That's great! Thanks Always good to have a bit of variety for the rest of my body, too.

Situps are fairly useless. Look down at your stomach. There are a lot of different muscles there. Situps work one small part of the rectus abdominis (front stomach muscle). Leg raises aren't much better. Just because you feel the burn doesn't mean it's incredibly useful.

A few far better exercises would be L-sits (http://www.beastskills.com/L%20Seat.htm) and L-pullups (assume L-sit position while hanging from a bar, do pullups), and replace leg raises with hanging leg raises (http://www.beastskills.com/leg%2520raises.jpg).

Is that even feasible for the average person? >.> I'm not exactly built for Parkour I don't have access to any bars, so would floor L-sits on their own do me much good?

On the floor they're fantastic. They're hard at first. Go up on the balls of your hands to get some extra height, and then try just lifting one leg off the ground and holding it up, then the other leg. Build up to both.

Check out the beast skills site i linked to earlier. That has a couple other great ways to progress to an L-sit.

Other great exercises for the core (because you want to work the whole core, not just the front. Interesting note: It's actually the TVA or transverse abdominus (the muscles on the side of the stomach) that will give you a flat stomach and six pack, once all the excess fat is burned away. Situps don't work these at all, obviously.) is quadrupedal movement, or QM. Done correctly, this is an absolutely fatnastic workout. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQvkynl5GFI Ignore the jumping stuff he does, that's the only example I could find on Youtube. To make it even harder, spread out. Keep your hips down lower, and parallel to your shoulders. Another way to make it harder is to do a pushup after every "step" (move your left hand and right foot, then pushup, then right hand and left foot, pushup, etc).

Another exercise is the plank. Go into a pushup position, then go down on your elbows. Then just hang out and stay there. Keep your neck, back, and legs in a straight line and use your core to maintain the rigidness.

There are so many great core exercises. Just do situps? They're fairly useless in terms of how LITTLE of the core they work.

I wish I had a personal trainer that could figure out how to work all of my muscles. Considering I have half the arm length, cannot bend parts of my back, and none of my bones/muscles line up properly, I can't exactly do most of these exercises.

Anyway, preparing for my second walk today. I'm going to be taping it for youtube goodness.

Now that I only have classes Mondays and Tuesdays, I've been going to the gym every other day and eating nine meals a day to try to gain mass.

Nine?

That's.. a lot. Five, SOMETIMES six is the most I've ever seen recommended. Do you want to gain muscle mass, or just weight? Theoretically, your plan is sound. If caloric intake is greater than calories burned, you will gain weight. But if you want to gain muscle mass, you need to be eating the RIGHT things, not just anything.

So A) What is your specific goal? And B) Did someone tell you to eat nine meals a day? (Or were you being sarcastic?)

I eat more than nine times a day.

Can someone tell me how exactly to take in 3000 good calories a day? That's like...20 big cans of campbell's chunky sirloin beef stew. I just cannot figure out how to eat that much.

If you're more physically active, it's much easier and more natural to eat more. I don't count mine, but I wouldn't be surprised if I get close to 3000 calories a day, between breakfast, snack, lunch, 2nd lunch, predinner snack, dinner, second dinner, post second dinner snack, and third dinner.

I thought I was the hobbit?

I am active in that I walk all day long to and from class and work out almost every evening. I just can't comprehend eating that much. How do you have the time or money for that?

That plank exercise is brilliant.

I have the Body For Life book, and last year, I was determined to lose weight. I'm only 5'10'', but I weighed 232 pounds. I did the Body For Life program and had my weight as low as 198 - aerobic activity Mon, Wed, and Fri, and weight training on Sun, Tues, Thurs. I had 6 small healthy meals a day and ate whatever I wanted on Saturday.

Until my back started hurting worse and worse. I finally had to quit the exercise and got frustrated and ate whatever I wanted all the time. My weight is almost back up to where it started now. But I plan on starting again next week, if I can get these migraines under control. No fun working out when your head hurts so bad you wanna barf.

edit- see my post below. Somehow it posted... without.. me hitting.. post.


Very strange!

50

The back pain worries me. I have a few questions, feel free to email me (my username at the service gmail provides) the answers if you don't want to post them here.

1) You talked about the book (I'm researching it now. There are a LOT of really, really horrible books out there that are very well written to disguise the fact that they have no ideat what they're talking about.) Other than this, did you consult any other references when building your workout plan? Did you consult any personal trainers or other books or websites or people?

2) What kinds of movements were you doing when you worked out? List as many things as you can remember, please. Did you have anybody knowlegable (I'm not talking about the lowly lacky gym staff worker either) teach you how to do the movements? Have you ever had someone watching you and coaching you on your technique?

