The Workout/Weight Loss Thread

[Accumulator]

good to see this thread active again.

Yeah, January was probably a good month to revive it, what with New Year`s Resolutions and all.

[Lonnie]

Please don`t take this the wrong way, I`m gonna point out some areas of disagreement...let`s see if we *really* disagree or not (and if we do, that`s cool, OK to agree-to-disagree) and I kinda bet that we *don`t*.......


Oh man, talk about being on a soapbox..can you tell I care about this stuff?!?Hope the above doesn`t sound contentious or that I`m otherwise being a [jerk], it`s just that I do care about this topic (more than I care about shiny cars, but hey, this is Autopia).

Accumulator, you`ve NEVER been a [jerk] in my book. It`s just that SOOOOO many health issues are (bad)diet-and-(no) exercise-related that the American public would put the health and medicine industries out of the serious money-making businesses that they are IF they followed a better regiment on both issues. I know I do not, and that makes me stupid (no unkind words to my self, just a harsh self-judgment) because I DO know better and what to do.

[Accumulator]

Lonnie- Thanks, just never quite know how I come across online, and you know how *everybody* on the internet knows *everything*.

And yeah, all that crappy advice is, IMO, literally killing people, just slowly enough that they don`t realize it. I`m all for making $, but I wonder how some people live with themselves. Eh, maybe they really believe that [stuff].

Now quit calling yourself stupid (yeah yeah, I know what you mean ) and pick a different adjective! Like, "oh, I`m so stubborn!" or something like that. As I said, that self-talk stuff can really matter; IMO we internalize it more than we realize and it can start factoring in to our, uhm....default processing. Sounds to me like you just need to find some better way to assimilate what you already know and consistently put it into action, maybe a better way of, uhm...selling it to yourself. My first-blush thought is to maybe go about it more incrementally, not some drastic shock-to-the-system that (at some level) you just can`t internalize. Pull off some small successes and build on `em.

[Beemerboy]

8531 miles on this red machine last year..that`s up from 6200 the year before. I`ve been an avid road rider since the late 70`s ...raced for a few years in my earlier 30`s I love the road and living in Sonoma County (No Cal) I ride all year except when it`s raining

[Scottwax]

Ended up with 5672 miles on my road bike and now MTB last year. Considering I was at 387 miles in the middle of April, I finished the year pretty strong. Now that I have a MTB, I have more cold weather options, easier to wear warm clothes and not look like a total fred riding dirt. Unfortunately, all the rain we`ve had to finish last year and start this year means most of my bike on the MTB has been paved trails. Still trying to find my traction limits in curves on the MTB riding in dirt. Excellent trails, well marked and challenging...but still so wet right now.



Gained about 5 lbs over the holidays but back eating good and riding more to start the year than last year. First January I can remember in at least 20 years where I am wearing size 32 waist jeans this time of year. Haven`t been lifting in about 6 weeks, tweaked my shoulder and it still isn`t 100%. Rather wait until its right than make it worse and not lift for a really long time. Besides, the gym I go to has been jamb packed since the 1st of the year. I figure in about a week, most of the resolution people will have stopped going and hopefully the shoulder is better.

[Scottwax]

Oh yeah, goal for this year is 6000+ miles and a lot more elevation. I`m lucky to gain 300 feet per 20 miles around here, when I was in Arizona, I rode in Marana which is at the base of the Dove Mountains. In 23 miles, I got something like 1200 ft of elevation gain, at one point, I climbed for 5 miles straight. Here you can attack most hills since they are maybe .3 to .5 miles of climbing. When its 5 miles continuous, you have to sit and spin it out. Also looking to do the Texas Time Trails in September. They have 6, 12 and 24 hour timed events (ride as many miles as possible during that time) and a 500 mile ride, whoever has the fastest time wins. Probably start with the 6 hour event. I figure being older but having a lot of base miles (currently around 33,000 since 2007), endurance events are the way to go.

[chet31]

Just want to throw out a thought. If you are crunched for time, controlling your diet is an easier path to losing weight than increasing your exercise. If you exercise fairly vigorously for one hour, you might burn 500 calories. Plus you need to dress, transport yourself to the location of the exercise, etc. Probably looking at 1.5 to 2 hours commitment. Or, you simply eat 500 calories less, which takes no time at all. Your body will be healthier if you work out, but just pointing out, if time is the main issue, consuming fewer calories does not take up a slot in your schedule.

