Fitness

[Red Beret]

I thought I'd post and see how many of us keep fit.

I myself have always done martial arts at some point, but since I havent trained for a while, I have started running, and pushups/situps.

I think anyone that wants to be able to handle a street fight, or just be helathy, needs some kind of physical activity.

I've been running a few days per week, and going around 2.3km per run, followed by as many pushups and situps as I can do.

It has improved my stamina and mental energy too. So....what do you guys do?

[totenkov]

I go to the gym religiously ever other day, I completed a marathon one month ago and I generally live a very healthy life. I take some protein mixes and am just as muscular as I am athletic.

There is a fine balance between having copious amounts of muscle and stamina and endurance. I have both because I have toned myself to have both. I take some martial arts classes, however you could almost call it an underground ring that trains each other, a group of friends who know friends, and it goes from there.

I would generally avoid these faggy boxing clubs, claiming to teach you military fighting skills in 60 days or some title appropriate like that.

My only fault in my own personal health may be the odd bit of vaporized cannabis or blue lotus once in a blue moon :)

[mike-hunt]

When choosing an exercise program I have always found it easier to stick something I find enjoyable. Its a lot easier for me to kick around a foot ball with some mates during a lunch break then getting up at 5;00am to work out at a gym.

I have found swimming to be a great all-round workout it's good for improving endurance and strength and being low impact it doesn't cause as much stress on the joints as jogging or running.

[colniko]

Fitness has always been an important part of my life and one of my top priorities!

I will typically start my morning off with a couple of chocolate brownies to get that early sugar rush to get me going for the day. If I am feeling especially athletic I will sustain that "sugar high" with a few energy drinks. Now I am good to go. Usually I will shadow box in my living room in front of the TV with Music On Demand blasting some motivational Blues grass. If I wanna turn up the heat and bust out ninja skills I will drop in my Tae Bo video and get a good 4 minute burn going. Actually, I have been unable to "train" for a few days, I was throwing a roundhouse kick and must have caught my dogs squeaky toy just right cause I slipped and busted my ass. I think I pulled a hammy, gonna give it a few more days to heal. In the meantime I have been sucking down plenty of Milk shakes and stuffed crust pizza to try to keep a healthy body and mind.

Lunch, another staple meal for the day. McD's or Sonic usually has a pretty good nutritional meal. McFlurries are key!

Ya gotta take this stuff serious. Health and fitness is a way of life.

[Alexires]

Firstly, what to say here?

colniko - I think you have a little bit of a misunderstanding of what healthy is. One of my past jobs has been working for Mc. Donalds (amongst other things) and I assure you that unless you eat only from the salad menu, it isn't exactly "healthy". Even the salad menu isn't that good....

The sugar rush you talk about isn't the best thing at all for your body if you are really fitness orientated. Try something with a little longer lasting energy. For instance, if you are going for the kind of aerobic stuff (running, shadow boxing, anything that raises the heart rate for an extended period, say 20-30 or more) I would recommend having some kind of fruit smoothie. Go for banana, strawberry, milk, mango, rock melon, etc. Blend the fuck out of it and have a glass of that before you go for your aerobic. If you are like me, I prefer to just have some water, head out then eat when I get back.

If you are going for anaerobic (weights, pushups, etc) then I would recommend again starting dry (or perhaps one of those pre-work out protein drinks), slamming out your work out, and then having a fair bit of protein through the day.

Try actually cooking your own food as opposed to people being paid minimum wage to do it for you. You would be surprised what you can whip up in 30 mins. with some mince, pasta, garlic, ginger, pasta sauce and some tomatoes.

Pizza, McDonalds (McFlurries?!!!), Wendies, anything basically that is main stream is NOT the way to go to be healthy. The closest fast food to "healthy" is Subway, and even then I'd prefer a home cooked meal to that any day.

Normally I go for a run every day and on every second day (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat) I pump out a bit of a work out routine that I have made myself. Pushups, situps, kangaroo jumps, tri/biceps work out. Try and get an all round deal going. Burpies are fucking awesome if you throw a push up in the middle.

I like music when I'm training, helps to get the blood pumping and some adrenaline flowing to push out those last muscle breakers.

Totenkov - Definitely agree regarding some places and their "military martial arts". If you want to learn to fight, learn in a place that doesn't hold back so much because of insurance issues, etc.

