Exercise and Fitness: Keep On Keepin' On

[Kalbear]

19 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Is it possible that this is just a side effect of, well, the 80's? My understanding is Bruce Lee was the one who popularized protein shakes, and by protein shakes I mean throwing meat in a blender and drinking it. That can't be good for you. 

Well, the science behind it is kind of simple: human kidneys aren't built like a carnivore's, and processing that much protein means they're working harder than typical. The 'fad' of eating a lot of protein overall is somewhat new as far as a diet goes, and the science is still out, but they're concerned. 

Chances are that as long as you're consuming a good balance you'll be fine. 

[aceluby]

Here's a study showing a high protein diet isn't bad for you: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1262767/

How much protein should you be consuming? Roughly .8-1g per pound of lean muscle (not body weight) https://examine.com/nutrition/how-much-protein-do-you-need/

What kind of protein you intake matters, protein powders break down quickly, but proteins from meat and eggs break down slower allowing better absorption: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16779921

Eating 60 grams of protein in a meal spikes protein synthesis ~double that of 30 grams which is ~double that of 15 grams: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23260197/

Your stomach actually slows down the digestive process when it detects protein so it can absorb more of it: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12646289

Protein turnover is the same whether consumed all in one meal, or over the course of many meals: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10867039

I mean.... there's a TON of research on the subject.  

 

[Iskaral Pust]

A LOT of work lately, and lots of social commitments, especially weddings and weekend trips to visit friends outside the city.  I'm so exhausted that I've had ~6 hours of uninterrupted sleep lately rather than the usual four hours followed by 2 hours of frustration that I can't sleep through the night followed by another hour of actual sleep just in time to be rudely awakened by the alarm clock.  There seems to be a sweet spot where if I get really exhausted then I can actually sleep.  But I can't get this sleep until I'm truly exhausted.  Plus, when I get really exhausted then junk food happens.

I'm still getting to the gym for my two usual upper body sessions, one of each weekly.  Going well but a bit rushed for want of time.  My legs sessions are still on hold while I wait for this hamstring strain to recover.  Despite four weeks of rest, it still bothers me and seems to flare up some days for no reason.  I wonder if my sleep position at night is a contributor.

 

Thanks @aceluby for posting those links.

[baxus]

Yesterday I took part in my first crossfit competition.

My box organizes one every year but I didn't take part last year.

There were thirty of us, ten of which were in my category. I made it to the finals, but that was it. Ended up fourth (a fancy way of saying "last in the finals"  ) which was pretty good given I had no expectations to begin with. I like to joke that I won the masters division.

Downside is that I'm sore all over today and my hands are torn to shreds. Had some issues with calluses already and just made it worse by competing.

All in all, it was a fun day, even though it was a long one.

[aceluby]

Welp.... twisted my ankle really badly on Saturday just moving some gear to my car, wasn't even exercise related.  Looked like an orange was where my ankle bone should be.  So no barre, no yoga, no softball, and no bike riding for the next week or two at least; possibly longer.  Will have to try and get in as many one-legged pushups, situps, and punches as I can to get some sort of exercise and I don't balloon up or get soft during this mandatory rest period.  Feeling pretty down right now, but hopefully with all the rest I'm giving it I heal up quickly.

[ithanos]

On 5/23/2018 at 12:43 AM, كالدب said:

As announced by my wife earlier, I hit a couple milestones:

• I was able to comfortably wear my wedding tux for the first time in 10 years, and on my 11th anniversary. 
• I lost 80 lbs since February.

I am not remotely done - I need to lose at least 30 more pounds and would ideally like to lose 50-60 - but it was pretty cool to be able to get in that tux again. 

This is great stuff Kal, well done! 

Meal tracking apps. I did meal tracking years ago (long before smart phones). And it worked - but ultimately I couldn't keep up the habit of keeping track. Odd, because the habit of eating never stopped I installed Satchin Panda's myCircadianClock app but have yet to sign up for it - the study looks worthwhile but the app looks poor. Instead I've found it's a lot simpler for me to just take a photo of my meals. Knowing I will take a picture of what I'm about to eat subconsciously curbs any tendencies to over order or over prepare any foods.  

