OCR Fitness Club/Competition?

[Penfold]

I'm a huge supporter of people getting into shape, and I'm really glad to see the first post includes both diet and excercise. A lot of people just concentrate on one, but it's making it way harder on themselves without looking at all the different aspects. Lemme offer some advice before you guys get started, but first I'll give you a little background on where I'm coming from.

I'm 5'10" or so, and I used to be 200lbs of bulk (very strong in that standard gym junkie, bench-press way), and during this time my workouts lasted 1-2 hours and were all anaerobic. Sometime after I got back into endurance cycling, I dropped the gym altogether for a few months to concentrate on distance training (taking 4-6 hour rides every other day). Coming back to the gym, I changed my workout style to be slightly more varied with a lot more cardio mixed with lifting. At this point, my workouts went from lasting about an hour and a half to in the end taking 3 hours. I lost a lot of bulk (didn't quite have the cuts I was after) but was feeling like I had plateaued in several areas, since my body got too used to the routine. Later in speaking with a friend's cousin who is a former Army Ranger-turned instructor at a nearby base, I was turned on to Crossfit and I've been on that program for about 6 months now. I'm now 154lbs of lean muscle, and am all cuts and definition. The funny thing to me is my warm-ups now (3 rounds of 10 45-lb overhead squat, 10 GHS situps, 10 pullups, and 10 dips) would have easily been a full workout back in my old bulky form. My workout now lasts at most 40 minutes, and I'm consistently floored by them, which exemplifies my love for this sytem. My bench press weight (often times the metric used with gym junkies) has certainly gone down since my bulk days, but everything else is stronger and my overall athleticism hasn't been higher. I'm again in training for the Seattle to Portland bike ride, my goal for which is 13 hours.

Anyway, a little advice...

-1- Diet, like I said above, is really important. It creates the foundation on which we can be involved with athletic activity. There are different thoughts floating around regarding what the right ratios and the right caloric intake is, but since it's my primary fitness program I follow the Crossfit nutrition guidelines. That said, even when you're training hardcore, you can't always stick 100% to your nutrition plan, so don't feel too bad about the occassional slip.

-2- DON'T START TRAINING EVERY DAY! You will either burn out, or your workout intensity will be so vastly reduced that you'll get nearly nothing out of it. Even when you're training hardcore, you NEED rest days, not just to let your body recover, but so you can mentally keep pushing yourself during your workouts. Overtraining can be a real problem.

-3- Don't get stuck in a routine. You'll notice immediate results no matter what you start with, but here's the problem - if you're doing a routine, your body gets used to being taxed in that fashion and your result will lessen over time. If you keep mixing it up, you keep the body guessing so you'll continue to maintain good results (assuming you also have a proper diet to support this). By mixing it up I don't mean, "Monday is legs, Tuesday is triceps and chest, Wed is biceps..." That's a good way to build bulk and plateau, and if that's your goal that's fine. Having been there and done that, though, I'd never go back to it.

-4- Finally, one last piece of advice I'll offer right now is don't lose heart or be intimidated. It's easy when you start out to go to the gym and see big bad muthas, and become intimidated of working out next to them. Honestly, it doesn't matter. Most people don't judge others (though they probably internally evaluate them on a relative scale, not with mal-intent), and anyone who does is a fuck.

I'm certainly an available resource for anyone who has questions.

Also, Geoffrey Taucer, yay for rings!!

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Also, Geoffrey Taucer, yay for rings!!

Hehe.

I will definitely say this; for anybody who's already fairly strong and wants to get EXTREMELY strong, rings are an excellent tool. You can get a relatively cheap rings setup at www.ringtraining.com. This site also has a few good training articles.

Another site with some great articles on flexibility and (especially) strength as well as some KILLER individual excercizes is www.gymnasticbodies.com. (though much of what's here is probably beyond the level of somebody just starting to work out)

[anosou]

AnSo's goal is the dude in the back!

http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/12/ffiv_mini_trading_arts_w.jpg

So incredibly true.

[L.T.W.]

I definitely want in. As Steben said I lack self motivation. So This could help me out a bit.

I used to work out regularly last year, until I got in a car accident. So a month later after I was recovered I lost the motivation I had and stopped going. I'm trying to go back, but doing it alone is hard.

