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Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

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Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#251
I relate to your comments about gym a lot. I feel like going to the gym is a mundane, mechanical and very dystopian activity. I never found any 'fun' in the gym and we all know we can't force ourselves doing what we don't enjoy. So I set out searching for physical activity (hopefully strength training) that was fun.

After a lot of trials, I found the answer: F45. Their workouts are pre-designed, group based and It's honestly been a game changer. I vividly remember moments where I was having such intense sense of euphoria despite being in so much pain. I whole heartedly recommend anyone to try group based HIIT workouts.

Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#252
I don't like the gym neither. I worked and trained heavily in one for a few years and these days I find them utterly boring and not that beneficial for the kind of sport I do. The gym is not the only way to get in shape. What I recommend you is to start an activity that you might find interesting (e.g martial arts) and combine that with calysthenics at home. I know you mentioned you prefer to workout from there, however, I stronly recomend on engaging with something social because that bring benefits other than just the "getting in shape" part. However, if you still truly want to workout from home, I can tell you the setup I've been using for years now:

- Stationary bike

- Pull ups rack (can be used for dips too)

- Rings (I hang them from the bar and use them for doing push ups or australian pull ups)

- A weighted vest (20 kg max).

- An abs wheel.

With only that and taking care of my diet (avoid sugar as possible, eating stricly just 4 times per day and doing intermediate fasting) I've been able to stay in really good shape for the last six years (plus a year ago, I started to do other activity out from home as well)

I hope it helps.

Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#254
I started training with kettlebells to build up some strenth, which went fairly well. My workouts are extremely short, 10 snatches per side, sometimes a couple more exercises. Also, from time to time, some planks. But always below 5 minutes.

With the start of COVID, I started cycling way more, mainly touring on the weekend for 3-5 hours. Since cardio / endurance has been my primary concern, I drastically reduced my kettlebell training to one session every 6 weeks, but its still enough to maintain my 10 snatches.

I can really recommend the kettlebells, but be careful since you can quite injure yourself with the weight. I started with 16kg, which IMHO is a great starting weight for men.

FYI I am in my mid forties, overweight but now quite fit.

Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm I was 6'0" 142 first day in the military... After 19 weeks of abuse, (infantry school + airborne) often active 20 hours per day I emerged 165. So 23 lbs of almost lean muscle in under 5 months. I would rate the previous commenter's claim as plausible.

How do you know there is no fat, water or bone in the mix?

I suppose I don't. But it makes less sense to me that I would increase bone density in 19 weeks in a meaningful amount and even less sense that I would put on any fat when we had roughly 2-5 mins to eat every meal.

Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#256

I use https://www.bodbot.com/ to get a workout, can be varied enough not to get boring, you can skip/ban exercises that you don't like and it adapts to your performance and the equipment you have. I've also heard good things about FitBod, but it has only a pay plan

Is BodBot free or paid? There's no informations on the landing page.

Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#257
post #78

30 minutes a day? For weight management, it'd be hard to beat High Intensity Interval Training, particularly with a jump rope (if you don't mind dropping some cash, the weighted jump ropes from Crossrope are pretty slick). If it's more about maintaining strength, I'd get yourself a copy of Pavel Tsatsouline's Kettlebell: Simple and Sinister, and a kettlebell or two that fit your size and strength, and get swinging. B…

From my experience, you cannot do HIIT daily, it leaves you too sore. Do you have a good routine for this? Are there biological benefits to doing HIIT that I'm unaware of? Pavel's S&S, or other anti-glycoletic training methods due work well for me as there is no soreness or need for recovery. I incorporate long walks (5 miles or more) daily to get in the cardio, sometimes go for a run or hard hike.

I used to do HIIT daily and would always get sick (like sore throat) from 2-3 weeks. After a while I got injured and started going to normal gym. The sick periods were gone

Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#258
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do it or don't, man. I don't care. But I stand by the statement that most able-bodied Americans could find some way to incorporate more human-powered transport into their routine if they really wanted to. And in many cases they could do it without any adding any superfluous travel. I.e., it may be slower or even less convenient in some way, but it was a trip you were going to make anyway. You're just changing the mod…

You can't win debates with such people, about biking or walking; there's always another reason why they (and all other good and upstanding Americans) can't possibly walk or bike. When they run out of their own made up reasons, it's "well what about disabled people!" Like yeah, they maybe can't, are you disabled? No? Well then.

Not sure if you or OP are in the US or not, but American cities have zoning laws and infrastructure that are designed entirely around the car. Aside from a few exceptions, towns in the US aren't like European towns in the slightest. It really is often the case that nothing is walkable or bikeable. The "Not Just Bikes" YouTube channel goes into all this if you are interested in that sort of stuff.

Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#259
Exercise with light dumbbells as propagated by the famous bodybuilders at the end of the 19th century (people like Prof. Attila, Sandow, Strongfort) could fit the bill. This training approach goes against many accepted truths today but it's what these people swore by.

If this sounds interesting to you at all I highly recommend David Bolton's book "The Lost Secret to a Great Body". It is very well argued. Here's an excerpt that I found intriguing:

**

The first thing you have to realise is that THIS IS NOTHING TO DO WITH WEIGHT TRAINING. THE WEIGHTS THEMSELVES ARE ONLY INCIDENTAL - IT’S WHAT YOU YOURSELF ARE DOING WITH YOUR MUSCLES THAT IS IMPORTANT.

The second thing you have to realise is that the very word “exercising” - as in the previously mentioned Mr Pope’s chapter on “The art of exercising” - was being used then in a different way to mean something totally different from what we think of as “exercising” today. For a start it was supposed to be a physical “art”.

We tend to think of proper “exercise” as something difficult and physically taxing - the man who’s just come back from a ten mile run, panting and bending over to get his breath back, his legs wobbling underneath him, has just finished his “exercise” - the person lying in a sweaty heap of exhaustion after one and a half hours hard cardio on the machines, static bike and cross trainers has just “exercised” etc... by this definition exercise is taxing on one’s system and needs recovering from.

This is not what was understood by the word exercise at the time the light dumbbell protocol was popular - that would have been “hard training” maybe or “a session of thorough physical work”. Exercise was supposed to be invigorating and enervating - to put something into your system rather than take something out of it, to build up rather than tear down.

**

Bonus: There is also a chapter how this specific type of training could help in boxing by improving your control over individual muscles and thereby making you less muscle bound.

Re: Ask HN: I hate gym. How to stay in shape?

#260
Just get up in the morning and run around the block with small 3kg weights every morning. Take some kreatine it will give you some energy to actually go out and do that. Do that for a few months and you will start loving excercising and it help you move back to going to the gym.

On days that you don't feel like running just go out , run down the street for a few metres and come back.

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