For many people the attitude that needs to change is the mindset that your body is this inconvenient vehicle that unfortunately needs upkeep which takes away from the stuff you actually want to do. Instead think of your body as the foundation on which everything else you do is built.
Supporting your body will make everything else you do better, even if what you do is purely intellectual. If you are religious then your body as God's gift to you that you are obligated to take care of. If you are purely materialist then consider that your brain is an organ like any other and benefits from better blood flow, respiration, nutrition, hormone balance, etc.
One problem with many fitness systems or exercise programs is that they are derived from an athletic training environment and aren't necessarily suitable for the maintenance or incremental improvement that people who aren't "into" working out would benefit from the most.
After many years of trying different programs I found set of principles that really work for me.
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daily - it is less mentally taxing to do something every day, ideally at a regular time, than maintain a schedule of alternating days. That doesn't mean you have to grind every day, just that you allocate a certain part of your day to purposeful physical activity. I've found that what works for me is exercising as soon as I can after I wake up, then having coffee afterwards. If for some reason I don't exercise I "punish" myself by delaying coffee until after 10.
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variety - You want to do a lot of different exercises, ideally a full-body routine. Or multiple different kinds of sports training. First because it is better to be well rounded, second so your body improves instead of just adapting to specific activities, and third so an injury or "soreness" or whatever doesn't give you an excuse to do nothing. Just skip that portion and do the rest.
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stop when you feel like it - this is one that was difficult for me because I always felt like I had to push my limits which led to overtraining, longer than necessary recovery times, and sometimes avoidable injuries. At this point I don't count reps anymore, instead focus on breathing and form and do the exercise until my body says "this is getting hard" then stop and move on to the next one. Show up, do some work, stop before you grind yourself down. You will improve as you keep at it.
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use what you have - don't get hung up on needing a particular apparatus or gym or whatever. Bodyweight and floor space is enough to get a workout in. I have some equipment so I use that but if you get used to working out without needing any external equipment then that is one less excuse to not do SOMETHING.
My current training is doing single sets to exertion (when I feel like stopping), no rest in between except to catch my breath if needed. I have a dumbell set but I don't have a specific weight I use or progression I'm going for, just whatever I feel like that day. If it feels too light or heavy just adjust in the middle.
I've been using ChatGPT to generate a new full-body workout every couple of days and using the same conversation so I can tell it to not exactly repeat any exercises from the last 3 days. Now that I have maybe 30 and I pick one at random. You prompt it with the equipment and facilities you have access to and any injuries you are working around, and I tell it to pick an exercise that is safe to do from cold as a dynamic warmup. You can have it re-generate as much as you want and to avoid ones you don't want to do, like I told it to not include turkish getups.
The whole thing takes 30 minutes or less depending on if I feel like grinding or want to take it easy.
Example of my routine, usually I limit it to 13 exercises but I think this is an older list that has 14.:
- Bodyweight Squats
- Pull-Ups
- Dumbbell Bench Press
- Dumbbell Rows
- Dips
- Leg Raises
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Step-Ups
- Renegade Rows
- Calf Raises
- Dumbbell Deadlifts
- Russian Twists
- Dumbbell Bicep Curls
- Tricep Overhead Extensions
Good luck brothers, we are going to make it.
In my experience, the MOST important thing, more important than anything else, is to find a kind of exercise that you will actually stick with. No matter the faults (not enough variety, not doing it long enough, not doing it frequently enough), doing SOME exercise is far better than doing none.
For me, it was cycling and basic weight training. I always struggled to find an exercise I would actually stick with until I came upon that combo. Once you get over the initial hurdle, you start to build it into your routine and it actually feels weird if you don't do it. Then, once you feel better about exercise as a whole, you can try different things from a position of confidence.
Exactly, I love martial arts for example because it gets me doing something but also teaches me self-defence and this might seem weird but I'm probably going to look at metal working projects outdoors as part of my 'workout' routine. You seen how unbelievably jacked blacksmiths are? lol. I can't stand doing physical exertion for nothing's sake though so I have to be making something or doing it for a reason.
Eat a lot of eggs, daily. They are the single most nutritionally complete food. Also satiates hunger for longer. You can buy a box of 60 eggs from Walmart for under $8.
Also this cookbook is free in PDF https://www.toomanyeggs.com/
The body doesn't store protein.
I thought the liver would have some stockpile, but no, if you eat too much it's wasted, or if you exercise and don't have enough protein you rob peter to pay paul and end up weaker.
So be sure to eat enough protein!
The level I was given by a dietician was at least 2/3rds a gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight per day for an active man. To get anywhere close to this, you have to shed the Standard American Diet, and so far I have lost 30 pounds in less than six months.
And clean your rooms.
I'm just adding bodyweight squats and horses stance to my routine for now. Already swim and bike, lapsed on biking but I'll get back to it.
Happy new year!
