Excercise and Fitness X-treme

[Fleeing Finn]

Beta blocker's interfere with how the heart responds to stimulation. You will not be able to rely on your heart rate to measure how hard you are working. You'll have to gauge your workout intensity on how your body feels.

Yep. The same effect will occur when using stimulants that increase the heart rate. If you can't trust the numbers on the heart rate monitor use the Borg scale of perceived exertion. For the majority it works as well as a heart rate monitor.

For cardio you may want to consider high intensity interval training. If I understand the physiology correctly, you burn calories during the workout but you are relying on the post-workout period to burn most of the fat calories as your body replenishes the glycogen that you used during the work out. Long story short, with the proper intensity level & planning, your actual heart rate may not be an accurate reflexion of how many calories you burn.

The fat burning effect of EPOC or "afterburn" due to interval training is actually a lot smaller than originally thought. That doesn't mean there isn't one, just that it's nothing to write home about. However, if your training regimen allows it, intervals can be very useful in fat loss, especially when trying to get rid of stubborn body fat (sub 10 % body fat for males). Interval training will burn only glycogen but after about 5 minutes of rest after the intervals the body will mobilize loads of free fatty acids to the bloodstream. At this point 20-40 minutes of moderate intensity cardio is good to burn them off, otherwise most of them will just be absorbed back to fat tissue. This kind of training works best when insulin is low (after 3 hours of fasting or so). Using methods like this is hardly necessary though, at least not until you reach extreme levels of leanness. Until then, low to moderate intensity cardio will be every bit as effective. And...

Also remember that weight loss is achieved far more by diet than by exercise.

QFT.

[cjfshaw]

pushups and flies yesterday, my chest hurts, nice

[Balefont]

Heh, I actually like push ups these days.

[ztemhead]

I HATE pushups. But I've been doing a lot of them anyway. Blech.

PR today on my six mile loop at 45 minutes flat, which I consider pretty good since I only do cardio 2 - 3 times a week. Everything else is pretty much the same except for my weight which is going up again.

Bale- love the new sig!

[cjfshaw]

Well this raises and interesting question. What are your favorite/least favorite exercises? I really like pull ups, chin-ups, rows, flies, capoeira, and hitting the heavy bag. I hate push ups and leg lifts. And I both love/hate running.

[Humble Asskicker]

I HATE pushups. But I've been doing a lot of them anyway. Blech.

Pull-ups are the ones I can't stand. Push-ups aren't so bad if you hold back, instead of pushing yourself to the absolute limit. I go until I start to feel that burning in the arms, then do five or ten more, rather than keeping at it until I literally collapse.

PR today on my six mile loop at 45 minutes flat, which I consider pretty good since I only do cardio 2 - 3 times a week

That's really good. I would pass out if I even attempted half of that at your pace). How long have you been running for?

And I both love/hate running.

I despise running. I dread it each time I go to the gym (four times a week). I'm probably improving slowly because I don't push myself enough on that, but I don't care. I hate, hate running.

[lessthanluke]

Another hater of running here. Why I don't do it.

Fave exercises are deads and military press I guess.

[Mudguard]

I HATE pushups. But I've been doing a lot of them anyway. Blech.

PR today on my six mile loop at 45 minutes flat, which I consider pretty good since I only do cardio 2 - 3 times a week. Everything else is pretty much the same except for my weight which is going up again.

Bale- love the new sig!

Nice job on the run! I haven't timed myself in many months, but if I could maintain your pace, I'd be very happy. The trails I'm now running on have significant elevation gain, so that slows me down. I may just get on a treadmill to see where I'm at right now.

[Vethnar]

Another hater of running here. Why I don't do it.

Me too, if we're talking about anything longer than sprinting. I've run 650 meters a single time, in a street relay, and I won't ever run that far again. I actually did quite well, even compared to most of the 800 meter specialists who ran the same leg, but it was one of the most painful things I've ever done. It boggles my mind that thousands of amateurs run distances ten times longer several times per week.

Fave exercises are deads and military press I guess.

I would have loved the military press too, if I didn't suck so badly at it. I've been stuck at a ridiculous 5x3x45 kg (at a body weight around 77 kg) for about two months, despite training the press every second workout (which means 1.5 times per week on average). By contrast, my bench press, which I care very little about and train very rarely, just keeps improving, and is now exactly 2x my overhead press.

My favorite exercise by far is the clean and jerk, but I expect the snatch to be equally fun when I get a little better at it. My least favorite exercises are probably bench press and all sorts of abdominal work.

[cjfshaw]

Yeah but overheads press/pulls are always lower than straight-forward press/pulls.

[lessthanluke]

I wish I could bench 2x my military press!

[seastarr]

I have so many favorite exercises it's hard to narrow it down!

In Pilates, I really enjoy a stretching series called The Peter Pan Series on the Cadillac that stretches out everything around the hip socket and can also involve twirlies hanging from your ankle. A similar exercise I love is the flying squirrel which involves hanging from both ankles and doing somersaults, push ups, and pull ups and climbing. I also love the control arabesque on the reformer (cartwheeling type thing), and the horseback (a great way to feel the relationship between adductors and core).

