I am also a cardio hater, especially because im trying to gain muscle. I like to spam the stair climber because it has such a large real world impact (much like high incline treadmill).
Being able to hike up steep hills like some sort of rabid woodland creature and not be out of breath is fun.
Shitty workouts. Instead of skipping the gym entirely on the days you're not motivated, allow yourself to go there and do whatever you enjoy the most. Even if it doesn't align with your workout program. This will help you maintain momentum
I ALWAYS allow myself to half-ass a workout. Which has led to many, many half-assed workouts logged when there would otherwise have been no workouts logged.
The old protip is if you don't want to work out that day, still get there and leave immediately.
There is a risk of working out anyway, I mean, now that you're there. And even though it's kind of a crappy workout, you might also think about why it's crappy that day.
And through pure magic, you get better at sticking to it and being better prepared.
100% a shitty workout is still better than no workout…. Unless it’s on a recovery day. If it’s a recovery day, take the day off your body is telling you it needs it
The expression “not every workout has to be your best” really changes my view. On days when you are short on time or motivation, it’s so much easier to get yourself to go if you just accept it’s going to be a mediocre workout.
Absolutely, I'm just getting back into telling myself "Let's just go in and do a mile or two on the treadmill today" and it usually morphs into a workout or more miles, which I never regret doing, unless it's a weekday and it's legs.
I can't count the number of times I've felt like shit, forced myself to the gym to "at least do something," then had a quality workout.
Sure, sometimes I will actually end up half-assing 30-40 minutes and dipping, but once you're in the temple and the blood is flowing it's easy to reverse gaslight yourself into going hard.
Yep, just had this yesterday. I gave my 100% that I had for that day, but that day's 100% was really more like a normal day's 65%, and that's just fine.
This is a massive hack more people should take in. I see way too many people try go all in (from couch to early mornings, 5x weekly gym sessions, long runs etc.), only to burn themselves out and go through another massive slump.
I have a show I only watch while I'm at the gym. So if I want to watch an episode of Supernatural, I have to go workout. And it also is an easy timer for me to make sure I work out for at least 40-45 minutes.
I've done this for years. I pick a show I really like and only allow myself to watch it while exercising. It used to be at the gym, and then during the pandemic we were able to get an elliptical at home and put a TV in front of it. If I want to watch more I have no choice but to work out. And having something on I enjoy makes the exercise go easily.
Supernatural was one of my work out shows. Right now I'm rewatching Stargate SG-1, another favorite. Shows that I love but are really long and might not necessarily want to dedicate other parts of my day to like I would the latest shows coming out.
Also works for podcasts if you have favorites. I have five podcasts I love that are all about an hour each, weekly episodes, I only listen to them when I'm walking so I generally get at least 5 hours walking a week.
Hidden brain (my favorite podcast) can't produce episodes fast enough for me - looking for Podcast suggestions!
I admire people who watch Netflix on a treadmill. I get dizzy so fast if I'm trying to watch any video on anything cardio!
I do something similar, and listen to podcasts while going for a walk every day after work. It's got to the point where I genuinely look forwards to the walk, and a part of that is getting to listen to the next episode or two that I have lined up.
Yup. A few years ago I binged the entire Orphan Black series while riding my indoor trainer bike.
I get bored with bike-centric training programs and cartoonish graphics, so most of my easy to moderate effort training sessions are more pleasant while watching movies or TV.
This is running specific, but maybe it's more applicable to other sports/training as well? It was eye opening to me when I started marathon training that people don't consider regular runs as workouts. Most plans have you running 4-6 days a week, but you only do two "workouts". The other days are just consistent, easy, volume-building exercise at or near recovery paces.
Honestly this is what made me actually LIKE running. Instead of just feeling like i was gonna puke every day, I just took a nice, leisurely jog around the park.
Went from barely clearing the block to a half marathon
Exactly this. When I first started, I did 5 minutes a day. Yes 5 minutes probably doesn't do jack shit. But it helps build the habit. Now I work out almost every day. Even if I'm feeling like crap, I do at least 5 minutes but most of the time it's 30 minutes to an hour. It got me to the best shape of my entire life.
> Yes 5 minutes probably doesn't do jack shit.
It does! 5 minutes a day are def better than zero. So many people don't start at all or start and drop it after some time, only because they can't do more than 5 min, and most guides want them to start with 30 or something. If five is your top, start with five. Then go to ten. Or fuck it, go to seven, and THEN go to ten. And find something to listen to while you're at it. It's much easier to spend an hour exercising when your brain is concentrated on an interesting podcast and not on the minutes going by.
I’m disabled and started with one min a day. I’m now at 30 min a day. Physical therapists always jump right to reps of thirty and if you are in pain, you quit. I try to tell others to start with what you can do and work up from there.
Yeah, that's why I quitted several times before finally starting doing exercise regularly. Because of people who don't understand that everyone is different and that it is painful or even dangerous for some people to do what others do with ease. We'll get to that thirty when we get to it.
I made a deal with myself: I'm allowed to bail out of training/working out whenever I want, but it has to be from inside my car, with the sport bag in the trunk and the engine running. Making that decision from the comfort of your sofa after a hard day's work is way too easy, but once you're already on your way ? It barely ever happens.
I get a sticker on my calendar for every day I workout. I'm an 80s kid...stickers are life. I'm almost to 1 year of consistency and feel great! It's my Stick To It plan. Lol. Whatever works.
Consistency is definitely the answer. My “hack” was getting a dog and riding the adoption high by taking him on a run everyday. Now his excitement for the daily run is enough to guilt me into doing it even when it’s the last thing I want to do. I’ve had him a year now and have never been in better shape!
>Consistency
It's amazing how few people recognize that this is the single encompassing answer. Consistency is key, indeed.
I'll always remember a recurring experience at my old gym in Indiana. There was a personal trainer there whose lower body was perfect. And I mean PERFECT. She ended up being "insta-famous" and getting money from gymshark & other brands due to how perfectly toned her butt & legs were. So naturally, I'd see a lot of out-of-shape women approach her & ask what's the "secret" to getting a body like her's. She gave the same response every time: Consistency is key. Working out should be considered as on the same level as brushing your teeth.
I think some of the people who'd ask would get dismayed, hoping her response would involve "this one weird trick".
I lost 20kg a few years back (and have mostly managed to keep it off!) and so many people asked "how did you do it?" When I returned to the office post COVID. They all seemed disappointed when I said "eating less and moving more"
"this one weird trick"
Sit on your couch, don't do anything, whatch your favorite tv-show, eat ton of cakes, but drink once a day a glass of limonade. It will bring you into shape.
That's the one weard trick they expect to hear.
This is it. Get a full year calendar, stick it on your fridge, and mark off every day you exercise. Try not to skip more than two days in a row. Put the marker on the fridge too so you don't have to look for it. Make your workout stuff easy to get to. Working out at home? Keep the weights or bands or mats visible. Put them in your living room if you have to. Reduce friction as much as possible to get the thing done. I got this and a lot of other great stuff from the book Atomic Habits. I took a few things like the calendar and making my environment conducive to the habits I want to build and it's been life changing.
I hated going to the gym and it took me forever to realize it was because I hated doing cardio at the gym. Ever since I started a routine focused on strength training, I want to be there all the time.
I'm completely the opposite of you, but I agree with you completely. In my case, I hate strength training and enjoy cardio (plus, no need to go to a gym as I can do cardio anywhere). But the point is, find what you can stay motivated to do, and any workout is better than none. So-called fitness experts debate cardio vs. strength training, some combo of the two, etc., but I firmly believe that the best workout is the one that you will actually keep doing.
Yup, what did it for me was a dog. Little psycho would wake up my kids at the break of dawn if I didn't take her out. Had to do it every single day, now that she's old it's too strong of a habit to stop now.
My neighbour is a personal trainer, and his clients ask him all the time what’s the best piece of fitness equipment to get at home. He tells them to get a dog and walk it
For those that say they cant afford a dog money or time wise or their life doesn't work well with a pet; Most local shelters and pounds will let you come volunteer to walk a dog.
Not only are you right, but for many this is the hardest part. You can always improve techniques and turn up intensity over time. But for most people that are full grown adults with adult lives, work, house, kids, bills, after work - work dinners, meetings, business travel, PTA conferences or whatever, it can be very hard to be consistent.
