Exercise

So, no, I don't do exercise. I spent my entire school career trying to bunk off games (with a fair amount of success too) I'm not going to start being all energetic now when I don't have to.

Plus it forces me to bathe.

I was totally anti-exercise until about a year and half ago. I agree with the people who do it and say that it makes them feel great - it certainly makes me feel great. I have a totally different body shape to what I had then, and it's fucking fabulous for stress relief.

A friend of mine is trying to lose some midsection tonnage, specifically around the hindquarters and thigh region (including those awful bunches of fat called "love handles" - ick). What would be the best exercises for my friend to perform? He thinks that biking 3-4 times a week is enough, but I think he should do some sit- ups and push-ups, too. (He's a wuss, though, and intolerably lazy. Damn good thing he's charming and intelligent-like.)

And should he stop eating Chinese take-out & other fast-food-like concoctions? The weather around here has been atrocious meaning that I .. I mean HE ... hasn't been biking for the past 5 days. And this comes after a consistent 3 weeks of biking and feeling purty damn good about himself, too. Such a downer, man.

convince me to work out.

I spend $62/month on a gym membership but hardly ever go. Well I do go and swim and more so lately, but I've never stepped into the weight/machine room. Part of this is fear of machinery, I admit: I have no idea how any of it works and it all seems somewhat sweaty and threatening to me. However, now that I am almost 32, I've realized that my body is falling apart; what muscles I had have atrophied, my arms and legs are like flailing, useless bean pods. My back and knees are killing me and it's either from arthitis or simply because my legs are not strong enough to carry my 150 pound frame from the train to work and back again every day. I am woefully out of shape although not overweight. What do I do?

Painful joints and such are often remedied by strengthening the muscles surrounding/supporting that joint/area.

xpost Kyle playing basketball = absolutely hilarious!

All the people at the Y look like n00bs, admittedly.

I associate frisbee with people who like Widespread Panic. I will not touch one.

if your goal is to get yourself in shape, why add other people and strange rules to the mix? they can help, but they can also get in the way.

Yeah, you probably shouldn't touch the frisbee either.

Also, buy an iPod. It's a great place to listen to music...especially with the crap that's usually played at my gym.

I was about to ask why that was funny leee. It kinda scanned for me like

"I have no legs! haha!"

what would be a good exercise regime that doesn't involve me joining a gym or buying a bike?

!!?

Where do you work?

well, for you, obviously. but not for some other people, just as obviously.

"Make it so."

right, what am i saying

http://www.gamasutra.com/education/theses/20020501/wargames_02.jpg

Sorry Maria... It sounds like you're just gonna have to get fat.

currently i have the walking almost down, but i eat like a fucking pig. so i suppose i should work on that..

(this is not going on the diet thread because I weigh somewhat less than I should and I am maybe after overcompensatory tone and aerobic fitness etc etc, or something)

Exercise, people. If you're not feeling yourself, start working out. All through school (with compulsory gym and athletics), I was relatively on the ball. After that ended it was like I was in this neverending muck for years. Now that I'm exercising again it's like BAM IGHALW AHWUUUUUUHURRRRRRRR. It's like a new lease on life.

Go 4 it. burt_stanton out.

i know this is true, and yet i can't motivate myself to start exercising. probably the lack of exercise is one reason i can't motivate myself. <ouroboros.jpg>

i been drinking way too much and feeling sluggish these last few months. wake up with the post drinking blues etc. a few weeks ago, i said fuck this nonsense and i just started hitting the gym on the constant 4-5 times a week. i drop my new favorite mix into my ipod (this is essential for me) and i slam it out. i know it's old news but exercise just makes sense on so many levels, esp if you are on the internet too much or work a sedentary job.

burt is otm. i go to the gym as much for my mental health as for my physical, maybe more so.

I need to do this. Not sure what's appropriate with A HERNIA though.

this said, it's not doing much for my financial wealth. gyms be expensive.

i know this is true, and yet i can't motivate myself to start exercising.

The key is finding something that's FUN to do and that works for you. So many people make resolutions to exercise more, join a gym, get bored after a few sessions and never go back. Gyms are are basically sport with all the excitement taken out. There's a bazillion different things out there, have a look around.

