OCR Fit club (2010 edition)

[bustatunez]

I know some basic exercises that don't use weights and can be done at home.

You could give p90x a shot, it's had some great success stories so far.

That said you can get a ton of mileage with a single 25lb dumbbell or perhaps alternatively a pull-up bar.

Here's my workout from a while ago, when I was mostly trying to get as much definition as possible:

40 crunches (HARDMODE: hold a dumbbell on your chest or behind your head)

10+ handstand pushups, or to failure (EASYMODE: elevated-feet pushups, ie. feet against a desk or couch or something)

30 side-situps..? <--- somehow prop your feet between something and, basically, do situps but on the side; each side.

10+ pullups, or to failure (EASYMODE: can set the bar really low so that starting position has your knees on the ground, giving yourself as little "help" as possible)

20 back.. um.. .."ups"? <--- laid facedown off the side of a bed, upperbody hanging off the side and hands behind head, and just go up and down. Can just do this on the ground too. Don't overdo it.

Repeat continuously without breaks, you won't need them at all b/c it keeps switching. I did 3 rotations just before bed, then just kinda collapsed... Smarter idea would be to throw a protein shake in there afterwards though.

My leg days (alternated MWF/TTh) were a bit less structured, basically I filled a backpack with a buncha books and did lunges until failure (too many to count), squats until failure (ditto), and wrapped things up with the workout from this video --->

(don't laugh).

After about a month or so I wound up with crazy like 22-pack abs and some serious striations on the side of the quads, and also gained about 5lbs from diet improvements.

I strongly suggest getting at least a 25lb dumbbell though. What sucks is that without either dumbbells or a pullup bar, I really can't think of any good way to work out the biceps. (Taucer?)

[Geoffrey Taucer]

You don't need a lot of fancy equipment for a good workout.

I have a full-body workout that I do at home 3 times a week that uses nothing but a pull-up bar and a pair of parrallets (though event these are unnecessary; everything I use them for could be done simply on the floor, it's just a bit harder on the wrists that way). I've been meaning to film and post it -- perhaps I'll have enough motivation to actually get to that now.

Considering my background, it will come as no surprise to anybody that I'm a HUGE fan of bodyweight exercises, especially those which allow for adjustments to leverage to increase or decrease the intensity of the exercise. If anybody has questions regarding these (and I'll post a few examples later) I'll be happy to address them.

The biggest thing I can say regarding any strength building exercise: the quality of each repetition is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the quantity of repetitions. It's always better to do a low number with correct form than it is to sacrifice form in order to reach higher numbers.

[linkspast]

Ok, time to post my own goals.

My relatively long-term (and also very much long-shot) goal is to qualify for the 2012 Olympic trials on Floor, Vault, and possibly Rings. This goal is an EXTREME long-shot, but it seems just plausible enough to be worth a try.

You must be good.. I want to see some videos..

@Zircon, My dad has lost quite a bit of weight (60-75lbs) and he says most of it is from change in diet.. He eats a lot of greens and veggies, which is complemented by walking.... I know you said you work at home (which is so sweet) But id try to get out jog.. or something, I try to get out to run/walk when I need to think, Its a good way to meditate. ..

Just a thought.

[SoulinEther]

So I have two goals

First, lots of gymnastics jargon

Second, surgery + gymnastics jargon + general tausomeness + but really these two are not as awesome as...

My relatively long-term (and also very much long-shot) goal is to qualify for the 2012 Olympic trials on Floor, Vault, and possibly Rings.

oh shit, didn't catch this the first time. I think I need new, better goals, lol. Even if it is a long-shot, I believe that's a good kind of goal to carry.

Ah, goals.

[The Biznut]

Thanks to Taucer and Gibbo and everyone for sharing your advice, it has been supremely helpful just to read it.

My goal is to run 10 minutes on the treadmill when I wake up, and starting tomorrow I want to spend an hour at the gym once a week. I do a chin up or three every time I go past my chin up bar, and Ialso practice handstands whenever I think of it.

I have never taken my diet serious besides trying to stay away from junk food occasionally. I might start to take a good look at that too.