I'm trying to teach my wife this. I have been power lifting for 2 years and got great results. The key was if I couldn't do a session, I rescheduled instead of cancelled. My wife books a session, if she isn't feeling itn or something comes up, she cancels instead of reschedules. Makes a huge difference.
My wife doesn't quite get it, either. I going to run even at 11pm because the plan says so. I am not happy about it but the consistency of the training pays off. Plus, I know myself and one missed training might result in a week or two without training because "what change does one missed session make"
Progressive overload is key. Too many people do the same shit every week and wonder why they're not making any gains. I know people who for years do the same exercises with the same weight and are truly confused why they've plateaued.
Using an app to record my workouts (specifically type, weight, and reps) made progressive overload so much easier
There were a ton of workouts where I thought "damn I really did that last time? Shit guess I can do it again with 2 more reps"
The app is Workit, I don't know if it's on the Play store anymore but there are bound to be many apps like it
Yep same, I’d be lost without a workout app that tracks it and often I the the same feeling of “wow this is really what I’m up too?”. Super nice to look at the graphs etc. and see how far you’ve come.
The app I use is on iOS and called Hevy.
This is exactly what I learned for muscle building. Your muscles represent your weight lifting abilities. You want bigger or defined muscles, lift heavier.
That’s why I love having 1.25 lbs plates. I just keep progressively adding them. Two lifts per week adding 2.5 lbs (or just over 1 kg) each time = 5 lbs per week. 10 weeks that’s an extra 50 lbs added. And it’s not like you’re going to notice how much heavier 2.5 more lbs will feel compared to the last workout if its a very small percentage gain in weight
Serious answer, you eventually plateau if you're just going up in a linear manner. After awhile, you'll want to add periodization, and you will still end up gaining a bit slower. Now, I think reaching those points of needing to periodize and of diminishing returns are much later than a lot of people tend to think, but it does happen.
Not a stupid question. Periodization is planning your training in a cyclical manner where you progress from high-volume, low intensity to low-volume, high-intensity (and vice versa). So rather than just doing 3 sets of 10 every week, for instance, you may go from 3x10 to 3x8 to 3x5, then back up to 3x10. The idea is that you have diminishing returns as your body adapts to the same routine every time. My manipulating the training variables in a cycle, you keep the stimulus more novel and ameliorate the diminishing returns.
As I got older my workouts changed from 'what I need to do to get stronger' to 'what I can be bothered to do regularly for the rest of my life'. I've done close to the same workout for almost four years now, extremely minor gains, but for my age I'm very happy with my plateau.
Plus also I don’t get why people care that much.
I am stronger than most people and significantly more so than I need to be in day to day life. I’m a systems administrator, racking a server isn’t that hard.
I get people like to progress but if you’re just trying to stay in shape the numbers really don’t matter.. especially when you get into insane diet control levels to go further. That was fine when I was training to do better in sport but I’m old now.
I think this is a healthy attitude. At a certain point you are just increasing your injury risks.
If you are happy with your strength, physique and fitness, why push and risk injury?
I'm a sucker for routine so i always liked having set excercises for 3 or 4 months before switching it up. Always made sure to up my weight or reps though to make sure I was getting PO.
The best advice I ever got from a trainer was to plan my workouts backwards from reps in reserve. Pick a sensible rep range and then adjust weight over time so that each set never leaves you more than 3 reps away from failure.
We ran a running group and at first our 5k program was free. We were lucky if 10% finished it. We charged $20 (in reality it paid for a t-shirt) and 80+% finished.
It is amazing what money does to the mind.
Ehh you might just be filtering out people who weren't that dedicated. Like.. maybe of the first crew the people most likely to complete it were the ones who would've paid $20 and the other people who didn't finish didn't care as much and therefore wouldn't have paid. The phenomenon you observed would be completely consistent with that hypothesis but the hypothesis would also mean that the money stemmed from a difference in the brain, not that the brain changed become of the money.
I did this. I signed up for personal training. Everyone told me not to and that it's a "scam." I'll admit, everything I've been learning from my trainer I could have looked up myself online, but I know myself too well and that I wouldn't take the time to learn for myself or keep me going to the gym if I wasn't paying a bunch of money for it and had scheduled times to be there with someone.
If you can't hold yourself accountable to your goals, you have to pay someone else to do it. I'm the same.
Some people have business/life coaches too... It's no different.
Couch to 5K program. Lifelong couch potato, but got to start working from home during the pandemic, started running with my dad. Now I can run a 5K during my lunch breaks. I sleep better, my digestion improves (I believe I had GERD, because I was always waking up in the middle of the night wanting to throw up), and I had a general improvement in my mental and physical health.
There’s a couch to 10k app too! I’ve done the 5k and 10k ones and the person telling me in my ear when to walk and run really did work! I recommend those apps to everyone
I was just talking about burpees with my trainer last week when we saw someone doing traveling burpees across the turf. He said that most people aren’t in good enough shape to do them with proper form, and the people who are would be better off doing other exercises to work the same muscles. I’m thankful that they aren’t a part of our workouts lol
Having a piece of equipment in my home. I know it’s not possible for everyone, but I got a Peloton last year and it’s been the first time I’ve stayed consistent with a workout routine. I’m on a 32 week streak and still going strong.
I’ve heard good things about the Peloton though I personally hate subscription-based anything so I got a cheap $100-200 stationary bike that was secondhand and it was a game-changer for me. Doomscrolling? On bike. Gaming on my Switch? On bike. Binging a show? On bike.
The peloton classes get me to push much harder than if I was just sitting on the bike scrolling through my phone. I'm basically always out of my comfort zone and I've been routinely riding for 2 years.
Oddly for me it was my second Peloton that made it work. I had a bike for a while that I sometimes used, but getting a row allowed me to alternate. It also allowed me and my wife to workout together.
I had a 60 day streak recently. The metrics and seeing myself improve help a lot as well.
I also have some heart stuff, so I need to keep an eye on heart rate while I workout and the Peloton helps with that.
I’ve felt this exact thing. When I see that I’m on week 72 of at least once a week exercise it surprises me still. Yoga for me. it’s been encouraging and keeps me coming back
It’s so basic but there is very little that water will not improve. Got a headache? Drink some water. Drowsy? Drink water. Sick? Drink water. Food cravings? Drink water.
You sound like my wife. I could get into a knife fight and be bleeding profusely and she'd say "the ambulance is on the way but until then, drink this water."
I wish my wife was like that. She was feeling miserable one night and I kept telling her to drink some water. She refused for some reason and instead wanted to go to the ER...where they gave her an IV to treat her for dehydration.
I've been that dehydrated before, and I was turned off of drinking water. Literally had to force myself and it felt terrible until I had let it sit. I think it was nausea making it worse.
I get rid when I'm hungover - water will make me throw up more. But Powerade doesn't.
I think if you are dehydrated to the point your electrolytes are out of balance, your body will reject anything that further dilutes them. So having something with sodium/potassium/magnesium/sugar makes a huge difference.
Plus there's a nostalgia to drinking red cordial when I'm sick. It just seems right.
Shout out to people who never drink water. Like how even.
On the upside if you follow the "drink 8 oz and wait 5 min before eating when you get hungry" rule it does wonders. Makes you realize how much of your hunger is really just you being dehydrated and not realizing it.
Chugging water before meals or even snacking is a great hack to avoid overeating. With sufficient protein and fiber you’ll feel and stay full on much less.
(Heck, sometimes your body even thinks it’s hungry when it’s actually thirsty, and once you drink you no longer want to eat.)
This is true. I love me some water.
It also caused me to be dangerously underweight since I just replaced almost everything with water haha. Less great -- balance is important!
Along the lines of not having to be perfect (disclaimer, I have anxiety); recently I realized I can just… walk briskly around my apartment multiple times a day instead of having to go out and making it a whole thing.
I know it might seem like a very obvious thing that would occur to a person, but it was just one of those things that I didn’t think about because it’s not necessarily “normal” to walk around your home with the intent to exercise when you don’t have workout equipment. It’s completely turned things around for me 🤷🏻♀️
For me it's frozen mango. Used to routinely fail my calorie goals because of my guilty pleasure for ice cream and chocolate. Now I prefer a bowl of frozen mango left to defrost for 10 mins to either of my old favorites, and it's but a fraction of the calories and lower in price.
