The Fitness Thread

[left_hook_lacey]

There's another thread for this...

Are you suggesting that the discussion of beer and fitness in the same thread can't be done?!?! Say it ain't so!!!!!

[devildeac]

Are you suggesting that the discussion of beer and fitness in the same thread can't be done?!?! Say it ain't so!!!!!

Entirely permissible.

[Edouble]

Just finished a 12 week Wendler Strength Cycle

https://jimwendler.com/

Highly recommend for those looking to get stronger.

Bumped my Back Squat from 290 to 325. Front Squat from 245 to 275. Deadlift from 345 to 390.

First time in my life, at age 41, that I have had a deadlift at double my bodyweight (I weight 190). Excited to reach this milestone that I have been chasing for a number of years. I started consuming 225 grams of protein each day during the lifting cycle, which I think had an effect on my results.

[left_hook_lacey]

Just finished a 12 week Wendler Strength Cycle

https://jimwendler.com/

Highly recommend for those looking to get stronger.

Bumped my Back Squat from 290 to 325. Front Squat from 245 to 275. Deadlift from 345 to 390.

First time in my life, at age 41, that I have had a deadlift at double my bodyweight (I weight 190). Excited to reach this milestone that I have been chasing for a number of years. I started consuming 225 grams of protein each day during the lifting cycle, which I think had an effect on my results.

What was your source of protein? Mostly from food or supplements/shakes?

[Edouble]

What was your source of protein? Mostly from food or supplements/shakes?

I only drink one protein shake/day with Orgain Organic Plant Based Protein Powder that I got from Costco, and later from Amazon.

I eat many chicken breasts, cooked in my Instant Pot. Lots of Greek Yogurt. Some lean red meat, like an Eye of Round, also cooked in the Instant Pot.

I also eat a sandwich made with organic deli meats and Dave's Killer Bread.

Occasionally, I will have some liquid egg whites. Just blended with a banana and some spinach.

[wilson]

8 months in, my Better Man Project^TM continues to transform my life. I've gotten into a really good everyday rhythm, so lately I've been looking for new goals to set in the name of keeping things fresh. Right now, I'm working on my 5K time, and I set a(nother) personal best this morning of 24:35. Hoping to shave off another 90 secs or so by year's end.

[left_hook_lacey]

8 months in, my Better Man Project^TM continues to transform my life. I've gotten into a really good everyday rhythm, so lately I've been looking for new goals to set in the name of keeping things fresh. Right now, I'm working on my 5K time, and I set a(nother) personal best this morning of 24:35. Hoping to shave off another 90 secs or so by year's end.

Keep up the great work!

[elvis14]

8 months in, my Better Man Project^TM continues to transform my life. I've gotten into a really good everyday rhythm, so lately I've been looking for new goals to set in the name of keeping things fresh. Right now, I'm working on my 5K time, and I set a(nother) personal best this morning of 24:35. Hoping to shave off another 90 secs or so by year's end.

Sticking with it for 8 months is fantastic! I've been working on my diet (removing sugars) and started working out more regularly. Lost about 10 lbs in the last month. Trying to find more consistency so I can stick with it myself. A group of friends have a group text that we report back on daily with our steps, diet, exercise (and we started a pushup challenge - 700 last week, 800 this week). We are about 3 weeks into our collective Better Men Project and the accountability has been helpful.

[weezie]

Well I, for one, am delighted that high-waist fitness tights are in style for women. Makes me look like I'm thinner, at least.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[wilson]

Well I, for one, am delighted that high-waist fitness tights are in style for women. Makes me look like I'm thinner, at least.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

This man whose, er...awakening...occurred in the mid-'90s is also happy that the high-waist look is back in style, because...um, I should stop.

[devildeac]

8 months in, my Better Man Project^TM continues to transform my life. I've gotten into a really good everyday rhythm, so lately I've been looking for new goals to set in the name of keeping things fresh. Right now, I'm working on my 5K time, and I set a(nother) personal best this morning of 24:35. Hoping to shave off another 90 secs or so by year's end.

Plus, no ball park food .

[Highlander]

Good to catch up. I'm still streaking, running at least a mile a day (today is day 249 if anyone's curious). That proved challenging while backpacking in Colorado back in July. Hiking 14 miles in a day (44K steps) and then putting running shoes on to pound out a mile was a mental hurdle. Certainly was not my best work at around a 14 minute mile, but I did it. I did another backpacking trip in NC over labor day, but our longest day there was "only" 6 miles and pretty level trails. But proud to say the streak lives on.

Now that school has started back, I'm taking my youngest to middle school. I've got about an hour in the morning to exercise. Milder temps and pretty sunsets have me stretching my 1 mile daily run into a 2 miler, and doing 4-5 on the weekends. Got on the scale this morning and I was under 170 for the first time in months. Also been tracking my steps on a daily basis and I've hit my daily goal for 15 straight days (which gets progressively harder as my goal is automatically readjusted up when I hit it. It's currently at 9,800).

