BG Fitness Fanatics II: We Work Out

[Yabby]

Keep in mind that scales (From what i've seen anyways) won't change much if you are close to what you were a little while ago. I've jumped on a scale, took a Jurassic park level shit, and weight the same after according to the scale. Weight yourself once a day, at the same time. I normally do it right when i get up, before i eat or drink anything. That will give you the best guess at your weight.

Keep in mind how much water impacts that scale. It doesn't sound like much, but if you are well hydrated that scale and go back and forth quickly. I'm currently doing my bulk, and for the last 3 days i've lost weight (almost 3 pounds). It was mainly because work picked up for a bit and i wasn't drinking as much water. This morning all the weight came back after a well hydrated day.

If you have something that is tracking your weight, you should only really look at your weekly/monthly avg weight. Not day to day, it will drive you crazy and I think it is one reason most diets fail. People think they are working hard for a week, don't see the scale change, and give up.

Just be consistent and think long term.

[Wulfgang]

I caution against focusing on short term weight oscillations. Feel free to keep a daily weight log, but focus on moving ~3+ week trends. Even moderate variances in hydration level, body composition, atmospheric temp/humidity, etc. can have a pretty significant impact on weight and trend implications.

I was a serious wrestler in HS (189); wrestlers are generally some of the most weight-focused folks out there for obvious reasons. You get pretty good at guessing where the number will be after weighing yourself a billion times. I'd transition from 210-220 during FB season down to ~195-198 within 4 weeks np every year. Pushing it down the last bit to clear 189 would take nearly twice that time when physical activity was even higher with the season fully underway. Additionally, on any given day, the delta between my morning and evening weight ranged from 2 to up to 10 pounds.

Long way of saying, lot of variables involved.

[Botosi]

Focus on the looks rather than the actual numbers. You'll SEE the progress and also feel the progress over time. That's what's gonna make you happy/give you more motivation.

Take pictures (the same lighting and angle everytime) instead of looking at the scale. The scale will drive you crazy.

[Fondue]

What if you always look like shit

[Yabby]

then you should at least be handy?

[Andalusian girls]

What if you always look like shit

steroids + surgery

[Botosi]

What if you always look like shit

flush yourself

[Fondue]

flush yourself

dam son too much

[shukudai]

Takin the the advice to heart, but weird new issue: Weighed in expecting maybe a 2lb loss in 7 days. Scale said 11. Took batteries out of scale, weighed again, same thing. Got dressed, ate a light meal and drink, weight went up about 3lbs. Scale seems accurate. Seems to have been accurate for months. How in the fuck can someone magically drop 11lbs in 7 days? As in, I ate 1200 calories, walk about 5 miles and spend the rest of my day in an office job sitting in a chair. I mean, of all the problems to have, I'll take it, but wtf.

[Yabby]

Motherfucker... did you read my post? Water, Water, Water....

[shukudai]

I like that :D

Also, turned out to be the scale >_> next day it shot me up 14, further attempts were like 20-30 lbs less. Grabbed a new scale, and it put me literally where i thought i'd be XD but it was a nice feeling for a while

[Yabby]

I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Goal i set for myself a few years ago is within 2% now (15% BF).




Kinda wish i had the money right now to have the loose skin on my back/ass cut off, i might be at my goal. One can dream i guess. It really makes me wish i wasn't a fat ass most of my life, Because I can only dream of what my body should look like right now.

[RKenshin]

Been a long time since I checked in here, but coming around to the 8-year anniversary of gym'n and the 5-year of tracking my workouts diligently (mostly thanks to the old BG fitness comps! lol).

In the spirit of that, I started compiling all the data into pretty tables/graphs! This probably doesn't get anyone's rocks off quite like it does for me, but figure I'd share anyway.

I've managed to be incredibly consistent! :D I've had just one week in the last 5 years where I did nothing. That isn't to say I didn't have injuries (worst being a PCL & meniscus tear, gd Soccer), or ridiculous work weeks (recalling a 7-day week of 14-hr days... 96-hrs lol), or vacations, holiday celebrations, etc; I just always made sure I found a way to make time.

So, on to the stats & data! I define a single workout 'instance' as a gym session, or playing a sport >30m (typically soccer), going for a run >2mile, taking a class (crossfit, yoga, spin, etc.), or any other misc. activity that burns >750 cals (obstacle course races, 2hrs of shoveling lol).

Here's what a frequency table / heat map & histogram look like, for the number of workouts logged each week:

Spoiler: show

Seeing it in this form makes me pretty damn happy/impressed with my consistency lol.

And the same data in chart form, but now for the number of workouts logged per month over the last 5y:

Spoiler: show

Can see mid-2014 when I tried Crossfit seriously for a month or two (mostly via Groupon).

While my consistency is pretty great in itself, it really looks crazy when I look at how many minutes I spend exercising each week lol.

To provide a bit more detail here, my typical gym session is split into 3 sections: strength training, cardio, and stretching.

• Strength: Typically 45-75min for 8 exercises, at 4-5 sets of 8 reps each exercise. I do body splits, never repeating the same primary area more than once/week or going more than 4 days/week. Legs & Core (6 Leg, 2 Core exercises) on day#1, Chest & Tris (7/1) day#2, rest day, Back & Bis (7/1) day#3, and Shoulders & Forearms+a bit more Core (6/2/2) on day#4.
  
• Cardio: 10-12min max. Almost always intervals and almost always running, at 1m jogging and 1m sprinting. Every session except leg day.
  
