OT: Home workouts
Completely off-topic, please delete if you feel this is unnecessary.
I sit in front of a computer all day at work, then do the same once I get home as I teach online and am working on my dissertation. Sitting has taken its toll on me, so I've been looking to start a home workout routine. Been doing pushups and struggling with chin ups, so I figure it's time to start actually following a routine.
I've been looking at the workout programs at the beachbody website, considering one of the p90 workouts or body beast. Anyone have experience with these workout videos, or have any recommendations for a good routine to follow at home with dumbbells and a pull up bar?
gets your heart rate up, scaffolds well (you decide how much you can do), and it only takes a half hour a day...
the key is to diet and exercise together...
jdon
There is only one day where you have a 90 minute workout and that is Yoga. The rest are less than an hour. The new one (3) is 30 minutes a day. The 90 is the number of days to complete the program. I have never done the 21 day but heard great things.
TO start the Daily Circle Jerk Thread, but to pretend you "teach on line"--really?
Five fakes out of five
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I joined the Army...attended Air Assault school.....seemed to work out for me.
On second take, that may be a bit extreme.
I sit on a stability ball at home and at the office as I can't go standing desk.
I have a gym membership but the gf is gym averse so she switches between insanity and p90x. I think insanity might be the place to start.
Insanity is still the best workout among the circuit training type lines, but I wouldn't start with it if I was doing it over. There is no modifier and I think I would have gotten much more out of T25 or Max 30 early on and I felt that Insanity was much harder on my knees right off the bat.
Again, I think it's the best toal body workout I've done at home, but it gets really intense.
I row when I watch sports, which is often. It works out pretty well. Not primitime live games with people over, obviously, just whats on my dvr.
It made no sense to me that in order to be a sports fan of athletes in their physical peak I had to sit completely still for 3 hours, drink lots of beer, and eat uber unhealthy food, So now I watch healthy.
My wife and I have been debating getting a piece of workout equipment. A rowing machine might do the trick, and like you said its something I could do while mindlessly watching TV.
So I have very recently started to try and loose weight. I had done the low carb diet and lost about 35 lbs (I was up to 310!!!!), but then I started to get mini-panic attacks and insomnia and had to stop. I am doubly ashamed as a former cross-country runner turned avid weight lifterl. I stopped when I gained nearly 50 lbs due to a thyroid problem in college and have added about 5-7 lbs a year since.
I have tried to start working out in the past, but I always want to throw myself straight into running (it worked when I was 16!), which would lead to injury. I have lost about 5lbs in two weeks just by walking for 5 minutes every half an hour at work and by walking a mile after work. My next step in not eating out as much, as I have developed a bad fast food habit. I am at about 290 now, and I am hoping to lose about 5 lbs a month. In about 6 months I am hoping to progress to more strenuous exercise. My best weight was 228-- I could run 5 miles in about 40 minutes and I was lifting quite a bit. Now i'd be lucky to run for four minutes without being gassed.
I have one too. I prefer the Viking route: Nothing is quite like chopping wood. Get a good axe (Fiskars X27, Vipkurvies Leaveraxe) and find the local municipal yard waste dump - most cities have them. Usually there is a variety rounds of hard and soft woods. Grab some and get chopping! Then make a fire and open a beer. You get exercise, you get outside, you get to make fire and have some beer. Win, win, win, and win.
You can come over to my home and finish the patio that I started building. Trust me, it's a great work out. I'm pretty sure the ground is the source for Emperor Qin's terracotta army. There are so many roots Jimmy Fallon would even tire of them. I also have some trees I want to take down, so be prepared to axe because that's the way we're doing it.
You do all that for me, and I won't even make you pay for the workout.
But I like the way you can self pace.
Of course, diet is hugely important.
For me it was worth it. I don't know it would be for everyone.
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First of all, stop sitting around so much. I'm much older than you, so it takes more of a toll on my back, but last year I decided to buy an adjustable sit-stand desk with an electric motor. I know this isn't in everyone's budget but there are cheaper alternatives. So I stand at my desk for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon. I also bought a pilates ball chair with a swivel base, it helps a lot. My back pain has gone away.
I keep a set of adjustable dumbbells in my office, too, so if I'm on a long conference call where I don't have to lead, I can do curls, shrugs, whatever. The net result of all this is I no longer have a sore back and feel like shit after sitting at a desk all day.
Best advice in here.
I'd rephrase his suggestion about Bench, Squat, Deadlift, & Chins as "do the lifts with the biggest bang for your time". You can change it up a little for some variation, e.g. Roman Deadlifts, Single Leg Squats (the back is usually the limiting factor for squats, so after you get your form down, you can probably do more than half your two leg max on a single leg squat.) I do this at home.
