UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
hmm, I'll give it a shot
a lot of my cooking is purely freestyling with whatever I have on hand but I'll see how it goes. good motivation to get a new battery for my scale at any rate.
hell, recording recipes might even be good for when I want to remember how the hell I made something in the past
Even dietary info on food packaging can be up to 20% off (plus or minus) on what they list vs actual caloric values, but it at least gives you at least an approximation (and if you're suddenly gaining weight when what you're recording through your tracking method of choice looks like you should be losing, you can start to dial in what's suspect or not).
MFP does make it super easy to track your calories/protein/fats/fiber/carbs/etc. The only time I dislike using it is trying to approximate food from a restaurant that isn't a major chain, because then it's entirely guesswork on your part, but for tracking everything you make or bring home from the store is super easy.
Even dietary info on food packaging can be up to 20% off on what they list vs actual caloric values, but it at least gives you at least an approximation (and if you're suddenly gaining weight when what you're recording through your tracking method of choice looks like you should be losing, you can start to dial in what's suspect or not).
MFP does make it super easy to track your calories/protein/fats/fiber/carbs/etc. The only time I dislike using it is trying to approximate food from a restaurant that isn't a major chain, because then it's entirely guesswork on your part, but for tracking everything you make or bring home from the store is super easy.
My rule of thumb is to use Carls Jr for any kind of burger or chicken sandwich and fries/tots whatever. If the fancy sandwich has sauce, add another 200 calories to it.
Even dietary info on food packaging can be up to 20% off on what they list vs actual caloric values, but it at least gives you at least an approximation (and if you're suddenly gaining weight when what you're recording through your tracking method of choice looks like you should be losing, you can start to dial in what's suspect or not).
MFP does make it super easy to track your calories/protein/fats/fiber/carbs/etc. The only time I dislike using it is trying to approximate food from a restaurant that isn't a major chain, because then it's entirely guesswork on your part, but for tracking everything you make or bring home from the store is super easy.
My rule of thumb is to use Carls Jr for any kind of burger or chicken sandwich and fries/tots whatever. If the fancy sandwich has sauce, add another 200 calories to it.
Yeah, I use Dunkin Donuts for approximating donuts, breakfast sandwiches, etc. too. The worst for me is Chinese food guessing; certain dishes from the place near my parents I'm just kind of "well this looks right, but who knows".
Even dietary info on food packaging can be up to 20% off on what they list vs actual caloric values, but it at least gives you at least an approximation (and if you're suddenly gaining weight when what you're recording through your tracking method of choice looks like you should be losing, you can start to dial in what's suspect or not).
MFP does make it super easy to track your calories/protein/fats/fiber/carbs/etc. The only time I dislike using it is trying to approximate food from a restaurant that isn't a major chain, because then it's entirely guesswork on your part, but for tracking everything you make or bring home from the store is super easy.
My rule of thumb is to use Carls Jr for any kind of burger or chicken sandwich and fries/tots whatever. If the fancy sandwich has sauce, add another 200 calories to it.
Yeah, I use Dunkin Donuts for approximating donuts, breakfast sandwiches, etc. too. The worst for me is Chinese food guessing; certain dishes from the place near my parents I'm just kind of "well this looks right, but who knows".
If I'm eating classic American Chinese food, I figure the meal is about 2000 calories and call it good.
I'm currently working my way up to 3 sets of 30, I am at 3 sets of 20-25 right now but I usually fail on the third set.
That's a strong achievement. I'd say that if you can, add weight as a next step. Or variants! But three sets of 25 proper form pressups is hard. Good effort mate.
Yeah I'm thinking I should start varying it, but I'm not planning to start adding weight until I can regularly hit 3/30 or 4/25.
That is fair. Although if you can knock out 30 push-ups I guarantee you that you can do 10 with 10% of your bodyweight at least. If you want to know what variants I find useful, let me know!
I'm currently working my way up to 3 sets of 30, I am at 3 sets of 20-25 right now but I usually fail on the third set.
That's a strong achievement. I'd say that if you can, add weight as a next step. Or variants! But three sets of 25 proper form pressups is hard. Good effort mate.
Yeah I'm thinking I should start varying it, but I'm not planning to start adding weight until I can regularly hit 3/30 or 4/25.
That is fair. Although if you can knock out 30 push-ups I guarantee you that you can do 10 with 10% of your bodyweight at least. If you want to know what variants I find useful, let me know!
Send me options, right now I'm just attempting and probably not studiously doing military press-ups
Have been trying to work out at home, and as part of ~leg day~ I have been doing dumbbell squats. I have noticed that my right leg feels much tighter than my left when I'm done, and in a different area(kind of more towards the inner/front, and higher). I have historically had issues with that leg (have turned the ankle out a couple of times, and a few months ago I sprained my median collateral ligament when trying one leg squats at lighter weight). If I try to drive more with my left leg it lessens the degree to which my right leg feels different, but it still feels uneven.
