How Do Geeks Exercise? 1806
An anonymous reader writes "I have always been thin but all the sitting in front of the PC is taking its toll now that I'm getting older. I have begun to get a little heavier around the waist. I don't eat a lot but the weight seems to stay on these days. Most of the time I don't have the luxury of just getting out of the house/office. And being an introvert, I'm not enamored of the idea of exercising in full view of *shudder* people. I regularly do press-ups (60 per night) and sit-ups (30 per night) and some fetching and carrying, but that is all and these days it isn't enough. I need a solid and effective routine that will tone all my muscle groups efficiently. Do any Slashdotters have a regular workout routine that can be performed in the privacy of the home to stave off those pounds?"
Leave the car at home (Score:5, Informative)
Pretty much what the title says. Leave the car at home if you can. If you take public transportation, walking to the bus stop (rushing so you don't miss it =P), running down the stairs of the subway station (not using those fancy high tech automated ones! /cough), and so on, the pounds go away quite fast.
That is if you live somewhere where its possible. I've melted a lot doing that.
Kayaking (Score:5, Informative)
You have to get out of the house, but to suit the introvert, you can go where most people can't. You also get to wear PFD as well as and a baggy dry suit to cover up the unsightlyness if you need it in your area.
Aerobics Necessary (Score:5, Informative)
You very much need aerobic exercise to supplement your muscular-oriented exercise. Aerobic exercise works the heart, lungs, and circulatory system--very critical subsystems.
I'd recommend a treadmill or a bike with a trainer hooked up to it. Have a TV in front of you. After reading a couple books about it, use a heart rate monitor to keep from pushing too hard or too easy.
Try to build up to one hour per day. Don't discontinue your calisthenics. Read about exercise.
I am in the same boat, here's what I do: (Score:4, Informative)
I went and picked up a cheap yet sturdy bike ($500.00 Specialized Hard Core Comp), and I take the train to work. from train stations in either direction it's about a 10 minute ride (20 total one way), however I can bike down to farther train stations to get a real benefit from it.
So the next train station from my work is about a 45 minute bike ride away, while the first one is ten.
The one after that is about an hour and a half away, and so on an so forth.
You can do this with bus stops too.
It's uncomfortable at first getting used to the bike, so pick up Mtn Bike shorts (They aren't the spandex ones, they look like regular shorts), and get used to it, then have at it. I love it now, and I royally hate working out in front of people.
Good luck!
Well not quite, BUT... (Score:5, Informative)
#1 - Yourself Fitness. PC, PS2, Xbox all options for it (and the ps2 and xbox titles are both compatible with their "upgraded" counterparts).
#2 - Wii Fit. Surprisingly effective if you discipline yourself to doing it. Downside: not as organized.
And now we get to some of the better stuff.
#3 - Find a local swimming pool, strap on a pair of rollerblades, get a bicycle.
#4 - Join a sports league. Your local parks & recreation department is a good start here and can steer you to local team sports if nothing else. This will also help with your "introverted" problem.
#5 - Once you take care of the "introverted" problem... get a girlfriend and do a lot of the world's #1 calorie-burning exercise.
Rowing (Score:4, Informative)
If you live in a city with a rowing club, you could take up one-person sculling. It's non-impact, relaxing, and you get out in the fresh air. Unfortunately, you can't do it in the winter, and it's really difficult to carry the boat to the water on your own, so you have to have some social interaction. The solitude out on the water is nice though.
utlimate... (Score:1, Informative)
frisbee. I realize you want to exercise alone, but ultimate seems to attract more geeks than any other demographic. It's a hell of a lot of fun and the people involved in the sport are some of the most accepting I've ever met. You'll be whipped in to shape quickly and it'll improve your social life.
Two things... (Score:3, Informative)
Ride a bike as much as possible - if you need to run a local errand, hop on the bike. After a few weeks it's easy - often much easier than dealing with a car.
For more regular workouts, 3-4 years ago my girlfriend discovered Yourself Fitness - she hates gyms, is in good shape, but wanted a more structured way to work out at home - like the gym, but in private. Yourself Fitness is an Xbox title - not sure if it runs on Xbox 360 - and is like having a personal aerobics and yoga instructor at home. I was little shy of aerobics in general at first, but once I got into it, learned the various moves without looking like an idiot, I was hooked. In the first year I lost 30 pounds (which was my target) and I felt 1000 times better.
I'm sure similar results could be found with any aerobic exercise, but as someone who hates the gym scene, and for whom time is tight, Yourself Fitness was a godsend.
Both of our old Xboxes are dying, the disc itself is a bit scratched up and sometimes flakey, so we're just hoping for a new release on one of the current consoles. We've got a Wii and Wii Fit too, and like it a lot, but don't think Wii Fit is as convenient - a lot of time just navigating the app, haven't found a really good guided training mode... we use the Wii Fit to break up the routine of Yourself Fitness now and then, and it's a blast too... but at least for us, nowhere near as effective as YF on Xbox - and these days you should be able to pick up both items for $100 or so total.
home gym? (Score:2, Informative)
Marine Corps training, sir!! (Score:4, Informative)
Here, I can attest that this routine was what worked while I was with the Marines; there's no reason you couldn't do most of it indoors. Find a doorway in your home where you can hang a pull-up bar. Do the pushups and crunches at the recommended intervals and train up. You might even work in reverse crunches while laying facedown halfway off the bed with your feet secured by a friend.
The only thing you might have to do in public is running. For me, there's no better exercise than running.
http://oneweb.utc.edu/~semperfi/physical.htm [utc.edu]
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
Agreed. I bike 30 miles every other day and that was enough, along with a sensible diet, to get me from a peak of 180 pounds down to a more healthy 155. Now I'm steady at 155 but can still eat more than I normally could without the exercise. Plus it's good for the heart.
