Fitness "Spartan" Beckerhead GAW discussion thread.

crimsonfalcon07 said:
ocnLogan, what's your current pushup max?
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100% honest, I forgot to do my "check" before I started. However, like I said, I've been pseudo-consistently doing 30 or so at a time once or twice a week for a few months, so it gave me some sort of guess.

However, to make sure I could answer you correctly, I just woke up and did some. Sadly, I only did 48 :(. I think I may have been able to pump out 1-2 more if I went to absolute failure, but since this is supposed to be a "rest" day I didn't want to kill my chances for tomorrow.

It is also worth noting that I'm not a morning workout person. Back when I lifted weights a lot, the few times I hit the gym in the morning I consistently benched 25-35lbs less than when I lifted in the evening. So that, plus the 48 I did seems to put me roughly between rank 4 and 5 on their website. So when I checked which plan to follow, they said to start on week 3. looking at week three I think I can pretty easily do all of that, but week 4 I wasn't sure if I could do 5 sets of ~30, so I decided to go with week 3 and work my way into it. Apologies if that's the wrong sort of thing to have done :/.

And TBL, nice work! Running every day requires a lot of effort :thumbup:.

And Zemapeli... I don't think I've EVER been able to do 100 consecutive situps :/. Some people seem to be just natively good at at least one workout (in my experience), and abs (and back) are NOT mine. Nice work.
 
Hey, feel free to do it however you feel comfortable. I just want to have logged where you started, for standards of comparison for where you start, and where you end up, for the purpose of scoring the contest when it starts officially. I figure, in each section, you can either earn points by lifting, as per the usual weights and fitness thread, or by doing the hundredpushups or twohundredsitups workouts, and improving your personal best. MYB points as usual. We'll put you down for 48 then, and see where you end up by the end of this thing, on Dec 31st at 11:59:59 PM. My thought is, when the ball drops, the contest ends. My hope is that together we'll finish out 2015 with a bang, and meet or exceed any of the fitness goals we may or may not have considered making as a New Years Resolution last time.
 
crimsonfalcon07 said:
Hey, feel free to do it however you feel comfortable. I just want to have logged where you started, for standards of comparison for where you start, and where you end up, for the purpose of scoring the contest when it starts officially. I figure, in each section, you can either earn points by lifting, as per the usual weights and fitness thread, or by doing the hundredpushups or twohundredsitups workouts, and improving your personal best. MYB points as usual. We'll put you down for 48 then, and see where you end up by the end of this thing, on Dec 31st at 11:59:59 PM. My thought is, when the ball drops, the contest ends. My hope is that together we'll finish out 2015 with a bang, and meet or exceed any of the fitness goals we may or may not have considered making as a New Years Resolution last time.
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Whoa, for some reason I was thinking this would be only a month long thing. Time to adjust my expectations.

And twohundredsitups eh? I'll have to check that out. Its always been one of my weak points.

And I guess I'll have to finally care/record MYB points, as while I've been fairly active, I haven't bothered to check into that thread, as it wasn't really going to change how much I was motivated.
 
ocnLogan said:
100% honest, I forgot to do my "check" before I started. However, like I said, I've been pseudo-consistently doing 30 or so at a time once or twice a week for a few months, so it gave me some sort of guess.

However, to make sure I could answer you correctly, I just woke up and did some. Sadly, I only did 48 :(. I think I may have been able to pump out 1-2 more if I went to absolute failure, but since this is supposed to be a "rest" day I didn't want to kill my chances for tomorrow.

It is also worth noting that I'm not a morning workout person. Back when I lifted weights a lot, the few times I hit the gym in the morning I consistently benched 25-35lbs less than when I lifted in the evening. So that, plus the 48 I did seems to put me roughly between rank 4 and 5 on their website. So when I checked which plan to follow, they said to start on week 3. looking at week three I think I can pretty easily do all of that, but week 4 I wasn't sure if I could do 5 sets of ~30, so I decided to go with week 3 and work my way into it. Apologies if that's the wrong sort of thing to have done :/.

And TBL, nice work! Running every day requires a lot of effort :thumbup:.

And Zemapeli... I don't think I've EVER been able to do 100 consecutive situps :/. Some people seem to be just natively good at at least one workout (in my experience), and abs (and back) are NOT mine. Nice work.
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ocnLogan said:
Whoa, for some reason I was thinking this would be only a month long thing. Time to adjust my expectations.

And twohundredsitups eh? I'll have to check that out. Its always been one of my weak points.