Great to see left_hook_lacey getting inspiration to get off the couch and get moving! Keep it up!!

[Reisen]

Can you give us your age range? I lost 40 pounds in a month while a Duke student (at 21), but couldn't replicate that in my late 30's. At the time, I concentrated on drinking a lot of water (drank almost no other drinks but water), massive amounts of sleep (went to bed at like 8pm every night), strict calorie limits, and something like 45 minutes to an hour of cardio 6 days a week. I was pretty much still exhausted all the time that entire month.

My current fitness plan is running between 2 and 2.5 miles every other day, with weight training on the off days. I currently have a broken arm (greater tuberosity fracture of my proximal humerus), so the weight training is on hold.

Occasionally I will switch the run up by either running significantly faster than normal (normal pace is about 8 minute miles, faster pace is like 6:45 miles) or farther (3.5-4 miles). This takes a greater toll on my body, though, and I have to add an extra recovery day for my knees / legs.

In the recent past (ie. last year), I would, at times, run two days in a row. I started having problems with bursitis in my knees, tendonitis in my ankles, etc. I find keeping the mileage down and not running two days in a row really helps alleviate this. My normal runs are trail runs with substantial hills.

When the weather is nice, I will also break out the road bike. I enjoy that more, and it doesn't require recovery days. On the flip side you have to ride probably 4 times as long to get the same workout as a fast run (so requires a greater time commitment). And I hate riding in cold / rainy weather, where as I run in temperatures as low as 5 degrees, and don't mind running in light rain.

The only other thing I'll add is that a lot of fitness / weight loss is diet. Sweets, alcohol, snacking; it's mostly common sense. My diet is still not where it needs to be, but the one thing that makes a huge difference is absolutely no eating anything after dinner (ie. no late night snacking). I still allow myself a glass of red wine or a beer while watching a movie or a Duke game late at night, but not ice cream or popcorn.

I can't stand the treadmill (I don't mind running, but it has to be outdoors), but enjoy the rowing machine, cross trainers, and exercise bikes.

ETA: Currently 6'1, 205. Got as high as 215 in college, but dropped to 175 in that month of exercise, and then to 165 in the next month. That was too thin. I think ideal weight for me is around 185. I stayed around that for much of my 20's and early 30's, but gradually gained 25 pounds with small kids, work travel, and lots of entertaining clients / eating out.

Fun coming back to this after nearly 7 months.

My commitment to working out has been really good this year. I think I have run something like 18 of the past 21 days, so averaging 6 days a week. It hasn't been that good the entire year, but probably has been at least a 4 day a week average in any month.

I still run generally between 2 and 3 miles, with the occasional foray to a 4 mile run maybe once or twice a month.

My arm has mostly healed, but has affected weight training, and I think I may still need surgery next spring for a torn rotator cuff. I have had to stop doing pushups, but can still do curls, flies, triceps work, etc.

I also took a new job that probably doubled my work hours, from 35 to 70 per week, so am pleased I have been able to keep up the fitness kick.

On the flip side, my eating habits have slid. Snacking is still mostly under control, but honestly, too much alcohol and coffee. As a result, my weight has pretty much stayed stable all year (200-205lbs), even thought my stamina has improved and my clothes fit better.

[wilson]

Before Thursday, I had never done a pull-up in my life, and then I did 10 at the gym.
Today I did 10 more.

[left_hook_lacey]

Before Thursday, I had never done a pull-up in my life, and then I did 10 at the gym.
Today I did 10 more.

I lack vocabulary and creativity, so all I can come up with is THAT IS AWESOME!

[elvis14]

About a month ago a friend of mine started a group text of 6 friends to basically help us motivate each other to improve our fitness (both in terms of exercise and diet). It was right around the time he turned 49 and I know he's freaking out about the 5 oh!. The accountability has been great. Some weeks we set goals or challenges like lots of pushups and most days we report in with what we did or didn't do. It's really helping to motivate us all, plus it's opened lines of communications (side discussions about life ensued in addition to fitness). One week we had a goal to do 1000 pushups. I started that week by doing 500 on Monday! After a few weeks of hitting these push up goals, however, I can tell it's making a difference. I was able to bench 45lb dumbbells on Friday...the most I've done since I separated my shoulder in May of '17.