Maintaining weight is a matter of how many calories you consume and how many your burn. Weight training will build muscle but doesn't burn a lot of calories. Things like running, swimming, and biking are the kinds of things that burn calories.
I'm sorry you're an introvert. Make time for your health and enjoy the great outdoors. You can always get a stationary bike but, having one of those that I use in the winter, I can assure you that a real bike out in the real world is MUCH more rewarding and it will help you relax mentally as well as keep you in shape physically.
Re:Tai Chi (Score:5, Informative)
Tai Chi is essentially a form of Kung Fu slowed down to maximize the exercise potential and lessen the strain on your body.
Once you have learned the essential 108 movements (its all one long cycle that puts you back where you are started, but is learned as 108 or so individual moves), you have a routine that will exercise pretty much every muscle in your body, looks cool, and requires no equipment to perform in, any stretch of ground/grass/parkinglot with a roughly 15x15 ft area free would probably do.
Its been very popular in China for centuries and obviously works quite well, given the number of old people you see doing it in droves there.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
Weight training will build muscle but doesn't burn a lot of calories. Things like running, swimming, and biking are the kinds of things that burn calories.
You'd be surprised. Not only does resistance training burn kilojoules at a sufficient rate to lose weight (depending on your eating habits), but also the increase in metabolism (due to increased muscle mass) means that your BMR will be higher than if you only engaged in aerobic training. In other words, you'll burn more kilojoules at rest.
Russian Kettlebells (Score:2, Informative)
Hacker Diet? (Score:5, Informative)
How come nobody has mentioned this one yet? I mean, come on! It has fitness tips as well as diet since you really need both to get the pounds off.
Hacker Diet [fourmilab.ch]
Right idea, wrong approach. (Score:1, Informative)
Stop lifting weights. It will not necessarily burn fat. You need
an aerobic workout. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobic_exercise [wikipedia.org]
Walk, jog or run if you can. Swim. Bicycle. Basically, get
your heart rate up for at least 15 minutes at least once a day.
And, as always, see a doctor or an accredited professional before
you try anything new.
You are probably pre-diabetic (Score:3, Informative)
There are no drugs that can fully fix this, though metformin can help if your syndrome is advanced. You mainly have to adopt an atkins-like diet which avoids anything that spikes your glucose level over 140 mg/dl. That will cut out just about all bread, pasta, potatoes, and other starches. But in my case the gout was also a consideration, so I'm highly motivated to stick to it.
Karate (Score:2, Informative)
I did Karate for several years until I moved and couldn't find my style taught in my new location.
It's a great workout, but more than that, it's actually *engaging*, unlike endless hours on the treadmill or pounding pavement, both of which I find incredibly tedious (despite being a runner in high school).
That said, weight gain has a lot to do with diet as well. If you're curious about the biology of nutrition and how your body reacts to different foods, I'd highly recommend Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories". It's a dense but very interesting read.
treadmill w/ 'walkstation' mod (Score:2, Informative)
I bought a home treadmill about two years ago for about $500, and I really like it. I've mostly been using it for regular workouts until recently, when I injured my ankle and have to take it easier. So I made a detachable 'desktop' mod that fits over the arms, that will hold a laptop, mouse and bookstand. I can type or browse the web just fine while walking at 2.5 mph -- very satisfying!
Oh, and I got the idea from the 'walkstation' recently -- a professionally made treadmill and adjustable workstation. Looked great, but at $6000 it was a little rich for my blood.
Re:Bike to work (Score:4, Informative)
Get them to install a shower and be 10 minutes early. My work has a full bathroom for this, and they even supply a personal trainer once a week!
Thougths from an ex-overweight guy (Score:5, Informative)
Until the start of 2008 I was about 90 lbs overweight and morbidly obese. Throughout the year I have lost 70 lbs, and I am on my way to having a healthy BMI.
Here are my thoughts:
You don't have to go to a gym, but it really helps to have access to nice array of equipment. Get over your fear of going to the gym. No one gives a crap about you --except for when you may be using equipment they want to use. If you want to avoid socializing, wear headphones or go during off hours. If you are afraid of the locker room (that's normal it takes sometime to get used to), then don't use it.
Now on to to the technical stuff: You need to do a moderate to strenuous aerobic activity at least ~30 minutes a day 3 days a week (5 is better) for the rest of your life. I like to run, row, hike up mountains and occasionally use the elliptical machine. This is necessary for good cardiovascular health, and will help you in your later years. It will also as a side effect help you loose weight.
You need to do some basic weight training. You seem to favor body weight exercises, keep doing push ups, try increasing the reps, or difficulty by doing them on an incline. Learn to do pullups/dips also. Finally buy a few dumbbells, going up to 35-40 lbs in weight. Learn to do basic curls, and some presses. Later on read some fitness books, or go to a couple of fitness blogs to learn how to do lifts and presses that work your big muscle groups --think squats, and dead lifts. Doing this won't make you a huge muscle guy (believe me the gains are not that great) but you'll be happy with your increased strength. It will also help to keep you from looking flabby.
One more thing. The key to loosing weight is your diet. Good weight loss is slow, and steady. Cut 500-1000 calories from your diet, and you'll loose 2 lbs a week. However, you need to combine it with exercise or you'll have to keep "dieting" for the rest of your life to maintain your weight. That won't happen, so creating a nice caloric deficit through working out 3-5 times a day will help you maintain a healthy weight once you've reached it.