And I guess I'll have to finally care/record MYB points, as while I've been fairly active, I haven't bothered to check into that thread, as it wasn't really going to change how much I was motivated.
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Today and yesterday I busted my butt landscaping. I worked putting down liner for "islands" in a strip mall parking lot. Worked from eight am to four pm. LOTS of digging involved. I am bushed. I will do 100 sit-ups tonight and they will probably be done consecutive. I just got home and took a shower.. Soon I will have the money set aside to buy those 50lb weights. I think 200 consecutive sit-ups would be a great goal for me. I have done this before. Once I did eight hundred sit-ups in a day in 100's, and 50's.. I did all the sit-ups on a hard mat and the area of my tailbone got rubbed so raw from the cotton tag on my boxers that I bled. There was blood stains on my boxers. So I will ease into the sit-up routine slowly, so the area around my tailbone can build up a callus area or so to speak. In two months I want to be able to crank out five hundred setup's an afternoon. If I had the money at my disposal, I'd pick up a couple 100 lb dumbells to do front dumbbell raises with. I do these with my arms only half out, as not to rip tendons or muscles..
Just a couple tips from my personal experiences:
When starting sit-ups, they are not easy. Don't get discouraged. Start with 25 sit-ups at a time, and try to do 100 in a day. If you make that, do 150 sit-ups. Try not to focus on the end number as much as doing a fraction of them at a time and be confident in each accomplishment as you go. I remember when I was very young and was heavy into archery. I build my muscles for archery, I bought two 20 lb weights. When I started lifting, I could barely lift the 20lb weights. Now, I do repetitions of 50 and 70+ with 20lb weights no problem and can curl a 50lb dumbbell and do 10-15 reps with it. I can do tone reps (up(seconds)123hold123down123repeat) of thirty and twenty with curls.. I also aim to do 100 reps straight with 20lb weights..

These 'tone' reps not only inflame your muscles and cause them to grow, but they also strengthen tendons in your arm much more and cause your veils to expand; allowing more blood and oxygen to flow to your muscles over time. This makes your arms permanently stronger. When I really get into lifting with shoulders, back, and arms... I will hold a said exercise at its peak point, and hold one rep for as long of a period of time as I possibly can. Doing this has the same effect with your abdominals. It will strengthen your tendons which are the first thing that will fail you when lifting. The stronger the tendon, the more you can lift. You will find that if you do curls to fail and write down how many you do.. and do tone reps and strengthen your ligaments for an hour a day, within three days you should be able to do almost twice the normal reps as you usually do. do this for one hour for three days while watching TV (curls), People who use anabolic steroids will rip their muscles because of the boost in testosterone (usually testosterone booster is paired with steroids) and lack of tendon... Anyways. Be careful not to rip a muscle.. It should be a searing ache feeling that you are going for, and ignore it and watch TV. you can sit in a chair and rest your elbows on your legs if you'd like. It is the prolonged feelings of holding your weight in one position and once in a long while, do a rep or five...


Don't let yourself focus on a final number when starting. Think about each small goal and write them on a paper to add up to your final. This helps me when I just start getting into an exercise.


ALSO, another trick that I use to do situps... This helps fool your brain until you get those muscles...
For each count that you do (1,2,3),, do two situps. It helps me do 100's. My brain only counts 50.. Just some tips. :)
I didn't mean to leave such a long blah. :) I am getting too chubby and need some cardio. Back to new threads I go.
 
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I'm impartial. People following the original thread will keep updating this one if others do (if they've subscribed to it). But the "discussion thread" and "contest thread" are what most are used to.

You could just change the thread title, and edit the OP to reflect that its currently ongoing.

Ok, maybe I'm not impartial. If we keep it labeled discussion thread, perhaps some will forget to look into it, and my chance of a CPM-3v BK16 will increase :D.

I kid... mostly.
 
Worked really hard today..
Loaded and more than two thousand pounds of cherry wood into a truck. Dragged and chipped lots of brush. The logs where between 25 and 150lbs. I am bushed. I also cut up a few of the logs with a chainsaw and raked an acre. I walked for three and a half miles after work today. I have a landscaping job tomorrow and will be putting in rocks on islands in a target parking lot. I have been pushing myself more than usual. Doing 50 sit-ups tonight.
 
I can do a separate thread when the time comes. And ocnLogan, you gotta work for this one... So your chances aren't any less good, TBH.
 
Zemapeli. Nice work again. Its satisfying to go drop stuff off at the dump and think "i moved all that".

And falcon, i was really just kidding, but i guess i had to get a snarky comment in there for some reason.

The upside is i found out tonight that my wife wants to do the pushups with me, so I'm delaying until tomorrow (she just showered and doesn't want to get sweaty). So that could be kind of interesting. She's also trying to be more active, as she's been recovering (had our first child 7 weeks ago).

Anyway, anything that gets people up and out a bit is good in my opinion :).
 
ocnLogan said:
Zemapeli. Nice work again. Its satisfying to go drop stuff off at the dump and think "i moved all that".

And falcon, i was really just kidding, but i guess i had to get a snarky comment in there for some reason.

