Time to get Fit thread

[Beauregard]

Thats a shit load of sets.

This is what really works for me, lots of sets of a compound lift that engages the whole area I'm working on. I have never worked arms and this is the result:

Soundtrack: Omnia, Paul van Dyk

Fasting 4pm yesterday to 12pm today
20 minute row
Shoulder press sets of 8 to failure 15 sets @ 155lbs.
150 leg lifts in sets to failure

What Ill eat when I eat: whey protein shake, tuna, egg noodles, almond butter on wheat, whey protein shake, spinach.

 

[Mike95060]

Baaaaaaaad!

 

[Mike95060]

I ran the Capitola stairs last night. 10 trips up and down with a mile run to and back. My legs are toast today.

Been fighting against a general "meh" attitude lately. Felt good to get an endorphin fix again.

 

[Climber]

Dropped my time by another minute on my bike loop.

Got up to 16.5 mph average including the stops, this run had 4 full stops, I was lucky I sometimes have 7 full stops.

 

[Mike95060]

^ you're chugging along pretty well there Brett!

 

[HappyHighwayman]

2.11 mile run with the doggie. The Polar Beat app does what I need, heart rate, GPS distance, averages etc.

Average HR: 141
Max: 159

Then it fed the data to Strava so I can use whatever app now I guess.

 

[Climber]

^ you're chugging along pretty well there Brett!

Thanks. I push it hard every time, I'm always trying to improve my time to the point where I swear (to myself) when I hit lights wrong.

My goal is 20 mph average, but I won't get there with my current gearing, my bike has a freewheel instead of a cassette so there aren't as many inexpensive options to get a 12 or 11 too top gear. I've got to move to a 12, at least, to even have a shot at it. I'm thinking of getting shoes that can clip into my pedals, wondering how long before you start seeing gains from that.

 

[stangmx13]

Thanks. I push it hard every time, I'm always trying to improve my time to the point where I swear (to myself) when I hit lights wrong.

My goal is 20 mph average, but I won't get there with my current gearing, my bike has a freewheel instead of a cassette so there aren't as many inexpensive options to get a 12 or 11 too top gear. I've got to move to a 12, at least, to even have a shot at it. I'm thinking of getting shoes that can clip into my pedals, wondering how long before you start seeing gains from that.

it might be easier to find a larger chainring. 53-14 is plenty fast, maxing out around 32mph. even if you have to replace the whole crank, u probably won't need a new shifter or derailleur to make it all work. you can probably get a 53/39 square taper crank on eBay for $20.

on fast flat or downhill, you should be spinning your legs >100rpm. new riders often feel that 80rpm is fast. faster cadence becomes more natural as you do it.

more of your time will be made up in the slow sections and the climbs, for 2 reasons.
1. they generally take longer so a small increase in speed is more helpful.
2. 1mph faster up a climb is a lot easier than 1mph faster down hill. an increase of 20 watts produces a greater increase in speed the slower you are moving because of wind resistance.

 

[DucatiHoney]

What does a smaller gal do for weightlifting to get better or at least maintain upper body strength? I just measured my relaxed bicep and it's less than 10" around. That's ridiculous.

I'm, uh, young at heart...we'll leave it at that. I have some arthritis. Gotta be careful with my joints or I eat nothing but Advil for three days straight, so keep that in mind. I don't wanna get ripped. I just don't want bat wings. I also don't want to mortgage my house to buy a weight set. Can I just practice lifting that 28 lb. bag of cat litter that got delivered to my house the other day?

 

[HappyHighwayman]

Pushups for sure

 

[Mike95060]

What does a smaller gal do for weightlifting to get better or at least maintain upper body strength? I just measured my relaxed bicep and it's less than 10" around. That's ridiculous.

I'm, uh, young at heart...we'll leave it at that. I have some arthritis. Gotta be careful with my joints or I eat nothing but Advil for three days straight, so keep that in mind. I don't wanna get ripped. I just don't want bat wings. I also don't want to mortgage my house to buy a weight set. Can I just practice lifting that 28 lb. bag of cat litter that got delivered to my house the other day?

Tons of body weight exercises to help build strength without weights. Dips will be your friend to prevent bat wings. Jeff Cavalier at Athlene x has an online program for 80$ that is nothing but body weight exercises. I bought it but haven’t dug into it yet. I will report back when I do. If you can do push ups, pull ups and dips you can do a lot of strength building with very little equipment.

 

[Agent Orange]

What does a smaller gal do for weightlifting to get better or at least maintain upper body strength? I just measured my relaxed bicep and it's less than 10" around. That's ridiculous.

I'm, uh, young at heart...we'll leave it at that. I have some arthritis. Gotta be careful with my joints or I eat nothing but Advil for three days straight, so keep that in mind. I don't wanna get ripped. I just don't want bat wings. I also don't want to mortgage my house to buy a weight set. Can I just practice lifting that 28 lb. bag of cat litter that got delivered to my house the other day?

One set of kettlebells will go a long way.

 

[dagle]

for biceps and arthritis in surrounding joints, I would recommend rubber bands or those bands with the handles on them. i find the tension keeps my arthritic joints happy at the top and bottom of the movements (where weight loads and unloads)

 

[dagle]

4 miles down, brogability mostly done, cleaning up and making space for my squat rack that shows up tm (will try to assemble over the weekend). got a bench on a restock from walmart for 100$ that's rated to 800lb. TBD if i keep it since it's a folding one.

