61–70 of 72 posts
Best fitness advice I ever got: 1. Find a sport you like and enjoy 2. Have fun [often]
Gyms have horrible retention for a reason, it's not because humans are lazy it's because gyms are not built for (most) humans
I agree with the general principle. Interestingly though, for fitness, the opposite worked for me. I threw myself into P90X, which is on 7 days a week, sometimes even two workouts a day. I've been exercising with similar or higher intensity ever since. The integrity of the program and the trust you can have knowing you will get better if you stick to it makes it hard to quit. If you start slow, you'll just lose time.…
Another opposite worked for me. I was doing bodyweight and low resistance (25 lbs) and high rep workouts for a while. Wasn't watching motivating videos like P90X and couldn't generate enough intensity. Also strength was not improving, couldn't feel it in daily life, couldn't break through high rep plateus. Stayed at ~50 pushups, 20 25 lb curls, 40 25lb tricep extensions. Barely any muscle growth. And most of all I ha…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another opposite worked for me. I was doing bodyweight and low resistance (25 lbs) and high rep workouts for a while. Wasn't watching motivating videos like P90X and couldn't generate enough intensity. Also strength was not improving, couldn't feel it in daily life, couldn't break through high rep plateus. Stayed at ~50 pushups, 20 25 lb curls, 40 25lb tricep extensions. Barely any muscle growth. And most of all I ha…
It is well known that low weight, high reps lead to an increase in endurance, while heavy weights and low reps (as in 4~6 repetitions leading to exhaustion) lead to hypertrophy i.e. muscle growth.
For me the case is the opposite. I get sick of feeling "burn" from high rep routines and would rather do squats then cleans that leave me panting on the floor, without burn.
It may be a genetic difference. People have different proportions of fast and slow twitch muscle and excel at different sports.
And the P90X style workouts with bodyweight do cause some muscle growth. That's how people post ripped pics of themselves after programs like P90X. A bit of muscle growth usually combined with fat loss.
I was surprised that a mere 100 lb weight set would feel so heavy even though I could do 50 pushups, 12 pullups, etc. I expected I'd need 2-300 lbs to really feel the weight, really overestimating the shape I was in after doing bodyweight drills.
Best fitness advice I ever got: 1. Find a sport you like and enjoy 2. Have fun [often]
Swimming: I go to the swimming pool when I feel like I need to do something physical. I swim for an hour, non stop. I don't count the distance and if I have energy I swoosh by fast and if I'm tired I swim along with the grandmas. But it's always an hour, and usually my speed goes up towards the end as my body warms up.
Bicycling: I take my bike when I feel like I need to do something physical. I take a heading and ride that way. I make turns to the interesting directions or come up with intermediary places I want to see. I come back when I'm tired or it's too late.
The "when I feel like" means the urge to do exercise. It only comes through doing exercise regularly enough but it's kind of a self-sustaining cycle. Your body just screams for action after a few days.
A lot of my exercise comes from everyday acts. If I visit the office, I cycle there. If I go to swimming pools, I.. well, cycle there, too. I cycle to most places within five-kilometer range. I walk dogs three times a day.
I never go to gym and I don't do exercise programs or fitness plans.
My advise for anyone considering amateur body building and workouts (I'm not pro, take it with a grain of salt and see what works best for you):
* find a training partner, you need someone to spot bench presses anyway
* find a 4 day workout program, going to the gym everyday is damaging as your muscles need time to recover. 3 day weekly workout should be a bare minimum if you want results.
* stay there for an hour on average, including your warmup. I recommend 10-15 mins of steady pace on treadmill for your warmup, some stretching afterwards. Running will control your fat growth and cardio in general will increase your stamina and overall good feel. 30-50s breaks between repetitions - stay in the zone, don't let the muscles to cool down and don't waste time chatting with training buddies.
* Start with small weights, lots of newbies feel ashamed to put too little weight but nobody really cares. Too much weight will damage you at worst, slow your progress at best.
* The only supplements you should buy are whey protein, creatine and vitamins - that's all you need and that's all that worked for me or my friends, everything else is money wasting.
Keep on doing that and you will see results after 2-3 months, then results itself will be enough to motivate you not to quit.
I would add: -Stop over-analyzing things. Stop thinking things through and just jump into it. -Focus on making a habit out of exercising/coding/whatever. Once the habit is done, you will do it without much trouble. -Don't tell people what you are going to do, and just do it. Talking about your plans is the worst thing you can do. -Do the smaller things first. Small goals are easy and allow you to gain a bit of moment…
Could you edit this comment and double-line it so it's readable? Thanks!