In yoga, I love sun salutations, hanumanasana (forward facing splits), rajakapotasana (pidgeon posture and all it's delicious variations), and garbapindasana, an exercise where you roll around in a circle in the lotus posture with your arms laced through your knees and holding your chin--it's so very weird, but really it's quite fun to go rolling around all tied up like a knot.

I guess I like turkish get-ups best with the kettlebell. I haven't learned the full kettlebell repertoire yet so maybe I'll have more when I do.

I can't really think of an exercise I don't like. Actually wait, I don't like skiing. I hate being cold.

[ztemhead]

hmmm, in the gym, I love deadlifts because nobody in my gym knows how to do them correctly, so I can put up some decent weight by comparison. It makes me feel all badass.

I also like anything ab-related because it seems I'm only limited there by how motivated I feel or how bored I get after a few dozen reps of whatever exercise.

I did like biking until it got stolen. Grrr. I enjoy the experience of actually going somewhere as part of my workout, and experiencing the changing landscape in a way that is different from how you do riding in a car or walking on your feet.

I loathe pushups. I always have. Also not a fan of lunges because my balance sucks, but of course I'm trying to correct that. My hip flexors could also use some work.

By the way, I'm pretty sure Santa Claus is bringing me a month's membership at a yoga studio this year. :D

[Vethnar]

Yeah but overheads press/pulls are always lower than straight-forward press/pulls.

They are, but usually not by a factor of 2, especially not for someone who trains the overhead press much more frequently. I suppose deep weighted dips (which I do quite frequently) are what makes my bench press improve.

I wish I could bench 2x my military press!

But I guess you wouldn't like to military press only half of your current bench press, and I bet you bench way more than 90 kg for 3 sets of 5. :)

My favorite obscure exercise is Bulgarian split squats. These work my glutes harder than any other exercise I know, including squats and deadlifts.

[cjfshaw]

hmmm, in the gym, I love deadlifts because nobody in my gym knows how to do them correctly, so I can put up some decent weight by comparison. It makes me feel all badass.

Ha, nice. Feeling badass is the ultimate motivation.

I did like biking until it got stolen. Grrr. I enjoy the experience of actually going somewhere as part of my workout, and experiencing the changing landscape in a way that is different from how you do riding in a car or walking on your feet.

Same, I used to bike to/from school erry day but my bike got stolen even though it was locked up. It's a nice change from running b/c you can go so much farther and see things you usually don't.

I loathe pushups. I always have. Also not a fan of lunges because my balance sucks, but of course I'm trying to correct that. My hip flexors could also use some work.

Blagh I hate lunges too, but that's b/c whenever I do them (or stair running or anything else that raises my left leg above my hips) I get a wicked pain on the inner front of my leg that feels like I've pulled something.

[cjfshaw]

They are, but usually not by a factor of 2, especially not for someone who trains the overhead press much more frequently. I suppose deep weighted dips (which I do quite frequently) are what makes my bench press improve.

Try handstand pushups or pike pushups maybe? I was thinking about this earlier today actually. I feel like dips don't engage the shoulders the way handstand pushups or military presses do.

[lessthanluke]

They are, but usually not by a factor of 2, especially not for someone who trains the overhead press much more frequently. I suppose deep weighted dips (which I do quite frequently) are what makes my bench press improve.

But I guess you wouldn't like to military press only half of your current bench press, and I bet you bench way more than 90 kg for 3 sets of 5. :)

My favorite obscure exercise is Bulgarian split squats. These work my glutes harder than any other exercise I know, including squats and deadlifts.

I suck at split squats. I don't really do much unilateral work though.

My bench is 1.5x my military press.

[Rubies & Jade]

My favorite obscure exercise is Bulgarian split squats. These work my glutes harder than any other exercise I know, including squats and deadlifts.

thanks for mentioning these, Vethnar--I had never seen them before (I just googled them) and I have been looking for something that will work my glutes harder than the squats and lunges that I have been doing. I'm going to give them a try tomorrow at the gym.

[cjfshaw]

Current Leg Goals: I want to be able to complete the workout below

5x20 1-Legged Squats, 5x20 Calf Raises, 5x20 Frog Jumps, 5x20 Toe Lifts, 5x20 Bodyweight Squats, 5x20 Glute-Ham Raises, 5x20 Lunges, 5x20 Bunny Hops, 5x20 Jumping Jacks, 1.5 minutes in horse stance 5 times, 1.5 minutes in phantom chairs 5 times, run 3 miles

What did I accomplish tonight? 5x20 calf raises and 3x20 frog jumps, then I felt like I had to vomit for 45 mins so I stopped. Also I found I can only do 1-legged squats with my right leg, and I find it difficult to do even a negative with my left leg.

[lessthanluke]

Sheiko is crazy. 6 x 3 @ 80% on squats, 10 sets on bench, 5 close grip sets then another 4 x 2 @ 80% on squats