If I can go to the gym once a week for the rest of this semester, I will be pretty impressed with myself. It will be a small victory that is actually pretty big.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

For those requesting videos:

Wasn't my best meet, but should give you an idea of where I'm at overall. (also, if you listen to the very beginning, you can hear somebody in the background saying "hey, check out this vault." That's

.

I don't have a current rings strength video, but hopefully I'll be able to get one soon.

[Vivi22]

Really? This is the opposite of what I've heard, though as I said, this is not my area of expertise.

Most proponents of duration over intensity will tell you that long duration stuff at a moderate pace will get you into a zone where more of the calories you're burning are fat than anything else. Whereas with high intensity stuff you'll burn fewer calories from fat. So on the surface it sounds logical to go with long duration stuff because more of the calories you burn are in the form of fat.

Trouble is that with high intensity stuff you'll burn more calories in less time so if you were to compare say 15 minutes of interval training to 40 minutes jogging at a moderate pace, you'll generally burn a lot more calories going with the high intensity workout, and more fat because of it. And you did it all in about a third of the time it would take jogging. So if you want to burn fat, always go high intensity. There are some other problems with long duration stuff like jogging as well (such as loss of muscle mass) which aren't nearly as big an issue with high intensity short duration exercise making it a better compliment to strength training.

Anyway, as far as goals for me, I've joined the local CrossFit gym and my long term goals are to get a lot stronger and increase my conditioning by a large margin. I want to be able to deadlift above 500lbs. and squat over 400 on the strength side. On the conditioning side I want to lower my times on a lot of the standard CrossFit workouts like Fran and Angie. It'd be nice if I could work up to handstand pushups this year and work up to hammering out a straight set of at least 30 pullups as well.

[Monobrow]

I don't know if this would help zircon, but when I can't go to the gym (like during Christmas Break) I would do a lot of pilates workouts in my room.

Basically most pilates works on legs and core, but they also work arms a great deal if you know what you are focusing on in each exercise.

If you are still trying to gain lean muscle and lose weight, I would do about an hour of pilates on your floor, put some good music on, and go to town with situps and leg lifts etc. Pilates mostly focuses on core, but it basically extends into strengthening all of those muscles you never knew you had, and do it in a graceful and easy way. Your biggest resistance is gravity (and your own weight)

Here is a list of the exercises I do:

I do a crunch exercise that involves bending my body in a V belly up, back on the floor, with my legs pointing up at an angle, and my head pulled up to a crunch, holding this position, I thrust my arms straight in front of me, palms down and cupped, and move them up and down, up to around my knees, and back down to the floor, barely touching. I do 100 steady reps of this.

I lay down on my stomach, and I alternate lifting my head and holding, and lifting my legs and holding. I do about ten reps of each. I then finish with lifting my head and neck off the floor as well as my legs as high as I can, and then "swimming" for as long as possible, (moving legs and arms up and down in a steady motion, gaining speed as I go) I usually do this for about a minute before I get too tired. Don't forget to breathe. Also it looks really silly so hopefully no one else will be watching.

I do bicycle crunches, about 30 reps each focusing on one leg and then alternating.

I sit on my back with my hands to my sides and lift my legs up to a 90 degree angle, keeping my legs straight, then back down. I alternate exercises based on this, lifting my legs up, bringing my knees to my face, then thrusting my legs out and vice versa. I also hold my legs up for counts of ten, and then do a swimming kick with them for ten reps (each leg counts as 1/2)... And I do a scissor version of this as well. If you have too much trouble, put your hands under your butt for more support.

Straight pushups are great. But if you do about ten, and then alternate holding for ten seconds at certain intervals during pushups (at the highest point is easiest, at the lowest point possible is hardest) you will go further with it. I also almost always am standing up straight before I go into a pushup, and "walk" my hands into it, and when I am done, I walk back out into a standing position.

Dumbell exercises are pretty much a good thing too. Basics to work your triceps, lats, biceps, etc. The amount of weight you use depends on what you are going for, as do the amount of reps. Less reps = more weight, is the rule of thumb. Always keep it intense, slow and steady though.

Plus a bunch of other stuff, mixing and matching.

