Fitness, excercising, physical training

[Captain Maltese]

Gah. I still needed more sweat from my morning sessions. So early this week I bit the bullet and broke a promise to myself, and went and bought a treadmill. No more dancing on the spot; instead I am for the moment on 15 minutes of milling per day. I have to admit that it is a lot more effective for sweat production and my feet and knees are happier - but wearing proper jogging shoes might be part of the reason for that. For the moment the goal is to increase the mileage rather than the time spent (meaning speeding up the jogging session), as the total session per morning is getting long enough that I am afraid an even longer session will be taking chances with my right-out-of-bed-every-morning motivation.

[Nico]

It is all about the right shoes. ~nodnod~ I'm doing long-distance running and if something is really essential, then it's the footwear. It goes a long way and usually helps avoid bad pain and this, in turn, helps to avoid frustration because of the wrong kind of pain. Threadmills are no bad things at all, we've got one at home as well.

[Captain Maltese]

Still at it. All pay loads keep increasing, and now I need a smaller belt. So all is well. However, now there are a few minor notes on diet. In general I have been keeping an eye on what I eat for years - not too difficult for someone living alone. 'Keeping an eye on' is not the same as keeping it in check, though. But at least it gets easy to notice when something changes. Ever since I started this round of exercising I have made sure to do the whole routine before breakfast. No surprise then that my breakfast appetite is sharper - but the meal is still the same size. What I have tried out a couple of mornings now is to have half an energy bar just as I get started; the energy increase was noticeably but I was not happy about eating and treadmilling at the same time. Instead I am now trying out an energy drink which is not filling the tummy in the same way but still gives a little buzz; it also means I get more water down which also helps - I am certainly sweating more. This I will explore further.

There is also an effect on dinner, which I did not expect. I am somehow less hungry, so the meal is smaller. And instead of having the leftovers for the evening they get put in the fridge for another day's dinner. Since I buy as much food as before, my fridge is bulging at this point - this habit needs to change. The evening meal is now scheduled for no later than 8 pm; until recently I'd have a good meal as late as 1am if I felt like. I seem to manage.

And here is the weirdest part. My intake of snacks is dropping like a stone. My weekly intake of salted chips and the like is down to a couple of crackers, and chocolate which I used with my coffee is way down in volume. The only thing that has increased some is fruit, which I am using in the smoothies I keep in the fridge. Even milk, which I always have been drinking like a calf, is down from a river to a brook. And after 30 years of light milk, I suddenly prefer the fat free skimmed type. Believe me - I do NOT have the kind of will power to make dietary changes like this happen. It is just happening. 

[Captain Maltese]

Well, it's now been two months with treadmilling and possibly three, maybe close to four months of daily exercising in total. Still sticking to the morning routine, which by now have ballooned to almost an hour. The daily sequence is now treadmill > biceps curl dumbbells > situps > barbell shoulder lifts. I'm pondering throwing in a new element but have not decided what yet, but it should preferably focus on other muscle groups. All is well and it is paying off in waistline and muscle. I have a new and shorter belt. Also I have an MP3 player with headphones with a mixed back of old and new music, which helps on keeping the feet going - it's 2 kilometers every day now. Another tool of keeping my steam up is the energy drink I have been testing out for a while, or actually two variants thereof. Reviews are coming next.

Also I have been continuing the study of various supplemental bars, and the variety in brands is becoming bewildering since I found as much as four grocery and sports stores with a considerable selection. I had no idea there was so much to choose between, and I am bringing home several bars every time I go shopping now. Some new and some I have decided I really like. Basically I avoid the basic meal bars and anything cereal, and I am not hot on energy bars either since I still eat normal food - it might be different if I was going to gyms. The type I mostly go for are variations of protein bars, which both fit with my exercising program and are somewhat filling and make small sized meals. There'll be a couple of reviews coming on that as well.

[Captain Maltese]

Name: Maxim Sports Drink
Price: about 10 dollars for a 480 grams can of powder
Contents (per single scoop): 17 grams of carbs, including 7 grams of sugar, 100 milligrams of potassium and 18 milligrams of magnesium. The actual contents are mostly maltodextrin and fructosis.
Energy: 70 calories.

This is the sports drink I am using currently. After buying and using the lemon version for a while, I also bought the orange flavored variation. Does not seem to differ much in anything but taste. There is also a tropical fruit version, which I have not sampled as yet.