3) I'll page through the book in a bit, but can you give me a summary/brief of what it was telling you to eat? Proportions, kinds of food to eat, kinds of food to stay away from, etc.

4) How long ago did: A) You start exercising/this program? B) Your back pain start? C) You stop exercising?


I really really like to help people, especially when it comes to fitness. There is too much bad and misinformation out there, and i've seen it SERIOUSLY screw up a lot of people's bodies. It's something I try to prevent whenever possible.

So yeah, post here or shoot me an email. Depending on your answers, I might be able to show/tell you what was causing your back pain, give you some suggestions, or at the very least point you in the right direction of how to make it go away when exercising so you can get back into it again, safely.

<.<. .>.> You talkin' to me?

My back pain was a result of arthritis in the three lowest vertebrae (figured this out after several doctor visits, physical therapy, X-rays, and an MRI). I had 6 steroid shots at the sources of the pain, and the pain is mostly gone. It will hurt every now and then, but it's nothing like it was before when it hurt all the time. This is why I plan on getting back on the bandwagon.

To answer your questions anyway:

1) I talked about it some to friend who is a physical fitness trainer, but it wasn't a consultation or anything like that. She was just happy I was losing weight. I've read other books on weight loss, like the South Beach diet and one of the Atkins books, but I prefer the Body for Life plan.

2) There are detailed descriptions and photos of the right/wrong ways to do the weight training in the back of the book. That's all I had to go by. Nobody else. Detail them all? That would be a long document - there are a lot. I would do upper body one time, and lower body the next time, and alternate each weight training session. Everything I did was with dumbbells, so really quick: upper body: bench presses, flyes, seated shoulder presses, side raises, one-arm back rows, tricep extensions, lying tricep extensions, bicep curls, and hammer curls. Lower body: squats, lunges, one-leg calf raises, and angled calf-raises.

3) Eating. Mmmm. Eating. Uh, sorry. Anyway, 3 meals a day were a portion of protein and a portion of carbs. 2 of those 3 also included a portion of vegetables. A "portion" is either the size of my open palm or the size of my fist. The other 3 "meals" were with a supplement shake. He recommends his Myoplex shakes, but those are too expensive for me. I went with the Slim-Fast Low Carb shake. It had more protein than the Slim-Fast High Protein shakes. But neither matched the protein and carbs in Myoplex.

4) Kinda moot now that I explained the back pain. I lost the weight over 6 to 7 month period. I haven't done anything (except eat a bunch of crap) for probably 5 months.

Report in, Kirby.

I did my 2km run today in the light snow. It was awesome (for about 10 mins).

Walked twice today to make up for not working out the day before last. That's about it.

I went running while smoking and then played in the snow.



IMO, we should modify this thread/start another companion thread that we sticky. A workout journal where weveryone can post what they did. We are a close community, and I think we all know eachother well enough that we would care about keeping an eye on eachother. Lots of fitness communities do it, and I think the forums are sparse enough to justify it.

Thoughts? Not to take anything away from your thread Kirbs, but I think a lot of people could benefit from a running community dialogue that won't fade away.

No, that was part of why I posted this. I figured other people are fat, and I need people to make sure I get unfat because I don't trust myself.

I'm all for it! You make one post a day and explain what you did that day. No discussion? Maybe at the end of the week we call out the people who didn't post?

I'll play.

I'll do it.

I almost worked out this morning. Read a book instead. Plan to in the morning, though.

Happydud should run it, and then "pledgers" are added to the first post, and they're given certain badges or awards for doing well? Anyone like where this idea is going?

No.

rob add me on steam

i just added you so i should appear as cum wizard

when is the best time of the day to exercise?

rock.

I have a general aversion to exercise just for the sake of looking good, it bores the hell out of me. But I'm sick of not being able to find jeans that fit me around the leg because my stomach is somewhat on the podgy side. I decided a couple of weeks ago to try to do something about it, and was starting to do sit ups daily, until I read your post which gave me a perfect excuse to stop! (sit ups = boring!). So yeah, being able to do an L-seat (and especially to be able to walk on my hands doing one!) would be very cool. It would also really help my control on overhanging climbs.