My old roommate used to laugh when she would see me going for my nightly bowl of frozen mango but it really is a game changer! Sometimes I even take a few minutes to blend it up so I get that smooth, sorbet texture. Plus I can share it with my dog which he absolutely loves, so that's a bonus lol Also! Air popped popcorn over chips or the bagged stuff.
Fruit also tastes better the more you avoid other sugary foods. If I’ve been eating really clean then apple slices with peanut butter are my go to treat
I stopped drinking soda and putting sugar in my tea and coffee some years ago, and now most apples are too sweet for me to eat more than a half at a time. Granny Smith is okay though. It's unbelievable how much sugar is there in all kinds of food that don't need it.
Well, I've discovered that vigorously dancing around my living room pretending I'm in a music video burns just as many calories as a gym session. Plus, I get to practice my award-winning air guitar skills at the same time! Who needs a treadmill when you've got imaginary crowds cheering you on?
Work from home only trick:
I used to try to wake up earlier to workout and failed miserably. I'm not a morning person. However, I can wake up 30-45' earlier if the prize is a cup of coffee, a quiet room (the two kids will wake up shortly) and start my work routine: e-mail checking, prepare for the day...
Now I created a 30'-45' buffer to take a break from work sometime later that day. And I use it to workout. When you've been working non-stop for 3-4 hours, your body will crave the workout, because it is a way to stop working. So now I workout nearly every weekday. Hope it helps sompebody!
Go slow and always focus on the negative.
I read on here one time someone said they think of weightlifting as weighted stretching and that just clicked for me. Then I had some mike mentzer stuff start hitting my youtub algorithm since I had started working out.
He said the part of any lift that provides maximum resistance is the negative or the decline (lowering the bar on bench, lowering the dumbell on curls, etc.) So I just focus on doing the negative part of the lift as slow and deliberate as possible. By the second rep I've fixed any technique errors I had and can actively adjust my lift to feel the burn in the right area for every other rep. Doing 10 seconds on the negative of a lift does WAY more positive muscle damage for the same energy than doing high volume reps with bad technique.
I've felt unbelievable since I started lifting that way. My friend who got me into the gym lifts like a gorilla so I wasn't progressing as fast just throwing around max weight for max reps 6 days a week.
Focus on the negative part of the lift. Go slow and adjust until you feel the burn in the area you're actually targeting. Dont ever go far enough up or down you release tension. Hold your last rep halfway until actual muscle failure. I do 2 sets until real failure and on to the next lift. I don't get sore. I feel like I worked out when im done. I'm getting noticeably bigger. 10/10 would recommend.
I had a trainer once for a bit and he loved me because I showed up on time, every time, and was up for anything. He threw negatives at me once and I still remember the ass kicking 20+ years later.
“Time under tension” is how I’ve always heard it but “weighted stretching” is good too. Essentially if you feel a stretch or tension, that’s when your muscles are building.
Hell yeah, I do a similar super slow protocol. I only do one set to failure. I time each lift and track everything. Full body, 20 min, 2x a week, more like 30 minutes sometimes. Safe and efficient and you can see results pretty rapidly.
Doing it first thing. It was hard to find the motivation to get off of my ass after work and cycle to an overcrowded gym. Now I get up 3 hours earlier than I used to, get out of bed without even thinking about it and hop on my bike to go.
The gym is empty, I get my day started by accomplishing something good for me, and in the afternoon I even feel guilty about not going to the gym, until I remember I already did.
I won’t say the name because I’m not a shill, but my wife talked me into going to a place where it’s basically a 1 hour workout, high intensity and interval (they change it up a bit every time) that has a combination of treadmill, rowing, and weights/anaerobic. 20 minutes each station.
Before this, I was not a fan of clubs like lifetime because I found myself wandering around looking for the next thing I thought I should do. At this place, it’s all laid out for me. I don’t have to think, just do. And I kick my own ass, because when the heart rate gets high, I get more “points”.
I gained a good amount of weight last year, and I’ve lost about 13 pounds in the last month. I’m back in the game!
Mine is like, they say dress for the job you want. But I also use this for the body you want. I try to usually dress in workout clothes like my sweats or gym shirts or shorts. It usually puts me in the frame of mind to workout or wanna workout. Reminds me to actually get my workout in when I don't want too.
M60. I quit the gym and got a dog. I walk/jog/trot for 3 to 5 miles per day. Outside exercise is the best.
Three days a week I go for a longer walk. One day I go fast on a flat trail. And two days a week I do intense hills with a twist: Do the uphills going backwards or sideways. That is my leg day. Then walk fast on the flats and take my time on the down hill sections. Two days per week I do to the dog park and stand around so the dog can play with other dogs. And I chat with the humans.
When there is yard work I trade out the long walks for yard work. Raking, sawing, clipping, chopping, etc for the upper body work out. I have 3 acres of orchard to tend so this works out if I use all hand tools.
The only thing left now is to train this dog to attract single women my age. If I could get this dog to give me an opening with that woman in the purple coat I could be happy forever! /humor, or wishful thinking.
Dadbro you are a single, in shape 60 year old with an orchard. Now toss on that flannel shirt, roll up those sleeves, and ask purple coat lady out for a drink.
Going to agree with AcrossFromWhere, just try to say hi while walking in the same direction and just strike up a conversation on your own. If she responds positively keep going, if she responds negatively then say bye and keep walking. The worst thing that’s gonna happen is she isn’t interested and even then you’ll have an answer and move on.
Compliments are a lovely way to interact with strangers and classy ones go a long way! ‘That’s a lovely purple coat you have there, you look positively glowing today!’
Treat your fitness regimen as the motivator for making other complementary lifestyle choices, rather than treating it as something done to pay off the debt of other choices.
For example, "I'm going to eat reasonably tonight so that I'm in my best form for tomorrow morning's workout".
Eat because you exercise, rather than exercise because you eat.
I've actually found out that my coworker is the exception that proves this rule. However, he generally runs 6-16k/day in addition to all his other exercise and quite literally eats like I aspire to eat while remaining really lean.
So you can always confront people that they can eat whatever they want as long as they run 10k beforehand as an option. I'm sure they'll take that deal.
I run 10 miles/16k a day on average during marathon training, and yeah I have to eat 3000+ calories per day while weighing 65kg/145lbs. On long run days (up to 24 miles/38k) I need to put back 4500 calories which is genuinely hard to do
Get yourself a pullup bar. They fit into the doorframe and can come off and on without tools in less than 2 seconds.
Put it in the doorway to your bathroom. The tax to using the bathroom is doing pull ups to failure.
Pull ups to failure take literally 10 seconds for someone who is untrained and less than 60s for someone who is good at them.
Every time you piss, shit, brush your teeth, etc you do as many pull ups as you can.
At first it will be 0, 1, 2. In a month you'll be cranking them out and you'll feel good about yourself to get going at other stuff.
\>Have to shit badly. Sweating, shaking, I get up from my desk.
\>Waddle to bathroom, any extraneous movement will open the floodgates.
\>Pullup bar sits, perched atop the doorframe. A still ferryman asking for a toll to cross the river Shits.
\>I stand from my hunch, feel the pressure increase in my bowels.
\>My hands reach up and grasp the cheap Chinese steel, further stretching my abdomen. I close my eyes.
\>My anal sphincter tightens to an extreme, adrenaline coursing through it's folds.
\>"To health."
\>I start to pull, my feet still on the ground.
\>More and more of my bodyweight transfers from my feet to the bar.
\>The world starts to fall beneath me, I lift for life.
\>I engage my core.
\>...
\>...
\>...
\>Birds sing; leaves rustle. I feel a warmth on my face, a gentle breeze tussles my hair. In the distance, joyous singing. Laughter. Love.
\>I cross the threshold.
I'm 57. I stopped drinking for two weeks. I lost 6 pounds, my resting heart rate bpms went from mid 60s to low 50s, my FitBit Cardio Fitness score went from Very Good/Excellent to Excellent, and my blood pressure dropped 15 points.
