Gym/Exercise Thread

[tifosi77]

[youtube][/youtube]

That annoys the absolute p|ss out of me. Cheerful little f**k.

[dodint]

Plyo P90x is decent stuff. If I'm doing that kind of thing, though, I'm usually happier doing Insanity. Less creepy without Tony Horton.

[tifosi77]

We get all the Beachbody videos from Horton and Shaun T. Horton is really weird, but I like the way he structures his programs. I think Shaun T is a better trainer, but I never feel like I get a good muscle workout with his stuff. I just feel really really tired afterward. He's way too cardio-centric for me...... and as I learned from You Are Your Own Gym, cardio is largely useless.

[dodint]

That is a statement so far and away from everything I believe in I can't even begin to approach it.

[tifosi77]

Ask Shaf, he read the book, too. (He recommended it here, actually) I forget the exact metrics, but the author noted that 45 minutes of steady-state cardio burns x calories. (It was like 190 or something) That's not extra calories over and above what your body would have burned had you been sleeping on the couch, just 190 calories total.... which is only about 130 calories above an average BMR. So the cardio burn is really only 130 calories, which in his example, is completely offset if you drink a Gatorade after the workout.

Compare that to P90X, which is calculated to burn roughly 600-700 calories per workout.

Lean muscle burn fat like nothing else in our bodies. Having more of it burns more fat. Cardio does not create lean muscle mass. So outside of purpose-specific training (like endurance athletes, or I would even say racing drivers) cardio is a waste of time and energy if your goal is to burn fat.

[dodint]

80% (made up, but you know I'm right) of a weight loss effort is diet. Maybe more. Running is better than sitting on the couch doing nothing.

It's much more detailed than that, but those two truths keep me alive.

[yubb]

P90X Yoga is outstanding.

[dodint]

I prefer X-Stretch, the yoga is too meticulous for my taste.

[PensFanInDC]

80% (made up, but you know I'm right) of a weight loss effort is diet. Maybe more. Running is better than sitting on the couch doing nothing.

It's much more detailed than that, but those two truths keep me alive.

You are 100% correct...

...but so is tif

The #1 killer in the USA is lack of movement. A smoker who walks 30 minutes a day and eats well is statistically going to be healthier (overall) than a non-smoker who is sedentary all day and eats poorly. Our bodies are made to move, not sit around.

When I lost the 100lbs from 2012-2013 I did little cardio. When I say little I mean 5-10 minutes per workout and it was always at the end. There were a few exceptions when I would do a WOD that had cardio built into the circuit but even then the cardio section was short (500m row for example). HIIT is the best way to utilize cardio. 5-10 minutes at the end of your workout done in quick bursts with active rest.

[tifosi77]

When I do cardio, I do a Tabata round.... .which, I think is a kind of HIIT, right?

P90X Yoga is outstanding.

He is a terrible yoga instructor. The program itself is excellent, the moves and they way they flow. He's just bad at communicating how you should be positioning your body. I had to unlearn a lot of bad habits I picked up from him. Simple things like in plank the eye of the elbow should be pointed out and the index fingers parallel, when standing, the second toes on each foot should be parallel, stuff like that.

[PensFanInDC]

Tabata is basically HIIT except Tabata, at least the way I was taught, has static rest as opposed to active and the 'go' time is usually longer.

[dodint]

One cool thing about staying inside the DoD in my career is that everywhere I work has a free gym. With Wisconsin winter sucking giant balls and me living there alone for the first 7 months I hope to become an arctic gym rat.

[shafnutz05]

The nice thing about the P90x workouts is that it's a combination of cardio and strength training. Don't get me wrong, cardio has changed my life for the good, and has certainly lowered my cholesterol. But I would much rather be building muscle while simultaneously having a heart rate over 160 then just be running and really doing nothing but breaking down said muscles.

Anything that gives you all the benefits of cardio and muscle building simultaneously is an A in my book.

[tifosi77]

Tabata is basically HIIT except Tabata, at least the way I was taught, has static rest as opposed to active and the 'go' time is usually longer.

Tabata is 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest for four minutes. The way I do it, it's a round of four different exercises done twice. I don't know if that's normal, but that's the way my buddy explained it to me. I imagine you do one movement 8 times if you wanted, or eight different movements, or whatever combination.