Battle of the bulge (Score:5, Informative)
Personally, I go to a gym. But then, I live in a small town so I don't see very many *people*. Incidentally, I've always gone to a gym, even when I lived in a slightly larger town of Philadelphia.
The key to the middle parts is: it's the last fat to go.
You don't say how old you are, but the fact is you're getting older and your metabolism continues to slow each year. You can combat that by moving (aka exercise) and eating. Yes, eating. If you don't take in enough calories - the right calories - your body will react by storing what it can, usually in your middle. Unfortunately, your middle is the last place you lose from.
Muscles burn calories. You can increase your resting metabolic rate by building muscle. Just having more muscle mass == more calories burned sitting on your butt. It's a vicious cycle though, if you don't maintain the muscle (aka exercise) you'll lose it through catabolism (body breaks it down for energy).
There's a godzillion things you can do at home, but the easiest way to start is with push-ups and sit-ups. Buy an exercise ball, one of those big funny-looking rubber balls. There are dozens of different exercises you can do with those. They're cheap and they're extremely versatile. You don't necessarily need weights if you're a beginner, or even intermediate. You just need to use your body as the weight and do _something_ to trick your body into building some muscle mass. (You won't build a ton just doing pushups, but you'd be suprised how quickly it works) Consistency is key - 3 times per week on the "weights". You need a day in-between to allow your body to recover and actually build the muscle.
This one goes without saying: Eat healthy!
If you have the means, i.e. space and money, get a treadmill. Use it 30 minutes a day, 5-6 days a week.
The bottom line is, you have to burn calories and build some muscle. The only way to do either one is to _move_ a lot.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
A good mix is obviously best. But if he wants to burn calories, I stand by my assertion that traditional exercises such as running, swimming, and cycling are more efficient at burning calories than weight training unless you're doing some ungodly effort on the weight training.
As an example, this link [healthdiscovery.net] suggest that at 155 pounds and 60 minutes, I'd burn about 744 calories per hour cycling at 14-15.9mph. Meanwhile, general weightlifting comes in at 223 calories and vigorous weightlifting comes in at 446 calories. And it's a lot more reasonable for most people to do an hour on a bike than a constant productive hour of weight training.
If he wants to lose weight, he should do these kinds of activities (biking, running, etc.). If he is looking for muscle mass then obviously weight training is an obvious choice. And if he wants both, well, he's going to have to do both.
And it requires some thought! (Score:4, Informative)
The primary reasons martial arts are my preferred form of exercise:
1. You have to actually think about what you're doing quite often. You're not just doing mindless aerobics.
2. The group situation pushes you farther than you'd normally push yourself, and encourages you to reach new plateaus.
3. Classes are generally directed at all times. It's kind of like having personal trainers with you at all times, in that there's always a series of directed activities and you're not casting about for what to do next.
With that said, there are MANY bad martial arts schools out there. I generally avoid any place that doesn't seem to have any women or older men participating, that sees fit to display huge numbers of trophies on entry, or that has a master whose personality I don't think I could get along with. There are a lot of arrogant pricks in the martial arts world, and there's no need to pay for and encourage them. Similarly, there are plenty of schools out there that seem to exist so that young 20s males can beat the crap out of each other. Let them... and go somewhere else.
Look up The Hacker's Diet, by John Walker (Score:4, Informative)
Somewhere in fourmilab.ch, there's a free book about weight loss from a geek perspective which includes an exercise program which is
o quick, under 15 minutes to complete
o private
o works with no special equipment
o is not suitable if you have back problems, get professional advice if you do.
If you live in a hilly area then walking can get your heart rate into the aerobic training range. Aerobic exercise has cognitive benefits too.
Lots of people have reported good results from Dance Dance Revolution.
Sounds like you've solved the #1 problem, motivation. It's a miracle that any geeks retain any interest in fitness after the physical "education" classes in school. But you're already familiar with the fact that your brain feels better in a body that goes when you step on the gas. The other way to look at it is that your body is like a Swiss Army knife, it's the tool you always have with you, so it might as well be functional.
Re:Right idea, wrong approach. (Score:3, Informative)
On that note, if you have space you can try hanging a heavy punching bag and working it. Find someone who knows proper technique, have them teach you, ask them for a nice routine to follow (eg:3x3 minute rounds with 40 seconds breaks in between).
Re:Bike to work (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, muscle burns more calories than fat at rest...but both burn so little that they're completely insignificant. So the "myth" is technically true, but utterly insignificant.
On the other hand, GP was trying to say was that weight training is an effective way to loose weight. Many prefer it to pure cardio. Either one can work, so just find one that suits you best.
I'm tired and can't think of the data for metabolic rate after exercise for weight training vs pure cardio, but many methods of exercise do raise your metabolism for some time after the exercise. You just have to exercise in the first place. ;) If you're in the pure cardio camp, interval training can really raise your metabolism for the rest of the day.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
I went from 250 to 180 after biking to work. The weight has been off for several years. I'm 5'11" and 31 years old. My BMI is 25.00 (measured today).
I bike about 45 minutes a day and my bike route is primarily trails. There are minor sections on low-traffic roads.
I've also been using a Wii Fit at night. I've lost an additional 5 pounds since starting that routine a month ago. (Today was day 30.)