I am right now 5'11" and weight 210*

Back in January 2007 I was 230 and I started working out in September. I went down to 200 by December, and now I'm 210*.

I want to drop to 185-190, and hopefully 180. That would be my goal.

Now another problem I have is that I just wanna be muscle toned and slim. I dont wanna be huge, but I love lifting heavy weights and I hate doing many repetitions with little weight. I just dont like that. I know though, that if I do heavy weight I'll become big and thats not what I want, so...

What can I do?

* = Im not sure, but I feel around there.

EDIT: I friend of mine recommended me to take Hydroxycut so I would loose weight faster. Is it really gonna work?

[noTuX]

I guess I'll join.

I'm 6'3" and weight 230 lbs. I only have about 11% body fat, so I'm not out of shape by any means. However, I feel there are a bunch of things I can improve on.

I want to get my legs back in-shape and I really want to have a nicer set of abs. I may start some kind of self-defense training, but I want to be in the absolute best shape before I do.

[The Xyco]

I friend of mine recommended me to take Hydroxycut so I would loose weight faster. Is it really gonna work?

I'm no expert on fat-burn supplements but I STRONGLY recommend avoiding them. Even if you do see results, you will end up developing a dependence upon them, and then you'll likely continue to use them even when you are not working out consistently, which is both a waste of money and probably really, really unhealthy.

I can guarantee that no pill or supplement will have the effect 30 minutes of brisk jogging a day will have on fat loss.

[Penfold]

I will definitely say this; for anybody who's already fairly strong and wants to get EXTREMELY strong, rings are an excellent tool. You can get a relatively cheap rings setup at www.ringtraining.com. This site also has a few good training articles.

Thanks for the link! I've been pretty lazy about buying myself set of rings, but I just need to bite the bullet...it gets really time consuming to do 2 bar dips or pullups in the place of one on the rings. Plus, I really wanna try muscle-ups - been subbing 4 pullups and 4 dips per muscle-up, but I have a feeling that doesn't reasonably prepare me for them.

Now another problem I have is that I just wanna be muscle toned and slim. I dont wanna be huge, but I love lifting heavy weights and I hate doing many repetitions with little weight. I just dont like that. I know though, that if I do heavy weight I'll become big and thats not what I want, so...

What can I do?

My stock answer is Crossfit, but it's all about motivation/workout intensity and it's definitely not for everybody. If you feel like you can do it, though, going once every other day will definitely get you the results you want (and like I said in my previous post, a WOD [workout of the day] should last you at most 40 minutes). It can also be scaled down to your current fitness level, so the workouts shouldn't be out of reach because of too great a load. It's one idea.

Another is to do more workouts that simply use your body weight. One example off the top is as follows: on a continuously running clock, do one pullup the first minute, two the second minutes, three the third, etc until you are no longer able to complete the prescribed number of pullups in the alotted time. Outside of Crossfit or Gymnastics, people don't tend to be pullup monsters, so for the average person you can sub with jumping pullups (or kipping pullups if you've got your form) instead of trying to do 14 minutes' worth of deadhang PUs.

A third idea is to do tabatas. The usual tabata workout that I've done involve four excercises - pullups, pushups, situps, and air squats (squats done without any extra weight). The idea is you do 8 rounds per excercise, and each round lasts exactly 30 seconds - 20 seconds where you're performing the excercise as intensely as you can do, and the remaining 10 seconds are rest. Aside from those last 10 seconds there are are no rests between rounds nor excercises...so it's another "continuous clock" workout. It's 16 minutes of hell, but it's a great metabolic conditioning workout. The best part about tabatas is that you can do it with ANYTHING (running, rows, benchpress, cleans, you name it), but it works best I think with 4 excercises total.

If you want some more ideas of single workouts to try, just lemme know.

I want to get my legs back in-shape and I really want to have a nicer set of abs. I may start some kind of self-defense training, but I want to be in the absolute best shape before I do.

