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Post by cindra on Jan 7, 2020 13:53:55 GMT -5
Never played VB before but I'm taking a 1 credit PE class at school to stay full time. Should be fun!
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Post by Wolfgang on Jan 7, 2020 13:57:07 GMT -5
Never played VB before but I'm taking a 1 credit PE class at school to stay full time. Should be fun! Here's an insight: the ball hurts.
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Post by Wolfgang on Feb 13, 2020 14:44:53 GMT -5
Schedule for the day:
11:45 AM Grocery shopping 12:30 PM Run 5 miles 1:15 Lunch at Indian restaurant 2:15 Home; shower; play video games 4:00 Afternoon nap 5:30 Feed the dog; read 6:30 Video games 8:00 Take dog to the park 9:00 DVDs 11:00 Video games 1:00 AM Sleep
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 21, 2020 16:33:46 GMT -5
With my gym closed until further notice, I have purchased some at-home exercise equipment. At first, I was going to buy some dumbbells, but they are pretty expensive, so I got a set of resistance bands for the same price or less as one dumbbell. After some testing, they seem reasonably effective. Certainly not as effective as an entire gym, but not bad for the price and portability. Over the coming days, I intend to figure out the various exercises that I can do with the bands, the optimal amount of weight (it's not really the same as the gym equipment, so I have to do some experimenting to figure this out), and the optimal range of motion. I'm glad I ordered them when I did, as a day or two later, similar products all seemed to be out of stock until April. I also purchased a mini-stepper for my cardio needs, as I hate running outside. My initial tests show that it is not nearly as effective as a step mill (no surprise there), but it is certainly better than nothing. I intend to use it while playing video games or watching movies and TV shows to burn some extra calories. I also dusted off my hydration backpack that I received as a one-year work anniversary gift from one of my previous employers, which will allow me to stay hydrated without needing to stop.
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 23, 2020 17:28:40 GMT -5
After some trial and error, I have figured out how to do a semi-full-body workout with resistance bands. I could do chest press, chest flyes, back rows, lat pulldowns, overhead triceps extensions, bicep curls, shoulder press, upright rows, and lateral/front raises. Most of the exercises were 5 sets of 15 with the maximum weight (150 with all the resistance bands stacked up), though a few (mostly shoulder exercises, which were a bit awkward with the bands, but I think I've got it figured out) were a bit less than that. As for legs, my cardio regimen is probably going to have fill the bill for that. For one thing, the weight of the resistance bands just isn't enough to be challenging for a real compound leg exercise (e.g. squats or leg press). And legs are my least favorite muscle group anyway. I mean, I do them every week when the gym is actually open. But with it closed right now, I'm just going to focus on trying to maintain my upper body muscle as much as possible while also doing enough cardio to stay in reasonably good shape and hopefully even lose the last few pounds of fat.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 23, 2020 19:34:51 GMT -5
I have dumbbells, medicine balls, and kettlebells. I don't have resistance bands. I love medicine balls the best because they give quite a workout. I hate kettlebells.
I do strength training every other day and on days I'm not doing strength training, I run 3-5 miles. I do a lot of squats and lunges on strength days.
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Post by bbg95 on Mar 29, 2020 19:28:44 GMT -5
So for several weeks, I was doing what's known as a body recomposition. Basically, the idea is to lose fat and build (or at least maintain) muscle at the same time. This is not easy to do because losing fat and building muscle are two goals that are often at cross purposes. Generally, if you want to build muscle, you have to eat more calories than you burn. And if you want to lose fat, you typically need to burn more calories than you eat. In order to do both at the same time, you have to make sure you eat enough calories without eating too many while also working out a ton. And that's what I had been doing. I was doing 45+ minutes on a stepmill morning and night almost every day and weight training once or twice a day also. And it was working. I had dropped from 190 to 178 in about a month, and I hadn't lost any strength at all (I may have even added strength in some areas like my legs from all that cardio).
This plan got derailed by my gym closing, which is fine. There are obviously much more important things than my ability to go to the gym. But I have concluded that with the gym being closed for at least another month, muscle loss is inevitable at this point, as I just can't replicate a real workout with at-home equipment unless I spend a lot more than the $30 my resistance bands cost me. Even if I did, I have a hard time motivating myself to work out at home. I kind of need the environment of the gym to spend several hours a day working out. So as a result, I have decided that I will focus on losing the remaining fat over the next month or so. This necessitates a very low-calorie diet, which means I have a lot of Greek yogurts in my future. I've found that I'm eating quite a bit less anyway, as playing video games does not require much energy. And when the time comes, it's a lot easier to rebuild muscle than build it in the first place. I will also keep up with the resistance band training at least once or twice a week to mitigate the muscle loss to some degree.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 13, 2020 15:09:33 GMT -5
1. Practiced piano for an hour.
2. Baked bread.
3. Ran 5 miles.
4. Came home and fed the doggy his chicken gizzard-cabbage-carrot-celery stew for his light lunch/snack.
5. I'm about to take a shower.
Rest of afternoon:
- more piano practice - read something - home improvement project
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Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2020 12:14:43 GMT -5
My new routine. Who wants to join me?