[Rbick]

Good call on the martial arts! It is some one of the best work outs to grapple with someone, even for just 5 minutes. In the military, we trained in a mix of boxing, ju jitsu, and judo. The most tired I've ever been in my life is after a good day of hard fighting/grappling. It is also a good way to build up confidence and pain threshold.

Physical training is also key. Running along with balanced weight training and a good diet to achieve a medium is a good plan. I see a lot of the guys who use 'roids at the gym. Sure they're big, but do they have the endurance required to hike up a mountain with 90 pounds of gear in a combat situation or run 5 miles? Hell no. Also consistently changing work outs is a way to keep your body "guessing". By that I mean changing excercies on your certain muscle groups. Like for bench, don't just bench press with a straight bar. Incorperate dumb bells, incline/decline, chest flies, ect.

I'm not going to go into detail here, but I try and work out every day. When I run, its usually aware between 3-10 miles. I also put push ups, situps and abs afterwards. I could write a small book on the weight lifting. In sort, I alternate muscle groups through out the week. I'll take Sundays off usually. However, the one thing that is probably the most important thing when it comes to physical training is CONSISTENCY! You need to disciple yourself and remain constant in your training, otherwise you will never see results. Fitness is a lifestyle, not something that just happens. Remember it is also important to allow muscles to recover so they can come back stronger. This is why you alternate muscle groups and take a 1 or 2 day break somewhere during the week.

Also: Whats with the McFlurries and fast food? Are you kidding?

One endurance workout I recommend that I just tried today: Find a gradual sloping hill about 200 yards long. Flat ground will work ok, but it won't hurt as much and won't be as much fun. In a wheel barrow, place three 25 pound weights. Now sprint down to the bottom of the hill (or 200 yards) with the barrow and sprint back up. This should hurt. If not, run faster. After the first set, run over to a 60 pound dumb bell and lift it above your head. Walk briskly for 50 yards and put it down while keeping your arms slightly flexed. Run back to the wheel barrow and remove a 25 pound weight and repeat until all weights are gone. On your last set, run without the wheel barrow. Do this as fast as possible and repeat if needed (you probably won't be able to). This is a good thing to add to the end of a weight lifting session. Also time yourself so you can see your progress. This will kick your ass the first few times, but man does it feel good.

[Kaydon]

I doubt I live what anyone would consider a "healthy" lifestyle. I eat a ton of steak, pizza, pasta, etc. Drink soda instead of water unless I'm playing paintball or riding my bike, then I drink water because the sugar will ruin your (at least for me anyway) day. How colniko can manage to exercise with that much sugar in his system is beyond me.

"Strength training" for me is lifting heavy stuff in my shop. I spend most of my off time at home, in my garage and I'm sure I don't need to explain how heavy shop equipment can be.

I used to ride my bike.. a lot, I'd do anywhere from 25 to 50 miles a day, ate healthy too. Did the whole creatine and noxplode deal, etc. I lost interest in road cycling, before that I rode BMX but I suffered a serious ankle injury and couldn't take the hard landings for extended periods of time, so I only ride BMX on occasion. Started mountain biking a while back.

That's about it for me. I down a 5 hr energy before class (machine tool,) too. I doubt they're all that good for ya, but ohwell.

[colniko]

I thought I was going to let a sleeping dog lie, but it seems that no one caught on to the fact that is was sarcastic humor. So apparently I wont be winning any awards for comedy writing.

Heheh, I dont really start my day off with brownies and energy drinks nor recoup my body with McFlurries and fast food. But I aint going to lie, I definitely do like brownies. And Kaydon, right on with those 5 hour energy shots, those are pretty good but I am sure like you said they are no good. Hell, with 8333% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin B12, thats a bit much in my book.

No body thought shadow boxing and jumping around like a ninja listening to blue grass was funny? Or catching myself on a dogs squeaky toy and busting my ass? Heheh, oh well.


I haven't really scanned the FTP so I it may already be there, but there are a few books by a Ross Enamait that are really good and go along with the type of workout Rbick was describing. Unfortunately I have only found some of his older works in electronic form. If this group doesnt have'm I will see if I can upload them.

[Alexires]

Sarcasm is a little hard to transmit across the net. That and you would be surprised at the amount of sincere posts that come here that look like that.

