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Health and fitness in 2014


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Thought I'd start a thread where SuperAlly left off last year.

 

I'm now fed up with my gym as it's just way too busy at peak times - especially the free weights area, which makes it really hard to get a bench and bar. Even when you do there's too many people close together to be all that safe or at least comfortable.

 

Seems to be the success of the cheap gym - and in the more expensive ones the free weights are usually less busy even when the rest of the gym is crowded due to a less hard core clientele.

 

My first year discount is about to end so I'm looking into Snap Gym which is much small and more expensive but seems to be not too bad at peak times and has most of the stuff I'm looking for. Going for a free session on Thursday peak time to try it out.

 

However, I have been thinking about saving the money (to spend on bike bits...) and doing more stuff at home as I'm mostly limiting myself to a small number of compound exercises.

 

I bought a chin up bar last year and wish I'd done it years ago. I never used to be able to easily do front (prone) chin ups but now 10 is not a problem. I was doing it with 15kg in a rucksack but think I over-trained as it's so easy to get it out and do it of an evening, and my brachialis and elbow joints hurt badly for a while and I had to stop doing them until they recovered. Need to start again with 5kgs.

 

I like to do incline bench press with a bar about my body weight but don't have room for a bench and Olympic weights. Thinking maybe just trying high reps of press ups with my feet on something, with say 20kg on my back. My work also has a trim trail with parallel bars which I could frequent for doing dips.

 

For shoulder press, I have a couple of dumb-bells so that should be sorted and I could also do upright rowing and shrugs for my traps.

 

I've got a small barbell in the garage which I can use on the patio when the weather is ok, so bent-over-row could be ok there, back permitting.

 

My problem is the legs as my lower back is chronically sore plus due to a broken ankle my flexibility for squats and dead-lifts is not great. I think I'm going to try squats with a couple of small weights under my heals and very low weight and build up slowly. Also start light doing dead-lifts again and see if I can build up.

 

I'm doing a lot of cycling including a doing a very steep 14% hill a few times a week and so hopefully that should be almost as good for my legs.

 

I could do one leg calf raises with a dumb-bell for my lower legs.

 

For abs I need a Bosu-ball but as they are over-priced and hard to store, I'm going to see if I can get as good a workout on a fit ball. I'm doing the "myocratic" crunch with a dumb-bell.

 

My cardio and fat loss program is pretty much going to be cycling at least 100 miles a week and hopefully building up to over 140.

 

I've had to give up football, squash and tennis due to my back although hope to eventually be able to do the racquet sports again sometime in the future.

 

As I said with my cycling, I'm doing a really steep hill at least a few times a week that used to make me feel like crap when I started again at Christmas, but now it's incredibly hard but I don't feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. I'm also now not using the lowest gear on my road-bike which has a compact chain-set. It's really good for training the heart as well as being somewhat anaerobic for the legs.

 

Using Strava a lot to see how I'm doing and to motivate myself with. I've gone from 13.5 to 15.5 mph average for a solo, 25 mile ride, including warm up and cool down. My goal is to increase it by another 1.5 mph in the next 4 months.

 

Anyone else have any fitness plans this year?

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I started a 3 week training program before Christmas and dropped to 77kg which is pretty much my ideal weight. The main thing I concentrated on was calorie intake which I kept to a low and I did cardio twice per day. For cardio I did 20 mins HIIT on the bike followed by the same with the skipping rope. Then in the afternoons I was doing a daily walk. Next to my place is a bit of natural rainforest turned into a park which has almost a 45 degree angle hill climbing 200m before declining into a steady climb for 1.2km, I was up and down that 2-3 times. I also threw in some light dumbbell work on the upper body only.

 

Unfortunately the festive period came up and Im back up to 80kg due to overseas trips.

 

However I am back as of yesterday and intend on starting up again tomorrow for 2 weeks of training and diet.

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Read Cal's OP yesterday but got a lot on my plate and wont get into a serious response just yet.

 

Moving to Hong Kong on the 20th to start work with the Hong Kong Sports Institute. Hopefully will pick up some more training tips and knowledge for the rest of you while i'm there.

 

If I can help anyone with tips and advice on training I will try to do so. Mentally a bit all over the place at the moment though with a big move looming.

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Ok so the diet started this morning, day 1-2 always difficult and beating the cravings is the hard part.

 

I'll get into the gym for a power cycle and skip at lunch time.