I need to do this. Not sure what's appropriate with A HERNIA though.

Bike riding is okay for me with my hernia, but running is absolutely awful. Your intestines feel like they're all squeezing out through your groin. I tried running to work the other week and ended up walking 3 miles in the pissing rain.

I joined a gym for the first time in my life. I've always been a lazy sloth but my body apparently thought I was Christ for years and no matter what I ate, I stayed slim. Not sculpted or anything, and certainly not in shape, but slim. Now I'm 29 and have gained 25 pounds, mostly in my stomach.

Went to the gym today for a workout with a trainer and boyyyyyyyy am I out of shape. really depressed about it atm cuz I could have avoided this by exercising earlier, but I'm using this as inspiration for future workouts.

Muscles just sit there and wait for you to break them into action. They respond at any age. It's never too late.

Yep. the gym is two miles from my house so there's no excuse for me now -- gotta do this 3-4 times a week and get rid of my fast food weight.

starting's the hardest part, cliche but true. eat yr vegetables, get plenty of sleep and keep at it. don't get depressed, focus on the fact that yr body's moving, like in the moment maan. good work!

My ipod needs to be mailed back for repairs...I am worried the lack of music gonna fuck with my workout.

xpost i probably woulda started this years ago had my metabolism not been so high that I could eat whatever I want. I've changed my diet as of two months ago to no fast food and little to no soda, and eating lots of veggies now. and that's not hard for me cuz I love veggies

yea I need to invest in an IPOD for that reason but I'm afraid all the gangsta rap I will load on it will have me crip-walking on the treadmill

don't let it! i've found if i'm focused on what i'm doing the music just floats by me anyway. just think of it as a challenge.

that being said, my ipod has been so croosh for running.

x-post

i watched a lil Joan Rivers while I ran today

you'd be surprised how easy it is to get lost in her fake face

lol.. can't deal w/ the tvs in front of the treadmill. it's hard for me to go the gym anymore after years of lifting. focused mainly on running these days. can't beat 30 mins of sunshine and breathing every morning imo.

that being said the gym can be fun especially if you have a decent trainer.

yea i can't really afford the personal trainer right now (but oh did they try to sell me), but I did have a free session with one today and I can see it's a better experience. I have to make due with what I learned today though on my own.

ugh muscles still ache from the other day. can't wait til my body gets used to this again

1. Did upper-bod hand weights @ home while watching tellyvision on Sat, now pleasantly sore in shoulders and back.
2. Two performances yest and one long rehearsal tonight = feet will be floppy dead things.

i had an 11 hour rehearsal last night, which i think is the culprit ...all the sitting made everything lock up.

btw running doesn't really work for this, tho it's still awesome

Just walked over a mile carrying two big sheets of pine board.

I need to do so much cardio, like a lifetime's worth, to get the layer of padding out from under my skin and get my lung capacity back (NB: quitting smoking not on the menu at this time).

did weight work and about 3 miles of walking on the treadmill w/incline. feel great cuz this time I hydrated and ate.

witnessed a creepy 'bro'-esque trainer who had just finished training two ladies, one a cute young girl in her 20s, the other an older woman (possibly her mother). The young girl then retreated to a machine in front of mine, and trainer followed her, and proceeded to talk to her while she exercised for the 45 minutes or so I was on the treadmill. Older woman comes by, and he acknowledges her somewaht, but doesn't even try to conceal that he's hitting on the young girl.

He then starts talking about how he plays basketball, and says he has "white boy ups", then looks left, right, then left again to see if there were any black people around, and mutters "but BLACK MAN skills!" He's so loud I can't even hear the television in front of my machine, and have no IPOD.

He then talks about all the clubs he goes to and starts inviting the young girl to meet him sometime, and talks about how he's local celebrity at this one bar cuz he's the "only one strong enough to carry the drunk girl home". Both ladies are eating it up, the older lady tries to interject, he politely involves her for a sentence or two, then goes back to the young girl.

It's a good thing he didn't have ...y'know, work to do!

