On motivation. What do you do to push yourself? When you are going up a hill and the urge to stop and walk gets to be too much? When biking up a hill and your legs are begging you to sit down, down shift, and take it easy?
When biking I try to look down and focus on pedaling rather than how far it is to the top of the hill. That works form me on the steep short hills but I find that it's the long, gradual, hills that sap my will. I usually bike alone to work so I don't have anyone with me to push. Sometimes I'll see someone in front of me and that helps to push to pass them.
I try and focus with laser-like intensity on form at that point. It serves to (a) ensure that you maintain correct form as you fatigue (which is when it usually goes to hell), and (b) distract you from how bloody exhausted you are. I also focus real hard on my breathing, in-though-the-nose, out-through-the-mouth, regular and deep. On of the mantras I picked up from a spin class instructor was "when you get fatigued you can either slow down, or breath harder to get more oxygen to your muscles - your choice"
If I'm running up that hill, it's all about maintaining a proud, upright posture, looking forward, not down at my feet. That in itself makes you feel strong. If I'm starting to struggle, I'll shorten my stride, while keeping the same cadence.
It I'm riding up that hill, it's more about finding the right gear so you can find a steady, sustainable cadence that will get you to the top. If that means granny-gear and 60rpm, then so be it. For what it's worth, I'm a big fan of climbing in the saddle - especially on long gradual hills. I find that standing up, while allowing a higher peak power, just kills me much quicker, and my form out of the saddle is all over the place. If I stay seated and find the right gear, I can focus on keeping the pedal stroke clean, regular and steady, pushing/pulling through all parts of the pedal stroke (instead of simply mashing on the downstroke), and maintaining a sensible cadence (70-80rpm for a steady climb). I reserve standing up for short bursts up the steepest parts of a climb.
The flip side is that depending on what kind of distances you're doing, sometimes the right choice is to slow to a walk / opt for granny-gear. That applies equally in training and racing. The longer you go, the more often that's a strategic choice rather than a cop-out.
Thanks, Jonman. I'll try working on cadence on the way home tonight.
I tend to stand a lot. I spent most of my time the last 20 years mountain biking and I stood almost constantly doing that. When I started road biking again a few years ago it took me a while to sit on any uphill climb at all.
Thanks, Jonman. I'll try working on cadence on the way home tonight.
I tend to stand a lot. I spent most of my time the last 20 years mountain biking and I stood almost constantly doing that. When I started road biking again a few years ago it took me a while to sit on any uphill climb at all.
Totes. I've been a roadie pretty much forever, and more recently a triathlete, where efficiency is king, so sitting comes naturally to me. 
Do you have a cadence readout on a bike computer? That's been a big help to me, partly as a reminder that it's time to change gear, and partly just to make me be more aware of what I'm doing.
I have been trying to lift weights and do core exercises 3-4 times a week, and I've been trying to get back into running. I started training for a half marathon that my wife and I are going to run in March. It's really difficult to run here in the Florida heat. When it's below 80, and the humidity is low, I can easily make 5K, but I have a tough time hitting 3 miles when it's this hot outside.
Combine that with the fact that I seem to have torn something in my back, and I'm not doing so well. Hopefully, some rest helps and I can get back to training. I just hope I don't lose what progress I have made in the past 6 weeks or so on this week trying to get my back to 100%.
Any ideas as to what I should do? I have heard that my injury could have been caused by lack of core strength, but I really don't think it is as I've been working my core for a while and I've never had a problem like this before.
Jonman's advice about lots of rest is spot on. Rest more than you think, your muscles need time to heal, and then build back up to full strength. The inital tear or strain may heal, but it's too easy to injure it again because it isn't ready for action.
To this end, look online for some physical therapy exercises that target the area that's bothering you. Mostly it's stretching and basic rotation type movements to keep the muscles loose, flexible, and eventually ready to rock.
Also, yoga. This is good for you, especially your core. You may feel like your core is strong due to how beastly your ab workouts are, but there's still your back and a bunch of other little stabalizer muscle bits in that core that yoga will help. Those little bits could be the "lack of core strength" someone told you about.
