Exercise / Physical Conditioning

[Guest Chandler]

I lift 2 times a week at school and then train BJJ for the last 2 years at 6 times a week. Seems to kick my butt so far.

I do have the p90x system for when I really get serious, buut for now doing this I have lost almost 30 lbs.

[G27]

I do 3.3 miles/every day (23.3/week) and really enjoy being in better shape than I let myself get. Dropped about 30 pounds and feel great.

[John Wall]

Get a good program, be faithful to it, and remember that your diet (what you eat as a lifestyle, not the diet you are on for a while) is at least as important as your workout. Look up the Mediterranean Food Pyramid.

Five hours a week at the gym is the accepted minimum. Cardio is vital. Get checked by your Doctor and get the green light to train.

CARDINAL RULE! You get in shape to run. You do NOT run to get into shape. Running is an advanced exercise! You must be in shape to run without injury.

I am sixty-ish, 5'10", 157 lbs and have 12% BF. At any age, your fitness must be a life long committment.

I suggest a gym membership, as you are more likely to get the workout done once you get to the gym. A home gym has many distractions. I go to a HUGE gym for $369 a year. It is open all hours during weekdays. You are doing this for yourself. Get a seasoned trainer to get you started, and tell him what your goals are. YOU are the customer.

Also, get into a self defense program. I do not advise formal Martial Arts BECAUSE THERE ARE RULES. There are NO rules in an assault on you or your loved ones. You NEED to learn the escapes, arm killers and the one strike stoppers. You will never see these in a dojo.

You must have strength, balance and endurance to defend yourself. A firearm is not always appropriate. Chemical sprays often fail to work. The Taser also fails on occasion. If the offender's pain receptors are not working due to drugs, you must be able to quickly eliminate his ability to harm you. If he cannot breathe, walk, or lift his arms, he CANNOT HARM YOU. These are NOT lethal strikes.

Don't forget regular, court defensible training with your carry arm if nothing else works.

Things might get strange after this election, regardless of who wins.

You cannot defend anyone if you cannot defend yourself.

[molonlabetn]

Every day when I get home I do 50 pushups, 50 crunches, 10-15 reps each arm w/ 50# dumbell, jog on the treadmill for 10-15 min, and then repeat that all a couple times until failure. It's not an especially diverse workout, but I end up feeling pretty good for only about 30-45min of time invested.

[Almond27]

I'm 19 and I'm 6'1 140lbs and am sick of getting called the skinny guy I have been thinking of starting to workout but I dont have the funds for a personal trainer and think I would feel "weak" if I went to the gym but I think I need to give it a try I'd like to get up to 180ish. I know my eating habits are bad too since I work second shift at a local factory and eat fast food every day. I can eat all day and not gain weight because I have very high metabolism.

[Guest nraforlife]

Watch the carb intake IF you do not exercise on a regular basis

[Guest bkelm18]

I need to start exercising. I've put on a good deal of weight in the past year. I'm pretty active at my job, I just need to cut the crap food.

[Guest Verbal Kint]

I need to start exercising. I've put on a good deal of weight in the past year. I'm pretty active at my job, I just need to cut the crap food.

+1

Civilian life has been good to me... too good...

Put myself back on a diet & exercise program a cpl weeks ago. Not as strict as military life was, but a lot better than what I had been doing the past cpl months.

[Im Neero]

I move pianos for a living.

[Guest Halfpint]

Getting back into the "every day" part, but right now it's 4x a week or more . . . All at the gym because I can't stand to be cold--

Run 3 mi (takes a while to finish, working on that), crunches, rotary twist, pull-ups, bench-press, curls, bike for some more cardio . . . then crunches and pull-ups again when I get home.

For a diet, basically it's no fried foods, maybe one Coke a week, greens every day, usually chicken or fish for lunch/supper, and very few sweets . . . unless I just want to make myself run more as punishment.

Eventually I want to get up to 5 miles running at a consistent pace, but I'd rather trim my time down on my 3-mile run first. Other than that, I want 100 crunches and 20 pull-ups--I want 280+ on my PFT score in boot camp.

[Guest db99wj]

One thing about those that have just started running or that want to start running.

I have been told by a lot of my friends that are tri-atheltes, marathon runners, and other typs of runners (5K, 4 miler, 10 miler, half-marathons) is that you need to go to a running store to get your shoes. Going to Dicks, the mall or other type "shoe" store is not a good thing to do until you find the shoes that fit you. Go to a running store, they will do different things, like have you walk across a preassure sensitive plate, video tape you running on a treadmill and all this will go into a computer to measure the pronation (direction that your foot moves when it hits the ground, some go in some go out) they will measure your foot strike and other things. That way they can recomend a shoe that has the correct stability and support that your body needs. Just because it is a running shoe, doesn't mean that is a running shoe for you.