Lunch:
2 pepperidge farm tahoe cookies
1 liter of water

Dinner:
16oz ribeye
2 cups of rice
1 broccoli
1 coke zero

leftover cals:
2 scoops of proton

have to figure out how to ease back into my regular lifting routine. think im gonna try to do 90% of the weights i was moving and see what happens.

 

[Climber]

for biceps and arthritis in surrounding joints, I would recommend rubber bands or those bands with the handles on them. i find the tension keeps my arthritic joints happy at the top and bottom of the movements (where weight loads and unloads)

I was going to say the same thing.

There are tons of these on Amazon for under $40 and they will give you a lot of ways you can strengthen and tone your upper body, and since you won't be shock loading your joints they are a good solution.

 

[Climber]

it might be easier to find a larger chainring. 53-14 is plenty fast, maxing out around 32mph. even if you have to replace the whole crank, u probably won't need a new shifter or derailleur to make it all work. you can probably get a 53/39 square taper crank on eBay for $20.

on fast flat or downhill, you should be spinning your legs >100rpm. new riders often feel that 80rpm is fast. faster cadence becomes more natural as you do it.

more of your time will be made up in the slow sections and the climbs, for 2 reasons.
1. they generally take longer so a small increase in speed is more helpful.
2. 1mph faster up a climb is a lot easier than 1mph faster down hill. an increase of 20 watts produces a greater increase in speed the slower you are moving because of wind resistance.

Good points. I'll have to count the teeth in my front sprocket, I just know that to go 25 mph down hill I feel like a hamster running on a wheel spinning away as fast as I can.

 

[DucatiHoney]

Tried to buy kettle bells at the start of Covid. Those are harder to get than toilet paper! Sounds like I’ll stick to body weight exercises and maybe look into the rubber bands later. I can do dips and push ups, although I’ve gotten shoulder pain from the dips before. I think I’m doing them wrong... I’ll check out some YouTube stuff about correct form. Pull-ups are not gonna happen. I don’t think I’ve done one since 5th grade.

So how many do I do of push ups and dips? 10? Work up by 10 every other day or something? What should be a goal? 50 each?

 

[Holeshot]

Been fighting against a general "meh" attitude lately. Felt good to get an endorphin fix again.

So with you there Mike, but keep at it. You've been crushing me with your commitment. I took like 2 months off...first week back is discouraging. Think I lost about 5-6 lbs. ugh.

for biceps and arthritis in surrounding joints, I would recommend rubber bands or those bands with the handles on them. i find the tension keeps my arthritic joints happy at the top and bottom of the movements (where weight loads and unloads)

+1. Bands are great and cheap, Heather. Mixed with free weights, that setup can take you a year or two into good workouts.

What does a smaller gal do for weightlifting to get better or at least maintain upper body strength? I just measured my relaxed bicep and it's less than 10" around. That's ridiculous.

I'm, uh, young at heart...we'll leave it at that. I have some arthritis. Gotta be careful with my joints or I eat nothing but Advil for three days straight, so keep that in mind. I don't wanna get ripped. I just don't want bat wings. I also don't want to mortgage my house to buy a weight set. Can I just practice lifting that 28 lb. bag of cat litter that got delivered to my house the other day?

IME, free weights offer the cheapest and easiest way to get into a weighted workout.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/BalanceF...-Dumbbells-5-lbs-Pair/970246737?selected=true

These things kinda reek when you get them, but they're cheap enough and serviceable enough. You may be able to find similar or better on C-list. I'd say go with 2.5-20lbs. That'll take you through your first year depending on how strong you get and how quickly. The nice thing with free weights is the plethora of exercises and the ability to micro target areas, if that's what you're looking for. I'd start with light as hell weight and work on form for the first 30 days. Focus on which muscle is pushing the weight and muscle isolation, but overall, getting the form perfect. The 2.5 is for that. There's lots of form vids out there, but Athlean-X is the best of the best online, IMO. He's worth the money by far. Guy is legit.

I'd also get bands and a ball. A bench isn't necessary, but they would complete your workout setup nicely and are tremendously useful. If you get one, get a good one; it's easy to resell and/or it'll last a long time. Cheap benches suck worse than the smell of the rubber weights. The creak, move around and overall make you wish you'd sold your BARF Admin account on ebay to buy the better bench.

Hoist makes excellent benches for the money. This seller may have more Hoist stuff (benches) if they're closing out their personal gym. The cable machine would do everything you want, but it's not cheap...excellent unit tho.

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/for/d/oakland-hoist-cable-machine/7134309697.html

These guys may have some stuff too given their commercial inventory:

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/spo/d/modesto-hoist-olympic-benches-for-sale/7132465639.html

I like Hoist because of where the product line sits: between residential and commercial.

One set of kettlebells will go a long way.

+1 as well.

 

[Blankpage]

If you're looking at buying a used cable machine be sure to check the actual cable. Those things wear out and might be hard to replace if its out of date equipment.

 

[Holeshot]

If you're looking at buying a used cable machine be sure to check the actual cable. Those things wear out and might be hard to replace if its out of date equipment.

And that assholes didn't drop the weight on their last set. HATE!