Olympic lifts . Also try doing thrusters (front squat with which you continue the motion as you reach full leg extension to bring the bar overhead...it looks like front squat + press, but it's all one motion), overhead squats, back squats, box jumps, burpees, wallball shots (if you have at least a 12-lb med ball and a wall at least 12-ft tall you can throw it at), or lunges (with or without weight overhead). For abs, try doing knees-to-elbows or L-pullups. If you need clarification on any of these, lemme know...or better yet, check out the demo videos. Btw, in my opinion, if you're already in good shape there's no reason to wait to be in top form before beginning training in self-defense.

[Sinewav]

There seem to be some fairly knowledgeable people in here. I don't wanna turn into a work-out freak, but I would like to lose my gut and maybe get a little stronger. Can someone give me some advice on what I should be doing?

I'm about 270-280ish, and when I was in shape I was 215 (personally, I think the BMI is a load of crap). I've got a pretty nice treadmill in the basement... I'm willing to diet, but nothing crazy. I'm too poor for most health foods, and frankly I like junk food too much to go cold turkey on it... but I can/should cut back on it.

What say you?

[aTOH]

A third idea is to do tabatas. The usual tabata workout that I've done involve four excercises - pullups, pushups, situps, and air squats (squats done without any extra weight). The idea is you do 8 rounds per excercise, and each round lasts exactly 30 seconds - 20 seconds where you're performing the excercise as intensely as you can do, and the remaining 10 seconds are rest. Aside from those last 10 seconds there are are no rests between rounds nor excercises...so it's another "continuous clock" workout. It's 16 minutes of hell, but it's a great metabolic conditioning workout. The best part about tabatas is that you can do it with ANYTHING (running, rows, benchpress, cleans, you name it), but it works best I think with 4 excercises total.

Huh. I actually just started doing a similar exercise routine today. I only did pushups, and instead of 8 sets of 20 sec/10 sec, I did 4 sets of 1 min/4 min. I didn't even know about tabatas until you mentioned it, so I guess I'll be changing up my routine. Thanks =)

How often should we be doing these? The same four exercises everyday? #days-a-weeks? Every other day?

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Thanks for the link! I've been pretty lazy about buying myself set of rings, but I just need to bite the bullet...it gets really time consuming to do 2 bar dips or pullups in the place of one on the rings. Plus, I really wanna try muscle-ups - been subbing 4 pullups and 4 dips per muscle-up, but I have a feeling that doesn't reasonably prepare me for them.

The transition on a muscle up is the real killer.

Gymnasticbodies has some good articles on the forums about how to train them. Best way to train the transition, in my opinion, is to try to go a little high on each pull-up (ie start the bottom half of the transition), and a little low on the bottom of each dip (ie start the top part of the transition). Eventually, you can get both to the halfway point, and in putting them together go all the way through the transition.

Whenever I go into the gym for a strength workout, first thing I do is a set of 10 muscle-ups.

[MechaFone]

Man I'm in bad shape. I was speedwalking as I was dusting the hallwalls in my school here, and the front muscles of my shin/ankle area were starting to kill me. It's been like this since forever. Anybody got some good tips about how to strengthen those areas?

[The Derrit]

Hehe.

I will definitely say this; for anybody who's already fairly strong and wants to get EXTREMELY strong, rings are an excellent tool. You can get a relatively cheap rings setup at www.ringtraining.com. This site also has a few good training articles.

Another site with some great articles on flexibility and (especially) strength as well as some KILLER individual excercizes is www.gymnasticbodies.com. (though much of what's here is probably beyond the level of somebody just starting to work out)

This sounds like a really good option! I've been an athlete all my life (I row for my university right now), but I would really like to gain as much strength as possible over this summer so I can be a beast rowing next year. I'm guessing since this is for gymnastics there isn't much mass gained?

If you've got time, post one of your workouts on these! I'm very interested in this idea.

[Global-Trance]

Currently 5'5" and weight around the 145-150 lbs. area.

Before college I was 120 lbs. until someone got me into fitness. Now I'm looking to be a personal trainer so I can help other folks get in shape. Currently benching about 200 lbs. raw weight, leg pressing 600-700 lbs., and still running several miles at a time without slowing down among other things. I still would like to make improvements overall and the ring workout thing looks pretty intriguing and challenging. How do you set up those rings? It's hard to tell from just glancing over the site. I don't really want to buy it if I can't set it up at my place. As strong as I am now, I can hardly do any of that cool gymnast stuff so this looks like the ticket here. Can someone provide some more info about those?

