Motivate Me: The HEXUS Excercise thread : post your pain ;-)

[Zak33]

Hi guys

Well.. here it is: Post what you've justdone, be it run, cycled, swam or rowed.. and why it felt good or bad.. and we'll try to help motivate you into a new action soon after to keep you at it.

We want to know how you monitor it, and why you're proud or gutted about the result.

I shall begin here and now, and you can all join in as yuo see fit. If yuo don't post for a few weeks but DO do some excercise, please update us with a potted explanation.

Sunday 27th July, 7pm about 24'C ambient temperature. Having spent the entire weekend eating and drinking too much I loaded myself with water all day, so I knew I'd not drop like a bag of spuds and ran.

First 1 1/2 miles the Android Runtastic wasn't moving... it WAS keeping time.. but apparenty I was still outside my house as my sweat slicked fingers switched it off.. rebooted the phone. and tried again. I hated nearly every step, but a further 3.88 miles later and I'd made it home.

5.3 ish miles in just under an hour. 3 times my knees hurt so much I had to crouch and stretch whatever the muscle/tendon is across the front/side... but 30 seconds of crouching and it's gone and off I went.

I'd LOVE that pain to stop. Dunno what it is but MAN it hurts

My feet got sore in first mile... pitiful.. it was gone by mile two

[TooNice]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/27/sp...html?hpt=hp_c3

Well, to be perfectly honest, I am not sure if I will ever do a full marathon. It has kinda fell to the bottom of my bucket list. Basically it would be nice to be able to say that I've done it, but the problem is that running for hours is.. not very fun to me. I like sprinting, and I do some HITT, but perhaps due to the lack of company, I just can't be bothered to do long distance. I do care about improving my fitness, and I do feel like my cardio fitness could do some work (I do not drink, I do not smoke, I am relatively lean, yet I feel like my cardio is nowhere as good as I like).

That said, since April I have taken a bunch of new sports. Some are relatively low intensity (but requires control and concentration) like archery and iaido. But it's boxing that really made me want to improve my cardio and it is by far the most intense workout amongst the sports I am doing now. Judo is potentially intense but the technique requires a lot more fine control which slows the practice down (hence my heart rate never rise too much). Kendo is a bit similar, though sparring back to back for 20 or so minutes did make me breathe faster.

I had to suspend my training for two weeks due to being too busy, but I just restarted earlier today. May also throw some mountain climbing in the upcoming month.

On a side note, I've started a new project: stretching! Boxing really helped with cutting down the fat, and my abs look pretty good now (I know, a six pack is only vanity - but hey, at least I can now tick that one off). But I highly suspect that becoming more flexible will take, much, much, much long, with far more effort. I have never managed to do the split in my life, and I am not sure if there comes a point where after a certain age it becomes impossible to do.. but I want to give it a very honest attempt. One of my friend, aged 28, recently managed it for the first time, but she was likely more flexible than I was.

[jim]

I just did my first HIIT of the week... three 20 seconds bursts on the bike at full pelt with about 2 minutes normal speed between each.

I'm trying to do it three times a week, but I still feel a bit dizzy 20 minutes after finishing. I genuinely find it harder to motivate myself to do the 5 minutes of this than 30 minutes of normal exercise. Given that this is the exercise thread, I'll post up here.

I'm also working on the 200 sit-up, 200 squat and 20 pull-up challenges - I'll update with progress later today.

[merdat]

Well I tend to be more of a cyclist than a runner and as such try to do between 20 and 60 km's a day depending on the weather and the time which I have. During the last few weeks i've been using one of these 'Boardman Hybrid bikes' for the road work and found it great. Usually I just use one of the mountain bikes and have a set basic route which is about 22 km's and then I add to that depending on the time that I have. I use an iphone 4s with the 'strava' app linked to gps tracking . Just looking at the activity tracking summary a.t.m. and it's saying that in the last 28 days ive' had 31 rides , done 850 kilometers climbed 10,127 meters with a ride time of 57hrs 51 min. My weight varies between 142lbs and 146lbs at the mom and if I was not cycling then I would be a lot heavier. I'll have to post some pics over in the mountain bike thread of some of the runs. Hope this interests and motivates some of you guys. I must mention that I do all this cycling just to keep my weight down and take 'pressure' of my heart plus I enjoy it of coarse.

[Zak33]

That said, since April I have taken a bunch of new sports. Some are relatively low intensity (but requires control and concentration) like archery and iaido. But it's boxing that really made me want to improve my cardio and it is by far the most intense workout amongst the sports I am doing now. Judo is potentially intense but the technique requires a lot more fine control which slows the practice down (hence my heart rate never rise too much). Kendo is a bit similar, though sparring back to back for 20 or so minutes did make me breathe faster.

I had to suspend my training for two weeks due to being too busy, but I just restarted earlier today. May also throw some mountain climbing in the upcoming month.

On a side note, I've started a new project: stretching! Boxing really helped with cutting down the fat, and my abs look pretty good now (I know, a six pack is only vanity - but hey, at least I can now tick that one off). But I highly suspect that becoming more flexible will take, much, much, much long, with far more effort. I have never managed to do the split in my life, and I am not sure if there comes a point where after a certain age it becomes impossible to do.. but I want to give it a very honest attempt. One of my friend, aged 28, recently managed it for the first time, but she was likely more flexible than I was.

OK.. so you're our first victim..


WHAT are you aiming for.. there is FAR to much going on in that post to aim for with our help.

Which ONE THING do you want motivating towards? This thread aint to blow smoke up anyones arse. ... it's to aim for something and have us shout at you when you slack or cheer when you do it.

