Fitness Catch-All

Tempest wrote:
staygold wrote:

Congrats! That’s an awesome achievement!

What app are you using to track your reps. That output interface looks slick

Thanks!

I used the Strong app. It's by far the best way to track what you do. Leave the not book behind. It's THE best workout logging app out there. I've tried them all.

+1 to this. I use the Strong app as well when I'm lifting, and have completely shifted away from paper.

Just downloaded it and am scrolling through exercises looking for some of the more uncommon stuff that comes up alot in my programming (2 count paused deadlifts, belt vs beltless squats, high bar/low bar/safety squat). Am I just missing things/is there a way to manually add exercises?

Day 15

Halfway through this ten-day stretch, I feel like I passed a test of sorts. It was a crazy busy week with work and guests from out of town, but I got 30 minutes in each day. Wednesday I started my workout at 11:45pm. That was the hardest day.

I totally failed on trying to get 6 hours of sleep each night, though, only managing it yesterday and missing it the previous four days. But this week was much busier than usual, and I did get a lot more sleep than I probably would have had I not been trying to get 6 hours per night. I'm hopeful I can still work this out and start getting better sleep now that things are quieting down.

Top_Shelf wrote:

JAm I just missing things/is there a way to manually add exercises?

Yep, when you start or create a workout, then "add exercise", then you can press the "new" text to add a custom exercise instead of one of the suggested ones.

Just to circle back to the previous conversation, I decided to give intermittent fasting a try. I've been trying to get a bit leaner and work on rehabilitation before I focus on building strength, but I've been struggling a lot with eating. Coming from a long period of bulking (and then...lazy eating when I stopped gym), I'm finding it particular difficult to stay full. I haaate having small meals, because I just want to snack right after.

After some reading, a lot of people suggest a feeding window of noon-8pm. That honestly doesn't seem to bad considering I usually have to force myself to eat breakfast. Any appetite I work up is usually muted by a cup or two of black coffee. It'll also allow me to have 2 larger meals!

Guess I'm looking at this more as a way to structure my eating rather than trusting the science around fasted states. And I can do 2 weeks. 2 weeks is nothing. *determined face*

I'll post back here with my experience. In the meantime, god help me, how do I stay full without eating over 2000 calories a day?

A_Unicycle wrote:

how do I stay full without eating over 2000 calories a day? :cry:

Muchos lean protein, that's how. High protein foods lead to more and longer lasting satiety.

A_Unicycle wrote:

Just to circle back to the previous conversation, I decided to give intermittent fasting a try. I've been trying to get a bit leaner and work on rehabilitation before I focus on building strength, but I've been struggling a lot with eating. Coming from a long period of bulking (and then...lazy eating when I stopped gym), I'm finding it particular difficult to stay full. I haaate having small meals, because I just want to snack right after.

After some reading, a lot of people suggest a feeding window of noon-8pm. That honestly doesn't seem to bad considering I usually have to force myself to eat breakfast.

I've been messing around with intermittent fasting some over the past two months. I started with three days, then did some individual days, then did a week. I did the same noon-8pm eating interval you're looking to do.

In case it helps...

- It was easier than I anticipated. Pretty much it just meant not eating late into the evening and then skipping breakfast. I regularly eat a light breakfast so that was challenging the first couple of days, but I appreciated that I could start the day faster.

- I found that the first few times I'd have an hour or so in the mid-morning when my energy was really low and it was hard to concentrate on work, usually around 10am. By 11am or so it'd pick back up and I'd feel fine again.

- I also got some pretty strong hunger cravings during the first few days. I found that they lasted about an hour or two then went away, so I could just wait them out. I'd use water and/or herbal tea to help get through them. Stomachs are dumb, so if you just fill them up with something they shut up and stop bothering you.

- Once I got past the first couple of days, I really liked how it evened out my energy. I felt like my concentration was better as well. A friend of mine who does intermittent fasting as a lifestyle change and has been doing it for a few years now swears by this benefit.

- For weight loss, I didn't notice anything, but I wasn't really trying for that goal so much as to see what fasting was like. I noticed that I consumed a lot of food in the 12-8 eating window, enough to at least offset the fasting times. If I were going to try fasting to lose weight, I'd try to be more careful about what I consume during eating season, which in turn may have made it harder during those fasting windows.

I'd like to try a two-week stretch at some point in the summer and be less of a glutton during the times I was able to eat.

I hit Day 20 today.

Starting Weight: 218.0
Today's Weight: 214.2
Best 5k pace: 9:36 min/mile (8 seconds faster than my starting pace)

The good news is that I kept my streak alive, and once I got past Day 15 or so it's been easier to get myself to the gym or out the door exercising. So I'm happy with that.

