Body Building

[Lootifer]

Work hard. Cause yourself pain.

General fitness will not be achieved by heavy weights; but by hard cardio and circuit/light weights training (people call it different things, but pretty much cross training, high intensity, multiple exercise stuff, keeping heart rate high most of the time).

Depends on what your goal is. "Better overall shape" could mean you look better naked, or it could mean you dont die of heart disease tomorrow, or it could mean you can run a marathon or it could mean a million other different things... Whats your goal? Whats your current, er, state?

I personally don't care what I look like naked (though my wife disagrees for some odd reason), and I don't want to run a marathon... I do however have certain standards I have to keep up namely the Air Force has me do a 1.5 mile run, a minute of timed pushups, a minute of timed situps, and a waist measurement (which I don't worry about because taking care of the others takes care of the waist)
right now I'm in... ok shape. I'm 5'8" and according to the scale at the gym here I'm 180 lbs. I've been slacking off for the last few months, and need to get back up to snuff to do the aforementioned exercises in reasonable fashion. long term, yeah... I've got some serious family history of cancer, so trying to avoid things that lead to that (thus I don't use any kind of tobacco, etc)

Heh the fastest way to achieve that is simply do the required exercises. If you cant physically knock out a couple of miles start with just a mile and build up. Training for a decent time for 1.5 miles will involve pretty much running 2-5 fairly regularly (you can be more efficient if you are aiming for faster times but it doesnt sound like you are.

Likewise with the situps and pressups. Every two days just do three sets of whatever you can manage (make sure its low enough so you can complete all three sets). Every time you do it just aim to beat last times score. This plus jogging will smash ur fitness test in a few short weeks.

[tdans]

Work hard. Cause yourself pain.

General fitness will not be achieved by heavy weights; but by hard cardio and circuit/light weights training (people call it different things, but pretty much cross training, high intensity, multiple exercise stuff, keeping heart rate high most of the time).

Depends on what your goal is. "Better overall shape" could mean you look better naked, or it could mean you dont die of heart disease tomorrow, or it could mean you can run a marathon or it could mean a million other different things... Whats your goal? Whats your current, er, state?

I personally don't care what I look like naked (though my wife disagrees for some odd reason), and I don't want to run a marathon... I do however have certain standards I have to keep up namely the Air Force has me do a 1.5 mile run, a minute of timed pushups, a minute of timed situps, and a waist measurement (which I don't worry about because taking care of the others takes care of the waist)
right now I'm in... ok shape. I'm 5'8" and according to the scale at the gym here I'm 180 lbs. I've been slacking off for the last few months, and need to get back up to snuff to do the aforementioned exercises in reasonable fashion. long term, yeah... I've got some serious family history of cancer, so trying to avoid things that lead to that (thus I don't use any kind of tobacco, etc)

Heh the fastest way to achieve that is simply do the required exercises. If you cant physically knock out a couple of miles start with just a mile and build up. Training for a decent time for 1.5 miles will involve pretty much running 2-5 fairly regularly (you can be more efficient if you are aiming for faster times but it doesnt sound like you are.

Likewise with the situps and pressups. Every two days just do three sets of whatever you can manage (make sure its low enough so you can complete all three sets). Every time you do it just aim to beat last times score. This plus jogging will smash ur fitness test in a few short weeks.

Every two days just do three sets of whatever you can manage (make sure its low enough so you can complete all three sets

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT? you want to make the first set difficult, the second set nearly impossible and the third set suicidal. This is how to progress rapidly.

[thegreekdog]

When I was in the best shape of my life (not body building shape, rugby shape), here was my daily regimen:

Breakfast - five hard-boiled eggs, two glasses of milk, wheat toast, coffee
Lunch - some meat product (usually chicken or steak), carbs, water
Exercise - 2 hour rugby practice followed by 1 hour of heavy lifting (alternating chest/biceps; shoulders/legs; back/triceps; then shoulders/legs again) or, if off-season 1 hour of running followed by 1 hour of heavy lifting (as indicated in prior parenthetical)
Dinner - some meat product (usually chicken or steak), vegetables, water

I was in pretty good athletic shape doing that and had large muscles (although not body building quality).

