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Education Fitness advice

Discussion in 'General' started by eddtox, 26 Dec 2011.

  1. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    I've always found that no matter what your question might be, there's always someone on the BT forums who knows a shitload about it, so rather than spend hours trawling through google results, I'm going to try my luck here first.

    My new year's resolution is to get (really) fit. I'm of average height (~1.70m) and weight (~70kg) so I'm not too fussed about losing weight, I just want to build muscle, stamina and general health/fitness. From my reasearch I know that I'm much more likely to succeed if I have measurable targets, but I don't know what would be reasonable (as most advice online seems to be about tracking weight loss, which is not my priority).

    Does anyone have any advice to start me off?

    Cheers,
    Ed
     
  2. BennieboyUK

    BennieboyUK CPC Folder of the Month Sep 2011

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    If you want a baseline - and I prefer to use running and swimming:

    5km run - 20mins
    1 Mile swim - 25mins

    I currently clock a 22min mile and a 30 ish running (im fat but a fast swimmer!)
     
  3. AoE

    AoE What's a Dremel?

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    hi Eddtox, I'm currently studied for a pHD in Physiology and I also run my own fitness and nutrition consultancy so this is my source of information I'm providing. Having looked at your stats and goals long storey short, your goals seem fairly simple but in fact can be confusing to reach an equilibrium for example you want to build muscle, gain stamina and general health & fitness.

    All these goals are fine but they all have there own form of training and nutrition, for example definitions of building muscle and stamina may conflict depending on how much of either you'd like to enhance. Reason I say this is that increased stamina is more endurance based which ultimately contributes towards increased health & fitness and enhanced muscle mass through hypertrophy (muscle growth) is more conditioning the muscle with vaious weight loads and repetitions which may not lend itself very well to your goal of gaining stamina.

    These mixed goals can be achieved but are difficult to hit the sweet spot so to speak, but really depends on what kind of physique etc your after so you need to define that more.

    A quick example is a marathon runner is ultra fit and very good replenishment of stamina but does'nt have much if any noticeable muscle mass for the aesthetic eye in comparison with say a men's health cover model who trains specifically for medium growth muscle building (hypertrophy) or a body builder with large emphasis on muscular growth. The point I'm making is that neither of these people in respect of their own training & nutrition would be able to replicate their opposing goals as it's completely different form of training & nutrition as I've mentioned.

    However if your not one for looking to much into this sort of area, they if you would like to try and replicate it I would recommend mixing your resistanance exercise with some cardio circuits
    maybe on different days
     
    LennyRhys likes this.
  4. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    Thanks for taking the time to reply :)

    @AoE:

    I realise now that I made a mistake when I said I would like to build muscle.

    I want to build strength. stamina and general health in a balanced and sustainable way - any cosmetic improvements are a welcome bonus, but not the main goal.

    I've been looking on nerd fitness for a while and I've found that their body weight circuit suits me, as it packs a lot in in very little time (about 30mins), can be done almost anywhere without much equipment and it works the whole body for strength & cardio.
     
  5. |V| 4 L k i 3 R

    |V| 4 L k i 3 R Minimodder

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    With a "general fitness/lean mass" goal, you will want to do a variety of things in order to meet this goal.

    Break it down into seperate work out days so that you can let systems rest and recooperate.

    Cardio (Anaerobic exercise for 30min or more) - This will improve how well your heart can pump blood (and thus oxygen) around your system.
    Strength Training - Since you don't want huge muscle mass but more of a toned look, you will want to do mostly high repetition, low weight sets. This will burn more and provide some definition without building bulky muscles. I would suggest 2 days of this. One concentrating on upperbody and one on lower boddy.
    Yoga - As much as people shun others who do yoga, it has been shown that it helps decrease the likelyhood of injuries and will slow you down a bit to prevent overtraining.

    I'm a runner so I also add days to work on my VO2 max (maximum oxygen usage). This can be done with fartleks or other interval training designed to push you to your maximum lung capacity during semi-anaerobic exercise.

    I would stay away from plyometrics unless you have a trainer as the fast, sudden movements can cause injuries to the uninformed.

    Start slow and don't hurt yourself. Find a motivator that will keep you on schedule. This may be a friend, a fitness tracker of some sort, or even a weekly sports game that you play. Anything to keep you motivated and ready to do it again even though you are hurting from the day before.
     
  6. Tangster

    Tangster Butt-kicking for goodness!

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    I use a maintaining routine at the moment(as my gymnastics gym is closed until mid jan) while still ensuring that I eat and drink well and regularly.

    It's fairly easy to incorporate some basic exercise into a daily routine, for example;
    Wake up
    100 press ups, 200 crunches
    Breakfast
    Lunch
    Get back from university~6pm
    Stretch then 3 mile run, 100 pullups
    Dinner
    Stretch for 40 mins before bed(after shower)

    I would focus almost entirely on bodyweight based exercises because they are cheaper and require little/no equipment(I use a tree for pullups).

