Gym/Exercise Thread

[King Sid the Great 87]

I wasn't implying P90X was Crossifit, just that someone looking for a full body plyometric routine will be better off with P90X/Insanity than joining the cult. Unless they *really* need that team experience, then risk it.

Of the three, I like Insanity the most. But I don't think any of this stuff is the core of a fitness program, I just do them from time to time to supplement weight training and endurance cardio stuff.

Have you (or anyone else) tried Insanity Asylum? From what I have read, it makes Insanity look like a walk in the park.

Out of P90X, X2, and Insanity my favorite workout is by far X2 Base and Back. It doesn't matter how many times I have done it, I am always wiped out at the end of it.

[dodint]

No, just Insanity. But again, they're supplemental to my actual goal workouts. When I'm in marathon training, I'll run 4 days a week, lift 2 days a week. I supplement the lifts with P90X Ab Ripper and I'll work in an Insanity session somewhere. On Saturdays, the day preceeding my long run day, I like to X-Stretch because I've never felt as loose in life as I do after I execute that session. Amazing.

That said, right now I'm not doing much of anything.

[tifosi77]

I don't want to look emaciated as a result of hard work.

Certainly not defending Crossfit, but........


.........that's 'emaciated'????

[Loaf31]

Has anyone tried Shaun T's Focus T25 workout?

[legame]

Just got out of a relationship with a hardcore Crossfitter (to the point of traveling for competitions.) It honestly became unbearable... folks who get that deep into it are so singularly focused on Crossfit and NOTHING else. She literally spends 3-4 hours per day, at least 6 days per week at the "box" on top of the hours per day preparing paleo nonsense.

[PensFanInDC]

Just got out of a relationship with a hardcore Crossfitter (to the point of traveling for competitions.) It honestly became unbearable... folks who get that deep into it are so singularly focused on Crossfit and NOTHING else. She literally spends 3-4 hours per day, at least 6 days per week at the "box" on top of the hours per day preparing paleo nonsense.

If I won the lottery I would spend 6+ hours in the gym 5 days a week, however it would not be all working out. I would spend time learning from more experienced trainers.

[dodint]

I've had that conversation with a friend of mine. If I won, I'd spend six months building a 'dream' home that would include a home gym with a synthetic ice facility, and professional kitchen. Then months 6-18 I'd adopt the professional athlete style of training where my only occupation is to be physically fit and coordinated. I'd have a professional chef do my meal planning and a pair of personal trainers, one for weight and the other for endurance.

Once I got to 18 months I'd probably get bored and give it all back. In my mind I'm convinced if I hired a third coach and worked on hockey skills I could walk on to an ECHL club and play on the 3rd/4th line within three years, but probably not.

[legame]

I'd do it if I had the time as well. However, I've got graduate school, work, and personal relationships o uphold. She's pretty much decided those things are no longer important in comparison.

[PensFanInDC]

I'd do it if I had the time as well. However, I've got graduate school, work, and personal relationships o uphold. She's pretty much decided those things are no longer important in comparison.

Everyone I worked with at SoldierFit was a 20-30 something singles without kids. Their favorite phrase is "No time is not an excuse". Really? Let me break my schedule down for you.

5am - Wake up
5am - 6:45am - Shower, wake son, make breakfast, eat breakfast, get ready for work, leave to take son to daycare
6:45am-5:30pm - Out of home for work
5:30pm-9:00pm - Taking care of my child, cooking dinner, eating dinner, bathing child, bedtime with child
9:00pm-10:30pm/12:00am - The only time I have to spend with my wife during the day
12:00am - Sleep (5 hours)

Where in there is a chance to get a real 60 minute workout and still make sure I get enough sleep while not neglecting time alone with my wife which is important to a marriage? The only part of my day that could conceivably be used for that purpose is after 9pm and I'm the type of person that can't sleep within 3 hours of a workout so I wouldn't be able to fall asleep until 1am which leaves my with 4 hours of sleep.

I walk for 30 minutes a day but that's all I have time for anymore. It's frustrating for sure. Back when my mother in law was able to watch my son for longer periods of time I was doing SoldierFit 6 days a week AND spending an hour 4 days a week doing olympic lifting. I had lost 100lbs. That's not an option anymore. When my son is older and if we don't have another then I can get back into that routine. Until then I have to focus on being a father and husband.

[Idoit40fans]

Everyone I worked with at SoldierFit was a 20-30 something singles without kids. Their favorite phrase is "No time is not an excuse".

This goes right along with the theory that all of the "fit" groups are cults.

[PensFanInDC]

Everyone I worked with at SoldierFit was a 20-30 something singles without kids. Their favorite phrase is "No time is not an excuse".

This goes right along with the theory that all of the "fit" groups are cults.

Having spent a lot of time in one I can certainly agree. It's scary at times. SoldierFit even has mantras that the customers, or Troops as they are called, chant. At the beginning of each class we line up in rows and the instructor says, "Troop! You Are!" and the troops respond with "WE ARE! I AM!" In addition the "troops" respond to everything with HOOAH! It's ridiculous. I learned a lot from them though and enough that I can take what I know and better myself physically. If I had all of this equipment at home I might be able to fit the time in.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

[dodint]

I had that issue in the military. I was an "academic gym rat", spent all my free time on college classes instead of the gym. I had mediocre fitness scores but people just couldn't understand why I wasn't in the gym constantly trying to do more pull-ups. Figured when I got out of the military a degree would take me farther than box jumps could. It has.

[Idoit40fans]

I had that issue in the military. I was an "academic gym rat", spent all my free time on college classes instead of the gym. I had mediocre fitness scores but people just couldn't understand why I wasn't in the gym constantly trying to do more pull-ups. Figured when I got out of the military a degree would take me farther than box jumps could. It has.