<--- 2:00 shows an alternate (easier) version of the exercise I do (V body one)

<--- Example for Arms

<--- Arms again

<--- This is kind of similar to the swimming one I do

<--- Legs

Sometimes you just have to get your ass to the gym though... I reward myself every time I go to my gym with getting in the sauna and pool. I love it and it feels good after a workout, so that is my motivation. Also sometimes we go out to dinner at this chinese place or at a cool thai restaurant after working out as a little reward. (But yeah don't go to a buffet and gorge yourself!) It also really helps to have someone go with you. I go with Ari and some roomates (and Ash and Justin lately) most of the time.

[Arcana]

I paid for a year of indoor wall climbing. It's totally not cardio though. I go twice a week for about an hour.

I could stand to gain some weight, a few years ago I worked on gaining weight and gained about 10 pounds in 12 weeks, but since then I've lost it because it was too difficult overall to maintain the diet (cost factored in quite a bit especially the cost required for weight gain supplement).

I used to do martial arts in Waterloo, but since I moved I stopped. For me, a big factor is accessibility. If you want to work out, you have to make this kind of stuff accessible to you - know how to do general calisthetics (like the ones Monobrow has posted) and keep small weights of varying sizes close to where you work so that when you take that 10m break to walk around your apartment you can do some shoulder lifts or V-crunches.

[Bahamut]

Everyone has different experiences and such, but from what I've seen, people just doing cardio and dieting have failed; whereas people lifting weights and dieting have succeeded tremendously in losing fat - generally with no cardio at all!

Actually, quite the opposite is true for me and almost anyone else I've met - just cardio & dieting has been the only thing that worked for me period in getting rid of fat and just getting in great shape, and this was when I was conditioned enough to solicit interest in Division 1 tennis. It was intense though, where I would generally run 2-4 miles a day & play tennis, on occasion running more (two times of ~7-8 miles), and this being after spending a season of intense running & almost exclusively eating bagels & pasta from track. I've tried the mostly lifting program accompanied with some cardio combined with dieting for an extended period of time and ended up with a wash on weight, and marginal improvement in conditioning. You're probably the only person I know who does not embrace this approach, and it's quite the opposite of what most athletes will tell you.

Nothing else I've seen or done has come anywhere near as close - at the very least, I know that intense cardio must be at the core of successful weight loss. If one pursues this route and does not want to diminish the mind, I'm inclined to think it must be complimented with a high carbohydrate diet to keep the weight loss at a healthy amount.

[Arcana]

Oh I should also add, I'm seeing a LOT of determined people posting in this - people who play competitive sports or want to go to the Olympics.

I actually went to a decent talk about "exercising for the lazy". In lieu of actual "2 hours of the gym each day" activities, the woman was suggesting ways to cut back on fatty foods and how to keep active simply by making basic lifestyle modifications. While you won't get the body of a Greek god by doing these things they'll help you be a bit more active as well.

The talk was aimed mostly at students but would apply to most people who have an office job.

These involved things like:

- stop taking elevators

- get off the bus one stop before you arrive at your destination (or getting on one stop later)

- going up or down one extra floor to use the washroom

- going to the far cafeteria for lunch instead of the close one

- buying trail mix, fruit, or veggies as a snack instead of muffins, donuts, or bagels

- not using cream cheese, butter, or jam

- ordering vegetarian entrees at lunch instead of meat ones

- packing your own lunch

- walking around the floor as a break

The basic idea is that, if you don't have the mental conviction to get out to the gym regularly, then make choices so that you can get exercise in here and there.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Oh I should also add, I'm seeing a LOT of determined people posting in this - people who play competitive sports or want to go to the Olympics.

I actually went to a decent talk about "exercising for the lazy". In lieu of actual "2 hours of the gym each day" activities, the woman was suggesting ways to cut back on fatty foods and how to keep active simply by making basic lifestyle modifications. While you won't get the body of a Greek god by doing these things they'll help you be a bit more active as well.

The talk was aimed mostly at students but would apply to most people who have an office job.