As for working out in front of people, gym memberships are almost always a rip-off. I had to close a bank account to get away from Nautilus. Fortunately for me, I lied to them about my age and I was only 18 when I signed the papers.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
From a quick search, unverified stats show that bikes make up 2% (just like milk) of vehicle fatalities:
From:
http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html [bicycleuniverse.info]
How many cyclists die
Deaths per year. 725, 629, 665, 732, and 693 cyclists died per year in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000 respectively, and were about 89% male. (National Highway Traffic Saftey Administration, and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
An average of 16.5 cyclists per million die every year in the U.S. (For motorists, it's 19.9 motorists per million.) (National Safety Council 1988)
Cyclists are 2% of road deaths & injuries. The 761 cyclists killed in 1996 accounted for 2% of traffic fatalities, and the 59,000 cyclists injured made up 2% of all traffic injuries. (5)
They also state later:
Health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks. "The gain of 'life years' through improved fitness among regular cyclists, and thus their increased longevity exceeds the loss of 'life years' in cycle fatalities (British Medical Association, 1992). An analysis based on the life expectancy of each cyclist killed in road accidents using actuarial data, and the increased longevity of those engaging in exercise regimes several times a week compared with those leading relatively sedentary lives, has shown that, even in the current cycle hostile environment, the benefits in terms of life years gained, outweigh life years lost in cycling fatalities by a factor of around 20 to 1." -- Mayer Hillman, Senior Fellow Emeritus, Policy Studies Institute, and British Medical Association researcher (7, 8)
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
Buy biking clothes and pack your work clothes in your panniers. Take it easy on the way in. When you get to work, change after a brief cool-down. Wash your face in the sink (you may not want to fill it - just use running water) and that should be good enough to get you through your day.
You'll want to shower daily; you just might have to do it at home.
I wore slacks and dress shirts for a year while biking to work. It's perfectly doable. The biking clothes make a big difference in your biking comfort. The pants / shorts don't have to be the "sausage casing" style - they make them with outer layers which make them look just like regular shorts.
I'd suggest putting deodorant and an extra change of socks and underwear in your drawer in case you forget something.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
Following-up, I found this link [pponline.co.uk] which says:
If this person dos moderate weight training then over time (the increased MBR is not immediate) he might burn an extra 143 calories per day. That pretty much supports my position that if he wants to lose weight, he needs to be on a bike burning 400-740 calories per hour rather than 223 calories per hour of weightlifting. So if he does two hours of weight training to my two hours of biking, he'll burn maybe 223 * 2 + 143 = 589 calories per day in his exercise while I burn close to 1,480 even if I don't get any increased muscle mass from biking (which I do, albeit to a lesser extent than a good weight training program).
If you want to burn calories: Run or bike, or similar cardio exercises. Of course a balanced workout including weight training is obviously the final goal. But if the immediate goal is weight loss, weight training isn't going to accomplish it nearly as fast as running or biking.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
This was said in jest, but if your city's busses are good enough to include bike racks, and you are able to find a bus route that will take you close to where you work, you can take the bike with you, and just bike home.
DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) absolutely (Score:5, Informative)
I have a health condition that makes it extremely difficult and stressful for me to leave the house to exercise... I do enjoy a good cardio workout, and was feeling quite unhappy about being unable to engage in a regular routinized exercise session that I enjoyed (because aerobics, yoga, pilates, etc. tapes just aren't that much fun to me), so I decided to see what the hype was about last Christmas and I picked up a DDR game.
Now I'm an avid DDRer, and I must say that it can be a fantastic workout, especially if you play doubles (i.e. two mats) as you move your centre of gravity much more often, and if you work yourself up to the harder levels, which get you moving faster. I can burn an estimated 1000 calories per session, and those sessions just fly by because I'm really enjoying myself. You don't only see your improvement in the game, but the improvement in your appearance, too. My stomach is trim now, and I have that nice abdominal V that some fit people get.
If you haven't tried DDR, I highly recommend it. Get a PS2 game, get a couple cheap mats, and give it a go. If DDR isn't your cup of tea, find an exercise routine that you can do at home that you enjoy so that you actually feel inclined to do it more than a few times. You'll never keep up a regime that bores, intimidates, or embarrasses you.
...and a couple of MAJOR caveats (Score:5, Informative)
Those exercises are not for beginners, though. If you aren't already in pretty good shape, two of them are outright dangerous: the bridge will wreck your neck, and squats with the heels coming up will wreck your knees. And even if you're in good shape, I've never met either a qualified doctor, physio or professional sports coach who advocates bridging, because of the risk of neck injury.
Re:Bike to work (Score:4, Informative)
Some of this isn't really a specific reply.
Unless a person is really out of shape he or she isn't going to be losing weight during resistance training. It's not going to happen typically unless you're doing something wrong. It's definitely possible to put on 20lbs., of muscle without losing even 1 lbs., of fat.
The thing to sort of watch for is that the body composition should be changing to favor muscle over fat. A person can still carry quite a bit of fat whilst still weight training if they aren't careful about caloric intake. The natural tendency is to increase calories by enough to offset the difference.
Weights are a great invert exercise set, just as long as there are no barbells involved. A good set of dumbbells can more than do the trick when used properly.
The ultimate dumbbell guide by Myatt Murphy is probably the best guide book I've ever read. It's quite to the point and leaves little to be desired in terms of the actual lifts.
Depending upon the situation cardio work tends to be the more difficult thing to do without a gym. I say depending, if a person is able to get outside to do things like running, biking or handle jump rope, that's going to be a good choice.
For the rest of us it's treadmills or trainers in doors.
In terms of diet, one doesn't typically need to add much protein at all in order to gain weight. The general rule is protein before and carbs after. The reason being that protein eaten after a workout isn't broken down and into the muscle while it's still building the bulk of the muscle. The carbs are mostly there to ensure that you're not burning protein for energy.
Typical water consumption is about 1 oz., per pound of weight. I don't really know how that translates to the metric system. Specifically, I'm not feeling like doing the conversion there.