It's not perfect (because I need to include taking photos of what I drink - so as to reduce my alcohol consumption  ) but it has helped me these past months. I've been slow travelling around the world and it's been an interesting challenge to maintain a balance between nutrition & training whilst enjoying the places I've visited. 

I saw mentioned above 'You can't out train a bad diet'. So true. I've come to understand that weight control is completely down to my appetites, consumption habits and my disposition at the time of consumption. 

My biggest bane is inflammation (particularly joint inflammation), when I succomb to poor choices and excess. With inflammation I lose mobility - and as a traveller I really can't afford loss of mobility. I've been too lapse in finding locations to train. Fortunately I get to walk everywhere. And I've fallen back on a push-up regime I used a few years back because it was the easiest exercise that I could do in a confined space (ie: in cramped hostels, on a yacht, in a tent). If I was to start the regime again I would change out the push up for a burpee - more joint extensions. 

I don't think I've posted here in over a year, but I do like to come back to this thread to see how folk are doing with their nutrition & training. To the regular boarders who keep this thread ticking over, thank you & keep posting. 

[Starkess]

Ran a race last weekend! And I didn't die! And my heels feel okay! Yay. It was not my best time ever, but it wasn't my worst time so I'm pleased. Now that the race is over, I'm dialing back on running a bit and trying to do more weight lifting. Feeling sore as hell but it's nice to change things up! I've gotten a bit fluffy lately and need to rein in my eating in order to make the most of all this exercise and summer weather. Going on a 2 week trip in a couple days that will impact that for sure, but I'm bringing along workout gear and I'm sure I'll be walking a ton as well.

[mcbigski]

On 6/17/2018 at 1:26 PM, baxusalah said:

I like to joke that I won the masters division.

do you also play ultimate?  Because that's where im used to hearing "masters" from.  Or did cross fit appropriate that?

[baxus]

9 hours ago, mcbigski said:

do you also play ultimate?  Because that's where im used to hearing "masters" from.  Or did cross fit appropriate that?

"Masters", as used in my statement, is a pretty common term for recreational competition of athletes above certain age.

In crossfit, the age limit is 35 and if you're older than that you can compete separately from the elite category. It is further broken down into age categories, but I don't know the details.

Other than crossfit, "masters" competitions are pretty common in swimming. I'm not sure about the age limit there, but you have to have at least one year break since your last elite level competition to be eligible.

EDIT:

To answer your question - since I don't know what you mean by "ultimate" (guessing it's ultimate frisbee, but not 100% sure), I'm pretty sure I don't play it.  

[Jo498]

In track and field "masters" events refers to competions of non-professionals (I think) over 35 and there is a new competition class (in principle) for each 5 years. Of course there are a few professionals competing up to/around 40.

I guess it is similar with several other sports. But the terminology is fairly old in established sports like T&F. (In German the "masters" are called "Senioren" which sounds odd for people in ther late 30s or 40s.)

https://www.dlv-xml.de/Storage/EventFiles/18L00000001005102/482965.pdf

[ljkeane]

I hate bear crawls.

[Iskaral Pust]

The good: despite a busy schedule at work, including lots of travel, plus lots of weekend social commitments in summertime, I’m still getting my minimum two upper body gyms sessions per week and they’re going well.  I’ve fallen back from the PB levels I hit a couple of months ago, but only slightly.  

The bad: I’m still on a break from leg weights until this hamstring tightness feels fully recovered.  

The ugly: ridiculous levels of stress at work in recent weeks, entirely due to supposed colleagues waging petty political turf wars, has left me stress-eating junk food for three weeks now.  I feel toxic with the amount of sugar I’ve consumed.  I need to stop this now because it has started to become a habit again. 

[3CityApache]

I've signed up for a City Night 2018 10k race in Berlin on July 28th. My first foreign race. The say it's a good race to beat a PB. Shame I have a knee problems of late and won't be fully fit. I'll try nevertheless.

