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[Retropunch]

I think this was the video I was referencing, and I remember because he added pushups at the end for a fan who was half-repping theirs. And I remember him hitting about 27 and showing the "I'm about out of gas" indicators. He can likely do more in one sitting but I imagine 30 to 35 is his upper limit. I could also just be completely full of shit.

I just can't imagine that's all he can do - there's videos of him doing tons of pull ups and similar. For someone who's career is based around fitness (he used to be a model as well) 27 is pretty much nothing. I can't be swayed on that, because I don't know anyone in a fitness based career (or even one that has a moderate element of fitness) that can't do 40 push-ups in a few minutes (bar a few special cases of very, very big people). I don't want to rain on anyones parade that thinks they're in great shape and can't do that - many powerlifters struggle with push-ups for instance, but if you're looking for overall fitness, push-ups are a good indicator of upper body strength. 

 

Which might be the difference we're talking about here. Can I do 100 pushups in a day? Sure. Just not all at once. Can I do 40 pushups in a day? Sure, just not all at once. I really think 30 consecutive, unbroken pushups done in under 2 minutes indicates a higher than average level of fitness. We can agree to disagree, but the data here would seem to agree with me. And really I just don't want to give anyone the impression that getting less than 30, let alone 40, consecutive pushups means you're weak. That number seems a little excessive to me.

We might be getting a bit confused here - I'm not at all saying that 40 is a level of 'average' fitness that people have without working out/little exercise. Not at all. What I'm saying is that 40 is a very good level of fitness, at which point I believe you've made the most of body-weight exercises and should then think seriously about the gym.

[nenjin]

I just can't imagine that's all he can do - there's videos of him doing tons of pull ups and similar. For someone who's career is based around fitness (he used to be a model as well) 27 is pretty much nothing. I can't be swayed on that, because I don't know anyone in a fitness based career (or even one that has a moderate element of fitness) that can't do 40 push-ups in a few minutes (bar a few special cases of very, very big people). I don't want to rain on anyones parade that thinks they're in great shape and can't do that - many powerlifters struggle with push-ups for instance, but if you're looking for overall fitness, push-ups are a good indicator of upper body strength.

Well, again. Consecutive, unbroken reps, or with a little resty rest in between a few sets? I'm talking straight, no stopping pushups. 40 is a lot, for most people I believe. Maybe even him (bearing in mind he's getting older or any other factors.) Sometimes my rep ranges vary between weeks for a variety of reasons. Anyways, it's not really worth quibbling over.

What I'm saying is that 40 is a very good level of fitness, at which point I believe you've made the most of body-weight exercises and should then think seriously about the gym.

I think you can probably hit the gym earlier than that, if you're comfortable or whatever. Body weight exercises are great, and you only need to look at calisthenics athletes and gymnasts to see you can get WTF ripped doing just that. But I think weights and weighted work has a lot of advantages in helping you overload, where as calisthenics can sometimes struggle eventually to deliver that with just straight body weight. You also can't isolate as well with calisthenics or progress as fast in certain areas as you can with weighted exercises. It all depends on your goals, and if you're just starting out, yeah, body weight for a while. But I don't think you need a rock solid foundation in body weight work before you decide to go the gym.

Like, I just squatted my own body weight with a barbell, and that's something you simply can't do with calisthenics. I could do several calisthenics exercises to try and hit all the same muscle groups as just deadlifting, but it'd take much longer and ultimately take more energy, while not really draining me or doing the same amount of muscle damage for just one exercise. If I'd set the goal of "40 pushups in a single set, no stopping" before I'd gone to the gym....I'd still be at home today I'd still be air or box squatting instead of using weights and my progression would have been slower.

Consider also: there's some stuff that's actually much harder to do with body weight. Dips? I still can't do fuckin dips, either chest dips or tricep dips. Those are body weight exercises. Bench dips are a little easier but only by a bit. On the other hand, with a cable machine, I can find a weight that taxes me but I can do and start building up that tricep strength to eventually do tricep dips.

[heatwave]

I'm not so big fan of fitnes but I just don't have choice, I need to lose at least 20 lbs. I have been doing 5/3/1 with BBB for over a year and have made great progress. My trainer advised me to make a few cool sculpting procedures to burn fat cells faster. I've already made two procedures in beautyfixmedspa.com and now I can see the results! Hope in the next few months I'll lose at least 10 lbs!

