Man to Man: A Support System for Men (part 2)

FORKDOWN

Man! Good motivation casper, sounds easy... i found a 10k race that's on the 4th for $30 so I'm gonna register for it.

Good luck and kick butt.

CasperO

Good deal man, report back and let us know how it goes.

Anybody who can run amazes me. I never could. Did it with a gun to my head in the mil and hated every step. Haven't tried again since I got semi-fit,,, should prob give it a shot.

whyflysouth

It gets easier Casper, honestly I was the same way, always huffing and puffing, seems like my heart rate goes up much more than most normal people... Even after I got better at it, I still huff and puff... I just do so for the entire hour while running. Idk what's wrong with me, my stamina is good enough to keep running, but I can't bring my HR down below 160 when I'm doing it.

rolyprince

Morning Guys I haven't been able to post on here for a while but I thought I'd post my weigh in from yesterday.

I lost 1.2lbs!!! Down to 236.

Excellent I'm really happy weight is going in the right direction over 50lbs lost now!! I'm skipping round the bathroom

I hadn't measured myself in about a month so I thought I'd see how they were doing thinking it would make me feel even better.
But my measurements have gone up!!

I don't get it. I can understand that my chest size might go up as I'm building muscle but what I don't understand is why my belly measurement would have gone up.

I'm excersiing 4-5 times a week. Drinking plenty of water. Eating most if not all of my exercise calories. I'm using the same tape measure and measuring in the same place.

Like I say my weight is going down nicely. I just don't understand how my belly size has gone up!!

I'm sure you great people will know the answer.

Thanks in advance.

onebeer

Afternoon all

Been away frm here for a while - too much footie on the telly, too much beer in the fridge, but seeing as the world cup is practically over, its time to concentrate again. The good thing is that during the last three weeks, my weight has stayed pretty static (actually dropped a lb - HTF does that work?).

Anyway, back on the food, back on the cross trainer and the bike, time to let battle commence on this last stone.

Have fun all

daved71

Well, I am a day late for the challenge and I did not make my goal. I actually gained a pound this week. This does not really surprise me since I was camping on the weekend and yesterday was my anniversary, so I haven't been eating the best. Actually I was eating okay, just too many brews around the fire along with some snacks. For my challnege weight I came in at 176.7. Missed my goal by 3 or 4 pounds, so not bad.

I need to find a good low cal beer that I can drink around the fire since camping season for me has just started. Anyone have any recommendations? also keep up the good work everyone and Casper, congrats on another long ride to work.

thedeuce

Hey guys. Just joined today and found this group. Looks like exactly what I need to get started. Look forward to learning some things here.

Umpire57

Welcome 2!

gr8dad1975

Hey Guys

I have been sick for a while and away from MFP, but I'm back now and just wanted to stop by and say hi!!

ccgisme

Welcome back, gr8 1!

CasperO

Birthday for me - 43 today. Red letter day so far.

Woke up at 05:30, bounced outta bed like a superball. Walked dogs, got on bike and rode for an hour in the nice cool morning - did my usual 15ish mile loop through town and was back home by 06:50. Looking forward to time tonight w/fam including D-inlaw & Grandson, garbage can pizza & Guinness for dinner :drinker: .

I feel so much much better on my 43rd B'day than I did on my 40th,,, or even my 30th if I'm going to be honest about it. So glad I made this change. It's a very very good thing.

daved71

Happy Birthday Casper. Enjoy your night with the family.

operator

WASSSSAAHHHHHH guys. I have been off the site and off my work out routine for a while now. Figured it was time to shape up....

gr8dad1975

Birthday for me - 43 today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASPER!!!!

ccgisme

Birthday for me - 43 today. Red letter day so far.

Woke up at 05:30, bounced outta bed like a superball. Walked dogs, got on bike and rode for an hour in the nice cool morning - did my usual 15ish mile loop through town and was back home by 06:50. Looking forward to time tonight w/fam including D-inlaw & Grandson, garbage can pizza & Guinness for dinner :drinker: .

I feel so much much better on my 43rd B'day than I did on my 40th,,, or even my 30th if I'm going to be honest about it. So glad I made this change. It's a very very good thing.

Happy belated birthday, Casper. I hope the pizza and Guinness were great!

When I was facing 30, I said I wanted to be healthier at 30 than I was at 20. That didn't happen. Now I'm 39 and I will be healthier at 40 than I was at 30, or 20! :bigsmile:

Umpire57

The difference between my 38th birthday last year and my 39th this year was like going from 80 to 30. It is amazing how different I feel.

