Exercise and Fitness VI

[Nichole]

Chataya, weight lifting can improve bone density. I'm sure with your attention to this you will be fine. You will live a long healthy life and not be one of those sad old ladies at the mall.

[cjfshaw]

I haven't worked out at all in about a week so I just wanted to do something tonight. So I just did a bunch of my favorite exercises.

5x10 dumbbell bench press

-hadnt done these in awhile so i started out low, 20 lbs per dumbbell, then i moved it up to 25 for the next two sets, then up to 30 for the final two sets. Those last ones were killers.

5x10 deadlifts

-only ever did this once, so I started the weight real low, so I could get the technique down. I started out with 50 lbs, the next set was 70 lbs (holy shit I can feel this in my lower back, I thought this was mainly a leg exercise!?), next set was 80 lbs, the next set was 100(ok, now my legs are feeling it), the final set i brought the weight up to 120 (ok, my lower back and legs are definitely feeling it now, it feels great, 120 was too much, next time I will start with 110)

Thats all I did, but it felt good to do something

[cjfshaw]

So I woke up this morning, and the first thing I can feel is my lower back. Then, its the outside of my chest. And then oddly enough...my upper back, like right below my traps.

[OctopusArms]

Cap, is it pain, or just soreness?

Legs today. I've found that leg days are best when you don't have to do anything silly afterward. Like walk. Or sit. Or be awake.

Also, I dropped the bar doing fairly light super heavy front squats of doom. :blush: I'm sure this added to the mystery and awesomeness I've developed in my gym goings.

[cjfshaw]

Cap, is it pain, or just soreness?

soreness, delicious delicious soreness

[TheLoneliestMonk]

I'm sure professional atheletes could use the extra calories in the gatorade.

[TheLoneliestMonk]

I doubt it. I'm pretty sure it was smart water who had the adds about all the extra exercise you need to do to burn off the calories in gatorade. like 400 extra sit-ups to burn off the calories in one bottle. if people are doing crunches to burn off calories though, then gatorade is the least of their problems. their big problem is being stupid as fuck.

[TheLoneliestMonk]

Yeah, and a bottle of soda has like a quarter cup of sugar. how gross is that? gatorade is great for hangovers though.

[Mudguard]

What do you guys think of Smart Water? Theoretically it should be superior to Gatorade. The theory goes that Gatorade is good for performance because electrolytes are lost during workouts. So Gatorade is superior to water because it replaces those lost electrolytes. Well smart water is just water with the electrolytes added. So it is like Gatorade without the sugar. Does the sugar matter though?

I only drink Gatorade/Powerade/etc when I need to replace electrolytes and will be burning tons of calories, like when I go on long, strenuous hikes in the mountains. I'm not used to eating 5000+ calories a day, so every litle bit helps.

Edited to add: Also, during endurance activities, you can burn off practically all of your glycogen stores, which forces your body to burn fat, a less efficient process. For example, for marathon runners, this can result in "hitting the wall", a phase where running feels much more difficult. Simple sugars are quickly metabolised and can help offset this problem.

[Alcibiades]

Has anyone here tried the 100 push ups program?

http://hundredpushups.com/

It's supposed to get anyone doing 100 push ups after completing a 6 week program. I am progressing well, but am turning it into about a 3 month program. This is because I stopped exercising while getting adjusted to a new job, and repeated weeks a couple times.

Just some general info about me: I'm trying to get down to a 32 inch waistline I had in high school. I'm 25 now and have about a 34 inch waist.

Ran 6 miles today. Will bike tomorrow. Weeeeee

[Stego]

Has anyone here tried the 100 push ups program?

http://hundredpushups.com/

It's supposed to get anyone doing 100 push ups after completing a 6 week program. I am progressing well, but am turning it into about a 3 month program. This is because I stopped exercising while getting adjusted to a new job, and repeated weeks a couple times.

Just some general info about me: I'm trying to get down to a 32 inch waistline I had in high school. I'm 25 now and have about a 34 inch waist.

Ran 6 miles today. Will bike tomorrow. Weeeeee

In all honesty, if you can run 6 miles but can't do 100 pushups, you should spend some time with iron and not on a bike.

[Kat]

*reads end of old thread, catches up on new one*

I see people are posting before and after pics. If I did that right now, it would be really fucking sad. I look....diseased right now. People at gas stations backed away, in case it was catching. :rolleyes: My shoulders are nothing but mosquito bites. My legs are red and splotchy with more bug bites. I have them all over my face. I have approximately 80 bites on me right now, not counting the ones I can't see on my back. I hate insects with a raging passion right now. How could I forget that mosquitoes exist?? There are none in the city. There are none in the desert where I work. Gah. (We had approximately 1 fl. oz. of deet amongst the 7 people in our group.)

