Fitness/workout?

[Paragon]

Thank you for the reply Ben! :)

I've never really been engaged in much physical exercise throughout my life as I found it boring and much preferred to be alone and play games on my computer. Today it's still like this , but recently I've found the prospect of actually doing something that I enjoy, much more appealing. Just need to find out what that is since I'm pretty rubbish at sports overall :P But climbing sounds like an awesome sport!

Though I've just broken my scaphoid, which is an almond sized bone in the wrist that is pretty crucial to smooth hand operation. So I need to work through that first! Takes a while to heal from what I've read and may require an operation since the blood flow to this area is poor at best. Anyhow, just means that people can sign my cast! ;)

 

[Sol Logos]

I recommend Crossfit - it's like a meld of basic gymnastic moves with olympic lifts - with an emphasis on resistance style cardio. They are really into Paleo too. I've gotten the fittest and strongest I've ever been with this and it's fun as well as a constant challenge. I'm a non smoking vego though, guess im preparing myself to be good lizzie meat! But by far the norm at Crossfit are Paleo.

 

[Peter_in_Thailand]

From all the reading I have done on exercise, it seems the simplest and most efficient method I have found is the following:
20 minutes of resistance training three times a week. Each exercise consists of doing 15 to 20 repetitions.

Then I will politely suggest, you have not yet done enough reading.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on this topic.

That said, I have just finished reading, Body by Science: A Research Based Program to Get the Results You Want in 12 Minutes a Week by Doug McGuff, MD, and John Little.
ISBN 978-0-07-159720-3

Everything in that book, very thoroughly debunks approaches like that from Nicolas above, and others similar on this thread, including Cross Training and kettlebells.
All bunk, according to McGuff and Little, and some, especially kettlebells, dangerous.

Now, I'm not here looking for a fight.
And, on this topic, I certainly do not have the expertise to fight back.
But, for anyone interested in fitness, a careful reading of "Body by Science" is a must.
A lot of "common sense" about fitness and workouts will evaporate with every chapter read.

-- Peter
Bangkok

 

[KTC]

Pilates is the best workout for both mind and body IMO. I've been in the fitness industry for 20 years, mostly cycling and swimming, a bit of gym stuff and dabbled with yoga and horse riding.
Pilates has been my passion for 7 years now and my body is in better shape than it ever was when I was going hard at everything else.
I practice twice a week for an hour and about 15 min most other days. Jo Pilates once said that when practiced for just 15 min every single day you would be good.
Pilates is wholistic in that it connects the mind, body and soul through concentration, precision and breath while using the whole body as a system rather than focusing on muscle groups.. It's how we work naturally so the exercises develop functional movement patterns which is what many of us are lacking from sitting down too much or moving in a repetitive way.
I also surf for aroun 2 weeks out of every 8 but without Pilates that auks be a hard slog since I'm not regularly in the water to stay surf fit.
Check out www.pilatesanytime.com it's free for the first 30 days and then you can choose to subscribe.
As an instructor who lives remote in Australia this is how I stay inspired and get my own workouts in. The instructors are highly regarded in the field and their instruction is as good as it gets.
FYI: Pilates was originally named Controllogy 'to gain compete control over ones own body" and the was renamed after the guy who invented it, Joseph Pilates.
Enjoy :D

 

[Al Today]

[...]
Then I will politely suggest, you have not yet done enough reading.
[...]
-- Peter
Bangkok

and yet you are willing to pay someone to read for you...
This comments speaks in volume.

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,30456.0/topicseen.html

 

[Iron]

From all the reading I have done on exercise, it seems the simplest and most efficient method I have found is the following:
20 minutes of resistance training three times a week. Each exercise consists of doing 15 to 20 repetitions.

Then I will politely suggest, you have not yet done enough reading.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on this topic.

That said, I have just finished reading, Body by Science: A Research Based Program to Get the Results You Want in 12 Minutes a Week by Doug McGuff, MD, and John Little.
ISBN 978-0-07-159720-3

Everything in that book, very thoroughly debunks approaches like that from Nicolas above, and others similar on this thread, including Cross Training and kettlebells.
All bunk, according to McGuff and Little, and some, especially kettlebells, dangerous.

Now, I'm not here looking for a fight.
And, on this topic, I certainly do not have the expertise to fight back.
But, for anyone interested in fitness, a careful reading of "Body by Science" is a must.
A lot of "common sense" about fitness and workouts will evaporate with every chapter read.

-- Peter
Bangkok

Just by seeing the name Jonh little is clear to me that this is a HIT (High Intensity Training) influenced book. The premisse of hit, poorly disguised as science is that one set of an compound exercise, and this one set done until exhaustion (failure) alone is sufficient in all instances. In many HIT approaches, this set, this bout of exercise also is done rather infrequently, despite the research indicating clearly that there seems that the first wave of adaptation occurs in the nextt 48hours, with the protein synthesis levels returning to baseline after 96 hours or so. They also don't take in account that the degree of effort is not the sole motivator of adaptations be they of muscle growth, be they of rate coding efficiency, be they of the cardiovascular system.
They don't take in account that people within the strength training continnum have different needs, therefore slightly different approaches are needed.
One thing stands true in every paper (since you want to quote science) is that adaptation follows progressive resistance. You can elicit adaptation (muscular hypertrophy), with as high as 50 repetitions per set, or as low as 3 repetitions per set. How much will depend were you are in your training history, your goals (a person just looking to be active does not need to be practicing with weights so high that forces you to do sets of 3), and of course your genetics, which will dictate your biomechanics, rate of muscular growth, rate of neurologic adaptations.

