The training, excercising and fitness thread

Started by Captain Maltese, April 12, 2009, 08:12:49 AM

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Captain Maltese

I can't see another thread for this, so here goes.

After my gastric bypass half a year ago I've lost 40 pounds (and it's still dripping off a little more every week), and am going dancing and walking the city streets like I haven't done for the last 15 years. And I'm appreciating the 10 lost inches of waistline to no end. Now I'm getting hungry for some fine tuning. At my disposal I have a set of weights; I've dabbled a little in lifting in my good periods in fitness studios but the last time was already three years ago. Also a rubber mat and my dad's treadmill.

The most vital area for me to work on right now is my stomach muscles. There's a lot less fat than there used to be and when I hold my muscles (as much as you do when you walk) it's an encouraging sight after all these years. But even so there's surplus skin and I would like to firm up a bit more. So, right now I'm turning to the good old sit-ups excercise. Does anyone else here have a suggestion for how I should do them? I'm thinking 3xbestasIcan two times per day, increasing as and when I can manage. I read somewhere that there should be two different sets done; one where I lift just my upper body halfway up, and another where I lift just my feet. Any input here? Also, should I keep my hands in front of me or behind my neck while doing the situps?

I'll make a thread called 'The training, excercising and fitness motivation and cheering-along thread' in the Good'n'cuddly subforum ;D

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Captain Maltese

Apparently US Army sgt Ken has had a few thoughts about this ;D

Sit-ups

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Captain Maltese

...dear gods. I can't even lift myself up to the top position once. It's apparently a long, long, long time since I was doing this myself in the army :-X Should I try something else entirely or do I just lift as high as I can then go down again, and hope things will improve rapidly to the point where a full lift becomes an option?

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Lilias

I'm into the Pilates way of doing such things. You might want to take a look here.
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
~Wendell Berry

Double Os <> Double As (updated Feb 20) <> The Hoard <> 50 Tales 2024 <> The Lab <> ELLUIKI

Captain Maltese

I checked out the movie; the lifting of chest and legs seemed good but that pumping thing looked a bit complicated for me?

A search on lower abs on youtube gave me this simple one; I can at least do a few of them so I guess it would be a start.

How to Do Abdominal Exercises : How to Do Lower Abdominal Exercises

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Captain Maltese

Same girl has a raaaather gentler version of Sgt Ken's excercise too...this one I can do. Not going to stare up at the ceiling, but I'll give it a shot. I'll call it 'gentle upper abs situps for future reference. Or is she doing it wrong?

How to Do Abdominal Exercises : How to Do Ab Crunch Exercises

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consortium11

Are you looking to gain a pack (2, 4, 6 or if you're really hardcore 8) or merely strengthen the abs? Just doing abdominal based exercises, while incredibly good for you (as all core work is), won't get them to appear or become noticeably larger... the abs have one of the smallest growth potentials of any muscle group.

To get visable abs you wan't a fully body workout to lower your BFA... concentrate on legs and back as these are the two largest muscle groups and as such raise your metabolism the most, but the name of the game is compound exercises combined with cardio work (probably HIIT training)

To strengthen the abs (and surrounding muscle groups) you want to do a series of exercises. Personally I try to fit in at least 15 mins of core work a day, despite whatever area I'm targeting, and obviously more on core days. A very simple workout (assuming you don't have access to machinery and thus are doing bodyweight work) would be along these lines:

3 x 15 Crunches (with a 45 second/minute rest between each set)
Plank for 1 minute
3 x 15 Bicycle Crunches (with a 45 second/minute rest between each set)
One-leg, one arm Plank for 1 minute
3 x 15 Reverse Crunches (with a 45 second/minute rest between each set)

That covers pretty much all the ab muscles in a series of simple movements that don't need any other equipment. It should also be noted that if you're working your abs a lot you'll also want to strengthen your back to avoid putting your body under stress.

Apple of Eris

Dear god... that sit up guy is HOOOOOT.

