Fit Club ahoy! Where men are bros and women are also bros!

[Anorax]

So my university's band is going to be in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and any percussionist who isn't in the top-tier drumline will be marching with cymbals. Anyone know any tried-and-true arm strengthening exercises?

[zircon]

Do you have access to a gym, or is this bodyweight only?

[Anorax]

Do you have access to a gym, or is this bodyweight only?

There is a rather nice gym on campus available to students. There's "More than 9,800 square feet of fitness space featuring cardiovascular and weight equipment" inside, so there's just about everything sans parkour space. (of course I'm saying this as someone who has zero workout experience)

[zircon]

Gotcha. Well, it's a little counter-productive to focus ONLY on arms. You would probably be better suited doing a simple upper body routine focusing on several larger muscle groups as well as isolated biceps / triceps.

For each of these exercises, check on YouTube for highly rated videos on how to do each, or ask a trainer/instructor at the gym. None are too complicated though.

As a beginner, I recommend doing 3 sets for each exercise. For your first set, you want to be able to do 10 repetitions pretty easily. So, the weight should not be so heavy that you're struggling to hit 10, although not so light that it feels like nothing.

Your second set should be heavier to the point where doing 10 reps is possible, but challenging - i.e. you might feel like you want to stop at 8 or 9, but you can push through it.

Your third set should be heavy enough that you are barely able to hit 10, if at all. Even if you only hit 6-7 it's ok. Less than 6 and that is probably too heavy.

Finding these numbers is trial and error. What's your height / weight / age? I can probably give you some basic suggestions on where to start in terms of ballpark weights. Anyway, the exercises:

1. Bench press. This will help build your chest and arms. It's one of the very best exercises you can do for upper body strength.

2. Overhead press. Can be done standing or seated, great for shoulders. Can be done with dumbbells instead of a barbell - I prefer dumbbells myself.

3. Seated row. Great upper body movement in general - builds lots of muscles.

4. Bicep curls. Easiest with an "EZ curl" bar (it looks wavy, not straight) but can be done with dumbbells. The key thing here is to try and keep your elbows locked at your sides, and to make sure you're getting the full contraction of the muscle each time. It's easy to sort of move your entire arm instead of actually contracting your bicep.

5. Tricep pulldown. Builds your triceps.

After your first set of each, wait about 1 minute. After your second set, wait about 2 minutes. You can move on to the next exercise once you finish your third set - don't wait too long (<1 min).

There are of course many more exercises and variations you could do, but if you are untrained, even just doing these five will probably give you good + fast results.

[Anorax]

Oh I understand that focusing on arms solely isn't wise, I probably should have worded my question better. Basically I'll be holding a pair of cymbals out in front of me for two hours or so, so upper body strength in general is probably more accurate for what I need to work.

I'm 18, around 5'11", and around 160lbs at last check.

Thanks man, I'll definitely need to get started soon.

[Soul Splint]

Oh I understand that focusing on arms solely isn't wise, I probably should have worded my question better. Basically I'll be holding a pair of cymbals out in front of me for two hours or so, so upper body strength in general is probably more accurate for what I need to work.

I'm 18, around 5'11", and around 160lbs at last check.

Thanks man, I'll definitely need to get started soon.

Zircon posted some good stuff. Because of what you'll be doing, it sounds like shoulder and back exercises are going to be most helpful; I would also recommend throwing in some dumbbell raises (lateral and front, i.e. out to the sides of your body and in front of your body, with straight arms), Arnold presses, dumbell and barbell rows, and every variation of pullup you can stomach. Youtube them for clarification and form.

[Anorax]

Today I began what I considered to actually be my workout, although I began jogging earlier this week. Zircon, I ran through the exercises you gave me, and the only one I missed was the triceps pulldown (In hindsight I should have wrote down how much weight I was using for future reference). Getting into a routine will be a bit difficult for me, but I hope to get one made so I can stick to it!

[Thin Crust]

So I've got myself a resting heart rate of 42. Everyone sound off what you got.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Thin Crust

[zircon]

42?! Are you serious? That's like.. top 1%, elite athlete, olympic-level. Insane. I'm at around 70 and I exercise like 5 days a week minimum.

On a side note, back in July I somehow injured a disc and it has been causing me pain for over a month. Started physical therapy and it turns out my legs are about as flexible as steel bars. I've been doing 1.5 hr PT sessions AND daily stretching exercises to help get to where my flexibility should be, as well as strengthen my core.

Other things I've done to help prevent further problems with back / joints: got a lumbar pillow, knee wraps, and back brace for heavy lifts.

[XPRTNovice]

So I've got myself a resting heart rate of 42. Everyone sound off what you got.

I'm usually sitting at 60, though I haven't taken it in a while.

[Halt]

Hey guys, I'm been absent from this thread for a while now, due to an injury which has gotten much better to the point where I feel I can work around it with light stuff, and exercises that don't engage my forearms much. My Occupational therapist said that eventually I'd need to strengthen my forearms.

So, I started cardio, core stuff, and legs along with the forearm exercises I was shown!

It's a year contract at my gym though. Wish it was month to month!

[XPRTNovice]

Hey guys, I'm been absent from this thread for a while now, due to an injury which has gotten much better to the point where I feel I can work around it with light stuff, and exercises that don't engage my forearms much. My Occupational therapist said that eventually I'd need to strengthen my forearms.

So, I started cardio, core stuff, and legs along with the forearm exercises I was shown!

It's a year contract at my gym though. Wish it was month to month!

Welcome back!

Speaking of injuries, does anyone know the best way to deal with a bruised heel? Well, not the heel, but the part of the arch right against the heel. I made a bad landing on the edge of a stone column two weeks ago and it seems like it's not getting better at all. No visible bruising.

