Gym/Exercise Thread

[legame]

For indie rock fans: For the 25th anniversary of the founding of Merge Records, Merge is having a 25k point-to-point race from Chapel Hill (where Superchunk founded the label) to Durham (where corporate offices are now located.). Along the way, label artists will be DJing/playing and The Love Language will play a set at the finish line party. I'm pretty excited. I had a scheduled 11 mile run tonight that turned into the first half marathon I've ever completed.

[shafnutz05]

I really hate calf workouts in general, i need something interesting. This does not seem like my solution.

Try jump squats. Brutal and you get cardio too

[PensFanInDC]

My calves are the size of toddlers so I really don't need to work them. It's the tibialis anterior that needs work. My calves cramp so much because they are so big and over compensate for the underdeveloped tibialis anterior. The problem is that there are not a lot of exercises for that muscle.

[IanMoran]

So, I've always quit the gym because I never knew what in the world I was doing... Id YouTube watch squats and dead lifts, etc, but then felt like I was about to break my back when I tried it there

When drinking with a friend (awww yes, the best place for fitness advice), he told me to come lift with him some (he's a pretty jacked guy). Doing that today for first time, thinking this can be a way that I'll actually keep with it

[tifosi77]

My calves are the size of toddlers so I really don't need to work them. It's the tibialis anterior that needs work. My calves cramp so much because they are so big and over compensate for the underdeveloped tibialis anterior. The problem is that there are not a lot of exercises for that muscle.

The lateral gastrocs are buggers to properly stretch, too.

[PensFanInDC]

My calves are the size of toddlers so I really don't need to work them. It's the tibialis anterior that needs work. My calves cramp so much because they are so big and over compensate for the underdeveloped tibialis anterior. The problem is that there are not a lot of exercises for that muscle.

The lateral gastrocs are buggers to properly stretch, too.

Dude those BURN every time I run or skate. I have some stretches that work but they are difficult to do.

[Grunthy]

Good lord are most people that do crossfit annoying as hell. I'm about to drop them as friends on facebook.

[Grunthy]

It's like seriously, no... one... cares...

[dodint]

Agreed. It's worse in the military when the Captain/Major is in the cult and insists it's appropriate for section PT.

[MRandall25]

What do you guys recommend for finding a program and sticking to it? I know motivation varies from person to person, but how do you stick with something that is, say, a 30-day workout?

I made it 12 or 13 days before I stopped because I felt under the weather on my last day and never picked it back up.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Good lord are most people that do crossfit annoying as hell. I'm about to drop them as friends on facebook.

There was a pretty good article in time a while back about the culture of crossfit. The braggadocio, the self pats on the back, etc, all play into what the guys that run crossfit are looking for.

kenny the kangaroo sees values in the workouts and it honestly it seems like the workouts would be fun. but the culture is a total turn off, at least for this gentleman.

[dodint]

That was my first hand impression. It's actually a pretty dynamic and challenging routine, but the people are awful. Awful awful awful. Later on I ended up using P90X/Insanity when I wanted that kind of stuff without the culture.

[tifosi77]

The lateral gastrocs are buggers to properly stretch, too.

Dude those BURN every time I run or skate. I have some stretches that work but they are difficult to do.

My left lateral gastroc has an adhesion the size of a walnut that simply refuses to go away. I've had my chiro work on it no less than five visits (sixth tomorrow), and I throughout the day I spend probably a total of an hour stretching and rolling (rumble roller/lacrosse ball) the thing and it just sort of flips me off and goes nowhere. And now I'm starting to have IT band nonsense piling on. Getting older sucks.

If you have any stretches you can recommend, I'm all ears. I've tried a variety of approaches to this thing, but I'm always happy to add a new arrow to the quiver.

[Grunthy]

What do you guys recommend for finding a program and sticking to it? I know motivation varies from person to person, but how do you stick with something that is, say, a 30-day workout?

I made it 12 or 13 days before I stopped because I felt under the weather on my last day and never picked it back up.

When you start working out, don't set unattainable goals. Start off modest. When you reach those goals, at least for me, it makes you feel good and want to keep pushing even harder. For me this goes into every type of program I go into. What helps the most is to have 1 or two other people that do the workout with you. People tend to do better and stick with workout routines if they have someone else doing it with them.

[Grunthy]

The lateral gastrocs are buggers to properly stretch, too.

Dude those BURN every time I run or skate. I have some stretches that work but they are difficult to do.

My left lateral gastroc has an adhesion the size of a walnut that simply refuses to go away. I've had my chiro work on it no less than five visits (sixth tomorrow), and I throughout the day I spend probably a total of an hour stretching and rolling (rumble roller/lacrosse ball) the thing and it just sort of flips me off and goes nowhere. And now I'm starting to have IT band nonsense piling on. Getting older sucks.

If you have any stretches you can recommend, I'm all ears. I've tried a variety of approaches to this thing, but I'm always happy to add a new arrow to the quiver.

You are going to probably have to go to physical therapy for that, not a chiro. Adhesion's are muscle damage. Only muscle relaxers, heat, physical therapy and time will heal those if they are that bad. Possibly surgery.

[tifosi77]

Good lord are most people that do crossfit annoying as hell. I'm about to drop them as friends on facebook.

