Working out / health and fitness

Hi folks.

Lots of workout discussion in the Corona thread. Seems there is demand for a thread.

I’ve been working out at home 5 times per week for the last 3 year’s. I have a pretty sweet home set up, which is probably close to absolutely optimum for a condo building.

I live in a fairly solid, well sound proofed modern apartment, on the 1st floor.

Current set up

  • puzzle mats for the floor
  • rowing machine (Concept2)
  • a 20kg kettle bell
  • 32kg kettle bell
  • 2 x 25kg dumbbells
  • a few smaller dumbbells for Mrs rugby
  • ab roll out wheel
  • Olympic bar
  • two heavy duty 50ml rubber mats
  • about 100kg of bumper plates.
  • a chair
  • a backpack for weighted stuff
  • parralletes

Just ordered from Amazon. A foldaway A frame gymnastic/chin up bar. Arriving next week

Now this is probably extreme. So I’ll make some recommendations.

  1. Push ups and squats are king. Do a variation of these every workout.

  2. You probably need some equipment for a pull. I recommend a heavyish kettle bell.

  3. You should do core stuff.

I like a circuit. Something like

3 rounds.
Each set on the minute.
12 pushups
8 1 arm kettle bell rows
20 air squats
10 kettle bell swings
1 minute rest.

Then followed by some cardio or a series of planks.

I also like Monday Wednesday Friday weights. Tuesday and Thursday cardio.

Other tips.

Decline pushups with a chair
1 leg squats onto a chair are great.

Go go go

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do more reps with less weight

walk or run outside instead of a treadmill

let’s all get pelotons and race online

Been getting over a bad cold from 2 weeks ago. I’ve been making sure I go for a walk every day for 15-20 minutes while the sun is out and I do 10-15 squats at the halfway point where I turn around and come back. Yea I’m a fatty if you haven’t figured it out by now. 6’4" 270 lbs.

I’m planning on increasing my walks this week. Hoping to walk an hour a day by 4/1. Purely anecdotal, but I like to believe being out in the sun helps.

It definitely helps with mood, energy and circadian rhythms (which is probably the reason it feels like it helps with energy).

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I live in an apartment building, I moved from a pretty big one bedroom where I had my half rack in the bedroom to a 2-bedroom with no room with a roommate I was close friends with. In hindsight, luckily (I doubt he would have taken a quarantine seriously), we had a horrible falling out around mid-December through mid-January and he moved out in late February and I took the whole place over.

I knew I wanted to make his old bedroom my office/gym, so I moved my old equipment in just in the nick of time. I’ll post a picture tomorrow, but I have a half rack, bench, mats for the floor to deadlift, and enough weights to move a good amount (I think I have enough to get it up to 420 lbs… I’m a ways away from needing that).

My routine for now is Stronglifts 5x5. I’m ramping up very slowly from light weights since I haven’t lifted in a while and I want to be able to lift every day for a while without getting too sore.

It’s two alternating routines, 5 sets of 5 for everything except deadlifts, which are 1x5.

Workout A
Squats
Overhead Press
Deadlifts

Workout B
Squats
Bench Press
Rows

I’m thinking at some point I may want to start getting two workouts a day in, so the other one will just be high rep, low weight or targeted stuff like shoulders and arms. For me, it’s tough to beat a compound lifting program because I enjoy it, I’m better at it than cardio due to my asthma, and thus I stick with it longer.

You do heavy deadlifts in a condo? Is this not shaking the whole building?

https://www.self.com/gallery/pilates-exercises-that-work-your-core/amp

For anyone looking to add some core work and doesn’t want to just do a bunch of planks and situps, I am a big fan of pilates for core. This link requires no equipment, so perfect for home. I personally find that pilates is very supportive of functional core strength, I.e it’s not just for making abs it is useful for improving squats, deadlifts, etc

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I threw this in the other thread already, and no I’m not employed by them, but Peloton has a 90 day free trial of their app (you don’t need their equipment.) I’m giving it a shot.

I never got a complaint in my old apartment with neighbors below, I definitely got into the 300+ lb range sometimes. But I’m not slamming them down and I have some mats I made to deaden the noise. I currently have a two-floor apartment, so it’s on my top floor and thus I don’t think anyone should be able to hear it outside my own apartment. Maybe the people nextdoor, but it’s not like I’m lifting at night.