Edit: When I say someone, I probably mean just Taucer.

Edit 2: Unless you can help me out.

[Arek the Absolute]

oh man this is going to be so awesome

this is going to be such a motivator for me

woooooo

[Sole Signal]

I'm 5'10" or so, 160 pounds. Never was too big, but always been pretty strong. Haven't been hitting the weights in forever, although I've always been athletic and excel in really any sport. Not to mention I have black man hops (about a 40" vertical back in high school, probably now around 35" or so). Once I feel like I'm losing a step when playing basketball, baseball/softball, ultimate frisbee, etc, then I'll probably hit the weights again in earnest.

I'd post a (shirtless) pic but I don't want to put GT to shame.

[The Dennis]

Count me in. Just let me know when we plan to end it so I can set up a leg amputation ahead of time and then look successful!

Nah... the real, REAL problem for me is going to be sleeping. I have some severe sleeping problems, and I'm almost always tired. I'm told exercising can help with that somewhat and I'm willing to try, but getting myself to exercise when I'm always exhausted requires some tremendous willpower.

Maybe participating with some friends will help with that! : ) Eating healthy won't be a problem for me. I'll still need diet soda... no calories, no sugar. I understand carbonated beverages don't really help, but I gotta have one weakness!

[Blake]

Count me in. Just let me know when we plan to end it so I can set up a leg amputation ahead of time and then look successful!

Nah... the real, REAL problem for me is going to be sleeping. I have some severe sleeping problems, and I'm almost always tired. I'm told exercising can help with that somewhat and I'm willing to try, but getting myself to exercise when I'm always exhausted requires some tremendous willpower.

Maybe participating with some friends will help with that! : ) Eating healthy won't be a problem for me. I'll still need diet soda... no calories, no sugar. I understand carbonated beverages don't really help, but I gotta have one weakness!

Do you have some sort of heart condition? If not, exercise immediately makes you feel like, ten times better than when you're not, and you have loads more energy. It does wear you out, but if you stay awake you'll be genuinely be tired enough to fall asleep at night with ease, contributing to a healthy sleeping pattern and even further boosting your energy level.

[Global-Trance]

I'm 5'10" or so, 160 pounds. Never was too big, but always been pretty strong. Haven't been hitting the weights in forever, although I've always been athletic and excel in really any sport. Not to mention I have black man hops (about a 40" vertical back in high school, probably now around 35" or so). Once I feel like I'm losing a step when playing basketball, baseball/softball, ultimate frisbee, etc, then I'll probably hit the weights again in earnest.

I'd post a (shirtless) pic but I don't want to put GT to shame.

I accept your challenge!!!!!

<3

[Sole Signal]

I accept your challenge!!!!!

<3

haha a challenge which you'll win quite handily. Let me look around here, I think I've got it on this computer somewhere.

EDIT: Nope, not on the laptop. And I'm not turning the desktop on for something so trivial and narcissistic tonight. Have to be tomorrow.

[Global-Trance]

Do you have some sort of heart condition? If not, exercise immediately makes you feel like, ten times better than when you're not, and you have loads more energy. It does wear you out, but if you stay awake you'll be genuinely be tired enough to fall asleep at night with ease, contributing to a healthy sleeping pattern and even further boosting your energy level.

Exercise will definitely give you more energy. If you're like falling asleep afterwards you either completely destroyed yourself or you are wayyyyy dehydrated. Stay away from carbonated drinks. That stuff strips away calcium and your bones will get weak.

[OceansAndrew]

Ok, I loved the Taucer links. I tried doing the basic frog stance last night and balance wasn't an issue as much as I thought it would be, but i'll definitely have to work my way up to a consecutive 60 seconds! Such an awesome exercise and so simple to do (as in I can do it anywhere), I think that specifically is just what I needed!

[Global-Trance]

Ok, I loved the Taucer links. I tried doing the basic frog stance last night and balance wasn't an issue as much as I thought it would be, but i'll definitely have to work my way up to a consecutive 60 seconds! Such an awesome exercise and so simple to do (as in I can do it anywhere), I think that specifically is just what I needed!