I tried to do the first step earlier and failed miserably, so was hoping you could help me out getting started. It felt to me like I was lacking strength both in my arms and stomach muscles (hopefully the fact that I'm climbing again will help with this anyway). I tried using a very low footstool to rest my toes on so that I could concentrate on finding the strength and balance in my arms, but I think it took too much of the strain from my stomach, which negates doing the position really! As I don't have any other equipment, I tried to replicate parallel bars using two chairs. By facing them together, with a space in the middle about the width of my hips, I was able to support my body weight on straight arms, then raise my legs up in to a tuck, and hold that for a while (did a few reps, for about 30-40 seconds each). I did feel quite a strain in my wrists (balanced on flat palms), but that strikes me as to be expected...?

So yeah, do you think this sounds ok, or am I likely to do some damage with it?

Also, I'm definitely up for a workout thread, I doubt I'd post daily, but would love to be able to brag about new climbs!

I spoke to maeve PRIVATELY, but basically for public record:

If you can't L-sit on the ground (which is hard), try them on parallettes (I can never spell that. Dumb french). If you don't have these, which you probably don't, use two chairs facing each other. Put your hands on the chairs, straighten your legs and lift up! Once you can get this, with your feet above the chairs, try it on the ground. Instead of using your palms (which is hard if you don't have enough wrist/arm tendon flexibility) get a bit more height by using the balls of your hand. Once you get you L-sits, work on two different things: Increased length of the hold (so just sit there longer), and lifting your feet higher, to an eventual V-sit.

http://www.limbermen.com/gk/Kurt_Thomas_V-sit.jpg <-- great picture. Fantastic example of a V-sit, but also look at his hands. That's generally how I do mine. If you do it like this, it puts less pressure on the bones of the wrist joint and absorbs more with the muscles of the hand and the arm. Much safer, in my opinion.

Also, maeve has inspired me. Later tonight, look out for a QM (Quadrupedal Motion) video/tutorial/example thingie. Something to show how you can do QM anywhere, and how versatile it is.

Yes, awesome. IMO, a journal thread and a discussion thread would be ideal but that might be a bit cluttered.

I'm stretching for my workout today as I type this. Here is what I planned.

Flag x4
Wheel Rollout x4 Circuit 4x
Chinnies 1 min
Ab iso hold 30 sec. x2

One Arm Pushup 5sets 5reps
Pistols 5 sets 5 reps
Handstand Pushup 5 sets 5 reps
Pullups 10 sets 4 reps.

I am not super awesome at the pushups yet, so after the first set or two I have to gimp myself.

I might do sprints today but probably not.

jaklernka iaweurjnsdkf sdfuioatnhkejtn

page crashed when I hit submit. lost my whole bloody post. oh well, here goes again:

so dud, where's the workout thread? and the video for that matter?

I had a go at the tuck on the balls of my hands, on the chairs last night. definitely much better on my wrists than doing it on my palms. I did give myself a bit of a scare though - the first time I tried it, I must not have had my wrists and elbows straight enough as after about 15s my right arm wobbled a bit and then I suddenly came down flat on the palm of my hand. it really hurt at first and I was a bit scared I'd done some damage, but the pain lasted literally for about 2 seconds so I'm pretty sure it was ok. did a couple more sets later on, held the tucks for about 30 seconds I think. didn't go until the point of collapse, mostly because I was going out, but may try that later.

did a few pressups too, though they do worry me a bit as I can't help feeling that I'm going to build up some bulk in my arms and shoulders, which I really don't want! for the sake of strengthening my fingers in the long run though, I'll keep at it.

less success with the negative chinups, as I really don't have anywhere at all to do them. I really don't think I can bring myself to get a chinup bar!!

Been swamped with school, sorry. :/ I've been coming home and just collapsing in bed the past few days.. look for them within the next few days.


Also: I'll address this more later, but don't worry about "bulking up." It is physically, chemically, and hormonally impossible for women to "get bulky." You simply do not have the levels of testosterone required. Women who do are using steroids, simple as that. Women can get very strong, but it does not make their muscles huge and bulky (also known as hypertrophy). Hell, men can get very strong without huge bulky muscles.

So basically, no excuses. :p I'll get the thread up nowish, and then post the video as soon as I can.

I used to be able to do L-sits...but bloody hell, I was reading the thread today and thought I'd give them a try in the office....damn, I've got out of shape in the past few years, I can only hold it for 5-7 seconds before falling to the ground.

Gonna work on those for the coming few weeks.

Personally I lost 6 pounds and 3% body fat last week.

Lay a broomhandle across two chairs, lay under it, and pull your body up to the handle. Put your feet up on stuff to make it progressively harder.

Similarly- L-sit chin/pullups once you can. Until then, set up the bar and then put a foot under you to help get you into the top position of the pullup, then move your foot out (so it's like an L position, just with your feet on the ground), and do negatives that way.