Not long before that group text started I had my "yearly" physical (where yearly was the first one in 5 years). The results were pretty good but they didn't like my sugar and A1C numbers and labelled me "pre-diabetic". Add that to the fact that my older brother was recently diagnosed as type-2 and I saw that as a call to action. For me that meant that I was going to try and pull a good bit of the sugar out of my diet. I have lots of low hanging fruit when it comes to sugar because I love snacks. A day wouldn't go by when I didn't have cookies and/or ice cream or something similar. It's been about 6 weeks. Between the diet changes and the group-text fueled workouts I'm down about 11 lbs and I'm adding some good weight and feeling stronger. It's a good start. I have so much to learn about diet and sugar, however. So much of what I eat is pasta and bread and snacks. Somedays I just feel like I just don't eat anything that I like to eat. I know as I learn more I'll find the right balance (I freaked and didn't have a single sugary snack for weeks).

And wilson...great job 10 pull ups is something most people can't do (and most don't even know it). Those of us that have done p90X know all about how hard pull ups really are.

[devildeac]

About a month ago a friend of mine started a group text of 6 friends to basically help us motivate each other to improve our fitness (both in terms of exercise and diet). It was right around the time he turned 49 and I know he's freaking out about the 5 oh!. The accountability has been great. Some weeks we set goals or challenges like lots of pushups and most days we report in with what we did or didn't do. It's really helping to motivate us all, plus it's opened lines of communications (side discussions about life ensued in addition to fitness). One week we had a goal to do 1000 pushups. I started that week by doing 500 on Monday! After a few weeks of hitting these push up goals, however, I can tell it's making a difference. I was able to bench 45lb dumbbells on Friday...the most I've done since I separated my shoulder in May of '17.

Not long before that group text started I had my "yearly" physical (where yearly was the first one in 5 years). The results were pretty good but they didn't like my sugar and A1C numbers and labelled me "pre-diabetic". Add that to the fact that my older brother was recently diagnosed as type-2 and I saw that as a call to action. For me that meant that I was going to try and pull a good bit of the sugar out of my diet. I have lots of low hanging fruit when it comes to sugar because I love snacks. A day wouldn't go by when I didn't have cookies and/or ice cream or something similar. It's been about 6 weeks. Between the diet changes and the group-text fueled workouts I'm down about 11 lbs and I'm adding some good weight and feeling stronger. It's a good start. I have so much to learn about diet and sugar, however. So much of what I eat is pasta and bread and snacks. Somedays I just feel like I just don't eat anything that I like to eat. I know as I learn more I'll find the right balance (I freaked and didn't have a single sugary snack for weeks).

And wilson...great job 10 pull ups is something most people can't do (and most don't even know it). Those of us that have done p90X know all about how hard pull ups really are.

Great progress!

We have 2 grandchildren so we have a bit different concept/image/description of "pull-ups."

220px-Wet_vs_Dry.jpg

[elvis14]

Great progress!

We have 2 grandchildren so we have a bit different concept/image/description of "pull-ups."

220px-Wet_vs_Dry.jpg

LOL, I have 2 in high school so I'm in between the "pull ups" years on the Huggies front.

[budwom]

aerobic lawn mowing (and apres mowing beer swilling) to commence post lunch, all welcome. Ninety minutes of heck.

[Mal]

Rough summer for me on the running front. I continued running well and on a regular schedule into late June, despite realizing that I HATE running in humidity (and I'm not very good at it, either). Got down to a 24 minute 5k once, pushed one extended run up to 8 miles. Knowing I had a minor medical procedure scheduled for the third week of June which would require me to not work out for a couple weeks, I went for broke a little bit and laid down 4 miles in less than 31 minutes a few days beforehand.

Unfortunately, those couple of weeks off were followed by travel to Asia, and my recovery from the procedure was much slower than expected, so I really fell off my game. I wasn't specifically training for it, but I had entertained the idea of signing up for a 10k or possibly even a half marathon with a friend or two for this fall. But when I got back on the horse after 3+ weeks of barely exercising, my enthusiasm had waned seriously, performance had dropped precipitously, and I didn't feel right. Throw in 10 days at the lake in mid-August just a few weeks after that, where I went in with grand designs to run every other day, went 5 miles the day after I got there, and then the schedule of the week precluded any more running, and as of a month ago I was basically back where I'd been in March or so in terms of stamina and speed. So those grand plans fell by the wayside in a hurry. My goal of getting up to 10 miles was unrealized, as well as my goal of 5 miles in 40 minutes, and both looked like a distant mirage as possible achievements.

Luckily, the ramp-up is a lot faster when you've got some base, I guess. I went 6 miles for the second time in 8 days yesterday, and despite two 4 mile runs in between, I went 3 minutes faster yesterday than the prior Sunday, without really trying to. I had enough in the tank to sprint (sorta) the last quarter mile. Maybe it's the cooler weather.

The plan for this fall is now Wed/Fr/Sun, with Wednesday being an easy 4 miles, Friday some interval training 5k's (starting with first mile at a jog, then go hard for as long as I can and finish easy - if I ever get to the point of covering the last 2.1 running hard, I'll eat into the first slow mile backwards), and then longer on the weekend. Not planning on pushing the long run past 7 or so until I decide for real to train for a half marathon.