Fitness Catch-All

You don't need to have a peloton bike to use the peloton app. You can subscribe to peloton studio and get the same classes and experience you get on the bike (minus the really nice spin bike). Studio also includes treadmill, strength, and yoga. I compared several different similar services. Peloton has a great service but I ultimately went with Studio Sweat on Demand as they had a trial period and offered similar things (plus TRX) and 50% off at the beginning of the year. I think peloton studio is better overall but SSoD is half the price ($10 /month vs 20). There are also ones that just do spinning but have other things like the sufferfest. Some have you race courses from various places/races. Those are about $10 per month.

You can certainly use your actual bike with any of them or your own spin bike. I got mine off of craigslist for $50. It's not a great bike but it was pretty much brand new and is normally about $300 (sunny health and fitness).

I guess my follow on question is: if I don't have a smart trainer that links my pedaling to the app, what does it give me? I can get all the classes I could ever need on YouTube.

I've not done youtube spin classes. I've done kettlebell classes, bodyweight classes, etc. That said, it is significantly more organized. You can search by a specific trainer, lenght, music type, etc. With Peloton you get live classes and there is a competition/social aspect to them. There can be with SSoD but I don't sub to that option. SSoD offers some live classes but Peloton offers quite a bit more. If you liked competing on strava you get that with some of these. THere are lots of other ways to compete, though. My guess is that you could just use strava to compete with friends on distance.

For me, a lot of it is organization of different types of workouts. Youtube's are always a crapshoot for the workouts I've tried and many of those are just watching someone else perform examples and then telling you to do x number of sets/reps. It can be hard to find decent ones. When I use youtube I often spend as much time finding a workout as I do doing said workout. SSoD has hundreds of spin classes and half a dozen trainers. I think that for $10 per month it's great. For 20 I'd look a lot closer at Peloton. If I only wanted spin type stuff I'd look at sufferfest. They offer a 7 day trial. Peloton offers 2 months free but you have to give them your CC info and cancel (and it may just be a that you get 2 free with your first month). So you could try both and see.

Coolcoolcool. Thanks for the info.

I started out with the app and that’s what led me to get the bike. I struggle finding motivation to run on my treadmill or ride an indoor bike without someone pushing me. My workouts on the treadmill with the Peleton app were so enjoyable I really looked forward to them.

Also there is such a huge enthusiastic community which also sucked me in. The app is really good but the experience with the bike is another level. It’s expensive but I think this will keep me motivated.

Hate to admit it but now I’m lusting after that treadmill. $4500 may be a tough sell to the wife.....

Can anyone recommend a bathroom type scale that is reliably accurate? I have re-embarked on a weight loss journey and tried three different digital scales from Amazon. All were inaccurate (in one case by 100+ pounds) and gave wildly different readings each time. Today I got one at the local Wal-Mart and it was plus or minus 5 to 8 pounds, with varying results each time.

Guess I have bad luck with scales. Maybe the fifth time will be the charm.

I have the Innotech Digital Scale. According to my wife, it's pretty accurate. She works in health care and has told me it is very close to the ones she uses at work. It is pretty consistent for me but I don't have a comparison.

Keep in mind that your weight can vary up to 5 lbs from day to day. When I'm tracking daily, I like to enter my weight into an app that calculates your 10 day average. I consider my 10 day average to be my weight, more or less. I'm sure there are others, but I really like Happy Scale on iOS.

Hangdog wrote:

Keep in mind that your weight can vary up to 5 lbs from day to day. When I'm tracking daily, I like to enter my weight into an app that calculates your 10 day average. I consider my 10 day average to be my weight, more or less. I'm sure there are others, but I really like Happy Scale on iOS.

This is true. But with the scales I had purchased, the variance was minute to minute.

I am on Android. Is there something similar to Happy Scale that you would recommend?

Sorry, I don't. I've never owned an Android device...

I bought my last bathroom scale based on the Wirecutter recommendation, and it's been great. It's no longer their top pick, but they are my usual go-to for products like this. Here is their current pick.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/XDFwcie.jpg)

Them thighs don't lie, baby! Twas leg day yesterday and it was a good one, although I hurt my lower back. Not sure how, but I heard/felt a pop and it became tighter/sore throughout the workout. It's sore today, but not too bad. I'll just have to be more careful in the future.

Looking strong Boog

Thanks, Bruce! We're tryin'.

Need ton shake up my resistance training. Anyone have a program they like?

Why are you looking to shake it up?

Hindsight and all but if it hurts, stop. Give it a good rest and during a set if it starts to hurt again stop. The week or two it takes to heal is way better than the years it'll hurt if you ignore it.

It's now been a year since I started lifting properly and it's been a wild ride. I've gained around 10kg, of which I daresay not much is fat, outgrew a lot of my clothes (this gets expensive) and in general just feel a lot better.

Docjoe wrote:

Anyone else have a Peleton? Looking to add to my friends list, I’m xDocjoex on the leaderboard.

