no pain, no gain. physical exercise revisited

Crilloan

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Have you ever had the experience of forced total reevaluation of your fitness?

I finally managed to get enough "cojones" to revisit my old Dojo for a karate session this evening. I've spent some minor time doing Aikido there during the last spring, but have failed miserably to get back to dirty, painfully and fulfilling kyokoshinkai.
It have been decades..

I had a minor depression after my last job and finally crawled back to sanity with going to the gym regularly and felt myself slowly coming back to shape, new job starting in a couple of weeks (for first time ever I will probably have to play on top of my game to succeed with it, nice change )

So there I am, time to do things I've been afraid of. Lets start with the short friday pass since its only 60 minutes…

its 60 minutes of revelation, pain and lack of breath
..and fun

I'm going on 42 for next event, I'm carrying ~7-8 kg more than necessary but I do move regularly. And thats not worth anything I find out.

facing an old hand, 10+ years my superior and exchanging blows and kicks on pads or my ribs it comes to me between my forced breathing and taste of blood in my mouth.
"God dammit! I'm in lousy shape!"

Im having a glass of wine now, it tastes very, very good
Have a nice weekend

C
 
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Tell you what, I'll join you for the wine, but skip the rest!! :)
 
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Tell you what, I'll join you for the wine, but skip the rest!! :)
Well with my spare tire I think I will join you.:party:
Kidding aside I'm getting old. Diet and exercise have never worked for me either. All thanks to having a very slow metabolism.
 
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Kidding aside I'm getting old. Diet and exercise have never worked for me either. All thanks to having a very slow metabolism.

I know all about slow metabolism, when i moved out from home my kid brother lived with me. He lived on butter, chocolate and chips and looked like one of those released from camps in former Jugoslavia. I went to the gym, karate and running and were never ever near seeing those mysterious abs :)

It just that sometimes its hard to balance life. I really like to get into a game, watch a movie and plain doing nothing (as much as that is allowed with family and two kids..)

Then I also know that to feel good, mental and physical, I need to do things with my body. Sometimes my comfy elaborate computer mancave chair is just that comfortable…

Id like to learn more about wine, now I just drink it :)

I Like fridays

C
 
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My tip for the abs, hill sprints 2x a week 20-30 mins tops. Sprint up around 90-95% speed and walk down. If you're lifting weights too, go heavy but safe and don't eat garbage. They'll pop up eventually.
 
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I'd rather go on a bicycle tour, or do a few kilometres of walking. Burns, too.
Might not burn as much as real sport, but I feel fine with that nevertheless so far.
 
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My tip for the abs, hill sprints 2x a week 20-30 mins tops. Sprint up around 90-95% speed and walk down. If you're lifting weights too, go heavy but safe and don't eat garbage. They'll pop up eventually.

There is a saying that "there is no exercise program that a poor diet can't undo".

As for 'slow metabolism', I know that it does happen ... but it is much less common than claimed, generally lack of weight loss is the result of not a great exercise program with a diet that over-estimates the actual needs of the body.
 
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Dieting is essentially everything. The only way to not have it be effective is denial.
 
Dieting is essentially everything. The only way to not have it be effective is denial.

I know it goes along with diet, but hydration is also critical - and it has been shown that with insufficient hydration your body can do funky things to maintain balance, resulting in weight gain or retention.
 
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Go on the internet and check out thyroid problems, or better know as hypothyroidism.
The symptoms of hypothyroidism — an underactive thyroid — tend to mirror the slowing down of physical processes that results from insufficient thyroid hormone. Common symptoms include fatigue, weight gain, constipation, fuzzy thinking, low blood pressure, fluid retention, depression, body pain, slow reflexes, and much more.
The story of life all summed up right there. At least medication helps me get it stabilized. So yes slow metabolism is a real problem for a small percentage of people.
 
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Go on the internet and check out thyroid problems, or better know as hypothyroidism.
The story of life all summed up right there. At least medication helps me get it stabilized. So yes slow metabolism is a real problem for a small percentage of people.

I have hypothyroidism as well - and am a marathoner and am the thinnest and fittest of my life. If you are struggling with weight and energy, your meds might be off. Definitely check with your doctor.
 
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I know it goes along with diet, but hydration is also critical - and it has been shown that with insufficient hydration your body can do funky things to maintain balance, resulting in weight gain or retention.

Well, yeah, you need to drink water ;)

If you diet properly without going into starvation or silly things - you'll lose weight steadily over time. Sure, some might have a metabolism problem - but there's no way it can be true for everyone with that explanation.

