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goneski

Fitness

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Hi all,

I'm looking at attempting to evolve from a slug to more of a fit form.

What are people's preferred form of fitness?

I'm not looking at building muscle or becoming a total fitness freak or anything, more just toning up and increasing general health/well being

and some weight loss. I've been looking at either a gym membership, or a cross trainer.

So far, I'm thinking a cross trainer. This way, I can get up, work out, shower and go to work. I'm not too sure on how much I'd utilise a gym membership.

I like the idea of being able to roll out of bed and exercise. I suppose compared to $1500+ for a cross trainer, I could just get a pair of decent joggers and go

jogging/running, but I like the idea of a low impact work out. I've found when jogging/running previously, I do tend to get sore joints, legs and feet.

This is why a cross trainer looks appealing.

I may even give yoga a shot as well.

So, what kind of exercise works for you?

Cheers

EDIT: just to put things into context, I should note that all I pretty much do is sit in front of a computer. I don't really do any exercise at the moment. I've been thinking (procrastinating?)

about it for a while. The main thing stopping me, is that I've found it extremely hard to find many reviews of gym equipment. Sure I could get a 10 pass to a gym and try out different equipment,

but from what I gather, the experience of commercial equipment (anywhere from $3,000 - $10,000+) doesn't really translate well to consumer-level equipment designed for home use.

On second thought, maybe I should turn the house into a giant rat cage with one of these set up:

ratracewheel.jpg

Edited by SYNeR

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Maybe rather than investing in equipment or getting frustrated/sore with jogging (considering your sedentary lifestyle so far), ride a pushbike, to get things moving.

I am riding a lot (cardio-exercise) in order to maintain upper body muscle-strength i do dumbbell / weight training, for stretching and abdominal muscles i use an inversion table. :rolleyes:

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For exercise I run along the beach, chase my dogs through the bush, carry dead animals when hunting, build rock gardens, swim away from crocs and Ive got some gymnastics rings that I like to play on.

Take up a hobby that requires some exercise and walm into it. Best way to change your brain and how its wired Re exercise is to have a relationship with a girl who likes exercising.

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I could lend you a kettlebell and a Bulgarian bag, that would whip you into shape in no time.

Just kidding, that would be a shock to the system if you haven't done much for a while.

I'd suggest to start at a very low intensity level for anything you decide to try, sore muscles can take up to two days before you really know that you've overdone it.

I wouldn't buy any bulky equipment especially at first until you know that you are going stick with it. You see that sort of stuff at garage sales and council cleanups all the time, people start with good intentions and then lose interest and end up with something that takes up a lot of space so they end up getting rid of it.

A gym ball is a great place to start, replace you work chair with it ( you might have to get a bit creative to get it up to correct height), with that and you'll start burning calories and work a surprising amount of muscle without even trying. You can also design a good workout just using the ball and your imagination.

Yoga is excellent, but can be a lot more strenuous than you'd think (especially power yoga) so start slow and don't start pushing your limits until your body becomes accustomed to the extra workload.

Start slow and gradually increase your intensity in any activity you chose.

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exercise is overrated :devil: lol !! but yeah i agree with teon get a dog !!

Edited by bullit

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Take up a hobby that requires some exercise and walm into it.

 

Like.. Knitting, or Extreme Chess?

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Some very good advice here, no need to go rushing into buying exersize machienes just yet, they are really quite boring!

I was really lazy for a while and what got me out of it was walking up rivers. Each time i would push myself to go up further and eventually i was walking upstream for an hour or more whenever i went there. I highly reccomend it as a light form of exersize, lots of balancing, jumping, stretching, ducking and also good for the mind, at first you have to really consider where each step will fall, but soon you're dancing up the river without even pausing for a moment.

Having a bicycle is a great step, AND a helmet too!

I go to the gym cause its free while i'm at uni but its a pretty dull place, if you cant get your excersize elsewhere, take a book and learn something while you work out.

