I don’t want to sound like too much of an evangelist, because I’m not amazingly skilled myself, but when I saw the heading “cheat codes” I immediately thought “lifting weights.”
If you’re interested in looking (conventionally) good, feeling well, and making progress in physical performance, and if you don’t have any physical problems that make it impossible, free weights are sort of the “secret weapon” that most people aren’t using. Quite a few people who can’t lose weight (or fat) with cardio, can once they try weights (this is true of me, on a small scale.) The added advantage is that you save time. (>8 mile runs may be pleasant on occasion, but they sure do take a while.)
Once I started doing some free weights exercise, I got the unexpected bonus of enjoying other physical activity a lot more (or at least disenjoying it less), because it became less tiring. I found I would spontaneously do things like sprint up the metro escalator or several flights of stairs, without being winded when I got to the top.
I do kettlebells; more conventional free weights may or may not produce the same effect, though I started with the latter..
Quite a few people who can’t lose weight (or fat) with cardio, can once they try weights (this is true of me, on a small scale.) The added advantage is that you save time. (>8 mile runs may be pleasant on occasion, but they sure do take a while.)
This is very interesting to me. I’ve been lifting every morning for the past month or so, and have been quietly annoyed with myself for almost always lacking the willpower to just spend 20 minutes on an elliptical. Should I still expect losses once I’ve built some muscle mass?
Actually, now I think of it, I’m pretty down. I’m gonna make a second gym stop on the way home—thanks for priming the option ^_^
Ellipticals are horrendous. I can’t spend 20 minutes on an elliptical. Something about it is just willpower-sapping and no fun at all. Try doing something outside.
As I understand, complexes (switching from one lift to another with no rest) are a perfectly sound fat-loss workout no matter how advanced you are. If you hate all cardio, complexes are just as good.
I’ve spend over 20 hours per week on ellipticals for over a month before. One of the major aspects of my approach to exercise is “quantify everything mercilessly,” and having readouts for how fast I’m going, heartrate, calorie burn, etc. made it more attractive than just running outdoors.
(I’ll note that I don’t consider this to have been particularly sane behavior; it was accompanied by some extremely harsh diet restrictions, and it probably had a lot to do with a resurfacing of old eating disorder habits.)
I wouldn’t play music or anything while using them, I would just zone out, and let the whole experience blur together. It made the sessions feel much shorter in retrospect than they actually were.
I generally use treadmills instead when they’re available, but running outdoors is pretty near the bottom of my list for enjoyable forms of exercise.
Even if you can maintain a 5 minute pace, 40 minutes is a sizable time sink. I can get a killer workout in the gym in 20 minutes, or I can get an even more intense workout on a 100 meters of flat ground in 5 minutes (although, to be fair, recovery time after sprints is quite substantial if you’re not in shape =P ).
I’d run out of breath in 5 minutes during running anyway. I don’t have such problem with activities like weight lifting or boxing where there are regular breaks after 20 to 180 seconds of activity to pant and catch my breath. Maybe I need to learn breathing. But so far, the idea of any physical activity without these breaks seems preposterous to me. I haven no idea what runners do.
I also have the impression that via all these activity—break and panting -activity - break and panting—I am cheating myself with willpower through activities without really engaging my cardiovascular system.
I don’t want to sound like too much of an evangelist, because I’m not amazingly skilled myself, but when I saw the heading “cheat codes” I immediately thought “lifting weights.”
If you’re interested in looking (conventionally) good, feeling well, and making progress in physical performance, and if you don’t have any physical problems that make it impossible, free weights are sort of the “secret weapon” that most people aren’t using. Quite a few people who can’t lose weight (or fat) with cardio, can once they try weights (this is true of me, on a small scale.) The added advantage is that you save time. (>8 mile runs may be pleasant on occasion, but they sure do take a while.)
That’s fascinating. Do you have any links to more information that you would recommend?
The Starting Strength wiki.. Basic how-to instructions and a little explanation of why it’s a good idea.
Give that a couple of months then move up to something fun. (If you have a masochistic streak.)
Once I started doing some free weights exercise, I got the unexpected bonus of enjoying other physical activity a lot more (or at least disenjoying it less), because it became less tiring. I found I would spontaneously do things like sprint up the metro escalator or several flights of stairs, without being winded when I got to the top.
I do kettlebells; more conventional free weights may or may not produce the same effect, though I started with the latter..
This is very interesting to me. I’ve been lifting every morning for the past month or so, and have been quietly annoyed with myself for almost always lacking the willpower to just spend 20 minutes on an elliptical. Should I still expect losses once I’ve built some muscle mass?
Actually, now I think of it, I’m pretty down. I’m gonna make a second gym stop on the way home—thanks for priming the option ^_^
Ellipticals are horrendous. I can’t spend 20 minutes on an elliptical. Something about it is just willpower-sapping and no fun at all. Try doing something outside.
As I understand, complexes (switching from one lift to another with no rest) are a perfectly sound fat-loss workout no matter how advanced you are. If you hate all cardio, complexes are just as good.
I’ve spend over 20 hours per week on ellipticals for over a month before. One of the major aspects of my approach to exercise is “quantify everything mercilessly,” and having readouts for how fast I’m going, heartrate, calorie burn, etc. made it more attractive than just running outdoors.
(I’ll note that I don’t consider this to have been particularly sane behavior; it was accompanied by some extremely harsh diet restrictions, and it probably had a lot to do with a resurfacing of old eating disorder habits.)
I wouldn’t play music or anything while using them, I would just zone out, and let the whole experience blur together. It made the sessions feel much shorter in retrospect than they actually were.
I generally use treadmills instead when they’re available, but running outdoors is pretty near the bottom of my list for enjoyable forms of exercise.
Depends how often you do them. ;)
Even if you can maintain a 5 minute pace, 40 minutes is a sizable time sink. I can get a killer workout in the gym in 20 minutes, or I can get an even more intense workout on a 100 meters of flat ground in 5 minutes (although, to be fair, recovery time after sprints is quite substantial if you’re not in shape =P ).
I’d run out of breath in 5 minutes during running anyway. I don’t have such problem with activities like weight lifting or boxing where there are regular breaks after 20 to 180 seconds of activity to pant and catch my breath. Maybe I need to learn breathing. But so far, the idea of any physical activity without these breaks seems preposterous to me. I haven no idea what runners do.
I also have the impression that via all these activity—break and panting -activity - break and panting—I am cheating myself with willpower through activities without really engaging my cardiovascular system.
Your body has several different ways of producing energy depending on how fast you need it and for how long.
I was thinking 16km/h (3.75 minute pace). 30 mins is hardly excessive!
Ah, at first I thought you were some kind of superhuman god, but then I realized you were talking in km and I was talking in miles =D
Haha