So I'm a slightly overweight (6' 1" 215lb) near 30 year old who has never been good at sports or physical fitness. From birth through college I had a high motabolizm and was always slim. The second I graduated college and my ass hit the desk I started to develop a bit of a gut. I've pretty much hovered around 215ish for the past 7 years or so, always thinking "Well I'm not at my ideal weight but I'm not super fat so why bother." Maybe it's because I can see the big 3-0 on the horizon, but I want to start to get myself back into shape. The problem is, I don't know thing 1 about exercise or how to start. I've joined gyms in the past but I always start strong and then peter out. Also at the moment cash is quite tight so I'm wary on dumping $40ish a month into a gym membership. So, fitness gurus, I need guidance. What can I do on the cheap to get me back on the road to being fit?
Pushups are pretty awesome, and free. 100pushups.com (or something like that) has a good article about form, why pushups matter, and a solid plan to get you to 100 pushups in one shot. 5 minutes a day, and free.
Also, try just walking around more. I was at my thinnest in college because I was leaner, and walking miles a day instead of driving. Get up and walk around your office every thirty minutes, take all the stairs you see, pace during phone calls, whatever it takes. Some of the healthiest humans on earth are people who never work out in their life. They just happen to eat fresh foods, and walk around their mountain villages a lot.
They just happen to eat fresh foods, and walk around their mountain villages a lot.
So the secret is to move to a mountain village!
EvilHomer3k wrote:Thanks, Jonman. I'll try working on cadence on the way home tonight.
I tend to stand a lot. I spent most of my time the last 20 years mountain biking and I stood almost constantly doing that. When I started road biking again a few years ago it took me a while to sit on any uphill climb at all.
Totes. I've been a roadie pretty much forever, and more recently a triathlete, where efficiency is king, so sitting comes naturally to me.
Do you have a cadence readout on a bike computer? That's been a big help to me, partly as a reminder that it's time to change gear, and partly just to make me be more aware of what I'm doing.
I don't actually have anything that I can see. I keep track of distance and such with my phone, which is in a pack on the bike. I've got a cyclometer but it needs new batteries (never really saw much need with the phone). I do not believe it has cadence, though.
Jonman wrote:Do you have a cadence readout on a bike computer? That's been a big help to me, partly as a reminder that it's time to change gear, and partly just to make me be more aware of what I'm doing.
I don't actually have anything that I can see. I keep track of distance and such with my phone, which is in a pack on the bike. I've got a cyclometer but it needs new batteries (never really saw much need with the phone). I do not believe it has cadence, though.
Here's something to try that doesn't require a cadence readout.
1: Pick a song you know reasonably well that has a BPM twice the cadence you want to ride.
2: Sing the song to yourself as you pedal to the beat.
Boom! You're riding to a given cadence!
F'rinstance, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive has a BPM of 116. If you were to pedal to that, with each leg pushing on each beat, your cadence will be 58 rpm ('cos 1 rpm of cadence requres two beats of of the song, i.e. left-foot push, right-foot push)
I know that this might be pretty small potatoes for some of the heavy hitters on this thread, but it is sort of a big thing for me.
I've decided I want to join the half ton club. That is, folks that can lift a combined 1000 pounds with deadlift, bench, squat, and clean in one session. I have my deadlift up to 305 and my squat up to 375, but my bench is languishing around 205 and my power clean is barely 135. So I have some work to do.
I just finished Day 23 of P90x and I'm a believer. I don't know whether or not I will have a six pack by Day 90, but I've lost an inch on my waste and more importantly, I have much more energy and am sleeping much better at night. It's completely changed my mood and outlook on day-to-day activities. I think there are other advocates for p90x here on GWJ too, so you'll have to ask them if they're pleased with their post-90 day results.
I just finished Day 23 of P90x and I'm a believer. I don't know whether or not I will have a six pack by Day 90, but I've lost an inch on my waste and more importantly, I have much more energy and am sleeping much better at night. It's completely changed my mood and outlook on day-to-day activities. I think there are other advocates for p90x here on GWJ too, so you'll have to ask them if they're pleased with their post-90 day results.