The more accurate method is do a weigh before and after and then drink the amount of water necessary to make up the weight difference. It's not exact, but it'll typically be pretty close.
Combinations - new twist (Score:3, Informative)
A 2-week study at a Canadian University (McMasters?) suggested that 6 minutes of very intense exercise was better than 6 hours of moderate/regular exercise. It came froma small sample, but 8 people did 4 each of 30-second sprints, 3 times per week. In two weeks their Aerobic capacity and endurance showed marked increase, and their mitochondria count increased 35% (which is an indicator of the energy-burning capacity of the muscles).
Geriatrics (ages in their 70's and 80's) regained musculature equivalent to persons in their 30's in Florida after exercising for 13 weeks by supporting weights so heavy they could only hold them for 30-60 seconds. (Two programs, "Static Contraction Training" and "Max Contraction Training" resulted from this study.) In the first 13 weeks I used the Max Contraction training, my doctor and I figured out I lost 14 lbs of fat and gained 9 lbs of muscle. I do this program for about 14 minutes a week. (It takes about a week to allow your muscles to recover at this intensity, despite what so-called "Physical Trainers" say about exercising 3 times/wk.) I'm 60 years old and have some joint problems, so it helps that I don't have to move weights repetitiously through a great range of motion.
I walk 1 hour a day 4-5 days a week using a heart rate meter according to a program by Phillip Maffetone in his book,"The Maffetone Method". He trains bicycle racers and super-long-distance runners, so I suspect his program is pretty good. (It seems to work for me.) The end result: My doctor still wants me to lose another 50 lbs (I've lost 30 over the last two years), but my resting heart rate is less than 70, my blood pressure is 110/70, my total cholesterol is usually between 150-170 with real good ratios, blood sugar runs between 105 and 111 over the last two years, and I have lots of energy.
The biggest drain on my energy is carbs. I was on a low fat diet for four years and gained 10 lbs/year. As soon as I started moderating my carbs instead of my fat, my energy levels picked up and I started losing a moderate amount of weight. I've looked at a number of books on the market, and since I can't distinguish one set of superstitions from another, I've resigned myself to sort of following the guidelines in "Protein Power" by Eades and Eades. YMMV. It is important for me to bring healthy lunches to work, avoid the soda and snack machines, and limit the number lunches I go to with the other developers. (For me, the difference between wishing I was fit and getting fit is using some of the talent for focusing I developed for programming, and applying it towards habits that work for my physical success.)
I have my best success when I get into the pattern of exercising early in the morning. I don't do contract work anymore; the Electronic Sweatshop is detrimental to my health, even though the money is good. I take regular breaks from my desk, walk or do Tai Chi during my lunch breaks, and within a couple of weeks I will be biking to work instead of driving. Theoretically, I need to be active 90 minutes a day in order to lose the 50 lbs. When the joint problem gets corrected I will go back to doing martial arts 3 times per week or more, and that ought to do it.
Good luck, and I hope you find something that works for you.
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
Agreed. This is why HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is getting so much attention now. You can get a motabolism boost up to 24 hours after performing the exercise, and burn a LOT of calories after the session. It's quick (15 minutes plus pre and post-stretching) and very good for you - changing up between aerobic and anaerobic exercise..
This site has a bit more than I mentioned here... http://musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp [musclemedia.com] .. Lots of other resources too. http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1756065 [t-nation.com]
I personally do 5 minute warmup followed by a couple minute stretch. Then run for 1 minute on a decent running pace, spiking it up for 15-30 seconds and aim for 90-95% of my MHR (max heart rate) and then bringing it back down to the pace I started with for another minute.. Repeating this for 15 or so minutes, followed by a 5 minutes cool down and then some more stretching. By the 10 minute mark you seriously feel like you're done but you got to push though it.
Re:Bike to work (Score:2, Informative)
A combination will give better results with less investment of time. Letxa and Nick, you're both partially right in different ways.
The most important thing is to increase BMR. This can be done by exercising at about three quarters of your maximum for 20 minutes every few days. Most of the calories you burn through exercise are usually burned while you aren't exercising because of raised BMR.
Hypertrophic (muscle building exercise) isn't as efficient at raising your BMR, but it has two very important added benefits. The first is raising lean body mass which means to use more energy moving , oxygenating your tissue et cetera (e.g. while doing the aerobic exercise or just resting). The second is the relatively large amount of energy it takes to metabolise dietary protein into muscle tissue. IIRC a gram of muscle takes more energy to make than a gram of fat, and that's even discounting the protein required.
Spending equal time on each (up to the point of diminishing returns for hypertrophic exercise) will lower your weight faster than spending all of the time on aerobic. Additionally, if aesthetics are an issue you may wish to replace the decreasing fat with something else so you don't end up a thin but saggy skin bag.
I'd recommend biking or similar for cardio. Plus pilates for all-over tone, strength and posture. Plus free weights for increasing muscle mass.
If you had to pick one I'd say pilates as it gives both aerobic and hypertrophic in roughly equal amounts, and a decent video will show how to vary the exercises to make them more or less strenuous.
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
Replying to myself.
Quick literature review indicates hypertrophic more (not less) efficient at raising BMR.
So I lied, sorry.
Re:Technical explanation; didn't rtfa. (Score:5, Informative)
Having greater muscle volume does lead to greater calories burned without doing anything. This however is a pretty small gain. With aerobic exercise you can burn a ton of calories and most importantly you directly burn fat. When you burn the short term energy stores (sugar) of the body it effects you hunger. When you directly burn fat you feel less hungry after working out. This is why aerobic exercise is best for losing weight. Resistance training will work but it takes more will power.
