The Escapist and Exercise

[BeerTent]

My body seems to naturally cap my weight at 150 lbs. That must be the gene for "Your gonna grow up to be a skinny *****."

My main method of exercise was going everywhere on the bike, and walking everywhere. Otherwise, I tend to park my ass at the desk. It was a bit of a shock when I realized that lifting my street bike was actually still difficult. That's supposed to be way lighter than my first bike. On top of that, I have had a lot of difficulty carrying things, and working with my arms. Problem? All of my strength was in my legs. None of it all was in my upper body.

So, now I gym it. Primarily work upper body, core, and the gym I go to has these machines that you run to keep your overall health in check(Do 1-9 in order, some leg stuff, lot of arm stuff, and then a crunch machine of sort.). So I run there for a warm up, run those machines, and then lift weights. I've been considering an at-home routine as well, but the reality of it all is that I haven't a fucking clue what I'm doing... My diet is okay, yet largely unchanged. (I eat a lot of chicken and beef, some veggies, and a lot of bread/cheese.) I imagine in September, when my health and strength is part of school's curriculum, I'll have to learn this stuff, and get a better take on health in general.

 

[Pieturli]

I have a gym membership but I don't have a schedule, I go when I can, I mostly stick to weight exercises because I want to put on a bit of muscle, my weight is healthy bit I could do with some toning up, so far I have felt the burn but I plan to stick with it.

If I only go every now and then, will I still see results? I spend a solid hour every time I go and I push quite hard (I always have aches the next day)

No, if you only go every now and then you won't see results. If you take a 2 week break you start losing muscle mass, and I know I feel noticeably weaker if I take even a week off. You need to go to the gym at least once or twice a week every week to see any kind of results.

Hear Hear. Consistency is key. Furthermore, progress is not measured by how sore or sweaty you get, but by an increase in muscle mass or strength or whatever it is you are looking for.

 

[Pieturli]

My body seems to naturally cap my weight at 150 lbs. That must be the gene for "Your gonna grow up to be a skinny *****."

My main method of exercise was going everywhere on the bike, and walking everywhere. Otherwise, I tend to park my ass at the desk. It was a bit of a shock when I realized that lifting my street bike was actually still difficult. That's supposed to be way lighter than my first bike. On top of that, I have had a lot of difficulty carrying things, and working with my arms. Problem? All of my strength was in my legs. None of it all was in my upper body.

So, now I gym it. Primarily work upper body, core, and the gym I go to has these machines that you run to keep your overall health in check(Do 1-9 in order, some leg stuff, lot of arm stuff, and then a crunch machine of sort.). So I run there for a warm up, run those machines, and then lift weights. I've been considering an at-home routine as well, but the reality of it all is that I haven't a fucking clue what I'm doing... My diet is okay, yet largely unchanged. (I eat a lot of chicken and beef, some veggies, and a lot of bread/cheese.) I imagine in September, when my health and strength is part of school's curriculum, I'll have to learn this stuff, and get a better take on health in general.

Get the book Starting Strength. You'll have a much better clue of what you are doing, both in terms of training and weight gain.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My body seems to naturally cap my weight at 150 lbs. That must be the gene for "Your gonna grow up to be a skinny *****."

My main method of exercise was going everywhere on the bike, and walking everywhere. Otherwise, I tend to park my ass at the desk. It was a bit of a shock when I realized that lifting my street bike was actually still difficult. That's supposed to be way lighter than my first bike. On top of that, I have had a lot of difficulty carrying things, and working with my arms. Problem? All of my strength was in my legs. None of it all was in my upper body.

So, now I gym it. Primarily work upper body, core, and the gym I go to has these machines that you run to keep your overall health in check(Do 1-9 in order, some leg stuff, lot of arm stuff, and then a crunch machine of sort.). So I run there for a warm up, run those machines, and then lift weights. I've been considering an at-home routine as well, but the reality of it all is that I haven't a fucking clue what I'm doing... My diet is okay, yet largely unchanged. (I eat a lot of chicken and beef, some veggies, and a lot of bread/cheese.) I imagine in September, when my health and strength is part of school's curriculum, I'll have to learn this stuff, and get a better take on health in general.

If you're looking to help build upper body strength at home I recommend getting one of those pull up bars that you can put in a doorway as well as just doing push-ups. People really underestimate how much doing push-ups helps to build upper body strength, especially helping build up your chest.

 

[Bravo Company]

I don't got the the gym, but I try to exercise at least once a day. Usually I'll do a quick workout of 50 pushups and 100 sit ups before I take a shower every night. I plan to step up those numbers as I get stronger.

Then, about every day or so I'll go to the track and jog/run 2 miles and then run a mile of sprinting the curves of the track while jogging the straights.

Also, about once a week or so, some friends and I will kick around the soccer ball for a few hours.

