Idle Workouts

[juv3nal]

So I tried another fitness app. This one i swear is trying to kill me. I'm an out-of-shape nerd and you want me to do 60 crunches, 20 burpees, 60 squats, 40 pushups and assorted random low impact crap (jogging in place, shadow boxing) all in 17 minutes?!?

I ended up cheating on the last 10 burpees because wtf and it still took me 25 mins also halp im not sure i can stand up anymore and I've been resting for at least 10 minutes

[Nachimir]

Holy buttcheeks juv3nal, that app is setting of my Irresponsible Machismo Alarm.

[juv3nal]

Aside from the burpees, which whatever muscles those use I just don't have (or maybe don't have any strength left in after the squats), the amount of reps is not actually that terrible (they're split into 2 sets of half the numbers I listed above, intermixed, which helps since you're not stressing the same parts continuously), but their target time is just eh I have no idea what kind of fitness level they're targeting but it ain't even in the same area code as mine.

[Griddlelol]

It is called Super Hero workout. So maybe it's designed for super heroes. I'd like to try some sort of gamifying exercise app, but there's nothing out there that caters to what I'm interested in doing.

 

Do the achievements/scores help you? I mean technically doing an extra rep, or hitting a personal best is basically the same thing, it just doesn't ping up on a screen when you do it.

[dibs]

I've started swimming again as the physio told me to stop running and then to stop walking so much, caus of my dodgey hip.

I'm really enjoying it! I haven't been swimming lengths in years. I started at around 350m three weeks ago, and yesterday I got up to 750m and had to get out so as not to be late for work. The first few swims were pretty hard on my weak baby arms, but I'm much more used to it now.

[juv3nal]

Do the achievements/scores help you? I mean technically doing an extra rep, or hitting a personal best is basically the same thing, it just doesn't ping up on a screen when you do it.

 

It's not so much the achievements/scores that help but the thin veneer of a narrative thrown on top of the whole thing? So in this one I guess the idea is you're doing these motions to control and/or power a Pacific Rim style robo suit? I mean it's silly, but I find it helps.

[Griddlelol]

That's cool. I'd quite like to give something like that a go. I just can't do exercise at home because I'm sure the people who live below me would flip if I was jumping about for 20 minutes. I would like to add cardio to my week, I still can't bring myself to run.

 

On the bright side, I moved to a gym that's 5 mins from my work, so I go every week day morning. Progress is slow, but the weights are increasing. Sadly I'm not losing weight. If anything I've gained a couple of Kgs. I was chatting to a personal trainer there and she informed me of the basic idea of 80:20. Simply, weight loss is 80% Kitchen, 20% Gym. Which I guess is why I'm failing. Changing food habits is much harder than changing exercise habits.

[srslyyou]

I was doing ok for a while, going to the gym every day and making lunch and food is super easy when you work at home and work is pretty much non existent, then I switched jobs, had a baby and now work 10 hour days and when I get home it's baby coddling time in order to give my wife a reprieve. That being said it doesn't excuse the fact that before the baby and when all my job transitioning was going down. I went back to being a voracious eater again, stress eating. I couldn't get full and that lead to an extra 20 pounds getting back on. 

 

So It's a challenge to find time to even find time to make something decent to eat let alone hit the gym for an hour. I've been trying to wake up at 5 am as I did when I had two jobs , but it's been a struggle. 

 

This week I've been pretty decent trying to drown my hunger pain in water. It doesn't help the local supermarket we go to for produce and meats has been on strike for the past 40 days and everywhere else has shit for food and costs more. But that just resolved itself, and hopefully sooner rather than later it goes back to normal so I can veggie it up again. 

[Badfinger]

I'm considering trying a new exercise set (the Stronglifts 5x5), but as crazy as it sounds my gym doesn't have a power rack. I'm trying to find substitute exercises, and I'm also debating talking to the gym owner about adding one. I don't know if that's a faux pas or anything. Because I'm in between two different workouts, it's sort of sapped my desire to do the old one. Which is probably quite weird.