These involved things like:

- stop taking elevators

- get off the bus one stop before you arrive at your destination (or getting on one stop later)

- going up or down one extra floor to use the washroom

- going to the far cafeteria for lunch instead of the close one

- buying trail mix, fruit, or veggies as a snack instead of muffins, donuts, or bagels

- not using cream cheese, butter, or jam

- ordering vegetarian entrees at lunch instead of meat ones

- packing your own lunch

- walking around the floor as a break

The basic idea is that, if you don't have the mental conviction to get out to the gym regularly, then make choices so that you can get exercise in here and there.

Good point, and one I want to emphasize: people of ALL LEVELS of fitness are welcome to participate here.

[DragonAvenger]

Adding onto Arcana's post, the idea I had come up with a couple years ago involved setting up my old SNES in front of my parent's treadmill. The idea was this: Play one of those games (namely, Breath of Fire) that I never got around to and walk at the same time.

I never intended it as my workout, but as a way to play games and not be sitting the entire time. I have to say it was pretty successful, and enjoyable. The only problem was the occassional mis-step that almost killed me a couple times.

Now I'm in my own house, and invested in a good exercise bike and have my old PS with Xenogears. Another plus is that it limits my game time to the interval I set (usually 30 minutes) and I tend to burn between 150-200 calories. Certainly better than eating a snack and gaming.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYUM!

[BardicKnowledge]

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYUM!

wow, that's sick. Gotta get some furniture sliders and see how low I can get now, haha. I'm sure it's nowhere close to video worthy though, haha.

[Hyperion5182]

A variation on the standing Wheel. Probably better even. Its not impossible the trick is not extending yourself out too far. The woman must have perfect Arch and Hollow positions to be able to put it out that far. Not to mention the difficulty of stabilization given all four points. If you aren't on that level of fitness i wouldn't consider it. IE: If you cant perform a Dragon Flag you'll probably not be able to stop yourself.

That is a hell of a goal to shoot for though. I'm pretty overweight myself...i'm just hoping to be somewhat thinner come summer.

[Penfold]

Most proponents of duration over intensity will tell you that long duration stuff at a moderate pace will get you into a zone where more of the calories you're burning are fat than anything else. Whereas with high intensity stuff you'll burn fewer calories from fat. So on the surface it sounds logical to go with long duration stuff because more of the calories you burn are in the form of fat.

Trouble is that with high intensity stuff you'll burn more calories in less time so if you were to compare say 15 minutes of interval training to 40 minutes jogging at a moderate pace, you'll generally burn a lot more calories going with the high intensity workout, and more fat because of it. And you did it all in about a third of the time it would take jogging. So if you want to burn fat, always go high intensity. There are some other problems with long duration stuff like jogging as well (such as loss of muscle mass) which aren't nearly as big an issue with high intensity short duration exercise making it a better compliment to strength training.

Anyway, as far as goals for me, I've joined the local CrossFit gym and my long term goals are to get a lot stronger and increase my conditioning by a large margin. I want to be able to deadlift above 500lbs. and squat over 400 on the strength side. On the conditioning side I want to lower my times on a lot of the standard CrossFit workouts like Fran and Angie. It'd be nice if I could work up to handstand pushups this year and work up to hammering out a straight set of at least 30 pullups as well.

I saw "intensity" in your post, and knew right away - go Crossfit!

I think in this sort of medium it's difficult to convey all of the positives and advantages one can see through the program (especially given how daunting/unintelligable/"easy on paper" it seems when someone first looks at the site), but for a person who isn't looking to become a specialist, and especially those who just want to be in better functional condition, CF is the way to go.

What are your current numbers? Do you guys do your own programming or do you follow the mainsite?

I generally solo WOD, though sometimes with a co-worker, following mainsite primarily but throwing in the strength WODs from CF Football and rarely their DWODs. Some current numbers (5'9", 155-159lb): Fran 3:32, max PUs (butterfly) 50, conventional DL x 3 345lb, Back squat x 5 245lb, Cindy 25 completed rounds, the '08 Games Deadlift Burpee WOD 4:50.

I can really geek out when it comes to CF haha.

[Vivi22]

I just started about a month ago so I'm still building a lot of strength especially in the upper body to be able to do a lot of the workouts as RX'd. It's tough as hell but it's getting easier every day. Only problem lately is a cold I've been trying to shake for the last week. Almost better though.