[Soul Splint]

Welcome back!

Speaking of injuries, does anyone know the best way to deal with a bruised heel? Well, not the heel, but the part of the arch right against the heel. I made a bad landing on the edge of a stone column two weeks ago and it seems like it's not getting better at all. No visible bruising.

Rest, rest and more rest (and food and sleep). Foot injuries SUCK. Depending on exactly what you damaged, there may be some therapy options, but it's basically going to boil down to staying off of it, IME.

[XPRTNovice]

Rest, rest and more rest (and food and sleep). Foot injuries SUCK. Depending on exactly what you damaged, there may be some therapy options, but it's basically going to boil down to staying off of it, IME.

....but parkour...

[Thin Crust]

Parkor? How about walking?

I'm actually struggling with a heel injury too and it's been that way since basketball 27 days ago. I'm sure it will get better with time but here's the thing. If it's causing you constant pain, that means inflammation. That means ibuprofen. If it only hurts when you land on it, that means injury and you need rest.

So today I went through several sets of clothing and after 1pm, the cleanest thing I had was my sweaty socks. I think today was a very good day..... except for the chafed nipples,

[Soul Splint]

....but parkour...

I know, I know. But it's necessary. I felt a slight twinge in the arch of my foot while doing sprints about 10 months ago, and ignored it. The next sprint session, I full-on strained it. A month and a half later, it had started to feel better, so I sprinted again. And strained it again. Altogether, it took about four to five months for it to heal because I would try to do stuff (like sprints, calf raises, etc.) when it was feeling better, and it kept getting re-injured.

Foot injuries suck. Better to completely rest it for a little while than half-rest it for nearly half a year.

[zircon]

Progress update - my lowest weight so far has been 178.2 pounds! I'm shooting for 1700-1800 cals a day which is NOT easy but I'm determined to get down to 170, maybe lower. In the meantime, I'm proud of my current lifts on my heavy set: bench 160x7, squat 230x8. I've made some marginal improvements on my bench despite losing weight and on basically everything else I'm maintaining. Not doing deadlift yet due to lower disc injury over a month ago but I'm looking forward to incorporating it into my routine.

Speaking of said injury, I'm doing physical therapy a few days a week and the therapist strongly recommended I work on my flexibility / core stabilization. So far that is doing wonders. I was dangerously inflexible due to not stretching at all - he suggested that a lack of flexibility in my hamstrings could have caused my lower back to get pulled in some weird positions during squats. So, I'm now doing a stretch routine (~15-20 mins) almost every day and it feels really nice.

[Chernabogue]

So I need to lose weight and belly fat. My studies are taking a lot of my time (I spend my days working on a desk), and I lack the correct motivation to do more sport. I did a lot of swimming when I was young, but nowadays, I usually go running for 40 min once a week (which isn't the perfect routine).

I'm currently at 85 kgs (around 190 lbs I think), and I'd like to lose around 8-10 kgs while beefing up a little. It's not the worst situation, but I want to stop getting fatter and improve my health. I'd like to do muscle-development exercises too.

I have access to some sport classes on my campus (they are rather cheap), but I can't afford a "real" gym membership. I also would like to continue running and maybe go to the swimming pool from time to time.

Any tips/advices/anything that could help? Thanks in advance. Much appreciated.

[zircon]

If you want to lose weight, I have a fairly simple piece of advice: track everything that you eat. Write down every calorie. That means weighing your food (buy a food scale, they're cheap) and beverages. You will likely be very surprised at how much you're consuming - I know I was. Once you get a sense of how much you're eating every day (average over the course of a week), adjust that down by about 500 calories per day. Weigh yourself over time and see how your weight fluctuates. If you aren't losing weight, you need to adjust further downward.

For example, I'm 5'9 / ~180 lbs right now.. down from ~191 a few months ago. I shoot to eat 1700-1800 calories a day. Doing this I've been losing a little less than a pound a week. While exercise is very healthy, you could exercise for 6 hours a day and it wouldn't matter to your weight IF you were eating more than you're burning. Thus, you need to TRACK what you eat and adjust your intake.

In terms of building muscle, it can be difficult to do WHILE losing weight, but if you're relatively untrained you will see "noob gains" over the course of a month or two. Do you have access to any gym equipment at all? Or just bodyweight stuff?

[Chernabogue]

I still need to check what the Sports Center of my university has in terms of equipment, but I'm pretty sure they have lot of stuff (they propose several activities).

That food tip sounds very interesting and useful. I will definitively pay more attention to that.

[OceansAndrew]

I still need to check what the Sports Center of my university has in terms of equipment, but I'm pretty sure they have lot of stuff (they propose several activities).

That food tip sounds very interesting and useful. I will definitively pay more attention to that.

Andy is totally on that controlling your food intake is the key to success. +1

[Skrypnyk]

After less than a month of practice, I managed to run 5k in 29m30s.

Feels good man.

[Soul Splint]

I'm currently at 85 kgs (around 190 lbs I think), and I'd like to lose around 8-10 kgs while beefing up a little. It's not the worst situation, but I want to stop getting fatter and improve my health. I'd like to do muscle-development exercises too.

Ditto on what zircon and OA said about food intake being the key to weight loss, but I want to add one thing: if you're looking to gain muscle and lose fat, I highly recommend you go with gaining muscle FIRST. Lifting heavy weights will help you shed a bit of fat in the process anyway, then once you have put some muscle on, cut your bodyfat down to where you want it. Optimum sexification.

[OceansAndrew]

Andy, is that you?

[Soul Splint]

^ I would weep.