I consulted my friend who's a trainer years ago , he told me where I was going wrong was variety and instead focus on parts per day giving time to recover for other parts
Been improving steadily ever since
If you are training for maximum performance or bodybuilding that makes sense. Also if you take your reps to failure you may even need more than one day between.
Im never going to failure except maybe pullups, and even then I'm not maxing out by doing negatives after I cant pull anymore.
The idea is I moderate to "consume" no more than 24 hours worth of recovery in a single session. Sometime a good song will come on or I'll feel like pushing myself and then I'll pull back the next day.
I've heard that unless you are going for Arnold you can exercise the same muscles every day no problem. Almost as good or no difference from taking days off.
I haven't fact checked it though, but it seems to be the case.
edit: what I was thinking of was some expert saying you could exercise all your muscles on the same day, not that you could do it every day.
I think that's up to the person. I find alternating days more easy to stick to because break days help me prevent burn out. It's not so hard to do an annoying thing today if I know I can slack off on it tomorrow. Even if the thing isn't that actually taxing when doing it, having that off day coming up the next day helps me keep motivated mentally.
I'm partial to the three times a week schedule myself. Knowing I'll have a day or even two off gives me a lot more strength to push through a heavier set.
I love walking and hiking, had a bad last year so I pretty much became a recluse. But my biggest problem with sticking to things is anterior ankle pain, it feels like the front of my ankles are burning.
It requires either a slower consistent pace or semi frequent breaks for a min or two. I've tried the holy NHS but they just came off as extremely dismissive and weren't much help, great if you're looking for condescension though.
So this thread seems like a good place to ask, anyone have any tips to deal with it or at least lessen the pain?
I have pretty bad plantar fasciitis and so had to back off of the previous activities I enjoyed doing like power walking and heavy squats. The Drs I went to both said my feet are badly shaped for distance walking which sounds like BS but I'll accept it temporarily until I get better evidence or another opinion. It took a long time but eventually I'm not dealing with daily pain.
Unfortunately sometimes we can't do as much of the stuff we like to do.
That many exercises? No rest in-between?
When I started training again I focused on just one exercise until failure. With failure I mean when the last reps of each set cause tingling nerves in the muscle cluster or when it starts to feel bruised during the movement.
In fact, I've gotten addicted to the feeling and that's how I've kept at it. I've slowly expanded the number of exercises since then for different muscle groups (clearly this wasn't a New Years resolution). But I do maintain a lot of rest in-between sets. When I'm in a hurry, three minutes, otherwise five minutes. Sometimes twenty or more, when I'm also doing other things. As long as I get that 'bruised' sensation, it doesn't matter.
I also switch it up, so that my body doesn't get used to it. Sometimes I take two or three days off, but as I said, I really like the sensation of that 'burn'. Also, I only do low-risk exercises and try to not overburden my lower back.
I'm beginning to believe that the 'gym bros' are right, by the way. "No pain, no gain."
Also, you need to significantly increase your protein, for healing your muscles. You will have to start counting calories, though, in order to prevent undesirable weight gains.
You will laugh at how low-intensity I work out. Its not quite as bad as the women at the gym who record themselves but it is about half a step about that. I'm paranoid about avoiding injury so I'm hyper-vigilent about stopping when my joints start singing.
My advice isn't for you then. You have the experience to know what your body wants and how best to get that. I'm talking to the average gamer or someone who never played sports or did much physical activity. If they tried to go to failure without ramping up they would get nervous system signals like they were dying. The "as much as you feel like" strategy avoids a lot of the friction that comes from not only a routine change but also the physical stress that comes from just starting to use your body.
But if for any reason you stop working out for a long period and want to get back into it, starting out at the "stop when you feel like it" level will let you ramp back up without needing to rebuild your willpower at the same time as your body.
This is what kept me from doing serious progression when I was on a powerlifting routine. I can't stand just sitting around between sets. And I was in a situation where I didn't have unlimited gym time so I did at most 90 seconds between sets but mostly 30-60 second depending on how I felt. I always liked supersetting better. When I was hitting the gym at 4-430am and nobody was there I could do a full superset rotation of german volume training on 10 different stations and it was pretty glorious.
When I was powerlifting I was on a 1 gram per lb diet while also calorie restricting so I would end up eating something like a pound of chicken a day and not much else. I found in my research that pork loin (not tenderloin) actually has the same calorie profile as chicken breast and can sometimes be cheaper so it was nice to include that variety.
My personal advice is that if you are just starting to just use the empty bar for everything for like a month. Spending the extra time getting your form right and stretching muscles that might not have been used in forever will save you a lot of injury and struggle in the long run.
Too many want to rush into being a man and starting to get swole, which is why they fail and quit.
Thanks. It’s so easy to quit on this type of resolution
What kind of BMI are you guys and what are you aiming for?
Former BMI: Very Yes. Current BMI: Yes. Goal BMI: Less Yes, but still yes.
And remember, there are people out there who hate you and want you dead. Train accordingly.