Is my right leg going to fall off? End up shorter than the other? Will I end up walking in circles? Is there something else I can be doing for building quadricep strength?
I'm currently working my way up to 3 sets of 30, I am at 3 sets of 20-25 right now but I usually fail on the third set.
That's a strong achievement. I'd say that if you can, add weight as a next step. Or variants! But three sets of 25 proper form pressups is hard. Good effort mate.
Yeah I'm thinking I should start varying it, but I'm not planning to start adding weight until I can regularly hit 3/30 or 4/25.
That is fair. Although if you can knock out 30 push-ups I guarantee you that you can do 10 with 10% of your bodyweight at least. If you want to know what variants I find useful, let me know!
Send me options, right now I'm just attempting and probably not studiously doing military press-ups
A properly done full-form military press is great and I still do a set of those per super-set
I also do a variation where I take the military press position, and then cant my fingers out to the left and right, so my left-hand is pointing at the 10 o'clock position, and the right hand at the 2. That engages different muscles and drives the elbows in, which creates a different activation.
The next one I do is diamond. Diamond is straight up harder than regular. You get less leverage and you really have to engage your triceps more on this one.
Then wide angle, so take your regular position and spread your hands another six inches or so each side. Opposite of the diamond; engages the chest more.
The next two sets I do are inverted versions of each other. So the first one I get to a regular position, move my left hand up so the bottom of it is where the top of my fingers were, and the right hand down so the tips of the fingers are where the bottom was. That really engages the upper chest/shoulder on the high hand, and the lower chest/lats on the low hand. So I then do another set, flipped over. All with weight; if you aren't looking to add weight you could do six sets of 12? or 16? Maybe even more?
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DaimarA Million Feet Tall of AwesomeRegistered Userregular
so in the quarantine thread "#pipe" mentioned using a meal tracker to record what you eat, track carbs and such
anyone have any experience with how that works when you cook your own recipes 90% of the time? I guess you could input ingredients/amounts to get a total for the dish and then divide by portions but I hope there's a better/easier way that some clever sort has come up with because I really see myself struggling to do that for every meal I cook.
Basically you enter the ingredients, the portion size and then it spits out the nutritional information. I have no idea how accurate it is, but it told me my home made cookies are 90 calories per based on the ingredients, which is in line with other cookies in the app I was using. I'd just put in my recipe for whatever I made for the week, saved the nutritional info into the tracking app and was able to pull that up whenever I cooked it since I do tend to cycle between the same meals.
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DepressperadoI just wanted to see you laughingin the pizza rainRegistered Userregular
guys how do you lose finger fat specifically?
I've got big tool of tools hands but also kinda chubby baby sausage fingers
Weighted pull-ups continue to be my bugbear. Pullups in general, really.
I'm up to a 35lb weighted pullup but I'm only really good for about 5 reps before my form starts to break down. I've been stuck at about 5-6 reps a set at 25lbs for a long time. Hell, I don't move more than about 8 reps just at body weight.
I'm currently working my way up to 3 sets of 30, I am at 3 sets of 20-25 right now but I usually fail on the third set.
That's a strong achievement. I'd say that if you can, add weight as a next step. Or variants! But three sets of 25 proper form pressups is hard. Good effort mate.
Yeah I'm thinking I should start varying it, but I'm not planning to start adding weight until I can regularly hit 3/30 or 4/25.
That is fair. Although if you can knock out 30 push-ups I guarantee you that you can do 10 with 10% of your bodyweight at least. If you want to know what variants I find useful, let me know!
Send me options, right now I'm just attempting and probably not studiously doing military press-ups
A properly done full-form military press is great and I still do a set of those per super-set
I also do a variation where I take the military press position, and then cant my fingers out to the left and right, so my left-hand is pointing at the 10 o'clock position, and the right hand at the 2. That engages different muscles and drives the elbows in, which creates a different activation.
The next one I do is diamond. Diamond is straight up harder than regular. You get less leverage and you really have to engage your triceps more on this one.
Then wide angle, so take your regular position and spread your hands another six inches or so each side. Opposite of the diamond; engages the chest more.
The next two sets I do are inverted versions of each other. So the first one I get to a regular position, move my left hand up so the bottom of it is where the top of my fingers were, and the right hand down so the tips of the fingers are where the bottom was. That really engages the upper chest/shoulder on the high hand, and the lower chest/lats on the low hand. So I then do another set, flipped over. All with weight; if you aren't looking to add weight you could do six sets of 12? or 16? Maybe even more?
I did the full run at 12 a set, it was nice because I could tell it was using different muscle groups. Definitely going to keep doing that routine, and I'll try to bump it up by one or two as I go.
