Exercise Questions

Mishra

I have a few questions about exercise if you don't mind answering. When I'm talking about weights I am asking about ankle weights, wrist weights, dumbbells, or anything of that nature.

1. Do you like individual workouts that exercise multiple things? (example: doing a pull up and tucking in your legs to exercise your arms and stomach)

2. Do you ever run outside with weights? Why or why not?

3. Do you ever run on a trendmill with weights? Why or why not?

4. Does anyone stay away from carrying weights with their exercises because of thought of injury due to the extra weight? If injury wasn't possible would you run with weights?

5. If you were to run with dumbbells, do you think not being able to put down the weights is a pretty big annoyance/problem?

Thanks!

dynamik

1. Have you seen the CrossFit links that Plantwiz and others have posted? Check out their site and their workouts of the day. www.crossfit.com I'd love to start doing stuff like that, but I don't have a facility where I could. I'm considering buying/renting a house with a nice garage just so I can setup my own little gym.

2. No. No interest.

3. No. No interest.

4. I don't think you need to worry about injuries. Most of those weights are really light and are designed to provide a slight increase in resistance over a longer distance. A few pounds will make a large difference over a couple miles. Maybe if you decide to go really heavy...

5. Why wouldn't you be able to put them down? Or do you mean if you get tired, you still have to keep them with you? Just hide them in some guy's bushes and pick them up the next day.

6 (bonus!). Look into a weighted vest as well. One of the guys that goes to the gym has a 45-pounder, and he does two 45-minute sets on the stair master

networker050184

1. I like compound exercises or "super sets" to work multiple body parts and get the heart rate up.

2. Yes, I got into running with weight while in the military and still do at times.

3. Don't like treadmills....

4. No

5. Running with dumbbells would be annoying I think. I have one of the weighted vests which works great for adding some extra weight while running/walking.

Aldur

Lately I've been gaining a little weight since all I do is sit all day long, go to school at 8 am till 2:15 ish, then work till 2:30 to 11pm. All that sitting is giving me a gut. Then after that I have to fit in hw and cert study. I just keep telling myself that when I'm done with school in 6 months I'll have time to work it off. Oh well, such is life.

Mishra

dynamik wrote:

1. Have you seen the CrossFit links that Plantwiz and others have posted? Check out their site and their workouts of the day. www.crossfit.com I'd love to start doing stuff like that, but I don't have a facility where I could. I'm considering buying/renting a house with a nice garage just so I can setup my own little gym.

2. No. No interest.

3. No. No interest.

4. I don't think you need to worry about injuries. Most of those weights are really light and are designed to provide a slight increase in resistance over a longer distance. A few pounds will make a large difference over a couple miles. Maybe if you decide to go really heavy...

5. Why wouldn't you be able to put them down? Or do you mean if you get tired, you still have to keep them with you? Just hide them in some guy's bushes and pick them up the next day.

6 (bonus!). Look into a weighted vest as well. One of the guys that goes to the gym has a 45-pounder, and he does two 45-minute sets on the stair master

Lots of people say to avoid ankle weights because they can be damaging.

To networker: people often run with 3-5 pound weights to exercise and for weapons

JDMurray

If I ran I'd think I'd prefer wearing a weighted vest rather than a belt or hand/ankle weights. I see people in the park near my house running in the grass pulling those little sleds stacked with barbell plates. That's resistance training similar to football players running in a swimming pool. The only extra weight I remember using is hugging a 45# plate to my chest while working on a Roman Chair.

Mishra

So the weighted vest seems popular. But that doesn't work out your arms while you run.

Seems like you could kill 2 birds with 1 stone if you ran with 3 pound dumbbells but this doesn't seem popular. Why not?

JDMurray

Mishra wrote:

So the weighted vest seems popular. But that doesn't work out your arms while you run.

Seems like you could kill 2 birds with 1 stone if you ran with 3 pound dumbbells but this doesn't seem popular. Why not?

This is because anyone with any decent musculature will not see any significant increase in arm size or strength from running while holding only 3-5# weights. They are just too light. For a great isometric arm workout, try running while holding a 25# or 50# bag of sand. That'll sure improve your leg strength and stamina too.

pwjohnston

I haaaaaaaaaaaaate working out at that gym. But since I can’t seem to find a dojo I like and since sitting behind a pc all day is a FAT magnet it’s so very important to do it anyway. I’ve been at my current gym a little over a year and a half.