 

Wow it's been over 2 months since I posted. I actually swapped gyms to have a power rack. I've been doing Stronglifts almost exclusively http://stronglifts.com/apps/. I started at literally "day 1" and I'm up to 170 lb squat sets and 215 deadlifts. I weighed about 245 when I started, and I'm stepping on the scale at about 230-235 these days, but I literally had people say "you work out, right?" when I started a new job. My weight hasn't changed tons but my shape has.

 

I am hitting a wall on my overhead press, and the squats are really getting tough, but if you have access to a barbell I can 100% recommend the app and the workout to get started.

 

I was feeling lazy about going to the gym, but I'm definitely headed there right now.

[Erkki]

I was chatting to a personal trainer there and she informed me of the basic idea of 80:20. Simply, weight loss is 80% Kitchen, 20% Gym. Which I guess is why I'm failing. Changing food habits is much harder than changing exercise habits.

So true! Whenever I've seriously changed my eating habits with the goal of losing weight, I've managed to get a good weight loss of 1 kilo a week or so. But at the moment I'm not feeling disciplined enough to do it. Instead, for the past 4 months I've been working out 10+ hours a week and there is almost no change in my weight (maybe -3 kilos). I seem to have swapped some fat for muscles, though. That said, I'm not doing the exercise that much for weight loss, just to keep getting a bit more fit or at least maintaining my current fitness. I'm fine with not losing weight quickly, but eventually I do want to develop better eating habits as well and lose some of that fat.

[Griddlelol]

I work out because I enjoy it. Just like I eat shit loads because I enjoy it. If I dropped either one is be sad.

How are the 5x5 routines working for you over the higher rep ranges? I do one day a week at 5x5 to try and break plateaus. Find it really helpful because I then know I can do more on my usual 8-12 range stuff. I don't know if I could do it every day though. It takes so long!

[Architecture]

Impending winter bump.

 

We're fast approaching the time of year when it's easiest to let go and get schlubby. The cold snap hit Austin so hard this week that I've been resorting to the gym at the office instead of riding my bike. It sucks to essentially stand in place for almost an hour, but it's better than nothing!

 

Going in for a proper bike fitting tomorrow. I've been really stepping up my game--did 81.5 miles last Sunday. If the weather isn't total dogshit this Sunday, I'll be back at it.

[Griddlelol]

I'm having a pretty shitty week on the exercise front. It's only Tuesday and I manage to 1) Pull a muscle in my back, and 2) Burst (yes burst, not puncture) a tyre on my bike. 

 

Winter is my favourite time of the year, I normally do a load of exercise since the gym is warm and comforting, and eat what I want because it's christmas. 

[prettyunsmart]

I normally do a load of exercise since the gym is warm and comforting, and eat what I want because it's christmas. 

 

That is how I live year round, which is why I manage to remain kinda chubby despite exercising pretty vigorously most days.

 

The winter gym drop-off is kind of great, really. I've had a much easier time getting a locker, and there's less of a wait for some of the more popular machines. Lower gym populations make for better gyms, really.

[Erkki]

I had some infection in the heel in September, most likely due to the sudden increase in workouts. Had a little break in October, and it seems to have mostly gone, although sometimes I still feel a bit of something there. Now I want to resume my usual schedule again, and I will likely do 10-13 hours of salsa/yoga/bicycling again this week (9 done already! yay!). I have given up on running due to the heel thing and other things that running makes hurt, but I want to resume football again next week. I guess by the end of next week I'll have realized how my body is handling the new schedule and maybe I'll have to hold back a bit more. How the hell did I become this nuts about working out? For the past few years I basically did nothing in fall/winter, only riding bike 2 time a week in the summer, and now I'm the guy who works out most among anyone I know (not that I see it as a competition).

[prettyunsmart]

I started using Jawbone's "Up" app yesterday since I know that I'm about get get one of their fitness trackers as an early Christmas present from my wife. I already have some concerns. Right away, it was telling me what my goal weight should be, based off of my BMI (I'm a short but relatively muscular person, so even when I'm in the best shape of my life, I'm still listed as overweight according to the BMI). It wanted me drop 50 pounds, and if I did that, I'm pretty sure I'd be a tiny husk of a person. Also, their food tracking seems a bit severe. I had fruit and yogurt for breakfast this morning, and I was told to "take it easy" on such unhealthy foods.