Re:The key to losing weight is to do both... (Score:3, Informative)
This basically guarantees that your muscles will be toned but will not bulk up
dude, I challenge you to try and build more muscle than you "want" without using steroids. If you're like me and 99% of the people I have trained with, no matter how much weight you can lift/press/squat etc, it is almost impossible to end up looking even close to a modern bodybuilder without using copious quantities of human growth hormone.
Sport for introverts (Score:3, Informative)
Canadian Airforce 5BX program (Score:2, Informative)
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5BX [wikipedia.org]
"The 5BX (Five Basic Exercises) Plan is an exercise program developed for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) by Bill Orban in the late 1950s.
The RCAF asked Orban to develop a fitness program for their pilots, a third of whom were not considered fit to fly at the time. The plan was innovative in two respects. Firstly, it did not require access to specialized equipment. Many RCAF pilots were located in remote bases in northern Canada, with no access to gymnasium facilities, so it was important to offer a means of keeping fit without their use. Secondly, the plan only required 11 minutes per day to be spent on the exercises."
The program can be downloaded in PDF form from the following location:
http://www.adam.com.au/wedesign/5bx.zip [adam.com.au]
James Bray
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
This is the major reason why eating a 'proper' breakfast is good - it 'signals' that you've got food, and are ready to do a full day of 'stuff', and hey, yeah, lets use some of those stored fat reserves, it'll be ok because there's food on hand.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
I really hate the holier than thou attitude as well. I'll gladly share the road with cyclists... when they start going the speed limit instead of doing 20mph in the middle of the road with a posted 30 mph speed limit - thus holding everyone behind them up.
This is a nonsense argument anyway, because in urban traffic a cyclist is almost always faster than a car. What's slowing you down is not cyclists, it's congestion. A cyclist uses a lot less road space than a car, so if everyone got out of their cars and onto bikes there would be a lot less congestion and everyone would get to their destinations faster (and in better temper).
But - at least in the UK and most other English-speaking countries - cyclists use the road by right while motorists use it by license. The point about a license is you don't have a right - that it can be taken away from you.
Motorists are allowed on the road as long as they play nice with the people who have a right to be there - and no longer.
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
In Silicon Valley I can't imagine the thought of biking to work. It's way too dangerous, the bike lanes are often missing, and there's no easy way to change lanes...
As an alternative, walking is easy to do.
Statistically, cycling is approximately twice as safe as walking. Counter-intuitive, but true.
(and what's with the idiot bike riders who don't even follow traffic rules?)
(sigh) They're selfish idiots. There are selfish idiots in all groups of people.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
Food is equally important, for it affects directly your performance in everything. You need to eat MASSES of veg and salad and fruits. And by MASSES I mean they have to be the bulk of your diet. Don't consume many carbs the days you're working out, do mostly veg & protein. No fats. Replenish the days you're resting with eating a bit more carbs. Brown rice, wholewheat bread, cereals such as oats, porridge, wheetabix.
Have breakfast in the form of cereals I said earlier. Eat some protein right after working out. If you feel peckish, nibble on apples. Leave bananas and melon fo "once in a while" as they contain masses of sugar, nevertheless you still need to eat them. Substitute meat by white or blue fish. Eat oily fish twice a week; red meat once, white meat twice.
Water. At least 2 litres a day, specially when you workout. Reason being, all the fat & energy your body is burning leaves debris, and guess how you expel it... hydration is not also important for that, but also to keep your brain's and body performance; and your skin will be so much better. Water. Not diet coke, yes? And forget by the way about coke & fanta. 125kcal every 1/3 litre (one can). Dude, that is well bad. It takes 12m on a medium sized person running at 9 km/h to burn all that.
Re:Tai Chi (Score:1, Informative)
So long as you're doing it right. Knee alignment is crucial in Tai Chi, and doing all those slow movements in a low stance over and over with your knees wrong will damage them very quickly. If you do do it, make sure that 1: You don't feel any soreness or aching in your knees during or after a session and 2: That the instructor teaches the importance of alignment and not stressing your joints. If he/she doesn't then I'd assume they don't know or don't care, either is bad.
Re:Exercise in front of people anyway (Score:3, Informative)
This has been my experience too. Before I started, I remembered the physical education classes in school, especially the dreaded changing rooms where all the jocks would throw mean comments about the less physically fit, and thought that the gym would be the same. But I quickly found out that any such fears were completely unfounded. Everyone simply mind their own business. In addition, most customers at my gym are just regular guys, and not the jock/bodybuilder type.
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
The most important thing is to increase BMR.
No, the most important is to not eat more than you burn.
This can be done by exercising at about three quarters of your maximum for 20 minutes every few days.
Sounds like some "fat burn zone" / cardio increasing pulse. Which is more bullshit. doing some low intensity work will burn a higher percentage of fat while doing so, but your body will burn less fat the rest of the day and thereby compensating for it.
Doing high intensity training in intervals are most efficient for increasing your cardio.
Most of the calories you burn through exercise are usually burned while you aren't exercising because of raised BMR.
This is bullshit to, cardio and weight training don't make you use much more energy at rest, the most difference is while you're doing the activity. Weight training increase it more, but it's only by a few kcals, not a big deal.
Hypertrophic (muscle building exercise) isn't as efficient at raising your BMR
Wrong, but you already know that.
The first is raising lean body mass which means to use more energy moving
On an energy deficiency you're very unlikely to build more muscle even if you do weight lifting.
oxygenating your tissue et cetera
Means what?
The second is the relatively large amount of energy it takes to metabolise dietary protein into muscle tissue. IIRC a gram of muscle takes more energy to make than a gram of fat, and that's even discounting the protein required.