[Accumulator]

Beemerboy (& Scottwax)- I just knew we`d hear from Scottwax when I saw your post! I bet your locale is great for a biking enthusiast.

chet31- A few thoughts (and again, I hope I don`t come across as argumentative):

First, let met me say that if somebody can cut out a bunch of calories without depriving himself of some needed nutrients, then sure, oughta do that! Empty/excess calories just don`t make sense any more than running an engine on an overly rich fuel mixture. So I don`t think you and I are actually in disagreement at all. That said..

When a friend of mine claimed that "it`s easy for you to be in shape, you`re retired...", I thought of how I now exercise *FAR* less than I did when I was teaching, maybe one-third as much if even that. (Heh heh, I also thought how it`s nice to not have to do a workout at 4AM any more!) To prove my point, I decided to keep track for a month and it turned out that I average just under 20 minutes/day over the course of a few of my ten-day cycles.

OK, that`s just me- I have my routine all figured out and I have all my exercise facilities here at home. Guess that last part is a wildcard, huh?

But IMO you can get an effective workout done in far less than one hour or else you`re not working out very hard- I mean, how long can you do max-effort 90-second Time Under Load sets with weights; how long can you run windsprints?

I`d hate for somebody to use my friend`s excuse and think there`s no point that that exercise stuff if there aren`t hours available. If every sedentary person did five minutes of Burpees every other day the world would be a fitter place. Push ups, chins, body-weight squats (too easy? use one leg), there are a lot of effective exercises that can be done with virtually zero equipment.

My weight workouts don`t take an hour any more, and I`m making better gains than when they did, and the most effective cardio workout ever studied (the Tabata Protocol, which is what I basically do on my "AirDyne day"), involves 3 minutes of both warmup and cooldown with only 4 minutes of actual "workout" in between them. At the end of that brief workout I absolutely couldn`t do any more if my life depended on it. And yes, in the studies that workout resulted in better fat loss than longer, less intense, workouts.

IMO it`s not about exercise *time*, but rather its *intensity*.

I guess I just kneejerk about even the slightest hint that somebody can get away with not exercising; as we age the body loses muscle unless it`s worked pretty hard, and that leads to all sorts of, uhm...negative outcomes. I`ve known a lot of elderly people, and the "healthy but weak" folks weren`t able to do a lot of things and seemed to suffer a lot more accidents. OTOH, I`ve known octogenarians who exercised that basically lived the same lifestyle as when they were younger.

Again, I think I`m not disagreeing with you so much as using your post as a springboard for discussing the "necessary time" topic.

[Accumulator]

OK, time to bump this thread, even if I`m just, uhm...posting to myself.

Still making great progress, better shape/health at 55 than at 54. I wouldn`t say I`m an "outlier" but OTOH I don`t know (i.e., really, personally, IRL, *know*) anybody else who stays in this condition 24/7/52, let alone at my age.

Qs:

Anybody else here doing "Tabata" intervals, or otherwise going anaerobic on their cardio?

Anybody else here using an AirDyne or a StairMaster?

Anybody else here using Resistance Bands in addition to freeweights/machines? (NEVER thought I`d find uses for those, boy was I wrong!)

[IbisA4]

OK, time to bump this thread, even if I`m just, uhm...posting to myself.

Still making great progress, better shape/health at 55 than at 54. I wouldn`t say I`m an "outlier" but OTOH I don`t know (i.e., really, personally, IRL, *know*) anybody else who stays in this condition 24/7/52, let alone at my age.

Qs:

Anybody else here doing "Tabata" intervals, or otherwise going anaerobic on their cardio?

Anybody else here using an AirDyne or a StairMaster?

Anybody else here using Resistance Bands in addition to freeweights/machines? (NEVER thought I`d find uses for those, boy was I wrong!)

Tabata - I love it and hate it at the same time. Always seems like the workout is going to be a lot easier than it actually is.

I am a swim coach, and I use it for my swimmers sometimes also.

[Accumulator]

IbisA4- Ah, I was afraid nobody else uses it! yeah, I love the efficiency/effectiveness of it but it`s the hardest, most unpleasant, thing I ever do, bar none. I see the term "Tabata" bandied about by a lot of people who apparently aren`t doing it to the level of his original studies I can`t bring myself to dial it back for fear of the "slippery slope effect", though the writings of Bass and Winnet have me questioning that (at least at my age).

That oughta be great for your swimmers, I`m guessing that they`re the age where they can really do the "specific adaptation" thing with regard to cardiovascular fitness and the whole...eh, what`s the term?...lactate level thing. It sure worked great for the speed skaters he first tested it on.