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Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

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Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#81

Post by chipsy »

Evgeny wrote: post #75
hugh3 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen the changes in my clients lives Ah, so you're someone who makes a living by selling diet plans? I'm afraid that if you're a professional x salesman that makes me somewhat less likely to trust your testimony on the advantages of x . experienced it my self (gluten-intolerant) and my mother (Celiac) Well obviously if you're gluten-intolerant then gluten is bad for you. And your argument that eating grains is n…

cutting out grains is very hard. Certainly not. You just stop eating them. I stopped about half a year ago and never looked back. Well, my health was reasonably good so I can't say it improved dramatically since. However, I had some digestion issues before, these have been eliminated. This alone is enough for me to justify dropping grains, as digestion issues may become annoying and embarrassing at times. :)

The problem with "just stop" is that it interferes with a conventional lifestyle where you can tolerate other people's choices of food(which, the vast majority of the time, will contain grains or dairy).

I lean towards the paleo style myself, but I tolerate a little bit of compromise, and a little bit more when I'm with a friend. But I know intuitively how bad it is now - the effects I feel 15-30 minutes after consumption are mild but predictable.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#82

Post by j_b_f »

vital101 wrote: post #55

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.

If you have an iPhone or Android device with GPS, I'd suggest Runkeeper (http://www.runkeeper.com). The app and site is top-notch.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#83

Post by Evgeny »

hugh3 wrote: post #38
warpwoof wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have different tolerances to the amount of grains they can eat, but, if you want optimal health, you'd stop eating grains. Grains are not a nutritional necessity. There's nothing in grains that you can't get in meat, vegetables, fruit, or seeds/nuts. This article is a pretty good treatment of specific problems with grains: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-grains/ Again, some people can be in goo…

Again, some people can be in good shape and eat grains. But if you want to be as healthy as possible they need to be avoided. Find me a professional athlete on a grain-free diet. Maybe they're out there somewhere, but I'm pretty sure if you find me one I'll find you a better professional athlete who eats grains. With so much effort put into finding optimal diets for athletes nowadays, if cutting out grains would impr…

Find me a professional athlete on a grain-free diet.

Maybe they're out there somewhere, but I'm pretty sure if you find me one I'll find you a better professional athlete who eats grains.

Find me a (former) professional athlete who lived in perfect health till their 90s.

Maybe they're out there somewhere, but I'm pretty sure if you find me one I'll find you multiple (former) professional athletes who died from CVD, cancer etc.

if cutting out grains would improve fitness in any meaningful way then we'd know about it by now. If Lance Armstrong or

Um, the guy who got cancer when he was 25 years old? Phenomenal athlete, but hardly a good example of a perfectly healthy person.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#85

Post by freescale »

eru wrote: post #68
freescale wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I also got the "Starting Strength" book. It's very thorough on the technique of all the basic lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, power clean). It doesn't they very much about programming (i.e. how to and how much to increase the weights you lift), but you can get advise on these from other sources.

Rippetoe has a book titled 'Practical Programming for Strength Training'. It's good as well.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#88

Post by abalashov »

j_b_f wrote: post #82
vital101 wrote: post #55

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.

If you have an iPhone or Android device with GPS, I'd suggest Runkeeper ( http://www.runkeeper.com ). The app and site is top-notch.

I would second that recommendation.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#90

Post by tome »

matwood wrote: post #37
yesimahuman wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why you go slow and use easy weights when starting a new free weight workout. Having bad form can be dangerous (for example, the deadlift), but in general I find that it's just not as effective and that bothers me enough to make my form better.

Ah, the dead lift. The single most effective exercise ever invented. I don't remember where I read it, but the quote goes like this: "A kid walked up to me in the gym while I was dead lifting and asked 'what muscle does that work.' I responded by asking the kid 'have you ever watched a football player run across the field and tackle the player with the ball?' The kid responded 'sure.' To that I said 'that muscle.'"

The deadlift is great, as is the squat. I certainly feel like the squat is more effective for me because I find it harder! I'm not sure if there's an objective standard on this but I highly recommend both of them.
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