I tried a broccoli and cauliflower thing with cheese sauce this time and it was aggressively mediocre. I think I need to just do a full on cheese broth
I've reached a perpetual state of deadlifts are "oh my god why is this so heavy" but I keep clearing them somehow.
I have had to start using a reverse grip on my heaviest working sets but keeping a normal grip on all the warmups and it seems to be working out so far with building grip strength and not having weird balance issues.
I'm 35lbs from having the bar weight equal to my own body weight which is kind of a huge deal I never have really gotten that far the couple times I tried to actively include deadlifting in my routines over the years
I've reached a perpetual state of deadlifts are "oh my god why is this so heavy" but I keep clearing them somehow.
I have had to start using a reverse grip on my heaviest working sets but keeping a normal grip on all the warmups and it seems to be working out so far with building grip strength and not having weird balance issues.
I'm 35lbs from having the bar weight equal to my own body weight which is kind of a huge deal I never have really gotten that far the couple times I tried to actively include deadlifting in my routines over the years
It's a great feeling cracking your body weight on deadlifts.
I've reached a perpetual state of deadlifts are "oh my god why is this so heavy" but I keep clearing them somehow.
I have had to start using a reverse grip on my heaviest working sets but keeping a normal grip on all the warmups and it seems to be working out so far with building grip strength and not having weird balance issues.
I'm 35lbs from having the bar weight equal to my own body weight which is kind of a huge deal I never have really gotten that far the couple times I tried to actively include deadlifting in my routines over the years
It's a great feeling cracking your body weight on deadlifts.
I know it's still a bit of work to get there but it's just like an energy after today hah
How does one build an at-home workout routine starting from zero knowledge? My only experience with structured exercise is high school gym class. Which I both hated and sucked at, because I thought the inability to do a push-up was a personal failing and nobody ever told me otherwise. (Still annoyed that my best friend and fellow student was the only person to point out, "hey, your shoulder probably isn't supposed to do that" :mad: )
I also tried these guys once on a groupon, but everyone else there was so far beyond my level that I just felt discouraged.
My goal is a vague "be more fit." I don't have specific goals because I don't know enough to know what they could or should be.
I don't need to lose weight; and I can happily walk 3-5 miles, depending on terrain, before my knee starts complaining (old RSI? I think?). I take long-ish walks 1-2 times a week (more often in summer; it is very cold right now). I would like to build strength and cardio endurance, but I don't have the first idea of 1) how to build a balanced routine, and 2) how to hit the sweet spot of hard enough to be effective at making progress, but not so hard (or complex) that I hate it (or get overwhelmed) and quit.
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
My slow routine right now is a walk at home YouTube video for fifteen minutes in the morning and then another fifteen minute video is resistance in the afternoons M-W.
Monday I do upper body, Tuesday is legs, wed is either yoga or abs/back
Thursday I rest.
Friday I do at least a morning swim for about an hour
Saturday I do another swim
Sunday I rest.
And I'm finding it easy to stick with because there's so many choices to make in which video to watch.
I was looking back through my Facebook memories today and saw that nine years ago I got a personal best deadlift for 75kg. Pretty crazy
How does one build an at-home workout routine starting from zero knowledge? My only experience with structured exercise is high school gym class. Which I both hated and sucked at, because I thought the inability to do a push-up was a personal failing and nobody ever told me otherwise. (Still annoyed that my best friend and fellow student was the only person to point out, "hey, your shoulder probably isn't supposed to do that" :mad: )
I also tried these guys once on a groupon, but everyone else there was so far beyond my level that I just felt discouraged.
My goal is a vague "be more fit." I don't have specific goals because I don't know enough to know what they could or should be.
I don't need to lose weight; and I can happily walk 3-5 miles, depending on terrain, before my knee starts complaining (old RSI? I think?). I take long-ish walks 1-2 times a week (more often in summer; it is very cold right now). I would like to build strength and cardio endurance, but I don't have the first idea of 1) how to build a balanced routine, and 2) how to hit the sweet spot of hard enough to be effective at making progress, but not so hard (or complex) that I hate it (or get overwhelmed) and quit.
What equipment do you have? Is a pullup bar something you can use? Do you have any weights?
I'd say that what you want is something that you're going to do 2-3 times a week, and that probably it'll be bodyweight exercises, probably for about half an hour to 45 minutes, with some general strengthening routines for back, core, antagonist arms, shoulders and chest, and legs.
I'm currently working my way up to 3 sets of 30, I am at 3 sets of 20-25 right now but I usually fail on the third set.
That's a strong achievement. I'd say that if you can, add weight as a next step. Or variants! But three sets of 25 proper form pressups is hard. Good effort mate.
Yeah I'm thinking I should start varying it, but I'm not planning to start adding weight until I can regularly hit 3/30 or 4/25.