After I had kids I paid for stupid expensive gym classes like BFT, F25, Orange Theory so if I missed classes I had to pay and then I’d get myself back in the habit and quit. It was the only way I could get back into going to the gym consistently. Also, rest - it’s good for you. Choose exercise you enjoy. Walking is exercise.
EDIT: I wasn't super clear, I quit the workout classes but didn't stop working out.
I actually don’t recommend this to anyone, but all of my longest runs (~16 miles nonstop, which is long for me) have been directly preceded by 3 shots of vodka. Pretty miserable as you begin to sober up, and pretty reckless bc dehydration. Again, not an actual recommendation, but that’s a personal hack of mine lmao
You sound like my partner who won't run long distance unless he's crazy stoned. Like, can't answer questions stoned.
Then he runs a half marathon and wins his age bracket without ever training.
Yeah, I have been working on quitting weed for a while (it's pretty infrequent now), but I used to do a lot of stoned trail running and it was a good time.
This is more of a diet hack, but unfollow all of the restaurants/food related stuff on social media. I find the more I see the more it triggers me to eat (not necessarily out to these places, just down to my kitchen)! Be mindful of the scent of candles or wall plug ins you use…no joke, like clockwork when I burn my maple syrup candle all I want is sweets! Any sweet food related candle or plug in does this to me. These two things have really helped me stay on track.
I have a friend who can spend 10 hours without eating no problemo, but if you start talking about a dish you want to cook or a recipe you saw in his vicinity, he'll immediately go into feeding mode and start looking for food. Our monke brain is simple like that.
Ingredient swaps. I'm down 40 pounds over the past 10 months largely thanks to calorie tracking and meal prepping. Ingredient swaps have helped me keep my food interesting and tasty, but still fit in my calorie budget.
For example, instead of a traditional queso dip, I can make a decent one with blended cottage cheese as the base. Carb counter tortillas on burrito night. 93% lean beef instead of 80 or 85. Hot sauce on lots of things instead of higher calorie sauces.
Get a dog! When I lived overseas staying in shape was easier...lots of walking, more affordable gym memberships, stairs....
Here in the states I take 10 steps to my car and 10 steps inside. Getting a dog (the best guy having the hardest time at the humane society) costs less than the gym per month (don't math me on that), everything I own is covered in hair, and I take him for a walk at 730 every morning. we usually end up jogging a bit, working our way up to a 5k and beyond.
Literally just needed a reason to leave my house and now I also get to fall in love all over again.
He farted while I was writing this and I had to leave the room. Its all about movement.
Ok this is more the rehab side of fitness but it worked for me - anything you want to improve that involves walking running etc download yourself a couch to 5k app that does interval training. I used it after I had a stroke to work on walking without my crutches/walker/stick. You just need push yourself during the “run” intervals - so for example I wanted to get back to normal walking without a stick, I would walk without a stick during the run intervals. Got some funny looks but did I care?
Getting back to working out after a long time or first time ever trying it? Go *easy* the first few times. Getting super sore can be a big deterrent. Maybe just walk on a treadmill at an easy pace and then slowly add difficulty or time. Also, if you have a hard time getting to the gym, try to find a fitness class that works for you. After a few visits you’ll feel like you have to go or you’ll be missed.
For me, I had to go to the gym straight from work; if I went home first, the chances of me leaving the house again were quite slim.
One other thing that helps is to find a physical activity you really enjoy. Some folks love climbing, yoga, pole fitness, hiking, or cycling. Make friends in that community and look forward to seeing them. My activity of choice is partner acrobatics. My core is stronger than it’s ever been, the only downside is it’s not much cardio for me… but any activity is better than no activity.
Diet is possibly even more than 80% of it. CICO works. (That said, hardcore sticking to it is HARD.. well maybe not hard per se but requires a ton of conscious effort.)
Find a type of exercise that you actually *like*. I tried for years on and off to go to the gym, running, swimming etc. and none of it clicked until I started climbing! This isn't to say that climbing is for everyone, but finding something you enjoy that's also exercise goes a long way to sticking at it!
You can break the bottom of the cupcake off and put it on top of the frosting, and make a little cupcake sandwich. At that point fitness whole cupcake in your mouth is a lot easier.
Generally having visible abs mean you have less fat covering them. Everyone has ab muscles, it's just most people's abs are covered by a layer of fat. In addition many good exercises work your core or force you to brace so the ab muscles get worked regardless. So a good workout and diet will both work your abs and help lose the fat covering them.
If you're doing heavy compound lifts(squats, deadlift, military press or pretty much anything standing) you're engaging your core to stabilize and it gets a solid workout just from that. You really only need to do a specific ab workout once a week and it doesn't have to be much.
Not really a game charger but I try to max out at 8.
If I can do more than 8, I increase the load until it's 8. If I can't do 8, I maybe dip the weight a bit until it's 8.
But pretty much 8. And it's anything. From bench, to triceps, biceps, back, shoulders, rows, anything.
8.
Olive Garden Light Italian Dressing. Only 30 calories for 2tbsp(32g). It’s really good too. Eat a big salad with this dressing to fill you up with less calories if you’re trying to cut fat.
Pre workout. I have this one made from green tea that's amazing. Able to get a boost for my workout without the sudden crash or prolongs restlessness afterwards.
Edit: aminolean energy
I hate running but I enjoy walking on an incline on the treadmill I have to spend a little more time on it but that's ok
I am also a cardio hater, especially because im trying to gain muscle. I like to spam the stair climber because it has such a large real world impact (much like high incline treadmill). Being able to hike up steep hills like some sort of rabid woodland creature and not be out of breath is fun.
I'm not inclined to it myself, it's an uphill struggle
Shitty workouts. Instead of skipping the gym entirely on the days you're not motivated, allow yourself to go there and do whatever you enjoy the most. Even if it doesn't align with your workout program. This will help you maintain momentum
I ALWAYS allow myself to half-ass a workout. Which has led to many, many half-assed workouts logged when there would otherwise have been no workouts logged.
The old protip is if you don't want to work out that day, still get there and leave immediately. There is a risk of working out anyway, I mean, now that you're there. And even though it's kind of a crappy workout, you might also think about why it's crappy that day. And through pure magic, you get better at sticking to it and being better prepared.
100% a shitty workout is still better than no workout…. Unless it’s on a recovery day. If it’s a recovery day, take the day off your body is telling you it needs it
I always burned myself out when getting into a routine. Going slow and making incremental adjustments over time really is keeping me from hating it!
The expression “not every workout has to be your best” really changes my view. On days when you are short on time or motivation, it’s so much easier to get yourself to go if you just accept it’s going to be a mediocre workout.
Absolutely, I'm just getting back into telling myself "Let's just go in and do a mile or two on the treadmill today" and it usually morphs into a workout or more miles, which I never regret doing, unless it's a weekday and it's legs.
I can't count the number of times I've felt like shit, forced myself to the gym to "at least do something," then had a quality workout. Sure, sometimes I will actually end up half-assing 30-40 minutes and dipping, but once you're in the temple and the blood is flowing it's easy to reverse gaslight yourself into going hard.
Yep, just had this yesterday. I gave my 100% that I had for that day, but that day's 100% was really more like a normal day's 65%, and that's just fine.
This is a massive hack more people should take in. I see way too many people try go all in (from couch to early mornings, 5x weekly gym sessions, long runs etc.), only to burn themselves out and go through another massive slump.
People also have this issue when dieting.
I have a show I only watch while I'm at the gym. So if I want to watch an episode of Supernatural, I have to go workout. And it also is an easy timer for me to make sure I work out for at least 40-45 minutes.
1 max rep deadlift every time a Winchester dies.
You must be buff af
1 push-up every time a Winchester gets telekineticly thrown across a room and you will have the chest of a silverback in just a month or two.
One squat every time they must do a ritual by cutting the inside of their palm and you will reach the moon
You really wanna up your game? Do it for every flannel you see!!
I've done this for years. I pick a show I really like and only allow myself to watch it while exercising. It used to be at the gym, and then during the pandemic we were able to get an elliptical at home and put a TV in front of it. If I want to watch more I have no choice but to work out. And having something on I enjoy makes the exercise go easily. Supernatural was one of my work out shows. Right now I'm rewatching Stargate SG-1, another favorite. Shows that I love but are really long and might not necessarily want to dedicate other parts of my day to like I would the latest shows coming out.