^^ Scenes from a gym.

directed by woody allen

have now worked out about 7 times in the last 10 days, and am already about 6 pounds lighter. and its been a positive boost to my self-image, because I no longer feel like a lazy sloth lying around all day. I wish I'd thought of this earlier.

practically live at the gym now and noticing strength improvement over 2 sessions. loving weightlifting, hoping to squeeze in cardio tonight before my play (which might be a bad idea as The Crucible is almost 3 hours and involves a lot of standing).

i just set up my poor neglected bike on a trainer in the living room and have but in an hour-plus for the past few days. been trying to figure out home exercise. like, i enjoy the gym when i'm in the habit but you know, waking at 5:30 and getting to the gym before work and realizing that i forgot to bring socks and being forced to watch the today show -- it is a madness i would rather avoid

i just need the discipline of a gym. at home, I'll be midway through a cardio exercise and go "ehh I wanna watch a Michael Mann movie" and give up halfway through.

see i have no trouble with getting the cardio time in -- just keep going & keep the heart rate up, don't have to think about it, whatever. it's the resistance exercise that frustrates me -- the end of each set is an opportunity to just quit. i could def use a bit of personal training now & then to establish a balanced routine but paying someone to motivate me seems weirdly self-defeating.

I don't have a trainer, it's too expensive. I have the same challenge with you in weight training, I've just pushed myself to do more reps each time and feel the burn, but stop if I feel too much strain.

i have an easy time with the cardio at the gym, but at home I'm a meticulous procrastinator.

hey elmo what kind of trainer do you have for your bike and is it noisy?

so it looks like while I started exercising for one reason (appearance/reduce stomach fat for acid reflux), it's a good thing I did for another -- I've always had moderately high triglycerides, and in the ONE YEAR from the last time I had blood work done, they went from 179 to over 300.

(Normal is 150 -- 300 is still considered 'moderately high' but that's a huge jump!). Likewise, my cholestoral is slightly outside the range of normal (ie, the good cholesterol is too low, although overall I'm within range).

now I have a goal! scared to think what the triglycerides were a month ago!

Just splurged on a rowing machine -- Costco had a pretty ridiculous deal on one and we figured it was equivalent to the cost of 6-9 months gym membership for the two of us (and we have NO time to go to the gym right now with both of our work schedules, her school, and our toddler). Hoping to make a regular workout out of that plus some weights plus a chinup bar and maybe the occasional run outside when the weather is good.

BTW, can anyone recommend a chinup bar?

I've owned three doorframe-style and all of them were terrible. Buy pipe and screws and install one

if you want to replace a gym you could do worse than a squat rack w/a barbell that also has a place on it to do chinups

something like this: http://www.fitnessdestination.com/power_racks/images/df820_chinup_large.jpg

yeah, I've considered stuff like that but I'm hesitant to put even more stuff in our 2BR apartment.

I just need some way of working the "pulling muscles" as it were -- these are always the ones I find hardest to do at home. A rower partly addresses that but seems limited. I supposed I could do short sessions at high resistance and maybe pull at different angles.

H2 did you buy the tribute to Torquemada that is the Concept 2? used w/ proper vigor you'll p. much wish you were dead, and it's such a brutal/effective full-body exercise that there have been periods where I've only rowed and done pushups/crunches and was v. fit (your level of masochism may vary, but after, say, 39 minutes of rowing + one minute of all-out "sprinting" I'm not in any fucking mood f/ chin-ups).

H2, try resistance bands. There are various levels of flexibility and you basically use your weight.

Don't expect huge gains/muscle mass, though. But I guess you know/are okay with that?

have now worked out about 7 times in the last 10 days, and am already about 6 pounds lighter. and its been a positive boost to my self-image, because I no longer feel like a lazy sloth lying around all day. I wish I'd thought of this earlier.

― turn in yer badge (San Te), Sunday, September 19, 2010 12:31 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol I just came here to push that I've exercised 7 times in the last 10 days and....well, wow. I'm consistent, at least.

made the mistake of eating TOO much and overhydrating before today's workout and it was a slog, but I soldiered through. this time I'm not so much after weight loss, but fat loss, and getting back in shape. and need to eat more veggies as well.

one thing I"ve learned = my lower half is much stronger than my upper. is that weird?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIfAkOBMf5A