getting back in shape

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Dec 29, 2014 7:24 pm

As I sit here on my a$$ thinking about how out of shape I am and the new year is rolling around, time to get motivated again. Going to start w/ something simple just to get into the habit. I'm thinking about starting the 30 day planking challenge. Unless someone has heard some negatives about this, seems pretty easy to do and to keep up with. From there I think progressing to the 30 day ab challenge would be next.

That said, I can use some support here and motivation. Anyone interested in doing this with me?

http://30dayfitnesschallenges.com/30-da ... challenge/

I want to start on Jan 1st. The chart and time durations are listed in the website above. Let me know if you'd like to virtually join me getting back into shape. I figure along w/ this I'm also going to start hitting the total gym again. Now that I have my office set up I have room to set it up again. Looking forward to dumping 20lbs :thumbsup:

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 9:04 am

RodneyWright wrote:

As I sit here on my a$$ thinking about how out of shape I am

I can use some support here and motivation.

Uhhh, round is a shape. :lol:

I'll do it with you, Rodney!

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 10:21 am

The 30 day plank challenge is actually a lot tougher than it seems because I don't think there's enough time to recover once you start really increasing the time. I started it in January and sort of adapted my own daily routine. It won't really burn fat but will you feel great especially if you have any back discomfort.

I got up to 3 minutes of a normal plank and decided to start doing side, front, other side each for a minute in succession and found it's awesome for the back because it strengthens the external obliques (side muscles near the ribs). Plus, eventually you'll start seeing some definition.

Good luck man and just remember to loose it slow & steady if it's really going to be a lifestyle change. It gets easier.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 11:02 am

I looked into those challenges...by day 30 it becomes a pretty significant achievement!

I was semi-inspired by those challenges, and adapted them into my daily routine. Some can be done at work, esp if you have a standing desk. I needed something to interweave with my running, and this may fit the bill.

Thanks for the link, and good luck!

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 11:21 am

I've been playing Racquetball at work for the last few months. I'm usually on the courts at Carmichael Gym from ~11:45 to ~12:30 workdays. I'm terrible at it but it is a good workout. Everything you need to play the game can be rented from the Gym if you have a membership and the rules can be learned in 5 minutes.

My goals are mostly cardiac health and cholesterol though. I've been lucky (young enough) to avoid weight problems so far. However my cholesterol (~200) is pretty terrible for my age and weight and I had no real aerobic endurance.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 11:42 am

JamesMilko wrote:

I've been playing Racquetball at work for the last few months. I'm usually on the courts at Carmichael Gym from ~11:45 to ~12:30 workdays. I'm terrible at it but it is a good workout. Everything you need to play the game can be rented from the Gym if you have a membership and the rules can be learned in 5 minutes.

My goals are mostly cardiac health and cholesterol though. I've been lucky (young enough) to avoid weight problems so far. However my cholesterol (~200) is pretty terrible for my age and weight and I had no real aerobic endurance.

Not to mention the stress relief from beating the tar out of a rubber ball! :twisted:

That <SMACK> sound it makes when it hits the wall is pretty darn cathartic...but then again, I have issues. :lol:

In re: cholesterol, it also depends on what your breakdown is between HDL and LDL. Sure, low total cholesterol is good, but not necessarily ideal if HDL is too low.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

I'm going to go on a rambling post and cover too much in the scope of a forum post, but the crux of the matter is that in order to lose weight and become more healthy, you need to establish new habits that discourage old habits.

The first thing is establishing a clear and concise goal. If you want to be able to plank for 5 minutes, that's a clear and concise goal. However, having goals like "I want to be more healthy" are kind of vague, but you can work with those if you clearly define how you plan on doing it.

This past year, I decided to make a meaningful change in my life to try to lose weight (because it's cheaper than aluminum suspension components and slightly healthier). Instead of coming home, making a large dinner, and goofing off throughout the night, I now come home, unwind for about an hour, and then head to the gym. Every weekday, and I have to be sick or have something out of the ordinary show up to not go. Even if I wasn't feeling it, I still went to the gym and did laps for 15 minutes. Just the physical act of displacing myself from my house has helped a bunch, there are some days where I really don't feel like doing anything, but I go to the gym and actually get into it and have a good day at the gym. It's a lot easier to convince yourself that you're tired and you don't feel like running or lifting a heavy ass weight if you're nowhere near where you do that stuff, but if you make it a habit to go to the gym, just the sheer proximity will make you want to do a few laps or lift.

