Excercise and Fitness X-treme

[Humble Asskicker]

I've been hitting the gyms, sadly.

My goal right now is to

1) Bench 225 pounds, 6 reps.

2) Squat 400 pounds, at least 1 rep.

3) Run 2.5 miles in 15 minutes.

4) Prep each session with a smoke, and wind down with another smoke, to lend a fashionable sense of irony to the ordeal.

Does anyone have a specific diet they eat to complement their exercise?

[cjfshaw]

I've been hitting the gyms, sadly.

My goal right now is to

1) Bench 225 pounds, 6 reps.

2) Squat 400 pounds, at least 1 rep.

3) Run 2.5 miles in 15 minutes.

4) Prep each session with a smoke, and wind down with another smoke, to lend a fashionable sense of irony to the ordeal.

Does anyone have a specific diet they eat to complement their exercise?

That last part made me laugh. I'd say goals 2 and 3 are probably the easiest to attain. Good luck!

[lessthanluke]

I've been hitting the gyms, sadly.

My goal right now is to

1) Bench 225 pounds, 6 reps.

2) Squat 400 pounds, at least 1 rep.

3) Run 2.5 miles in 15 minutes.

4) Prep each session with a smoke, and wind down with another smoke, to lend a fashionable sense of irony to the ordeal.

Does anyone have a specific diet they eat to complement their exercise?

I just eat a lot :P. Good luck with your goals.

I deadlifted 600lbs today. Used straps because I partially tore a callous on the penultimate set. Preparation for my comp in Jan is going good.

[Eponine]

I'm going to yoga for the first time in several weeks.

I'd like to get involved in another fitness program (along with skiing) this winter, but am not sure exactly what to do. The program that looks the best to me is half an hour away (yoga is that far too), and I haven't decided if I want to make that trip daily.

[cjfshaw]

my bad, I misread that earlier, I thought it said 2 miles not 2.5.

[Eponine]

I had to back off during yoga tonight. Too much hot, not enough hydration. Or maybe it's the -8* weather outside. Or just that I hadn't been practicing regularly this past month. Also one of my toes has gone wonky. I'm not sure if it's from soccer or from wearing my boots all the time. In conclusion, I have minor problems and don't really know why.

[Lord of Rhinos]

Does anyone have a specific diet they eat to complement their exercise?

My diet is terrible right now. It is absolutely packed with sweets and empty calories. I do make sure to eat a lot of protein though, especially after weight lifting (sometimes I feel like I live on chicken).

Good luck with your goals. You've set the bar pretty high for yourself, except for 4 which should be a breeze.

[Fleeing Finn]

Does anyone have a specific diet they eat to complement their exercise?

This is a topic I could talk about a lot. In short, what you eat should depend on what your goals are and the exercise you do. Some guidelines for heavy weights training with improving performance as the goal:

-Food intake around 300 calorie surplus

-Eat 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass

-Eat enough carbs to ensure glycogen repletion (This is usually less than you might think and most people only need something about 200 grams per training day)

-Eat mostly mono- and polyunsaturated fats (These are a lot easier to mobilize if you want to lose some fat later on)

-Eat your fish oil

-Make sure to provide adequate fiber in your diet

-Useful vitamins and minerals: cheap multivitamin, vitamin D, zinc, magnesium and calcium

-As far as supplements go creatine and beta-alanine can have some impact and the remainder of the legal ones are shit

[Liffguard]

So, I failed my Royal Marines potential officers course. Not the end of the world at this point since I can go back to try again in three months time, but I'm still disappointed. The physical stuff broke down into three sections:

Royal Marines Fitness Test:

Bleep test - I got 12.10 (minimum level 11)

Push ups - I got 60 in two minutes (could have done more but 60 was considered maximum so I was stopped)

Sit-ups - (I got 80 in two minutes)

Pull ups - these are to the PTI's count and on a beam, not a bar. I got 8.

Overall, I nailed this test with no problems

Bottom Field session:

So here was where the real work began. We started off with confidence tests i.e. the "death slide" (a zip line) and a confidence run and jump along a beam onto netting. Passed both no problems. Next we warmed up by sprinting back and forth, crawling under netting and through pools of freezing water and other delights. Great fun. Over the next two hours the other candidates and I went through individual times on the Tarzan assault course, a team effort on the assault course (getting a log round without it touching the ground), fireman carry sprints, a team effort pushing a much heavier log up a steep hill and generally being beasted with sprints, push ups, burpees and assorted exercises. We finished with the regain exercise which involved crawling along a rope suspended over a pool. Halfway along we had to hang from the rope and do several pull ups then climb back on top and continue across. I managed it though I ended up using a pretty unconventional technique. My individual assault course effort could have been better but my overall performance was good here. Which brings us to our final test...