And then my "program" is to go get some real sports exercise. I try to play basketball 2-3 times a week and am on two softball teams. I also keep a set of pushup handles, some light dumbbells, and a resistance band near my computer for a daily ~5-10 minute set.
If you have the time and are looking to cut weight/add lean muscle, P90X will kick your butt and works fantastic. I did it for two years or so as my workouts at home until I finally made myself start going to the gym after getting married (hard to get a workout in with my wife at home). To save time from being away from home, I usually go to the gym over my lunch hour. Sometimes I'm gone for an hour and a half as it's pretty difficult to get a full gym workout in the time span I need to, but it's worth it and hopefully isn't discouraged by your employer. I understand that's not an option for everyone though.
All that being said, if your only option is to work from home, I would again highly recommend P90X or one of the shorter video options like Insanity or some of the others the commenters above recommended. I'm not as familar with most of those, but they work great. Invest $100-$150 on some dumbbells, and you'll be good to go.
#1 thing I would recommend though is to just start eating healthy and drinking healthy. Drink lots of water, cut the soda/sugary crap if that's something you partake in, drink black coffee and eat healthy. While exercise is important, you will find yourself feeling crazy good just by watching what you eat and drink. I was forced to start eating/drinking healthier because of stomach issues, and it's made a world of difference for me.
Here's to whoever read my book!
I don't know what your background is but if you're like 90% of people who aren't working out, now's not the time to invest in equipment.
The full first nine rules of exercise is FUN. In particular, don't try a "challenging" workout that has a high likelihood of burnout within 3 weeks. If you haven't worked out in a long time or always had trouble with it, you're not going to do it. Most workout programs are a financially front-loaded business; they can and do work, but don't care if you quit so they've no qualms about ramping up the difficulty. If you've bought the DVD and/or the equipment they have your money. The toughest workout program in the world doesn't mean shit if you don't actually DO it. OTOH a friend of friend lost 40 lbs. by getting addicted to DDR. Let me reiterate that: The guy lost weight playing a video game.
So even just getting up out of your chair, closing the door, putting on headphones and spazzing out to your favorite music is a workout. It'll get your heart rate up and after even 10 minutes you should be in a good sweat. As you get used to moving around you'll want to add stretches and stuff to avoid injury, and if you're feeling skippy you might want to practice some moves.
If you have a goal, like a marathon or making Michigan's football team as a walk-on or losing X pounds by Y, then you need a regimen. Then you need a workout that actually feels like work. But if you just want to exercise, anything is better than nothing.
P90X is probably great but it's 90 minutes. I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes this morning before work, which isn't regarded as very good, I feel great and my waist is the same size it was in high school.
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My wife: My wife has had four children and with a combination of T25 (Alpha, Beta and Gamma) plus a good diet, she has lost the baby weight (40+ lbs) within two months.
Me: I had extremely high blood pressure last year and heavier than I had ever been in my life (205 lbs). Before they moved me to BP medication, I walked, used T25 Alpha and changed my diet. Within two months, I was down to 190-195lbs and my blood pressure was getting better.
I agree with all the other people who have used T25 that a good diet must accompany the workout routine if you want to see results sooner and to keep them that way.
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this is the only home workout where i felt like it was close to as intense as working out with a trainer:
https://www.fitnessblender.com/
it's free, you can search by many different metrics (time, difficulty level, equpment, body area, technique) and they are legit good work outs (ametuer opinion, based on working out with a trainer for 3 year and trying various home workout methods). it really helped for me because my biggest obstacles to working out at home were/are boredom and getting off track if i was doing a method (e.g., oh, i didn't do the video yesterday, might as well give up until next week). no matter what time i had or how i was feeling, i could find something to do on here. you can come up with your own weekly outine, do whatever you're feeling on a day to day basis, or pay a bit of money for a structured plan.
I made a bet with a friend about who could do more pull-ups after a certain amount of time. Working on pull-ups was a really good start for me towards getting in shape.
If you can't do any/can do very few, there are some good ways to work your way up.
-Chin-ups (palms up) are easier than pull-ups (palms down). You can start with chin-ups, then switch to pull-ups when you're strong enough.
-Hold in place: jump or step on a chair to get yourself above the bar, then hold yourself there as long as you can.
-Negatives: again, jump or step on a chair to get yourself above the bar, then lower yourself as slowly as you can.