[fadedpsychosis]

Work hard. Cause yourself pain.

General fitness will not be achieved by heavy weights; but by hard cardio and circuit/light weights training (people call it different things, but pretty much cross training, high intensity, multiple exercise stuff, keeping heart rate high most of the time).

Depends on what your goal is. "Better overall shape" could mean you look better naked, or it could mean you dont die of heart disease tomorrow, or it could mean you can run a marathon or it could mean a million other different things... Whats your goal? Whats your current, er, state?

I personally don't care what I look like naked (though my wife disagrees for some odd reason), and I don't want to run a marathon... I do however have certain standards I have to keep up namely the Air Force has me do a 1.5 mile run, a minute of timed pushups, a minute of timed situps, and a waist measurement (which I don't worry about because taking care of the others takes care of the waist)
right now I'm in... ok shape. I'm 5'8" and according to the scale at the gym here I'm 180 lbs. I've been slacking off for the last few months, and need to get back up to snuff to do the aforementioned exercises in reasonable fashion. long term, yeah... I've got some serious family history of cancer, so trying to avoid things that lead to that (thus I don't use any kind of tobacco, etc)

Heh the fastest way to achieve that is simply do the required exercises. If you cant physically knock out a couple of miles start with just a mile and build up. Training for a decent time for 1.5 miles will involve pretty much running 2-5 fairly regularly (you can be more efficient if you are aiming for faster times but it doesnt sound like you are.

Likewise with the situps and pressups. Every two days just do three sets of whatever you can manage (make sure its low enough so you can complete all three sets). Every time you do it just aim to beat last times score. This plus jogging will smash ur fitness test in a few short weeks.

actually with the 1.5 mile the faster I do it the better the score, so I AM going for a faster 1.5 mile... as for the rest... well it kinda sucked, but yesterday for instance I did an exercise where I alternated sets of pushups and situps... started with a set of 20, then 15, 10, 5, then back up 10, 15, and 20... like I said, sucked completely, but I did it without total muscle failure (though I ended up sleeping an my arm funny and it cramped while I slept... and I was so tired I didn't notice til I woke up and have been half - T-Rex armed today)
Edit: I should say I prefaced it with about a 2.3 mile jog... slow as I was sore as hell from working out the day before, but I did it

[fadedpsychosis]

Every two days just do three sets of whatever you can manage (make sure its low enough so you can complete all three sets

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT? you want to make the first set difficult, the second set nearly impossible and the third set suicidal. This is how to progress rapidly.

you and my Sargent have a similar mindset apparently... that was my workout 2 days ago... and yes, I've been sore head to toe for 2 days, however did you guess?

[Lootifer]

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT? you want to make the first set difficult, the second set nearly impossible and the third set suicidal. This is how to progress rapidly.

Firstly I was giving generic advice and not really around quickly building muscle/power, but simply a small workout that will improve someone in a way which they can handle.

Someone who is of average fitness going balls deep in a lift-to-fail regieme is probabaly about the worst thing you can do. All it will do is leave the person with an over-exxagerated case of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) and little to no desire to exercise anytime soon.

You and I can probably workout to failure (or max effort cardio) with little or no suffering the following day. Someone who is just getting started on a workout programme wont be walking right for a week.

The reason I said dont worry about what you can do, "just aim to finish all three sets" is giving your mind food to work with: you knock out 3x8 pushups, yeah thats pretty shit, but when you knock out 3x10 or 3x12 two days later your left with a pretty good feeling. You just connected a good feeling with something thats typically uncomfortable (exercise); this is the most important aspect of staying in good shape: setting up a system in which you can maintain it (and by maintain it i mean something you want to do, not something you see as a chore or punishment).