Where can I find him? Yummy!
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Captain Maltese

Quote from: consortium11 on April 12, 2009, 02:40:17 PM
Are you looking to gain a pack (2, 4, 6 or if you're really hardcore 8) or merely strengthen the abs? Just doing abdominal based exercises, while incredibly good for you (as all core work is), won't get them to appear or become noticeably larger... the abs have one of the smallest growth potentials of any muscle group.

To get visable abs you wan't a fully body workout to lower your BFA... concentrate on legs and back as these are the two largest muscle groups and as such raise your metabolism the most, but the name of the game is compound exercises combined with cardio work (probably HIIT training)

To strengthen the abs (and surrounding muscle groups) you want to do a series of exercises. Personally I try to fit in at least 15 mins of core work a day, despite whatever area I'm targeting, and obviously more on core days. A very simple workout (assuming you don't have access to machinery and thus are doing bodyweight work) would be along these lines:

3 x 15 Crunches (with a 45 second/minute rest between each set)
Plank for 1 minute
3 x 15 Bicycle Crunches (with a 45 second/minute rest between each set)
One-leg, one arm Plank for 1 minute
3 x 15 Reverse Crunches (with a 45 second/minute rest between each set)

That covers pretty much all the ab muscles in a series of simple movements that don't need any other equipment. It should also be noted that if you're working your abs a lot you'll also want to strengthen your back to avoid putting your body under stress.

You apparently have insight in this ;D No, gaining a pack isn't a priority at all, I'll be quite satisfied with gaining some reasonable abs strength for now. Becoming able to do those crunches like that Sergeant will be an excellent goal to reach.

What is BFA? Or HIIT? I'm also unfamiliar with 'Plank' and am unsure of the precise performing of 'crunches', 'bicycle crunches' and 'reverse crunches'. I may be familiar with them in action but not the terms.

I am aware that I'll need to increase the number excercise to get anywhere near fit, but being bipolar I'm not very good with structure to put it mildly so I need to focus on just a couple of things in the start, and crunches could be that start.


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Dawg

Captain, the main thing to remember is it takes time to get back into the swing of a workout

My current rotation for Sit Ups and Push Ups is every other day (Sit Ups 4x30 and Push Ups 4x25).  The most important thing is to keep position and do them right while slowly increasing your repetitions.  Don't worry if you start with one repetition of 5 and that's it, as long as you keep at it regularly they will increase.

Right now I would start with low reps and work on form, as you get comfortable with the form, increase repetitions.  When you can do 4X15 Push Ups, 4X20 Sit Ups and 3X3 Pull Ups, then look at starting the plan below that would really begin to show you results, it take 2 months to get through it, but well worth it in the end.

Plan on having a log to keep track of what you do so you can see your progress and don't forget where you left off.  If you want we can go through it together, the weather just turned and I have been building back up using the Perfect Push Up bars that Puppy got me for Christmas (currently around week 3-4 status right now and have been taking things on the light side but plan to get the running back into place).  I want to get all the way through this again on the perfect Push Ups and then maybe rotate back down when I uncover the pool in another month or two.

So if you want you work on getting ready, I will go through this starting at week one now and when I finish you should be ready to start, then we can go through it together and I will throw in the swimming with that round.

Running

Weeks #1, 2: 2 miles/day, 8:30 pace, M/W/F (6 miles/ week)
Week #3: No running. High risk of stress fractures
Week #4: 3 miles/day, M/W/F (9 miles/wk)
Weeks #5, 6: 2/3/4/2 miles, M/Tu/Th/F (11 miles/wk)
Weeks #7,8: 4/4/5/3 miles, M/Tu/Th/F (16 miles/ wk)
Week #9: same as #7,8 (16 miles/ wk)

Push Ups, Pull Ups and Sit Ups (Mon/Wed/Fri)