That is fair. Although if you can knock out 30 push-ups I guarantee you that you can do 10 with 10% of your bodyweight at least. If you want to know what variants I find useful, let me know!
Send me options, right now I'm just attempting and probably not studiously doing military press-ups
A properly done full-form military press is great and I still do a set of those per super-set
I also do a variation where I take the military press position, and then cant my fingers out to the left and right, so my left-hand is pointing at the 10 o'clock position, and the right hand at the 2. That engages different muscles and drives the elbows in, which creates a different activation.
The next one I do is diamond. Diamond is straight up harder than regular. You get less leverage and you really have to engage your triceps more on this one.
Then wide angle, so take your regular position and spread your hands another six inches or so each side. Opposite of the diamond; engages the chest more.
The next two sets I do are inverted versions of each other. So the first one I get to a regular position, move my left hand up so the bottom of it is where the top of my fingers were, and the right hand down so the tips of the fingers are where the bottom was. That really engages the upper chest/shoulder on the high hand, and the lower chest/lats on the low hand. So I then do another set, flipped over. All with weight; if you aren't looking to add weight you could do six sets of 12? or 16? Maybe even more?
I did the full run at 12 a set, it was nice because I could tell it was using different muscle groups. Definitely going to keep doing that routine, and I'll try to bump it up by one or two as I go.
Sick man, nice work. Maybe instead of increasing the reps, do a superset repeat? That's ace though. If you can do all that with good form, you're in solid shape.
How does one build an at-home workout routine starting from zero knowledge? My only experience with structured exercise is high school gym class. Which I both hated and sucked at, because I thought the inability to do a push-up was a personal failing and nobody ever told me otherwise. (Still annoyed that my best friend and fellow student was the only person to point out, "hey, your shoulder probably isn't supposed to do that" :mad: )
I also tried these guys once on a groupon, but everyone else there was so far beyond my level that I just felt discouraged.
My goal is a vague "be more fit." I don't have specific goals because I don't know enough to know what they could or should be.
I don't need to lose weight; and I can happily walk 3-5 miles, depending on terrain, before my knee starts complaining (old RSI? I think?). I take long-ish walks 1-2 times a week (more often in summer; it is very cold right now). I would like to build strength and cardio endurance, but I don't have the first idea of 1) how to build a balanced routine, and 2) how to hit the sweet spot of hard enough to be effective at making progress, but not so hard (or complex) that I hate it (or get overwhelmed) and quit.
What equipment do you have? Is a pullup bar something you can use? Do you have any weights?
I'd say that what you want is something that you're going to do 2-3 times a week, and that probably it'll be bodyweight exercises, probably for about half an hour to 45 minutes, with some general strengthening routines for back, core, antagonist arms, shoulders and chest, and legs.
I have an exercise ball... somewhere. Was using it as a desk chair for a while, but I stopped when I got a new desk a few years ago. No other equipment unless you count soup cans :razz:
I have one door where a pull-up bar might work; the door is right next to a perpendicular wall, so I'd want to check the dimensions of the bar to make sure there's enough clearance.
That's fine, it just changes what you can do a bit is all.
My recommendation would be to start by strengthening your core, back, shoulders and chest, those things will give you a good basis.
Push-ups are a great start. I'd find how many you can do at max, then drop it by 2-3 reps (from the sounds of it you don't want to go to failure), then do three sets of that. You can add variants once you can do good form standard pushups (back straight, core engaged, get the chest low, up to full extension etc). If you can't do pushups with knees up, knees down is fine.
The I'd say you want to strengthen your lower back. Everyone always forgets this and gets dreadful back pain and a weak lower back because they don't consider it a staple. I'd do three sets of Supermans. They're good for your shoulders and upper back too; get your arms nice and high to engage them.
Then the front core. I'd do three sets of probably ten crunches with the feet down. And then I'd see how you feel after. Fair warning; you know your core is getting activated cos it hurts with a unique core ache. But three sets should be good.
If you get a pull-up bar, then pull-ups are fantastic. If you can't do one, do eccentrics (jump to the upper position, slowly lower down). Three sets. Plenty of rest.
And then I'd do three sets of squats to finish it off.
That's 15 sets in total, if you do that with three minutes rest each plus exercise time (you want to concentrate on good form, don't go too quickly, less reps but good for is what you want) that's like an hour, so maybe you'd do that twice a week, or maybe you'd break it up a bit and do pushups and pullups one day, rest, core, squats and back, rest, etc etc etc.
You'll see improvements quickly; push the reps up if you're not actively mentally pushing yourself to finish each set (you can have some in the tank, but you need to feel like you are trying hard to complete, as neural effort is needed to recruit all those muscle fibers)
Hope this helps! Good luck can always come back for advice and expansion!