1 gram of carbohydrates or protein contains around 4 kcal of energy, alcohol 7 and fat 9.
It's true that body thermogenesis raises a little more from eating protein, I don't remember how much but maybe 15% or so of the energy is wasted this way. (The energy from the protein, not from all food.)
Spending equal time on each (up to the point of diminishing returns for hypertrophic exercise) will lower your weight faster than spending all of the time on aerobic. Additionally, if aesthetics are an issue you may wish to replace the decreasing fat with something else so you don't end up a thin but saggy skin bag.
If doesn't matter what you do, what matters is how much you eat. Workout for 12 hours per day and eat a lot of food and you can still remain huge, sit in the couch and eat very little food and you will get smaller.
I'd recommend biking or similar for cardio. Plus pilates for all-over tone, strength and posture. Plus free weights for increasing muscle mass.
If you had to pick one I'd say pilates as it gives both aerobic and hypertrophic in roughly equal amounts, and a decent video will show how to vary the exercises to make them more or less strenuous.
I'd say do what you think is fun if all you want to do is burn energy, bike trips, walks, running, inlines, skiing, golf, badminton, volleyball, doesn't matter. If you don't care about being able to run for 5 miles without starting to walk or such you don't need to do shit.
Intensive training will be best for increasing cardio, so running at high intensity in intervals, or doing the same thing with weights, or swimming as fast and hard as you can for a while, rest and then go at it again, or whatever you want will work best.
Pilates? Isn't that for girls? Decent as core training.
Free weights won't increase your muscle mass on an energy deficiency, use them to KEEP muscle while losing fat or to get MORE muscle without getting AS MUCH fat when eating on a surplus.
I'd choose weight training as the single one, because it's the only one which will build your body as good as it can. It may not get you super cardio but decent enough if you keep your rest times short.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
I think you are trying to say that one should strive for balance between weight/resistance training and aerobic excercise?
I'm male, approaching 40. At 30 I joined the armed forces and had an ongoing battle with weight and fitness for 4 years until I left. I learned (in no particular order after the first one):
1. To lose weight requires that you burn more calories than you consume.
2. After 30, men need to lift weights to maintain muscle mass.
3. Don't run two days in a row.
4. Muscle burns more calories than fat.
5. If you dramatically increase your exercise, your appetite will increase.
6. Change gradually and consult a physician.
7. Running shoes are not one size fits all.
8. "Fat burns in a fire fueled by carbs" (don't go on 0 carb diets, you'll burn muscle mass before you burn fat.)
Sensible portions at meals, avoid sugary foods and highly processed flour, eat balanced meals, err towards more fruit and green leafy vegetables, exercise for stress relief and burning calories.
Re:Bike to work (Score:5, Informative)
Now, if our AC troll friend can derive more energy from food than the bomb calorimeter can, he is, quite literally, Mr. Fusion.
* As such, it follows that people do not actually require 2000 kCal (on average) per day; however, that is how much energy needs to be in the food so that the ~35% efficient catabolic pathways can derive enough useful energy from the food to power the body. 35% efficiency is extremely high (the most efficient internal combustion engines get ~25-30%); it is the result of literally billions of years of evolution because deriving energy from a substrate is a requirement of life, so the whole complicated mess has been around from the beginning. Therefore, Nature has optimized the crap out of it. Unless Mr. Fusion up there has different catabolic pathways than the rest of life on earth there is no way that he could be that more efficient than everyone else.
Re:Sport for introverts (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, the downside is they are expensive and you can get some really bad teachers.
Re:Technical explanation; didn't rtfa. (Score:5, Informative)
To specifically address the question posed (what do we, the Slashdot readers, do to stay in shape):
I eat vegetarian; low dairy, lots of beans, tempeh, and seasonal fruits/veggies. I bring my lunch to work every day which is cheaper and more nutritious than buying it.
I lift weights three times a week for an hour emphasizing multi-join and body-weight-resistance exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, dips, incline and hanging crunches, etc.
I bike to work whenever the weather permits.
I run 5 km at least once a week (though bad knees sometimes demand that I go for a long walk instead).
All of this combined yields a weekly time commitment of about 3.5 hours of exercise plus 90 minutes of biking to and from work (2 mi each way). I'm 185 lbs, 6'1", and I fill out my nerdy T-shirts in the shoulders, not the belly. I don't have six-pack, but I certainly don't have a gut. All around I feel very health even though the vast, vast, majority of my time is spent sitting on my ass in front of a computer at work.
I don't care whose biology teacher told them what about which calories are burned by how many muscles, but my whopping 3.5 hours a week of exercise entitles me to all the beer I can drink and stuffing my face with burritos to my heart's content without gaining a fraction of an inch around my waste line (which hasn't changed in 15 years). And no, I'm not one of those skinny nerds than can eat Taco Bell every day and still look like a bent coat hanger.
I think that the big trick to staying healthy is sticking with your routine, whatever it is. Don't just go on a diet and start running in response to feeling fat and out of shape. Biking to work is a great way to start and, depending on where you live, has the added benefit of being faster than driving.
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
If I remember correctly, Mufflin is actually the sound that a 380 pound man makes in a bakery.
3 words. John Stone Fitness (Score:1, Informative)
Go here and read and learn:
http://www.johnstonefitness.com/
It has changed my life in the last year.