The most important thing you can tell us is what is your workout? What are your goals? What are your problem areas? Have you ever worked out before?

>1. Do you like individual workouts that exercise multiple things?
>(example: doing a pull up and tucking in your legs to exercise your arms and stomach)

You MUST work your entire body. All the muscles play off each other in concert just like a good network. If one router messes up it throws everything else out of whack.

Have you ever played sports? Your answer will influence your workout. I did sports all through middle school and HS. So we learned how to work out with free weights. If you don’t know how to work out stay away from the free weights unless you have someone professional helping. You can seriously jack your body up on the free weights without proper instruction. No matter how big or small.

My abs, like many men, are my problem area so I focus on my abs, my core, my chest, arms, and back. I’m assuming you’re a girl, or at least I think you mentioned that you were somewhere here. If not sorry. Anyway, with that said you might have different “problem” areas than the guys because men and women gain weight differently. I never really work my legs or butt outside of cardio. That's usually a big with the ladies.

You also have to look at your diet too. If you eat like most IT people do you're essentially wasting your time working out. Unless you enjoy it.

>2. Do you ever run outside with weights? Why or why not?

I hate running. I use the elliptical. You can still go as fast as you can on a treadmill, but it has less impact on your joints. Depending on your weight, height, age, I’m about 200 right now, running can be really hard on you.

Some gyms, like mine, have a pool. Swimming if the PERFECT total body workout. Easy on the joints, works all the muscle groups, low impact, works cardio like a muthafucka!

>3. Do you ever run on a trendmill with weights? Why or why not?

I hate running, see above.

>4. Does anyone stay away from carrying weights with their exercises because of thought
>of injury due to the extra weight? If injury wasn't possible would you run with weights?

If not supervised and trained properly you CAN hurt yourself.

>5. If you were to run with dumbbells, do you think not being able to put down the
>weights is a pretty big annoyance/problem?

I probably wouldn’t run with dumbbells. Yes, it sounds annoying.

My sets are usually like this:
20-30 min on the machines circuit training(aka machines). (Leg ups, Chin ups, dips, bench, curls, abs, and a couple other presses that work my chest and back muscles)
100 x abs (multiple different styles of sit-ups.)
10 min meditation/breathing exercises
30 min cardio on the elliptical

From reading your post it sounds to me like you haven’t been doing it very long and you want to push yourself. Pushing yourself is fine, but push yourself to perfect your technique. Bad technique will kill you down the road when you seriously get kranked up.

pwjohnston

ALSO, I work behind a desk most of the day so at lunch I get up and do a couple laps around the building. There are three stairwells so I do stair laps on those and fast walk around the building. (Don’t want to sweat too much, no one likes stinky co workers!)

dynamik

pwjohnston wrote:

I’m assuming you’re a girl

I had no idea

Maybe asking about something more manly next time.

pwjohnston

dynamik wrote:

pwjohnston wrote:

I’m assuming you’re a girl

I had no idea

I donno. I probably just stuck my foot in my mouth, but at least I was trying to be helpful.

dynamik wrote:

Maybe asking about something more manly next time.

damn websense

ladiesman217

I think he's assuming Miss Rah as a girls name. j/k

Mishra

Thats the character I based myself off of a looooong time ago. You may assume my gender now. lol

EDIT: LOL that picture redirect was great!

dynamik

I'm not so good with squirrel anatomy. I think I'm just going to leave you androgynous before I damage my brain by thinking about this anymore.

ally_uk

I would use weights which you find a challenge to lift and do 5 sets of 6 and the final set go all out and increase the weight.

Forget Cardio your lose more weight with a decent weights regime although you have to work out more than your t shirt muscles I'm talking about compound exercise i.e Squats, Dead lifts, Bench press, Lat pull downs,

Invest in a weights bench a barbell and some decent weights you can probs get a decent 2nd hand set off ebay for cheap.

If you need to burn fat first then look at HIIT http://www.sgfitnessonline.com/017-Burn%20Fats%20Fast%20With%20HITT%20Training.htm

But you can train forever and ever and not achieve targets the most important thing in the whole getting fit improving your appearance is your diet if your diet is crap then you might aswell forget about it.

pwjohnston

Mishra wrote:

Thats the character I based myself off of a looooong time ago. You may assume my gender now. lol

EDIT: LOL that picture redirect was great!