My daily intake is one spoon of powder, diluted in half a bottle of water. I tried to up the dosage but it didn't really make a difference.

One of the more complicated things about this stuff is that once mixed, it need to be consumed fairly soon. I either mix this stuff right before I head to bed and put it in the fridge, or I mix it in the morning immediately before use. Any leftovers, which there usually isn't much of, are poured out.

Conclusion: how effective this stuff is for someone like me, is hard to say. I am not exactly a sports person and my body is not being worked to its last fiber on a daily basis. But it does beat drinking bland water and I do get an energy buzz out of a good mouthful while I'm on the treadmill, so I will be using it until I find something better. Considering how many spoons I get out of one can the cost can't be more than a few cents per day.

[Captain Maltese]

I could use a little help. About five years ago I found this one in a second hand store, at a grand price of seven dollars or so. I paid for it, brought it home, put it in a wardrobe and promptly forgot about it. Now I have brought it out however, and one question nags me.... exactly what am I supposed to be doing with this contraption?

[Nico]

I could use a little help. About five years ago I found this one in a second hand store, at a grand price of seven dollars or so. I paid for it, brought it home, put it in a wardrobe and promptly forgot about it. Now I have brought it out however, and one question nags me.... exactly what am I supposed to be doing with this contraption?

It's a good device for sit-ups.

[Captain Maltese]

It's a good device for sit-ups.

Hm. I tested it. By inserting my feet under the top crossbar(?), over the middle one and behind the bottom one, I could indeed lay my back down the bench plate, and then use the leg anchor to hoist my upper body back to a vertical position. Sure gets the blood flowing to the head. I'm not used to playing a bat but I can do this, for a few situps at least. What I really need to know next is what I am achieving with this, that isn't already happening in my regular situps. Perhaps it moves more strain to the legs?

[Nico]

Hm. I tested it. By inserting my feet under the top crossbar(?), over the middle one and behind the bottom one, I could indeed lay my back down the bench plate, and then use the leg anchor to hoist my upper body back to a vertical position. Sure gets the blood flowing to the head. I'm not used to playing a bat but I can do this, for a few situps at least. What I really need to know next is what I am achieving with this, that isn't already happening in my regular situps. Perhaps it moves more strain to the legs?

Yep, that's exactly it. It helps building up muscle in your legs, upper and lower. It also helps to keep the position without shifting back onad forth on the ground, which isn't really recommendable because it does nothing good for the spine.

[Captain Maltese]

Yep, that's exactly it. It helps building up muscle in your legs, upper and lower. It also helps to keep the position without shifting back onad forth on the ground, which isn't really recommendable because it does nothing good for the spine.

Right. I have been pleased with the treadmilling but I guess it has been better for general stamina and burn than for building muscles. I'll be trying this out for a few days. Does me good to do something new.

Anything else I can do with it? I've seen other gym benches be used for weight lifting and other things, but they did not look exactly like this one. And I am not going to add a lifting rig to my living room but I COULD perhaps juryrig something to make it a horizontal bench, like a wall hook for the free end.

[Nico]

Right. I have been pleased with the treadmilling but I guess it has been better for general stamina and burn than for building muscles. I'll be trying this out for a few days. Does me good to do something new.

Anything else I can do with it? I've seen other gym benches be used for weight lifting and other things, but they did not look exactly like this one. And I am not going to add a lifting rig to my living room but I COULD perhaps juryrig something to make it a horizontal bench, like a wall hook for the free end.

I suppose you also can use it for weight lifting. My husband does that. Hooking his legs, keeping them in place and then lifting the weights with his arms.  But it's really best for sit-ups, I'd say.

[Captain Maltese]

I suppose you also can use it for weight lifting. My husband does that. Hooking his legs, keeping them in place and then lifting the weights with his arms.  But it's really best for sit-ups, I'd say.

He is lying down at an angle like that while lifting? Or is the bench flat at the time? I admit that the first version there worries me, bloodflow-wise.

[Nico]

He is lying down at an angle like that while lifting? Or is the bench flat at the time? I admit that the first version there worries me, bloodflow-wise.

He's doing both. The first one not so long of course. I've tried it. It's difficult! The latter is easier, more comfortable and better for beginners.

[Captain Maltese]

He's doing both. The first one not so long of course. I've tried it. It's difficult! The latter is easier, more comfortable and better for beginners.

