withervein Member

When I am ill, I have no appetite and no desire to eat, but I shovel the food in anyway because it's good for me. If you have no fuel, you're asking for trouble.

You can also do a lot by filling a couple of bags/briefcases with some heavy stuff for rows/curls. An old basketball can be filled with play sand and duct taped back up for a medicine ball. The wonderful lady at Stumptuous.com put put together the basics of a home gym for about $100 total: A steel box from IKEA to hold…

If you get there and have questions, rather than asking the dude at the next squat rack over, ask a staff member. Guys in open gyms at universities rarely have good form and even more rarely have any idea of how to explain proper form. If the staff know nothing, resort to one of the dudebros, but if they start saying…

Heavy is any amount that makes you feel like you can just.. barely.. do it on the last rep of a set. No one can tell you where to start or how much you should lift unless they've seen your progress over a period of time. Learn proper form with a light weight, perfect it with a medium weight and once you have the muscle…

I work a desk job and keep a restaurant-sized plastic tumbler on my desk. I fill it with ice and tap water first thing in the morning when I get to work and then I sip all day while I work. It holds 2.5 -3 cups and i drain it at least twice during my 9 hour shift, sometimes 3 or 4 times if I'm stressed. It helps me avoid…

Keep on keepin' on. There's no way to spot reduce. It will come off in time.

Rest is a weapon. To quote Krista Scott-Dixon of Stumptuous: "You don’t really need to remember this; but what you do need to remember is that the building-up and recovering from trauma part happens between, not during workouts. In other words, what you do outside the gym is as important as what you do inside. In addition,…

We got one in our town recently, and I went to check it out, but I don't care to be somewhere to train when I can't push myself with weights. I would say that I am hardly a "lunk" and I don't give two ****s if you wanna do 100 reps with a 2 pound hand weight, that's you and your thing, but I DO want to be able to rack up…

Good to see another stumpamaniac.

Elbow in the butter dish.

Loads of ad-free training suggestions and info here: http://www.stumptuous.com/category/starting/starting_weight_training

Do you have weights available? If yes, you can do all kinds of stuff: Curls, presses, rows, weighted squats, lunges, deadlifts, the list goes on and on. Looking for body weight stuff: Squats, walking lunges, pushups, planks, crunches, leg lifts, step ups onto a secure chair, bicycles.. You don't necessarily need to follow…

"Many weightlifters work on a split routine or cycle. For the reasons why they do this, see my page on rest and periodization. They may break the workouts up by: bodyparts: e.g. one day upper body, one day lower body lift type: e.g. pushing versus pulling exercises intensity and loading: heavy, medium, and light skill…

Make your snacks count! Keep sliced fruit and veg at hand, dip em in yogurt. If you need salty, set out a small dish of peanuts, don't grab the whole jar. Snacking is not a bad thing. Eating is not the devil. Just fuel yourself with da good stuff!

They are a great workout, see if you can get some used locally as they tend to be pricey if you need to get heavier ones due to shipping. Check Craiglist. If you need guidance, look for kettlebell tutorials on youtube. Form is important as you don't want to hurt your wrists. Best of luck to you! I hope you enjoy it as much…

No scale here, so I only check at the docs, or when I'm at someones house and they have a scale in the bathroom and I can sneak on. I guess if you are concerned about the numbers, then consistency matters. The only number I'm worried about is the one on the inside of my pants, and I just had to buy a belt!

Order something that comes with two portions and leave the second for a to-go box. There's tomorrows lunch. Grilled meats with lots of veggies is a great protein source. I don't think I could handle trying a 1200 cal diet, but more power to you. Fajitas are good because the grilled stuff is easy to portion into a to-go box…

I guess my question would be, do you have weights you use at home or are you planning on body weight exercises? Either is fine. You don't necessarily need a DVD to follow, you can just make a couple of routines and follow them. No matter what exercise you choose, you’re going to do it for a particular number of sets and…

Starting out with ANY exercise routine, especially an intense one, will give your muscles something to think about. If you are feeling very bad, take a rest day. Rest is a weapon. AS mentioned, stretch a lot, drink at least one or two extra glasses of water a day to flush out your system, you'll be creating lactic acid…

You might consider Tai Chi if your doc approves. It improves range of motion, focus on balance and breathing. It's excellent as a rehabilitative martial art as well. I would recommend that you take a class you can commit to for at least 4 months, however. If you can only go occasionally, you will likely find it difficult…

I use kettlebells 2-3 times a week 20-35 pounds, but I have never used a program or DVD. I started using them as part of a fitness class and I pretty much do a lot of the exercises we learned there like swings, push press, windmills, turkish get-ups, cleans, goblet squats, halos and tricep extensions. I set a timer for…

My local Dojo is incorporating some Crossfit-style classes into their normal rotation of fighting style-specific classes to bring in a broader audience. We have our own WODs, we have rings and kettlebells and we got some major encouragement among our ranks. It's quite nice, as I don't think I could afford to join a Brand…

I do love me some Gubernatrix. Big fan of the funny and helpful information on stumptuous.com as well.

Question: Are you surprisingly tall? or just male? I thought it was really odd how all the women on this site are talking about 1200 cal/day all the time, then I played around with my goal, activity and size settings just to see what it would spit out. Almost every combination at "lose 2 lbs per week" was 1200. I literally…

MFP stops being "custom" the moment you put in that you want to lose two pounds per week. It just slaps everyone down at 1200 cal/day. It would likely be better if you moved to 1 or 1.5 pounds to lose per week to get more fuel in.

It seems like a silly question to ask, huh? "How do you use a punching bag?" Of course, you can just stand there and mash your hands into it over and over, but that would be more of a waste of your time. You likely won't know how to move around the bag, how to deliver a strong punch and to use your hips and whole body to…

I have an 80lb heavy bag hanging in my basement. I got it late last winter after I started kickboxing and decided I really liked what I was doing at the gym and wanted to be able to practice at home. I downloaded a free round timer for my phone and I do 2 minute rounds with 45 second rests for about 6 rounds after starting…

I would worry about fats only if the fat you are consuming is mostly saturated fats. Your body requires fat to be able to process a lot of vitamins. Fat is essential to keeping your brain working, your joints cushioned and your skin and hair healthy. Fish, olive oil, fats from nuts and plants are all great places to get…

Real women have a pulse. Step away from the inflatable sheep, you sicko.

Three sets is a general rule. You could do more sets, but when you up your weight and go for fewer reps in a set, that last rep should be a challenge on every set. Getting the last rep out of the third set should feel near-failure if you're doing 5. The rest between sets should feel necessary. So yes, I would take that…