I followed this workout I found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRznU6pzez0. The guy in the video is kind of a weirdo, but the workout progression is quite sensible.
Oh, and make sure to record and track your results. That's really important.
Scooby's the man!!!
Good enough for Chuck Norris, good enough for me. Really, bought one years ago, and still use it. My back & knees keep me from a lot of other choices. It's not the only equipment I use, but still one of my favorites.
Road bike, smart trainer and Zwift. Awesome combination that has me enjoying sweating. In fact, biking has now translated in to a full fledged hobby. Zwift makes biking a virtual video game with achievements and other people to compete with. Keeps you coming back to improve and put on miles, while the lbs drop off.
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I think Invictus puts out really high quality programming. This is their fitness track.
https://www.crossfitinvictus.com/category/wod/fitness/
Nothing revolutionary about it -- just a good combination of strength and conditioning. Don't like a movement or lack the equipment, google a substition.
Their other two tracks are top notch, well respected in the crossfit community, which I know is like a KKK endorsement to some of you.
For diet, if you're focused, you'll be hard pressed to find anything more clear or easier to execute than UM's own Nick Shaw's Renaissance Periodization.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2016/04/30/he-turned-his-pass…
Templates for $100 that work every time; all you need is a food scale and compliance.
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...just get to Youtube and follow Zuzka Light. Great workouts and aesthetically pleasing. Who knows, you may end up with abs like hers!
Whatever you do, make sure it's sustainable. I have tried to do the at-home workout videos, but they just don't work for me. I find them boring and the people that create them are obnoxious to me.
Whatever you choose, make sure it's something you can see yourself doing a month from now. Two months from now. A year from now. If you don't like whatever program you start (for reasons other than "it's hard"), then don't continue it. You will eventually stop and give up and it's harder to start back exercising every time you quit.
squat rack and a adjustable bench is literally all you need. Well worth the investment and craigslist will always have second hand equipment people are getting rid of.
P90X3 is only 30 minutes a day. Great results and less of a time commitment than the original. You don't need a ton of weights. You do want a pull up bar though.
I've been doing You Are Your Own Gym for over a year and am a big fan. It's a bodyweight program, produced by a guy who used to train special forces troops, requires no equiptment except for a pull-up bar, and you can get around that. Like most of these, it's an interval training program
I've stuck with this one after trying a bunch of other simmilar bodyweight interval training programs. Here's why I liked this one:
- Easy. For me, the biggest barrier to working out is trying to figure out what exactly to do when I'm brain-dead at the end of the day. This program makes it automatic: just do the next workout. As others have said, 90% of the battle is just showing up, and this program makes it easy.
- (relatively) Quick. The longest workouts are 36 minutes (46 with warm-up and cool-down), 3-4 times a week.
- Cheap. You don't have to buy a ton of videos or equiptment. You can do the whole program using the app (5 bucks). I'd recomend getting and reading the book too, as it gives a lot of details on the philosophy behind the workout and ways to modify the different exercises to make them easier or harder, but it isn't necessary.
- Complete and effective. This guy knows what he's doing, and just doing his basic program will give you a complete, full-body workout over the course of 10 weeks.
- Customizable. It's really easy to just do his program, but also really easy to change up some of the exercises or even design a program from scratch. So if 36 minutes is too long and you find yourself skipping days you can easily tweak those workouts to be 24 minutes instead.
Maybe the biggest thing that makes me trust this workout is that Mark Lauren takes a much more sane approach to fittness than 99% of the workout programs out there. He isn't promising instant results, couch potato to perfect beach body, etc. I don't trust anything that makes promises like that because they're impossible, and because crazy programs that do produce short-term results are hard to maintain and almost always lead to rebound (for example). The general atittude behind You Are Your Own Gym is that fitness is a practice, something you do regularly over a lifetime to stay a healthy, sane individual, not something that is going to radically change your life for only three small payments of....
Never heard of "You are your own gym". Looking for something new and will give this a try. Thanks.
Find and join a good crossfit gym. It will be better in every way than trying to exercise at home. Only takes an hour plus drive time. You won't have to worry about programming or equipment and you'll have a community to provide accountability and make it more fun. I can't imagine doing anything else. Emphasis on 'good' gym though, anyone can open one, just like anyone can open a restaurant, some or even a lot will suck.
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First of all, if you want to have the home workout you shoudl have your proper fitness guide and according to it, you should have your home workout. Programme fitness is the fitness program which gives you the proper guide how to have a workout or how much time and what kind of workout should be there for your body. Nothing much for this, you just to have a look for your programme fitnessfrom any useful source.