Yeah, I won't be leaving the rookie level any time soon so it will have to be the second option for now. Now I have several new things to try out. Thank you Nico.

[Nico]

Yeah, I won't be leaving the rookie level any time soon so it will have to be the second option for now. Now I have several new things to try out. Thank you Nico.

You're quite welcome. Good luck and have fun!

[Sirius]

I could use a little help. About five years ago I found this one in a second hand store, at a grand price of seven dollars or so. I paid for it, brought it home, put it in a wardrobe and promptly forgot about it. Now I have brought it out however, and one question nags me.... exactly what am I supposed to be doing with this contraption?

So, I saw this thread and thought I'd play catch up, because fitness is something that interests me. I've been out of the game for a few years, and I'm getting myself back into it. I gained 60lbs since I left the military and I'm looking to lose every single pound of it haha.

To answer your question, this is a decline bench. At face value, Nico is right, it is designed for sit ups and crunches. But it can also be used for decline dumbbell press, or bench press (assuming you have a rack to set the bar on). Those are two very simple and upfront workouts you can do. The decline dumbbell/benchpress works the lower parts of your chest, primarily. I've never looked into this particular bench, but I'm sure if you google it, there is a world of creative workouts you can do using it. You can use the angle for push ups if that is a weak area for you, but setting your feet at the bottom near where your head would typically lie, and place your hands somewhere along the bench (adjust your feet as necessary). The higher up your hands, the easier the push up, the further down you go, the harder they become. I'm sure there is plenty that you can use it for, but it is getting to be fairly late at night for me, and after my own work out, so I'm starting to hear my bed calling me.

One thing that I noticed, and maybe I missed something or just don't know, but are you doing the same workouts every day? That can pose a problem for your body. Abs is one thing, you still want to give them proper rest and a break, but you use those for just about everything in some way shape or form anyway. However, if you're working your arms daily, that can cause some issues. Your muscles need time to recover, usually about a 24-48hr period. That's why body builders and weight lifters have specific days, IE: Chest day, leg day, arm day, back day or Back/Bi's, Chest/Tris, Shoulders, Legs, Cardio, whatever their preference on how they break it up. It's to ensure they don't over work or over use the muscles.

I forget who said it, but signing up for something like Bodybuilder or Men's Fitness is a good way to learn more work outs, or even find specific routines to help with your daily workouts. The communities tend to be very helpful, and positive. I joined a website called Superhero Academy, and it was created by personal trainer who researched different celebrity/superhero workouts, and created routines from them. He puts in a lot of work to developing everything from dieting to specific types of training, such as body building, fighting, yoga, bodyweight exercising, running, etc...

To answer your original question. I swim, and weightlift primarily. Swimming is a wonderful workout, great cardio, and gives a good solid warm up to my muscles for when I go to lift. I have to lift lighter to be safer after I swim, but it creates a stronger muscle in my experience.

[Captain Maltese]

It's good to hear from you Sirius. From your descriptions it sounds like you are doing heavier lifts than I am.

I have been keeping up a daily routine, with some gradual addons, since the start of last October. This has meant 7 days a week every week the whole winter, excepting days when I have woken up achy or weary, so in reality the average batting score has been closer to 6. But now, FINALLY, the longest and gloomiest and snowiest winter in decades is turning into spring and I am looking for activities that actually bring me outdoors. Yesterday  I went for a hour long walk to the beach instead. And once a little more snow and ice goes away the outdoors season at my cabin starts, which means forest walks and firewood work and so on. I am happy that my gym machines have kept me active during the winter but I look forward to giving them a rest too.

Your muscles need time to recover, usually about a 24-48hr period.

This do interest me. I thought that since I am not lifting that intensely and make sure to eat protein sources, I was doing fine with a once-per-day regime. Now I think of it, I guess that is 23 hours of recovery. Is there a direct benefit to exercising every second day instead?

[Sirius]

I may or may not be, to be honest haha. I am a heavy lifter, but remember, I only just got back into everything. So, I'm not too pleased with how much I'm lifting at the moment haha. It's a work in progress, but I don't think I'm lifting much more than you if I even am at all. You kept it up during the summer, which is impressive in and of itself. I commend you for that, a lot of people (myself included) struggle to maintain a solid routine.

