Getting in shape for Summer !!!

markhait said:
I'm horrible at exercise...I NEVER thought I'd become like this, but my life took a drastic change about 14 years ago. I used to compete in Triathlons. Man did I LOVE it! I wasn't great, but could hold my own. My typical week was: run 3-5 miles/day, swim 6-8 miles/week and bike about 100 miles/week. I was INVINCIBLE....almost god like in my mind.
Then one night while out on my bike, a car ran a red light and hit me on my left side. 13 broken bones, punctured lungs, compound fracture on my left leg and a closed head injury.

The surgeons told my parents that I probably wouldn't make it through the night.
Obviously I did and the doctors told my parents it was because of my being in such great shape. I disagree completely! That fateful night, after my parents heard of my injuries, I know that my dad called everyone he knew and asked them to pray for me.
You see....when you have God on your side, anything is possible. I say that with total sincerity.

My road to recovery was extremely difficult. That night, I slipped into a coma and remained there for 2 weeks. After recovering from the coma, I still had to stay in the hospital for another 2 months. I made a full recovery, except that I can't run anymore.

Not being able to run anymore, is the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with.
I try to explain to people that when someone is trying to give up something bad, it's difficult, but when you have to give up something good, it can just crush you.

I've tried rollar blades, kayaking etc...but nothing compares to running in my opinion.
Now, I'm not trying to have people feel sorry for me, as I have no excuse, but for the fact that I don't enjoy it anymore.

My wife and I have 2 small children (5 & 2) and so my life is kept pretty busy with them.
Working full time and coming home to play with the kids doesn't leave much time for exercise.

But one day though....watch out...I'll be tearing the pavement up again!!!
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Mark, I've had some experience along those lines myself, and I'll be pulling for you. I was an enthusiastic runner myself until a downhill skiing accident put me in a hospital bed for five years. I had two operations on my lumbar spine, and both only further aggravated the original injury. The second operation was a two level spinal fusion, and when my wife heard about the seriousness of the scheduled procedure she left me before the surgery. I was able to keep my job by working over a modem from the hospital bed in my living room. I also was awarded joint custody of my two sons, but after the first year they came to live with me full time. The court granted me child support from my ex.

The doctors wanted to operate a third time, but after two surgical failures I declined. I got a box of graph paper and an electronic stop watch and began keeping track of how long I was able to stay out of bed each day. (Improvement was so slow I needed to keep a chart to motivate myself.) Five years later I had a graph consisting of about 1,800 data points (one for each day it took to recover) and was finally able to ditch the hospital bed.

I still can't actually run any distance, but I can get around well enough to play racquetball, and I have become a pretty strong hiker/backpacker for my age. I'm remarried now and feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

Good luck to you bro. :thumbup:
 
pitdog said:
This is what I wanted form this post, for people to list their favourite exercises and secret tips !
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I guess if I have any secret tips it would be to employ a variety of exercises. That way you don't wear out just one part of your body, and you should be in good shape for any new activities that may become interesting to you later on. If I had to pick just one exercise it would be hiking, because that's the one you are most likely to be able to continue for your whole life.
 
Pitdog..as far as my favorite tip:
Meditation, or Visualizing...when I worked out to compete...I would be in a zone...my mind would just take me away. I could push past my last weeks plateau. I would envision my next fight or challenge, and stay in that mind set for my entire workout. I guess that you could say that I would apear to be a prick in the gym...I wouldn't talk or look at others at all....it isn't as easy as it sounds...but I just worked on going into my own head. I feel that by using this method, I was quite a bit better trained than most of the competition.
Ofcourse, genetics and diet played a major role in my strength when I was younger...I was a diet freak, and trained 3-4 hours a day in the gym, and went another 2 hours 3 times a week in sport specific training, when I was at my best. Now, I am alot more humble and old...so finding motivation to train is my greatest enemy. But all that training has come with a cost, my joints are junk. I still have alot of core strength...at work I can lift twice what the next guy can...but I move alot slower:D
I feel that I am ready to begin the second part of my healthy life right now, thanks for this thread by the way....all the stories on here are very motivational....something that I have been lacking.
We should start a perminent thread here....where any of us can choose to list our training intentions, and come here for tips and motivational help. I know that if you guys where behind me in my training, and I had somewhere to go and see other people suffering (just kidding) maybe I could get off my ass. Gene
 