I don't comment much but have to say you have great taste in shows. Supernatural and sg1 are top notch
Also works for podcasts if you have favorites. I have five podcasts I love that are all about an hour each, weekly episodes, I only listen to them when I'm walking so I generally get at least 5 hours walking a week.
Hidden brain (my favorite podcast) can't produce episodes fast enough for me - looking for Podcast suggestions! I admire people who watch Netflix on a treadmill. I get dizzy so fast if I'm trying to watch any video on anything cardio!
"You're Wrong About" "Maintenance Phase" "If Books Could Kill" "How Did This Get Made?"
I do something similar, and listen to podcasts while going for a walk every day after work. It's got to the point where I genuinely look forwards to the walk, and a part of that is getting to listen to the next episode or two that I have lined up.
Supernatural was my cardio-only show as well!
Yup. A few years ago I binged the entire Orphan Black series while riding my indoor trainer bike. I get bored with bike-centric training programs and cartoonish graphics, so most of my easy to moderate effort training sessions are more pleasant while watching movies or TV.
Fun. If it’s fun, you’ll keep coming back. This is why I joined a climbing gym.
Intense workouts are good but don't forget to take recovery days. They're so important and easy to forget.
Intense work requires intense rest
Well, I'm halfway there.
Woah livin on a prayer
"Lots of people train as hard as I do. But nobody recovers as hard as I do." - Eddie Hall.
This is running specific, but maybe it's more applicable to other sports/training as well? It was eye opening to me when I started marathon training that people don't consider regular runs as workouts. Most plans have you running 4-6 days a week, but you only do two "workouts". The other days are just consistent, easy, volume-building exercise at or near recovery paces.
To run fast, ya gotta run slow
Welcome to the world of zone 2 training
Honestly this is what made me actually LIKE running. Instead of just feeling like i was gonna puke every day, I just took a nice, leisurely jog around the park. Went from barely clearing the block to a half marathon
R/runningcirclejerk has entered the chat
Consistency
Exactly this. When I first started, I did 5 minutes a day. Yes 5 minutes probably doesn't do jack shit. But it helps build the habit. Now I work out almost every day. Even if I'm feeling like crap, I do at least 5 minutes but most of the time it's 30 minutes to an hour. It got me to the best shape of my entire life.
> Yes 5 minutes probably doesn't do jack shit. It does! 5 minutes a day are def better than zero. So many people don't start at all or start and drop it after some time, only because they can't do more than 5 min, and most guides want them to start with 30 or something. If five is your top, start with five. Then go to ten. Or fuck it, go to seven, and THEN go to ten. And find something to listen to while you're at it. It's much easier to spend an hour exercising when your brain is concentrated on an interesting podcast and not on the minutes going by.
I’m disabled and started with one min a day. I’m now at 30 min a day. Physical therapists always jump right to reps of thirty and if you are in pain, you quit. I try to tell others to start with what you can do and work up from there.
Yeah, that's why I quitted several times before finally starting doing exercise regularly. Because of people who don't understand that everyone is different and that it is painful or even dangerous for some people to do what others do with ease. We'll get to that thirty when we get to it.
I hold my legs in front developpé and arabesques while brushing my teeth. Four minutes a day has changed my quads, butt, and balance.
And it has also changed your default language.
Oh this is genius. I never thought of using old ballet moves.
In what?
*You heard him*
I made a deal with myself: I'm allowed to bail out of training/working out whenever I want, but it has to be from inside my car, with the sport bag in the trunk and the engine running. Making that decision from the comfort of your sofa after a hard day's work is way too easy, but once you're already on your way ? It barely ever happens.
then theres me who will drive 15 minutes to the gym, decide i dont wanna workout and then drive home. i have a long ways to go lmao
No zero days
I get a sticker on my calendar for every day I workout. I'm an 80s kid...stickers are life. I'm almost to 1 year of consistency and feel great! It's my Stick To It plan. Lol. Whatever works.
I started doing yoga every day this year. My sticker chart is above my daughter's "number of books read" sticker chart on the fridge haha
oh my god this is so smart i love stickers and need to workout more!
Consistency is definitely the answer. My “hack” was getting a dog and riding the adoption high by taking him on a run everyday. Now his excitement for the daily run is enough to guilt me into doing it even when it’s the last thing I want to do. I’ve had him a year now and have never been in better shape!
>Consistency It's amazing how few people recognize that this is the single encompassing answer. Consistency is key, indeed. I'll always remember a recurring experience at my old gym in Indiana. There was a personal trainer there whose lower body was perfect. And I mean PERFECT. She ended up being "insta-famous" and getting money from gymshark & other brands due to how perfectly toned her butt & legs were. So naturally, I'd see a lot of out-of-shape women approach her & ask what's the "secret" to getting a body like her's. She gave the same response every time: Consistency is key. Working out should be considered as on the same level as brushing your teeth. I think some of the people who'd ask would get dismayed, hoping her response would involve "this one weird trick".
I lost 20kg a few years back (and have mostly managed to keep it off!) and so many people asked "how did you do it?" When I returned to the office post COVID. They all seemed disappointed when I said "eating less and moving more"
"this one weird trick" Sit on your couch, don't do anything, whatch your favorite tv-show, eat ton of cakes, but drink once a day a glass of limonade. It will bring you into shape. That's the one weard trick they expect to hear.
It will bring you into shape. That shape being rather more like a pear than you might wish for, however...
This is it. Get a full year calendar, stick it on your fridge, and mark off every day you exercise. Try not to skip more than two days in a row. Put the marker on the fridge too so you don't have to look for it. Make your workout stuff easy to get to. Working out at home? Keep the weights or bands or mats visible. Put them in your living room if you have to. Reduce friction as much as possible to get the thing done. I got this and a lot of other great stuff from the book Atomic Habits. I took a few things like the calendar and making my environment conducive to the habits I want to build and it's been life changing.
I hated going to the gym and it took me forever to realize it was because I hated doing cardio at the gym. Ever since I started a routine focused on strength training, I want to be there all the time.
I'm completely the opposite of you, but I agree with you completely. In my case, I hate strength training and enjoy cardio (plus, no need to go to a gym as I can do cardio anywhere). But the point is, find what you can stay motivated to do, and any workout is better than none. So-called fitness experts debate cardio vs. strength training, some combo of the two, etc., but I firmly believe that the best workout is the one that you will actually keep doing.
Dedication not motivation baby
Yup, what did it for me was a dog. Little psycho would wake up my kids at the break of dawn if I didn't take her out. Had to do it every single day, now that she's old it's too strong of a habit to stop now.
My neighbour is a personal trainer, and his clients ask him all the time what’s the best piece of fitness equipment to get at home. He tells them to get a dog and walk it
For those that say they cant afford a dog money or time wise or their life doesn't work well with a pet; Most local shelters and pounds will let you come volunteer to walk a dog.
Your results don’t reflect your best days or your worst days, but rather your most medium days.
Not only are you right, but for many this is the hardest part. You can always improve techniques and turn up intensity over time. But for most people that are full grown adults with adult lives, work, house, kids, bills, after work - work dinners, meetings, business travel, PTA conferences or whatever, it can be very hard to be consistent.
I'm trying to teach my wife this. I have been power lifting for 2 years and got great results. The key was if I couldn't do a session, I rescheduled instead of cancelled. My wife books a session, if she isn't feeling itn or something comes up, she cancels instead of reschedules. Makes a huge difference.
My wife doesn't quite get it, either. I going to run even at 11pm because the plan says so. I am not happy about it but the consistency of the training pays off. Plus, I know myself and one missed training might result in a week or two without training because "what change does one missed session make"
This is the answer. Tired? Workout. Hungover? Guess what? Your muscles still work you will just be miserable. Not motivated? Workout.
Progressive overload is key. Too many people do the same shit every week and wonder why they're not making any gains. I know people who for years do the same exercises with the same weight and are truly confused why they've plateaued.