    To help me focus, I tended to set my targets based on number of repetitions or distance ran/cycled/swam/etc. When you see these numbers increasing and perhaps in a month or two see them double, it's a very satisfying feeling.
     
  7. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    Thanks for the advice about workouts, guys. My question is more to do with setting targets and tracking progress. I'm just not sure what would constitute a realistic and measurable goal for someone who is not looking to gain/lose weight. Any suggestions?
     
  8. bahgger

    bahgger Minimodder

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    -
     
    Last edited: 19 Feb 2021
  9. Tangster

    Tangster Butt-kicking for goodness!

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    As I mentioned, rep number, weight or distance. (Exercise dependent of course)
     
  10. GeorgeStorm

    GeorgeStorm Aggressive PC Builder

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    Tangster I take it you are in quite good shape already then, if that's just a maintaining routine?
     
  11. Tangster

    Tangster Butt-kicking for goodness!

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    The run is only thrice weekly. I had mandatory sport back in school and 6th form for at least 7 hours a week. It kind of stuck with me.:thumb:
     
  12. YEHBABY

    YEHBABY RIP Tel

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    All the previous advice is very good. But for me it is a question of motivation.

    Rather than go the gym on my own and measure the time/distance I have ran on a treadmill I find I am more motivated and get better results by doing circuit training 3 times a week in a class with 30 or 40 others. I find I get the best results doing this and I am less likely to skip it after a hard days work.
     
  13. Jumeira_Johnny

    Jumeira_Johnny 16032 - High plains drifter

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    I know I'm going to get banned for this and couldn't care given the the way the last 2 months have been in this forum but, seriously, running is gay.

    at 85kg: one hour of running is 600 calories, one hour of swimming is 800. Learn to kickbox (or roll in jiujitsu or muay thai), you'll burn 1000 to 1200 calories and have a skill that will serve you well in the future. The muscle will build itself, and your self confidence will take care of the rest. Why waste your time doing all that and gaining nothing in return, when one year of a martial art will do it all and give you skill that will make you less afraid of the world around you.

    Hands down, I can take or out shoot any marathon runner around and choke out an olympic swimmer. Ask yourself which makes more sense in terms of your time when the alley turns dark or the Zombie apocalypses comes.

    I'm not always fit, but when I am; I don't bother to run. LOL.
     
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  14. sp4nky

    sp4nky BF3: Aardfrith WoT: McGubbins

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    When you're facing the zombie hordes, choking becomes irrelevant - they don't breathe. Also have you seen any zombie films where going fist to fist with one leads to the non-zom winning? I haven't.

    What you need is a good pair of legs, so you can run rings around them, get to a shotgun store or a vehicle, and decapitate them forcefully.
     
  15. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    This :thumb:

    As a means of exercise running is woefully inneficient. It doesn't burn that many calories per unit time, is not equally balanced across all the muscle groups in the body and is prone to doing massive damage to your body if you don't do it properly.

    Of course, if you actually enjoy running and want to do it, then go ahead and do it - just don't kid yourself that its a very good way of exercising. :)
     
  16. shaunster1011

    shaunster1011 What's a Dremel?

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    Remember if you want to build muscle then you also have to eat properly, high protein, low carb diets work well..
     
  17. Bufo802

    Bufo802 Minimodder

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    If your only motivation for exercise is burning calories in the minimum amount of time then of course jogging for an hour is not going to be the best - the more effort you put in (and so the faster you go) the more calories will be burnt. A rough estimate is 100 calories a mile, or a bit more depending on weight/hills etc, and if you've got a nice place to run around then I much prefer getting outside and enjoying it rather than looking at a wall in a gym somewhere.

    Also if you want to increase your endurance for any sport that involves moving around on your feet running (encompassing everything from long steady runs to sprints) is the best way of doing it - swimming will only significantly help for pool sports while running is beneficial (to varying degrees) for everything from football to martial arts to running as a sport in itself.

    Of course how you go about improving your fitness depends on your aims - if you want decent all round fitness then I'd say being able to run at a reasonable level is included in most peoples definition of that. A mixture of running a few times a week with bodyweight exercises (press ups, situps, pullups, squats, dips and all the variations on that) will be a good start and from there you can tailor it to any particular goals you have, whether for a sport or anything else.
     
  18. Canon

    Canon Reformed

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    Stop eating shite.
     
  19. YEHBABY

    YEHBABY RIP Tel

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    WOW! Summed it up in 3 perfectly formed words.
     
  20. FIBRE+

    FIBRE+ Minimodder

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    My vote is for cycling (as well as doing some of the other listed things). If you've got a bike just get out on it for an hour or two, find your pace and work on that, ride hard or just go for longer or both. If you want to see a real world difference then take the same route over a few weeks, im sure you'll notice it becoming easier or just being able to ride it harder for longer. Like a few others I'm not keen on running for exercise, I was good at it at school but I can't stand it personally, harder on your knees and slow and boring compared to a bike.

    Canon, he's not on about loosing weight etc, he's on about getting fit. I'm sure his diet will be adjusted to suit, not eating shite isn't going to get him physically fit.
     

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