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Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

liamrosen.com

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Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#51

Post by matwood »

liedra wrote: post #5

This is a great article, makes me want to get off my bum and do some exercise :) One thing I'd like to know is, for women, yoga and pilates and all that seems to be quite fashionable these days, but they don't tend to be either cardio or weightlifting -- what sort of effect do they have on the body?

There is nothing wrong with yoga or pilates, but they are not a replacement for good old fashioned weight training. If you really enjoy yoga mix it in with weight workouts. Do weights a couple times a week and yoga a couple times week.

Also, as someone else mentioned, don't be afraid of doing weights. The only way to gain weight and thus more muscle is by eating a surplus. So many women shy away from weights because they don't want to get 'bulky', when it's the food that makes you bulky not the training.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#52

Post by yummyfajitas »

matwood wrote: post #50
gyardley wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your advice here is good. You might want to quietly watch a few trainers in action, if you can do so unobtrusively - I did, and it helped. I picked a female trainer over a male trainer because I saw a few of the male trainers at my gym barking drill-sergeant-style, and I knew I'd react poorly to that. As for the complements to a stranger, I did have a couple of random people at the gym say 'you've been working your a…

You picked a trainer the right way. If you know what you need to be pushed and motivated then look for that in a trainer. They each have their own styles and personalities just like anyone else. When it comes to random complements it's really me projecting my anti-social tendency while at the gym. I'm there for one reason and it's to work out. I put headphones and generally don't talk or interact with anyone the enti…

I think speaking to others at the gym is somewhat cultural.

In lower middle class neighborhoods of Jersey City (JSQ), you can talk to others. Ask for a spot or advice on form, tell them "bad form, watch out", whatever. In Manhattan gyms (at least the 2 or 3 I've used), no one talks to anyone else. Ever.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#53

Post by lpolovets »

hugh3 wrote: post #21
tyweir wrote: post #20

Looks pretty good. Two points that I'd not follow. Diet: Eating grains. Gluten is pretty much evil for everyone, including non-Celiacs. Google for "paleo diet" or "gluten autoimmune" to get a sense of gluten's impact. Also check out the "Save my Life" HN thread for more info about gluten-free/paleo. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1399450 Exercise: Cardio, long slow distance is pretty much useless. High intensity…

Those two points seem to me like fringe advice. I'm sure if I googled "gluten autoimmune" and "tabata intervals" I'd find a bunch of people agreeing with you, but no more than I'd find with any number of other fad diets or exercise regimes. It'd take a helluva lot of evidence to persuade me that eating grains is bad, because... heck, grains are tasty, and the vast majority of humans who have lived over the last five…

The research on Tabata intervals is actually pretty interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_trainin...

If you Google for "tabata research", you'll find a number of studies -- including the original paper by Dr Tabata [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8897392] -- showing that bursts of very high intensity exercise can have a greater effect on endurance than long, steady workouts.

On the one hand, I find it counterintuitive (how can sprinting on-and-off for 5 minutes help my endurance more than running for an hour??). On the other hand, it kind of makes sense, since your body improves most when you really challenge it, and sprints are generally more challenging than a steady pace.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#54

Post by lelele »

This guy has built an home fitness plan with inexpensive tools:

http://fitness.scoobysworkshop.com/

He has posted videos too.

Good for those who haven't got an (inexpensive) gym nearby (like me).

EDIT: His push-ups tutorial is highly recommended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S990kHLMVFg

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#55

Post by vital101 »

For those of us who have enjoyed running the past or would like to start up, I highly recommend getting Nike+ (http://nikeplus.com). It connects to your ipod, and via a sensor in your shoe gives you feedback about your run. You can join challenges and make friends on their site. Having graphical feedback of your run is pretty cool too. Being able to visualize your progress is very motivating.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#56

Post by freescale »

matwood wrote: post #36
gfunk911 wrote: post #2

Great article, agree with pretty much everything. The one advantage of machines over free weights is that the machine will enforce your form. If you are able to maintain form with free weights, the effort exerted to do so is an added bonus, but if you aren't, it's not good. I started with machines, and every couple workouts replaced a machine exercise with a free weight exercise. This helped me get started, and let m…

The problem with machines and that most enforce 'bad' form. Every person has their own natural motion that a machine simply cannot match. The best way to learn a free weight exercise is to simply start doing it without any weight. Start squatting and dead lifting with just your body weight (use a broom handle to simulate the bar). Once you get that down start adding weight. There is a very little that a machine will…

As you and others have mentioned, deadlifts, squats, presses, and bench press are the most effective and time efficient. Don't waste time on bicep curls and other isolation exercises.