I was wearing some New Balance running shoes before I got fitted and was having knee pain, some foot pain. I went and got measured and found out that my shoes were not supportive enough for my feet. I got my new shoes and put 5 miles on them the first weekend and the weird thing is the muscles in my shins on the outside of my legs were hurting, like they were put through a intense workout and were kinda sore (no intense pain or anything, not injury related). I went back to the shop, they watched me run again, and we discussed the fact that my body is having to relearn how to run (what muscle groups are used and how much) and that it will take a little while to run through that. The guy said, go easy, work back up, ice it, and if in a month I'm still haveing problems come back and we would do more analysis of my running. Talk about customer service!!!! They are all better now by the way. I went to Fleet Feet here in Memphis.

Just my .02, YMMV. That's funny, Your mileage...talking about running may very....

[John Wall]

One does not have to have a trainer with you every time you go to the gym.

One session to tell them your goals, one session for them to talk to you and demonstrate the program.

One can go to the Internet and devlop a good routine.

Work for tone, flexibility, and endurance. Brute strength is good if you are young, but if not, you will likely suffer injuries and set backs.

If you have flexibility and endurance, you are likely to come out on top.

The average street thug may have an overpowering strength because of drugs, but has no endurance. If you can last 30 seconds, the average bear is OUT OF GAS by then. Then, it is your turn to kick keister if needed, or disengage if possible (the smart thing to do).

[Paletiger13]

Airsoft and bicycle. Work too can be excercise.

[VERO1]

12 oz curler here also. I am working my way up to 16's though!

[Angus]

4 months on my butt after a back injury, 3 buldging discs. between the meds and my inactivity, I have put on 25 lbs. I am working on 35 minutes on the bike, 15 on elipticle, and some light lifting/weight training.

Never could run, even when I played rugby and football.

[tbuford]

Knee surgery keeps me at a fast walk on the treadmill....no sodas...no eating after 6:00 pm...no fried foods...lots of grilled fish and chx and some red meat to keep protein levels up....plenty of veggies and Mega Man Sport from GNC. I try to weight train 3-4 times a week as muscle burns more cal and keeps the metab up longer...1st week was the hardest but when I started seeing results it gets motivating

[deerslayer]

12 oz curler here also. I am working my way up to 16's though!

I'm not as tough as you--my curls are only a 1/4 pound each.

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

I've been pretty slack recently. Late last year, I decided I was tired of being overweight, so I made some drastic changes to my diet and joined a gym here in town. And I did great for several months- I dropped 30 pounds or so, and was going to the gym doing cardio and weights four times a week.

The thing that ended up making it easy for me to start going to the gym less and less was a change in my daily routine. Used to be, the gym was on my way home from work, so I'd stop there in the evening, do my thing, grab some food, and be good to go. Now, it's out of my way to go there, which just makes it easy to be lazy. And as a result, I haven't been regularly in several months, and I've managed to put back on most of what I took off.

About time I took control of this. I've never been athletic, but that doesn't mean I'm going to resign myself to being fat. Plus, I'm paying for the damn gym, I ought to be using it instead of just tossing money.

[towerclimber37]

One of my brothers wanted me to go mountain bike riding with him, up sugarloaf mountain, in NC a few years ago..he said it would be great exercise....

I had to explain to him that he sits his fat butt in an office all day. I climb sometimes 4 towers a day and non of them are under 100 feet..usually around 200 to 900 feet, carrying about 60 pounds of gear on me to do my work..and that's just what I have to do to get to my "office"....and I do this usually between 12 and 16 hours a day...my body stays torn down...

I think I also said the only way I'm going up that effing mountain on a bicycle is if there's a paycheck at the top..

that was the last time he asked me to do anything like that.

[Kano]

I was a gym rat for 32 years back in CT... moved to TN last year and now train at home... I am 55 and don't lift as heavy as I use too.. plus a few injuries and now train 3 to 4 days a week with weights and ride a stationary bike 2 or 3 times a week... I was going to enter the SPF Record Breakers contest in Chattanooga Tn.( Raw Bench Press )Masters (55-59) year old 259 Weight Class .... but it's 3 hours from where I live... I think I could do well in my age group for a raw bench... If they have a conest a little closer I will enter it... I use to take Taekwondo but stopped some years ago... I use to love to workout and was in good shape and strong but I stopped squatting and doing dead lifts ( bad left knee.). but my bench is decent for a 55 year old .. I think it helps my shooting...

This is my home gym..

[Guest Verbal Kint]

Damn. Very nice setup and space. I'm jealous.

[Guest Hornet Handler]

Running + P90X

[Guest Todd@CIS]

Running + P90X

To those that have done P90X...what are your impressions?

[Guest Verbal Kint]

To those that have done P90X...what are your impressions?

Haven't started it yet... but I downloaded 14 gigs of the... uh... "extended trial demo" of all the videos.

Looks pretty hardcore and something that would definitely whip your ass into shape. Going to snag their pull-up bar and some barbells. Too bad I can't get a demo of those too.

[Guest Todd@CIS]

Haven't started it yet... but I downloaded 14 gigs of the... uh... "extended trial demo" of all the videos.

Looks pretty hardcore and something that would definitely whip your ass into shape. Going to snag their pull-up bar and some barbells. Too bad I can't get a demo of those too.

Please keep me updated.