@ faded

Regarding running 1.5 miles faster: There are a million different options, but generally a rule of miles miles and more miles will work. Initially I would suggest aim for 10 or so miles per week with runs lasting at least 20 minutes (this has been shown to be about the bottom limit at which cardio fitness will begin improving*). Try and aim for around 9.5 minutes per mile (or faster if you can, i dont know how quick you are naturally, but you want most of your training runs to be pretty gentle, mostly its about miles, and not how fast you do them).

If you want something a little more sophisticated you can throw in some interval training, this will be especially good for the 1.5 mile distance. Something like run hard for 500m, have a breather (try to keep moving/walking/light jog) for 3-4 minutes then run hard 500m hard again. Do the run/rest cycle 8 times. You can adjust distances as you like following the general rules: the further you run at the same intensity, the longer rest you should have and/or the lower the number of repititions (reps); if you lower the intensity you should make it up by running further or by doing more reps (holding the same rest); a longer rest will predominantly increase your speed, a shorter rest will predominantly improve your cardio fitness.

Some good examples are (these are what I used on the rowing machine, but no reason they cant - and have been - used for running): (syntax is number of reps x distance or time/length of rest in minutes)

- 8x500m/3:30r as above, you can try 8x2min/3:30r is 500m is too long (this is high intensity/pace; should be faster than you run 1.5 miles)
- 4x8min/5r (medium intensity; slower than you run 1.5 miles)
- 4x1000m/5r (medium to high intensity, should be close to what you run 1.5 miles at)
- 5x1500m/5r (medium intensity)

Bear in mind intervals should hurt a LOT more than your long slow jogs; but as such they do tend to improve you quickly. A good plan would to be do a 1:1 ratio of intervals to long slow jogs.

* doesnt apply to interval training.

[Lootifer]

When I was in the best shape of my life (not body building shape, rugby shape), here was my daily regimen:

Breakfast - five hard-boiled eggs, two glasses of milk, wheat toast, coffee
Lunch - some meat product (usually chicken or steak), carbs, water
Exercise - 2 hour rugby practice followed by 1 hour of heavy lifting (alternating chest/biceps; shoulders/legs; back/triceps; then shoulders/legs again) or, if off-season 1 hour of running followed by 1 hour of heavy lifting (as indicated in prior parenthetical)
Dinner - some meat product (usually chicken or steak), vegetables, water

I was in pretty good athletic shape doing that and had large muscles (although not body building quality).

I assume that was mon-thur, light/captains run friday, game sat and rest sun?

[thegreekdog]

When I was in the best shape of my life (not body building shape, rugby shape), here was my daily regimen:

Breakfast - five hard-boiled eggs, two glasses of milk, wheat toast, coffee
Lunch - some meat product (usually chicken or steak), carbs, water
Exercise - 2 hour rugby practice followed by 1 hour of heavy lifting (alternating chest/biceps; shoulders/legs; back/triceps; then shoulders/legs again) or, if off-season 1 hour of running followed by 1 hour of heavy lifting (as indicated in prior parenthetical)
Dinner - some meat product (usually chicken or steak), vegetables, water

I was in pretty good athletic shape doing that and had large muscles (although not body building quality).

I assume that was mon-thur, light/captains run friday, game sat and rest sun?

I still did the heavy lifting on Friday. I also worked out on Sunday. I was pretty nuts.

[Lootifer]

Damn, thats heavy shit. Good stuff

[Funkyterrance]

I ran track in high school (800 meter, mile and 2 mile) and that gets you pretty fit but I was always kind of bored by running. That and my dad has bad knees from running for like 20 years. I've taken up running a couple times since then for the endorphine rushes, etc. and what I noticed was that the less I weighed(without starving myeself), the faster I got. I like to experiment with these things.

[Woodruff]

actually with the 1.5 mile the faster I do it the better the score, so I AM going for a faster 1.5 mile...