I also put some towels over the hooks to hold the barbell to deaden that sound in the old apartment, too. I need to look at doing that here.

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WFH updates:

Day 1 my dog was stoked as heck. Day 2 she has realized that this also means the dogwalker is not coming. Now she’s furious with me.

Bigger problem - my “14 day supply” of snacks is almost gone.

6 Likes

In.

I set up a small home gym last month to help my surgery rehab. It currently consists of:
-Total Gym
-Yoga Mat
-2x ~16lb dumbbells
-Resistance band
-Circa 1970s upright bike
-Balance board
-Large ball

The TotalGym is pretty awesome. Very versatile for a machine that’s fairly simple in concept and probably 30 years old. I’m still limited in what I can do so for now it’s mostly floor exercises and some upper body and core.

I’m a fan of bodyweight exercises and love power yoga. I mentioned it in the other thread, but if you’ve been hesitant to try yoga because it seems lame, give a 60 minute Baptiste Power Yoga class a try (plenty available online, make the room as hot as you can). You won’t think it’s lame any longer.

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So first home workout went maybe too good. Struggling going up and down stairs today. Glutes and hamstrings are toast. Here’s my workout from yesterday, maybe if we share workouts we will be more motivated.

Warm up: circuit BW squats, reverse lunges, high kicks, planks
Deadlifts, 3 x 5
Superset 1: kettlebell swings, side lunges
Superset 2: Bulgarian split squats, ab roller

For the super sets I did 3 sets of ten, except the side lunges which I did sets of 8 for those. I’m not good at them.

Here’s a look at the setup. Today is squats/overhead press/deadlifts!

Down 12 lbs in 24 days, I don’t know what I weighed when I went into lockdown but I think I’ve probably dropped at least 6 of those in my 8 days locked in.

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Different take. Have a partially torn/strained hammy (specifically right proximal tendinopathy). Right at the “sit bone”. My IT band is also pissed off from compensating so sitting sucks.

3 weeks ago had an ultrasound/platelet injection. Rehab since. Coming along well. Orthopedic dr says I’m in danger zone based on how good it feels and how early the healing is- easy to reinjure.

Doing all kinds of targeted exercises. Only allowed exercise bike or elliptical for aerobic. Am getting about a 3 mile walk in per day.

We tried shopping online for a bike last night. Need recumbent due to the sitting problem. Impossible to tell online. Plus we have a small house so foldable or easily movable.

Oh well. The PT gave me some heavier work to do twice a week in case their office closes or I decide to stop going.

I am going to hit tennis balls with a friend one a week. We’ve agreed to monitor each other for face touching and will toss the balls after use. I’m allowed a 1 step radius for now. No sudden moves and no running. Felt good the first time.

Nice set up. Please don’t shame me by posting your working weights, I am feeble and doing my best.

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They’re low for now, gotta ramp back up. But I’d trade them for having a lower body weight… On my way to it though!

Weight loss is going to be tough for a while. Assuming you mean body fat loss, that’s so driven by diet. And diet is going to be harder to control with any limitations on shopping trips, etc. So my Covid Goal is increased strength (specifically deadlifts). I’ve got lots of protein powder to lift thru the apocalypse.

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Ingenious

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9zWFrMJAND/?igshid=91k1kq0zzpzv

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Some good stuff in there.

My hips have been fucked ever since I broke my leg. I’ve been getting a limited understanding of just how much is going on around the hips and groin and how important it is to keep the whole area in shape. Def much more required than planks etc

Yeah I mean bodyfat loss, but I think it’s going to be easier than usual. I’ve stockpiled food to stay vegetarian, attempt to keep it low fat (better for weight loss for my genetics), and my caloric intake will be pretty consistently down - especially being fully vegetarian.

One of my big problems is my sweet tooth, so this is almost like going into sugar rehab by having willpower when shopping to force it upon myself for the duration… What I typically do is shop well, then when the cravings hit go get something sweet.

Why do you think it’s going to be tough to get a healthy diet on a quarantine/lockdown?