iheartkisses It would obviously be easier to stay out of her situation by just marrying a guy that's not as big a jerk as your dad (jk, but you get the idea)

Also, congrats on 110 miles!! I thought I was doing good with 60 and a couple workouts a week...

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 10:50 AM. Reason : ^s]

1/19/2011 10:49:08 AM

another morning workout w/the trainer. Upper body chest/tris

my friend gave me his copy of P90x, im gonna try and do a couple of those on my off days, prob 1-2x/week. I'm already meeting w/my trainer 3x/week so that should give me 4-5 days of solid workout soul

when im single, i'm working harder for a lot of the reasons mentioned above. I want to look good in case i meet someone, and im not doing as many dining out nights so i can stay home and cook healthy.

never had a 6 pack though so dunno what it would take to get there

1/19/2011 10:51:43 AM

Quote :

"I've stayed healthy throughout my relationship. I'm definitely not as 'in-shape' as I was when I was single. Basically, if you've got a significant other locked down, you don't have to look hot for the ladies/gents."

see i have a different attitude - i want to remain hot so my significant other always finds me attractive. i just don't believe in letting myself go because "i have someone"

Quote :

"^^ It's REALLY hard to turn down a night out with the girls when you're single. And going out for wine/cocktails 4 nights a week really adds up ... both $-wise and calorie-wise."

EXACTLY! especially since i lived downtown, people would call all the time and be like, "come meet me at such and such place" and since i only lived 5 minutes from the bars, it was hard to say no.

1/19/2011 10:52:06 AM

^^^ LOL

My dad just doesn't realize that his sense of humor is really harsh. And my mom doesn't stick up for herself. That said, she's VERY heavy and I wish she would lose a bit of weight for the sake of her health. But my dad's ribbing really doesn't help.

And 60ish miles is great! My mileage is higher because I'm running some longer distance races this spring, 60 miles is something to be proud of ... you'll hit 500 miles in no time!

^ LOL YES! I live in downtown Orlando, and the bars are way too convenient! And it didn't help that my gfs would always think of me as the go-to-girl for Girls Nights. Luckily, the BF lives far from downtown, so downtown Happy Hours take more effort when we're together. Your new place is a bit away from downtown too, right Cass? I'm sure that helps a bit.

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 10:55 AM. Reason : kk]

1/19/2011 10:53:18 AM

well i'm going for the 1000/year and trying to use that to help get my 1/2 marathon to a sub 1:30 and run my first full in the fall, but it seems to be helping so far!

1/19/2011 10:56:57 AM

hahahahaha i'm glad there's someone else who understands. i loved living downtown but everyone would be like, "cmon you live right there come to the bar."

yeah we live about 15 minutes from the bars now which is still convenient but far enough away that it's not tempting

Quote :

"well i'm going for the 1000/year and trying to use that to help get my 1/2 marathon to a sub 1:30"

DAYUM! i'm running my first half in March and my goal is 2 hours and 30 minutes. you're a rockstar.

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 10:58 AM. Reason : edit]

1/19/2011 10:57:40 AM

^ Seriously! People give a guilt trip if they know you're at home and not doing anything, yet you're five minutes from the bars and they want to go out. And typically I'd compromise and say, "Okay, I'll meet up for ONE glass of wine for an hour." And that somehow turns into two glasses of wine and apps. The joys of BOGO drink specials.

^ & ^^ What races are y'all running?

1/19/2011 11:02:26 AM

1) no difference. I've gained 12lbs since meeting my current gf but that isn't at a rate higher than usual.
2) she watchs my calories a little and reminds me when I have not eaten enough which is nice (im easily motivated by negative energy). We rarely workout together because myworkout routines are too lazy for her. If I take the les mills(sp?) classes she instructs I want to die.

1/19/2011 11:03:19 AM

You ladies have no backbone. I've always lived a block away from bars (downtown or the beach)...and have consistently turned down efforts to go out. "I have to work early tomorrow" or "I'm broke" usually does the trick.

