Gym & Misc General Health and Fitness Thread

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Wormkilla said:
Because its not in the best interests of the corporations who profit from an unhealthy society..
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It's also boring and doesn't 'sell'.

If you're trying to convince someone to use you as a PT then saying 'do some squats, some bench, some rows three times a week and you're done' is pretty uninspiring even if probably close to the best advice for a beginner.

People want 'fun' and 'variety' and 'quick fixes'. The reality is far more mundane.
 
faible said:
It's also boring and doesn't 'sell'.

If you're trying to convince someone to use you as a PT then saying 'do some squats, some bench, some rows three times a week and you're done' is pretty uninspiring even if probably close to the best advice for a beginner.

People want 'fun' and 'variety' and 'quick fixes'. The reality is far more mundane.
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Exactly. Its the same across many industries. As an example: golf - people get sold on the idea that buying an expensive club or taking a few mega-expensive lessons or implementing a Rick Shiels youtube tip will turn their game around over night. Reality is the only real correlation to improvement is with playing volume (how much you actually play), and performing a prescribed drill(s) repeatedly over many, many months until motor skills and technique gets down pact and staying the course without deviating to try some other magic pill. The constraints of people's busy lives, and a human's lack of discipline and patience don't align with these principals. These "magic pill promises" are how golf pros, golf equipment manufactures, youtubers, influenzers stay in business.

Its the same with PT's. They all supposedly are looking to offer something new and niche that but at the end of the day is just a recycling or re-hashing of training techniques come and gone.
 
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Wormkilla said:
Exactly. Its the same across many industries. As an example: golf - people get sold on the idea that buying an expensive club or taking a few mega-expensive lessons or implementing a Rick Shiels youtube tip will turn their game around over night. Reality is the only real correlation to improvement comes with playing volume, and performing a prescribed drill(s) repeatedly over many, many months until skills and technique gets down pact without deviating to try some other magic pill. This is how golf pros, golf equipment manufactures, youtubers, influenzers stay in business.

Not really health and fitness related but lol...
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No its a good comparison. People have ADD in the gym, and think if they don't change there programs every 4 weeks they are doing it wrong... or get "Bored", but in reality, the biggest improvements come from keeping the routine and training the muscles by progressively overloading.

Golfer driving improvements don't come from changing your swing every month, it comes from the repetitive nature.
 
Cuzz09 said:
This is a fitness thread, no food allowed

Go run 100km

Sent from my SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app
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Running 100kms while eating oats is ideal

SnakeMan86 said:
No its a good comparison. People have ADD in the gym, and think if they don't change there programs every 4 weeks they are doing it wrong... or get "Bored", but in reality, the biggest improvements come from keeping the routine and training the muscles by progressively overloading.

Golfer driving improvements don't come from changing your swing every month, it comes from the repetitive nature.
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Getting the club face square at impact and solid central connection is the key.
 
I've kept up experimenting with intervals for my runs. Last night I took 80 seconds off my 5km PB my doing 2 minute run/30 seconds walk intervals. Its got me thinking whats the point in running continuously?

I've been doing some reading - from an evolutionary perspective, our ancestors probably rarely ran long distances continuously. Their running was in short spurts to get away from tigers, or to catch prey, with intermittent breaks walking.

This is all just my cognitive dissonance to justify that walking is ok when running lol...
 
M Malice said:
Consistency of rocking up to 9 sessions out of 10 is the key to success from my experience, plenty of times I have wanted to roll over and go back to sleep when the alarm goes off at 4am, apart from the rare lapse I say to myself get your arse up and get moving.
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I think a vital key to success is finding an activity you're passionate about where it doesn't feel laborious to motivate yourself to do it. For me, I want to and need to go for a run or workout on a regular basis, not only from a physical perspective but a mental one. Same goes for when I was playing sports - golf, tennis, cricket -I loved to play them but the moment that I lost that love I stopped playing.

I see people struggling to get the motivation to do a particular physical activity because they don't enjoy it. This is a major red flag for losing consistency and ultimately stopping all together. If working out isn't something you even like, dig deep and through trial and error find something that you do like IMO.

I'm sure everyone around here can relate to this, and no doubt you have that intrinsic motivation to get to the gym everyday.
 

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Wormkilla said:
I think a vital key to success is finding an activity you're passionate about where it doesn't feel laborious to motivate yourself to do it. For me, I want to and need to go for a run or workout on a regular basis, not only from a physical perspective but a mental one. Same goes for when I was playing sports - golf, tennis, cricket -I loved to play them but the moment that I lost that love I stopped playing.

I see people struggling to get the motivation to do a particular physical activity because they don't enjoy it. This is a major red flag for losing consistency and ultimately stopping all together. If working out isn't something you even like, dig deep and through trial and error find something that you do like IMO.

I'm sure everyone around here can relate to this, and no doubt you have that intrinsic motivation to get to the gym everyday.
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You can kind of 'learn' to like something at least to a certain extent.
 
Been increasing my zone 2 training to improve my aerobic base. I struggle to keep my heart rate in zone 2 (120-150bpm) when running but I'm finding cycling ideal for it. Been doing hour cycling sessions at the gym and finally got around to fixing my bike up so got out and did 40km on Tuesday.

Do many people here do this low intensity training?
 
Wormkilla said:
Been increasing my zone 2 training to improve my aerobic base. I struggle to keep my heart rate in zone 2 (120-150bpm) when running but I'm finding cycling ideal for it. Been doing hour cycling sessions at the gym and finally got around to fixing my bike up so got out and did 40km on Tuesday.