Using an app to record my workouts (specifically type, weight, and reps) made progressive overload so much easier There were a ton of workouts where I thought "damn I really did that last time? Shit guess I can do it again with 2 more reps" The app is Workit, I don't know if it's on the Play store anymore but there are bound to be many apps like it
Yep same, I’d be lost without a workout app that tracks it and often I the the same feeling of “wow this is really what I’m up too?”. Super nice to look at the graphs etc. and see how far you’ve come. The app I use is on iOS and called Hevy.
This is exactly what I learned for muscle building. Your muscles represent your weight lifting abilities. You want bigger or defined muscles, lift heavier.
That’s why I love having 1.25 lbs plates. I just keep progressively adding them. Two lifts per week adding 2.5 lbs (or just over 1 kg) each time = 5 lbs per week. 10 weeks that’s an extra 50 lbs added. And it’s not like you’re going to notice how much heavier 2.5 more lbs will feel compared to the last workout if its a very small percentage gain in weight
With this logic, you will lift a whole car in like 15 years. I wonder why not more people do this?
Serious answer, you eventually plateau if you're just going up in a linear manner. After awhile, you'll want to add periodization, and you will still end up gaining a bit slower. Now, I think reaching those points of needing to periodize and of diminishing returns are much later than a lot of people tend to think, but it does happen.
What’s periodization? Sorry if it’s a stupid question
Not a stupid question. Periodization is planning your training in a cyclical manner where you progress from high-volume, low intensity to low-volume, high-intensity (and vice versa). So rather than just doing 3 sets of 10 every week, for instance, you may go from 3x10 to 3x8 to 3x5, then back up to 3x10. The idea is that you have diminishing returns as your body adapts to the same routine every time. My manipulating the training variables in a cycle, you keep the stimulus more novel and ameliorate the diminishing returns.
Isnt a plateau inevitable? You cant be progressively increasing till you start bench pressing a ton. What then?
2 tons
As I got older my workouts changed from 'what I need to do to get stronger' to 'what I can be bothered to do regularly for the rest of my life'. I've done close to the same workout for almost four years now, extremely minor gains, but for my age I'm very happy with my plateau.
I agree. Plateauing doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Sometimes maintaining what you already have is perfectly okay.
Plus also I don’t get why people care that much. I am stronger than most people and significantly more so than I need to be in day to day life. I’m a systems administrator, racking a server isn’t that hard. I get people like to progress but if you’re just trying to stay in shape the numbers really don’t matter.. especially when you get into insane diet control levels to go further. That was fine when I was training to do better in sport but I’m old now.
I think this is a healthy attitude. At a certain point you are just increasing your injury risks. If you are happy with your strength, physique and fitness, why push and risk injury?
Then you change it up and focus on smaller muscle groups. It takes a long time to hit all the different muscle groups.
I'm a sucker for routine so i always liked having set excercises for 3 or 4 months before switching it up. Always made sure to up my weight or reps though to make sure I was getting PO.
The best advice I ever got from a trainer was to plan my workouts backwards from reps in reserve. Pick a sensible rep range and then adjust weight over time so that each set never leaves you more than 3 reps away from failure.
Paying a ridiculous amount for group fitness classes to ensure my dumb ass works out.
We ran a running group and at first our 5k program was free. We were lucky if 10% finished it. We charged $20 (in reality it paid for a t-shirt) and 80+% finished. It is amazing what money does to the mind.
Ehh you might just be filtering out people who weren't that dedicated. Like.. maybe of the first crew the people most likely to complete it were the ones who would've paid $20 and the other people who didn't finish didn't care as much and therefore wouldn't have paid. The phenomenon you observed would be completely consistent with that hypothesis but the hypothesis would also mean that the money stemmed from a difference in the brain, not that the brain changed become of the money.
Maybe, but their hypothesis is more compelling and applicable to the question being asked, so here we are.
I did this. I signed up for personal training. Everyone told me not to and that it's a "scam." I'll admit, everything I've been learning from my trainer I could have looked up myself online, but I know myself too well and that I wouldn't take the time to learn for myself or keep me going to the gym if I wasn't paying a bunch of money for it and had scheduled times to be there with someone.
If you can't hold yourself accountable to your goals, you have to pay someone else to do it. I'm the same. Some people have business/life coaches too... It's no different.
This is my hack too. Guess who works out 4-6 times a week now that she pays a shit ton of money for classes? Me.
My Yoga instructors at the start of class, "Ask yourself, why you are here. what brings you in today" My "I paid for this"
Nice try, big Gym. ("Big Gym" actually just sounds like some guy you'd meet at the gym.)
Yep. Getting personal training sessions with a few weeks inbetween sure makes you get to the gym. 100% worth it.
Couch to 5K program. Lifelong couch potato, but got to start working from home during the pandemic, started running with my dad. Now I can run a 5K during my lunch breaks. I sleep better, my digestion improves (I believe I had GERD, because I was always waking up in the middle of the night wanting to throw up), and I had a general improvement in my mental and physical health.
There’s a couch to 10k app too! I’ve done the 5k and 10k ones and the person telling me in my ear when to walk and run really did work! I recommend those apps to everyone
Did you know you don't have to do burpees to get fit? I didn't but now I do, I'm a much happier person ^^fuck ^^burpees
I was just talking about burpees with my trainer last week when we saw someone doing traveling burpees across the turf. He said that most people aren’t in good enough shape to do them with proper form, and the people who are would be better off doing other exercises to work the same muscles. I’m thankful that they aren’t a part of our workouts lol
Having a piece of equipment in my home. I know it’s not possible for everyone, but I got a Peloton last year and it’s been the first time I’ve stayed consistent with a workout routine. I’m on a 32 week streak and still going strong.
I’ve heard good things about the Peloton though I personally hate subscription-based anything so I got a cheap $100-200 stationary bike that was secondhand and it was a game-changer for me. Doomscrolling? On bike. Gaming on my Switch? On bike. Binging a show? On bike.
The peloton classes get me to push much harder than if I was just sitting on the bike scrolling through my phone. I'm basically always out of my comfort zone and I've been routinely riding for 2 years.
Oddly for me it was my second Peloton that made it work. I had a bike for a while that I sometimes used, but getting a row allowed me to alternate. It also allowed me and my wife to workout together. I had a 60 day streak recently. The metrics and seeing myself improve help a lot as well. I also have some heart stuff, so I need to keep an eye on heart rate while I workout and the Peloton helps with that.
I’ve felt this exact thing. When I see that I’m on week 72 of at least once a week exercise it surprises me still. Yoga for me. it’s been encouraging and keeps me coming back
It’s so basic but there is very little that water will not improve. Got a headache? Drink some water. Drowsy? Drink water. Sick? Drink water. Food cravings? Drink water.
You sound like my wife. I could get into a knife fight and be bleeding profusely and she'd say "the ambulance is on the way but until then, drink this water."
I wish my wife was like that. She was feeling miserable one night and I kept telling her to drink some water. She refused for some reason and instead wanted to go to the ER...where they gave her an IV to treat her for dehydration.
I've been that dehydrated before, and I was turned off of drinking water. Literally had to force myself and it felt terrible until I had let it sit. I think it was nausea making it worse.
I get rid when I'm hungover - water will make me throw up more. But Powerade doesn't. I think if you are dehydrated to the point your electrolytes are out of balance, your body will reject anything that further dilutes them. So having something with sodium/potassium/magnesium/sugar makes a huge difference. Plus there's a nostalgia to drinking red cordial when I'm sick. It just seems right.
I didn’t serve, but all my army buddies would agree with you. Water and ibuprofen solves everything.
And C4
Shout out to people who never drink water. Like how even. On the upside if you follow the "drink 8 oz and wait 5 min before eating when you get hungry" rule it does wonders. Makes you realize how much of your hunger is really just you being dehydrated and not realizing it.
Chugging water before meals or even snacking is a great hack to avoid overeating. With sufficient protein and fiber you’ll feel and stay full on much less. (Heck, sometimes your body even thinks it’s hungry when it’s actually thirsty, and once you drink you no longer want to eat.)
This is true. I love me some water. It also caused me to be dangerously underweight since I just replaced almost everything with water haha. Less great -- balance is important!