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 22, 2020 16:05:53 GMT -5
My new routine. Who wants to join me? Two questions: 1. Are her feet being supported so that she doesn't go tumbling down onto the hardwood floor? They probably are because with the uneven weight distribution, there's no way she can keep her balance on the counter like that. 2. What is that thumping "beat" noise in the background? Is she using that to pace herself? Or is that some beat noise coming from the TV or stereo speakers? I'll have to try this tomorrow.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 23, 2020 13:33:38 GMT -5
My new routine. Who wants to join me? I did these today. They're do-able but not easy. I could only do roughly 8-10 reps with perfect form for each stroke per set. As you increase the number of sets, they become impossible. Also, you need someone or something to secure your feet. There's no way this can be done without that. I did mine on a step platform using 3 risers to get high enough (see photo below). For my feet, I used a chair and put dumbbells and kettlebells on top. Then, I placed my feet under the chair to keep me in place. I would not recommend doing this from a kitchen counter because you could fall and hurt yourself.
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Post by bbg95 on Apr 23, 2020 14:45:14 GMT -5
My new routine. Who wants to join me? I did these today. They're do-able but not easy. I could only do roughly 8-10 reps with perfect form for each stroke per set. As you increase the number of sets, they become impossible. Also, you need someone or something to secure your feet. There's no way this can be done without that. I did mine on a step platform using 3 risers to get high enough (see photo below). For my feet, I used a chair and put dumbbells and kettlebells on top. Then, I placed my feet under the chair to keep me in place. I would not recommend doing this from a kitchen counter because you could fall and hurt yourself. Seems interesting. I'm not motivated to do this at home (not the exercises themselves but rather setting up a place to do them), but it looks like something that could be done at a hyper-extension station. For hyper-extensions, I typically do like five sets of 15 while holding one 45 and one 35 plate (80 pounds). This is obviously a bit different, given that she's replicating swimming strokes. This looks like more of an endurance exercise than a strength one.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 23, 2020 14:49:00 GMT -5
I did these today. They're do-able but not easy. I could only do roughly 8-10 reps with perfect form for each stroke per set. As you increase the number of sets, they become impossible. Also, you need someone or something to secure your feet. There's no way this can be done without that. I did mine on a step platform using 3 risers to get high enough (see photo below). For my feet, I used a chair and put dumbbells and kettlebells on top. Then, I placed my feet under the chair to keep me in place. I would not recommend doing this from a kitchen counter because you could fall and hurt yourself. Seems interesting. I'm not motivated to do this at home (not the exercises themselves but rather setting up a place to do them), but it looks like something that could be done at a hyper-extension station. For hyper-extensions, I typically do like five sets of 15 while holding one 45 and one 35 plate (80 pounds). This is obviously a bit different, given that she's replicating swimming strokes. This looks like more of an endurance exercise than a strength one. Well, you have to hold the "pose" with each rep -- or that's how I do things -- so, to me, it's also about strength and flexibility.
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Post by bbg95 on Apr 23, 2020 14:53:03 GMT -5
Seems interesting. I'm not motivated to do this at home (not the exercises themselves but rather setting up a place to do them), but it looks like something that could be done at a hyper-extension station. For hyper-extensions, I typically do like five sets of 15 while holding one 45 and one 35 plate (80 pounds). This is obviously a bit different, given that she's replicating swimming strokes. This looks like more of an endurance exercise than a strength one. Well, you have to hold the "pose" with each rep -- or that's how I do things -- so, to me, it's also about strength and flexibility. Well, when I say "endurance," I'm talking about muscle endurance as opposed to just raw strength (and definitely not cardio endurance). Like doing a few of these doesn't seem difficult at all, but doing a bunch in a row with no break would get progressively more difficult until you can't hold yourself up anymore. The same goes for bench press or whatever. I work out with like 225 for strength, but even doing 135 can get me very fatigued if I do 20 reps per set.
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Post by Wolfgang on Apr 23, 2020 15:07:16 GMT -5
Well, you have to hold the "pose" with each rep -- or that's how I do things -- so, to me, it's also about strength and flexibility. Well, when I say "endurance," I'm talking about muscle endurance as opposed to just raw strength (and definitely not cardio endurance). Like doing a few of these doesn't seem difficult at all, but doing a bunch in a row with no break would get progressively more difficult until you can't hold yourself up anymore. The same goes for bench press or whatever. I work out with like 225 for strength, but even doing 135 can get me very fatigued if I do 20 reps per set. Okay, gotcha. If you've been exercising with weights using a hyper-extension station, then you probably won't have any problems with the above exercise. I've never used such hyper-extension stations myself, but if you're doing sit-ups, reverse sit-ups, and the like while holding weights, dayummm...
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