Post your work outs- failures/success's/tips

[protus]

Ok This thread is going to serve as a place for those who are in shape, outta shape, trying to get to a shape! Post up your work outs, what works for you. How much you have lost,gained or wish you did different.
This is not the place for anyone to point fingers,laugh at any pictures ,or couch commando it.
People that post in here will hopefully be in the mindset to change and better their lifestyles through exercise and training. This forum and this board are here so we can help each other. Physical fitness preps are just as important as physical preps( food,gear etc)
If you can not be proactive in helping folks please post else where......

[protus]

Well since this needs to get rolling as well. I'll be 1st.
6 years ago i realized that in order to protect and provide for my family i needed to be in better shape. After the hurricanes of 04' it cemented in my head that more. Now a tad about myself. I am by far any super man, nor wish to be. I am your avg. mid 30's, guy who has worked in the construction industry all my life, i played college ball and so i have some injuries that plague me from time to time, along with the gut.

Like LD's post. I started out walking. Each AM, now i run 6 days a week an avg of 2 miles a day with one day going 3 miles. My avg 1 mile time is around 10 minutes, 2 mile times avg 20-22 minutes, and my 3 mile is around the 32-35 min avg. Two years ago i was lucky if i could run 1/4 with out being out of breath. Now it is a mental game to get past that 3 mile mark! Again Like LD said, its you vs you after a point.
I am not fast, i am what you would call high drag low speed. But at the 3 mile mark, i am not out of breath nor tired.

Each day i also do a light work out of weights, stretching and sit ups/push ups. What has all of this done. Ive dropped 50 fat lbs in 2 years. I went down 1 complete shirt size and can fit in a "large" if i want that " athletic " look- whatever that is LOL. I dropped 3.5 pant sizes.
I am still big by most means, but i push myself, and honestly i dont see many guys my size jogging each am around here!

So in the end i went from the 300lb mark to my lowest of 250 to an avg of 265. My goal has always been to get to 240lbs ( my college size). while i am not at that "weight" goal yet, i am wearing smaller clothes than what i did back then! It took a solid hard 3 month diet with my work out to drop some lbs fast. Now like LD posted , no sodas, water,water and watching meal sizes. Hopefully in the next few years i can be at my goal.
Till then I'll just keep at it.


i'll try and find some now vs then pics in a while.

[Lowdown3]

As of the other morning I'm about 10 lbs. lighter than what I was at 25 (more than a few years ago). Some of that comes from changes in eating habits but honestly most of it comes from regular training.

As to regular workout- 3-4 times a week the family runs a mile together over hill and dale through the woods. The boy and I usually do a short workout of roughly 30 knuckle pushups (he does about 15-20 regular way), 30-40 situps, about 10 SLOW deep squats with breathing (Systema style baby! LOL). At our gym (3X a week) the kids do a similar workout before instruction starts, slightly harder when I'm working with them to include "Spiders" a neat balance and strength exercise that I learned from a cl*** of Sonny P's. In our (adult) cl*** we do one of three workouts which includes stuff like 3X15 wheelbarrow pushups, 3X10 jump squats, 3X25 crunches, 3X10 burpees then some drill specific to the training like partner drills practicing running man (hip heist) sweeps from the guard, etc. Sometimes we do a drill where for a couple minutes you fight to keep someone in the guard- open or closed or if you are in the guard trying to p***. Then in both the adult cl*** or kids cl*** we spar every day at the end of the cl***. The kids rounds aren't timed, but max sparring time is usually around 10-15 minutes total. In the adult cl*** we spar for 20-30 minutes with 6 minute rounds. The sparring alone is very taxing. Luckily I took some of the Systema breathing and relaxation stuff to heart and started applying that to the MMA stuff, so I tend to last as long or longer than people half my age :)

[servingbrother]

I'm in my mid 50's and have learned I ain't no spring chicken. Started driving trucks at night and letting myself go. Started working out on a treadmill at a fast walk every other day. After a week of that began working out on my Total gym on alternate days of walking. I watched my caloric intake and exercised for 2 months and lost 15 lbs. Got tendinitis in both elbows had to lay off total gym. About a week later my tread mill quit (it was a cheap one from Salvation Army Store). So I decided to take Taekwondo for exercise and learn some form of martial art. Made Yellow belt after a couple of months, really enjoying the cl***es, then cut my thumb off at home on my table saw. Due to the accident can't make a fist, index finger is still swelled and have no feeling. Waiting to have operation on index and middle finger. Can't wait to get back into Taekwondo. I ain't quitting!

[1Admin]

That's the attitude right there SB- "I ain't quitting!" Bravo sir!

On a side note, I'm going to have to see about the cuss filter/language filter options. If you haven't figured it out already cl*** gets censored because of the last three letters. I think everyone realizes it but it's annoying never the less. I'll work on that soon.

[servingbrother]

Yeah, I figured out the word cl***. But I did forget to add, I decided to hike 2 miles a day with my BOB until I can get back to Taekwondo. My BOB is 16 lbs and I figure I should get use to carrying it.

[Kat]

Touche on the "not quitting" tip! :) It's too hard to get restarted when you quit. That's the case with me anyway. When I get an injury it really bums me out because I don't like to take too many breaks. Although, I could lose more than a few pounds, when I recently looked at some old photos of myself I was glad to see that I was actually not far off from where I used to be prior to motherhood. Definitely in better shape. I was joking with my husband the other day about how when we used to play kickball with our son I would think "I hope he figures out how to play this game soon because I'm dyin' over here!" Now we can go out and play basketball or whatever and it's no big deal. What a difference regular exercise makes! A few years ago I started jogging with my family who had been doing it for quite a while without me. I started out by jogging about 1/4 of the way and walking the rest. Pushed myself to 1/2 the way and so on until I finally started finishing it with jogging the whole time. Still struggling with some knee injuries from a stepper that I was using previously but I try not to let too much time go in between jogs. I have found the website www.calorieking.com useful for checking the caloric content of most foods. They have info for basic foods as well as restaurant meals.