- Focus on making a habit out of exercising/coding/whatever. Once the habit is done, you will do it without much trouble
- Don't tell people what you are going to do, and just do it. Talking about your plans is the worst thing you can do
- Do the smaller things first. Small goals are easy and allow you to gain a bit of momentum. Think of big goals like ladders, and each small goal is one of the steps
- Get some momentum going. The snowball effect just works. Every time you might want to quit you will look behind you and see this huge snowball of accomplishments following you
For me the key to not quitting was going there with a friend - peer pressure if you will, but it helps finding the motivation to go to the gym on those lazy days. My advise for anyone considering amateur body building and workouts (I'm not pro, take it with a grain of salt and see what works best for you): * find a training partner, you need someone to spot bench presses anyway * find a 4 day workout program, going t…
* 4 days vs 3 days: for hard gainers, this can be very bad advice. 3 days is the limit for me or I lose weight.
* 10-15min warmup: again for hard gainers, you don't want to do too much cardio and you're better off splitting your training into muscle gain months and fat loss months because trying to do both at the same time is nearly impossible.
* 30-50s breaks between reps: all depends on your rep scheme; if you're doing 8-6-4-2 you need much longer rests (I've tried 90s vs 180s and my level of performance is radically different); if you're doing 10x10 to break through a plateau then a short rest makes sense
* weights: it's not random, you shouldn't even need to think about this: you simply need to pick the weight that matches your rep scheme... if you're doing 8-6-4-2 you need weights YOU can ONLY lift 7-8 times, 5-6 times, etc.; it amazes me how many guys wander around gym randomly picking stuff up
Point is most of this depends on the body type of the individual AND their goals. I'm naturally skinny and struggle to eat a lot. So I found a guy like me (literally, physically) who achieved the goals I want and worked through his book and so far that works for me.
There's nothing wrong with finding a role model you just need to be clear on the variables; Arnold may be a good role model if you want to become a pro bodybuilder and you have a similar body type, he's not if that's not your goal or your starting point.
Best fitness advice I ever got: 1. Find a sport you like and enjoy 2. Have fun [often]
Exactly. For example, I swim and ride a bicycle. Here's how it works. Swimming: I go to the swimming pool when I feel like I need to do something physical. I swim for an hour, non stop. I don't count the distance and if I have energy I swoosh by fast and if I'm tired I swim along with the grandmas. But it's always an hour, and usually my speed goes up towards the end as my body warms up. Bicycling: I take my bike whe…
It's a great place to be because it means I will always keep in shape at least a little bit.
For me the key to not quitting was going there with a friend - peer pressure if you will, but it helps finding the motivation to go to the gym on those lazy days. My advise for anyone considering amateur body building and workouts (I'm not pro, take it with a grain of salt and see what works best for you): * find a training partner, you need someone to spot bench presses anyway * find a 4 day workout program, going t…
This works out so each muscle group has a full 7 days to rest. And the whole body gets Sunday off.
The results were pretty good too, I reached my peak healthy BMI within a few months (24.9) then just kept getting stronger without gaining much weight.
Bench pressing 1.5x and "squatting" ~2x your body weight is fun. It's really hard to explain just how fun to people who haven't been there.
For me the key to not quitting was going there with a friend - peer pressure if you will, but it helps finding the motivation to go to the gym on those lazy days. My advise for anyone considering amateur body building and workouts (I'm not pro, take it with a grain of salt and see what works best for you): * find a training partner, you need someone to spot bench presses anyway * find a 4 day workout program, going t…
I think you're excited to share your experiences and want to encourage others in the hopes they will enjoy similar benefits, but I think you've gone into too much detail in what's a complicated area. You've told people to take your advice with a grain of salt but you haven't identified the qualifiers which unfortunately makes your post bad advice. For instance: * 4 days vs 3 days: for hard gainers, this can be very b…
Bulking vs cutting is too much for someone amateur/starting out, I just moderate my fat with cardio and proceed with normal workouts. There are guys doing it for 4 years in my gym, if someone asked if they weight lift or are just fat I'd have a 50% chance to pick the right answer - I think most guys just bulk all the time ignoring cardio whatsoever, minority (pro/competition ready) do it right with cut/bulk phases, but I choose this middle ground for now.
I'll refrain from giving fitness advise in the future as there are indeed too many unknowns for someone reading it at the other end of the cable.