 

At least ive got the weekend to get days 2 and 3 out the way.

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Hurt my right shoulder which forced me to stop doing weights for pretty much all of 2013. In the mean time I've been running a lot, often 20-25 + miles a week. Have started doing weights again a couple of weeks ago. Doing a 3 day split. I gained a lot of weight over christmas so was going to try do 4-5 nights of running on top of the 3 day split but started getting flu like symptoms and basically feeling horrendous. I'm having a few days off.

 

Having not done much weights recently, doing long periods of cardio on top of it is just killing me. Muscles were very sore but I just kept pushing it to the point I felt very unwell at work. From next week I think I'm going to just do the 3 day split with 2 runs a week.

 

TBH I find the easiest way to lose weight is to just do severe calorie and carb cycling and exercise is almost irrelevant but it is not good for you.

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In my opinion you can lose a lot of weight without exercising by calorie restriction BUT a significant amount of the weight lost will be lean muscle mass. You will become slimmer but a lot weaker and weedier. The weight will also come back very quickly when you stop restricting your calories - and that will mostly be fat. This can lead to yo-yo dieting which has been shown to cause heart problems.

 

If you want to be slim it's about finding an equilibrium in your lifestyle where you are eating a certain amount that keeps you at a stable and desirable weight for the amount of exercise you habitually regular perform. This also needs to be flexible so that you can cut your calories during times when you are unable to exercise.

 

Severe calorie restriction can only be a temporary phase which leads to rebound weight gain when you not only go back to your more permanent diet, but also reward yourself for losing the weight and compensate for the denying yourself.

 

It's why they say that diets don't work.

 

It's also difficult to lose weight by exercise alone as the calories lost in an hour of hard exercise can be easily outdone by one unhealthy snack or even just a larger portion size of healthy food to due excess hunger from exercising.

 

The best way is always to do a bit of both and do it in a way where you consider it to be what you have to do pretty much most days for the rest of your life - as important to continuously do every week as going to work.

 

The biggest key is finding a way to do it that you find reasonably easy and enjoyable. Anything you don't enjoy or that makes you feel crap won't last long enough to do any long term good.

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In my opinion you can lose a lot of weight without exercising by calorie restriction BUT a significant amount of the weight lost will be lean muscle mass. You will become slimmer but a lot weaker and weedier. The weight will also come back very quickly when you stop restricting your calories - and that will mostly be fat. This can lead to yo-yo dieting which has been shown to cause heart problems.

 

If you want to be slim it's about finding an equilibrium in your lifestyle where you are eating a certain amount that keeps you at a stable and desirable weight for the amount of exercise you habitually regular perform. This also needs to be flexible so that you can cut your calories during times when you are unable to exercise.

 

Severe calorie restriction can only be a temporary phase which leads to rebound weight gain when you not only go back to your more permanent diet, but also reward yourself for losing the weight and compensate for the denying yourself.

 

It's why they say that diets don't work.

 

It's also difficult to lose weight by exercise alone as the calories lost in an hour of hard exercise can be easily outdone by one unhealthy snack or even just a larger portion size of healthy food to due excess hunger from exercising.

 

The best way is always to do a bit of both and do it in a way where you consider it to be what you have to do pretty much most days for the rest of your life - as important to continuously do every week as going to work.

 

The biggest key is finding a way to do it that you find reasonably easy and enjoyable. Anything you don't enjoy or that makes you feel crap won't last long enough to do any long term good.

 

Yes agree with that. But even doing cardio only will also lose muscle mass. In my case I wasn't bothered about that as I was a tad bulky. But doing the dumbbell work with light to medium weights kept a decent shape overall.

 

I also agree RE short dieting spells of 2 weeks, its then too easy for weight to go back on, with age. It worked a few years ago in my late 20s when I did a 3-4 week diet and exercise, it stayed off for a long time but this time its crept back on very quickly, although its the type of lose pounds that could be run off again in a week but as you say then you are into yo-yo ing a weight which isn't good.

 

Its all about a long term pattern. If you are going to have treats then they should be treats and like only once per week and not every night like a quick chocolate biscuit after dinner - which can be my downfall, because if you are doing that daily the 'only one' adds up to 700 calories in a week and that turns into 1 pound of fat in a month.

 

I had a good week last week and was showing up as 78.5kg on the scales, but then had an unexpected weekend of 2 nights out therefore I did a double exercise yesterday and will do so again today.