Faded, back in the day when I had to do this (yay retirement!), I found the most success with a sprint-jog regimen. On a normal-sized track, I would sprint the straightaways and lightly jog the curves. However, as Lootifer has mentioned, I also did it for about three miles rather than only a mile and a half. But it worked VERY well. I typically started working out for it about a month prior to the test, and then took 11 months off after the test. <smile>

For the rest of it, situps were always my "thing"...I could just naturally do boatloads of them. Just the opposite for pushups. Lucky if I could do 15 without working on them. Running wasn't my thing either, that's for sure. I think I'm just allergic to exercise, actually.

[tdans]

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT? you want to make the first set difficult, the second set nearly impossible and the third set suicidal. This is how to progress rapidly.

Firstly I was giving generic advice and not really around quickly building muscle/power, but simply a small workout that will improve someone in a way which they can handle.

Someone who is of average fitness going balls deep in a lift-to-fail regieme is probabaly about the worst thing you can do. All it will do is leave the person with an over-exxagerated case of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) and little to no desire to exercise anytime soon.

You and I can probably workout to failure (or max effort cardio) with little or no suffering the following day. Someone who is just getting started on a workout programme wont be walking right for a week.

The reason I said dont worry about what you can do, "just aim to finish all three sets" is giving your mind food to work with: you knock out 3x8 pushups, yeah thats pretty shit, but when you knock out 3x10 or 3x12 two days later your left with a pretty good feeling. You just connected a good feeling with something thats typically uncomfortable (exercise); this is the most important aspect of staying in good shape: setting up a system in which you can maintain it (and by maintain it i mean something you want to do, not something you see as a chore or punishment).

@ faded

Regarding running 1.5 miles faster: There are a million different options, but generally a rule of miles miles and more miles will work. Initially I would suggest aim for 10 or so miles per week with runs lasting at least 20 minutes (this has been shown to be about the bottom limit at which cardio fitness will begin improving*). Try and aim for around 9.5 minutes per mile (or faster if you can, i dont know how quick you are naturally, but you want most of your training runs to be pretty gentle, mostly its about miles, and not how fast you do them).

If you want something a little more sophisticated you can throw in some interval training, this will be especially good for the 1.5 mile distance. Something like run hard for 500m, have a breather (try to keep moving/walking/light jog) for 3-4 minutes then run hard 500m hard again. Do the run/rest cycle 8 times. You can adjust distances as you like following the general rules: the further you run at the same intensity, the longer rest you should have and/or the lower the number of repititions (reps); if you lower the intensity you should make it up by running further or by doing more reps (holding the same rest); a longer rest will predominantly increase your speed, a shorter rest will predominantly improve your cardio fitness.

Some good examples are (these are what I used on the rowing machine, but no reason they cant - and have been - used for running): (syntax is number of reps x distance or time/length of rest in minutes)

- 8x500m/3:30r as above, you can try 8x2min/3:30r is 500m is too long (this is high intensity/pace; should be faster than you run 1.5 miles)
- 4x8min/5r (medium intensity; slower than you run 1.5 miles)
- 4x1000m/5r (medium to high intensity, should be close to what you run 1.5 miles at)
- 5x1500m/5r (medium intensity)

Bear in mind intervals should hurt a LOT more than your long slow jogs; but as such they do tend to improve you quickly. A good plan would to be do a 1:1 ratio of intervals to long slow jogs.

* doesnt apply to interval training.

It all depends on the person. I have trainees that I put through the grinder the first week. They were sore but they loved it. A lot of people get a sense of accomplishment after working out if they feel sore. Also, the initial major soreness is better because then you are past the worst of it. Granted, it all matters on the persons mentality and drive, but the fastest way to progress is to kill it starting off and continuously doing so with adequate breaks.

