Darth - totally knew you had it in you dude! Way to destroy another half marathon. You’re a constant inspiration!! BTW, I looked at the Kenpo X workouts on youtube - it turns out thats basically what I do during my HIIT on the elliptical Throw in weighted gloves and wrist weights, and it’s a great way to kick off a workout and keep the HR up!
… and Great Signature block! I was going to try to remember to tweet Chuck during the last cast to plug this thread and the book club, but totally missed it. Trying for this week.
bkitty - wow, new appreciation for your burpees. This morning I did my usual 35 minute elliptical/Kenpo x HIIT (;)), then went for it. Set a 10 min timer on my watch, and an interval timer on my iPhone. I thought I would do 20 sec. intervals, but I quickly found out those were way too short. On the fly moved to 30 second intervals and that was better. Knocked off 100 with 2 seconds left to spare! Not happy with intervals, so I’m totally going to try your 1 minute cycles next time. Finished off my weight workout with a core and chest day - mason twists FTW!
Doing abs I had a weird thought - the only superhero I ever remember working out in comics was batman, unless you count the X-Men’s danger room as a wicked cross-fit workout. I guess most of them have super metabolism as a secondary super power. :eek:
Bkitty, once again in awe of that, I think if I attempted that right now I’d be dying!
Amber, what I hate about the Kenpo X isn’t the motions themselves is that I guess I just can’t follow them perfectly which gets me frustrated in a bad way, the thing I like about running on the treadmill is its the one time I can let my mind drift while listening to some tunes, in an odd way its relaxing to the mind (though not the body :p)
had to get up early this morning to remove 9 inches of snow before heading into work, that and one of the longest work days I’ve had in a while I think I earned my night off this week! though being out in that freezing weather this morning ironically HELPED my left leg which was really sore from the running, it froze out the pain and hasn’t hurt since then this morning :o
oh and Amber I totally get what you mean about the metabolism thing, I have a cousin who is a friggin stick but sits there and pounds down 2-3 helpings of ice cream/cake every time I see him its ridiculous! his hobbies? reading and playing Xbox…doesn’t hit the gym at all its just not fair! =P
The people I follow on twitter break down into a few categories: GWCers, geeks, sci fi/comedic actors, and fitness folks. I thought I would share some of the fitness folks I follow. Some of the full time trainers post workout or nutrition tweets that help me get fired up to hit the gym and stay on the straight and narrow
GWCers that tweet on fitness (that I know of - feel free to add to the list!! :)) @bkittysd @Nightwing_GWC @GWCChuck
Genre defying @sandrawickham (former fitness pro, also a published writer of vampire & fantasy fiction) @RocWieler EVE blogger who is also really into fitness and is a TRX trainer
If anyone else follows someone who is inspirational in the fitness space, feel free to post or drop me a tweet at @neilisntwitty.
oh forgot to include some awesome news from earlier
I am now officially a ‘Large’ Tshirt size, down from XL, and its not too tight at all, waited a while before trying for just that reason, didn’t want to say I was a L but have it fit real tight an uncomfortable, but I’m a Large now with comfort!
which is good because I ordered my Packers NFC Champs Tshirt in Large :o
edit: fudgesicles! looks like I have to donate blood on Saturday morning which means I’ve gotta do some ab stuff in the morning before work tomorrow then half marathon when I get home!
no particular reason other than I figured starting Monday I’m going into overdrive in exercising 6 days a week for the next 3 months so I might as well take it easy this one last weekend before starting
ate a healthy supper though! 2 small tilapia filets, one cup of steamed peas, a banana, and an apple for desert
now sipping on some green tea w honey and relaxing
That is a great question Darth, music is such a huge part of my workout routine. Doing cardio becomes exponentially harder if I don’t have my iPod—there were a few times when I didn’t charge it and the elliptical machine felt like a deathtrap.