I'm sure your joints are thankful as well.

[dodint]

Touch of irony, there. The one thing I did pursue was marathon running. It was really satisfying and required only three runs a week, with Sunday AM being two hours at most. So when I got out in 2012 I was 'awarded' service connected disability because I have two bad knees and chronic plantar fasciitis.

I contend I earned the arch pain from running in boots so much for our Combat Fitness Test. The knee stuff came from the marathon training, I had meniscus issues. Healed without surgery, though, which was lucky.

[tifosi77]

In my mind I'm convinced if I hired a third coach and worked on hockey skills I could walk on to an ECHL club and play on the 3rd/4th line within three years, but probably not.

I don't know what your skill level is, but I got to the point of nearly making it onto the Icers at Penn State. In college I played in rec leagues with two guys that had ECHL experience, one of whom was actually on a roster at the time (Hampton Roads, iirc). I could not keep up with those guys. I had the hands and ice vision to sort of play with them at the beer league level, but when they decided to be serious it was actually kinda funny how easily they separated themselves. Anticipation, read-react, angle play..... in fact, that's probably what was made them seem so spectacularly quick. They weren't necessarily faster, but they were so much on top of the play in a predictive sense that it just felt like they were everywhere at once.

And that's just ECHL dudes.

[dodint]

Like I said, probably not.

I haven't played since high school, and I'm 31. In fantasy scenario above I'd be 33 when I tried to get on somewhere. Not as a starter, mind you. Just as a plug. Like I said, with ~2 years of doing absolutely nothing with my life and having all resources at my disposal I'd hope that I could catch on as a grinder somewhere for a season. It'd make for a fun documentary/reality show/video blog, at least. The friend I was discussing this with pointed out if I couldn't walk on anywhere I could probably just buy a franchise and player/own my way onto the team.

I don't play the lottery, though. So I'll probably still just be an IT guy at 33.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

lets face it, we all at some point have convinced ourselves that we have what it takes to be an elite athlete if we just had the right breaks/training/opportunity.

[dodint]

Elite? I just wanted to be an ECHL plug. Maybe I have goal setting issues.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Elite? I just wanted to be an ECHL plug. Maybe I have goal setting issues.

you have to be elite to get paid to play a sport.

[JS©]

In my mind I'm convinced if I hired a third coach and worked on hockey skills I could walk on to an ECHL club and play on the 3rd/4th line within three years, but probably not.

I don't know what your skill level is, but I got to the point of nearly making it onto the Icers at Penn State. In college I played in rec leagues with two guys that had ECHL experience, one of whom was actually on a roster at the time (Hampton Roads, iirc). I could not keep up with those guys. I had the hands and ice vision to sort of play with them at the beer league level, but when they decided to be serious it was actually kinda funny how easily they separated themselves. Anticipation, read-react, angle play..... in fact, that's probably what was made them seem so spectacularly quick. They weren't necessarily faster, but they were so much on top of the play in a predictive sense that it just felt like they were everywhere at once.

And that's just ECHL dudes.

I once had that "dream"...then I skated with a few SHL players once during our midnight drop-in league back in the mid 90s. For those not familiar with the SHL, think of a mid 90s Florida based single A league of players who couldn't cut it in the CHL, UHL, or ECHL. For the first half hour, I thought "these guys aren't that good". Shots weren't that hard, they were bobbling passes, and some weren't even all that quick. Sometime after that half hour, you could tell they were toying with us and would skate by the rest of the beer league drop-ins like they were standing still (and in some cases, they were.) At that point, I realized the dream was over .

A few years later, we had a few of the Chiefs join us during a drop-in session. It was just as bad, if not worse. They might have not been a good team at the time, but even a bottom 6 ECHL guy has the ability to make a former high school all-star or some college club players look like a beginner.

[tifosi77]

lets face it, we all at some point have convinced ourselves that we have what it takes to be an elite athlete if we just had the right breaks/training/opportunity.

No joke, dude. "Slap Shot" was filmed when I was 2 or 3 years old, and my mom wanted to go over to Johnstown and be a crowd extra. I threw a fit in the car and we turned back to Altoona.

TO THIS DAY I still wonder what it would have been like if I had discovered hockey as a wee tyke instead of a teenager.

[MRandall25]

I always wonder what would've happened if I played hockey like I did baseball.

I wasted about 8 years playing baseball when I could've been playing hockey.

[GJ]

lets face it, we all at some point have convinced ourselves that we have what it takes to be an elite athlete if we just had the right breaks/training/opportunity.

No joke, dude. "Slap Shot" was filmed when I was 2 or 3 years old, and my mom wanted to go over to Johnstown and be a crowd extra. I threw a fit in the car and we turned back to Altoona.

TO THIS DAY I still wonder what it would have been like if I had discovered hockey as a wee tyke instead of a teenager.

Nice story. My wife DID make it as an extra. (She never became a hockey player )

[JS©]

lets face it, we all at some point have convinced ourselves that we have what it takes to be an elite athlete if we just had the right breaks/training/opportunity.

No joke, dude. "Slap Shot" was filmed when I was 2 or 3 years old, and my mom wanted to go over to Johnstown and be a crowd extra. I threw a fit in the car and we turned back to Altoona.

TO THIS DAY I still wonder what it would have been like if I had discovered hockey as a wee tyke instead of a teenager.

My mom said based on the amount of booing that was taking place that we were probably in the crowd when they were filming the final scene introductions for the opposing team. She said that there was non-stop booing for about an hour and eventually both my sister and I couldn't deal with it anymore so we left.

She also mentioned that we were in one of the parade scenes. I've seen that movie no less than 100 times and there's nothing in any of the shots that looks like a 3 year old JS©.