[nenjin]

I dunno. At between $450 to $750/hour, and claiming it permanently destroys fat cells, my bullshit meter is pinging at max. I can't imagine permanently destroying fat cells is actually healthy, since all they do is shrink and grow as you gain or lose fat, not disappear. And the implication is that you can do cool sculpting and since it "destroys" fat cells you can keep doing whatever it is that got you that fat in the first place. Which sounds like wishful thinking or deceptive marketing.

But if it works for you and you can live with paying that much then more power to you I guess.

Meanwhile....the pursuit of leanness through work continues! One layer at a time. I saw a very noticeable drop when I started implementing a real, barbell heavy leg day. 5x5 squats, 5x5 deadlifts, and my normal 25x3 kettlebell swings. I've already adapted pretty well so tomorrow I'm going to up the weight (especially on deadlifts.) The amount of calories burned by working the entire lower half of the body is phenomenal, and man after deadlifts, I can feel everything. Not just my legs, back and butt. Shoulders, traps, biceps, triceps, even a little chest. Everything contributes to a deadlift and it's kind of a magical feeling to leave the gym after a full body workout that only took ~50 minutes. My workouts on upper body days just seem to be getting longer, and longer. I'm doing 9 to 10 exercises per session now, and pushing many of them to 4 sets. So my upper body days have gone from about an hour to an hour and 20 minutes, and I still end feeling like I could *probably* do more. I can now see how meat heads can spend an hour and a half to two hours in the gym doing 5x10 for 10 exercises. The longer you do it, the more your body adapts and the higher your work capacity becomes, but the more work you have to put in to reach that level of burn and soreness you got in your first year or two of lifting. If you asked me a year ago if I could manage this work capacity, I'd have been like "Fuck no, are you crazy?!?!" Now apparently I am crazy because it doesn't feel like an insane amount of work to be doing, it feels like "just the right amount."

[Jimmy]

I'm five days into a keto diet, and so far I'm thinking that it's a fairly manageable eating system.

We'll see how I go at my weekly boardgame group, since I usually have a few beers. Definitely gonna be the thing I miss most.

[nenjin]

I couldn't give up carbs. They're just too good. And having carbs ruining ketosis sounds kind of annoying to manage.

[ggamer]

I haven't worked out since around summer (haven't lifted weights since sophomore year of college as well) and I'm thinking it's about time to start back up again. There's a gym near my house that bumped their membership down to like 10$ a month, so there's that. I really want to be able to start doing some more intensive cardio so I can start lifting again. I'm not super worried about bulking up.... or losing weight, I guess. I just like being stronger and more in shape.

Until then, I guess I'll follow hans' example and start doing calisthenics until I can get myself situated financially

[nenjin]

I really want to be able to start doing some more intensive cardio so I can start lifting again.

Just curious, why do you think intensive cardio is a prerequisite for lifting? Cardio will improve your conditioning but it doesn't have much to do with lifting. Unless you're so out of shape you get winded lifting at a normal pace. Then acclimatizing to working out by starting with cardio makes more sense.

[ggamer]

I really want to be able to start doing some more intensive cardio so I can start lifting again.

Just curious, why do you think intensive cardio is a prerequisite for lifting? Cardio will improve your conditioning but it doesn't have much to do with lifting. Unless you're so out of shape you get winded lifting at a normal pace. Then acclimatizing to working out by starting with cardio makes more sense.

"more intense," as in most of the cardio I do now is walking back and forth between classes. Doesn't sound like much, but considering my campus is essentially one big hill it adds up. Also it's not that I'll get winded lifting weights, but i'm... just about there? I'll have to get into a gym and actually see where i'm at to know for sure. hence the calisthenics.

[Arx]

I've been really struggling with exercise recently. >_< My biggest problem is that I'm drawing for as much as eight hours a day, and if I do a solid body weight workout before I start, I get annoying muscle tremors in my drawing arm.

Am I doing something horribly wrong? Any sick hacks?

[nenjin]

I've been really struggling with exercise recently. >_< My biggest problem is that I'm drawing for as much as eight hours a day, and if I do a solid body weight workout before I start, I get annoying muscle tremors in my drawing arm.

Am I doing something horribly wrong? Any sick hacks?

