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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?

#71

Post by PaulKeeble »

In the home strength is a lot easier and cheaper than cardio.

With a little bit of knowledge a set of 2m resistance bands and James Grage's videos and channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfSoC-IZMOI for a start) will set you up for cheap and very little space muscle training in the home with really minimum friction to starting and potential for injury. A lot of people go for weights but the muscles don't care resistance is resistance and bands can do things weights can't. When on your own at home you can push to failure safely with bands as you can just let go to remove all tension.

For cardio its mostly about a machine and bikes tend to be smaller and cheaper than most of the others but a jogger or a stepper will get you there too. Really depends on how much cost you want to lay out and how much space you want to assign to working out.

What I found was really important was having something I wanted to do with this fitness and using that as a focus and reason for being there. I also watched TV while doing cardio and that guaranteed I would get 40+ minutes of a TV episode time on the cardio side of things without getting too bored.

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

#72

Post by tehnicaorg »

oifjsidjf wrote: post #37

No need to exercise at all. It's all about diet. This is something that pretty much everyone agrees on. Exercise can help weight loss, but if your diet is bad even exercise won't work. Remove all processed foods, at least all white sugar and refined oils. Eat only food that physicaly existed 200 years ago (minus sugar that rich people could afford in large quantities only). Removing white sugar and white flour and pr…

If you want to lose fat, healthy eating is king. If you want to increase muscle mass (but also to maintain it), some exercise is necessary.

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

#75

Post by fbrncci »

Have you ever thought about a personal trainer? Someone close to home or perhaps even someone that comes home to help you train? Sounds silly perhaps, but if you can afford one its a good option. I exercise a lot (some days 2-4 hrs per day), and for private training, all I have to do is show up. Everything is optimized for that hour, for my progression and there is not one minute of wasting time.

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

#76

Post by ornel »

After reading about it in The Guardian[0] I signed up for the "Six Pack Revolution"[1] 75 day program and I've been on it for 4 weeks now. Workouts last 30 minutes max, which I do at home while listening to a podcast. You do need to buy a battle rope. It comes with a high protein (non keto, with meat and vegetarian options) diet for which they supply a recipe book and I make my own version of things. Every day it's push ups and glute exercises, every other day abs and special challenges with the battle rope two times a week.

You do need to use Facebook so you can get the exercises and get followed up (they say they will have an app later in the year), send pictures every week and filter out a bunch of feel good gobbledygook. But the discipline and the ready made routines have been great. I'm almost 50 and bored shitless by exercise in general but this one is working for me.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/31/exercis...

[1] https://www.facebook.com/TheSixPackRevolution

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

#77

Post by kerrsclyde »

bob1029 wrote: post #33
huepfebein wrote: post #19

Indoor rowing: Does not reqire to much space, can also be done outdoors, and provides a full body workout with variable intensity. 20 minutes every other day can be enough to get/stay in shape.

I strongly recommend that anyone with a spare bedroom own a Concept2 rower. You can put thousands of km on them without replacing a single part. Nothing beats the consistency. If you can find the discipline to do 5+km/day, you probably don't ever need to go to the gym. There are a few movements that would be beneficial as a supplement, but you can use bodyweight for most of those. The simple pushup gives you about 80…

Mine has 10 million meters on the clock - all I’ve done is oil the chain occasionally.

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

#78

Post by cykros »

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. Between swings and Turkish get ups you can work out almost every muscle in your body, with a good focus on core strength.

And then there's things like making other activities a workout that aren't otherwise a workout. I've got an elliptical at home in front of a TV, and have taken to using a chromecast on it to watch Coursera classes, or even casting my screen to read epubs on the TV while walking. Cranking the resistance and incline up keeps that fairly smooth and can hit over 750 calories an hour. I just wish there were ebook apps with built in Chromecast support for something like TV remote controls for page turns, but it seems most people don't read books on TV.

Podcasts are another way I in general find to get myself active, either doing yard work, or just going for walks, as I find that it helps me detach from screens (which, if anything, can distract from processing the audio anyway). Making leisure active to me seems always a better approach than trying to force yourself to do something you don't view as leisurely in the first place. Best of luck.

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

#79

Post by artemonster »

gardenhedge wrote: post #8

I would say Kettlebells. I would say some kettlebells exercises like swings would compliment your Boxing training while being different. They will also take up very little space in your home in terms of storage and working out. Also, walking is outside and dependent on the weather but I would really recommend walking daily to counteract sitting.

Which weight to start with for a 90kg guy with little experience and poor shape?
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