 

Has anyone used Jawbone's stuff? Am I just too easily put off by this kind of stuff? Is there a way to turn off the stupid features and just use the better ones?

[Griddlelol]

That sounds crazy. I have the same issue with BMI. Doctor told me I need to lose 10kg fast, because I'm less than a point away from "obese". I'm not ripped, I have fat, but I'm not anywhere near obese. I'm almost as fit as I was when I was a teenager, but significantly stronger. 

 

Meh, BMI is bullshit.

[Badfinger]

Agreed.

 

When I tell people what I weigh, 1) they don't believe me and 2) when they find out it's not what I'd like to weigh they flip out. Because I've added so much muscle while losing weight, my body shape has changed.  People can't fathom what I'd look like under 200 lb. Even though I would consider myself overweight, I'm also fairly athletically built now but BMI would probably say I'm obese.

 

Yep just checked. I am a point into the obese category. BMI wants me to lose FORTY more pounds to be "normal", which is almost as much as my original goal 3 years ago was from a weight higher than this one. I can stand to go for a jog, but people wouldn't recognize me after that.

[elmuerte]

Muscle weighs more than fat. Pretty much every athelete is overweight or even obese according to BMI. So if your training program burns fat and build muscle you're going to loose against BMI.

[Mangela Lansbury]

On the other end, when I was at my healthiest -- running every day, swimming at least once a week, actually eating a decent diet, had abs you could see when I wasn't trying -- I was a few points into underweight according to my BMI. Pretty much all of the health researchers I follow on Twitter say it's a terrible system that should be ignored.

[Thermaldetonator]

I am to lazy to go back and look over this long(ish) thread to see if anyone already recomended Zombies, Run!.

I own Reality is Broken, but haven't read it. Maybe it will persuade me to embrace gamification. Generally though, I find the idea of video games taking over increasing aspects of my life pretty gross. However, I really enjoy Zombies, Run! from Six to Start and Naomi Alderman. I have logged seventeen hours and forty-two minutes in it so far and I highly recommend it. The company also makes a walking version which Justin McElroy praised on The Besties. (If I'm just walking I prefer taking in my surroundings. With jogging I need the added motivation to get out and do it.) 

[melmer]

Shiiiiiiiit. I now have a years gym membership :-/ :-) :-/

We have an unmanned 24/7 gym only 5 mins drive from us that my girlfriend goes to. £20 a month. And I never signed up as I knew how lazy I was and I wouldn't be getting my monies worth. I refuse to be one of those people that pay for a gym membership and end feeling guilty all the time as they never use it. Anyway, Black Friday happned, half price gym membership for a year, one day only deal so I took the plunge. You can't scoff at a £10 a month gym membership.

Now I need to lose my paunch before my wedding in the summer

[Griddlelol]

Good luck with that! £10 pm is a pretty good price! A lot of my buddies joined a gym for the same reason - get fit for a wedding, then kept going. 

 

I'm looking to join a boxing gym. I've decided I want to learn how to fight, plus it'll be fantastic exercise. Rocking up and being like "hi, can I fight please?" is probably more terrifying to me than the actual combat.

[melmer]

I just went to the gym for the first time ever! Almost 2 months after I took out the membership

I went on a dodgy treadmill that kept stopping of its own accord. I think I need to get some practice on the treadmill as it felt quite unnatural and I was all over the place, I'm sure I'll get used to it in time. I only dared go at a fast jog from fear of falling off. My right calf and ankle hurt now so I've got a feeling my shoes are probably all wrong, I never had that in the past from playing football or running home from the pub at 2am.

Then I went on the rowing machine wear I felt a lot more comfortable. I'm built like a rower (6ft5 slim build) albeit extremely unfit with a paunch. I'm already boasting about how I'll be rowing for England in next years Olympics.

[deleted user]

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