There was a pretty good article in time a while back about the culture of crossfit. The braggadocio, the self pats on the back, etc, all play into what the guys that run crossfit are looking for.

kenny the kangaroo sees values in the workouts and it honestly it seems like the workouts would be fun. but the culture is a total turn off, at least for this gentleman.

What did Godric call it? Xfit is the best way to learn how to do an incorrect pullup.

I have a good bud who's a Level 1 instructor/coach. He's not as hardcore into it as he was a year or so ago, but he's still pretty cultified. My chiro said that in the past two years about 75% of his new patients are Crossfitters, and they are coming in with some outlandish stories of what they've done to themselves in the name of 'fitness'.

There was a piece in HuffPo several months ago about rhabdomyolysis in Xfit athletes. For those who don't know, rhabdo is condition that arises from severe overuse of a muscle, and can turn your pee brown and lead to renal failure. It's super rare, something like 1 per hundreds of thousands of people in the general population. But it's so common among Crossfitters that their unofficial mascot is Uncle Rhabdo..... a clown standing in a pool of his own blood, hooked up to a dialysis machine, his kidney on the floor between his feet.

If you find the notion of falling off the rings and breaking your neck so foreign to you, then we don't want you in our ranks., [CrossFit] can kill you. I've always been completely honest about that.

[dodint]

heh. One of my Sergeants was doing Crossfit and they were doing vertical pushups. Basically a handstand with people holding your legs so you can keep form and not topple over. Well, they weren't paying close attention and he fell, breaking his foot. He was doing Crossfit because he was close to his max weight, and when he went into a cast he ballooned up and lost hold of his career. Just an anecdote, but illustrates that Crossfit will find new and interesting ways to hurt you, quickly.

[tifosi77]

That was my first hand impression. It's actually a pretty dynamic and challenging routine, but the people are awful. Awful awful awful. Later on I ended up using P90X/Insanity when I wanted that kind of stuff without the culture.

I don't think P90X is anywhere near the level of intensity of Crossfit. I have all three P90X core programs, and I'm in the process of doing X3 now. P90X is still probably the best, imo. With X3 they cut the workouts down to 30 minutes, but there's no real warmup or stretching. However, they do have a dedicated warmup video in the series and they encourage you to do that before every workout....... which means the workouts are actually closer to 45-50 minutes...... which is dang near as long as the X1 workouts.

Anyway, X1 is all about pretty high-level fitness, while X3 is more about everyday fitness. You can still achieve good things with 3 going in 'cold and dark', but it's just not on the same planet as X1.

X2......... sheesh........ I think they could have simply marketed it to professional athletes. There are some crazy intense workouts in X2, and they incorporate foam rolling into each routine. I think the shortest workout in the series is 80 minutes, so it's much more of a fitness lifestyle program. I'm glad I got it and tried it, but it was simply beyond what I wanted.

iNSANiTY is no better....! We used to get a kick out of them at the office, watching how there are like actually less people at the end of the workout than at the start. Oy.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Great call tif, that article in Time used a good bit of space talking about rhabdo. There was some doctor that did some sort of study on rhabdo and crossfit, and the reaction from the crossfit crew was extremely over the top with their criticism, including death threats, challenges of the doctors manhood, and so on and so forth. it was about the type of reaction you would expect.

[tifosi77]

heh. One of my Sergeants was doing Crossfit and they were doing vertical pushups. Basically a handstand with people holding your legs so you can keep form and not topple over. Well, they weren't paying close attention and he fell, breaking his foot. He was doing Crossfit because he was close to his max weight, and when he went into a cast he ballooned up and lost hold of his career. Just an anecdote, but illustrates that Crossfit will find new and interesting ways to hurt you, quickly.

YouTube is full of videos of WODs that appear to have been crafted by mentally deficient mountain goats. Like the one where the WODers were roped to a car - yes, a car - and then told to run in unison to tow the (empty) car. And then one of the Crossfitters fell...... and then, since they were all tied together, many more of them fell....... right in front of the 3,000 pound hunk of metal they were all tied to........



Darwin is a thing. A real thing.

[dodint]

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.

[PensFanInDC]

We pulled cars at SoldierFit but there was someone inside who could hit the brake.

[PensFanInDC]

Tomorrow when I'm not on mobile ill share my thoughts on the ___fit craze. I worked for SoldierFit and have a pretty good view of that culture. They call it drinking the kool aid for a reason.

It has its bonuses and its faults as most businesses do.

[IanMoran]

I worked at a restaurant chain that was just opening a new location in undergrad.... In preparation of the "Grand opening" they had a bunch of trainers from the large company come in and "train" us. It included LET'S GO TEAM CHEERS, WE ALL ROCK!!! type things. One lady told us to think of ourself as our favorite disney character every day before work, it'll make you have more fun!

I wanted to kill myself and debated quitting every day until they left.

I imagine (maybe falsely) that that = crossfit

[jimjom]

No crossfit for me. Did it once and that was enough. Yeah it kicked my butt but I could challenge myself to do push-ups, crunches, burpees, and lunges to failure at home in a non cultlike atmosphere for free. Plus I'm all about the bulk/definition, I don't want to look emaciated as a result of hard work.