Have a look at the Banned For Life section to see some of the "sincere" posts we get.

[Rbick]

Colniko: I figured you were kidding, but I wasn't for sure. As Alexires said, tis hard to pick up on sarcasm accross the net. The reason I was uncertain was due to the fact that there really are people that do those things! Yes, I have seen people like Napoleon Dynamite that really exist. Scary isn't it? :eek:

Anyway, to go along with the work out I posted, I have another fun one that I tried on Tuesday: If you live in a city, find a good parking garage, try to find one with 5 stories or more. Start with a 1-3 mile run to or around the garage. Make the run at about 80-90% of your ability. So not at full sprint, but close to your max speed for that distance. When you get to the garage, stop at the base of the first ramp and do 25 push ups (fewer if need be to fit your ability level) and sprint up to the ramp. Now jog back down and do another set of push ups. Now sprint to the top again and stop at the base of the 2nd ramp and do 30-50 crunches. When you're done with those, sprint up the 2nd ramp and then jog all the way down to the bottom again. Continue this process until you have gotten to the top floor or you are too tired to continue. You can mix up the work outs. If you find some hand rails, do some dips or whatever you can think of. When you're done, finish with a 1-2 mile cool down at about 50-60%.

When I tried this, my arms were too tired on the cool down run and I couldn't lift them that well. I think I kind of looked like a Penguin trying to run like that, but it was funny. Great endurance work out too. It keeps your heart rate up and works your muscles. The next day work out should be a light run and some weight lifting. Don't over exert yourself, since this can have detrimental effects.

[Red Beret]

Great stuff guys, already taken some of this on board.

[festergrump]

I thought it was some pretty gut-busting stuff, Colniko, but I doubted my ability to top the humor in the post so I left it well enough alone.

Your humor was appreciated and not entirely lost! ;)

[mrtnira]

Colniko's write-up kept me laughing so hard, that it hurt to laugh any more. It sounds so much like my own exercise program, unfortunately.

Exercise can be relative to where someone is, and I'm not laughing at this. When I was 25, I actually tried out for the Navy SEALs. I failed the swim test by 30 seconds. Functionally, you need to train for the test, and where I was in the Navy did not have a pool. I used to run up 12 floors and not be out of breath.

Now, 25 years later, genetics being what they are, people age differently, and I am constrained. In some periods, if I walk up the block I might be doing okay. Yesterday, I walked two miles, so the day was a good one.

My interest in traditional military skills training has never slowed, but my ability has slowed and ebbed. Although, I can enjoy it more today than before, because I am not so full of myself. Today, it is more the joy of shadow-boxing and being with men who enjoy martial arts than having to prove myself. The wrong motivation can kill the joy of any training program.

Most of all, just find something to do and do it consistently. Atrophy will take its toll on any human body. I speak from experience, and would encourage you not to procrastinate on any good work in life by saying, "Tomorrow." You only have today.

[colniko]

www.crossfit.com

Good site. Some good practical workouts. As the site says, a lot of real world operational units use these types of workouts because they are typically fast, dont require much or any equipment and give you a full body workout along with a cardio workout as well.

I like looking at the archive of workouts and putting a few workouts of my own together that fit my needs/goals as well as what facilities and equip I have at that time, which sometimes is nothing more than an open field.

RogSci forum is pretty slick. It seems you can find info on just about anything here and get several different perspectives on things. I wish I had known about this site from the beginning.

[Cobalt.45]

...as well as what facilities and equip I have at that time, which sometimes is nothing more than an open field. Instead of using the tractor, I took to pushing a 22" mower to cut my grass. The yard is big and has elevation changes to boot.

Doesn't sound like much, but it helps to hold my ground, condition-wise. I've always eaten properly except I ignore the bad/good "thing of the month". Also used to do 20 push-ups every beer I drank. Maybe that's why I don't drink much any more! :confused:

The American College of Sports Medicine and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in 1994, "The minimum exercise recommendation for health benefits is 30 minutes worth of moderate-intensity exercise every day." This recommendation was made to encourage couch potatoes:p to exercise.

Point is, EVERYONE should try to commit to that much, health permitting.

OT, but does anyone recall those TV commercials for eye exercises that could strengthen/restore eyesight? Did they actually do anything besides separate you from your $$$?

RogSci forum is pretty slick.Yea it is!