Just make a comitment to using your body how it should be used, take the stairs, ride a bike to work, go for a walk when you are bored, the more you try the easier and funner it becomes, and your body will reward you with lots of extra energy and lovely endorfens :)

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gyms r a good place too pick up :devil: weights??

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I love running long distance, nothing perks me up better than a medium paced 5-7km run. When ever I am feeling down a run never fails to get the endorphins flowing.

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Nah I meant something like bowhunting, spearfishing, rock climbing or bushwalking.

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If i were spending money on exercise equipment id be looking for fun.

So to me it makes more sense to get a mountain bike.

Heaps more fun then a cross trainer or gym member ship.

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a few years ago I spent quiet a bit of money on a crosstrainer as I had stopped riding to work and started to 'fill out' . I bought it because I thought it would be good to have some equipment at home but I never really used it, it was easier to sit on my arse and watch tv.

then with a few high demand events coming up I got a personal trainer and started loosing weight.

6 months into having a PT I started doing the group fitness classes offered by every gym. les mills body step, rpm, body pump etc. What I enjoyed about those classes was that I was unlike everyone else doing the classes. they were young, fit and hot - I was unfit not so young and hot so hot. After a while I was matching their fitness and bettering them. the only difference is they still looked hot and I still had a beer gut. I had an injury and a personal situation which kept me away from gym over the last several months so I'm back to being fat again. but I have returned to the gym and hope to lose 20kg before another 'high demand event' in June - a 100km non stop walk where every kg counts!

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What I enjoyed about those classes was that I was unlike everyone else doing the classes. they were young, fit and hot - I was unfit not so young and hot so hot.

that's gold :) ...the sort of gold that you need to make you laugh real hard.

thankyou wt

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I fully recommend the free program 5BX. It was in use by the Canadian Air Force. It's essentially like playing video games, in that you level up and end up doing much harder stuff eventually. It takes 5 minutes every day, and requires no equipment. If you have trouble finding the actual program, I should have some scans somewhere from an old book that had them.

I think the fact that you're following a program (no thinking required), are levelling up at a pace based on your age, and spend only 5 minutes and no dollars - makes it an amazing program. Once you get into it, you can use it as a "base level" from which to exercise further. So I mean that you never stop the 5BX, but you start going to the gym, or running - and if you quit the gym, or the running, you won't get unfit. :)

I'm going to start it again myself, rather than sporadic weight-training where I don't even count reps.

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I remember I went kayaking sevreal years ago for a couple of weeks around Tassie's Freycinet peninsula - with some bushwalking between. When I got back home and looked in the mirror, I got quite a shock. The kayaking really toned me up in those couple of weeks and it's heaps of fun...I guess I must have paddled at least 20km and walked 30km...was just a shock to my body.

So yeah, make sure it's fun and you won't even notice.

SallyD mentioned kettlebells, those workouts are frick'n intense!!! I swear I was ready to die after a 30min workout with those things.

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I really dig bicycling (both road and mountain)... its pretty inexpensive to get started.

There's a ton of exercises you can do with a simple set of (small) plate loaded dumb bells for strength training.

My g/f really enjoys yoga, and got me turned onto it also. It was a bit more demanding than I anticipated in that it left me sore the next couple of days!

When ever you start a new exercise program, its a good idea to start off light and ease into it. No need to get discouraged by starting off balls to the wall and hurting yourself!

Good luck! Keeping physically active keeps me more mentally/emotionally stable, and I truly believe that humans evolved with an inherent need of exercise to maintain sanity. Glob knows I need every bit I can get. :lol:

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I changed my eating habits and did zero excercise, and over 4 months, I lost 8 kilos without any effort at all, eating amazingly tasty food and sat on my arse as usual - the only effort was a mental one, coming down off the food chemical high, which was 6 weeks of feeling irritable, slightly crazy, craving and mild cold/flu symptoms. I've kept the weight off for over 12 months with zero effort - I really didn't have any more than 8kgs excess to lose, but the results are sustainable - unlike smashing the gym for 6 months, then being lazy for 6 and getting fat/unfit again.