[Dickie Dunn]

My thoughts on home exercise programs:

P90X: Awesome program. Tony Horton can be annoying. Yoga workout is useful, but way too damn long. The chest and back workout is an ass kicker.
Insanity: If you're looking for cardio workouts, the individual workouts are amazing. As a program its a poorly organized, knee destroying disaster.
Focus T-25: Better organization, good workouts, makes an attempt to incorporate strength training.
P90X2: Incorporates way too much unnecessary crap. Pushups on medicine balls. Crap with the stability ball. Curls while standing on one leg. Blah. Just leave me alone.
P90X3: Basically a shorter version of P90X2. Shorter yoga video is nice though.

To me the "best" program is P90X strength workouts with Insanity cardio workouts, but as a whole I'm not a huge fan of any of them. I like to lift heavy with some GPP and stretching on my non-lifting days. Right now I'm going with a Dan John inspired full body strength routine three days a week to get back in the groove.

[Idoit40fans]

I don't have any interest in those programs, but your complaints about p90x2 seem to be things the seem really beneficial. I love workouts that incorporate stabilizing muscles.

[Dickie Dunn]

I don't have any interest in those programs, but your complaints about p90x2 seem to be things the seem really beneficial. I love workouts that incorporate stabilizing muscles.

For me heavy lifting has always seemed to recruit enough stabilizing muscles, but there's a benefit to some of the moves. Stuff like this is just annoying though:

[tifosi77]

POST ACTIVATION POTENTIATION



I found X2 to be far too athlete-focused to be useful as a home training/fitness tool. I only did 6 weeks of it before it became onerous. While a lot of the stuff is really useful (I liked the stab ball movements, and the incorporation of foam rolling was my introduction to something that is now a part of my daily life), the workouts are much longer than X (IIRC, they are all well over an hour, not including warm up/cool down), and the intensity of the program is really only suitable to someone who is doing fitness as a lifestyle or for athletic gains. It is not really suitable for someone who is just looking to get in shape and stay fit.

Over the years, I've learned that I just don't have the interest in working out for more than about 30 minutes. I can bring focus and intensity for that period, and not compromise form. So I've really come to like the X3 and Focus T25 workouts, not to mention the YAYOG stuff.

The two 'Eccentric' workouts in X3 are really good - slowly put the muscle into tension, then explosively lengthen with resistance. Good stuff. One of my favorite workouts now is the P90X Chest & Back, but only do one round of the movements for time. It's a little Crossfitty, but it's still a killer.

[PensFanInDC]

That's the kind of fitness that helped me lose 100lbs. But its tough to sustain.

[Dickie Dunn]

That's the kind of fitness that helped me lose 100lbs. But its tough to sustain.

It helped me lose over 40 pounds before I went into the Navy, but its damn near impossible to sustain. When it comes to fitness stuff I'm a big fan of Dan John and Ross Enamait and try to base my workouts around their ideas. Whatever I'm doing I just try hard to work hard and work fast and get on with the rest of my day.

[llipgh2]

Gym rant that doesn't have to do with a workout...

Today there was a woman in the locker room whose body odor was so bad, it literally made me gag. And I wasn't the only one.

This was like not showered in 2 weeks B.O. Women actually finished dressing near the door of the locker room and risked being seen by everybody rather than stay in the locker room.

It was bad. I pity the people in the yoga class with her. It explained why it ended 20 minutes early.

[PensFanInDC]

That's the kind of fitness that helped me lose 100lbs. But its tough to sustain.

It helped me lose over 40 pounds before I went into the Navy, but its damn near impossible to sustain. When it comes to fitness stuff I'm a big fan of Dan John and Ross Enamait and try to base my workouts around their ideas. Whatever I'm doing I just try hard to work hard and work fast and get on with the rest of my day.

My trainers were all 20-30 somethings without kids and all worked at the gym full time. They wonder why people with kids and full time jobs have trouble sustaining the lifestyle. If I spent 8-10 hours a day at the gym and didn't have a child that depended on me to live then I would probably still be doing it.

[JS©]

Skipped my first run day in about three weeks. Great Race on Sunday, figured I'd relax for the next day or two. Now that I'm back in the routine of running regularly, I feel terrible skipping a day. Down 15 lbs this month, but the majority of that was me beating the **** out of myself for the first week, which is where half of the weight was lost.

[columbia]

If anyone could point me to a good 30 minute or so workout with resistance bands (the kind with handles), it would be greatly appreciated.

[PensFanInDC]

Are the bands gluten free?