A six pack is far more a function of your diet than your exercise regimen. I'm trying to get there myself and find that the last 10 pounds of body fat are by far the toughest. And there is simply no way to exercise your way past an improper diet.
Grubber788 wrote:I just finished Day 23 of P90x and I'm a believer. I don't know whether or not I will have a six pack by Day 90, but I've lost an inch on my waste and more importantly, I have much more energy and am sleeping much better at night. It's completely changed my mood and outlook on day-to-day activities. I think there are other advocates for p90x here on GWJ too, so you'll have to ask them if they're pleased with their post-90 day results.
A six pack is far more a function of your diet than your exercise regimen. I'm trying to get there myself and find that the last 10 pounds of body fat are by far the toughest. And there is simply no way to exercise your way past an improper diet.
I've been following the P90x diet religiously so my fat intake has dropped like a rock in the past month. Not sure if it's going to be enough though. We'll see.
I just finished Day 23 of P90x and I'm a believer. I don't know whether or not I will have a six pack by Day 90, but I've lost an inch on my waste and more importantly, I have much more energy and am sleeping much better at night. It's completely changed my mood and outlook on day-to-day activities. I think there are other advocates for p90x here on GWJ too, so you'll have to ask them if they're pleased with their post-90 day results.
I may have mentioned this upstream, but I tried it for a while and wasn't super impressed. No doubt - like most workout programs - it works when done safely and sensibly, and in conjunction with a healthy diet. I just wasn't buying what they were selling, I guess. Different folks, different strokes, and all that.
I've tweaked my workout routine a little. Instead of 3-4 days a week of kettlebell clean/press and pull-up ladders with swings, I'm saving that for one day a week and doing body-weight focused workouts the other 2-3 days. I've been pulling a lot of my workout plans from Stew Smith's site, which has some great pyramid, timed set, and super set workouts. My new favorite is a push-up, pull-up, sit-up ladder routine, which starts with low reps for each (say, 1 pull-up, 2 push-ups, and 3 sit-ups), and adds reps with each "rung", until I fail out completely. Then, I start back at the bottom and repeat. Doing this 3-4 times with little rest and a kettlebell swing session after (to add some lower-body conditioning) makes it a hell of a workout. It may not look like much on paper, but in a 30-minute period I can crank out 60-70 dead-hang pull-ups, 120-140 push-ups, and over 200 sit-ups/crunches.
Radical Ans wrote:So I'm a slightly overweight (6' 1" 215lb) near 30 year old who has never been good at sports or physical fitness. From birth through college I had a high motabolizm and was always slim. The second I graduated college and my ass hit the desk I started to develop a bit of a gut. I've pretty much hovered around 215ish for the past 7 years or so, always thinking "Well I'm not at my ideal weight but I'm not super fat so why bother." Maybe it's because I can see the big 3-0 on the horizon, but I want to start to get myself back into shape. The problem is, I don't know thing 1 about exercise or how to start. I've joined gyms in the past but I always start strong and then peter out. Also at the moment cash is quite tight so I'm wary on dumping $40ish a month into a gym membership. So, fitness gurus, I need guidance. What can I do on the cheap to get me back on the road to being fit?
Pushups are pretty awesome, and free. 100pushups.com (or something like that) has a good article about form, why pushups matter, and a solid plan to get you to 100 pushups in one shot. 5 minutes a day, and free.
This link is http://www.hundredpushups.com. It's a pretty good plan, and if you like it there are sister sites for situps, squats, dips, and a bunch of other bodyweight exercises.
I managed to get to 65 pushups after about 8 weeks on the site (started only capable of ~15).... it's certainly not a lock that you're going to get to 100 in the six weeks that they claim.
EvilHomer3k wrote:Jonman wrote:Do you have a cadence readout on a bike computer? That's been a big help to me, partly as a reminder that it's time to change gear, and partly just to make me be more aware of what I'm doing.
I don't actually have anything that I can see. I keep track of distance and such with my phone, which is in a pack on the bike. I've got a cyclometer but it needs new batteries (never really saw much need with the phone). I do not believe it has cadence, though.
Here's something to try that doesn't require a cadence readout.
1: Pick a song you know reasonably well that has a BPM twice the cadence you want to ride.
2: Sing the song to yourself as you pedal to the beat.Boom! You're riding to a given cadence!
F'rinstance, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive has a BPM of 116. If you were to pedal to that, with each leg pushing on each beat, your cadence will be 58 rpm ('cos 1 rpm of cadence requres two beats of of the song, i.e. left-foot push, right-foot push)
I sort of did this the other day. I usually listen to podcasts but I switched to music. Gloria Gaynor isn't my thing but Five Finger Death Punch did the trick for me (as far as riding faster). Still isn't great for cadence but helps a lot with the motivation.
his link is http://www.hundredpushups.com. It's a pretty good plan, and if you like it there are sister sites for situps, squats, dips, and a bunch of other bodyweight exercises.
I managed to get to 65 pushups after about 8 weeks on the site (started only capable of ~15).... it's certainly not a lock that you're going to get to 100 in the six weeks that they claim.
That's the site I was talking about. I do a lot of body weight exercises, and I like poking around for new ideas. My usual pushup routine is three sets of fifty pushups with a full rest period in between. I like the five set plan from this site though, with a big set in the middle. Fun stuff, especially with the pushup handles to get that max up and down.
I know that this might be pretty small potatoes for some of the heavy hitters on this thread, but it is sort of a big thing for me.
I've decided I want to join the half ton club. That is, folks that can lift a combined 1000 pounds with deadlift, bench, squat, and clean in one session. I have my deadlift up to 305 and my squat up to 375, but my bench is languishing around 205 and my power clean is barely 135. So I have some work to do.
Challenges like this are what makes heavier lifting fun, at least for me. A buddy of mine who competes goes to 10k lbs and times himself.
Holy crap.... just got back from doing a Skip Circuit at a local gym, and man did it kill me. 1m skipping followed by 1m of targeted exercise (weighted or bodyweight depending on the station you were at). ~10 stations, a 5s break between sets, and a 2m break after doing all the stations once before doing a second round. It was both brutal and awesome all at once.
Paleocon wrote:I know that this might be pretty small potatoes for some of the heavy hitters on this thread, but it is sort of a big thing for me.
I've decided I want to join the half ton club. That is, folks that can lift a combined 1000 pounds with deadlift, bench, squat, and clean in one session. I have my deadlift up to 305 and my squat up to 375, but my bench is languishing around 205 and my power clean is barely 135. So I have some work to do.
Challenges like this are what makes heavier lifting fun, at least for me. A buddy of mine who competes goes to 10k lbs and times himself.
Just goes to show you how the mental heavy lifting is. I struggled with my bench for the last week because I wanted to break the 1000 pound mark until I realized I did the math wrong. My lifting buddy pointed it out and told me that, for an Asian, I suck at what I am supposed to be good at.
305+375+205+135=1020
Yesterday, benching 225 seemed easy.
Now it's on to the 1200 club by year's end.
I am almost, almost looking forward to winter, simply so I can be more consistent with my workouts and make progress again. Not that I'd trade my vacation time for any kind of gains right now, but still.
This link is http://www.hundredpushups.com. It's a pretty good plan, and if you like it there are sister sites for situps, squats, dips, and a bunch of other bodyweight exercises.
I managed to get to 65 pushups after about 8 weeks on the site (started only capable of ~15).... it's certainly not a lock that you're going to get to 100 in the six weeks that they claim.
Alright, just finished Day 1 of this plan. Looked at it after it was linked here, and figured what the hell. I've always sucked at push-ups. We'll see how close to the fabled 100 I get.
AndrewA wrote:This link is http://www.hundredpushups.com. It's a pretty good plan, and if you like it there are sister sites for situps, squats, dips, and a bunch of other bodyweight exercises.