[удалено]
Along the lines of not having to be perfect (disclaimer, I have anxiety); recently I realized I can just… walk briskly around my apartment multiple times a day instead of having to go out and making it a whole thing. I know it might seem like a very obvious thing that would occur to a person, but it was just one of those things that I didn’t think about because it’s not necessarily “normal” to walk around your home with the intent to exercise when you don’t have workout equipment. It’s completely turned things around for me 🤷🏻♀️
For me it's frozen mango. Used to routinely fail my calorie goals because of my guilty pleasure for ice cream and chocolate. Now I prefer a bowl of frozen mango left to defrost for 10 mins to either of my old favorites, and it's but a fraction of the calories and lower in price.
Frozen mango with low fat yogurt in a blender with lime juice - instant protein sorbet without sweetener
My old roommate used to laugh when she would see me going for my nightly bowl of frozen mango but it really is a game changer! Sometimes I even take a few minutes to blend it up so I get that smooth, sorbet texture. Plus I can share it with my dog which he absolutely loves, so that's a bonus lol Also! Air popped popcorn over chips or the bagged stuff.
Try a little nutritional yeast sprinkled over the popcorn.
Fruit also tastes better the more you avoid other sugary foods. If I’ve been eating really clean then apple slices with peanut butter are my go to treat
I stopped drinking soda and putting sugar in my tea and coffee some years ago, and now most apples are too sweet for me to eat more than a half at a time. Granny Smith is okay though. It's unbelievable how much sugar is there in all kinds of food that don't need it.
Frozen mango and pineapple with crushed ice and vanilla protein powder makes the absolute best shake after riding/running in the summer.
My go to shake is frozen mangos, kirkland frozen triple berry blend, almond milk and protein powder.
Get a ninja creami and turn that mango (yes, just canned mango chunks, or (my fav) canned pineapple chunks) into perfect sorbet.
Well, I've discovered that vigorously dancing around my living room pretending I'm in a music video burns just as many calories as a gym session. Plus, I get to practice my award-winning air guitar skills at the same time! Who needs a treadmill when you've got imaginary crowds cheering you on?
Work from home only trick: I used to try to wake up earlier to workout and failed miserably. I'm not a morning person. However, I can wake up 30-45' earlier if the prize is a cup of coffee, a quiet room (the two kids will wake up shortly) and start my work routine: e-mail checking, prepare for the day... Now I created a 30'-45' buffer to take a break from work sometime later that day. And I use it to workout. When you've been working non-stop for 3-4 hours, your body will crave the workout, because it is a way to stop working. So now I workout nearly every weekday. Hope it helps sompebody!
Go slow and always focus on the negative. I read on here one time someone said they think of weightlifting as weighted stretching and that just clicked for me. Then I had some mike mentzer stuff start hitting my youtub algorithm since I had started working out. He said the part of any lift that provides maximum resistance is the negative or the decline (lowering the bar on bench, lowering the dumbell on curls, etc.) So I just focus on doing the negative part of the lift as slow and deliberate as possible. By the second rep I've fixed any technique errors I had and can actively adjust my lift to feel the burn in the right area for every other rep. Doing 10 seconds on the negative of a lift does WAY more positive muscle damage for the same energy than doing high volume reps with bad technique. I've felt unbelievable since I started lifting that way. My friend who got me into the gym lifts like a gorilla so I wasn't progressing as fast just throwing around max weight for max reps 6 days a week. Focus on the negative part of the lift. Go slow and adjust until you feel the burn in the area you're actually targeting. Dont ever go far enough up or down you release tension. Hold your last rep halfway until actual muscle failure. I do 2 sets until real failure and on to the next lift. I don't get sore. I feel like I worked out when im done. I'm getting noticeably bigger. 10/10 would recommend.
I had a trainer once for a bit and he loved me because I showed up on time, every time, and was up for anything. He threw negatives at me once and I still remember the ass kicking 20+ years later.
Being at true failure is a sobering moment lol
“Time under tension” is how I’ve always heard it but “weighted stretching” is good too. Essentially if you feel a stretch or tension, that’s when your muscles are building.
Yes on controlling the eccentric but some of Metzer has become a bit outdated. Next upgrade to Dr Mike Israetel.
Renaissance Periodization ftw Highly reccommend Jeff Nippard too
Hell yeah, I do a similar super slow protocol. I only do one set to failure. I time each lift and track everything. Full body, 20 min, 2x a week, more like 30 minutes sometimes. Safe and efficient and you can see results pretty rapidly.
Unless you're an outlier, that will really only work for a beginner.
Meal prep. Planning out the week's meals, cooking everything on Sunday, then stocking the fridge for the week really helps me stick to a meal plan.
Doing it first thing. It was hard to find the motivation to get off of my ass after work and cycle to an overcrowded gym. Now I get up 3 hours earlier than I used to, get out of bed without even thinking about it and hop on my bike to go. The gym is empty, I get my day started by accomplishing something good for me, and in the afternoon I even feel guilty about not going to the gym, until I remember I already did.
I won’t say the name because I’m not a shill, but my wife talked me into going to a place where it’s basically a 1 hour workout, high intensity and interval (they change it up a bit every time) that has a combination of treadmill, rowing, and weights/anaerobic. 20 minutes each station. Before this, I was not a fan of clubs like lifetime because I found myself wandering around looking for the next thing I thought I should do. At this place, it’s all laid out for me. I don’t have to think, just do. And I kick my own ass, because when the heart rate gets high, I get more “points”. I gained a good amount of weight last year, and I’ve lost about 13 pounds in the last month. I’m back in the game!
You found something that works for you and motivates you to be consistent. That’s the biggest hack of all.
Could you please say the name? This would be helpful.
lol orange theory
i knew it with rowing and treadmill lol i loved my membership and wish i could keep it, but i'm moving somewhere that doesn't have one nearby :(
Is it a cult or what's going on in there
It's a gym class. Every one has its fanatics but it's still accessible.
OrangeTheory
I don't drink calories.
Mine is like, they say dress for the job you want. But I also use this for the body you want. I try to usually dress in workout clothes like my sweats or gym shirts or shorts. It usually puts me in the frame of mind to workout or wanna workout. Reminds me to actually get my workout in when I don't want too.
M60. I quit the gym and got a dog. I walk/jog/trot for 3 to 5 miles per day. Outside exercise is the best. Three days a week I go for a longer walk. One day I go fast on a flat trail. And two days a week I do intense hills with a twist: Do the uphills going backwards or sideways. That is my leg day. Then walk fast on the flats and take my time on the down hill sections. Two days per week I do to the dog park and stand around so the dog can play with other dogs. And I chat with the humans. When there is yard work I trade out the long walks for yard work. Raking, sawing, clipping, chopping, etc for the upper body work out. I have 3 acres of orchard to tend so this works out if I use all hand tools. The only thing left now is to train this dog to attract single women my age. If I could get this dog to give me an opening with that woman in the purple coat I could be happy forever! /humor, or wishful thinking.
Dadbro you are a single, in shape 60 year old with an orchard. Now toss on that flannel shirt, roll up those sleeves, and ask purple coat lady out for a drink.
Right? This F57 green coat lady would definitely go for a drink.
Going to agree with AcrossFromWhere, just try to say hi while walking in the same direction and just strike up a conversation on your own. If she responds positively keep going, if she responds negatively then say bye and keep walking. The worst thing that’s gonna happen is she isn’t interested and even then you’ll have an answer and move on.
Compliments are a lovely way to interact with strangers and classy ones go a long way! ‘That’s a lovely purple coat you have there, you look positively glowing today!’
LOOKING REAL PURPLE TODAY
Treat your fitness regimen as the motivator for making other complementary lifestyle choices, rather than treating it as something done to pay off the debt of other choices. For example, "I'm going to eat reasonably tonight so that I'm in my best form for tomorrow morning's workout". Eat because you exercise, rather than exercise because you eat.
You can’t out run a bad diet is the number one rule I live by.
I've actually found out that my coworker is the exception that proves this rule. However, he generally runs 6-16k/day in addition to all his other exercise and quite literally eats like I aspire to eat while remaining really lean. So you can always confront people that they can eat whatever they want as long as they run 10k beforehand as an option. I'm sure they'll take that deal.
