, so I'm making it collaborative and asking people to add new tracks!
 
[...]
 
 
Please help me out, and feel free to post on here what you've added :)

 

Stuck a bunch of stuff on here! Electronica mostly, but a bunch of rock/metal and hip-hop too. Tried to stick to around 125-140bpm, but a lot of the hip-hop tends to come in around 90-100bpm, which is probably a bit awkward. I dunno! See how it works, and prune it if it doesn't.

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Last year for me was mostly running, did a program and some 10k races (I was pleased with 55 min) and now I'm doing weight lifting. I'm using an old lifting program from when I was last lifting weights (~10 years ago). I'm wondering if it's still valid?

A typical session is targeting one muscle group (chest, bicep, tricep, legs) and for each exercise I do 4 sets of 12, 10, 8 and 6 reps, increasing the weight each time. I make sure the weight in the last set is near my limit and I make point of upping the weights a little bit each session. Each session takes just under an hour. Usually I throw in between some back or ab exercises.

 

It's valid and common, but it's definitely not the best way to do it. 

 

I'm currently following a DUP routine which has really helped me progress. Been getting personal bests every other week. Then again, I'm doing more of a powerlifting style training scheme than body building. You could easily alter it to fit your aims though.

 

Essentially Daily Undulating Progression revolves around doing the same exercise multiple times. The idea is that lifting things is as much of a skill as it is to do with raw strength. The more you do something, the better at that particular thing you get. Like if you want to learn guitar, you don't play it once a week, you do it as often as possible.

Coupled with the skill part, there's also the fact that protein synthesis peaks 24 hours after performing an exercise, then hits basal levels after 48 hours. So if you train a muscle group once a week, you spend most of that week without any growth. By doing them more than once, you keep protein synthesis high.

 

Then there's the "undulating" part. Simply put, you don't use the same rep/weight range each time you do the exercise. So for example you might have a day where you do 5x5 and then the next time you'd maybe do 12x3 or 1 rep max sets. I like to do the same exercise twice a week, with one day doing a powerlifting 5x5, then the next time a hypertrophy 8x3. I drop the weight a little to do the 8x3 though.

 

Obviously you can't do it every day, but my routine looks something like this:

 

1) Squat, Bench, Pull ups

2) Deadlift Overhead Press, rows

 

Repeat for a total of 4 times a week (or less if you're struggling, this training is very intense). I also add in a 5th session of auxiliary muscles. So doing curls and calf raises etc. 

 

You increase the weights each week, but most importantly you have to deload. Every 4 weeks of this routine, I take a week off. Do lots of light weights or cardio/body weight stuff to recover. DUP is incredibly taxing, and if you're able to do it for more than 5 or 6 weeks at a time, you're not training hard enough or you're on steroids.

 

In 2 4 week blocks of DUP I added 30kg to my squat and 40kg to my deadlift. Feels super good, especially as I'm cutting. 

 

If you want to know more look up Mike Zourdos and there's a powerlifter on youtube called Biolayne. They're both pretty smart people. 

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I'm currently following a DUP routine which has really helped me progress. Been getting personal bests every other week. Then again, I'm doing more of a powerlifting style training scheme than body building. You could easily alter it to fit your aims though.

 

Thanks, hadn't heard about DUP. Will look into that now, I've been doing my way for a few months now and am starting to plateau. It's time to change things up.

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I do a similar set of exercises with a different type of program. I'm doing Stronglifts 5x5, which is squats, deadlift, bench, overhead press, and rows. If I had time I would add in dips and chin/pull ups. It starts you at a beginner level, adds weight every week, and you do 5 sets of 5 reps per exercise except deadlift, which is a 1x5. It and things like Starting Strength are beginner programs that can start you from a completely empty bar. I had done it some last summer, but decided to deload and start from a much lower weight. On January 27th I did a 105lb deadlift, and adding weight much more conservatively than the program wants because of time restrictions, on April 27th I did my bodyweight at 225. Highly recommended if you have access to a weight rack. Compound, full body exercises are amazing for you.

 

I've also figured out my squat form is TERRIBLE and I don't really know the best way to fix it. Butt wink for days. :/

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The whole butt wink thing is bullshit anyway. Just look at high level powerlifters and they all do it (although what it is, seems pretty nebulous to me). It's about moving weight efficiently, if you have to do it slightly off form for your 1 rep max, then do it. If your form sucks for a 75%-80% 1RM then you may have to revisit that lift.

 

In other news, I'm super happy today, I got a PB on my deadlift 1RM of 177.5 kg. More than double my body weight (aided by the fact I've dieted down and lost 5kg recently).

My squat has been really suffering during my diet. I've not been able to increase the weight, and actually had to cut back on the number of reps. Really disappointed in myself. 

 

I've never done the strong lifts thing seriously before but I was wondering:

How does 5x5 work? If I'm able to do 5 on my 1st set, you can be damn sure I won't be doing 5 on set number 5. Are you going below failure for those 5x5 or is there give in the number of reps per set, or even can you reduce the weight in the last 2 sets? 

It sounds crazy hard and I would either be going too light on the first set, or giving up on the 5th.

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I have checked my form and altered it some. I think I was doing things wrong on multiple levels. Squats have gotten significantly more difficult now. I don't know if that's good or bad, but I want to make sure I'm consistent.

 

5x5 weight is supposed to be work weight. It's probably not approaching 1RM for people who are good and experienced lifters. You're doing the same weight for all 5 sets or starting low and building to your proper working weight. You're nearly double my deadlift, so I don't know that I'm in a position to advise you on how you SHOULD be lifting. You also have quite a bit more experience than I do. The program I'm following is EXPLICITLY a beginner program.

 

I'll let Gabe Kapler, former professional baseball far-hitting man and current strong, muscley man attempt to explain. He also links here in his article. I know some people do a 3x5 or 5x3 or some variation of this lift program.

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Ok that makes sense. It seems like a good program, but anything with the big 3 in (+/- a few other lifts) will be a good program. It's really hard to go wrong with that stuff unless you have a specific goal in mind, and you could easily add in some periodisation once you've started hitting plateaus.

 

How did you check your form? Do you have a buddy or PT? I've tried recording myself since my gym is dead in the morning, but it's not always possible to get a good angle. I know my deadlift form is spot on, but I'm sure I have room for improvement in my squat, and my bench press form is awful thanks to an old injury but there's not a lot I can do about that.

 

Slightly off topic, but I was reading about how Olympic lifters get ready for competitions. Essentially they "over-train" and try to push themselves past their limit for a week only to taper back the weight for a week and make it slightly easier before the competition to be in top form. I don't know if that has any practical application for breaking plateaus in the gym, but I intend to try it out with my squat over the coming 2 weeks. 

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So I put myself on a squats program where the first thing to do was hit max squats as a benchmark. Two days later and it's time to start the program proper, but my legs are still sore. Does this mean my legs are going to explode in a good or bad way?

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You'll be fine. Take some aspirin and get back to squatting.

(It's inflammation caused by tiny tears in muscle fibres. Normal if you're doing something intense that you've not done for a while - I get it every time I go to the gym after I come back from a holiday. It's not even a representation of a good or bad workout.)

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You legs will explode but candy will pop out, so i say go ahead.

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I'm always most sore on the second day after a resistance workout.

 

Like Griddlelol, I'm the most most sore the second day after the first resistance workout in a while. So, your experience sounds completely normal with what I would categorize as "exercising".

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