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On weekdays I use myfitnesspal and calculate all the calories and macronutrients that I consume. I have about 200g of carbs, 75g fat and the rest from protein. Takes me to about 2500 calories.

 

I also eat footlong subways every day but if you macro things in you can basically eat whatever you want.

 

Fridays and Saturdays I eat and drink whatever I want. I only drink alcohol on those days.

 

I lost 6 stone last year but have put about a stone back on. I also had bad food poisoning last year where I lost near a stone so I was always liable to put that back on.

 

The main obstacle with weight loss is keeping your metabolism going. Even when I was doing severe calorie restriction I found as the days go on you would have to make the deficit greater and greater to maintain weight loss. You end up just making your maintenance level severely low. Carb cycling is probably the best thing. 2 days no carb, 3 days moderate and 2 day high - think that is what I did.

 

Weight loss is actually fairly complicated once you have lost a lost of weight. Sometimes for example you lose more weight by eating more rather than less due to your metabolism. I'm pretty sure I was hitting starvation mode at times too.

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On weekdays I use myfitnesspal and calculate all the calories and macronutrients that I consume. I have about 200g of carbs, 75g fat and the rest from protein. Takes me to about 2500 calories.

 

That sounds like you're having about 256g of protein a day which is pretty high - but not in a bad way. Bodybuilders try to eat between 1g and 2g of protein per pound of body fat as a rule of thumb to build muscle keep lean (you'll have to excuse the mixed systems of measurement).

 

Your nutruient distribution seems to be 32% carb 27% fat 41% protein which I reckon is a good way of eating to preserve muscle and keep appetite low. Probably best to keep water consumption high to prevent dehydration from the high protein intake and as a bonus further suppress appetite as well as improve exercise performance. A couple of heavy sessions in the gym every week will put the protein to good use...

 

I also eat footlong subways every day but if you macro things in you can basically eat whatever you want.

 

Those can be pretty low calorie if you go for something like the turkey and ham, cut out the cheese (which is almost tasteless anyway) and choose a low calorie dressing. If you top it with lots of salad you're also getting a reasonable amount of nutrients. The down side that the bread is likely to cause an insulin spike which makes you hungry later and tells the body to store fat.

 

I have about one of those a fortnight on a cheat day. They're really enjoyable, reasonably healthy and great value for money. I'm assuming that's your lunch at work which is the most difficult meal when watching your weight.

 

Fridays and Saturdays I eat and drink whatever I want. I only drink alcohol on those days.

 

That's a pretty good move. Dry wine and spirits are low in carbs calories (my belief after a lot of reading is you don't metabolise the alcohol into sugars and so those calories don't count), so their main downside is that they lower your resolve and you can end up binging on kebabs or whatever when you get a bit inebriated. It also lowers you blood sugar level the next day making you crave carbs. Beer does have a lot of carbs in it and so is more fattening.

 

I lost 6 stone last year but have put about a stone back on. I also had bad food poisoning last year where I lost near a stone so I was always liable to put that back on.

 

That's pretty good going and a bit of rebound is probably unavoidable but you've kept it relatively low. You just need to adjust to your new metabolism and find the right diet to keep you stable.

 

The main obstacle with weight loss is keeping your metabolism going.

 

It's always the law of diminishing returns. The lighter you are, the lower your basal metabolic rate and so the same calorie intake has a lower deficit, therefore lower weight loss. In my opinion it's best to stick with what's comfortable, rather than going extreme to chase those extra losses.

 

Even when I was doing severe calorie restriction I found as the days go on you would have to make the deficit greater and greater to maintain weight loss. You end up just making your maintenance level severely low. Carb cycling is probably the best thing. 2 days no carb, 3 days moderate and 2 day high - think that is what I did.

 

There's always a danger of famine mode kicking in, that's what cheat days are for and I agree about the cycling.

 

Weight loss is actually fairly complicated once you have lost a lost of weight. Sometimes for example you lose more weight by eating more rather than less due to your metabolism. I'm pretty sure I was hitting starvation mode at times too.

 

The whole thing is incredibly complicated and no-one really knows anything for sure as there are too many variables and not enough decent research, as well as everyone being different - which is why I think it's best to stick to some simpler principles that work for you. You seem to be doing that pretty well.

 

It's always good to hear other's stories as it reminds you of what you need to keep doing for yourself.

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