The programs that I used are well known (Starting Strength & Couch-to-5K), and I had done them in the past, but I would run out of steam in 8-12 weeks, and then gain back all of the temporary weight that I lost. The only thing that's changed is going to the gym extremely regularly, and I've been losing my mind since the NC State gym has been closed since Christmas Eve. It sounds nuts, but you can get to a point where you miss being a sweaty mess, and it's all via habit. At the beginning of the year, I could probably do 1 or 2 dead hang pull-ups and struggle through the entire range of motion, I can do 10 in a row reliably with no breakdown in form at any time.

The plank challenge sounds like a good starting point since it is deceivingly difficult; however, I'm weary of stuff like that and especially the ab challenge because it's kind of gimmicky. Doing crunches and sit-ups are actually really bad for your back, and if you want to have abs it's determined by your body fat %; however, if you want a stronger core, planks are a really good way to go about it. Unfortunately there is no substitute for hard work, and a few minutes a day of just doing planks probably won't get you the results you're after, but it's a start. I'm just weary of fitness programs that don't have a defined progression past whenever the prescribed program ends. For example, Starting Strength can be rolled into the Texas Method or a 5x5 program and Couch-to-5K has Bridge-to-10K (or you can focus on getting your 5K times down).

If you really want to go nuts, you could always join the ranks of cyclists we have within THSCC. It could be slightly cheaper than buying E36s, but the price floor on those has really dropped in the past few years.

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:09 pm

The mix is bad too, there is nothing going about my cholesterol numbers. The only upside is that I have Gilbert's which potentially has some cardiac health benefits. Along with occasionally being a bit yellow.

I'm with Andrew, I've been off work since the 12th and the only thing I really miss is going to the gym. My gym bag has been collecting dust in a closet for 2 weeks now.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:55 pm

@ Andrew.... All points well received, especially about the habit. That's what I need to start on. I figure this is at least a step in the right direction along w/ some basic jumping jacks, push ups and sit ups. I just want to get into the habit....

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

Habit is the key. Pick reasonable goals to work to. I started out at 1.5 miles, and increased by .3 miles each week until the race that I had signed up for. It gets hard after about a week, then gets easier after 3-4 as you start getting excited about it and seeing some benefit. Most cardio excercise won't show any big gains for at least that time period, but when you see it, its awesome.

That said, I'm still recovering from my ankle injury, and haven't been able to run in almost 2 weeks, and its driving me crazy.

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 2:48 pm

Brice, can you hit the pool? It still feels great to just swim/kick 20-30 laps when you can't run or bike.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Tue Dec 30, 2014 4:24 pm

Developing a habit is an easy thing to say, but a harder thing to *do* for some folks, anyway.

For me I knew exactly what I needed to do *and* I had the time to do it. Unfortunately I could always find something else I'd *rather* be doing and do that instead.

My answer, and I know this doesn't work for everyone, was a coach. She prescribes what I do every day via a website (in our case Training Peaks, but what I do is run and bike, and that works well for those things) and I log what I did and she reviews and modifies based on my information.

For folks who can't afford or just don't want to pay for that, one good option is some of the plans like mentioned above. But the best thing I can recommend is to *schedule* your workouts ahead of time. Make the time commitment each day up front and don't think of it as optional. Schedule six out of every seven days with one day as a complete rest day. Make it at least a real COMPLETE hour of workout, even if some days that full hour isn't something that kills you. Just DO THE FULL HOUR.

As mentioned, it helps to make it something out of the house. In/around the house is WAY too easy to skimp on yourself and only do 20-30 minutes. Build that habit that the workout is an hour. I don't care if all you feel today is walking, walk for the full hour. To me, this is where 90% of the "exercise" public goes wrong. I mean sure, something is better than nothing, but I can't tell you how many one hour sessions I've spent in hotel gyms. And EVERY SINGLE TIME I am amazed by just how short a time period everyone else is in there for. The average seems to be 15 minutes, with the longest I usually see ANYONE else in there for is 30.