How does one build an at-home workout routine starting from zero knowledge? My only experience with structured exercise is high school gym class. Which I both hated and sucked at, because I thought the inability to do a push-up was a personal failing and nobody ever told me otherwise. (Still annoyed that my best friend and fellow student was the only person to point out, "hey, your shoulder probably isn't supposed to do that" :mad: )
I also tried these guys once on a groupon, but everyone else there was so far beyond my level that I just felt discouraged.
My goal is a vague "be more fit." I don't have specific goals because I don't know enough to know what they could or should be.
I don't need to lose weight; and I can happily walk 3-5 miles, depending on terrain, before my knee starts complaining (old RSI? I think?). I take long-ish walks 1-2 times a week (more often in summer; it is very cold right now). I would like to build strength and cardio endurance, but I don't have the first idea of 1) how to build a balanced routine, and 2) how to hit the sweet spot of hard enough to be effective at making progress, but not so hard (or complex) that I hate it (or get overwhelmed) and quit.
What equipment do you have? Is a pullup bar something you can use? Do you have any weights?
I'd say that what you want is something that you're going to do 2-3 times a week, and that probably it'll be bodyweight exercises, probably for about half an hour to 45 minutes, with some general strengthening routines for back, core, antagonist arms, shoulders and chest, and legs.
I have an exercise ball... somewhere. Was using it as a desk chair for a while, but I stopped when I got a new desk a few years ago. No other equipment unless you count soup cans :razz:
I have one door where a pull-up bar might work; the door is right next to a perpendicular wall, so I'd want to check the dimensions of the bar to make sure there's enough clearance.
Soup cans are fine. During lockdown here I lifted at home using a backpack full of books for a few months. It's awkward, but still works.
Solar had some good suggestions above, I'd also say you should try to look up stuff using resistance bands, which substitute for weights.
The thing I would say with resistance bands is they vary in resistance based on the amount of stretch, so for example you load your muscles more with a resistance band pushup at the top than the bottom.
I'd say that a backpack with some weight in it is more consistent and also a bit more measurable. But resistance bands are good!
If you're really not sure what to do, it may be worth consulting with a personal trainer; a lot of them are doing digital consultations, which aren't going to be as good as the real deal going in, but they'll be able to help you figure out form and try to work around any injuries you might already have
Another possibility if you have a Switch is Ring Fit! I found that it was surprisingly tough as a workout even as someone who has always been doing at least 1 sport or martial art at a time (though lapsed due to covid for the first couple months of the pandemic obviously). It'll teach you some well-rounded exercises and is actually decent at figuring out when your form is off.
Past that, it might be worth considering what your actual fitness goals are. Do you want to build muscle? Flexibility? Endurance? There's different methods for each of those depending, and if you can set some basic achievable goals then it'll help guide your activities and make it easier to fit things into a regular schedule.
That have tons of free workout videos and you can easily filter by stuff like length, intensity, type but you can also purchase programs for like 15 dollars that groups videos by goal or specific area to work.
It's totally worth it.
Also if you do them and enjoy them and decide to get weights, I can't recommend adjustable weights enough. They're pricey but they're one of the best investments I made.
Didn't get around to my run on Tuesday, but did a nice short run yesterday afternoon and then a little longer of a run this morning. Legs held up pretty well, breathing felt pretty good most of the time, and I ended up with negative splits which wasn't what I was planning at all! My pace isn't nice and consistent just yet, but it felt good today so whatever.
Debating on whether I want to do another short run tomorrow morning, but I'd like to get a longer run in Saturday so I may take the day off. That'll put me around 10 miles for the week, which is about where I want to be for now.
How does one build an at-home workout routine starting from zero knowledge? My only experience with structured exercise is high school gym class. Which I both hated and sucked at, because I thought the inability to do a push-up was a personal failing and nobody ever told me otherwise. (Still annoyed that my best friend and fellow student was the only person to point out, "hey, your shoulder probably isn't supposed to do that" :mad: )
I also tried these guys once on a groupon, but everyone else there was so far beyond my level that I just felt discouraged.
My goal is a vague "be more fit." I don't have specific goals because I don't know enough to know what they could or should be.
I don't need to lose weight; and I can happily walk 3-5 miles, depending on terrain, before my knee starts complaining (old RSI? I think?). I take long-ish walks 1-2 times a week (more often in summer; it is very cold right now). I would like to build strength and cardio endurance, but I don't have the first idea of 1) how to build a balanced routine, and 2) how to hit the sweet spot of hard enough to be effective at making progress, but not so hard (or complex) that I hate it (or get overwhelmed) and quit.
My one bit of advice - find someone to be accountable to, whether its a family member or a friend or a trainer. Keep a spreadsheet, check in with them weekly. A trainer is nice for correcting form, but its hard to pull off with covid.
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MalReynoldsThe Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicinesRegistered Userregular
I'm currently working my way up to 3 sets of 30, I am at 3 sets of 20-25 right now but I usually fail on the third set.