We do our own programming there rather than following the main site. We start with a warm up that's modified from the regular one. It adds some things like Turkish get ups, lunges, and burpees, and we sub some stuff like push ups instead of dips because we have no dip bars (there are rings, but yeah... ). After that we do strength work, going through squats, press, deadlift and power cleans each day. And following the strength work in each class we do a metcon. We usually cap it off with some practice of L-sits, planches, planks and the like for a minute or so.

As for numbers, I'm 6'2" and at 253 lbs. now, down about 5 since I started. I'm currently squatting 155x5, deadlift is 195x5, press will be 80x5 after tonight. The only named WOD we've done since I started was Grace. I did it with 65 lbs. in 3:27 with plenty more gas in the tank, so the weight will have to go up next time . Did 100 burpees last night in 14:03, and I'm still working on getting the one pullup I had before I started back. Almost had one last night.

It's a bit tough with some WODs right now just because I'm not at my max for some of the weights yet, but it's hard to always figure out something that'll be challenging without being heavier than what I'm pressing or cleaning. They start you off slow on the strength so you get more time under the bar before it gets heavy and so the improvement is fairly steady until you plateau and things need to be switched up.

If you can't tell, I can geek out pretty well about CrossFit as well. At least I managed to avoid getting started on diet or I'd be here a while.

[Brandon Strader]

The first rule of OCR Fit Club: Do not talk about the fit club.

I just shoveled half of the snow out the front of the mailbox... I figure there's probably an hour or two left to do there. Getting cardio + strength training at the same time. Nice.

[Arcana]

Adding onto Arcana's post, the idea I had come up with a couple years ago involved setting up my old SNES in front of my parent's treadmill. The idea was this: Play one of those games (namely, Breath of Fire) that I never got around to and walk at the same time.

I never intended it as my workout, but as a way to play games and not be sitting the entire time. I have to say it was pretty successful, and enjoyable. The only problem was the occassional mis-step that almost killed me a couple times.

Now I'm in my own house, and invested in a good exercise bike and have my old PS with Xenogears. Another plus is that it limits my game time to the interval I set (usually 30 minutes) and I tend to burn between 150-200 calories. Certainly better than eating a snack and gaming.

I would love to get a setup like this actually.

One way I attempt to compensate a bit is by setting up an exercise ball for computing at home, but there are a few problems with it, mostly that the exercise ball I have is a bit too high for where I have the keyboard tray at.

Definitely not a cardio workout, but it's a good way to build up core strength.

[Meteo Xavier]

Whenever I can get back to a gym, I want to get back into strength building, so my questions are for Taucer.

Basically, even though this body is decently healthy and in a decent shape even after plenty of time away from serious exercise, it's fucked up for life. It only seems to understand how to do like 1/3 of basic exercises and thusly does not seem to gain strength very well and doing basic things like lifting and moving things.

What kind of exercises can I do to build strength for everyday use, and how does that work exactly? I know it takes a while, I just never really got the finer points straight. I used to do this 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 routine which seemed to work but man that takes a lot of time to do.

[Penfold]

I just started about a month ago so I'm still building a lot of strength especially in the upper body to be able to do a lot of the workouts as RX'd. It's tough as hell but it's getting easier every day. Only problem lately is a cold I've been trying to shake for the last week. Almost better though.

We do our own programming there rather than following the main site. We start with a warm up that's modified from the regular one. It adds some things like Turkish get ups, lunges, and burpees, and we sub some stuff like push ups instead of dips because we have no dip bars (there are rings, but yeah... ). After that we do strength work, going through squats, press, deadlift and power cleans each day. And following the strength work in each class we do a metcon. We usually cap it off with some practice of L-sits, planches, planks and the like for a minute or so.

As for numbers, I'm 6'2" and at 253 lbs. now, down about 5 since I started. I'm currently squatting 155x5, deadlift is 195x5, press will be 80x5 after tonight. The only named WOD we've done since I started was Grace. I did it with 65 lbs. in 3:27 with plenty more gas in the tank, so the weight will have to go up next time . Did 100 burpees last night in 14:03, and I'm still working on getting the one pullup I had before I started back. Almost had one last night.

