thedragonflywarrior reblogged
Anonymous asked:
Hi! I am 15 years old and I play ultimate frisbee for my highschool (but i have terrible endurance) I want to shave off some fat and build up my endurance. As a beginner in working out do you have any advice? Thanks :)
Yeah, actually I don’t recommend this to a lot of people but have you looked at trying the Insanity program? It’s mostly athletic cardio drills and bodyweight-based strength training in intervals of increasing intensity. I personally do not enjoy the program very much, but from my experience with it, sounds like it would be very well suited to your goals. I am pretty sure you can download the videos or subscribe to their service thing, new routines/”blocks” come out every couple months or so I think.
Anonymous asked:
My friend and I in our 20s, put on some weight after high school, and neither of us can afford a gym membership at the moment (yay school loans!) We're trying to lose some weight this summer and not really sure how to go about it aside from incorporating daily HIIT run/walks into our schedule. Can you help us out?
Hi there! So sorry this is such a late response but I hope you see this.
HIIT is a really good option for cardio, and easy to do with minimal/no equipment. Don’t do it everyday though. Bodies have a hard time recovering/improving if any particular physical activity is done everyday.
Running is a good option for HIIT, but if you get bored with it there are lots of other options. Jumprope is good cardio and you don’t need much space. Burpees are hell but they’re great cardio. You can also download videos for cardio workouts like Insanity, kickboxing, Tae Bo, Zumba, 30 Day Shred, any number of things. **Obvs I don’t “openly endorse” illegal downloading but hey ya know right.**
Don’t forget strength training. You can do a lot of things with just bodyweight and no equipment, or basic equipment like a mat, ball, and resistance bands. You can get a set of varied resistance bands for like $20 or less, plus there is always bodyweight stuff like squat variations (pistol, split, front weighted etc), lunge variations (skater, lateral, lunge to kick etc), push-up variations, planks, handstands, chair dips, bear crawls, hip bridges, wall sits. And if you can shell out a few bucks for a doorframe pull-up bar, you’ve got some work ahead of you.
Plyometrics (jump training) are good workouts to incorporate once or twice a week, and again involve little to no equipment and not much space. Insanity is a structured program involving lots of plyo, as is P90x and T25.
Finally, some core and flexibility work is really easy to achieve with almost no equipment. You’d want a mat and maybe a core ball. Yoga and Pilates are highly recommended for any fitness routine, and again you can get videos for this stuff very easily.
So overall, you’d be looking at maybe $100 (at most!) for the both of you to be totally set for home workouts. I hope this helps!
The once-per-week gross 2mile run for the sake of cardiovascular conditioning. #powerlifterproblems With how much I dread and suck at running, I can't believe I spent pretty much all of last year doing it daily. I feel like I lost a year of my life or something. Life is too short to be doing anything other than what you love, kids...
Holy kickboxing class Batman. /dead
Anonymous asked:
I just started working out, I want to lose like 30-40 lbs. and get a flat stomach. What ab exercises are best? and should I lift weights before or after running?
Some of my favorite ab exercises are weighted Russian twists, cable woodchoppers, ball jackknifes, hanging leg raise, and planks. Anything that actually improves the functional strength of your core, versus just trying to “chisel” it without making you stronger. (i.e. traditional crunches) But keep in mind that a “flat” or “defined” stomach is more the result of dropping bodyfat percentage rather than actual fitness or ability. Just a reminder that what your body does is more important than what it looks like. Your abdomen holds a bunch of pretty important internal organs, if your natural healthy belly shape is a little rounded out, don’t go hurting yourself just to get some arbitrary “flat stomach”.
If you’re doing a weights workout, do the weights first, then use the rest of your energy on cardio. Lifting weights when already tired can be super dangerous and counterproductive. Do the lifting when you’re fresh! And it’s hella important to get some proper lifting done, so those 30-40 pounds you lose are actually fat pounds instead of precious muscle.
Yesterday was a cardio day and now that I am not counting calories or focused on high-burn workouts.... I fucking, HATE, running. Not because I can't do it, because I definitely can, but damn.
Steady-speed running feels like a giant fitness farce. It's catabolic and hard on the joints. It's not a panacea for all your poor health and running by itself will not put you in top fitness like Fitblr and Nike would have you believe. The human body is naturally designed for two main types of forward movement: 1. walking (us humans can walk for-fucking-ever); and 2. short sprints. Where in the history of the natural world have us humans ever been expected to run at a steady speed for long periods of time? If we needed to get someplace far away, we walked. We conserved our energy for the times when we NEEDED to go fast, like running hellbent for a sturdy tree to get away from that raging woolly mammoth (ie. short sprints). Generally, the times when we as humans have decided to run steadily for long periods, have been running for the sake of running.
I am not disparaging runners, or the sport of running. If you really love running, that is great for you, please do lots of it. Personally I have found my own calling in functional fitness - lifting, fighting, climbing, and occasionally sprinting. Slow distance running is not functional for me. Like if I want to torch a bunch of random calories (and fuck up my knees) then I'll go for a miserable 5-miler. Otherwise you're not going to find me running more than 5K and not more than once a week.
Do you jog or use a jump rope for cardio exercises?
My main cardio is HIIT (intervals) on the crossramp, which is kind of like an elliptical but on an incline. I also take a 5K run at least once a week, but if I have to run I’d rather do interval sprints. If I have to do steady-state cardio I prefer trail running.