Muscle tremors are normal after an intense workout, whether that's body weight or with weights. Your muscles are drained of energy and overtaxed so simple basic posture and such is "tougher". But more importantly your whole central nervous system is fired up after an intense workout. People underestimate the demands that lifting puts on your central nervous system to activate muscles while under tension. It's not like a switch that you turn on to work out and turn off when you're done. Your body takes time to throttle down from those heights.

Quick fixes:

-Rehydrate after your workout. Dehydration can impact the amount of tremors you get.
-Eat carbs soon after your workout. This will replenish the lost glycogen in the muscles, which means the tremors will be less as the muscles aren't struggling to function without fuel. After my workout days I often want to collapse when they're done, but simply getting some food in me afterward makes me feel at least 50% better immediately.
-Related to that, your blood sugar levels may have some impact on the amount of tremors you experience. Rebalancing your blood sugars after a work out, whether that's with big full meals, a carb snack or even some quick sugars can help reduce tremors.
-Post workout stretches can reduce the tightening of the muscles, which in turn makes the tremors seem less severe.
-Lengthy hot showers may relax the muscles a little more and help reduce tremors.

[Retropunch]

I've been really struggling with exercise recently. >_< My biggest problem is that I'm drawing for as much as eight hours a day, and if I do a solid body weight workout before I start, I get annoying muscle tremors in my drawing arm.

Am I doing something horribly wrong? Any sick hacks?

The best way generally as well as to stop tremors is smaller ones regular and often instead of doing one big one (unless you have a specific goal).

Do it on the hour every hour, or every time you go to the bathroom (which should be slightly less, but you'll be 'up' then anyway). If you're worried about arm shakes, leave your arm workout till after drawing completely - focus on legs and abs, as well as some light cardio (jumping jacks, high knees etc.) and then do arms after you finish. After a week or so of this you should be fine!

If the tremors persist after this, and you're hydrated and having regular (healthy!) snacks, it might be worth seeing the doctor. Shakes are common when you start exercising completely or if you start on a new body part that hasn't been worked out properly in a while, but they shouldn't continue past a few sessions.

[Teneb]

Okay, so, turns out I am finally excercising for real because I am tired of not being strong enough to lift stuff without struggling.

While all I've been doing so far are push-ups and squats, I've been wondering if there's any other excercises using my own body as a weight I should or could be doing in addition to that.

[nenjin]

Romanian Split Squats
Lunges
Side Lunges
Wall Sits
Glute Bridges
Handstand Pushups
Rear Delt Iron Cross
All the more intense variations of planks
Windshield Wipers
Leg raises from your back
Russian Twists (just about any weight from anything can serve in place of a medicine ball)

Just be aware that some, like handstand pushups, may not be doable. Bodyweight is exactly that: bodyweight. If you struggle to press more than half your bodyweight while standing or sitting....doing your full bodyweight upside down probably isn't going to be viable yet.

I'd seriously recommend getting some resistance bands. They're not "weights" but they can challenge you plenty and really open up a lot more options for exercises, many simulating things you'd do with weights except with a very different resistance curve. They can be used for stretching too, or stretch-like exercises. Great investment.

[nenjin]

Well it took almost two years, but I've managed to incur my first training injury.

Threw my lower back deadlifting. It wasn't the deadlifts per se that did it, but more the fact I tried to "rep out" my sets instead of deliberately doing one rep at a time and properly resetting my form after each one. Overconfidence, basically.

So last night I knew I was in trouble about an hour after my workout. Then two hours later, I knew it was serious trouble. About 4 hours after my workout I lost the ability to stand because my lower back was spasming so much. So for the first time I don't know how long, I was in bed before 2am on the weekend. By the end I had to roll myself in to my bed and just lay there, trying to not let my back spasm. Spent a very unrestful night slowly rolling to my sides. I did some sleeping on my back and I can tell, because I feel like shit and like something crawled in my mouth overnight and died, and my roommate tells me he heard me sawing wood. God I hate sleeping on my back.

I will probably need to take a whole week off of everything for this to heal. Maybe longer before my actual lower back can tolerate anything related to it.

It fucking sucks but it's a learning experience. I've been similarly crippled like this before when I threw my back out many years ago, carrying my tower case across my chest. So in a few days I should be able to walk, standup and cough without getting brought up short. No more deadlifting like I'm 20, from here on it's slow, controlled reps for me.

Ahhh, thanks Alan Thrall, I feel better than I did before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riq-DfDDimc