It's a bit tough with some WODs right now just because I'm not at my max for some of the weights yet, but it's hard to always figure out something that'll be challenging without being heavier than what I'm pressing or cleaning. They start you off slow on the strength so you get more time under the bar before it gets heavy and so the improvement is fairly steady until you plateau and things need to be switched up.

If you can't tell, I can geek out pretty well about CrossFit as well. At least I managed to avoid getting started on diet or I'd be here a while.

Very cool! I think strength work followed by metcon is a really good system, something I doubt mainsite will ever move to program (not that they need to, unaffiliated CFers are welcome to add to the programming as they wish). Do you guys post your wods online? Always curious to see what others program.

Amazing how quickly the gains come, especially at the beginning of CF but even after a year of two. PRs and new skills abound. Never will forget the feeling of getting that first muscle-up or getting bodyweight overhead, not to mention the satisfaction of becoming mentally tougher and not quitting despite the discomfort.

Meteo Xavier: build strength for everyday use? http://www.crossfit.com/

[Geoffrey Taucer]

wow, that's sick. Gotta get some furniture sliders and see how low I can get now, haha. I'm sure it's nowhere close to video worthy though, haha.

What?

Oh, the exercise. Yeah, that's pretty nice, too.

[Vivi22]

Very cool! I think strength work followed by metcon is a really good system, something I doubt mainsite will ever move to program (not that they need to, unaffiliated CFers are welcome to add to the programming as they wish). Do you guys post your wods online? Always curious to see what others program.

We do indeed: http://www.crossfitfredericton.com/fredericton-exercise/

I doubt the main site will ever post strength work either beyond the max effort days they already work in, but I'm not sure they really should anyway. Main site programming will lead to great strength gains and at a certain point you'll hit a wall and need to tailor your programming to you anyway. Tougher to do that for every Crossfitter out there.

Amazing how quickly the gains come, especially at the beginning of CF but even after a year of two. PRs and new skills abound. Never will forget the feeling of getting that first muscle-up or getting bodyweight overhead, not to mention the satisfaction of becoming mentally tougher and not quitting despite the discomfort.

Indeed. I managed to get my first full pull up in a month today. Had to kip it a bit to get the chin over the bar, but still. Also did "death by push press" tonight. I made it to 13 rounds +12 reps with 75 lbs. The weight might have been scaled, but I still managed the second highest number of reps of the day. I didn't even realize I was the last one going in the evening class until I noticed no one picking up the bar for round 15.

Meteo Xavier: build strength for everyday use? http://www.crossfit.com/

Can't agree with this enough, not that that should surprise anyone. But CrossFit is all about building functional strength and fitness. The sort of fitness that's useful in everyday life, and I've never had fitness gains all around like this from any other program.

[Penfold]

We do indeed: http://www.crossfitfredericton.com/fredericton-exercise/

I doubt the main site will ever post strength work either beyond the max effort days they already work in, but I'm not sure they really should anyway. Main site programming will lead to great strength gains and at a certain point you'll hit a wall and need to tailor your programming to you anyway. Tougher to do that for every Crossfitter out there.

Indeed. I managed to get my first full pull up in a month today. Had to kip it a bit to get the chin over the bar, but still. Also did "death by push press" tonight. I made it to 13 rounds +12 reps with 75 lbs. The weight might have been scaled, but I still managed the second highest number of reps of the day. I didn't even realize I was the last one going in the evening class until I noticed no one picking up the bar for round 15.

Can't agree with this enough, not that that should surprise anyone. But CrossFit is all about building functional strength and fitness. The sort of fitness that's useful in everyday life, and I've never had fitness gains all around like this from any other program.

Yeah, CF Football uses kind of a modified Westide Barbell method for their SWODs...judging from the comments on their site from their relatively small community base, I can only imagine the widespread confusion that sort of implementation would create on mainsite.

Nice! Man, the Bainbridges are beastly, no doubt you get good training at that box.

I think I've only ever done pullups and 135lb clean and thrusters in the "death by ..." format, I should try push press. You said 75lb was scaled - what was RX'd weight?