I don’t use a jumprope because 1. I’m still extremely clumsy and 2. the jumping part invariably gives me calf cramps. :(
Yesterday morning was mostly devoted to running, which is not my sport of choice. But if I want to do a Tough Mudder it'd be stupid of me to skip the runs. I made it just over 4 miles with two 60-sec sprints per mile to keep it fresh. (Because steady-state cardio can bite my big round ass.)
Super sore and kinda missed the motivation boat, but I did moderately well today.
- Barbell Squat:
- 45 lb x 8 reps (+53 pts)
- 65 lb x 5 reps (+53 pts)
- 95 lb x 10 reps (+77 pts)
- 95 lb x 10 reps (+77 pts)
- 100 lb x 5 reps (+67 pts)
- Barbell Deadlift:
- 45 lb x 8 reps (+53 pts)
- 65 lb x 5 reps (+53 pts)
- 95 lb x 10 reps (+77 pts)
- 95 lb x 10 reps (+77 pts)
- 100 lb x 5 reps (+67 pts)
- Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press:
- 12 lb x 8 reps (+52 pts)
- 20 lb x 5 reps (+51 pts)
- 15 lb x 10 reps (+56 pts)
- 15 lb x 10 reps (+56 pts)
- Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown:
- 50 lb x 8 reps (+27 pts)
- 60 lb x 8 reps (+29 pts)
- 85 lb x 10 reps (+36 pts)
- 85 lb x 10 reps (+36 pts)
- Seated Cable Row:
- 50 lb x 8 reps (+29 pts)
- 60 lb x 5 reps (+27 pts)
- 85 lb x 10 reps (+38 pts)
- 85 lb x 10 reps (+38 pts)
- Push-Up:
- 10 reps (+19 pts)
- 10 reps (+19 pts)
- Dumbbell Lunges:
- 15 lb x 10 reps (+81 pts)
- 15 lb x 10 reps (+81 pts)
- Exercise Ball Crunch:
- 15 reps (+11 pts)
- 15 reps (+11 pts)
- Dumbbell Step Ups:
- 15 lb x 10 reps || 18 in (+67 pts)
- 15 lb x 10 reps || 18 in (+67 pts)
- Stability Ball Jack Knife Sit-Up:
- 15 reps (+23 pts)
- 15 reps (+23 pts)
- Elliptical Trainer:
- 0:02:00 || Broke a Sweat (+10 pts)
- 0:02:00 || Moderate (+15 pts)
- 0:23:00 || Intense! (+231 pts)
- 0:05:00 || The Gods Hate Me! (+64 pts)
Lifts were great. HIIT was great. Everything is great except I need to remember how to relax. Monday will be a rest day (read: "12 hour shift and no time to hit the gym" day).
You know that V-shaped muscle in the groin/lower ab region? Whatever that is, I totally saw mine today. When my skin starts to really tighten up (soon) and the muscles underneath begin to surface, I'll call them the Muscle Mafia and give them silly names like Vinnie and Big Jim.
Despite the shirt fiasco, I feel kind of cute today (and of course no one is around to see it, story of my life). No kidding, weight lifting has turned me into an outrageously feminine woman and I think I like it.
Today is an attempt to salvage a positive attitude.
My laptop died at exactly midnight last night. I was hoping it'd hold out at least a couple more weeks but suddenly it made this "eeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEE pop!" sound and quit for good. Bank account is a thousand dollars smaller after transferring funds, and a gently used MacBook Pro will be here in about a week.
Today was deadlifts day. Forgot my weights gloves. Lifted anyways. Tore the fuck out of my hands. I got stuck on the one incline elliptical where the intervals are permanently set to two minutes on, two minutes off, instead of 1/1 the way I like it and it was miserable. Even my nail polish color is getting on my nerves. It's the exact shade of grape Skittles.
Getting out of the house for a few in hopes of forcing my spirits back up.
I'm happy with today so far! Good run, elliptical cooldown, and also a 30 minute swim. I also made an appointment to get my body fat percentage re-tested next Thursday morning - the gym does it once per six months for free if you have the premium membership, and they'll do it with calipers. Fingers crossed that all this damn weight training is paying off big. :)
Not hardcore like pro athletes, but I can't work out if I don't eat before going. Cardio days get yogurt&whey with a large banana, weights days get double yogurt&whey with double fruit. :)
Weights felt really good today. I'm still a little "off" (SAD related I think) so I lifted at 85-90% of my usual progression, but in three sets of 12 instead of 10. It was a good workout and I'm feeling especially positive about my form. The main focus today though was HIIT - if there's one thing to make or break my speed training, it's that. I took it up one notch to intervals of 9/12 intensity and even got a few cycles of 10/13 without totally maxing my heart rate. I like where this is going.
thedragonflywarrior reblogged
wherethehealthythingsare
Strength Training: A Necessity for Weight Loss
Hello, readers!
Although I consider myself pretty educated on nutrition and health, I learned something new today: in order to lose weight most effectively, strength training is necessary.
I always thought strength training was for people looking to body build, or build tons of muscle, and I don’t want this, so I haven’t done it. I thought cardio alone would burn off the fat surrounding my muscles, and then the muscles underneath would show. But what I didn’t know until today, is that without strength training building your muscles, cardiovascular exercising burns muscle tissue, along with fat.