I know what you mean Nike, I honestly don’t know if I could do a decent cardio work out without an iPod anymore I’ve become too dependent on having some music playing to keep me going and my mind off my breathing/legs getting tired
Agreed! I actually change my running stride depending on what song I’m listening to which helps me keep running while I pretend I’m just relaxing listening to music. Twice my iPod wasn’t charged and I only got to a mile before I figured I could find better things to do.
So my music is fast paced or had a good beat to it
Re: From Nerd to Superhero - It would be interesting to see what it would take to get a physique like you see in the comics :).
I’ve been losing weight since August 2010 where I weighed in at 20 stone (280lbs)
As of today I’m weighing in at 16 stone 4lbs (228lbs). I’m doing a challenge that had me start it at 17 stone (238)
A positive point is that I’ve reached my goal of wearing my 16 inch collar shirts which are fitting me perfectly with room to spare and I’m wearing 38 inch trousers that I brought last week. Pretty good going considering I was wearing 46 inch pants last year and one of my goals was to wear 16 inch shirts again and be in the 30 range of trousers.
Since I’ve been doing the weigh loss, I’ve lost a total of 52lbs (got another 50 to go) and since I’ve been doing a challenge on another forum (Which started 5 weeks ago, I’ve lost 10lbs.
I’m using Dance Central which really gets you sweating if you do it properly.
But generally my workouts is usually Mon-Fri with weekends off except when I go swimming with my son on sundays.
My typical routine is:
5.30am - Go for a run
7.00am - Go Swimming (Do 20-30 lengths)
Work
8.00pm - Go Gym for about 45 minutes and/or play Dance Central.
I do this four to five days a week.
EDIT: I just spoke with someone else that is into fitness and he’s the same weight as me, but it goes to show you how different people look at the same weight. He has a better muscle/fat ratio than I have.It’s very interesting.
Re: Music - I totally agree with you guys on music. I used to listen to gaming podcasts, but when I switched over to high impact music, it turbocharged my workouts. On the elliptical, I typically listen to ‘tribal’ workout mixes, like http://www.workoutmusic.com/product.php?productid=16167 or iSweat 50 - Kickbox Training. These kinds of remixes are arranged by bpm, so in the case of the Workout music link, its all 140-144 bpm. This gets rid of any slow songs or changes in pace
For lifting and core workouts, I tend towards angry music
Rage against the Machine: Killing in the Name, Guerrilla Radio, Testify
Disturbed: Never Again, Indestructible, Down with the Sickness
Bullet for my Valentine: Your betrayal, Pleasure & Pain, Begging for Mercy (the whole Fever album actually)
Sometimes some random Stone Sour, Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park, System of a Down, and Rise Against But lately, it’s been a ton of Bullet for my Valentine and Rage against the Machine. The Ac/DC Iron Man Soundtrack had a rotation for a while back there, but sadly it’s been neglected lately.
Darth - Great idea to post tunes. I’m definitely going to check out some of your faves!
bkitty - awesome video! I’ll try and post one from the gym to shout out to everyone on the thread!
Bishop - that’s OSSIM dude. Congrats on achieving your goals. Honestly, its stories like that on the forum that keep us all kicking ass!
Xero - Dude, keep it up! That’s awesome and nothing to sneeze at.
and to Nike, Galaxy, Memyself, Starbuckaneer, Nightwing, Flick, Apollo, Chuck and the rest of the fitness thread participants and lurkers :), keep up the OSSIM work. GWC fitness club thread kicks ass (hmmm, maybe there’s a t-Shirt in there somewhere?)
Personally, I’ve found this works against me. I’ll attempt to keep to the rhythm of the music, even if its off my pace, so I’ll start drifting off the back of the treadmill or slamming into the front of it. I’ve switched from music to long-form podcasts, which occupy my brain long past my exercise period (for example, if I’m walking for an hour, I’ll throw on a two hour podcast, so that I’m done walking before I run out of content).
Its all about finding what works personally. Been making more and more of an attempt to stick with better diet and exercise since around the start of November; I won’t say how much I’ve lost so far (and its far from outwardly noticeable yet) but I am moving toward my goal!