Anyway, I really think being out of the house helps make you go ahead and "make it worthwhile to have left" and spend the full time. But if you don't have the time to drive back/forth to somewhere else that day? Do the full hour at home. Set a clock and go. Do a LITTLE research ahead of time and you can setup a "home gym" without spending ANY money to speak of. A few resistance bands don't cost much and are usable in a billion interesting ways. You can improvise weights, but ultimately if you get into things you can buy whatever you need VERY cheap off Craigslist if you're patient. Note that for things like weight, places like Play It Again Sports are actually often TERRIBLE in terms of price.

If you think you want to bicycle, use folks on this or other similar forums to help you guy one off Craigslist. They often sell barely used for 1/5 of new prices, but you have to have a little help at first to get the best deal. Wait until you're REALLY into biking before bothering to buy new stuff.

If you want to try running but don't run much or know much about shoes, to to a good shoe store like Fleet Feet and LET A SALES PERSON HELP YOU. They really do generally know what they are doing at THOSE places and will put you in the shoe you NEED, not the shoe that makes them the most money.

If you're a data geek in other parts of your life, get into collecting exercise data. It's fun and a good extra motivator. If you're a data hater, don't let anyone talk you into bothering with data. For those who like it, it can be a huge help. For those who don't, it can be a huge distraction and demotivator.

Running and biking with a dog can help for some reason. I don't know why, but it does. Better than that are running and biking partners. If you like running/biking at all, SEEK OUT GROUPS TO GO WITH. You'll be AMAZED how quickly social interaction helps pass the time. I'm very sad my only current regular running partner went and got herself knocked up. I am going to lose her for at least several months. *sigh*

The best exercise is something that you find truly FUN. Damn, I wish I had access to racquetball somewhere. That would kick so much ass. I miss living on campus at State mostly because of racquetball.

Anyway, that's my big exercise dump.

--Donnie

Brett_Murphy · **Joined:** Thu Jan 12, 2012 2:02 pm **Posts:** 355

Andrew has good points about setting a routine, but some people just hate the gym.

Racquetball has been mentioned, and it segues nicely into my point. If you are doing some physical activity that is also fun, it doesn't seem like exercise. Sure, the first few weeks might kick your ass HARD if you join a rec basketball league or something, but if you start out playing low-stress games with a few friends, they can motivate and support you while you are sucking wind.

Do you have a dog? Take the dog for longer walks- a mile or more a day. Don't want to walk in the cold and rain? Get some audio books, go to the gym, hit the low-impact elliptical machine and listen to audio books *ONLY* when you are exercising. Make sure to get books you enjoy, and you'll want to find out what happens next, but if you stick to the plan, you can only listen while you are exercising. This is what I had to do to get into the routine of going to the gym every day.

The key thing to remember when you are first starting out is that ANY movement is better than no movement. As your conditioning improves, increase the difficulty level appropriately so you don't plateau. A fitness coach can help with this, as was mentioned by Donnie.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:54 pm

well, so far so good. I have to admit at the end of 30 seconds, I'm starting to shake. Shows just how out of shape I am. Never too late to get started up doing something. Tomorrow starts 40 seconds. At first I thought this was going to be a breeze, now, I don't know....

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Jan 06, 2015 11:55 pm

So after 6 days, still at it. A little bit of habit starting now. I can only imagine what a 5 minute plank is going to be like. That said I decided to throw in some heavy bag action. My son Drew bought me a nice 50lb everlast bag w/ some gloves a few years ago and I have it hanging in my old office. Set the timer for 15 minutes. That was a bit ambitious. Ran out of gas after 10, but it felt damn good to whale on that bag. Upper punch, lowers, cross, jabs, "float like a butterfly" leg movement and some head high leg shots just to get everything moving. Just have to watch out for the sand filled part of the bag. That doesn't "give" as well as the rest of the bag.

I think I'll keep that in the 10 min range for the first few weeks and then move it up some. I have to say my heart was pounding after the workout. I just hope to keep this up. I think doing the heavy bag on Tue and Thur along w/ the weekend will be a good start. Overall I have to say if feels good to get the heart revved up some, makes you feel alive...

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