[610Alpha]

I was the skinny kid in school, at 6' 2" I weighed 135lbs soaking wet, that was too skinny. Didn't matter how much I ate I couldn't gain weight. Until I turned 25 that is, then I gained about 50lbs in one year, lots of calories and my metabolism slowed way down. In '00 I started weight lifting and would do about 5x a week. This added about another 25lbs, so now I am roughly 215. I finally filled out. Unfortunately the past 10 months I haven't had the "energy" to workout, my wife and I had a baby 11 months ago and since I can handle broken sleep better than she can I got the privilege of getting up with the baby for the past 10 months. Needless to say I didn't have the energy to workout after work in the evenings. That is going to change here real soon, the baby is sleeping through the night for the most part, our basement is getting new carpet on the finished side so I will be back at it by early next week. I miss the sorness from weight lifting, I miss feeling the strength in my muscles, and I really miss the endorphins :D.

I usually trained for strength because I was a skinny kid but I am not a power lifter. I usually kept my working sets to mid numbers:

5 sets of 5; 4 sets of 6; (5-4-3-2-1) or (8-6-4-2-1-6) or (10-8-6-4-2-1) (each # was a set and that was the # of reps) --I used these formats for the major exercises like bench press, squats, and deadlifts.

All other exercises were mostly 3 sets of 8-10. I tried to change up the exercises every 2-3 weeks.

I don't do cardio, I know I know I need to. When I served in the military we did 2, 5, and 10 mile runs weekly but I haven't ran like that in over a decade. I did quit smoking since the military so I think I will do better.

I would love to get into some sort of martial arts but right now I just don't have the bandwidth, I always wanted to take it with my son but it will be a few more years before he is ready and maybe by then I will have the bandwidth (time).

I have done most of the P90X program....I didn't get to do it long enough before I fell off the wagon with taking care of the baby at night. I did like it and I believe it is a good program. Muscle confusion is the phrase that got me to spend the money, that has been in the weight lifting arena for a long time and it does work. He has jump training which is good, the leg routine will make you cry. I prefer doing bench presses rather than pushups. He has some great bicep/tricep exercises. Pull-ups/Chin-ups w/ or w/o assistance will make your lats stronger. I couldn't really do the yoga, I needed a person to help me make my limbs do what he did. If anyone has questions about P90X let me know I'll be glad to answer them.

Future Plans: I will incorporate some of the P90X program and get back to the iron early next week. I'll give an update in a few weeks.

Lift that weight, take that step, jog to the end of the block, just do some physical activity and the more you do it the better off you will be. Besides the endorphins from physical activity are the best!! Like Nike says "Just Do It".

Oh and to the guy that lost his thumb "I like your attitude!!" sorry about the thumb but your mindset is right on!!

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Fighting my way back from age, surgery and laziness after military and other activities retirement. Figured out I aint ready for pasture yet, hard part now is I'm not sure what I'm training for. That has been a challenge.
Weights mon-wed-fri upper body
Tue-Thurs Legs -weights and treamill
I'm working with my BOB now which is also my hunting pack getting ready for seasons. I don't hunt feeders on stands, I actually move so it's teadmills, hikes and modified pushups on my knees with the extra wieght.
IPSC once a month, targets once a month with bullseye and dills in heat of the day, hand to hand once a month (various forms).
Glad to see I'm not the only one who slipped but is getting back up!

[Klayton]

1) every workout I start with approx 5 minutes of calisthetics (jumping jacks or running in place)
2) light muscle stretch of the muscle group for the day
3) workout
4) deep stretch

and then I try to throw in an aerobic exercise 3 times a week (treadmill, stairclimber, elliptical), but fractured ankle, bad knees and back makes aerobics unbearable all too often.
I should take out some stock in Motrin, LOL...

Matt, not sure how intense your weight workouts are, but most lifters think working the entire upper body the same day is too much... The worked muscles absorbs alot of blood (known as the pump) and if you do all your upper body, well thats 4 muscle groups, tris, bis, pecs, and back, thats alot of blood to be sharing the "pump" with... unless you're working for tone and not mass... tone= 12-15 reps major muscle group, 15-20 reps secondary groups versus mass= 4-8 reps major muscle groups, 8-12 reps secondary groups... just food for thought...

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Naw, I section up the upper body, guess I shoulda been more specific.
I do shoulders and arms 1 day, chest and stomach 1 day and back, lats and stomach 1 day. I alternate on heavy, 6-8 reps,and repetition, full one minute or as close as I can go. One time I will do, say, the arms for weight and the next time go with lighter weights, maybe 1/3, but for a full minute for reps and endurance. That helps me with fighting, being able to punch or elbow for longer and being able to push, pull and throw for a full minute and being used to it, most of my altercations have lasted way shorter than that. I honestly do not care about the looks of tone or size, I'm ugly. LOL
I'm still in a job that occasionally allows me the oportunity to fight :) and I have 10 years left to go so I am gearing towards that and just trying not to break anything else on this old mid forties soldier body while working out.

[Klayton]

Sounds awesome!!

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I moved up from walking to jogging with my backpack today. Geez when did I get so old? I used to hump and bump with it and a 60!

[hammer]

Just found out that I am "with child" again, at 44, so fitness and preparedness has new meaning.

Watching what goes in with caloric intake, and keeping busy commences my fitness regimen.

Nutrition is foundational, walking/stretching helps me.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Congrats ! Now you gotta build up a diaper ghanging routine! LOL