Since 2010 is my official Be Less Fat year and I’m too poor (time- and money-wise) to join a gym again, I’ve been looking for non-boring alternatives that I can do at home. I stumbled across www.simplefit.org, which is a free bodyweight workout that seems to have something in common with CrossFit or that P90x thing. Basically, you do pull-ups, push-ups and squats three days a week, with the quantity based on your (un)fitness level. For instance, on Monday I do 1 pull-up followed by 2 push-ups and then 3 squats and repeat as many times as possible in 20 minutes. On Wednesday, I do 2 pull-ups, 6 push-ups and 10 squats, rest for 3 minutes, and repeat for a total of 5 times. The goal here is to minimize the overall time. Finally, on Friday, I do 10 pull-ups, 21 pushups, and 21 squats. Once you can do the current amount of reps in less than 5 minutes, you start adding more reps.
Hopefully between this and continuing to eat better, I can stop being a fat fuck in 2010.
I’m getting my fat ass back in the gym personally. My personal favorite is 10 minutes of stretching, then 30 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes on the recumbent bike, then off to the shower and home for a nice salad and some type of lean protein.
Can we stop the “that’s interesting” thing? It was unfunny about 5 times ago (no offense personally tiohn just a tiny irritation :)
Anyway, I continue to lift free weights. Though most of my actual lifting time seems to be done with barbells. That bench press thing is pretty specialized, it turns out.
Not much to report yet, but I’ve gotten so I’m lifting about 3x a week. I really do need to get one of those books though.
I’ve been doing the “Jesus fucking Christ, I can’t believe the bus stop is at the bottom of 163 steps” workout. My calves feel tighter after a couple weeks of up and down! Does that count?
I think Gary and I are buying an elliptical as a house warming gift to ourselves, so we’ll see how that goes. As far as diet, I need to save $ anyway so I’m going to start bringing breakfast and lunch to work. The plan is to cook Sun/Mon night for the week and only make healthy stuff that I can grab out of the fridge/freezer each morning for work.
Be sure to stretch those suckers out from time to time!
I think Gary and I are buying an elliptical as a house warming gift to ourselves, so we’ll see how that goes. As far as diet, I need to save $ anyway so I’m going to start bringing breakfast and lunch to work. The plan is to cook Sun/Mon night for the week and only make healthy stuff that I can grab out of the fridge/freezer each morning for work.
Everyone should do this. You get a healthier, tastier lunch and save money to boot. I try but have some crappy frozen dinners for backups as I don’t have enough left overs for the week usually.
Can’t say it is interesting in the least, but I’ve just started walking to get back to excercising. I’m 48 and have had 2 back surgeries and a knee surgery (just a scope job, not replacement) so running or hard core workouts are out right now. But I do need to lose about a solid 60 lbs. Started with 2 miles, just me and my Ipod touch listening to my podcasts. Let me tell you, it’s 34 outside with a stiff wind so I was freezing the whole time. Took all my willpower to not stop at 1 mile, but I went the full 2 miles I intended. Yes I know, wimp city. Hey, I didn’t get this way overnight and I won’t fix it overnight. But I’m trying…
Hey, I didn’t get this way overnight and I won’t fix it overnight.
That’s the right attitude though. My wife and I have been going to a gym for over a year now and while I’ve lost a lot of weight and put on some good muscle, I know I have a long way to go. It took decades of abuse to get into this state and it will take awhile to fix it…
I’m trying to force myself to walk home from work as well as to work. It’s 8 miles total and it really, really helps for days I don’t feel like hitting the gym or don’t have time. Which is most days! I also am seriously loving wii fit plus. Since it lets you customize workouts and then runs through them with no pause, I actually do things like jackknives and pushups that I otherwise wouldn’t do at the gym itself. I don’t want to go on the mats that everyone is sweating on on the floor. Ew. No one wipes those down!
I’ve found that after slacking for a few months, it only takes me a few weeks to build up some decent tone and, and I can put on about 8 pounds of muscle/month on a 3-4 day a week workout plan. Then again, I don’t gain weight if I don’t exercise, I lose it.
I recently went back to a program based on Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. Last Spring I was doing this and had pretty good results, but stopped over the summer/fall…heh. So have some catchup work to do to get back to where I was.
It’s basically two workouts that are alternated between Tues, Thurs and Sat;
Each week the weight is increased. Ideally some cardio on off days.
While on this, my diet is 4k-5k calories spread throughout 6 meals/day (though I often miss a meal or two). This is the hardest part about it, since I’m trying to keep it relatively clean.
100-200 crunches/sit ups a day, 20-30 push ups a day, eating healthier. Probably not the greatest workout, but I’m just trying to drop a few pounds. Once the weather clears up I intend to start… running. For now, my apartment’s gym’s going ot have to suffice.
I’m starting the Couch to 5k. Hopefully, I’ll be able to start it tomorrow. My back hurts from moving this weekend, and my abs are killing me from all the coughing that I’m doing.
I have lingering bronchitis (the “cough up some goo once per hour” variety – not really annoying enough for me to take antibiotics or modify any habits), but it’s not interfering with my workouts, which are 30min elliptical followed by 15min free weights, 3x/4x per week. Theoretically. I did do the cardio twice last week, anyway.
I need to talk to one of the personal trainers at my gym, since what I really need the most is greater core strength and flexibility, only compressed into the 15-20min I have for it. My lower back flipped out on me a month ago, first time in a while, but it pretty reliably happens anytime I don’t work out for multiple months. 4Q2009 was a damn lazy quarter for me.
At least I held the line on my weight – didn’t gain a pound in that entire three-month period. I’m lucky; if I just make sure I only eat until reasonable fullness, I can keep at 160 lbs without much difficulty. 160 lbs @ 6’4" height = yes, I’m a serious ectomorph. But still, ectomorphs look even more awful when they get a spare tire…
I look at that and all that I can think of is “Rail slide!” and an attempt to break the unpowered land speed record.
Edit: As for exercise, I have the problem (such as it is) of being freaky strong without working out, so strength training is almost counterproductive. The catch is that all that super-dense muscle is… well, let’s say it’s sufficiently insulated. Especially around the middle. I can do a 45 minute plyometrics workout with very little trouble, but it accomplishes damn little for the “Less of Me” goal.
So the ongoing project involves walking the long way to and from my morning commute (I live in the city, don’t own a car, and take public transportation), taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work (and I work on the 9th floor), and I really should bust out that 2-DVD Biggest Loser step aerobics set I have, if I didn’t have this ingrained aversion to Jillian Horseface.
I am hopefully going to get a dog soon, and taking it out for walks/play/to the park will help me get back in shape, physically and mentally. Also: according to this little article a recent study mentioned that dogs make better exercise partners than other people, heh.
I just lost 70 pounds over the course of nine months (March -> December), 60 of which I lost in the first six months. I achieved this through eating better and cardio; usually 25-30 minutes on the elliptical or treadmill, as well as ~2.5 miles of walking every weekday. While this was great in terms of pure numbers, I need to develop more muscle. I’ve dropped cardio from my routine almost entirely, and am now doing the Spartacus Workout and other muscle-building activities on my off days, as well as 200-300 crunches a day.