On more of a bad news front, I totally failed at getting 6 hours of sleep per night (FitBit sleep). I could make up lots of reasons why but really I just failed. The last few days have been extraordinarily bad. I'm going to try again these next ten days.

Existing Thing: 30 minutes aerobic exercise each day
New Thing: Average 6 hours of sleep per night according to FitBit (so about 7-7.5 hours of traditional sleep per night)

So time to reset on the sleep goal and keep going on the exercise goal.

Sleep is by far the hardest aspect of training for me. There is always some reason I want to stay up late, even on weeknights.

Heretk wrote:

Sleep is by far the hardest aspect of training for me. There is always some reason I want to stay up late, even on weeknights.

No kidding. I hear ya.

I am liking Sumo squats after my first couple of sessions doing them. My knees didn't mess with me at all, so I will be doing those for the foreseeable future.

cartoonin wrote:

I am liking Sumo squats after my first couple of sessions doing them. My knees didn't mess with me at all, so I will be doing those for the foreseeable future.

Do you mean deadlifts?

Day 25 in the books

This was an unexpectedly tough stretch. I caught a nasty cold, my first in several years. I felt like a truck hit me. It was a struggle to get to the gym these past five days, but I got in a half hour on the stationary bike each day.

The upside is that I've been sleeping a ton, so I'm easily meeting my second goal of 6 hours of FitBit sleep each night.

Tempest wrote:
cartoonin wrote:

I am liking Sumo squats after my first couple of sessions doing them. My knees didn't mess with me at all, so I will be doing those for the foreseeable future.

Do you mean deadlifts?

Actually, I mean both! I performed both Sumo squats and deadlifts into my rotation.

My knee is doing great on both sets.

Day 30 was yesterday.

Starting Weight: 218.0
Today's Weight: 217.0
Best 5k pace: 10:21 min/mile (37 seconds slower than my starting pace)

Good News
- Despite getting slammed by a nasty weeklong cold/flu, I managed to keep exercising every day.
- I hit my sleep goal of averaging 6 hours per night of FitBit sleep, and got 6 hours+ on seven of the ten nights.

So both big targets hit, and I'm feeling healthy again now.

Bad News
- My run time got slower. I'm not too concerned with that because it was only one run and I was still reeling from the cold. Having said that, both of my last two runs I've had some tugging in my right calf which has slowed me down some. I think I need more stretching.
- I gained 3 pounds. Kind of a bummer, but whatever, I haven't been aiming for weight loss yet.

For this next 10-day stretch I'm going to keep getting an average of 6 hours of sleep and keep exercising at least 30 minutes per day.

June will be insanely busy, so for my new thing I want to add something that won't require a time commitment. I'm going to try to replace crappy snacks with healthy snacks. I'd like to start to attack the extra weight issue, and I'm thinking that dietary shifts will be the least time-consuming thing I can add.

So, Day 30 was Monday. So far I've been consistently hitting the gym five days a week, barring it being closed for Memorial Day and last Monday when I was sick. I'm up to 35 lbs on the dumbbells for my shoulder presses, inverted bench, flat bench, and rows. I've also been adding some machines to the rotation because they're there and sometimes the benches aren't available. I still do 30 minutes on the eliptical, but I've also started in on the treadmill so I can begin jogging in my neighborhood on weekends. That's the good news.

The bad news is that my weight doesn't seem to want to go down at all. I've started watching what I eat, both the content and the portions. While I seem to have lost a little, I keep hovering around 310-315 lbs. Here's the interesting thing, though. I've gone down a whole belt notch. Some co-workers who have been going as well have said that I do look thinner, but I don't feel thinner at all, and the scale doesn't seem to reflect that either. I'm not giving up, but still. I thought I'd at least be under 300 when I plateaued.

Grenn wrote:

While I seem to have lost a little, I keep hovering around 310-315 lbs. Here's the interesting thing, though. I've gone down a whole belt notch. Some co-workers who have been going as well have said that I do look thinner, but I don't feel thinner at all, and the scale doesn't seem to reflect that either. I'm not giving up, but still. I thought I'd at least be under 300 when I plateaued.

You're trading fat for muscle.

Muscle is more dense. So even though your weight isn't changing, you're getting smaller, hence the belt notch.

Jonman wrote:
Grenn wrote:

While I seem to have lost a little, I keep hovering around 310-315 lbs. Here's the interesting thing, though. I've gone down a whole belt notch. Some co-workers who have been going as well have said that I do look thinner, but I don't feel thinner at all, and the scale doesn't seem to reflect that either. I'm not giving up, but still. I thought I'd at least be under 300 when I plateaued.