Today on my modified 300 challenge I did the following:

25 Bodyweight Rows,
25 Pushups,
25 24" Bench Jumps,
25 Floor Wipers,
15 each Arm 135lb Dumbell C&P,
20 pushups,
25 Bodyweight squats,
15 Bodyweight Rows,

(Mostly without rest between)

Then did 2 15 rep sets on the Nautilus Ab Machine and 1 hour on the elliptical.

Getting almost to the point to where I will try pullups again

ccgisme

The difference between my 38th birthday last year and my 39th this year was like going from 80 to 30. It is amazing how different I feel.

Today on my modified 300 challenge I did the following:

25 Bodyweight Rows,
25 Pushups,
25 24" Bench Jumps,
25 Floor Wipers,
15 each Arm 135lb Dumbell C&P,
20 pushups,
25 Bodyweight squats,
15 Bodyweight Rows,

(Mostly without rest between)

Then did 2 15 rep sets on the Nautilus Ab Machine and 1 hour on the elliptical.

Getting almost to the point to where I will try pullups again

You are a machine! It's great to hear that so much can change in a year. While I'm pleased with my progress, it's only been four months.

Let us know how the pull ups go. I checked the two playgrounds near my house to see if either of them had something that I could use as a modified pull up bar, but they don't. :sad:

Umpire57

I wish I was a machine, Then I could just grease the creaky parts and make the stiffness go away

Will do, The bodyweight rows are a good replacement currently till I can actually do real pullups but they are not the same.

The day I actually complete the 300 as written, I think I will scare people

That day is still just a twinkle in the far distance.

I went to our first football officials meeting last night and this year our crew had to replace our clock operator. We got a 20 year old that is friends w/ our referee's son (who is also on the crew) and this kid just got finished with a freakin Triathalon. So on our crew we have 2 20 year olds, one currently in Afghanastan who once returned at the end of the month will have like 0% body fat and another who is a tri-athelete, Now there is some motivation if I ever saw it.

CasperO

Man, that's a rough neighborhood to be hanging out in. I'm the only guy in my circle who can see his feet,,, no motivation there.

Great job on the workout, you'll be a beast 'fore you know it.

darman

Umpire - WOW!!! Incredible man - I mean that is an awesome workout............

Casper - Happy Belated Birthday!!

I know how you guys feel wanting to be in better shape than when you were younger - I can honestly say that at age 47 I am in the best shape of my life........and I am loving it - I am fighting now though not to get discouraged - my wife and I started this together and she has all but stopped going to the gym with me and the right eating plan has been thrown out of the window - I am just vain enough to push myself because of how good I feel about myself but also because I am just healthier and feel great.
Any suggestions from anyone to help get my wife back on track?

Yesterday's Workout:
3.2 Mile Run 27 min
30 min group power
30 min step aerobics
30 min pilates
45 "real" situps
Dumbells:
10 reps @ 30 lbs standing alternate arm curls
10 reps @ 30 lbs standing alternate shoulder press

10 reps @ 30 lbs shrugs

CasperO

No advice for the wife situation, it's tough, she's just gotta want to do it, and you can't make her.

After working on this for 1-1/2 year with my wife I realize that a lot of times this is tougher for them than it is for us. We're big strappin' healthy guyz and lots'a times our stuff just works properly. There's an old Rosanne Barr joke "if a man wants to lose 5 pounds, all he's gotta do is skip lunch and take a crap" :laugh:

My wife is far more selfless, more dedicated to calorie control, and more serious about her program than I am. She's about to pass 200 consecutive days logging in, and she counts grapes and tic-tacs and she never cheats. Works out when she can, not often enough 'cause of health problems... basically she's just doing everything right and her weight's been stuck for a $*%in' year. A year! If I weighed grapes for a year and didn't lose a pound I'd lose my mind...

I honestly don't know how she does it. Is your wife having the same struggles? If she is all I can say is just be there for her man,,, it sux bad.

((We're seeing another quack next week, hoping to get hold of this. For some reason her body's not obeying the laws of thermodynamics,,, which is pretty amazing really. Interesting stuff,,,))

paullie_t

what am I doing wrong?

I decided to incorporate some strength training the last couple of weeks and ultimately needed to take almost 4-5 days off after fatiguing my quads so much that it hurts to stand up or sit down.

I've tried these workouts on the previous Sunday or Monday nights:
Dumbbell workout from Men's Fitness: http://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/workout_routines/627
Spartacus workout from Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/spartacus/workouts

In the Dumbbell workout, I did one full set at pretty reasonable weights and destroyed my quads. It took a full week to recover from this one workout.

In the Spartacus workout, I used 5 lb weights and only did 10-15 reps on each exercise. I was able to almost complete 2 sets. I did this on Monday night and I am still reeling from this workout.