Also, not answering the phone or not returning the phone call until it's too late will also work. A little "you called, what's up?" text 3 hours after the call is 100% fool proof.

1/19/2011 11:05:29 AM

i give into peer pressure really bad. I can manage to muster out a no sometimes, but god if they say 'come aahhnn' or 'whatever were going out' its too late for me, i've already given in

1/19/2011 11:11:14 AM

^^ I have a backbone. It's just that typically I'm trying to be good and rest my liver, but then I start thinking of how much fun my friends are having without me!

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 11:16 AM. Reason : e]

1/19/2011 11:16:48 AM

It also helps that as much as I love having good wine/beer/food and going out....I'm also a huge movie geek and love watching sports by myself at home.

So my alternatives to going out (staying at home and watching some good movies or a basketball game) were just as enticing to me.

1/19/2011 11:24:20 AM

Re: working out/staying in shape while single/in a relationship.

In my experience I find it almost impossible to have enough time to work out as much when in an actual relationship. Most of us are working adults now, so think about it.

When single, what do I have to do? Work 8-5 (or 6 or later sometimes) and that's pretty much it that is mandatory -- bad word to use, but you get what I mean. I have 6-7 hours after work before sleep time that I can use completely on my own with nothing at all to worry about. 1.5-2 playing basketball, tennis, running, lifting, etc is easy when you have no other outside responsibilities and it's EASY to go to the gym every day after work

But then once you get in to a relationship you're going to want to spend time with that person that isn't exclusively past 9pm eating food and watching TV so you're going to have to make concessions somewhere in your life. Can't get off work early. Can't stay up until 4am every night. It's inevitably going to come from the gym/workout time.

So to me it's not about "letting yourself go" or "not caring to impress" any more but rather more about the free time you're inevitably going to lose and where that's going to come from.

That doesn't mean you will completely let yourself go and never work out, but there are only so many places in a reponsible person's day that you can take time out of and make it up elsewhere.

And, wow that was probably nonsencial and way too long.

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 11:36 AM. Reason : x]

1/19/2011 11:35:36 AM

^ this has been my problem.


I have been sacrificing sleep and getting up really early to work out, though. Which has been nice.

1/19/2011 11:37:20 AM

Quote :

"But then once you get in to a relationship you're going to want to spend time with that person that isn't exclusively past 9pm eating food and watching TV so you're going to have to make concessions somewhere in your life."

This as well. If my girlfriend gets off work and is exhausted from a long day and says she's not going to the gym, then I'm 90% more likely to head straight home from work as well just so I can hang out with her.

It also has the opposite effect...if she calls me and she's getting off work and going to the gym and I was a little tired and thinking about skipping it...then I'll go to "keep up" with her sometimes.

1/19/2011 11:40:51 AM

Quote :

"^ & ^^ What races are y'all running?"

i'm running the Quintiles half marathon in Wrightsville Beach on March 20.

Quote :

"You ladies have no backbone. I've always lived a block away from bars (downtown or the beach)...and have consistently turned down efforts to go out. "I have to work early tomorrow" or "I'm broke" usually does the trick. Also, not answering the phone or not returning the phone call until it's too late will also work. A little "you called, what's up?" text 3 hours after the call is 100% fool proof. "

i think it's funny you say Lucy and i don't have a backbone but yet you lie to your friends or just ignore their calls when they ask you to go out during the week

1/19/2011 12:59:35 PM

I'm not lying when I say I have to work early the next day. And saying I'm broke isn't necessarily a lie. Can I afford to go out a lot?? Yes. Is it financially responsible?? No. So essentially the money argument isn't a lie.

You might have an argument with ignoring the phone calls...but I'm just being nice by not turning them down immediately....