Not nearly as vigorous as most the people that have posted here but its enough for me to maintain my physique, which is all I'm really interested in.

For the record I'm about 6ft and weight 155 lbs, lean with a slightly toned body.

 

[spartan231490]

advice: add weight lifting into your routine. People who rely on purely aerobic exorcise lose primarily muscle, instead of fat.

My experience. I work full time at a lumber yard/hardware store this summer, and I've lost 17 pounds in 2 months, probably put on 10 pounds of muscle in the same time.

A kind of combination of both topics, martial arts is a great hobby. I strongly recommend it to everyone, period.

As to why I exorcise, I often exorcised before getting this job. I had 2 primary motivations. The first was health. I have had dangerously high blood pressure as well bad joints for a long time. It reached critical mass about a year ago and I knew I had short time to lose weight or watch my health go to hell. That was my primary motivation. Secondary motivation was romantics. I want to be attractive, simple as that, and I wasn't. Give me until Christmas though, and I will be. I want this simply because the people I am attracted to are currently out of my league. I refuse to lower my standards, so increasing my own value is the only path remaining to me. That might be shallow, but I really don't give a crap what you people think about me.

 

[krazykidd]

I don't. I don't really care about health. I don't like physical activity. And i'm not going to change the way i look to appeal to women.

I am how i am , take it or leave it.

 

[Hero of Lime]

For starters I run two miles on most days, sometimes more if I have lots of free time. I also got into doing push ups and reverse crunches everyday ranging from about 1000 to 2000 (push ups, I don't count the crunches) each day again depending on how busy I am.

Several years ago I was overweight, and so I eventually decided to try exercising regularly, and eventually I really got into it which is why I do it so much now. It really has become a huge part of my life, which I am happy about, I actually used to exercise even more running up to eight miles a day, but I don't have the time or energy to that anymore. I'm in good shape, not sure how much I weigh, but after having a physical and blood test last year, I am overall very healthy.

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

I don't. I don't really care about health. I don't like physical activity. And i'm not going to change the way

I don't. I don't really care about health. I don't like physical activity. And i'm not going to change the way i look to appeal to women.

I am how i am , take it or leave it.

To be completely honest, that's kind of a horrible attitude to have, you know. Not caring about appealing to women is one thing, not caring about your health is far more serious. Just don't complain later on that your back hurt or that you can't walk for more than ten minutes without having to catch your breath.

And the "take it or leave it" thing... yeah... I believe that there's always room for self-improvement, physical and mental. Just my opinion, though.

Now, back on topic. I've always been a quite active person (had a minimum amount of 4 days of physical activity since I was 7, practiced a lot of different sports) but that kind of changed a few years ago after a nasty fall of a hill and the consequent recovery period. So I haven't been physically active for the last 1.5 years and lost most of my endurance and strength while gaining some weight (not that I'm overweight). Been planning to hit the gym for the last two months, never found the time (or will) to do it. I'll finally start this week, just going to do some cardio and weights for at least an hour a day, 5 times a week.

 

[EyeReaper]

I son'r nearly exercise as much as I want, or should. I mostly do an hour at a light jog on a treadmill a week.

You all know how it goes. "Hmm, maybe I should go burn some calories... but on the otherhand, I need to beat Dragon Age 2 to have a save to import on PC when Inquisition comes out."
The next Day...
"Ok! let's sweat it to Yahtzee's voice in this Jam audiobook I just downloaded... but wait, I haven't finished playing Quest for Glory 3 yet! King Graham would hang his head in shame if he knew! I can't wait to import this Pallidin to QfG 4!"

and so on, and so forth.

 

[Libra]

Not in the 'going to the gym' kind of way, but I walk an hour every day to and from work and do a 3-hour post route every saturday. I don't care about muscles, but I keep to my desired weight mostly by eating small portions and healthy food (little meat, lost of fruit & veg, high fiber, etc.). My weight hasn't fluctuated for more than 1 kg for the past 8 years, which I'm quite proud of actually

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I son'r nearly exercise as much as I want, or should. I mostly do an hour at a light jog on a treadmill a week.

You all know how it goes. "Hmm, maybe I should go burn some calories... but on the otherhand, I need to beat Dragon Age 2 to have a save to import on PC when Inquisition comes out."
The next Day...
"Ok! let's sweat it to Yahtzee's voice in this Jam audiobook I just downloaded... but wait, I haven't finished playing Quest for Glory 3 yet! King Graham would hang his head in shame if he knew! I can't wait to import this Pallidin to QfG 4!"

and so on, and so forth.

I'm going to give the same advice to you that I give to all my friends who go to the gym just to use a treadmill: Don't.

A treadmill is a waste of money. You don't build the same endurance jogging on a treadmill that you do jogging outside, and as an added bonus the treadmill is costing you way more money than just going out and running a few blocks.

The only time I advocate using a treadmill is if you live in an area with really bad air, like Mexico City, or New York. Outside of that if you can go outside to run it's better than a treadmill in every way.

 

[EyeReaper]

I'm going to give the same advice to you that I give to all my friends who go to the gym just to use a treadmill: Don't.

A treadmill is a waste of money. You don't build the same endurance jogging on a treadmill that you do jogging outside, and as an added bonus the treadmill is costing you way more money than just going out and running a few blocks.

The only time I advocate using a treadmill is if you live in an area with really bad air, like Mexico City, or New York. Outside of that if you can go outside to run it's better than a treadmill in every way.

Oh, I don't go to the gym. Haven't since Highschool, and if it was up to me (and it mostly is) I would never step into a locker room ever again. One of my buddies gave me his old tread when he got a new one.
Even still though, I agree completely. But I'm just to lazy to go outside and exercise, especially If I can do the same thing from the comfort of my home. Although I do enjoy trekking down railroad tracks if the weather is nice.

 

[Super Cyborg]

When I'm home, I go to the gym and go between swimming, regular cardio, and weights. I do three days of swimming of various laps, and 2-3 days of cardio/weights. I also try to get up Monday-Saturdays in the morning to meet up with my parents to walk the dog at a park, which is around 40-45 minutes of walking.

The problem comes with my work, as the types of things that are available depend on what boat I'm on. The one I'm currently on has many types of machines, but I stick with an hour on the elliptical and then some push-ups and sit-ups for this boat.

 

[Objectable]

Buddy, DDP Yoga 4 life!
Created by DIamond Dallas Page. Used by the likes of Chris Jericho, Zack Ryder, and Mick fucking Foley!

 

[das_n00b]

I've been meaning to take up some sort of martial art, (I even bumped into a trainer that tried to get me into his fight studio, today at work) but I've been unusually busy as of late. I've been working full time, writing music again, might be assisting in an up and coming local business, so I've got very little time to really hit the gym.

I've actually sort of coaxed myself into getting some sort of physical activity by picking up the drums. I played for about three or four months during my freshmen year in college, and I've recently picked it up again. It's got me thinking about my shape in general, so I'm considering certain forms of exercise to help me along with my playing.

 

[Quingfang]

I maintain a fairly relaxed exercise routine but, combined with my diet, have become such an important part of my life that it feels weird to eat poorly (unless I'm out with the lady or friends) and not exercise. I walk three miles after breakfast and after dinner, with weight training three days a week and the other four spent doing interval training (since running distance isn't the best for cardio, I have learned). I've dropped down to a pretty good weight and I think I look better than I have in years!

 

[Tactical Pause]

Almost two months ago, I started doing P90X3 (7 days a week, no rest days) and began following the general guidelines of the diet provided. Thing is, I'm trying to gain weight, so I've had to bump up my calorie and protein consumption quite a bit (turns out I was only eating ~1,600 calories a day without realizing it). It was tough at first, but my body's already adjusting, as bodies are wont to do.

So far it's all working pretty great. Hopefully within another month or so I won't be so much of a stick person anymore.

 

[Saulkar]

I workout for 1 and a half to two hours, five days week, Monday to Friday. I do a combination of Powerlifting and Bodybuilding and currently weigh in at 98KG at about 15% body fat which means I do not have a six pack but you would be damned insane to punch me in the stomach. I have no real goals other than to constantly break what I believed to be my limits before finding a new barrier to own. Except for Biceps and Triceps, Thighs and Calves, and Wrists and Traps, I do not do more than one muscle group a day and thus it takes me a week and a half to cycle through all of them. My order goes Chest, Upper Back, Legs, Shoulders, Arms, then Lower Back. My Abs, Thighs and Calves, and Wrists and Traps, are worked in once every other week each.

Normally I start with 30 minutes of running at 6MPH before moving onto the weights which can take 45 minutes with my Lower Back to an hour and a half with my Chest. Legs are the exception as I cannot hit my peak performance doing cardio before weights. I also have tendinitis in my left rotator cuff and the front of my right elbow at the base of my bicep which has healed and been re-injured half a dozen times, in the last 3.5 years, preforming day to day tasks whereas doing stuff like arm-curls and skull-crushers at any wrist angle cause absolutely no discomfort. In fact I can use that arm best in the days after the workout. The shoulder injury on the other hand is only 7 months old and healing quite well.

Spoiler: Here is what I looked like back in February with about 18% (I think) Bodyfat

 

[Something Amyss]

What kind of injuries you got?

Primarily my spine. Grossly limits what I can do for exercise. I'm still seeing specialists over it, and will be starting up a different type of PT, but with four years of inactivity/limited activity, I'm kind of in bad shape.