[thegreekdog]

Damn, thats heavy shit. Good stuff

Yeah, except after my senior year of college I stopped playing rugby, stopped lifting, and stopped exercising generally. I gained 80 pounds in three years of law school. I'm very slowly getting that off (from a high of 290 to about 250 now).

[Funkyterrance]

I got kind of obsessed with push-ups for a little bit too, again I liked the rush after doing a lot of them lol. I was up to 75 at a time then I grew bored of it.

[BigBallinStalin]

Does letting your toenails grow count as body building? "Look at all those cells build!"

[Funkyterrance]

Does letting your toenails grow count as body building? "Look at all those cells build!"

This only counts if you are practicing some sort of martial arts conditioning with them like ripping the bark off trees with roundhouse kicks.

[fadedpsychosis]

Faded, back in the day when I had to do this (yay retirement!), I found the most success with a sprint-jog regimen. On a normal-sized track, I would sprint the straightaways and lightly jog the curves. However, as Lootifer has mentioned, I also did it for about three miles rather than only a mile and a half. But it worked VERY well. I typically started working out for it about a month prior to the test, and then took 11 months off after the test. <smile>

For the rest of it, situps were always my "thing"...I could just naturally do boatloads of them. Just the opposite for pushups. Lucky if I could do 15 without working on them. Running wasn't my thing either, that's for sure. I think I'm just allergic to exercise, actually.

I'm kinda the same as you then... situps I can do fairly easily, pushups I have to work at, and running... oh dear god do I hate it...

oh, and they make us test twice a year now...

WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT? you want to make the first set difficult, the second set nearly impossible and the third set suicidal. This is how to progress rapidly.

Firstly I was giving generic advice and not really around quickly building muscle/power, but simply a small workout that will improve someone in a way which they can handle.

Someone who is of average fitness going balls deep in a lift-to-fail regieme is probabaly about the worst thing you can do. All it will do is leave the person with an over-exxagerated case of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) and little to no desire to exercise anytime soon.

You and I can probably workout to failure (or max effort cardio) with little or no suffering the following day. Someone who is just getting started on a workout programme wont be walking right for a week.

The reason I said dont worry about what you can do, "just aim to finish all three sets" is giving your mind food to work with: you knock out 3x8 pushups, yeah thats pretty shit, but when you knock out 3x10 or 3x12 two days later your left with a pretty good feeling. You just connected a good feeling with something thats typically uncomfortable (exercise); this is the most important aspect of staying in good shape: setting up a system in which you can maintain it (and by maintain it i mean something you want to do, not something you see as a chore or punishment).

@ faded

Regarding running 1.5 miles faster: There are a million different options, but generally a rule of miles miles and more miles will work. Initially I would suggest aim for 10 or so miles per week with runs lasting at least 20 minutes (this has been shown to be about the bottom limit at which cardio fitness will begin improving*). Try and aim for around 9.5 minutes per mile (or faster if you can, i dont know how quick you are naturally, but you want most of your training runs to be pretty gentle, mostly its about miles, and not how fast you do them).

If you want something a little more sophisticated you can throw in some interval training, this will be especially good for the 1.5 mile distance. Something like run hard for 500m, have a breather (try to keep moving/walking/light jog) for 3-4 minutes then run hard 500m hard again. Do the run/rest cycle 8 times. You can adjust distances as you like following the general rules: the further you run at the same intensity, the longer rest you should have and/or the lower the number of repititions (reps); if you lower the intensity you should make it up by running further or by doing more reps (holding the same rest); a longer rest will predominantly increase your speed, a shorter rest will predominantly improve your cardio fitness.

Some good examples are (these are what I used on the rowing machine, but no reason they cant - and have been - used for running): (syntax is number of reps x distance or time/length of rest in minutes)

- 8x500m/3:30r as above, you can try 8x2min/3:30r is 500m is too long (this is high intensity/pace; should be faster than you run 1.5 miles)
- 4x8min/5r (medium intensity; slower than you run 1.5 miles)
- 4x1000m/5r (medium to high intensity, should be close to what you run 1.5 miles at)
- 5x1500m/5r (medium intensity)

Bear in mind intervals should hurt a LOT more than your long slow jogs; but as such they do tend to improve you quickly. A good plan would to be do a 1:1 ratio of intervals to long slow jogs.