gunknifenut said:
We should start a perminent thread here....where any of us can choose to list our training intentions, and come here for tips and motivational help. I know that if you guys where behind me in my training, and I had somewhere to go and see other people suffering (just kidding) maybe I could get off my ass. Gene
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Sounds like a good idea
 
I train by doing what it is I will be doing in the field. I hike with 110 lbs of weight in a backpack. It tones you up quick. Add pushups with the pack on for arm strength. I can do about 1 1/2 so far with it on, up from 1/2 a pushup. :eek:
 
Brian Jones said:
I train by doing what it is I will be doing in the field. I hike with 110 lbs of weight in a backpack. It tones you up quick. Add pushups with the pack on for arm strength. I can do about 1 1/2 so far with it on, up from 1/2 a pushup. :eek:
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If I tried that Brian...my knees would friggin pop like a ravioli under a bulldozer:D
 
Pit I have 5 total body workout circuits that I do I pick 1 do it for 2 weeks than switch to the nextfor 2 weeks and so on...this way I am constantly changing my routine shocking my body and spiking my metabolism, I've leaned out significantly by doing this and have become much stronger in a functional sense...It also keeps me from getting bored as out of every 10 week period I'm only doing each individual workout for 2 weeks at a time.
 
i do pullups, pushups, situps, crunches. one set of this combo takes about 20 minutes. then i go for a jog/run to my capacity. around this time of the year with the warm days/cold days, my max capacity can vary quite a bit because i find that i have alot less breath in the cold. can't wait for it to warm up...

i also toss in steep uphill sprints and stairs as well as flat sprints every few days. i'd like to do some parkour type stuff, but my area is a bit rural, and we don't have much other than sidewalks here. i am going to keep looking though. maybe i can do some jumps over the split rail fences... :rolleyes:

on occasion i hit the gym and do some freeweights and benchpresses

i also ride my bike almost everywhere, so that helps keep me in shape.

i'm 6 foot about 160-165 pounds. i tend to be a bit on the thin side, not too bulky in terms of muscle mass. i do have a fair amount of "practical strength", in that i am awful helpful on moving day or when people need help carrying their too heavy packs.

so basically pitdog, my advise is to find something that you enjoy doing, that is strenuous and will give you a good workout, and do it.
 
RescueRiley said:
Pit I have 5 total body workout circuits that I do I pick 1 do it for 2 weeks than switch to the nextfor 2 weeks and so on...this way I am constantly changing my routine shocking my body and spiking my metabolism, I've leaned out significantly by doing this and have become much stronger in a functional sense...It also keeps me from getting bored as out of every 10 week period I'm only doing each individual workout for 2 weeks at a time.
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Mixing it up is a good thing to do. I agree that it keeps you interested and the "shock" that it gives your muscles does force your body to adapt faster. I do pretty much a different weight workout each time I workout. Sometimes its just bodyweight stuff(pushups, pullups, etc.) then other times it will be all isometric exercises and then sometimes free weights. I don't recommend using machines unless you really like it or need to due to an injury or something because free weights force you to use more accessory muscles.
 
running, jumprope, Dumbells, bodywieght exc. and medicine and stabilty ball training pretty much covers the gammit for me
 
Brian Jones said:
I train by doing what it is I will be doing in the field. I hike with 110 lbs of weight in a backpack. It tones you up quick. Add pushups with the pack on for arm strength. I can do about 1 1/2 so far with it on, up from 1/2 a pushup. :eek:
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That's a good approach. I used to put iron disks from my free weights in my pack in order to get more workout per unit time available. Nowadays, on my expedition hikes, I go as light as possible, but for the training I carry unnecessarily heavy day packs.
 