Anyway....just came back from my hike. I don't know exactly how long it was, but it was approximately 50 miles, mostly on the John Muir Trail, including summiting Mt. Whitney (14,505'). I forgot how many mixed feelings I had about camping/hiking with a group and having to share responsibilities (and viruses). Various people got altitude sickness and other ailments. I may now have the beginnings of bronchitis :thumbsdown: but I avoided most problems except for blisters all over my feet. I think I need different boots for high altitude because my feet always swell up when I go high, and I always forget about this. I don't even want to try fitting them into anything other than flip-flops for the next day or more.

Good things:

-I climbed a mountain, yay?

-My pack finally weighed in at over 50 lbs, including water and food, and my body broke in to carrying an extra 40% weight after only one day.

-I am surprisingly well-equipped to deal with altitude considering I spent a large portion of this year below sea level?

-I did not kill the ex. In fact, we are on better terms than when we started, and if the group had split up like it seemed like it was going to one day, I probably would have stuck with him rather than the mo'fficial leader. :unsure:

-My toenails have not, in fact, fallen off, mostly because I am now held together by duct tape.

-Hiking poles rock.

-That part of the Sierra contains many large feldspar phenocrysts. And nice glacial geomorphology.

-I think I'm in better shape than when I started, aside from aforementioned foot issues. I'm slow but steady.

-I think, under the bug bites, that I have rippling triceps and back muscles from using my poles to hoist me up so much.

-My hips did not die. I credit pilates for this.

Bad things:

-Organization....again I wonder why I ever trust anyone to plan shit for me.

-Several Survivor-like social moments.

-I did not get to climb Caltech Peak (but no one in our group actually made it to the top). In fact, I did not even get to try, because I was a nice, responsible person who stayed with the out of shape, never been above 6000' person with altitude sickness and walked downhill while her boyfriend, the leader, and everyone else tried to go up. On the other hand, it looked kind of nasty and I don't like rock climbing or scrambling, especially when my feet are falling off, and especially not when the timeframe for going up and down is only 4 hours, and the last friend of mine who went up, and who is a far better person than me in all ways, took 5.5 hours to go up and down.

-I did not eat enough and this contributed to my energy draining several times going over passes. All I can say is that someone who packs granola bars for a trip that say "Just 100 calories per bar!" on the wrapping is not paying enough attention to priorities. NEED MOAR GATORADE. MOAR CHOCOLATE. MOAR EVERYTHING. It's just really sad when you have a dinnertime conversation that includes trying to convince the guy who planned out the food to work cooking oil into the dinner in some way, shape or form. And to pack more oil next time so this can occur. I do not know how much weight I lost, but considering that the clean shorts I wore for driving there and back felt looser going back, even after eating a huge breakfast, I'm guessing it's several pounds.

-My camera battery ran out the morning I was supposed to go up Whitney. Luckily someone else took pics. But still.

-Walking downhill for 10 miles really sucks. I really don't understand the popularity of just going to the top of Whitney and down again. Switchbacks are annoying and boring. I have renamed this "the long, slow descent into madness". My respect for Mudguard's sanity has doubled, at least, for being able to tolerate the part where you go down. Don't you ever get tempted to just jump off?

[Mudguard]

Sorry to hear about the mosquitos Kat. They were horrible there. I had to cut my warmup hike short because I forgot to put on insect repellant. I have never encountered so many mosquitoes in my life. Literally clouds of them around in some areas.

Congrats on surviving your hike and climbing Whitney! You'll definitely come out of this stronger, especially after you've had time to rest and eat to catch up on calories. I ended up losing about a pound per day, despite eating about 4000 calories/day. I found it hard to eat much more than this because it seemed like a bad idea to stuff myself before or during the hike, which meant that dinner was the only time I could pig out.

Hope you don't have bronchitis. I picked up a minor cough that went away a day or two after my trip. I think it was just caused by the dryness in the air at high altitude. Plus the lower air pressure causes water to evaporate faster. And it was also very windy at the top of Whitney, which also makes this worse. The combination of these things caused my throat/lungs to dry out a bit and get irritated.

I had major feet and leg swelling the day after I got back, but not while I was up in the mountains. It was really weird as this was the first time this has happened to me. I ended up ballooning up 10 lbs, and then over the course of two day, quickly deflating...I wish I could pin down the cause so that I can do something to avoid it in the future.

As for how I deal with boredom during the descent, it hasn't really been an issue for me. I usually go fast enough where I have to really concentrate on maintaining my footing. This helps keep my mind occupied. Also, I'm usually starving at this point, so I can think only of getting off the mountain as quickly as possible so that I can eat dinner. This helps me keep my pace and keeps me from thinking too much. And I know this is bad, but I have occasionally taken "cross-country routes" through areas of annoying switchbacks. Might have done this a few times on Whitney...

Whitney is popular mainly because it's the highest mountain in the lower 48 states, and it's relatively easy to do, and by easy, I mean that you can just hike up it without any technical equipment. Also, I thought the views from Trailcrest and above were great, but it does take a lot of work to get to the point. I'm thinking about doing Whitney again, but from the Mountaineer's Route, which is more direct than the main trail and involves class 3 rock climbing. No techincal equipment need though, at least when the snow is gone.

[Alcibiades]

In all honesty, if you can run 6 miles but can't do 100 pushups, you should spend some time with iron and not on a bike.