1/19/2011 1:10:08 PM

I always use the $$ excuse. I certainly can afford to go out pretty much whenever I want to, but it's easier to say I need to watch $$ than saying "I'm saving my money up to buy a place downtown within a year and that money is in various CD's, MMA's, savings account, etc that I really don't want to touch until I'm ready to put my downpayment down."

I'm basically trying to only use a certain % per paycheck and while I could use the holdover to go out, I'd rather use it to slim down my eventual (and soon) mortgage...

*** To the second point, I rarely to never don't answer my phone if I'm near it. I hate when people do that. It's a cop out.

1/19/2011 1:13:32 PM

^^true.

but also when i first moved downtown i had just turned 23 and lived downtown until i was almost 28. obviously when i was 23, 24, 25, 26, i wanted to go out more and socialize, even if it was during the week. obviously now it's easier because A) i'm older and don't care to go out 4 nights a week and B) I don't live downtown anymore

1/19/2011 1:21:58 PM

Quote :

"^ & ^^ What races are y'all running?"

I'm running the American Tobacco 1/2 on March 20th and hopefullythe Marine Corps Marathon on Oct 30th

What are you training for with so much vigor?

1/19/2011 1:22:18 PM

Quote :

"You ladies have no backbone. I've always lived a block away from bars (downtown or the beach)...and have consistently turned down efforts to go out. "I have to work early tomorrow" or "I'm broke" usually does the trick. Also, not answering the phone or not returning the phone call until it's too late will also work. A little "you called, what's up?" text 3 hours after the call is 100% fool proof."

hahaha
a lot of the time (not all of the time) i straight up tell people i don't feel like going out.
you would be amazed at how many people understand.

1/19/2011 2:11:31 PM

Does anyone have any experience with the HIT (high intensity training) style of lifting?

I'm doing a little better about going to the gym, but with work, my wife's schedule, my daughter, and running I'm still only able to free up enough time to go two(ish) times a week. I was talking to a guy I work with (he's a personal trainer in his spare time) and he suggested this based on my age (relatively young), schedule (relatively limited) and current shape (relatively good but looking to bulk up a little)

I've been doing some background reading and I like the idea, but wanted to see if anyone had any personal testimonials.

1/19/2011 4:47:50 PM

^ i love HIIT for the results.



packman92 can get into more detail with it

1/19/2011 5:01:04 PM

HIT is reasonably close to the type of weight training I've been doing for the past three months. I typically do full-body workouts twice a week, doing 4-6 fairly slow reps to failure on each exercise. I was originally doing 2-3 sets of each exercise but have since dropped to 1-2 in the last month after reading a meta-analysis of studies on this sort of thing (might have been linked here, I forget where I found it).

I've been having a lot of success with it and have made big strength gains, so I'm a fan and it works well with the rest of my training schedule. But I have a very light build and have never stuck to a committed weight training plan for any period of time, so it's impossible for me to sort out what benefits are from the HIT specifically and what are just beginner's gains. I probably also have different goals, so your mileage may vary.

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 5:14 PM. Reason : ]

1/19/2011 5:13:48 PM

Quote :

"I was originally doing 2-3 sets of each exercise but have since dropped to 1-2 in the last month after reading a meta-analysis of studies on this sort of thing"

plz elaborate if you can

1/19/2011 5:54:37 PM

I imagine that you, being medically inclined, would be interested in reading the journal article on the analysis yourself: http://medxbend.com/articles/documents/strengthandjones.pdf. Keep in mind this is still, in its own way, only a single data point subject to its own critiques. I haven't dug much further to find any responses to the article in the literature, and you can take entire classes on evaluating and designing meta-analyses; this also isn't my field at all, so I'm not familiar with standard techniques for experimentation in this area. But as long as I keep being satisfied with my results, I'll keep lifting like this because it integrates well with the rest of my regimen.

1/19/2011 6:15:54 PM

HIIT != HIT training.