If you are changing up the muscle groups every day, or if you do your routine one day, then cardio the next, that is a good bout. But this is something to where you need to know your limits. Now the Rock can lift a 25lbs weight, and have no issues, it's like a pen to him, so if he's lifting 25 lbs, he's not getting anything out of it, so he could lift it daily. However, I imagine people like you and I both, 25 lbs is a significant amount of weight. When you lift, you can get lactic acid buildup, which is good, and does what it's supposed to do, but if it's in excess it can cause problems. I'll have to look further into those details for you, but if I'm wrong I'll let you know haha. It's been a while since I have looked into muscle overuse. But the other issues that can arise is muscle exhaustion, muscle strain, stress fractions, and joint pain. With muscle exhaustion, you run a risk of hyperextending a muscle as well.

These are surface answers, and there are A LOT of good articles out there about the importance of resting your muscles, I'm looking into some of them now as a matter of fact because I want to have better answers for people, but safety is paramount when working out. It's good you're adding workouts to your routines. It keeps it interesting.

That's another thing that I'd recommend, is switching up your routine now and again. That is if you are prone to get bored, because boredom is a killer to routine.

[Shores]

Here is an article that sort of explains why.



The important part I want to highlight is the graph above. As we get older, we should devote more time to recovery, because if we do not give more than 24 hours of recovery time for a muscle, we will not reach full performance recovery. This leads to less than optimal performance over a long period of time, and may even lead to an injury in the future, even though you might feel fine now. Proper diet and sleep are extremely important for muscle recovery.

Also, the graph above depicts a hypothetical scenario, where the muscle is fatigued the same amount every time. In most cases, if a muscle is not allowed to reach full recovery, and someone unknowingly does the same routine, the muscle fatigue will be even greater or amplified the second time, since more force has to be exerted by the fatigued muscle just to keep up.

[Captain Maltese]

I am not entirely sure how to understand this. Norway, where I live, is into sports big time. Especially winter sports but a large part of our population is doing sports regularly on some level. And it seems to me a lot of the biggest names are fairly old and well beyond the normal physical age peak (which is about 20 iirc).

Case in point; Marit Bjørgen (39) who retired just weeks ago from the skiing sport, and is the most successful winter sports person in history - world wide. 114 personal wins says something.







I am not sure I have a point to make with this. But Marit Bjørgen ends her career this year with a string of Olympic medals.

[Shores]

Marit Bjørgen has her rest days too. My point is that 24 hours of rest for a muscle group might not be enough, especially the older you get. It is better to let the muscle group rest 48 hours. You can stagger it by doing upper body one day, then lower body the next, then cardio. Or even isolate the muscle you want to work with gym equipment.

In this case, I am referring to overloading the muscle, and not exercise that is well within your personal limits.

[Captain Maltese]

I have listened, and made changes to my daily routine. The treadmill, which has clocked in something like 200 kms during the winter, is now resting and might become dormant until autumn gets snowy. Instead of doing the daily two kilometers I am now walking to the beach, which takes about twice the time - every second day. Jogging is not an option, not until the forest route thaws and dries up anyway. I am considering other routes but I am not eager to walk through suburbia or along the highway on a regular basis.

With the treadmill element gone my lifting schedule is going a bit haywire, but I am trying to do the weights on the days I am not walking. Also things are getting complicated with me branching out to do activities in the garden, garage, rearranging rooms and so on. It takes enough muscle that I get sweaty occasionally but I use my body differently. I choose to believe that this is a good thing and will proceed for now, but I guess it will be a sign if the weights start feeling heavier than before.

[Captain Maltese]

Here's an odd question. How often do you get hungry, and how long can you go hungry before you absolutely HAVE to have something to eat? Is there an ideal time and a bad-idea time? I am of course referring to people who do not spend their days with sledgehammers in quarries and other such heavy duty calorie burners.

[TheScarletBlade]

Wht not do your cardio after lifting? Focus on your weight training for the first portion of your workout after stretching for 10 minutes. After completing your muscle group for the day, hit the treadmill or whatever your preferred cardio method is?

[Captain Maltese]

Wht not do your cardio after lifting? Focus on your weight training for the first portion of your workout after stretching for 10 minutes. After completing your muscle group for the day, hit the treadmill or whatever your preferred cardio method is?

That is a very interesting question. Ever since I got the treadmill I have done the cardio first. Is there a benefit to doing the cardio last?