Is it really that abnormal that I can only do 35ish push ups? (thats up from 22 when i started doing them this summer)

I do accept that I need to branch out beyond cardio workouts. I really enjoy running, soccer, and cycling, but they make my workouts awfully one dimensional. I don't meet the usual runner's profile of the ultra skinny guy, however, as I'm 5'10'' and weigh about 195.

[lumer]

Kat -

How many days was your hiking trip?

I've been etching to do a hiking trip for some time, problem is that until september-ish it's too fucking hot over here to hike. Well, you can find places, but I've already been there and they'll be really packed. The cool places will literally kill you if you hike in July.

I'm sorta like Argive - I mostly do running and basketball on occasion. I think I can do 40-ish pushups now, but I'm not concentrating on it at the moment. I've long realized I have enough willpower to do one type of workouts - either muscle or cardio. I've decided that cardio is more important. I'm not a total weakling and I do some upper body strength, but not very regularly.

[ztemhead]

Gatorade is a marvel when it comes to it's positioning as a product. It may, in fact, be great for people who are involved in serious athletics but it's poison for anyone else. It has as much sugar as soda.

I'm all for a well timed sports drink in the middle of a workout. the key is you have to do it in the middle, or towards the end to get the most benefit. I've read studies that say they can extend the length and intensity of your workouts, and from personal experience, I know it makes me feel better, faster, stronger. Side note for some who don't know, check the labels to see if your drink of choice has caffeine. The other day I was surprised to discover some of them do.

Also, you're right about the sugar, which is why I never do the really big gatorade/ vitamin waters. 16 to 20 oz. of sports drink is plenty, except on those mother-long bike rides I was doing, which now are no longer. :(

Nice hiking story, kat. It reminds me I need to figure out where the bro and I are going in the Tetons in a couple weeks. I had in mind to do rock climbing too, but it looks like a pretty expensive proposition for a n00b like me.

[ztemhead]

it's my understanding that the sugar is part of the reason why sports drinks work. the sugar causes increased insulin production, which in turn causes more water to be absorbed by your muscles, which enabling them to work longer and harder. It's a trade off- more endurance in return for a little sugar. As it is now, I sometimes do them, but not always. I've found drinking a small bottle of gatorade during my 6 mile runs in the Arizona heat is very beneficial. If I was in a more serious muscle building mode rather than fat loss mode, I'd be more consistent with them in the gym.

[Mudguard]

ztem, you might be able to rent rock climbing gear from REI. My store has a rental shop, but I haven't used it yet. Do you have rock climbing experience? If not, better get some training first. Or just stick to class 3 stuff, which doesn't require gear.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

Wow Kat! After your report, mine is rather lame. I will get some more distance in as time goes on (and increase the weight of my pack)

My hike today was not what I had planned. The trail I had planned on taking (same as last week, with and extra 1 ½ miles at the end) was closed. I was rather disappointed as I hike the less touristy trails and was now forced to take the tourist trail to Wolf Rock and Chimney Rock. Total distance was just under 7 miles but it took me over 3 hours. :blush:

One of the reasons was I did go up to see what Wolf Rock was and found an amazing place. I had a protein bar there and my second bottle of water.

Wolf Rock: One; two; three; four; five; six; seven; eight.

Also saw the biggest bird I had ever seen. The wingspan had to be 6ft. It flew right over my head and scared the crap out of me. :lol:

On the trail down from Chimney Rock, I came across a family. The young girl had fallen and scraped her knee pretty good. It was bleeding a lot and the girl was upset and the parents had not prepared for this. I do carry a first aid kit in my back pack (along with rope, a mulittool, toilet paper, compass and such.) I gave the mom a bottle of water to wash the cut off with, a sterile dressing to dry and clean it, some anti-bacterial stuff and a band aid. I let the girl drink the rest of that bottle of water and gave her one of my apples. (she was upset and it made her feel better)

The other reason the hike was so long was I did a steep hill, about 800ft elevation gain over ½ mile. I was over 5 miles at this point and damn, that was kicking my ass. There was some flat rocks in the middle of the trail and I sat there, eating an apple and drinking water. Felt much better after that and made the last 2 miles without a problem.

Back at the visitor center I learned the reason the path I wanted was closed by the Secret Service since yesterday. (I have mentioned that this are is pretty close to Camp David, right?)

Ate another protein bar in the car on my drive home. I sat outside for a while, drying off. I showered, but before I finished (as I was shaving my legs) I developed a serious case of the shakes.

After eating a huge chicken breast and veggies topped with cheese, 2 more bottles of water, I feel much better.

eta: I forgot to mention that Wolf Rock is largely made out of quarts (which is obvious in a couple of the pictures). They have a placard that give a little geology lesson on how they were formed.

[Alcibiades]

This is why I'm intrigued by Smart Water. It has 0 calories. It's just bottled water but with electrolytes.

I've started drinking Sobe Life Water. They have zero calories and are really quite delicious. There isn't any artificial sugar in them.