Exercise and Fitness - Because sitting on your ass all day long is boring ;)

[Arch-MaesterPhilip]

I  think after my job change I might get serious about training and actually fight. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Today was upper body for me: shoulder press, wide lat pull downs, shrugs, lateral raises and arms. It felt great. I'm doing less cardio lately before weights but I'm walking a lot more so the treadmill is less appealing. Besides, speeding up the sets has a cardio effect too.

Sunday is legs and lower back. I still miss squats but at least I have deadlifts now.

I won't have access to a gym all week while we're visiting to in-laws for Thanksgiving, so I'm optimistically planning an early morning workout on Monday too before we go to the airport.

Protein shakes for breakfast has been going really well.

[3CityApache]

Tonight's run wasn't so smooth as the last two. The knee didn't let me forget about it, as well as the left hip. And the pace was below the average for some reason. The weather maybe. I hate running when it's cold and it was about 5 degrees. And they forecast first snow and the temperature below zero next week.

[baxus]

Did some circuit training followed by the lap around the same lake I usually run.

We had a major cold wave yesterday and today, with daily max temperatures dropping by around 15 degrees (Celsius, mind you) which changed the experience drastically. Luckily, there was no wind so that helped.

[Iskaral Pust]

Legs and lower back went well today.  I never feel a post-legs agony like some people, not unless it's my first day back after a long break. 

[Starkess]

Today was my last real training run before the race on Thursday, and it was really not great. I ran slow and it felt terrible. Ah, well. I'll just show up and do my best! Also, today was 80 and beautiful and by the time Thursday rolls around it's going to be 60 and rainy. Brrrr.

[Falcon2908]

I visited a park I usually don't go to. I didn't like it. Wasn't able to run much, just did one round. I'd say you should stick to the track you're comfortable with.

[baxus]

I visited a park I usually don't go to. I didn't like it. Wasn't able to run much, just did one round. I'd say you should stick to the track you're comfortable with.

I do tend to stick to familiar running tracks, but I like changing it up every once in a while by running a track I haven't run in a long time or ever.

Even if I don't like the new track, it's often more fun to do than run the same one over and over again.

[zelticgar]

Now that i have my Fitbit with GPS im obsessed with running the same route over and over again so i can track my historical progress on segments. I port my data over to Strava as well. I pull up my graphs every morning after showering. Running is the best activity for obsessive compulsives!

[Grimbold]

Hearing someone hating leg day, which is very common by the way, is very funny to me.

In rowing, pretty much every day is leg day - you either row (most of the power in the stroke comes from legs), or you run, or you lift weights which always includes either squats or cleans or both. Used to do squats very rarely but have done more of them over the past year or year and half and I must say I love them now.

I find leg day in the gym boring and honestly i don't suffer the next day exhaustion people often talk about. My body is often more tired the day after chest/biceps(or was it triceps?) day. Pushing my weaklying 40kg incline and flat kills me.

I have my legs more tired after karate practice.

[peterbound]

I find leg day in the gym boring and honestly i don't suffer the next day exhaustion people often talk about.

You're not lifting enough.  

[peterbound]

Now that i have my Fitbit with GPS im obsessed with running the same route over and over again so i can track my historical progress on segments. I port my data over to Strava as well. I pull up my graphs every morning after showering. Running is the best activity for obsessive compulsives!

So, I've tried most of the big name heart rate/GPS monitors on the market thus far (the department is R&D'ng some for purchase) and i'm here to tell you that the fitbit was the poorest performer of the bunch.  We monitored heart rate under stress (running, lifting, rowing) both with the fit bit and an manual cuff (NP administered) and there was some pretty glaring inconsistencies.  

 

The same was true for the GPS routing.  We were averaging at least a .10th of a mile off on every run with the fit bit tracking.  

There was also no second hand.  This is an issue for someone having to check rates all day long on patients. 

Bang for your buck?  The Garmin Vivosport.  While you have to have a separate heart rate chest strap, it is /way/ more reliable.  Not to mention the milage tracking was spot on.  It was also much more sturdy than the fit bit (we broke two fit bits during our trial), and is actually water proof (one of the guys testing the fit bit actually had to get a new one because he wore his issued one into the shower.  The fucking shower broke the fit bit).  

The only think that most people liked about the fit bit was that it had separate workout functions, but the new apps that are coming out for the vivo are fixing some of the small omissions upon initial release. 

[Iskaral Pust]

I managed to wake up early and do a weights session this morning before travel: bench press, narrow pull down, bent-over rows and arms. Good sets on all. I don't usually do that well early morning.

I'll have an enforced break until the weekend.