Good form is vital though, so get 'Starting Strength' by Mark Rippetoe. There are plenty of exercise books available, but this is the only one I know of which will spend 50 pages explaining the proper form for the squat. There's even a companion video for the book.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#57

Post by scott_s »

warpwoof wrote: post #25
liedra wrote: post #5

This is a great article, makes me want to get off my bum and do some exercise :) One thing I'd like to know is, for women, yoga and pilates and all that seems to be quite fashionable these days, but they don't tend to be either cardio or weightlifting -- what sort of effect do they have on the body?

Things like yoga will stimulate the body and build strength to a degree, but that is a much less efficient way to get in shape, in my opinion. One of the reasons compound lifts moving heavy weight are so important is the effect they have on your entire body. Doing heavy squats recruits nearly every muscle in your body. But it doesn't just stimulate those muscles, it also stimulates your central nervous system. Doing…

And doing full squats with your bodyweight on the barbell 20 times (1 set of 20) is like hollering at your body with all of your lung capacity to get in shape.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#58

Post by hugh3 »

lpolovets wrote: post #53
hugh3 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two points seem to me like fringe advice. I'm sure if I googled "gluten autoimmune" and "tabata intervals" I'd find a bunch of people agreeing with you, but no more than I'd find with any number of other fad diets or exercise regimes. It'd take a helluva lot of evidence to persuade me that eating grains is bad, because... heck, grains are tasty, and the vast majority of humans who have lived over the last five…

The research on Tabata intervals is actually pretty interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_trainin... If you Google for "tabata research", you'll find a number of studies -- including the original paper by Dr Tabata [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8897392 ] -- showing that bursts of very high intensity exercise can have a greater effect on endurance than long, steady workouts. On the o…

Yeah, I agree it's plausible that they might do a bunch of good. I was mostly disagreeing with the grandparent's assertion that long-distance training is "pretty much useless".

Maybe I'll try incorporating some sprinting into my workouts.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#59

Post by aci »

matwood wrote: post #30
earlyresort wrote: post #7

I can swear by this - I've lost almost forty pounds since New Year's by cutting out the danishes, making my own lunches, and going to the gym regularly for weight lifting and cardio. The only thing I'd add - working out is time-consuming, and getting started at a gym is both hard and intimidating. Gyms themselves are counting on you to stop going - that's how they make their money. If you're having trouble getting st…

First off, great job! Working out really doesn't take that long. Most studies have shown that a typical non-steroid using weight training session only needs to last 45 minutes to an hour. After that time period, unless you consuming calories during the session the results you can get drop off dramatically from diminishing returns. I agree that the biggest hurdle with people going to a gym is the intimidation factor.…

"I want to tell them how awesome it is that they are doing it, but am never sure if that's the right thing to do some stranger lol."

General heuristic: If you are not sure, if it is right to approach a stranger, just do it. Really. Talk to them next time.

And don't end your sentences with "lol", please.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#60

Post by tassl »

lpolovets wrote: post #53
hugh3 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two points seem to me like fringe advice. I'm sure if I googled "gluten autoimmune" and "tabata intervals" I'd find a bunch of people agreeing with you, but no more than I'd find with any number of other fad diets or exercise regimes. It'd take a helluva lot of evidence to persuade me that eating grains is bad, because... heck, grains are tasty, and the vast majority of humans who have lived over the last five…

The research on Tabata intervals is actually pretty interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_trainin... If you Google for "tabata research", you'll find a number of studies -- including the original paper by Dr Tabata [ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8897392 ] -- showing that bursts of very high intensity exercise can have a greater effect on endurance than long, steady workouts. On the o…

For your last sentence, I think that you have never trained track and field. While 30-40 minutes of jogging is usually done by athletes, the core training is done by series of shorter distances that you have to compete with.

As an example, I have been training for 400m the last years. Being a short distance (although when you reach 300m you feel that is way too long) it is basically trained by repetitions of shorter distances (150/300). And by basically I mean that sometimes there will be longer distances (specially off-season) and tempo.

In general, people that train for 5000, 10000m don't run 1h to train their endurance. They will do, for example, 25x400m r:30", or shorter distances like 3000, 2000 or 1000.

There is no secret on that, you are using your body to run a higher pace that is used to, while running 1h will make your body be used to this slower pace and thus you will not improve your endurance.

If you ask me, I would say that endurance training is not worth it, and that training high intensity is better for your body.

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