Yeah… I haven’t had any issues with the drifting off the back but I have a longer than normal stride so I’ve definitely hit the foot plate up front a few times when I first started with the treadmills. I try to run outside mostly, but in the winter, the gym is the only way I’ll even work out! I do switch over to podcasts when I move to weights or ab work to entertain myself. I completely agree it’s a personal thing for what works best.
Something I’ve never really done is keep track of my work outs or diet. I tend to go for a good stretch of working out then lose focus and skip time and pick it back up but nothing too consistent and I don’t think I realize how much time I miss in betweeners. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how best to do that? I can only think of writing it on a calendar or something along those lines. Anyone found a good way to do it?
Agreed as well! though not ALL my songs are fast paced but I make sure not to put any that are slow in
also quick question, do you guys manually change the songs as you run or have something pre set up? I use to do it manually but found as my runs got longer it became more of a pain mostly because my hands would get too sweaty and my iPod touch would stop recognizing it after a while and I’d constantly have to towel off the screen and my hands before changing it. Now I have a huge play list that’s total time is an hour and a half longer than I run and I throw it on random so that every time I run it’s not exactly the same each time
well there’s no such thing as a one size fits all approach! but yes I’ve had that issue from time to time and it drives me nuts, and I know I’ve said this 10,000 times but the diet is the hard part and if you can nail that the rest will come, only within the past month have I really started to be really disciplined on the diet other than a couple bad weekend days and Sunday (c’mon it was the Superbowl with my team in it I would have been thrown out of the state if I didn’t eat the customary crap food! )
stop on in more Juan, good to have you with us!
so fun fact for you, when I weighed in on Saturday I weighed in at 228 so now you’ve spoken to two! =O
Gonna have to check out your tribals later but I like the ones you had listed there, I have those on my iPod but for the songs specifically mentioned I don’t have those on my running mix but I’ll throw them on while lifting.
And yes I too tend to lean more towards the angry stuff especially while lifting, but for running I’ve got a nice mix of upbeat dance/pop/techno stuff to go along with the rock and angry music. Judging from the songs you listed as an example I think you’ll like the Nookie by Limp Bizkit song I posted earlier, but if you haven’t heard these give 'em a shot, Superbeat by Rob Zombie, Monster by Skillet, B.Y.O.B. by System of a Down, and Nobody by Skindred
got any specific ones you’d suggest, and let me know what you think of my suggestions, though I’m sure you’ve heard most if not all of them before =P
update on myself: started out the new P90X plan with the subs, did the Chest and Back yesterday, and did my half marathon tonight (still the same incline and speed, I don’t see moving those up until after the ‘easy week’ in a couple weeks P90X gives you)
though that was my normal routine lately so tomorrow will be key, Wednesday was my mid week rest night which will now be filled with the P90X Shoulders and Arms workout plus Ab Ripper X in the morning before work
also as Amber would say ‘OSSIM’ to see an explosion of activity in here, keep it up everyone!
what do you do mostly? a good mix or do you tend to lean more towards weights or cardio
I’ve never written my stuff down until P90X but this thread actually got me started on recording everything, I just grabbed a blank notebook I had laying around and started keeping a log
Did it the simple way of for each day I’d exercise I’d just put in "Blank Day Treadmill: DistanceInclineSpeedTime
edit: went back in the thread and found a link Memself posted http://www.dailymile.com/ I promised to try it but I think I had gotten sick right after and had totally forgotten about it until now!
It sort of depends on my schedule. I go to a gym where they have regularly scheduled classes which I try to make it to but I get caught up at work a lot so I’ll run for a while and do some abs or lift a bit. I don’t function well when it’s cold so I have to force myself to actually make it to the gym a lot of times. I like running, active lifting and cardio/strength classes.
I guess just starting to write it all down would key me in to how I might best keep track for longer term and general tracking.
Throw in weighted gloves and wrist weights, and it’s a great way to kick off a workout and keep the HR up!
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