That's a strong achievement. I'd say that if you can, add weight as a next step. Or variants! But three sets of 25 proper form pressups is hard. Good effort mate.
Yeah I'm thinking I should start varying it, but I'm not planning to start adding weight until I can regularly hit 3/30 or 4/25.
That is fair. Although if you can knock out 30 push-ups I guarantee you that you can do 10 with 10% of your bodyweight at least. If you want to know what variants I find useful, let me know!
Send me options, right now I'm just attempting and probably not studiously doing military press-ups
A properly done full-form military press is great and I still do a set of those per super-set
I also do a variation where I take the military press position, and then cant my fingers out to the left and right, so my left-hand is pointing at the 10 o'clock position, and the right hand at the 2. That engages different muscles and drives the elbows in, which creates a different activation.
The next one I do is diamond. Diamond is straight up harder than regular. You get less leverage and you really have to engage your triceps more on this one.
Then wide angle, so take your regular position and spread your hands another six inches or so each side. Opposite of the diamond; engages the chest more.
The next two sets I do are inverted versions of each other. So the first one I get to a regular position, move my left hand up so the bottom of it is where the top of my fingers were, and the right hand down so the tips of the fingers are where the bottom was. That really engages the upper chest/shoulder on the high hand, and the lower chest/lats on the low hand. So I then do another set, flipped over. All with weight; if you aren't looking to add weight you could do six sets of 12? or 16? Maybe even more?
I do a variation of this but its 40 regular spaced, 25x25 with hands at alternating positions, 20 with arms wide, and 20 close grip/triangle.
Edit: I have some millld scoliosis so I have to be careful so I modify and adjust, but I picked up on the hand spacing/position from your posts which have given me a plate chest and baseball sized forearms.
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The thing I would say with resistance bands is they vary in resistance based on the amount of stretch, so for example you load your muscles more with a resistance band pushup at the top than the bottom.
I'd say that a backpack with some weight in it is more consistent and also a bit more measurable. But resistance bands are good!
By the end of it I hated the backpack because I plateaued on them hard on in terms of how much weight I could lift with them, weight I knew I could do more with actual barbells but the distribution of the weight was such that some exercises were just harder/awkward. Still better than nothing though!
I settled on joining a digital bodybuilding club aimed at women for now called Paragon (https://paragontrainingmethods.com/ ) and am following their program for dumbbell lifting (DB Physique)
It seems pretty good so far and fairly challenging; I would prefer checking in with a trainer but would rather do that in a gym and not online, so that's gonna wait til after I get the jab this summer. For now I'll be doing 4 weight days a week (two upper body, two lower) and one conditioning day that'll probably balance between being HIIT spin rides or cross-country skiing
I'm a week in and whoof, sore! But I'm hoping to see some good results! And tonight I finally will be having my coaching session with a ski coach and am very excited to maybe figure out how to do this, too!
A couple of months ago I changed my mid week runs to a 4 miles-6 miles-8 miles back to back, as a way to try to further build up my endurance and pace for the long runs and I think it's really starting to pay off.
The 8 miler has been feeling easier and my pace has picked up in all of the runs. It's def not for everyone and I been lucky to steer clear of injuries but I'm going to stick with that plan for a while as well as my climbing and weights.
I very much didn't want to do anything today but I did. I had to as last year I managed the first 42 days of the year straight with exercise everyday and working out today matched that. So I must do something tomorrow too, at least with not going out I'm less likely to pick up a tummy bug which is what did for me last year.
I think we're past the ice so unless I get called into the office I'm going to go for a run, if not I'll do some exercise bike when I get home.
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
the full body fatigue that I felt getting out of the pool this morning was amazing.
Just all over wash of 'we have been well used'.
now i just need to keep resisting this head cold that's trying to take over my energy
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a lot of my cooking is purely freestyling with whatever I have on hand but I'll see how it goes. good motivation to get a new battery for my scale at any rate.
hell, recording recipes might even be good for when I want to remember how the hell I made something in the past
MFP does make it super easy to track your calories/protein/fats/fiber/carbs/etc. The only time I dislike using it is trying to approximate food from a restaurant that isn't a major chain, because then it's entirely guesswork on your part, but for tracking everything you make or bring home from the store is super easy.
My rule of thumb is to use Carls Jr for any kind of burger or chicken sandwich and fries/tots whatever. If the fancy sandwich has sauce, add another 200 calories to it.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
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Yeah, I use Dunkin Donuts for approximating donuts, breakfast sandwiches, etc. too. The worst for me is Chinese food guessing; certain dishes from the place near my parents I'm just kind of "well this looks right, but who knows".
If I'm eating classic American Chinese food, I figure the meal is about 2000 calories and call it good.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
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That is fair. Although if you can knock out 30 push-ups I guarantee you that you can do 10 with 10% of your bodyweight at least. If you want to know what variants I find useful, let me know!