Followed! I'm Lasercat on Peloton.

Serengeti wrote:
Docjoe wrote:

Anyone else have a Peleton? Looking to add to my friends list, I’m xDocjoex on the leaderboard.

Followed! I'm Lasercat on Peloton.

Yay! I’m kind of down with a chest cold so have been slacking a little lately but plan to clip in today.

Props for the Chuck Taylors. I've nearly worn out my second set, myself.

Suvanto wrote:

Hindsight and all but if it hurts, stop. Give it a good rest and during a set if it starts to hurt again stop. The week or two it takes to heal is way better than the years it'll hurt if you ignore it.

It's now been a year since I started lifting properly and it's been a wild ride. I've gained around 10kg, of which I daresay not much is fat, outgrew a lot of my clothes (this gets expensive) and in general just feel a lot better.

Hell yeah! Good job, buddy.

wickbroke wrote:

Props for the Chuck Taylors. I've nearly worn out my second set, myself.

Heh, thank you! Honestly, though, I'm thinking about getting a dedicated pair of weightlifting shoes that are slip-on. I absolutely hate tying shoes and I'm sick of doing it with these CTs.

BoogtehWoog wrote:

Heh, thank you! Honestly, though, I'm thinking about getting a dedicated pair of weightlifting shoes that are slip-on. I absolutely hate tying shoes and I'm sick of doing it with these CTs.

No-tie shoelaces are a thing, and that thing is cheaper than new shoes. I used to use 'em in my running shoes to shave 10s off my transition time in triathlons.

I mean, weightlifting shoes are a valid option, but they're a more expensive option if the only thing about your Chuck's that you don't like is tying them.

Thanks, Jonman, but I think the problem with the CTs is that due to their floppy design that you have to untie them to put them on or the back gets all screwy.

BoogtehWoog wrote:

Thanks, Jonman, but I think the problem with the CTs is that due to their floppy design that you have to untie them to put them on or the back gets all screwy.

The second pair of no tie laces I linked solve that problem. They're tighten-able and loosen-able. The ones I had on my running shoes were similar. You loosen the little toggle, put the shoes on, then tighten the toggle. It's much quicker than tying.

I figured they might be worth a punt for $8 to save you the cost of a new pair of shoes.

Ooo, I see! Thank you.

Is it weird that in the Fitness thread I read CT as a reference to CT Fletcher and was temporarily confused?

BoogtehWoog wrote:

Why are you looking to shake it up?

I’m not seeing the results that I used to. Right now I do about 30 minutes of cardio and then lift for about 45 min 5 times a week (chest, back, legs, shoulders, arms, and abs every day). Like I said, looking for something to shake it up for a bit hopefully get some results.

The problem is that switching routines won't necessarily lead to better results. You have to figure out why your current routine isn't accomplishing what you want. I am going to need hard numbers of what you're lifting and for how many sets and reps along with the types of lifts. You may even be overtraining. Your muscles need time to recover between lifts and the degree of recovery needed is dependent on what you've done.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:
BoogtehWoog wrote:

Why are you looking to shake it up?

I’m not seeing the results that I used to. Right now I do about 30 minutes of cardio and then lift for about 45 min 5 times a week (chest, back, legs, shoulders, arms, and abs every day). Like I said, looking for something to shake it up for a bit hopefully get some results.

I'd suggest changing up your routine so that there's not 5 days between one session on a body part and the next - chances are that you're losing most of the gains in those 5 days before hitting that body part again.

So instead of a 5 day cycle like this
Day 1: Chest + abs
Day 2: Back + abs
Day 3: Legs + abs
Day 4: Shoulders + abs
Day 5: Arms + abs

I'd suggest a 3 day cycle something like this:
Day 1: Chest + arms
Day 2: Legs + abs
Day 3: Back + shoulders

Also, standard advice for stalling - assess your protein intake and consider upping it. Assess your sleep patterns and consider getting more.

I actually think he's doing full body every day, at least that's how I read it.

More than changing up his approach to greater volume, we gotta number crunch. Linear gains don't go on forever and you cannot just keep upping weight every week the same way you used to. That's why tracking your sets and reps is so important. Only way to keep up progressive overload is to track it thoroughly.

BoogtehWoog wrote:

I actually think he's doing full body every day, at least that's how I read it.

Welltheresyourproblem.gif

BoogtehWoog wrote:

More than changing up his approach to greater volume, we gotta number crunch. Linear gains don't go on forever and you cannot just keep upping weight every week the same way you used to. That's why tracking your sets and reps is so important. Only way to keep up progressive overload is to track it thoroughly.

Totes - entirely agree.

To be clear, I wasn't proposing more volume - I read it as he's doing one body-part + abs on each day. My proposal was to keep the same volume, just shuffle around when you're doing what. Because benching once every 5 days is not the path to breaking walnuts between your pecs.