The trick is to actually not diet - but make the diet your lifestyle, and that takes some will power and some serious changes. But it's really not that bad and it's key not to overestimate what you can live with.

I find the hardest part is to be PRECISE about calories if you want to have a little fun. It's really, really easy to "accidentally" underestimate your intake.

It's easier if you're not into candy, alchohol and junk food, though :)
 
Well, yeah, you need to drink water ;)

I find the hardest part is to be PRECISE about calories if you want to have a little fun. It's really, really easy to "accidentally" underestimate your intake.

It's easier if you're not into candy, alchohol and junk food, though :)

As you said, it is very easy to underestimate what you eat and drink and overestimate the effect of exercise.

I'm never going to be fanatic about it. I like living the good life and I like cooking and dining. a youth spend in cafe´s have increased my sweet tooth so a piece of dark chocolate or a cinnamon bun to a cup of coffee will never be denied.

I dont believe in diets. every time someone mentions that they are following that or that diet i think they have lost something. Food should be healthy and fun, preferably enjoyed in good company. (some people promote and fight for their version of food related truth with a religious fervor that i find absurd)

What I do now is that our bodies were not evolved for the situation we have at work now, and I know that for me, keeping a decent physical status goes a long way fighting depression tendencies and a positive outlook at life.
Mens sana in corpore sano

but not tonight.
Now Im going to make a gin and tonic and watch the ritual spectacle of "melodifestivalen" (qualification for the eurovision..) with my wife.
(kind of stuck with it, since we did it when dating) the sacrifices you do... ;-)


on high and low metabolism, it have been shown in some studies that a part is played by all those small movements we make without knowing it. Some people make more "adjustment movements" than others and spend more calories.
Some of us are just more efficient couch potatoes :)
When we sit still, we sit still :)

C
 
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losing weight is just simple math, not simply done but simple math.

Burn more calories than you take in. No matter how fast or slow your metabolism is you have X number of calories you need to take in to maintain your current weight.

Eat more than that you will gain eat less you'll lose.

That works if you strictly talking about weight being healthy however is a different story as just being skinny doesn't necessarily mean healthy.
 
I know how you feel. I was in decent shape for a 42 yo thanks to bicycling but then I broke my shoulder in a bad place. All exercise stopped 100% and its taking a very long time to heal properly and get back range of motion. I can finally bike again but now its a super cold winter for my area and I cannot stand biking in cold weather. I'm doomed for another month it looks like and am currently carrying at least 10 extra pounds that I'm not used to. I hateses it! I'll get back into biking but the wait for warmer weather and more daylight after work is killing me.

The main thing to remember is to not overdo it in the beginning. You can't start off with doing as much as you used to. Your body will remember in time.
 
I know it's a common joke and easily backlashed, but exercise doesn't necessarily equate to healthy. Poor old Michael Schumacher was engaging in healthy exercise... essentially, any form of exercise has a very large potential for anything from strains to broken ligaments to heart attacks.

But what we're talking about here is just weight loss, not general health per-se, and any ill health resulting from weight gain.

Which is a bit like the doctor/dentist dilemma - the doctor will tell you to drink Orange Juice, the dentist will tell you Orange Juice is a major cause of tooth decay.

By being a complete couch potato you are, in fact, maximising your health by preventing all kinds of activity based disasters, from road accidents to bar-room brawls. But the drawback is a gradual deterioration of your internal general health.

Isn't it all about lifestyle choice rather than one lifestyle being more 'potentially' unhealthy than another?
 
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Personally, it's a mixture of diet, excercise, and eat less in general.

In my case I have found out that when I re-learn to listen to my body, it isn't always hungry. Not at all. And actually I don't need big portions of food, either.

When I'm on my "health trip", then I'm eating nothing but 1-2 Brötchen or a similar number of bread slices. I really don't need that much more.

The only thing I'm really careful abnout is having enough water for drinking. Because of the minerals.
And Vitamins, too.

And once in the week I eat a bit more then, of course, often vegetabhle soup, which fills the stomach and gives a sense of being full.

In my personal theory - that's my very personal thing, so be careful ! - well, in my personal theiry there should be a basic influx of "emnergy" (kalories), plus food that fills the belly without having too many kalories / energy. Thus producing the impression of being full (feedback to the body and mind) without actually delivery too much energy to the body ("too much" in the sense of resulting in stored energy as fat).

That's my personal heory. I hope I could get it clear, because English isn't my first language (plus it is late here in Germany).
 
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