You're trading fat for muscle.

Muscle is more dense. So even though your weight isn't changing, you're getting smaller, hence the belt notch.

This. Body composition is what people actually mean when they say they want to fix their weight.

Awesome work, Grenn. Keep it up! You add a lot of muscle when you first start lifting regularly. That'll slow down, but you'll keep burning off fat, so you should see weight loss over time.

I hit day 35 yesterday.

I'm happy I've made it this far, but most of my workouts this week were 10pm or later due to work. I've got to get to the gym earlier in the day so that it doesn't become this thing hanging over my head all day. Sleep-wise, this week was tough. Work is a bear this month, and I can feel my body stressed out. I'm waking up in the middle of the night thinking about all the work stuff.

I feel like I'm on borrowed time here unless I can shift my workouts earlier, get ahead of this month's workload, and consistently get better sleep.

Results-wise, I think I'm making progress though. My resting pulse when I started a month ago was 54. Over the first two weeks of working out, it slowly climbed to 60, then started dropping. Then I got that nasty cold and it went up to 63. But in the past 10 days it's dropped all the way back down to 54. So that's a good sign that my body has adapted to the daily workouts.

So yeah, for the next few days I want to try to get to the gym earlier each day and get ahead of the work curve.

I got a pull up bar that works. So excited to do more pull ups.

Does anyone have any running short suggestions?
Getting tired of using my old basketball style athletic shorts all the time, would be nice to have a zipper pocket for say a key, but I'm also very skeptical of the built in undies based on experiences in highschool running XC. (I would normally order a medium/large in a lot of shorts for waist size but have found that if there is a liner I have to size up so as not to uh crush the bits with bunching, but then shorts are a bit baggy and bleh)

For reference I'm getting in ~16-20m a week. Nothing super serious.

boogle wrote:

Does anyone have any running short suggestions?
Getting tired of using my old basketball style athletic shorts all the time, would be nice to have a zipper pocket for say a key, but I'm also very skeptical of the built in undies based on experiences in highschool running XC. (I would normally order a medium/large in a lot of shorts for waist size but have found that if there is a liner I have to size up so as not to uh crush the bits with bunching, but then shorts are a bit baggy and bleh)

For reference I'm getting in ~16-20m a week. Nothing super serious.

I'm entirely on the built-in/2-in-1 train, so not sure I've got a lot of advice you want. 2-in-1s save me from mega thigh chafing. I'm bigger in the butt and thighs than the waist too, for what it's worth. I've got numerous pairs of Saucony Interval 2-in-1s - they have a zippered pocket on the back too - you won't fit a phone in there, but your door key and a couple of gels will totes go in.

It occurs to me that there's liners and there's liners. I've had shorts in the past that have a brief-style mesh liner, and I couldn't get on with those at all. What I rock these days is where the liner is more like a pair of compression shorts that go a couple inches down the thigh. I don't have a problem with them bunching, and I use 'em for everything - running, lifting, hiking or kayaking.

Your mileage may (literally) vary. Try your local running store, they might well have a "bring 'em back and exchange 'em if they don't work out" policy - mine does.

Good point on compression style liners

boogle wrote:

Does anyone have any running short suggestions?
Getting tired of using my old basketball style athletic shorts all the time...

1970s satin side-vents.

IMAGE(https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/mens-shorts-11-5923f5d1b9205__605.jpg)

Ideally, partnered with a 'Leeroy-from-Fame' mesh vest and some white tube socks.

It's a look that has never gotten old.

Next question.?

Jonman wrote:

I'm entirely on the built-in/2-in-1 train, so not sure I've got a lot of advice you want. 2-in-1s save me from mega thigh chafing. I'm bigger in the butt and thighs than the waist too, for what it's worth. I've got numerous pairs of Saucony Interval 2-in-1s - they have a zippered pocket on the back too - you won't fit a phone in there, but your door key and a couple of gels will totes go in.

Brother. Separated at birth.

I too use 2-in-1s for everything, and only the ones with compression liners. Started using them when I was marathon training, as I'd get chafed so badly I was practically bleeding. 2-in-1s save me from the worst of it, but even then I get some in a few areas on longer runs when I'm really soaked.

I actually use them as swimsuits now, too. Go to the beach or the lake and that's what I'm wearing. Traditional swimsuits with the mesh liners kill me with chafing, too... go figure.

ColdForged wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I'm entirely on the built-in/2-in-1 train, so not sure I've got a lot of advice you want. 2-in-1s save me from mega thigh chafing. I'm bigger in the butt and thighs than the waist too, for what it's worth. I've got numerous pairs of Saucony Interval 2-in-1s - they have a zippered pocket on the back too - you won't fit a phone in there, but your door key and a couple of gels will totes go in.