My bad. I thought somewhere you said in another post you said you were a girl. Right after I posted that I wiki'd the name and it said it was an Indian surname. oh well.

Back the topic, have you ever exercised before? Did you play any sports in HS? That I think is the biggest determining factor of how you proceed. Don't skip anything, but my point above was to stay away from the free weights in favor of the machines because you are less likely to screw yourself up if you don't know what you're doing. The machines at my gym have little pictures that show you how to use said machine and what muscle group they work. If your gym doesn't there are tons of books at Borders and Barnes n Nobel that are very insightful.

Don't skip the cardio either! It f'n sucks, but it works.

"Ideally, you want a combination of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise and moderate-intensity strength training. But if vigorous aerobic exercise and vigorous weight training went head-to-head for calories burned, vigorous aerobic exercise would win."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001772.html

http://www.webmd.com/video/weight-loss-cardio-or-weights

http://www.menshealth.co.uk/chatroom/topic/317532

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100164486

I'm 5'9" and 200 right now and I do more weight training now than I ever have. When I was doing Martial Arts I was 5'9" and 165. I wasn't ripped, but I was pretty lean. We'd do crazy 30 min sparring sessions and and like 500 sit ups a session and it was the only thing that ever really worked for me.

But you might be different and you should talk to your DR.

pwjohnston

dynamik wrote:

I'm not so good with squirrel anatomy. I think I'm just going to leave you androgynous before I damage my brain by thinking about this anymore.

What?

dynamik

The the site where he linked to the image doesn't approve of hotlinking and replaced the image he wanted with one that had a squirrel on it.

It would have be nice for him to have left it up, so I didn't look that stupid

networker050184

I was wondering what the squirrel comment was referring to....

Mishra

Thanks for the replies pwjohnston

I'm actually just researching some exercise methods to see what people think about them. I do exercise now but I'm just weighing my options is changing my routine and trying to be as efficient as possible.

Like if you are moving furniture and you are doing it correctly (using your legs) then you get a full body workout... So to me if you move furniture for 1 hour you are going to get a better workout than running for 1 hour.

networker050184

There are different types of workouts. If you run for one hour the cardio work out would be better than moving furniture, but the strength gain would be better from moving the furniture rather than running. So, it all depends on the goal of your workout to which would be a better workout. IMO it's best to pick a good medium to work all facets of physical health (flexibility, strength, stamina).

Inc

The best true workout is running late for the bus/train/whatever

Then, when you catch up, make it in time, the sensation is excellent.

Usually I run carrying weights - laptop backpack, with 14" laptop, 1l water bottle (full) a charger, various cables and a book or conspectus.

I enjoy walking more than running though. And taking long bike-walks (bicycle not motorbike).

Rikku

I don't run cause it can be rough on the internal organs with all of the jostling around.
I would figure running with weights in general is a risk. Your already carrying a lot of weight with your running..treadmill or otherwise. The body has to generate the shock absorbtion into the factor.

I swam for years from elementary school up into college. I did give it up for a time while I was in college and my early career days. I swim daily now early in the morning before work and sometimes in the evening for at least an hour each time. Keep in mind, the older you get, the harder it gets to burn off that beer gut. I am a pretty lean machine and my wife says I have the body of a small wrestler (ugh).

But, all laughs aside. Diet really comes into play. Don't cut your dairy. Dairy actually is proven to help take OUT alot of the fat we take in. Keep to low fat yogurt daily if you can. Also, keep the portions small, but frequent especially dont skip on breakfast like I used to do. Cut out the latte's or those frappe sugur crap details. They may taste yummy, but high in sugar and thats the problem. Substitute for straight coffee (black) trust me..good for you with lots of atioxidants (1-2 cups a day only)..get a good nice coffee and you will eventually appreciate the taste/aroma without all the sugar and syrup.

I was able to knock off 20 lbs and I still spend most of the day "sitting" as the avg IT guy. Just try to level it out and you will notice the difference.