I was looking at those links but I have no idea where to begin! Hey Geoffrey Taucer... from one GT to another help a brutha out here. The articles are good and all but they feel somewhat scattered for someone who doesn't have a clue. What's a good way to go about doing these gymnastic things in a safe but challenging and progressive manner?

[The Derrit]

I was looking at those links but I have no idea where to begin! Hey Geoffrey Taucer... from one GT to another help a brutha out here. The articles are good and all but they feel somewhat scattered for someone who doesn't have a clue. What's a good way to go about doing these gymnastic things in a safe but challenging and progressive manner?

QFE, an expert's advice is always great.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Sorry, GT, didn't see your posts until now.

I don't know how you set those rings up: I don't own a pair, since I can just go to the gym and use the sets they have there.

As far as where to start, it really depends on how strong you are right now and what equipment you have access to. The planche progression and the front lever progression (scroll down on this page) are probably as good a place as any to start; since there's a lot of latitude for adjusting the difficulty of these skills, it should be fairly easy to taylor a workout to your abilities. Planches are especially nice, because a straddle planche just looks so impressive, and it's relatively easy to train.

A press handstand is another good one (or even just a handstand). I can't really call myself an expert on training these; I can press pretty well, but right now, none of my boys have strong presses (some of my girls do, but most of them could press before I ever started working with them). However, there's a great article on training presses here, and I plan to start using a lot of these drills with my guys over the summer.

In fact, a handstand alone is probably a great place to start. It is a full-body workout, since you have to keep your entire body tight to do it properly -- it's not a particularly taxing full-body workout, once you get the hang of it, but if you work a lot of them you'll definitely feel it in your shoulders and upper-back.

At some point this week, I'll post my entire strength and flexibility workouts. Some of the stuff I do requires equipment most of you may not have access to, some of the exercises may be too hard for somebody just starting, but the bulk of it should be doable, on some level, for most people.

I'll also post the easier variations of these workouts that I use with my boys.

(This is gonna be a challenge for me; I'm used to training in person. More to the point, I'm used to teaching these skills by demonstrating and by spotting)

[Global-Trance]

Sorry, GT, didn't see your posts until now.

I don't know how you set those rings up: I don't own a pair, since I can just go to the gym and use the sets they have there.

As far as where to start, it really depends on how strong you are right now and what equipment you have access to. The planche progression and the front lever progression (scroll down on this page) are probably as good a place as any to start; since there's a lot of latitude for adjusting the difficulty of these skills, it should be fairly easy to taylor a workout to your abilities. Planches are especially nice, because a straddle planche just looks so impressive, and it's relatively easy to train.

A press handstand is another good one (or even just a handstand). I can't really call myself an expert on training these; I can press pretty well, but right now, none of my boys have strong presses (some of my girls do, but most of them could press before I ever started working with them). However, there's a great article on training presses here, and I plan to start using a lot of these drills with my guys over the summer.

In fact, a handstand alone is probably a great place to start. It is a full-body workout, since you have to keep your entire body tight to do it properly -- it's not a particularly taxing full-body workout, once you get the hang of it, but if you work a lot of them you'll definitely feel it in your shoulders and upper-back.

At some point this week, I'll post my entire strength and flexibility workouts. Some of the stuff I do requires equipment most of you may not have access to, some of the exercises may be too hard for somebody just starting, but the bulk of it should be doable, on some level, for most people.

I'll also post the easier variations of these workouts that I use with my boys.

(This is gonna be a challenge for me; I'm used to training in person. More to the point, I'm used to teaching these skills by demonstrating and by spotting)

Thank you for the response other GT person guy. Consider this another aspect of teaching/training. You should be an expert to the point that you can explain stuff in person AND ONLINE so HERE IS YOUR PRACTICE. I will be here to continually test your knowledge about this stuff.

If you look back to post on page 4, I am in no way out of shape, but I am highly doubtful that I am capable of doing anything beyond the basics of gymnastic maneuvers. The thing I find incredibly fascinating about gymnastics is how taxing it is on stabilizer muscles compared to most other standard workouts. I am just about willing to wreck myself silly to obtain that sort of strength and stability a gymnast has....... now to find a place with gymnast stuff hanging around.