Brother. Separated at birth.

I too use 2-in-1s for everything, and only the ones with compression liners. Started using them when I was marathon training, as I'd get chafed so badly I was practically bleeding. 2-in-1s save me from the worst of it, but even then I get some in a few areas on longer runs when I'm really soaked.

I actually use them as swimsuits now, too. Go to the beach or the lake and that's what I'm wearing. Traditional swimsuits with the mesh liners kill me with chafing, too... go figure.

Brothers indeed. I could've written all of that.

I still rock a traditional pair of tighty swim shorts if I'm getting in the pool for a swim workout, but yeah, my 2-in-1s are my beach shorts. The compression-liner keeps more sand out of my bits!

Interesting. I have compression stuff I wear when working out and as you can probably guess had only tried brief style liners in highschool.

These (note 5in is very short on my 6'4" frame so 7in work better) seem pretty promising from a pocket and working with existing layer setup, but I'll run by one of the local shops today or tomorrow to see whats up.

Appreciate the info folks

I use a pair of medium-length Nike Dri-Fits. I have decently sized thighs, and I don't get any chafing at all. They have a loose mesh underwear, but it is not suitable to be used alone with no underwear.

Does anyone have any good advice for getting a consistent male waist measurement at home? I've watched a few videos and read a few articles, and I get that the tape goes around your stomach at or a bit above the belly button. But it seems like there's so much wiggle there. I can shift a bit and add or remove an inch, which drives me nuts. I don't feel like there's a good rule for measuring the same dimension time after time.

Tips?

Promised I'd post back with intermittent fasting results in 2 weeks (it's been 3! Spoilers: I liked it!). I restricted my eating from noon to 8pm, which gave me a 16 hour fast.

So first and foremost, I don't think I experienced any of the promised benefits; improved concentration, higher energy, faster weight loss. In fact, I think my mornings and some nights were spent thinking far too much about the food I would eat. I saw zero change in energy (no dips, so that's great), and my weight dropped the usual amount given my caloric deficit (0.25-0.5kg a week).

However, it gave me a helpful structure for my eating. I hate having small meals and not feeling satisfied after each. I was happy to fast each morning, as a strong black coffee usually suppresses my appetite well enough to last a few hours. Because I knew I was supposed to be a bit hungry in the morning, I was a lot more at peace with it. It also made me crave a healthy, well rounded meal for lunch. Lots of veggies and lean protein! I noticed a similar trend at night, where I'd want to make sure I ate really well so I wouldn't get too hungry before bed. It teaches you pretty quickly that junk food doesn't fill you up!

The first 3 days were hell. I almost broke down a few nights. But you quickly get used to it. I had 3 or 4 days where I ended up eating outside of my window, but those were on days I worked out for longer than usual so my appetite was much higher.

Overall, I enjoy the structure more than anything. I like being able to wake up and just get going with my day without having to worry about breakfast. Really, it feels less like a big lifestyle thing and more like I'm just skipping a meal I usually don't enjoy to make room for things I do enjoy.

TL;DR Trying to lose weight? Try IF!

Anyway, here's something more exciting. I put another 10kg on my deadlift despite being on a caloric deficit these past few months! Finally at double bodyweight.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1139869...

I've noticed my weight rising and dipping within the 76-78 range while my lift numbers go up. Am I in the fabled recomposition window here or something? I'm eating 1900-2100 calories while lifting 4 days a week and doing 30 minutes of moderate to intense cardio every other day. I've not cut for this long before, and all I've read seems to indicate my numbers should be going down...

Nice reflections on Intermittent Fasting, Unicycle. Thanks for sharing. It's interesting to see how it's somewhat different for everyone who does it.

I too enjoyed just getting up and starting my day, without having to figure out breakfast. That was a surprising plus for me.

I think you had a better approach to your meal times than I did when I was doing IF. I kind of looked at it as eating season and ate lots of stuff. When I try it again, I want to be more intentional about what I eat during the non-fasting portion of the day.

___

I'm still going on my exercise streak. I hit Day 46 yesterday. I almost lost it on Sunday, but my daughter convinced me to go to the gym at 11:45pm.

Work has continued to be eternal and stressful this month, so I'm glad I've been able to keep the streak up so far. Having a lot of work and stress has made it tough to make progress in other health goals, for a lot of reasons, but I feel like the daily exercise has helped keep me from dropping into a funk. Life will revert to normal in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping to make more overall progress then. For the time being, I'm just going to try to keep getting in 30 minutes of exercise each day.