I'm really lazy - so this worked for me - and the better quality food gave me a litte more energy so I probably did do a bit more physical stuff naturally, but never went out of my way to 'work out'

A combination is the best - good food, then excercise. If you do it the other way - you end up tired and run down.

Edit: I'm not a hot young buff person either!

Edited by IndianDreaming

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^^^Yeah, eat under 1400 calories a day, drink a shit load of water and take a heap of caffeine and you can almost watch that fat just disappear, even without doing any exercise. Problem is, you won’t look good (healthy or whatever) and will end up being ‘skinny fat’. Plus, in my experience ya flat line after a while and your body will hold on to that last bit of fat with everything it’s got. That’s where I’m pretty much at right now. I am using the dumbbells every once in a while, but only enough to keep my upper body reasonably tight, rather than trying to build muscle.

Just in the last few days I’ve decided to get my shit together and start toning up again (no more pizza, doritos or cannabinoid’s for a while, lol). But rather than stuffing around with the BS of trying to work on all the different muscle groups (which for a lazy person like me is inevitably going to fail), I’ve gotten my old backpack out and put 30 kilos of weight in it and am going to just walk up and down the street with it throughout the day. I’ve only done it once so far and completely piked out yesterday, but I gotta keep at it! My goal is to have some abs showing without flexing within the next 10 days, I reckon it’s doable. It may be a bit of a vain goal, but what can I say, I’m a loner drug addict with no job and having a toned 28 inch waist is my own little way of sticking it up my beer gutted family members.

Walking with a heavy backpack seriously is a superior way of getting fit. Its good strength & endurance training and also a good cardio work out all at the same time. But also you work nearly every muscle in the body all at once, your legs, hips, arse, abdominal, arms, shoulders and back all work hard and tighten up in no time. The only muscles I’ve noticed that don’t really benefit from it are the pecs. Though I’ve never been to big on working the chest muscles anyway, since I don’t think they look good, but it’s probably an important muscle group to work on for building strength in the upper body, so I’m thinking a few push-ups should take care of that.

Anyway, 10 days from now, bitches!!! :wink:

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Watch out for manorexia boys

Its really not worth starving yourself to look good - trust me i've been there.

Image problems often become more pronounced in guys because they dont talk about themselves or their bodies very much, so obsessive weight control can go un-noticed for alot longer. Theres just as much pressure on males to look fit and buff as there is on females to look slim and sexy.

You never start out thinking i'm going to only eat lettuce and oranges and run for 2 hours per day, but if you arent careful and realistic about what your body wants, needs and can handle - it becomes easy to delude yourself.

This might be cheating, but taking a 1/2 tsp of tumeric in a shot glass of apple cider vinger, twice a day helps to speed up your metabolism and works as a general tonic.

My friend introduced me to it and she had been told by her fat and lazy grandma who lost 10kgs in 3 weeks, just sitting on her ass and taking the potion twice a day.

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To tell the truth, a while back when I got back from hiking with a body as hard as a rock, I did actually start going for days without food in an attempt to try and hold onto that lean & toned look without doing the extreme exercise I had been doing. But it seriously does not work, you just end up looking crack head skinny and don’t lose the fat around your abdominal area anyway. lol, not a good look! Might be different for chicks.

I’ve worked out that 1400 calories (I’m only 165cm) a day with shit loads of protein is a reasonably healthy goal to aim for to lose weight, which allows you to hold on to muscle mass and not put your body into starvation mode. You do need to do a little bit of weight training though, just to ensure you hold onto your current muscle mass.

Edited by jabez

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Na no different for chicks, if you dont eat and you will look like a crackhead - no matter your sex.

Healthy is the aim of the game.. Not fainting.

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I'm really lazy

Edit: I'm not a hot young buff person either!

Aww c'mon man, i've seen you move pretty quick in the water when the need arises!

you could play water polo with those skills :P

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