* doesnt apply to interval training.

so lots of thanks for all the good advice, especially on the run, though I should say a 9 min 30 second mile which translates to a 14 min 15 second mile and a half is actually a failing score... just barely, but still failing (though my last passing score was only 13 minute 45 seconds, which was 15 seconds away from failing)

[Woodruff]

oh, and they make us test twice a year now...

Those commie BASTARDS!

(Did I mention "yay retirement"?)

[Woodruff]

so lots of thanks for all the good advice, especially on the run, though I should say a 9 min 30 second mile which translates to a 14 min 15 second mile and a half is actually a failing score... just barely, but still failing (though my last passing score was only 13 minute 45 seconds, which was 15 seconds away from failing)

Dude. Seriously, dude. My old, out-of-shape ass can do better than that. Last time I ran with the cadets I had an 8:18 mile.

[Woodruff]

It all depends on the person. I have trainees that I put through the grinder the first week. They were sore but they loved it. A lot of people get a sense of accomplishment after working out if they feel sore. Also, the initial major soreness is better because then you are past the worst of it. Granted, it all matters on the persons mentality and drive, but the fastest way to progress is to kill it starting off and continuously doing so with adequate breaks.

Truthfully, it sounds like an injury waiting to happen, to me. Drive or not.

[tdans]

It all depends on the person. I have trainees that I put through the grinder the first week. They were sore but they loved it. A lot of people get a sense of accomplishment after working out if they feel sore. Also, the initial major soreness is better because then you are past the worst of it. Granted, it all matters on the persons mentality and drive, but the fastest way to progress is to kill it starting off and continuously doing so with adequate breaks.

Truthfully, it sounds like an injury waiting to happen, to me. Drive or not.

Well, one must use some common sense as to how far they go. Age is also a major factor. If you are above 35, then this style is not recommended unless you are already in shape.

[Phatscotty]

my new fav source of protein, peanuts! I grab those little bags 2/$1.00 and it's 16 grams!

[BigBallinStalin]

my new fav source of protein, peanuts! I grab those little bags 2/$1.00 and it's 16 grams!

Are they covered in soybean oil?

ndeed, studies have shown that diets with very high in phytoestrogens can reduce fertility in rodents, which is more than a little scary. Fortunately, soy consumption has not been shown to act as a potent regulator of sex hormones in the vast majority of human men or in certain primates.

Hopefully, (1) you don't eat too much, and (2) you're not one of the few humans who is affected by large amounts of phytoestrogens.

http://blog.zocdoc.com/does-soy-feminiz ... t-vs-myth/

[Phatscotty]

my new fav source of protein, peanuts! I grab those little bags 2/$1.00 and it's 16 grams!

Are they covered in soybean oil?

ndeed, studies have shown that diets with very high in phytoestrogens can reduce fertility in rodents, which is more than a little scary. Fortunately, soy consumption has not been shown to act as a potent regulator of sex hormones in the vast majority of human men or in certain primates.

Hopefully, (1) you don't eat too much, and (2) you're not one of the few humans who is affected by large amounts of phytoestrogens.

http://blog.zocdoc.com/does-soy-feminiz ... t-vs-myth/

awww, you DO care about me!

Thanks, I had no idea you were so into this stuff. I knew I brought my questions to the right place! Here is my latest thing

[Lootifer]

my new fav source of protein, peanuts! I grab those little bags 2/$1.00 and it's 16 grams!

Nuts are awesome. Like really awesome source of protein and good fats.

However you need to be careful. If they taste good it usually means they are heavy in salt and have been roasted; roasting turns good fats into bad fats (generally speaking).