[aceluby]

Did a barre session on Saturday and a hatha yoga class last night.  I don't think I'll be doing a hatha class again though unless it follows a flow class.  It was just WAY too easy and not anything I'd even consider to be a workout.  Yeah, I got a bit sweaty in the hot room, but I was pretty much falling asleep by the end, whereas I'm usually around 140 bpms at a normal class.  I was discussing this w/ my gf and we agreed that this must be what people think yoga is when they say it's not a 'real' workout.  

Gonna try and get a morning workout it before my flight tomorrow and hopefully there is a gym or yoga studio I can go to on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday.  Don't like the idea of not getting a workout in for a week.

[Iskaral Pust]

I just did my annual physical check-up and all is rosy except that my sugar level has risen from 79 to 100 over the past three years. I guess ab definition does not give me free rein to eat chocolate and/or ice cream nearly every night.

Time to kill the desserts, which may be tricky because lately I've been feeling pretty hungry in the late evening, too hungry to sleep without eating something. I'll try some nuts or avocado as a substitute.

[zelticgar]

So, I've tried most of the big name heart rate/GPS monitors on the market thus far (the department is R&D'ng some for purchase) and i'm here to tell you that the fitbit was the poorest performer of the bunch.  We monitored heart rate under stress (running, lifting, rowing) both with the fit bit and an manual cuff (NP administered) and there was some pretty glaring inconsistencies.  

 

The same was true for the GPS routing.  We were averaging at least a .10th of a mile off on every run with the fit bit tracking.  

There was also no second hand.  This is an issue for someone having to check rates all day long on patients. 

Bang for your buck?  The Garmin Vivosport.  While you have to have a separate heart rate chest strap, it is /way/ more reliable.  Not to mention the milage tracking was spot on.  It was also much more sturdy than the fit bit (we broke two fit bits during our trial), and is actually water proof (one of the guys testing the fit bit actually had to get a new one because he wore his issued one into the shower.  The fucking shower broke the fit bit).  

The only think that most people liked about the fit bit was that it had separate workout functions, but the new apps that are coming out for the vivo are fixing some of the small omissions upon initial release. 

I'm not losing any sleep about HR accuracy. I knew going into the purchase that the heart rate monitor on the wrist was a squishy measurement compared to chest straps. I cant wear a chest strap so I'll take a little inaccuracy in the HR side.

I've actually found the GPS functions to work just fine. My friend has the Garmin you mentioned and he has a much harder time locking onto the GPS in the city than i do. My fitbit surge locks onto GPS right away and the mileage lines up with GMaps pedometer, and the mileage maps I have for cycling, hiking and running. It was off by 2/100ths of a mile in the last half marathon I ran. I've downloaded some of my hikes from fitbit as well and they are pretty close to book distance for the hikes I did this summer. I'll have to sync with my running friend to compare distances against his Garmin. We take the same route every Tuesday morning so that will be interesting to compare.

I was asking a coworker of mine about his apple watch and I was surprised when he told me it does not have GPS. I found that rather shocking. I had said to my wife when i got the surge that i would test the watch out to see if i like it and then maybe upgrade to an apple watch in the future but it appears to be missing basic features of the fitbit and garmins. I guess maybe they will add to the next release?

 

 

[Falcon2908]

I do tend to stick to familiar running tracks, but I like changing it up every once in a while by running a track I haven't run in a long time or ever.

Even if I don't like the new track, it's often more fun to do than run the same one over and over again.

I don't know man. This track was much shorter than the track I usually run around. Yet I could only run 1 round.

[Starkess]

Just got all annoyed over on another site reading comments about how people who can't do pull-ups are clearly not fit, and if they think otherwise they are just deluding themselves.

So even though I can run ten miles and do yoga and lift weights and have excellent BP, resting HR, etc. I am out of shape because pull-ups happen to be a particularly difficult exercise for me and I cannot do one? Go fuck yourself.

Okay, sorry, extraneous venting over. =)

[LessThanLuke2]

I've put on about 25lbs since my last comp. Oops.

[mgambino]

I've stopped weighing myself, but I've been eating nonstop and have put on some pounds for sure. My strength is starting to come back very quickly, which is a pleasant surprise.

I've been really focusing on dumbbell clean and presses these days. It's a good lift that really seems to hit the whole body. I read this article about how old timers used to use 75lb dumbells for 12 reps on the clean and press as a standard for strength, so I started doing them to see how they felt (not with that weight x 12, obviously). I used to clean and press a lot when I was in college, but I always used a barbell. I find that that the dumbbell clean and presses crush me more than a barbell ever did.

I've been lifting 3x a week, doing full body routines. Now one day a week I focus only on clean and pressing. I can actually feel the strength gains carrying over to over lifts since I've started doing them. My deadlifts and squats feel more explosive than they used to, if that makes since.