Send me options, right now I'm just attempting and probably not studiously doing military press-ups
Is my right leg going to fall off? End up shorter than the other? Will I end up walking in circles? Is there something else I can be doing for building quadricep strength?
A properly done full-form military press is great and I still do a set of those per super-set
I also do a variation where I take the military press position, and then cant my fingers out to the left and right, so my left-hand is pointing at the 10 o'clock position, and the right hand at the 2. That engages different muscles and drives the elbows in, which creates a different activation.
The next one I do is diamond. Diamond is straight up harder than regular. You get less leverage and you really have to engage your triceps more on this one.
Then wide angle, so take your regular position and spread your hands another six inches or so each side. Opposite of the diamond; engages the chest more.
The next two sets I do are inverted versions of each other. So the first one I get to a regular position, move my left hand up so the bottom of it is where the top of my fingers were, and the right hand down so the tips of the fingers are where the bottom was. That really engages the upper chest/shoulder on the high hand, and the lower chest/lats on the low hand. So I then do another set, flipped over. All with weight; if you aren't looking to add weight you could do six sets of 12? or 16? Maybe even more?
When I was on my diet and tracking my calories I used two sites, one is now shut down and this is the other: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Basically you enter the ingredients, the portion size and then it spits out the nutritional information. I have no idea how accurate it is, but it told me my home made cookies are 90 calories per based on the ingredients, which is in line with other cookies in the app I was using. I'd just put in my recipe for whatever I made for the week, saved the nutritional info into the tracking app and was able to pull that up whenever I cooked it since I do tend to cycle between the same meals.
I've got big tool of tools hands but also kinda chubby baby sausage fingers
I was really hoping there were like, tiny finger push-ups or something
Learn piano or violin, they all have thin fingers...
I don't know how causation / correlation works.
Also if you want to feel better, Dimebag Darrell who was a prodigious guitarist had fat meaty paws.
I'm up to a 35lb weighted pullup but I'm only really good for about 5 reps before my form starts to break down. I've been stuck at about 5-6 reps a set at 25lbs for a long time. Hell, I don't move more than about 8 reps just at body weight.
Pullups bad. No like.
I did the full run at 12 a set, it was nice because I could tell it was using different muscle groups. Definitely going to keep doing that routine, and I'll try to bump it up by one or two as I go.
You can't lose any specific fat by working out that area. Fat doesn't work that way. It is distributed in predictable patterns based on your hormones.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
I have had to start using a reverse grip on my heaviest working sets but keeping a normal grip on all the warmups and it seems to be working out so far with building grip strength and not having weird balance issues.
I'm 35lbs from having the bar weight equal to my own body weight which is kind of a huge deal I never have really gotten that far the couple times I tried to actively include deadlifting in my routines over the years
It's a great feeling cracking your body weight on deadlifts.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
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I know it's still a bit of work to get there but it's just like an energy after today hah
How does one build an at-home workout routine starting from zero knowledge? My only experience with structured exercise is high school gym class. Which I both hated and sucked at, because I thought the inability to do a push-up was a personal failing and nobody ever told me otherwise. (Still annoyed that my best friend and fellow student was the only person to point out, "hey, your shoulder probably isn't supposed to do that" :mad: )
I also tried these guys once on a groupon, but everyone else there was so far beyond my level that I just felt discouraged.
My goal is a vague "be more fit." I don't have specific goals because I don't know enough to know what they could or should be.
I don't need to lose weight; and I can happily walk 3-5 miles, depending on terrain, before my knee starts complaining (old RSI? I think?). I take long-ish walks 1-2 times a week (more often in summer; it is very cold right now). I would like to build strength and cardio endurance, but I don't have the first idea of 1) how to build a balanced routine, and 2) how to hit the sweet spot of hard enough to be effective at making progress, but not so hard (or complex) that I hate it (or get overwhelmed) and quit.
Monday I do upper body, Tuesday is legs, wed is either yoga or abs/back
Thursday I rest.
Friday I do at least a morning swim for about an hour
Saturday I do another swim
Sunday I rest.
And I'm finding it easy to stick with because there's so many choices to make in which video to watch.
I was looking back through my Facebook memories today and saw that nine years ago I got a personal best deadlift for 75kg. Pretty crazy
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What equipment do you have? Is a pullup bar something you can use? Do you have any weights?
I'd say that what you want is something that you're going to do 2-3 times a week, and that probably it'll be bodyweight exercises, probably for about half an hour to 45 minutes, with some general strengthening routines for back, core, antagonist arms, shoulders and chest, and legs.
Sick man, nice work. Maybe instead of increasing the reps, do a superset repeat? That's ace though. If you can do all that with good form, you're in solid shape.