[baxus]

I don't know which route this race takes, but half-marathon I ran in Berlin in the spring of 2012 was great for beating a PB. It's flat, it's fun, there's a great crowd running with you, at least as great a crow cheering you on, a lot of bands playing along the way...

I wish you the same great experience I had when running in Berlin.

[Kalbear]

Hit above my body weight in deadlifts and 2 plates in squats. Got my blood work back too, and the results were awesome - LDL is almost at optimal value, HDL is optimal, triglycerides went way down and are great, and everything else looks perfect. I'm overweight, but I'm essentially entirely healthy. 

Now to get to 20% body fat.

[Jo498]

19 hours ago, baxus said:

I don't know which route this race takes, but half-marathon I ran in Berlin in the spring of 2012 was great for beating a PB. It's flat, it's fun, there's a great crowd running with you, at least as great a crow cheering you on, a lot of bands playing along the way...

I wish you the same great experience I had when running in Berlin.

The Berlin HM still takes place in spring and it is a pretty fast course, AFAIK. I don't know about the "City Night" mentioned above. There is another "Great 10k" in Berlin in autumn and this is also fast.

Is anybody here into bodyweight exercises "calisthenics" and the like? I finally managed to install a chin-up/pull-up-bar at my door a few months ago but I lack the discipline for systematic training. Nevertheless I am at about 6 pullups and 9 chin-ups (always from a dead hang and without flailing or kipping) now which is better than I did in decades. For some reason although I have no lats to speak of and not very strong arms either I could always manage about two pullups even at age >40, 20 pounds over normal weight and hardly any training. But I also lost at least 8 kg of weight since last autumn which certainly helped with the pulling.

[3CityApache]

Adidas Runners Berlin City Night route has a loop along Ku-damm, mostly. It is supposed to be flat, full of cheering crowds and bands playing live gigs (it's kinda standard now though, isn't it?). I will be aiming at 4:45 average pace and see how it goes. Hope the damn knee will give it a rest. 

[ljkeane]

We did a bleep test for rugby training the other day, the first time I've done one since school. I got a 12.2 which is decent for me. Apparently 13 counts as 'excellent' for my age bracket so I'm going to have to get that now.

It's a little worrying looking at some of the scores you need to get to qualify for somewhat physical jobs. To get in the police you need a 5.4, that's, er, not a particularly high standard.

[BigFatCoward]

6 hours ago, ljkeane said:

We did a bleep test for rugby training the other day, the first time I've done one since school. I got a 12.2 which is decent for me. Apparently 13 counts as 'excellent' for my age bracket so I'm going to have to get that now.

It's a little worrying looking at some of the scores you need to get to qualify for somewhat physical jobs. To get in the police you need a 5.4, that's, er, not a particularly high standard.

Don't get me started on that.  They used to do the tests for new recruits at the gym i used to use, the fail rate was worryingly high even at 5.4. 

When i joined the pass mark was 8.6, which is still not particularly high but at least it would raise your heart rate. 

Talking of work Gyms, i move job in November to a site which has one again, it is so much easier to get motivated to train when the commissioner is paying you to do it.

[Iskaral Pust]

14 hours ago, Jo498 said:

Is anybody here into bodyweight exercises "calisthenics" and the like? I finally managed to install a chin-up/pull-up-bar at my door a few months ago but I lack the discipline for systematic training. Nevertheless I am at about 6 pullups and 9 chin-ups (always from a dead hang and without flailing or kipping) now which is better than I did in decades. 

I regularly include body weight pull-ups in one of my two upper body regimes.  I either do 70-75 fast reps spread over six sets, or else six sets of ten slow reps.

I also do some air squats between upper body sets to keep my heart rate from dropping.  And I occasionally do planks.  And push-ups if I don’t have access to a bench press.  Mountain-climbers are in my warm-up.  But generally I’m doing free weights more than body weight exercises. 

You have a decent start with your chin-ups and pull-ups.  A lot of people can’t do them at all.  Just add sets until your strength builds.  Pull-ups and push-ups alone will do a lot to develop your upper body.  Add some lunges, burpees and mountain-climbers and you have a pretty good basis for HIIT.