Do many people here do this low intensity training?
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I don't monitor my heart rate at all, i tend to try and train in spurts so no doubt I'm raising it and lowering it as I go but I don't know by how much or whatever.
 
Wormkilla said:
Been increasing my zone 2 training to improve my aerobic base. I struggle to keep my heart rate in zone 2 (120-150bpm) when running but I'm finding cycling ideal for it. Been doing hour cycling sessions at the gym and finally got around to fixing my bike up so got out and did 40km on Tuesday.

Do many people here do this low intensity training?
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If I've got a bike packing trip coming up I'll do the 40-50km rides at an "easier" pace which really helps lift my aerobic floor.
Just those rides lifted my KMs covered in a day from 85-100km struggling to 125km easier.

I've just built up a steel gravel/tourer too so starting to get the long rides in. Purposely keeping the first 40 minutes slow. It's weird that going slower actually benefits more than harder rides that area a little bit shorter (for me anyway).
 
Wormkilla said:
Been increasing my zone 2 training to improve my aerobic base. I struggle to keep my heart rate in zone 2 (120-150bpm) when running but I'm finding cycling ideal for it. Been doing hour cycling sessions at the gym and finally got around to fixing my bike up so got out and did 40km on Tuesday.

Do many people here do this low intensity training?
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I have just started trying some low intensity training as have heard a lot of good things about it. I'm doing it on my indoor rower though which makes it really easy to adjust power/pace to keep heart rate in the right range which I doubt I'd able to do outdoors on a bike/running. It's also insanely boring so need a TV show to watch to distract from watching the meters slowly tick over
 
Mofra said:
If I've got a bike packing trip coming up I'll do the 40-50km rides at an "easier" pace which really helps lift my aerobic floor.
Just those rides lifted my KMs covered in a day from 85-100km struggling to 125km easier.

I've just built up a steel gravel/tourer too so starting to get the long rides in. Purposely keeping the first 40 minutes slow. It's weird that going slower actually benefits more than harder rides that area a little bit shorter (for me anyway).
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Yeah its almost contradictory that spending most your time training at low heart rates is actually the best way of building endurance, but that's what the science is saying these days.

Most elite athletes now work on the 80/20 principal with 80% low intensity training like easy runs and steady state cycling to help build aerobic capacity, improve fat metabolism, and enhance overall endurance. Then 20% at high intensity, including interval training, tempo runs that push you closer to your anaerobic threshold. These workouts are shorter and more intense, focusing on improving speed, power, and cardiovascular efficiency.

To me, finishing an hour of easy riding feels like I've achieved nothing, and when running its hard putting the ego away to run slow, or even slow to a walk when my heart rate goes too high.

 
tendon said:
I have just started trying some low intensity training as have heard a lot of good things about it. I'm doing it on my indoor rower though which makes it really easy to adjust power/pace to keep heart rate in the right range which I doubt I'd able to do outdoors on a bike/running. It's also insanely boring so need a TV show to watch to distract from watching the meters slowly tick over
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Yeah it can get boring in the gym for sure. Changing it up to nice rides outdoors is helping me. Or listening to music or a good audiobook.
 
Wormkilla said:
Yeah its almost contradictory that spending most your time training at low heart rates is actually the best way of building endurance, but that's what the science is saying these days.

Most elite athletes now work on the 80/20 principal with 80% low intensity training like easy runs and steady state cycling to help build aerobic capacity, improve fat metabolism, and enhance overall endurance. Then 20% at high intensity, including interval training, tempo runs that push you closer to your anaerobic threshold. These workouts are shorter and more intense, focusing on improving speed, power, and cardiovascular efficiency.

To me, finishing an hour of easy riding feels like I've achieved nothing, and when running its hard putting the ego away to run slow, or even slow to a walk when my heart rate goes too high.

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It's a lot easier for elite runners since their 'zone 2' is a massive pace range, whereas for us mere mortals it can be hard work to keep your HR down.

I spent some time focusing on it a couple of years ago and found that if you just chip away at it you'll find that you do eventually get to a point where you can run and keep your HR down. Partly I found it was learning to 'feel' when you were in the right spot and not let it drift, partly it was conditioning the legs and body to be comfortable at that slightly slower pace. Over time the slow pace will improve.

The idea is that you should get through your 'easy' days and actually feel recovered so when you're doing your harder days you can do them properly, without eventually breaking down with injury due to overdoing it. So I found focusing on the outcome e.g. 'My legs will be freshened up, ready for tomorrow' was a bit mentally easier as it gave me a goal instead of being passed by people out for a run and thinking 'I'm going sooo slow'. It's also fantastic for people-watching or listening to a podcast, if I'm going so fast I lose focus on the podcast, I need to slow down.

Typically I also find my cycling HR doesn't climb as high as my running, same with swimming. I'd guesstimate it's ~ 10 bpm lower when I'm at 'max'.
 
Kram said:
Going back to working a full week with more manual labour I've lost over 2kgs in 2 weeks without even trying.

Eating more junk too.
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I’ve been trying to work out why since I graduated uni my lifting has gone backwards slightly (despite having more routine and money for food). Only variable I can think of is (apart from maybe some T-drop due to age) that during uni I was doing manual labour heavy construction work. Peak rate of progress was always during holidays when I was working 40+ hours a week.
 

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