Week #1:
4X15 Push Ups
4X20 Sit Ups
3X3 Pull Ups

Week #2:
5X20 Push Ups
5X20 Sit Ups
3X3 Pull Ups

Week #3,4:
5X25 Push Ups
5X25 Sit Ups
3X4 Pull Ups

Week #5,6:
6X25 Push Ups
6X25 Sit Ups
2X8 Pull Ups

Week #7,8:
6X30 Push Ups
6X30 Sit Ups
2X10 Pull Ups

Week #9:
6X30 Push Ups
6X30 Sit Ups
3X10 Pull Ups

Swimming 4-5 days a week

Weeks #1, 2: Swim continuously for 15 min.
Weeks #3, 4: Swim continuously for 20 min.
Weeks #5, 6: Swim continuously for 25 min.
Weeks #7, 8: Swim continuously for 30 min.
Week #9: Swim continuously for 35 min.

.
[tr][td]
"sEx is LikE aiR..
iTs noT reaLLy tHat imPortAnt
untiL yoU're noT geTtiNg anY.."
[/td][td]
   *******   [/td][td]
Suffering should be creative,
it should give birth to something good and lovely
 ~ Chinua Achebe
[/td][/tr][/table]

consortium11

#10
I'm a bit of health and fitness freak at times... made worse by the fact I keep not following my own advice  :-)

BFA's actually a typo... I meant to say BF%... your body fat percentage.

HIIT is "High Intensity Interval Training". It's a cardio technique that is the best way to burn calories. Basically instead of doing a long period of low intensity exercise (say jogging) you do short periods of high intensity (sprinting) followed by a period of very low intensity exercise (walking/resting).

The most common form can be applied to any cardio activity for a 16 minute work out that does more good than an hours jogging (in terms of weight loss).

1) 4 mins warming up by going at a reasonable pace.
2) 30 seconds go as if the devil is on your tail... spring/swim/row like your life depends on it.
3) 30 seconds of rest... walk or something just as easy.

Alternate the spring and the rest portions for 8 minutes (so 8 sprints followed by 8 rests).

4 minutes warm down at a reasonable pace.

If it's too hard (which it can be) lower the sprint portions (to say 20/15 seconds) and increase the rests, or do less overall... say 6 sprints or 4 sprints.

Bicycle crunches are the king of crunches, working almost all your core muscles. If you're just doing a single exercise, these are your go-to tool:

How to Get Six Pack Abs : Bicycle Crunch Exercises for the Abs

The plank is a static exercise and itself has a lot of variations:

Ab Exercises: The Plank

The most common variation is to only use two limbs... so your left leg and right arm, and there's also side planks which work slightly different muscles... but they're a little bit more complex and require fairly solid abs to do well to begin with.

Reverse Crunch:

Exercise of The Day: Reverse Crunch

Basic Crunch (basically a situp with your feet off the ground):

Crunch sit-ups - Exercise Tips

If you want to just concentrate on one exercise to begin with, go for 3 sets of 5 bicycle crunches... if you feel completely comfortable doing that start increasing the amount each set. A very solid goal is to be able to do 3 sets of 15 without feeling like you're going to die.

Captain Maltese

Thanks con! I need to digest and try this for a while, but'll report back  8-)

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Avis habilis

Quote from: consortium11 on April 12, 2009, 05:05:45 PMA very solid goal is to be able to do 3 sets of 15 with feeling like you're going to die.

Sorry if I'm being obtuse here, but did you really mean to say that the goal is to be able to finish even though you feel like you're about to die? Or was it to finish without feeling the hand of death on you?

consortium11


Captain Maltese

I evidently need to get started on the bicepses again. Check out the two visual demonstrations on http://www.iform.no/pub/art.php?id=281 ; are they (hantelcurl and hammercurl) okay for starting-out purposes?

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consortium11

Yeah, those are the basic curls: the hammercurl (where the bell is held vertically rather than horizontally) is better for the wrists than a standard curl, so it's probably the way to go.

Captain Maltese

Sounds good. I'm adding hammercurls to the daily grinder.

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