The get fit, stay fit thread

[Marshmallo]

Still struggling to get started. No motivation at all.

Getting started is the hardest bit. Try and make it part of your routine.

[GypsyTillIDie]

Exams have meant that I'm only going to the gym once a week and 7s has stopped until June. However, I now play 5s with the school teachers and some other pupils and it's working wonders for my fitness. Not like 7s when you can rest at some points, 5s is just non-stop and extremely competitive and working wonders for my cardio.

[Honest_Man#1]

Cant be bothered checking as it's not really 'get fit' so much as just getting bigger. What is the best way to train with weights etc to build mass on the upper body?

I heard it's best to train once to the point of being unable to do anymore then leaving it a week so the muscles grow?

So what are the best weight exercises to do and how often should I do them?

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Pretty bizarrely. I've been running 3 or 4 times a week since about February, and i don't think my diet's been tooooo bad. I've lost 2 lbs since then

Having said that my routine does include weights two or three times a week. I think the biggest miss is probably not playing football. I'm training for the Edinburgh Marathon (which is on Sunday coming) and have ditched the fives to avoid getting injured, and my training programme has been almost entirely focussed on running. Once this marathon is out the way, I can get back into football, do more weights, more HIIT and generally have a bit more variety. I intend to carry on running, but only 12-15 miles a week, with something like an easy 3 miles run, a 4 mile hill run, and various 8-10K routes out of town.

Weighed myself tonight and i'm 14st 4lbs. I aim to get down to 13st 0lbs and reduce my body fat significantly.

If i don't die on Sunday.

[Hank Scorpio]

Pretty bizarrely. I've been running 3 or 4 times a week since about February, and i don't think my diet's been tooooo bad. I've lost 2 lbs since then

Having said that my routine does include weights two or three times a week. I think the biggest miss is probably not playing football. I'm training for the Edinburgh Marathon (which is on Sunday coming) and have ditched the fives to avoid getting injured, and my training programme has been almost entirely focussed on running. Once this marathon is out the way, I can get back into football, do more weights, more HIIT and generally have a bit more variety. I intend to carry on running, but only 12-15 miles a week, with something like an easy 3 miles run, a 4 mile hill run, and various 8-10K routes out of town.

Weighed myself tonight and i'm 14st 4lbs. I aim to get down to 13st 0lbs and reduce my body fat significantly.

If i don't die on Sunday.

It's harder for some people to lose body fat, it depends on your body type.

[ffcsam]

Right Fitness Folk.

I am aiming to get back some fitness and was wondering what a sensible distance for starting to jog and to cycle is to start with . Obviously I want to build the distance up over time but just looking for any advice. Cheers etc.

[DeadStar]

Is there a similar program like couch to 5k for cycling? I hate running, but I think I could really do some damage on my bike.

[Stuart]

I'm 18 and a half stone, 6ft 2 and 19 and I'm in the middle of a fitness regime.

For the last 2 weeks I've been doing a fitness programme called Insanity and been doing weights as Insanity is mostly cardio.

I play football when I can and, with the exception of this saturday (im a motherwell fan), I have gave up drinking.

My target is 13 stone so I'll just keep going till I reach that cause I'm not too sure how long it should take to reach that weight.

[Mak]

Bumpy.

How's everyone doing? I had been keeping it up pretty well, no fewer than 3 gym visits a week for about six weeks, and then effectively took last week off.

Want to change my routine at the gym but not sure where to start. Interested in compound lifts, but is that something you can do alone?

Why wouldn't you be able to do compound lifts alone?

If it's just not having a spotter that you're worried about, I wouldn't let it bother you too much. You'll maybe lose 5% through not wanting to risk cabbaging yourself under the bar, but equally not having someone to spot for you can actually help as a lot of people'll jump in too soon. Either way, you absolutely should be doing compound lifts.

Right Fitness Folk.

I am aiming to get back some fitness and was wondering what a sensible distance for starting to jog and to cycle is to start with . Obviously I want to build the distance up over time but just looking for any advice. Cheers etc.

I wouldn't get too caught up on distance when starting out: try to find a good route near where you live and measure how far you're going by landmarks on the route, building the distance as you go along.

On topic, my own training's going reasonably well at the moment although for the duration of this week I've got too much uni work (four exams in five days) to be able to make it either to the gym or to MT. I'm doing some pretty punishing bodyweight circuits at home and continuing to eat well, but I do miss sparring etc. Looking forward to getting back into it next week.

[banterman86]

Why wouldn't you be able to do compound lifts alone?

If it's just not having a spotter that you're worried about, I wouldn't let it bother you too much. You'll maybe lose 5% through not wanting to risk cabbaging yourself under the bar, but equally not having someone to spot for you can actually help as a lot of people'll jump in too soon. Either way, you absolutely should be doing compound lifts.

Yup. that's exactly it. good to know.

I went for a swim last night, motivation is slipping, hopefully this new routine I;m devising - which is basically just the five compound lifts will spark me up again.

Anybody got any good links for form, etc for these types of lifts?

[General Zod]

Anybody got any good links for form, etc for these types of lifts?

This site is pretty good. My mate Non uses it:-

Beeeefcake

[Reynard]

I have had some sort of post viral malaise in the past couple of weeks so I haven't been doing much. Beginning to get energy levels abck now though so I will leave it this week and start training again next week all being well.

Still had to play squash matches through the virus and aftermath which was actually fine, but I just have no mojo at the moment.

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

Still struggling to get started. No motivation at all.

Try and find something worth working towards besides being healthier. I'm working towards being able to play 90 minutes of football without blowing out of my arse after 15-20 minutes.