Thanks HighDesertWalker....I try not to think of the past, but it still to this day (14 years later) brings a tear to my eye. I LOVED jogging....I could do it everyday and in all types of weather. When I was on vacation, it was just so cool being able to go where most cars and bikes cannot. It was my escape.....

Anyway, I've tried to do other things. I bought a ocean kayak and before we decieded to have children, I would go out 3-4 times/week and kayak a local lake for 1-2 hours.
Since children have been born, it (kayaking) has become something of the past.

This summer I plan on taking the training wheels off my oldest bike and maybe we can then do so longer distance riding. We have a bike trail at the cornor of our street that no one ever uses. It goes for probably 10-20 miles. No way my oldest could even come close to that, but I'm hoping that it will get me back out and once again I'll catch the fever.....

I still talk about my accident because it seems to be therapy for me. I realize how lucky I am and even though my life has been put upside down, MANY people are MUCH less fortunate than me and sometimes it allows me to think to myself and say "stop whining like a baby!" you have it pretty good still.

Thank you for sharing.....
 
WILLIAM.M said:
I think you Pit will be one of the few that actually watch and then try to do these.

Best exercises for functional strength...

Thanks Bro

Dr.Bill
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I'm going next weekend to get the bits for making them !!!:thumbup:
 
hi,

I do quite a bit although for the past year or so i have neglected my cardio and it is really beginning to show.

I basically do things i enjoy - judo, sambo, a little boxing for the sport related stuff always without fails gives me agood workout , but the judo is beginning to take it's toll, broken ribs, toes, wrists, fingers and 6 shoulder dislocations have all taken there toll on my body and i am begging to favour the softer training approach that sambo allows for. I do these things between 4 and 12 times a month depending on what's happening in the home life.

Free weights - i love my weightlifting, deadlift, power clean, hang pull, squat, bench press, push press and row - i followed alot of westside barbell preaching for quite a while now and i have built up a good base of strength. I enjoy this stuff but once again feel that it is beginning to take it's toll on the joints and my health.

I'm thinking of switching over to more natural forms of exercise, bodyweight training! Chinups, pushups, dips, muscle ups, pistols, burpees supplemented with some sandbag and stone lifting maybe a little work with the jump stretch bands and i think all my bases would be covered and cardio coming with gettting back out on the hills and a little running if my knee's will take it.

But as for the gut - yep i'm gonna have to do the dirty deed and DIET.

Will be interesting to see what others are up to.

some interesting resources , please google:

scott sonnon
pavel tsatsouline
westside barbell
t-nation ( not work friendly )
crossfit
mtn athlete ( crossfit ramped up to the max !!! )
irongarm (not work friendly)
rossboxing

For resistance bands

jump stretch
ironwoody


hope this is of use to someone
 
me too !!!! unfortunately it is gonna have to be a necessity i think as i can't get out and about as much as i would like. although i read an interesting thing on t-mag a while back about a guy who walked 1 mile a day with a 100lb extra ( weights vest ) and he lost 20 - 30 lbs in a month if i remember correctly. i'm thinking of trying this and seeing where that takes me, if anything my hikes would be 100 times easier - well the first couple of miles anyway.

regards
russell
 
Diet is not something to fear. You just have to make smarter choices. You can still eat whatever you want, just substitute ingrediants for healthier ones. Like eat whole grain pasta instead of white. read labels and buy organic b/c they dont use high fructose corn syrup. Dont drink your calories, water and green tea, and maybe a ocasional diet soda or sugar free red bull (mmmm....red bull). Use lowfat cheese, drink skim milk. Just healthy options. If you are hungry while dieting, your not doing it right. If your not getting enough calories your body goes into starvation mode and hangs on to fat cells. IE the plateau effect. The only way to lose gut is diet. you can do 1000 sit-ups a day and if your diet is crap you will never transform your body shape. So ideally you want to get your reccomended amount of calories from high quality sources.
 
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