...the endurance run, 6.5 miles in total. The first 2.5 were untimed, we simply had to keep pace with the PTI. This was an extremely rough course, with mud ranging from ankle to waist high and hills of up to 40 degrees, not to mention the various pools and tunnels and the sheep dip. At various points we had to take cover and continue the course on our bellies. Next was the Hare and Hound. The PTI took off into the woods along a mile-long trail and we had to give him a 25 burpee headstart. On completion of said burpees we turned and had to chase him at maximum pace. At this point I was literally going slightly faster than a shuffle. I had to go around roots and obstacles because I couldn't lift my legs high enough to clear them. The final task was the three mile run back to camp during which we had to keep pace with the PTI. I got about a half mile in before my legs just stopped moving and the assessing officer pulled me off the course and put me in the support bus. I simply had nothing left to give.

Whilst I'm disappointed that I failed, I'm proud that I at least managed to keep going until my body actually gave up on me. I'm going to re-double my training efforts and make another go of it in march.

[Balefont]

Liff, very proud for you. Even if you didn't pass, you didn't fail either. Not by a long, long shot.

All the best on your next attempt.

[lessthanluke]

That's an awesome effort Liff. I would have failed at the bleep test!

[Eponine]

Sorry you didn't pass, Liff, but good luck on your next attempt.

[Mudguard]

Wow, Liffguard, that course sounds crazy. Are there any breaks and time to eat between all the different tests? Sounds like you were pretty close, but just ran out of gas at the end. Do you think you just need to work on endurance/cardio mainly? Good luck in March.

[Liffguard]

Wow, Liffguard, that course sounds crazy. Are there any breaks and time to eat between all the different tests? Sounds like you were pretty close, but just ran out of gas at the end. Do you think you just need to work on endurance/cardio mainly? Good luck in March.

There was time to eat but not very much and I was so exhausted from the morning's tests that I couldn't get much food down. That was obviously a big mistake and next time I'll need to manage my calories better. That will be at least as important as training. My cardio does need to improve but muscular endurance was probably the bigger factor. When I got pulled out my heart and lungs were doing okay but my legs felt like lead; too much lactic and no energy left.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

[Fleeing Finn]

There was time to eat but not very much and I was so exhausted from the morning's tests that I couldn't get much food down. That was obviously a big mistake and next time I'll need to manage my calories better. That will be at least as important as training. My cardio does need to improve but muscular endurance was probably the bigger factor. When I got pulled out my heart and lungs were doing okay but my legs felt like lead; too much lactic and no energy left.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

It's good that you know what went wrong. I'm sure you'll tackle it next time!

I think some training to rise your lactic acid threshold could help as well as training general lactic acid endurance. When I was in the army and we knew we had some kind of hellish test coming we always stock up on some snacks high in energy. I made "snuff" out of muesli, crushed nuts and crushed chocolate and whenever I had the chance I ate some from a plastic bag I kept it in. If in any way possible try to smuggle some snacks with you so you can keep replenishing muscle glycogen. If the military there is anything like in Finland the food is garbage anyway, you get too little of it and at the wrong time. They also make these energy gels for endurance atheletes that can be handy. I'd also recommend a 72 hour carb load prior to the test. Do a total body workout before so your muscles are primed for it and then eat a shitload of carbs (ca. 600 grams per day or so) for three days. If you must work out during the carb load keep it light. This way you should have tons of energy going in to the test.

[ztemhead]

I just eat a lot :P. Good luck with your goals.

I deadlifted 600lbs today. Used straps because I partially tore a callous on the penultimate set. Preparation for my comp in Jan is going good.

wow, that's awesome!

liff- sorry to hear you ran out of gas on your test. finn's idea about carbo loading before the next one sounds pretty good.

I've been on one of the fat-loss programs in the Cosgrove/ Schuler book. It's a lot more balance/ coordination stuff than I'm used to, which is good.

diet-wise I've been mostly awful lately, and don't know if I'll ever reach my weight/ fat loss goal. It's so hard!!

dim sum is the devil.

[seastarr]

I am grumpy because my trapeze session just got rained out. I am stuck at home watching raindrops, and debating whether to clean the house. If I do high kicks while vacuuming does that count as exercise? Because there will be no outdoors activities today, except for puddle navigating.

[Lord of Rhinos]

Liff, you're a badass. And after hearing about that training I'm never going to be anything less than completely polite to a royal marine.

[cjfshaw]

I just gave my very overweight and very out of shape little cousin a workout, but we had to stop b/c he started crying. <_<

[lessthanluke]

I just gave my very overweight and very out of shape little cousin a workout, but we had to stop b/c he started crying. <_<

Haha