Once I got into the habit of going out running, I find that I feel guilty if I don't go out for a run or cycle at least once a day now to the point that I forced myself out last night in the howling wind and pishing rain.

Have lost over a stone in just over two weeks and feel a hundred times better for it.

[Marshmallo]

I thought I did quite well in the gym today, then I ended up talking to Alex Arthur in the changing rooms. Nae bad.

[CALDERON]

Joined the new Pure Gym in Aberdeen couple of months back. Its cheap and cheerful (tenner a month) but has got me off my arse to do something.

Normally go 2/3 times a week, and do 30 mins on the bike, 10 mins on the rope climber, some leg extensions/leg curls/leg presses and converging chest press. Complete novice to gym excercise so I try not to overdo it!

Im 6 ft 1 and about 15 stone. Im not fat, just quite broad but dont have a big gut or anything. Havent lost any weight, but have noticed that I'm a bit more in trim now. My legs in particular are far more muscular now

Just a question about Cross-trainers. Ive suffered from numerous bad knee injuries in the past, dislocated both of them and torn ligaments/twisted them numerous times. How hard are cross-trainers on the knees? Ive avoided them so far as I was scared of twisting the wrong way and knocking my knee out again or something, but that could well be down to paranoia on my part.

Also is it better to do weights before cardio or vice-versa?

[General Zod]

Joined the new Pure Gym in Aberdeen couple of months back. Its cheap and cheerful (tenner a month) but has got me off my arse to do something.

Normally go 2/3 times a week, and do 30 mins on the bike, 10 mins on the rope climber, some leg extensions/leg curls/leg presses and converging chest press. Complete novice to gym excercise so I try not to overdo it!

Im 6 ft 1 and about 15 stone. Im not fat, just quite broad but dont have a big gut or anything. Havent lost any weight, but have noticed that I'm a bit more in trim now. My legs in particular are far more muscular now

Just a question about Cross-trainers. Ive suffered from numerous bad knee injuries in the past, dislocated both of them and torn ligaments/twisted them numerous times. How hard are cross-trainers on the knees? Ive avoided them so far as I was scared of twisting the wrong way and knocking my knee out again or something, but that could well be down to paranoia on my part.

Also is it better to do weights before cardio or vice-versa?

Weights before cardio. Do compound exercises (that work more than one muscle group at one), as opposed to isolation exercises. So, look at bench press, lat pull downs, etc rather than, say, bicep curls and what have you. Legs slightly different to that rule, in that the ones you are doing are good. Maybe try squats once you get more confident, but you have to be very careful with the form.

I've had similar knee problems (6'5" and xxstone!) and find cross trainers fine. However, each knee injury is different, so give it a go. I'm utterly diabolical on a bike for some reason, whereas my mate who has had a similar injury story to me rides all over the shop.

[Denji]

Been out jogging recently, although I think I've bruised/cracked a rib. Should I wait until it's healed or keep going? It's not unbearable when jogging, just wondering if I'm doing further damange to it.

[Moriarty]

Weighed myself today, and that's me dropped 10 kilos / 22 pounds since the start of the year. Haven't measured my % body fat, but most of the fat appears to have gone and my BMI is down from 27 to 23.5.

Sensible eating and drinking, circuit training once a week, cycling twice a week and walking places did the trick. Looking in the mirror, feel like I could still do with losing maybe another half a stone, but I'm hopeful that'll come off I keep exercising every week as I have been.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Moriarty

[Reynard]

Joined the new Pure Gym in Aberdeen couple of months back. Its cheap and cheerful (tenner a month) but has got me off my arse to do something.

Normally go 2/3 times a week, and do 30 mins on the bike, 10 mins on the rope climber, some leg extensions/leg curls/leg presses and converging chest press. Complete novice to gym excercise so I try not to overdo it!

Im 6 ft 1 and about 15 stone. Im not fat, just quite broad but dont have a big gut or anything. Havent lost any weight, but have noticed that I'm a bit more in trim now. My legs in particular are far more muscular now

Just a question about Cross-trainers. Ive suffered from numerous bad knee injuries in the past, dislocated both of them and torn ligaments/twisted them numerous times. How hard are cross-trainers on the knees? Ive avoided them so far as I was scared of twisting the wrong way and knocking my knee out again or something, but that could well be down to paranoia on my part.

Also is it better to do weights before cardio or vice-versa?

I got my machine form a friend who joined a gym. He was a carpet fitter to trade and has had to give it up as he has had both knee joints replaced in the past year. He was told to exercise using the cross trainer as it wouldn't impact his knees but would give him the same type of exercise as running would. So I wouldn't be too worried about using it if you want to do load bearing exercise. If you are too worried about it then just cycle but the crosstrainer will be fine. I use it all the time because I am sore enough on my knees playing squash and I think running would do me no good at all.

[Mak]

Weights before cardio. Do compound exercises (that work more than one muscle group at one), as opposed to isolation exercises. So, look at bench press, lat pull downs, etc rather than, say, bicep curls and what have you. Legs slightly different to that rule, in that the ones you are doing are good. Maybe try squats once you get more confident, but you have to be very careful with the form.

I've had similar knee problems (6'5" and xxstone!) and find cross trainers fine. However, each knee injury is different, so give it a go. I'm utterly diabolical on a bike for some reason, whereas my mate who has had a similar injury story to me rides all over the shop.

Personally, I'd split weights and cardio into different days. Better off working for a maximum of 45 minutes at a time and hitting either weights or cardio really hard.

That said, a lot of the work that I do combines both resisted work and cardio. 'Resistance or cardio' isn't a distinction which is recognised by nature.