I suggest leaving the Jonh Little books aside, until you are more experienced to separate the good information from pure conjecture, and taking a look at reseach papers such as Weinborn et al, 2007.

 

[Tristan]

I found this website that talk about hormesis http://gettingstronger.org/: Getting Stronger is a blog about the philosophy of Hormetism, based on the application of progressive, intermittent stress to overcome challenges and grow stronger physically, mentally and emotionally.

Also seems to be akin to Stoicism, where it provide further information:

But did Hormetism come out of nowhere, or are there historical precedents? Within the history of both Western and Eastern philosophies, there is one that comes closest: Stoicism, one of the earliest and noblest of the philosophies to arise from the legacy of Socrates, over two millenia ago.

 

[luke wilson]

I hear leg extensions are bad for you. I stopped doing them.

Apparently they put too much load on your knees. Best to seek out alternatives to this particular exercise.

The best advise I have heard though about workout is that you should listen to your body, if it doesn't feel right, then don't do it. People react differently to different routines and one size doesn't fit all.

Regarding all the back/forth regarding leg extensions, just use google. It is a topic of hot debate.

 

[edgitarra]

I can recommend a book written by the famous british prisoner Charles Bronson. It is called "Solitary Fitness". I like these kind of exercises because you have to work only with your body weight, not other instruments or external weights. There is a lot of creativity in Bronson's techniques. And you know how strong and prepaired prisoners can be. But it is also because they have a lot of free time.

 

[Torstone]

The best advise I have heard though about workout is that you should listen to your body, if it doesn't feel right, then don't do it. People react differently to different routines and one size doesn't fit all.

Seems like very sound and important advice, speaking from experience if one exercise doesn`t feel right it usually signals that you have a weakness in another part of your body that needs to be worked on first.

I train at home and keep the session at about 20 minutes using bodyweight exercises as the foundation for the workout. I also use kettlebells and have a weight bar. While great for gaining strength, I`m trying to limit the use and the weight of the bar because exercises like for example deadlifts and shoulder press are easy for me to overdo and can be hurtful if not executed properly due to activating muscles that should not be in focus when doing the exercise (and its always really tempting to skip some corners and go that extra mile adding just a little more weight then I can safely manage).

I`ve set some long term goals to be able to execute 10 one-arm pushups(Upper body), 1 superman push-up (core) and 10 single leg squats(lower body). So I train and strengthen all parts of my body while having those goals in my mind as a framework and so far the routine has increased my strength and endurance without to much extra added to it and keeping it at a level that I can mantain.

 

[lostinself]

I`ve set some long term goals to be able to execute 10 one-arm pushups(Upper body), 1 superman push-up (core) and 10 single leg squats(lower body). So I train and strengthen all parts of my body while having those goals in my mind as a framework and so far the routine has increased my strength and endurance without to much extra added to it and keeping it at a level that I can mantain.

10 pistols (single leg squats) vs 10 one-arm pushups seems somewhat unsymmetric to me. I can quite easily do 10 pistols for a leg in a series but doing a single one-arm pushup still remains a challenge. And i'm not a well trained person; i don't do any running etc. For legs, I just stick to beloved squats (with extra weight) and pistols. What i find effective for arms is doing pushups with feet above the ground level - on a bed, for instance. I do 3x20 reps of that usually.

 

[Torstone]

10 pistols (single leg squats) vs 10 one-arm pushups seems somewhat unsymmetric to me. I can quite easily do 10 pistols for a leg in a series but doing a single one-arm pushup still remains a challenge. And i'm not a well trained person; i don't do any running etc. For legs, I just stick to beloved squats (with extra weight) and pistols. What i find effective for arms is doing pushups with feet above the ground level - on a bed, for instance. I do 3x20 reps of that usually.

Yes, I think you are right about that, I will probably reach the pistols goal before doing 10 one-arms.
When that happens, maybe the time is ready to add more reps or weight to the exercise or set a new goal when it comes to legs.

 

[Redrock12]

My routine consists of 13 weight training exercises, which seems to incorporate all of my muscle groups, on cable machines 2-3 times a week, followed by a minimum of 20 minutes on a recumbent bike set at level 2 resistance with 2-minute random increases to level 3. During cycling weather I discontinue the recumbent bike.
Weather permitting (we get winter 4 to 6 months a year), I ride my bike daily, using it for transportation and exercising. I didn't think I would enjoy biking as much as I have.
I'm seriously considering using the gym five days a week, Tuesday and Thursdays decreasing the weights and increasing the reps from 5 to 20.
My BP is, on average, 120/73 with a pulse rate in the mid-80s.

 

[name]

I'm following Paul Wade's "Convict Conditioning" (link to Amazon).
This is very basic stuff, old-style body-plus-nothing calisthenics to develop strength, no need for machines. The exercises shown in the book supposedly can be traced back to the roman gladiators.

 

[Rich]

I'm following Paul Wade's "Convict Conditioning" (link to Amazon).
This is very basic stuff, old-style body-plus-nothing calisthenics to develop strength, no need for machines. The exercises shown in the book supposedly can be traced back to the roman gladiators.

Interesting... Like the concept and it looks like useful support material to keep motivated and understand the hows and whys. It has some good review's on Amazon but seems quite pricey. A few reviews point to books by a chap called Ross Enamait covering similar: _http://www.rosstraining.com/nevergymless.html