Oh yeah! Don't forget to sleep. When I chanced my work/sleep habits and got back to 8 hours sleep from avg 5-6 hours sleep daily..I actually lost more weight!!! (not to mention I was more alert..heh)

I hope this helps you...

-Rikku

AmpdChaos

i think everyone that works IT gets a gut... its the curse.. I don't run on treadmills or on the cement because it hurts my shins and ankles.. I prefer the elliptical and hit the free weights... that's what im currently working on.. : )

jryantech

Bowflex!

Vassago68

I sit at a desk all day and I don't have a gut. I never really worked out much till I deployed this year. Course my entire family is blessed with a fast metabolism. We all eat whatever we want and walk around like twigs.

astorrs

Vassago68 wrote:

I sit at a desk all day and I don't have a gut. I never really worked out much till I deployed this year. Course my entire family is blessed with a fast metabolism. We all eat whatever we want and walk around like twigs.

You're in the military, don't they still make you maintain a certain fitness level as part of your fitreps? Otherwise they probably banish you to some Army fat camp run by a disillusioned & sadistic drill sergeant who likes nothing more than to punish you for being overweight ("An Army of one does not mean you are supposed to be as large as a %@#&! battalion!", etc), right?

Mishra

Yeah I keep my weight very stable. I am 5'6 135 pounds. When I start getting up to 137-138 I basically diet down to 132 and go from there. I never want to change pant sizes.

Plantwiz

While I still like www.crossfit.com my new found interest and have been working it for 7 weeks (as of tomorrow) is www.stronglifts.com


Check out the 5x5 Stronglifts. Very easy to complete full body workouts in 30 minutes. I've stalled once already and backed the weight down and have been able to add each workout since...though I suspect this week may be challenging.

In as quick as 5 weeks, I've had noticeable definition and a great deal of strength regained. The first few workouts I did feel stupid with a light bar, but since you add 2.5lb plates each day...it adds up quickly to where I"m lifting #140 for squat (tomorrow...Friday was #135) with room to grow yet and #95 for Bench (which is a bit off of my old best #130....from some 20+years ago....and with a bit less testosterone then much of this group...I'll be happy if I can one day reach that again.). Overhead Press is down to #75 (as I"ve pulled something in my hand...that I only feel on OP...got work through that one a bit yet), but that was #90 a couple weeks back. If I cannot add on Wednesday I'll have to check on my technique as I'm likely lining something up incorrectly or gripping incorrectly....just is odd on that one). Dead lift is #135 with room to grow and barbell row is #80 and just about maxing out but I can probably add this week before I stall.

Technique is far more important then adding weight. I'm so pressed for time, this is a great program for me. Cardio had done nothing for me and since I really love lifting, this is a great way for me to progress a little each day and finally have positive results.


Very fun program (for me) and very easy to stick with. If you want to add additional cardio...you can, but if you do this back-to-back with 30sec -1 min breaks you can still get a fair cardio workout.

dynamik

1. It's easy to lose 90 minutes at that site from following all the related links

2. That blog layout sucks for finding specific information, and the search is terrible since all the forum articles get in the way of what you're looking for. I didn't even know there was a second part to the beginner workout until I randomly came across it an hour later.

Are these all the programs:
http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/
http://stronglifts.com/beginner-strength-training-program-ii/
http://stronglifts.com/the-texas-method-strength-training-for-intermediate-lifters/
http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-advanced-strength-training-for-intermediates/

I found this one a couple of weeks ago: http://www.mensworkoutguide.com (I'm sure it'll be useful for the ladies as well )

It seemed to have some interesting workouts. Those 300 workouts look insane.

What do you think of his interval training/cardio workout: http://www.mensworkoutguide.com/fitness_articles.html/interval_training.html

I just started adding it on to the end of my workouts, and I like it much better than just running in place for x amount of minutes.

That 5x5 program is interesting. I might give it a shot after I finish up this round of my current program. It seems like I've been doing more of a body building workout. I'm currently doing chest, arms, back, shoulders, legs, focusing on one group per day. They recommend going into something like that after you get to squatting 1.5x your body weight. Yea.. um... not quite there yet

All I can say, is stick with it. I was benching 245 a year ago, but I stopped going because I got busy with school and work. I've finally got up to 205 again (5 reps yesterday). It's not a great feeling realizing you're worse off than you were a year ago