The upside is i found out tonight that my wife wants to do the pushups with me, so I'm delaying until tomorrow (she just showered and doesn't want to get sweaty). So that could be kind of interesting. She's also trying to be more active, as she's been recovering (had our first child 7 weeks ago).

Anyway, anything that gets people up and out a bit is good in my opinion :).
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Mmmmm, pushups together? Maybe you should spot each other.....;).
 
granitestateofmind said:
Mmmmm, pushups together? Maybe you should spot each other.....;).
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Yeah, that's a very bonding workout; nothing like yelling encouragement into someone's face from 2 feet away to really bring people together. The problem with pumping iron with someone else, at least for me, is not being able to listen to the tunes while doing it: I find music to be much more of a help than a second person spotting. Might keep the weights lighter because I'm alone, but I often get more done when I'm alone with my music.

Plus, when you are a big power metal fan, your favorite music is also the best workout music around. \m/
 
Lol, didn't think people would think so much of it. Was just saying that she's getting interested in trying to be more active again. Obviously we'd start at different places, and may not even do them at the same time. She just struggles with motivation, and thought she'd try doing this for a while.

Also, when I was lifting a lot, I actually didn't like lifting to music. I usually lifted with my best friend, and we talked in between sets. Even later when he moved away, I kept lifting alone, but still didn't listen to music. Guess id just gotten used to it.

But i do love me some 80's rock, even if that's not what I listen to most of the time anymore :D.
 
I want to do the pushups challenge... I can't do a real one right now. I'm getting close though. I need a real kick in the pants to finish this weight loss thing I've been working on so I can move to maintenance mode. I probably won't do the situps challenge... this might sound weirdish but I don't want to focus on straight core exersizes, I don't really want to make my core thicker. Stronger is okay, but I don't need to focus on any sort of gainz musclewise for my waist. (ugh that sounds so vain) Anyway, I've been swimming a fair amount this month because I hurt my hip and can't run. I'm pretty terrible at it but I'm getting better slowly. I can doggy paddle pretty quick, I don't know how to do fancy swimming strokes or whatever. I only swim for about 30 min at the moment, I'd like to be doing 45 min or longer.
 
Cap, 30 mins of swimming is a ton of exercise. Keep at it! Core exercises don't necessarily make your core thicker. I've been doing a ton because I'm trying to get rid of that spare tire. I've dropped a pant-size thanks to the P90X ab workout.

For the pushups challenge, start with doing what you can with knee pushups. I bet you'll work up to real pushups in a week, TBH. Improvement is pretty fast with that program.

granitestateofmind said:
KingMC and ocnlogan: My intent was purely, ah.....a double entendre of sorts. You both need to get your minds back in the gutter.
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I got exactly what you were talking about, and approved.
 
crimsonfalcon07 said:
Cap, 30 mins of swimming is a ton of exercise. Keep at it! Core exercises don't necessarily make your core thicker. I've been doing a ton because I'm trying to get rid of that spare tire. I've dropped a pant-size thanks to the P90X ab workout.

For the pushups challenge, start with doing what you can with knee pushups. I bet you'll work up to real pushups in a week, TBH. Improvement is pretty fast with that program.



I got exactly what you were talking about, and approved.
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I've been doing some knee pushups and some wall pushups, but not in any sort of organized way.

And yeah, team pushups is the way to go fo sho. [emoji6]

When I get home I'll post the article I was reading about ab work and ladies figures, I'm sure some of y'all might find it interesting.


EDIT: The article: https://www.t-nation.com/training/sexy-female-training
 
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granitestateofmind said:
KingMC and ocnlogan: My intent was purely, ah.....a double entendre of sorts. You both need to get your minds back in the gutter.
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You could say I specialize in taking sarcasm literally, and taking double ententre as face value. It's a specialty of mine, sometimes I takes hold and I become quite the killjoy. Nothing's worse than having to tell someone you were trying to make a pun or double entendre, takes the magic out of it.
 
Ohhh! That's wonderful, you two keep it up ocnLogan.:thumbup:

I worked from ten am until four today doing nothing but shoveling rock and dirt. I went as hard as I could. I removed rock, landscaped, and shoveled and spread rock. Excruciating upper body workout today that also was some good cardio as well. I had to dig a truck out of some sand as well. Lots of digging. I feel like my metabolism is boosted. Enjoying an endorphin rush tonight. Walked another three and a half miles home today. I have been trying to work harder than usual lately.

I'll cut down some trees tomorrow. :)
I've been thinking about some walks on the beach. The sand would definitely give some good resistance. I am buying a car around south haven, MI, which is near lake Michigan. Maybe sometime soon I can get out there for a long walk. I think I'll take a hike through the dunes.
 
CF, will you be assigning point values to weights/ circuits/ plyometrics?
 
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