I played a lot of baseball in high school and have pretty sturdy legs and I am not used to feeling this kind of pain. I am not an expert in weightlifting, but I have spent a good deal of time lifting weights, so I don't think that I'm out of my realm.

I guess I was just trying to go too hard, too fast.

Tonight, I would love to hit the Spartacus workout again, this time without weight, just too see if I can do it, however I think I am going to only end up being able to hit the elliptical trainer again, because my quads are still killing me.

Any suggestions?

HOSED49

See how the elliiptical feels on your legs, but in your mind you will be thinking about the spartacus workout. Fun thing about any workout, if it gets to hurting too bad, stop, get some water, regroup mentally and find something not as taxing on that area to do or push through it. The spartacus workout is a butt kicker for sure and i do alot of crossfit type workouts! Here's another fun fact for ya, I do crossfit type workouts 5-6 days per week. Almost every workout involves bodyweight squats. So through the week I probably do 500 to 900 squats. So the next week we incoporate lunges for one day. Legs are screaming the next two days just for introducing a new exercise. So it doesnt matter your background, if you throw something new into your routine, you should definintley feel the difference!

paullie_t

I don't feel the pain when doing it, which was why I was able to get through 2 sets.

It hits me like a truck the next day though.

A trainer at my office says that I should roll out my quads with a rolling pin and that would reduce the pain as well as stretch out the muscle for future sessions.

wjassell

DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is what you are experiencing It is normal for someone who trains hard when they change routines. You should read the wikipedia article on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness

onwisconsn

OK, I just have to write what is a situation I am sure many/most of you have encountered. Since I lost the first 30-45 lbs, people at work (I'll say 15-20) have come up to me and complimented me on the weight loss. Talk about positve reinforcement.

Then, most of them have asked me what my secret was, with excitement in their eyes. When I proceed to tell them that I have been following the recommendations of myfitnesspal - ie. being aware of what and how much I eat, exercising more, and drinking tons of water, I can see the dissapointment in their faces. These people honestly thought that there was a secret "easy" trick, even though every weightloss product out there says in their materials "with proper diet and exercise." It used to surprise me, now it just amuses me.

OK, just thought I would share something funny

CasperO

Yep, very common. Seen it many times. "What's your secret?" - "the only thing that really works - diet & exercise"... Ohhh :frown: :frown: :frown:

ccgisme

what am I doing wrong?

I decided to incorporate some strength training the last couple of weeks and ultimately needed to take almost 4-5 days off after fatiguing my quads so much that it hurts to stand up or sit down.

I've tried these workouts on the previous Sunday or Monday nights:
Dumbbell workout from Men's Fitness: http://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/workout_routines/627
Spartacus workout from Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/spartacus/workouts

In the Dumbbell workout, I did one full set at pretty reasonable weights and destroyed my quads. It took a full week to recover from this one workout.

In the Spartacus workout, I used 5 lb weights and only did 10-15 reps on each exercise. I was able to almost complete 2 sets. I did this on Monday night and I am still reeling from this workout.

I played a lot of baseball in high school and have pretty sturdy legs and I am not used to feeling this kind of pain. I am not an expert in weightlifting, but I have spent a good deal of time lifting weights, so I don't think that I'm out of my realm.

I guess I was just trying to go too hard, too fast.

Tonight, I would love to hit the Spartacus workout again, this time without weight, just too see if I can do it, however I think I am going to only end up being able to hit the elliptical trainer again, because my quads are still killing me.

Any suggestions?

Hey Paullie -

The DOMS comment is right on. Did you ease into these routines, or did you decide to walk into the gym and be Spartacus on day one? The week after I played my first game of flag football I could barely walk - just from going from easy jogging intervals to sprints and from straight line running, to cutting, etc. Your body will adapt, it's just going to hurt for a while. Be sure you are giving your muscles adequate rest at least 48 hours between workouts that tax the same muscle groups.

Be sure to incorporate stretching into your workouts - stretch before you work out and stretch between sets.

And drink plenty of water! Take your weight, divide it by 2 and that's how many ounces you should shoot for in a day. For each hour you work out, add 10 ounces. Sounds like a lot, but proper hydration is one key to recovery. (A balanced diet and adequate rest are the other two.)

Good luck!

jruizuk1

I was thinking of starting a 4 week challenge for men as I am going to need both a challenge (I am a competitive kind of guy) and encouragement. Anyone interested?

gr8dad1975

I was thinking of starting a 4 week challenge for men as I am going to need both a challenge (I am a competitive kind of guy) and encouragement. Anyone interested?

The Man to Man Forum is always up to a challenge. What did you have in mind? :huh: