I find that as I get older, it just gets harder & harder to carve out time to get some exercise in. When I was in my 20s, I worked out like a fiend, i.e. 6-7 days a week. Now I find myself dropping to 3-4 days a week. I'd love to get back up to 5 to 6 days a week.
I got two half marathons in October that I'm training for.
How about you?
Sometimes I run after work if its still light out.
I actually think most of it has to do with moving out of a building with a gym into it to a house where I'd have to drive to one. Going to a gym is a 2 hour commitment and I just don't want to take the time to do it.
Nursing a bum knee right now, though, so I'm on the shelf til that heals.
When weather does not allow I do 20mins HIIT on elliptical.
Diet is such a big part of results. I've been able to add a decent amount of muscle just by focusing more on what I'm eating.
Similarly, if you're exercising to shed weight, it's still really a diet thing.
Getting enough rest is also a big part of it.
People go crazy and spend so much time at the gym thinking that they need to work out 6-7 times a week to get the results they want, but you really don't.
3 days of 45 minute peloton bike rides
3 days cardio (2 runs, 1 day HIIT on the bike + abs)
Arc's right about diet, but it's hard to lose weight and also change body composition without including weight training.
I'm lucky in that I've had a pretty thin frame my entire life. I've never been "overweight" - but when I wanted to actually add some weight, it was pretty hard to do.
I'm finally up to about 190 which is the heaviest I've ever been. I've had to take in a pretty hefty amount of cals and spend all of my workouts hitting the weights for it to work. I basically do no cardio. I used to run a bit but it's counterproductive for me at this point.
Other than that nothing formal I just use a visualization technique where I imagine myself working out.
So far so good. I like the results.
At 6' 215 lbs the National Institute of Health considers me obese, but I don't feel obese, and no one ever called me fat, and my doctor says my weight is fine, cholesterol is fine, and other blood tests are fine and he says every year after my physical "whatever you're doing, keep doing it" so you really shouldn't go against doctors advice.
Just glad that after a few months during the colder months where I couldn't get motivated to do a damn thing, I'm actually in the gym anywhere from 2 to 5 times a week the past 5-6 weeks. Feels MUCH better.
I workout 3-4 times a week. It's 4 times if I do something on Sunday (sometimes we're too busy for me to do anything on Sundays). Otherwise it's 3 times a week.
And most of my weekday workouts are only 30-40 minutes long focused on a mixture of heavy lifting (usually to start) and high intensity circuit workout. I do try to throw in sprints and weighted runs during my high intensity circuit workouts. If I'm getting ready for my Marine PFT, I may throw in some mile sprints to my workout.
My Sunday workouts can be a 20 minute variety or 40 minute variety depending on what I'm in the mood to do. They're usually some kind of a burpee workout or some version of the Murph.
I actually think most of it has to do with moving out of a building with a gym into it to a house where I'd have to drive to one. Going to a gym is a 2 hour commitment and I just don't want to take the time to do it.
Totally agree on both points, especially the second point. Thankfully, I have built (over the years) a decent little gym (very spartan) in my garage. Only thing that I wish that I could have is a two car garage instead of the single car garage that constantly get filled up with my kids' things. I also live in a culdesac, so I do workout a lot outside when the weather isn't too cold or too humid.
I run a lot on treadmill for pacing on my sprints (quarters, half, and mile) since I only make it out to the tracks once or twice a month. I hate running on pavement (road or sidewalk) since I mostly run "barefoot" (with minimalist Vibrams). If I had a trail near me, I'll run that all the time.
Agreed. I find it too boring (as ridiculous as that sounds). I mostly do weights in the gym.
same here... if i had the time, i would be working out longer...but kids and travel to and from work takes a toll
For me, its the miles not the years so I feel like working out is more about not hurting myself than anything else.
Once you start to see results you like, it turns into something you feel like you HAVE to do because you don't want to erase the progress you made.
I hit a rough patch towards the end of last year because I was dealing with vertigo and the weather was really just sapping me of all my motivation.
I ate like crap and barely worked out at all. I felt like garbage.
Got back into the swing of things around January or so and have felt 100x better since.
if you took a class,you would love it. all the instructors are hot.
For about the past month or so by back has been a mess and I haven't been able to do much. Its very frustrating to make progress and then see it start to go away and not be able to do much about it.
I got impatient a couple weeks ago and pulled my back again. Starting to feel a bit better this week.
I have a different philosophy, which my wife says is dumb...and I agree with her.
Since getting into my 30's (37 now), I seem to want to go harder and faster (not longer though) with my workouts. Not sure if it's to try to prove something or to mitigate for the shorter time I have to get something out of my workouts. And without a workout partner, I tend to want to just get the shit over with instead of enjoying the workouts.
I just have a hard time getting into and sticking with weights, its just so damn mundane i end up losing interest. Hardest thing is trying to consciously force more calories into my diet which i need to bulk. I'm 6'1 155lbs, and have been for some time now. I'm sure the cardio heavy sports i play don't help either, but I would rather do that to stay active than anything else. Its even harder to get into lifting now that the weather is nice and I want to get out and play sports, winter time I usually work out 3 times a week indoors with weights, but I know i need to incorporate that along with some how trying to force more food down to actually gain. Its tough.
I can't just workout and stick with it. Personally, for me, I like to get my competitive juices flowing, so pickup ball works out great. It's an excuse to get away from the house a couple times a week and go back and forth with trash talk with my friends. For the most part, we hold each other accountable to show up or we risk having not enough people to get a decent full court game going.
Exercise is a compliment to dieting.. your diet is so much more important no matter what your goal is.
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50 minutes or so of weight training and cardio, usually elliptical, four days a week. One mid-week morning of running, right now on a track but outside of a narrow window where it's light before 6 AM I have to do it largely on a treadmill. And then one long run a week, double digits where possible (and I don't always get that in). I'm 35, I make concessions to avoid injury and to avoid exacerbating the ones that I have, but it's a pretty reasonable pace for me. Time is the big constraint. Would love to run more or to lift for longer but there just aren't hours in the day.
I have a different philosophy, which my wife says is dumb...and I agree with her.
Since getting into my 30's (37 now), I seem to want to go harder and faster (not longer though) with my workouts. Not sure if it's to try to prove something or to mitigate for the shorter time I have to get something out of my workouts. And without a workout partner, I tend to want to just get the shit over with instead of enjoying the workouts.
I have a significant back injury that recurs regularly, so heavy squats and deadlifts are a dead letter and I don't do a lot of awkward and complex lifts because the potential for problems is high. I also have a number of minor things I deal with, tendonitis in particular, that just keep me mindful of what I'm doing. I also have to pay in advance to run races, so the closer I get to them the less I am willing to deviate from my routine, lest I have to eat an entrance fee or defer.
First, I gravitate toward things that are interesting; I've find rote / repetitive exercising very boring / intellectually unsatisfying. If I'm going to bother to exert myself, I want to be able to check off an accomplishment. I love backpacking to high, alpine lakes in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I will bust my butt to achieve that goal. 45 min on a treadmill ... boring. Lifting weights ... snooze.
Help !!!
I just have a hard time getting into and sticking with weights, its just so damn mundane i end up losing interest. Hardest thing is trying to consciously force more calories into my diet which i need to bulk. I'm 6'1 155lbs, and have been for some time now. I'm sure the cardio heavy sports i play don't help either, but I would rather do that to stay active than anything else. Its even harder to get into lifting now that the weather is nice and I want to get out and play sports, winter time I usually work out 3 times a week indoors with weights, but I know i need to incorporate that along with some how trying to force more food down to actually gain. Its tough.
It's definitely not easy. I had to eat a lot of high calorie food for a while and really cut back on cardio.
My target weight is about 185/190, so now that I'm right around that, I'm leveling off my calorie intake a bit.
Certainly nothing wrong with getting out there and playing sports/being more active. It's healthier, honestly. Just a bit difficult to add muscle mass that way.
I just have a hard time getting into and sticking with weights, its just so damn mundane i end up losing interest. Hardest thing is trying to consciously force more calories into my diet which i need to bulk. I'm 6'1 155lbs, and have been for some time now. I'm sure the cardio heavy sports i play don't help either, but I would rather do that to stay active than anything else. Its even harder to get into lifting now that the weather is nice and I want to get out and play sports, winter time I usually work out 3 times a week indoors with weights, but I know i need to incorporate that along with some how trying to force more food down to actually gain. Its tough.
While diet is always important as arc stated, as a naturally thin person, you have to do specific lifts to put on weight. I was similar to you in having trouble gaining weight (graduated college at 5'11" and 145lb), as I too was pretty damn active with a lot of cardio and sports based workouts. However, it wasn't until I learned how to properly do major heavy lifts that I started putting on weight. While I'm not a huge guy by any means, I'm 5'11" and 180lb now. The one lift that has been a true game changer has been deadlifts (in addition to other major lifts like bench, squats, pull-ups, and shoulder press along with cleans).
While I'm sure that my age may have contributed to gaining strength and size, my twin brother (fraternal but with exact same body type) hasn't lifted the same way as me until just recently, and he's about 25lbs lighter than I am right now. This tells me that my approach has worked (at least for me) since the control group (my brother) hasn't naturally gotten bigger or stronger as we both aged.
First, I gravitate toward things that are interesting; I've find rote / repetitive exercising very boring / intellectually unsatisfying. If I'm going to bother to exert myself, I want to be able to check off an accomplishment. I love backpacking to high, alpine lakes in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I will bust my butt to achieve that goal. 45 min on a treadmill ... boring. Lifting weights ... snooze.
Help !!!
Buy a mountain bike and hit some trails. Drive out to some good spots where the scenery makes it worthwhile.
Went upstate last summer and brought my bike and went on some really awesome rides.
I hear you on injuries, especially back related. I have a history of sciatic nerve damage, and that's another reason why my wife says I'm stupid for the way I work out. Now, you're a runner (which I'm not), so you have that going for you. Me...I just want to slow down my natural progression to the "dad bod"...:( It's all about vanity on my end.
Next step for me is to get my diet in a good place. Time to cut out a lot of bad shit. I'm a stress eater, soda drinker, etc. All of the good I'm doing is cancelled out by this. To me, this is the absolute hardest part of getting in shape.
Anyone got any good meal prep or general meal ideas to make it easy as possible?
No...I do that at night when people are asleep and when I'm more motivated. Kills two birds with one stone...or something similar.
If I don't eat after 7PM, I'll do 2 tabatas (about 10 minutes total) the next morning and skip breakfast.
No joke - I have lost way more weight than when I was trying just to cut back on food and working out at lunch 1 hour per day 5 days per week.
Next step for me is to get my diet in a good place. Time to cut out a lot of bad shit. I'm a stress eater, soda drinker, etc. All of the good I'm doing is cancelled out by this. To me, this is the absolute hardest part of getting in shape.
Anyone got any good meal prep or general meal ideas to make it easy as possible?
I'm a really shitty cook so I don't spend much time prepping my own meals - but one major key is that even if you don't, you should know where your next meal is coming from or what it's going to be well before you start to get hungry.
I find that if I wait until I get really hungry to figure out what I'm going to eat, I'll almost always resort to the quickest thing I can find.. which is often not healthy. Once your stomach is rumbling, maintaining discipline is so, so difficult.
I haven't purchased a bottle of soda in years. I loved it when I was a kid and there was always a bottle in my fridge when I was growing up but I cut it out years ago and have never looked back.
If you can find the strength to cut it out completely, you'll see a pretty noticeable change and should shed some quick lbs.
I totally understand why people love soda.. I used to love it too. But it's so fucking bad for you. Cutting it out and replacing it with water makes such a big difference.
If I don't eat after 7PM, I'll do 2 tabatas (about 10 minutes total) the next morning and skip breakfast.
No joke - I have lost way more weight than when I was trying just to cut back on food and working out at lunch 1 hour per day 5 days per week.
What the heck is a tabata
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I also started the intermittent fasting and it has really helped.
If I don't eat after 7PM, I'll do 2 tabatas (about 10 minutes total) the next morning and skip breakfast.
No joke - I have lost way more weight than when I was trying just to cut back on food and working out at lunch 1 hour per day 5 days per week.
What the heck is a tabata
20 seconds high intensity, 10 seconds rest. Do that for multiple rounds.
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is that first 40 minutes of working out--assuming you lift briskly with about 20 seconds between sets--is when you build muscle most efficiently.
so, back in the day, I would do these massive workouts. Now I just do 40 minutes of weights on the upper body 3-4 times per week.
In the warm weather, I do not do any lower body weights but just bike ride and run. I use the Citibikes all the time. Since they are very sturdy, heavy bikes, you get quite a workout if you pedal hard consistently. This also allows me to "workout" when in reality I'm going from one place to another.
I also always walk up the stairs if it is ten flights or under.
Look up 5x5 Stronglifts. It's a great beginner program. Regarding motivation, switch your mindset into focusing on small, strength based goals. I guarantee you won't be as bored once you see yourself getting stronger. You'll begin to look forward to your next session in order to hit a new PR. Also, while I favor intense music when I lift, look into podcasts and/or books on tape if you're finding the routines boring to start.
The reality is that it is usually 5 per week (if I miss a workout, I'll skip legs since all of my workouts include legwork), and I've been very good at keeping it at 4+, but I don't hit 6 enough.
I'll walk and light jog on my lunch break but once the weather gets shitty I'll need an alternative. Plus I'll need weights... won't be as easy but I'm thrilled to be leaving this building. Can't wait to live in a house again. Even the town we are moving to is called "Norwood" -- a giants fan has to love that. So excited. Been a long time trying to get out of fort lee.
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I just have never been able to get into a groove for more than like, a month or two.
I can't just workout and stick with it. Personally, for me, I like to get my competitive juices flowing, so pickup ball works out great. It's an excuse to get away from the house a couple times a week and go back and forth with trash talk with my friends. For the most part, we hold each other accountable to show up or we risk having not enough people to get a decent full court game going.
My experience is like this. When my wife and I played tennis every day, it was fun as hell, which made it easier to stick to it.
I'm a thin person. The easiest thing to do is supplement your normal eating with protein. I go with a vegetarian protein powder from Amazon, mixes up easy with a shaker bottle. Much easier to drink 25 grams of protein than to add another meal.
I'd look into a PPL program. Skip the StrongLifts/Starting Strength programs, they're designed for powerlifters and are mostly leg exercises. Coolcicadia has a nice program( a lot of volume however), Lyle McDonald has a simple one, I'd start there.
Generally, to build power, you're down around 5 reps per set. Putting on mass is higher, 6-12. I'd look at some programs and see what they have. And make sure you rest....that's when you grow.