Boxing.. that is SUPER KILLER on cardio AND arms AND legs and .. everything.

So.. what's the target? It's certainly not doing the splits to avoid a knockpout punch is it?

[Zak33]

I just did my first HIIT of the week... three 20 seconds bursts on the bike at full pelt with about 2 minutes normal speed between each.

I'm trying to do it three times a week, but I still feel a bit dizzy 20 minutes after finishing. I genuinely find it harder to motivate myself to do the 5 minutes of this than 30 minutes of normal exercise. Given that this is the exercise thread, I'll post up here.

I'm also working on the 200 sit-up, 200 squat and 20 pull-up challenges - I'll update with progress later today.

must more concise... JIm wants to feel motivated towards the 5 minutes of PAIN and not the half hour or gentle. I understand that. Fully.


What's the motivation Jim? What buzzes your alarm matey?

[Zak33]

Merdat's going for the "assistive motivational" thread and we thank him

[jim]

must more concise... JIm wants to feel motivated towards the 5 minutes of PAIN and not the half hour or gentle. I understand that. Fully.


What's the motivation Jim? What buzzes your alarm matey?

Because it's pretty embarrassing when you're less fit than your parents, and even more so when they've got to the point of routinely bringing up how much they look forward to retirement.

I've lost some weight with dieting, which is great, but now I really want to build on it and feel a bit fitter. Ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted to run a marathon - and unless I start somewhere, it's never going to happen. Not to mention that it's got to be good for reducing the chances of health issues down the line!

[The Hand]

With regards to running, I found sometimes timing yourself can be counter-productive, especially when starting to get fit. Run a distance you know you can do everyday and do it every day without timing yourself for at least a month. You end up enjoying it more and not racing against yourself and also developing a good exercise routine as well as getting a fitter.

[Zak33]

With regards to running, I found sometimes timing yourself can be counter-productive, especially when starting to get fit. Run a distance you know you can do everyday and do it every day without timing yourself for at least a month. You end up enjoying it more and not racing against yourself and also developing a good exercise routine as well as getting a fitter.

oh my word.. I'd struggle with that, but it's prolly good for other people.

I need a target.. everything in my life has one!

[wasabi]

Been doing kettlebell classes twice a week for the past 6 months. First month using 6 kilo bell mainly as my lower back suffered quite a bit. After a bit of research and eventually the instructor spotting it, I was doing the basic forward swing motion too much like a squat, rather than sticking backside out when doing what basically amounts to pelvic thrusts to drive bell forward.

By second month moved up to 8 kilo bell and have since May been using 10 kilos. Probably will move up to 12 soon.I can lift much more, but the class is ketlercise so has a lot of CV emphasis in there too. i.e.going too big is a bit counterproductive unless I can keep the speed up.

Really is a brutal workout and I come out feeling shattered. But love it too - real buzz once you get over the warmup, and I've become noticably more lean and muscly as a result.

[TooNice]

So.. what's the target? It's certainly not doing the splits to avoid a knockpout punch is it?

Flexibility help in a lot of sports. Perhaps not purely strength/stamina based sports, but certainly martial arts and even.. skydiving (I found that I could not bend my back sufficiently/easily to make that nice curve).

My goals are more modest than those here looking to do an Iron Man, triathlon etc. What I have found is that spending years at the gym has granted me above average strength for my size, yet I have a problem using my strength / body properly in those sports combat sport. I am not floating like a butterfly, but rather like King Kong, and not stinging like a bee, but punching like a barbarian (as described by the student coach looking after me). My lack of flexibility is also showing in some of the drills in other martial arts. I want to learn how to loosen my body, I gain the stamina to last three intense round on the ring.

Though I consider my goal modest, and I probably do not need someone online shouting me.. because if I slack too much, I will pay for it on the ring the next time I spar. As long as I don't start slacking my sessions anyway, I expect to gradually inch towards my goal [At least I hope so - I am definitely past the prime age to be an elite athlete, but I'd like to think I can still be pretty fit and it's only going to be tougher later if I don't put the effort in now]


Re: Of all the cardio exercise, I must say that I have always liked running. The problem really is that it is high impact, and I though I have had no problem so far, I wonder if I may end up paying with my knee later on. Lately, I have turned to shadow boxing. You can still get your heart a workout if you really go for it, since you are not hitting anything, I think that it is relatively low impact. Though obviously I do still work the heavy bag during training days, but I won't do it every day.

[Dooms]

Urgh I have a lot lined up and no motivation to get started again after stopping for 2 weeks after doing tough mudder (I got infected wound and ended up on anti biotics).

August - Someone at work is trying to rope me into 100 mile cycle
Sept - 10km that looks a lot of fun (http://www.thegladiatorgames.co.uk/) and 74mile London to Brighton Off-Road cycle.

Another Tough Mudder early in the new year and another in July

Big one for me is prob going to be the Hamburg Marathon in April - I've never run more than 10km in one stint. The 12 miles for TM don't really count as you get quite a bit of rest time while waiting for obstacles or just pissing about

[Zak33]

anyone got a desire to skip?

I cant do it.. just not co ordinated enough, and no one to teach me.. but that is one of the all time cardio workouts isn't it?

[wasabi]

anyone got a desire to skip?

I cant do it.. just not co ordinated enough, and no one to teach me.. but that is one of the all time cardio workouts isn't it?

Getting a plasticky rope the right length is the key.

Great exercise.

[fuddam]

anyone got a desire to skip?

I cant do it.. just not co ordinated enough, and no one to teach me.. but that is one of the all time cardio workouts isn't it?

Skipping combined with press-ups, sittups, etc is hell. 2 min intervals of skipping with mebbe 20 x (exercise) between. OUCH