I managed to get to 65 pushups after about 8 weeks on the site (started only capable of ~15).... it's certainly not a lock that you're going to get to 100 in the six weeks that they claim.
Alright, just finished Day 1 of this plan. Looked at it after it was linked here, and figured what the hell. I've always sucked at push-ups. We'll see how close to the fabled 100 I get.
Keep with it. I mixed some of those workouts in to my pushup routine and I rocked out 85 pushups in a straight 2-minute timed set this morning. Keep that form strong.
I've started on the 100 pushups thing too. The gym at the hotel doesn't ever open on time so I can't get a workout done in time to get to work so I've decided to go with something I can do in my room.
Has anyone done 100 squats as a parallel program?
mindset.threat wrote:Paleocon wrote:I know that this might be pretty small potatoes for some of the heavy hitters on this thread, but it is sort of a big thing for me.
I've decided I want to join the half ton club. That is, folks that can lift a combined 1000 pounds with deadlift, bench, squat, and clean in one session. I have my deadlift up to 305 and my squat up to 375, but my bench is languishing around 205 and my power clean is barely 135. So I have some work to do.
Challenges like this are what makes heavier lifting fun, at least for me. A buddy of mine who competes goes to 10k lbs and times himself.
Just goes to show you how the mental heavy lifting is. I struggled with my bench for the last week because I wanted to break the 1000 pound mark until I realized I did the math wrong. My lifting buddy pointed it out and told me that, for an Asian, I suck at what I am supposed to be good at.
305+375+205+135=1020
Yesterday, benching 225 seemed easy.
Now it's on to the 1200 club by year's end.
Nice! It's amazing what a shift in outlook can accomplish.
AndrewA wrote:This link is http://www.hundredpushups.com. It's a pretty good plan, and if you like it there are sister sites for situps, squats, dips, and a bunch of other bodyweight exercises.
I managed to get to 65 pushups after about 8 weeks on the site (started only capable of ~15).... it's certainly not a lock that you're going to get to 100 in the six weeks that they claim.
Alright, just finished Day 1 of this plan. Looked at it after it was linked here, and figured what the hell. I've always sucked at push-ups. We'll see how close to the fabled 100 I get.
I'll do it with ya, that way we will have a little extra motivation. I did the initial test just now. I'll start day one on Thursday.
Jonman wrote:AndrewA wrote:This link is http://www.hundredpushups.com. It's a pretty good plan, and if you like it there are sister sites for situps, squats, dips, and a bunch of other bodyweight exercises.
I managed to get to 65 pushups after about 8 weeks on the site (started only capable of ~15).... it's certainly not a lock that you're going to get to 100 in the six weeks that they claim.
Alright, just finished Day 1 of this plan. Looked at it after it was linked here, and figured what the hell. I've always sucked at push-ups. We'll see how close to the fabled 100 I get.
I'll do it with ya, that way we will have a little extra motivation. I did the initial test just now. I'll start day one on Thursday.
Add me to this group. For the lulz, I also grabbed the 200 situps and 200 squats apps for my iPhone.
Hi. I'm doing 100 pushups on iPhone, using that exact same app ("repeat day") for sit-ups because I'm pathetic at sit-ups.... and running on an elliptical while playing open-world games like Fallout/Skyrim. Works out really nice in general. I'm 41, so mostly I'm just trying to stop what I've got from getting too droopy.
Mostly just wanted to say hey and that the open-world games thing works really well. (Unless you get too into it... because if you do you start going slower on the treadmill while "sneaking.")
ROMI Just Did My Day One Push UPS Program And I Couldn't Finish 
So I'll Redo Day One In Two Days.
My Phone Is Stupid So Ignore The All The Capitals. Time To Go Back To My Stock Rom
One of the things to remember is to rest adequately. If 30 seconds isn't enough, take longer.
My back is feeling a lot better. After some x-rays, I found that my posture was weird and I've been trying to correct it and do some core strengthening. Now I can get back to training for the half-marathon. I'm up to 3.2 miles. Maybe today, I can do the full 5K.
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