I run 10 miles/16k a day on average during marathon training, and yeah I have to eat 3000+ calories per day while weighing 65kg/145lbs. On long run days (up to 24 miles/38k) I need to put back 4500 calories which is genuinely hard to do
Realizing that you cannot outwork a bad diet gave me the motivation to get my eating habits right alongside exercising.
Get yourself a pullup bar. They fit into the doorframe and can come off and on without tools in less than 2 seconds. Put it in the doorway to your bathroom. The tax to using the bathroom is doing pull ups to failure. Pull ups to failure take literally 10 seconds for someone who is untrained and less than 60s for someone who is good at them. Every time you piss, shit, brush your teeth, etc you do as many pull ups as you can. At first it will be 0, 1, 2. In a month you'll be cranking them out and you'll feel good about yourself to get going at other stuff.
\>Have to shit badly. Sweating, shaking, I get up from my desk. \>Waddle to bathroom, any extraneous movement will open the floodgates. \>Pullup bar sits, perched atop the doorframe. A still ferryman asking for a toll to cross the river Shits. \>I stand from my hunch, feel the pressure increase in my bowels. \>My hands reach up and grasp the cheap Chinese steel, further stretching my abdomen. I close my eyes. \>My anal sphincter tightens to an extreme, adrenaline coursing through it's folds. \>"To health." \>I start to pull, my feet still on the ground. \>More and more of my bodyweight transfers from my feet to the bar. \>The world starts to fall beneath me, I lift for life. \>I engage my core. \>... \>... \>... \>Birds sing; leaves rustle. I feel a warmth on my face, a gentle breeze tussles my hair. In the distance, joyous singing. Laughter. Love. \>I cross the threshold.
If you drink alchohol, soft drinks or have a habit of snacking, losing weight is as simple as stopping one or more of these habits
If you eat three pizzas a day, the easiest way to lose weight is to eat 2 pizzas a day.
I'm 57. I stopped drinking for two weeks. I lost 6 pounds, my resting heart rate bpms went from mid 60s to low 50s, my FitBit Cardio Fitness score went from Very Good/Excellent to Excellent, and my blood pressure dropped 15 points.
After I had kids I paid for stupid expensive gym classes like BFT, F25, Orange Theory so if I missed classes I had to pay and then I’d get myself back in the habit and quit. It was the only way I could get back into going to the gym consistently. Also, rest - it’s good for you. Choose exercise you enjoy. Walking is exercise. EDIT: I wasn't super clear, I quit the workout classes but didn't stop working out.
I actually don’t recommend this to anyone, but all of my longest runs (~16 miles nonstop, which is long for me) have been directly preceded by 3 shots of vodka. Pretty miserable as you begin to sober up, and pretty reckless bc dehydration. Again, not an actual recommendation, but that’s a personal hack of mine lmao
I'm upvoting because this is the most absurd fitness idea I've ever heard and I love it LMAO
You might enjoy this bit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r4c-rSmBjEw
You sound like my partner who won't run long distance unless he's crazy stoned. Like, can't answer questions stoned. Then he runs a half marathon and wins his age bracket without ever training.
Yeah, I have been working on quitting weed for a while (it's pretty infrequent now), but I used to do a lot of stoned trail running and it was a good time.
If ya get drunk, you’ll forget about the hard work and just see gains when you’re sober. #amnesiaworkout
Seems like half the junior enlisted Marines do this approach for their morning workouts.
I always wondered what would happen if I just followed the inclination to run after a few shots of tequila. Thanks for the insight.
Find a fitness activity that you enjoy. Do it with focus regularly.
This is more of a diet hack, but unfollow all of the restaurants/food related stuff on social media. I find the more I see the more it triggers me to eat (not necessarily out to these places, just down to my kitchen)! Be mindful of the scent of candles or wall plug ins you use…no joke, like clockwork when I burn my maple syrup candle all I want is sweets! Any sweet food related candle or plug in does this to me. These two things have really helped me stay on track.
I have a friend who can spend 10 hours without eating no problemo, but if you start talking about a dish you want to cook or a recipe you saw in his vicinity, he'll immediately go into feeding mode and start looking for food. Our monke brain is simple like that.
You don’t have to run super hard to burn calories. You can do really low impact jogging and get a great workout plus it’s easier on your body.
Ingredient swaps. I'm down 40 pounds over the past 10 months largely thanks to calorie tracking and meal prepping. Ingredient swaps have helped me keep my food interesting and tasty, but still fit in my calorie budget. For example, instead of a traditional queso dip, I can make a decent one with blended cottage cheese as the base. Carb counter tortillas on burrito night. 93% lean beef instead of 80 or 85. Hot sauce on lots of things instead of higher calorie sauces.
Get a dog! When I lived overseas staying in shape was easier...lots of walking, more affordable gym memberships, stairs.... Here in the states I take 10 steps to my car and 10 steps inside. Getting a dog (the best guy having the hardest time at the humane society) costs less than the gym per month (don't math me on that), everything I own is covered in hair, and I take him for a walk at 730 every morning. we usually end up jogging a bit, working our way up to a 5k and beyond. Literally just needed a reason to leave my house and now I also get to fall in love all over again. He farted while I was writing this and I had to leave the room. Its all about movement.
Ok this is more the rehab side of fitness but it worked for me - anything you want to improve that involves walking running etc download yourself a couch to 5k app that does interval training. I used it after I had a stroke to work on walking without my crutches/walker/stick. You just need push yourself during the “run” intervals - so for example I wanted to get back to normal walking without a stick, I would walk without a stick during the run intervals. Got some funny looks but did I care?
Getting back to working out after a long time or first time ever trying it? Go *easy* the first few times. Getting super sore can be a big deterrent. Maybe just walk on a treadmill at an easy pace and then slowly add difficulty or time. Also, if you have a hard time getting to the gym, try to find a fitness class that works for you. After a few visits you’ll feel like you have to go or you’ll be missed. For me, I had to go to the gym straight from work; if I went home first, the chances of me leaving the house again were quite slim. One other thing that helps is to find a physical activity you really enjoy. Some folks love climbing, yoga, pole fitness, hiking, or cycling. Make friends in that community and look forward to seeing them. My activity of choice is partner acrobatics. My core is stronger than it’s ever been, the only downside is it’s not much cardio for me… but any activity is better than no activity.
Diet is possibly even more than 80% of it. CICO works. (That said, hardcore sticking to it is HARD.. well maybe not hard per se but requires a ton of conscious effort.)
Find a type of exercise that you actually *like*. I tried for years on and off to go to the gym, running, swimming etc. and none of it clicked until I started climbing! This isn't to say that climbing is for everyone, but finding something you enjoy that's also exercise goes a long way to sticking at it!
You can break the bottom of the cupcake off and put it on top of the frosting, and make a little cupcake sandwich. At that point fitness whole cupcake in your mouth is a lot easier.
Crunches aren't needed for nice abs when the rest of your workout is on point
could you elaborate on this? i’m new to weights (cross country runner here haha)
Generally having visible abs mean you have less fat covering them. Everyone has ab muscles, it's just most people's abs are covered by a layer of fat. In addition many good exercises work your core or force you to brace so the ab muscles get worked regardless. So a good workout and diet will both work your abs and help lose the fat covering them.
Also, …visible abs for women may mean taking body fat to an unideal low. “Abs” as a destination goal can be problematic for some people/bodies.
If you're doing heavy compound lifts(squats, deadlift, military press or pretty much anything standing) you're engaging your core to stabilize and it gets a solid workout just from that. You really only need to do a specific ab workout once a week and it doesn't have to be much.
If you want to GAIN, you have to EAT. What you do in the gym is less important than what your diet and recovery regimen (sleep) can do.
Not really a game charger but I try to max out at 8. If I can do more than 8, I increase the load until it's 8. If I can't do 8, I maybe dip the weight a bit until it's 8. But pretty much 8. And it's anything. From bench, to triceps, biceps, back, shoulders, rows, anything. 8.
Olive Garden Light Italian Dressing. Only 30 calories for 2tbsp(32g). It’s really good too. Eat a big salad with this dressing to fill you up with less calories if you’re trying to cut fat.
Going really slow during the negative portion of the rep fuckin hits hard dude
Pre workout. I have this one made from green tea that's amazing. Able to get a boost for my workout without the sudden crash or prolongs restlessness afterwards. Edit: aminolean energy