I have an exercise ball... somewhere. Was using it as a desk chair for a while, but I stopped when I got a new desk a few years ago. No other equipment unless you count soup cans :razz:
I have one door where a pull-up bar might work; the door is right next to a perpendicular wall, so I'd want to check the dimensions of the bar to make sure there's enough clearance.
My recommendation would be to start by strengthening your core, back, shoulders and chest, those things will give you a good basis.
Push-ups are a great start. I'd find how many you can do at max, then drop it by 2-3 reps (from the sounds of it you don't want to go to failure), then do three sets of that. You can add variants once you can do good form standard pushups (back straight, core engaged, get the chest low, up to full extension etc). If you can't do pushups with knees up, knees down is fine.
The I'd say you want to strengthen your lower back. Everyone always forgets this and gets dreadful back pain and a weak lower back because they don't consider it a staple. I'd do three sets of Supermans. They're good for your shoulders and upper back too; get your arms nice and high to engage them.
Then the front core. I'd do three sets of probably ten crunches with the feet down. And then I'd see how you feel after. Fair warning; you know your core is getting activated cos it hurts with a unique core ache. But three sets should be good.
If you get a pull-up bar, then pull-ups are fantastic. If you can't do one, do eccentrics (jump to the upper position, slowly lower down). Three sets. Plenty of rest.
And then I'd do three sets of squats to finish it off.
That's 15 sets in total, if you do that with three minutes rest each plus exercise time (you want to concentrate on good form, don't go too quickly, less reps but good for is what you want) that's like an hour, so maybe you'd do that twice a week, or maybe you'd break it up a bit and do pushups and pullups one day, rest, core, squats and back, rest, etc etc etc.
You'll see improvements quickly; push the reps up if you're not actively mentally pushing yourself to finish each set (you can have some in the tank, but you need to feel like you are trying hard to complete, as neural effort is needed to recruit all those muscle fibers)
Hope this helps! Good luck
Soup cans are fine. During lockdown here I lifted at home using a backpack full of books for a few months. It's awkward, but still works.
Solar had some good suggestions above, I'd also say you should try to look up stuff using resistance bands, which substitute for weights.
I'd say that a backpack with some weight in it is more consistent and also a bit more measurable. But resistance bands are good!
Another possibility if you have a Switch is Ring Fit! I found that it was surprisingly tough as a workout even as someone who has always been doing at least 1 sport or martial art at a time (though lapsed due to covid for the first couple months of the pandemic obviously). It'll teach you some well-rounded exercises and is actually decent at figuring out when your form is off.
Past that, it might be worth considering what your actual fitness goals are. Do you want to build muscle? Flexibility? Endurance? There's different methods for each of those depending, and if you can set some basic achievable goals then it'll help guide your activities and make it easier to fit things into a regular schedule.
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That have tons of free workout videos and you can easily filter by stuff like length, intensity, type but you can also purchase programs for like 15 dollars that groups videos by goal or specific area to work.
It's totally worth it.
Also if you do them and enjoy them and decide to get weights, I can't recommend adjustable weights enough. They're pricey but they're one of the best investments I made.
Debating on whether I want to do another short run tomorrow morning, but I'd like to get a longer run in Saturday so I may take the day off. That'll put me around 10 miles for the week, which is about where I want to be for now.
My one bit of advice - find someone to be accountable to, whether its a family member or a friend or a trainer. Keep a spreadsheet, check in with them weekly. A trainer is nice for correcting form, but its hard to pull off with covid.
I do a variation of this but its 40 regular spaced, 25x25 with hands at alternating positions, 20 with arms wide, and 20 close grip/triangle.
Edit: I have some millld scoliosis so I have to be careful so I modify and adjust, but I picked up on the hand spacing/position from your posts which have given me a plate chest and baseball sized forearms.
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By the end of it I hated the backpack because I plateaued on them hard on in terms of how much weight I could lift with them, weight I knew I could do more with actual barbells but the distribution of the weight was such that some exercises were just harder/awkward. Still better than nothing though!
It seems pretty good so far and fairly challenging; I would prefer checking in with a trainer but would rather do that in a gym and not online, so that's gonna wait til after I get the jab this summer. For now I'll be doing 4 weight days a week (two upper body, two lower) and one conditioning day that'll probably balance between being HIIT spin rides or cross-country skiing
I'm a week in and whoof, sore! But I'm hoping to see some good results! And tonight I finally will be having my coaching session with a ski coach and am very excited to maybe figure out how to do this, too!
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The 8 miler has been feeling easier and my pace has picked up in all of the runs. It's def not for everyone and I been lucky to steer clear of injuries but I'm going to stick with that plan for a while as well as my climbing and weights.
I think we're past the ice so unless I get called into the office I'm going to go for a run, if not I'll do some exercise bike when I get home.
Just all over wash of 'we have been well used'.
now i just need to keep resisting this head cold that's trying to take over my energy
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