• Stretching: 19m of stretching, ideally every session but if anything gets the chopping block it's this one. The goal is 28 stretches at 35s hold each, which takes just about 19-minutes using an interval app to keep me on-track. I've managed to get all of them in ~75% of the time, though sometimes I split them up (do some at gym, some later or before bed).

Then, I also have a bunch of other activities sprinkled in here and there that are mostly for fun and/or with friends; not necessarily because I feel I need to or consider it part of my routine. Stuff like soccer or random classes, groupons, etc.

So in the spirit of the above, I also have a table for the number of minutes working out each week!:

Spoiler: show

Soooo I average about 6.5 hours/week exercising... wow, more than I thought.

And once again, the same data in chart form now at minutes per month:

Spoiler: show

~28 hours a month, so basically 1hr/day. Clear to see the majority of the time is spent strength training!

I also put a few other graphs together but the only other one interesting enough to maybe share is a histogram based on which days of the week I'd workout:

Spoiler: show

Saturday is definitely not the day for me. When all is going to normal plan, I prefer SUN/MON/WED/THU as my 4 gym days.

So, those are all the stats & how my routine has looked for the last 5 years.

As for the results, I've fallen off the wagon in keeping track of that. I haven't taken real progress photos in a few years, mostly because my body is basically unchanged. While I do challenge myself every workout, I don't care about pushing high numbers and focus more on maintaining.

Over the past 5 years, my measurements are essentially the same; some minor improvements, but nothing huge:

Spoiler: show

Chest day is definitely the one area I push myself the most, so I guess that shows. The PCL tear looks like it effected my quads a bit, but otherwise I'm mostly the same.

(this might also be a bad time to compare, as I'm just back from a 10-day food/drink binge vacation with minimal gym'n... all well!)

I don't have any formal progress photos, so the next best thing will have to be a recent vaca photo:

Spoiler: show

(funny enough, this is also 7 days in on the aforementioned lazy binge eating/drinking vaca... maybe not my best form lol)

That about wraps it up!

I'll update if I ever get around to legit progress photos.

[Fondue]

I need that 19 min stretching routine brah

I'm laid up with bicep tendonitis atm, my mobility is terrible and I need to make a serious effort to stretch more

[Cream Soda]

Depression hit pretty hard this year and I gained a lot of weight, went up to 201.

Got into the fitness competition mode

Oct 3rd: 201 lbs.

Nov 9th: 177 lbs

24 lbs in 5 weeks and we're halfway through (Was grinding out the last 5 weeks until Holmat, my next anime con)

Minimal goal is 170, which I'll easily hit, I have 5 weeks left as of today. Stretch goal is 160. If I can get to 160-165, I'll be happy with it, as it'll be 35-40 lbs in 10 weeks.

This half should be easier. I had 2 Halloween parties, and 2 graduation parties in the first 5 weeks, along with 1-2 days where i just said fuck it and gorged.

Only potential cheat day between now and the con is Thanksgiving (assuming I get invited anywhere). Losing up to 7-17 lbs in 5 weeks w/ 0-1 cheat days is gonna be much easier than losing 24 in 5 weeks with 6-7 cheat days (and those were not cheat meals. T hose were full out double to triple my diet caloric intake)

Was worried at the start w/ how much I had to lose, but I'll have my cuts back just in time for the con

[Elizara]

I thought I'd ask you guys about this.

As you guys know from the Win thread; I've been losing weight. I'm thinking about doing some kind of strength training and not just walking a mile or two every day. Trouble is, I don't have a lot of money; and there's no handy YMCA within 20 miles. (So okay, really in the backwater). (And yes, girls pump weights too tho I'm not looking to bulk, more like tighten up.)

Since I really, really, REALLY can't afford a gym membership(which would be the other option); what would be a good beginner's bodyweight strength training workout? There is a park near us with a jungle gym so there's that...

Also any budget ideas for strength training other than bodyweight would be welcome.

[Cream Soda]

Do you at least have a planet fitness near you? Absolute worst gym, but it's 10 bucks a month, they're nation wide, and it's still vastly superior to nothing.

I can think of some decent upper body stuff in a park but not so much lower body (and the upper body stuff is intermediate (pull ups and dips) so if you can't even do them body weight, then that kinda shoots that idea in the foot as well)

[Botosi]

Any reason you don't want to do bodyweight exercises? Some are just too good to pass up (planks, sit ups, leg ups etc).

Could always start with the basics. Do Planks, push-ups, sit ups, wall-sits with something on your lap as a weight. A pole at the jungle gym to work on pull-ups, chin-ups, and leg-ups.

If you really wanna steer clear of bodyweight exercises then you could buy those exercise bands:

https://www.amazon.com/UPOWEX-Resist...+weights&psc=1

I've never used them personally, but they seem decent, cheap, and versatile enough.

[Moss]

Any reason you don't want to do bodyweight exercises? Some are just too good to pass up (planks, sit ups, leg ups etc).

Could always start with the basics. Do Planks, push-ups, sit ups, wall-sits with something on your lap as a weight. A pole at the jungle gym to work on pull-ups, chin-ups, and leg-ups.

If you really wanna steer clear of bodyweight exercises then you could buy those exercise bands:

https://www.amazon.com/UPOWEX-Resist...+weights&psc=1

I've never used them personally, but they seem decent, cheap, and versatile enough.

I think she's just asking for ideas other than BW exercises, not that she won't be doing them

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[Moss]

But yeah you're kinda limited to the prison workout. Bands are a good idea, can also make ghetto weights out of things like milk gallons with water or sand.

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