The person that runs it is an IT guy that decided to change his life (see link for pictures)
http://www.johnstonefitness.com/php/pictures.php
Couch to 5K + gadgets (Score:1, Informative)
Get a decent pair of running shoes for your own good and get out there.. There are a number of "couch to 5K" programs on the web. They usually take 6-8 weeks and have a slow ramp up to the 5K goal. The 3 times a week routines can be quite detailed (run 1/4mi, walk 1/4, run, 1/2, walk 1/4 etc etc) which may keep you interested.
There are also some gadgets that may make running more interesting to you. There are a number of heart monitor and pedometers out there. Nike+ is kinda cool as it records your distance and time into an ipod, uploading all data to a nike website to track trends and motivate you.
It may interest you as to WHY running is so hard at first (I mean it's just shuffling you legs right?). Read a little about endurance, strength, the physiology of running, and heart rate - then get a heart rate monitor (a cheap watch one will do). You'll learn all kinds of things about your body. Record data every time you run and you'll soon be running just to collect more data and make nice reports.. go nerds.
Take it easy though.. Part of the problem is that many people go out way to hard. Follow the couch to 5k program. It's deliberately slow. It is designed to get your muscles, joints, connective tissue prepared for running. You may be able to propel your body 3 miles at first go, but your body is really going to bitch about it later, possibly in the form of injury.
One you get into the habit of going out the door rather than turning on the TV in the early evening you'll find it much easier. You'll have alot more energy to boot.
-t
Slashdotter who is also a jock says... (Score:1, Informative)
I am a fairly regular anon coward here (I don't troll though). I am also a jock. I would recommend taking a look at the book "Naked Warrior" (goofy title, I know but only startup costs are the book) or google "body weight culture" and there is a group all about solo exercises based off of the body. If you don't mind spending money, kettlebells rock out but are also quite intense.
Seriously though, at any grown up gym no one is judging you if you are polite and not dressed like an idiot.
Re:Bike to work (Score:3, Informative)
Hookay, bub. It seems like I've been playing Whack-a-mole with morons recently.
The quoted value is calculated using the Mufflin equation, which is regarded as among the best in the business [...]
Listen up, my little douchenozzle. You're about to learn some science.
First, there is no Mufflin equation. If you are going to be a total prick, you should at least know a tiny bit about what you're talking about. I gather you're referring to the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. But hey, I'm sure you just mis-typed it. Twice. The same way.
Second, you're not "in the business". My guess is that you haven't gotten past a college sophomore science lab, and the most business you get up to is stocking cans in aisle 6. Otherwise you would know how people come up with numbers like this, and what they actually mean, rather than what self-important shitbag internet bullies think they mean on a casual reading of about.com. No, I didn't mean you there. I was thinking about... uh... somebody else.
Third, this is not an equation like E=mc^2 or F=ma. Those describe fundamental natural relationships that are baked into the structure of the universe. This is a curve fit. These guys, by which I mean Mifflin and St Jeor, got a few hundred points of data (to be precise, 498), drew some lines through their field of dots, and then came up with an equation for those lines. If you had bothered to read the original paper, you would find that they say flat out that there is, even by their calculations, a 30% error rate baked in to their equation based on normal human variability.
Fourth, they were studying normal people. They only got 40 guys who were more than 40% of the ideal weight, so at best you could say our anonymous big guy is rarer than 1 in 40. Worse, they specifically excluded anybody over 80% of their ideal weight. That's right: people anywhere near this guy's weight were intentionally left out of the study. So you are running your mouth in overdrive and being a jackass based on no data at all.
Fifth, people still don't really understand how stuff like this works. They are still doing basic, basic science on the relationship between diet and weight. That this guy weighs 380 pounds means that he is a complete outlier. Maybe he's just fat because he likes the pies a whole lot. Or maybe he's fat because there's something different about him. E.g., that his body's famine adaptations are stuck in overdrive due to some genetic condition. We already know that he's very abnormal, and your whole line of argument is based on assuming that he's perfectly normal in every aspect except one. Which, if you knew any science, you would know is shitty science.
So let's sum up here. You were a complete dick to some stranger on an internet forum based on nothing more than the heady fumes of your arrogance. plus maybe a quick Google search. If you'd bothered to think about it, you would know that anybody at 380 lbs has already taken plenty of crap about their weight. But did that slow you down? No. If anything, it made it easier for you to heap on the abuse. Nothing like picking on a fatty, eh? Then, when called on your ignorance, you tried to spin your way out of it, and failed.
My sincere hope for you is that you are some vaguely malodorous, poorly groomed 10th-grade dweeb who sneaks off to the computer lab at lunch to post on Slashdot and hide from the people picking on him. Because that would give you an excuse for being such a clueless, needless asshole to a stranger who's life is already filled with suck. And because eventually you will have the chance to grow up and become a real human eventually.
What I fear, though, is that you are already past the larval stage, and are writing missives like this from your elderly mom's basement while working a minimum wage job and creeping out the people who have to sit next to you on the bus. If that's the case, god help you, as you'll probably never change, and your life will be much sadder than some guy who is merely very fat.
Re:Mistyped? (Score:2, Informative)
Strength training does destroy muscle mass every time you lift to complete failure. Your body just rebuilds the lost stuff and adds some for good measure. This is why you're sore and need recovery time. It's also why you use a hell of a lot of calories when you lift weights -- most of the calories are spent after the training is over.
All food is not created equal (Score:3, Informative)
In the discussion of calories you might also consider what foods you are eating. Just over 30% of people have a glycemic responses that causes them to gain weight more quickly when eating foods high in sugar and simple carbohydrates. It's an insulin balance thing. The glycemic response is probably why the Atkins diet can be so successful for many people.
I have to watch my pasta, bread and rice along with some fruit like bananas. Alcohol and soft drinks are high glycemic index foods and need to be taken in moderation.