HIIT can be effective, but so can LISS (Low Intensity Steady State). Beyond getting enough protein and fats, calorie management is the bottom line for bodyweight/fat changes.

HIT can work. As with everything else for a beginner, on the short term. However, if you want to make the most out of your training look in to some barbell training programs such as Starting Strength, Texas Method, Bill Starr/Madcow 5x5, 5/3/1. Anything that focuses on you getting stronger in the basic barbell lifts.

1/19/2011 7:10:51 PM

^isn't one just cardio and one weight based?


[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 8:48 PM. Reason : tsk tsk to me though. i read quickly and saw HIIT. literacy joie. literacy ]

1/19/2011 8:45:04 PM

Kinda...

You can do HIIT (High Intenisty Interval Training) of anything from traditional cardio stuff like running, or you can add any weight lifitng movements and make a cardio-circuit out of it. It's not a bad way of burning calories, and it tends to help reduce hunger. However it can be a little too much for beginners or deconditioned people. Furthermore, depending on your calorie deficit it can throw a wrench in to your training because of lack of calorie-resources for recovery.

HIT is a weightraining methodology of always trying to hit records of heavier weight or more reps, and a few other concepts. It's all about the "intensity". It can work really well for people with the right genetics or if they are on AAS (Anabolic Androgenic Steroids).

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 9:21 PM. Reason : grammar sux]

1/19/2011 9:11:43 PM

1/19/2011 9:14:18 PM

Shadowrunner - I scanned most of that article and it seems to be very biased towards Arthur Jones.

It makes a lot of claims that are just ridiculous... for example (I am loosely quoting) "Slow and steady rep speed will produce optimal hypertrophy, strength, power and endurance..."

That makes no sense and flies directly in the face of one of the most basic training fundamentals known as SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand).

While it's not peer-reviewed or proven scientifically, if you examine the most successful training programs used by most strength athletes, they are a far cry away from Arthur Jones' methods.

Arthur was a genius marketer who made a fortune marketing his nautilus equipment.

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 9:34 PM. Reason : gram]

1/19/2011 9:33:51 PM

Yay! Just weighed myself and I'm up 10lbs since my last BJJ tournament. Now, I can comfortably drop down to the next weight class!

And yes, it's my goal to gain weight rather than lose it.

1/19/2011 9:39:57 PM

^^ No doubt, there's a lot more bias in the article than there should be; there's simply no room in the abstract of an objective meta-analysis for opinions like " given his considerable contribution to the field of strength training, academic recognition of this contribution is long overdue." That's why I was careful to list plenty of caveats when I posted it. To be fair though, a large part of why they apparently wrote the article was to show that if you believe the peer-reviewed scientific literature, some of those claims are not actually as ridiculous as "accepted knowledge" would lead you to believe.

Perhaps it would have been better for me to also point out that although I'm no expert, there are still some objections that even I could spot.

Some of those are related to the science itself. There's not a lot of discussion of how the studies being analyzed were sampled, so we don't know how representative they all are. Part of the impression of bias is due to the fact that they point out a number of other meta-analyses that don't include some studies that support Arthur Jones-like recommendations, but then they fail to adequately discuss their own literature search.

They don't delve into the details of studies deeply enough either, mostly taking the conclusions at face value rather than stratifying the studies by design type and inclusion of various confounders. It would be good to know, for instance, if more of the particular studies they're citing were performed on beginning lifters, experienced strength athletes, or other athletes; this is occasionally mentioned, but a good meta-analysis should have at least one table with some summary statistics about the studies being evaluated. Knowing more about how studies controlled (or didn't) for nutrition and recovery strategies would also be very useful.

Other objections relate to linking the scientific conclusions to practical application and recommendations; there is a definite gap here that the authors don't address well. Good scientific experiments are very controlled, so the workouts being performed probably don't resemble what a normal person would do. Most people probably aren't as disciplined and regimented about their workouts, either, etc.

So yes, lots of potential problems with the study. Despite all that, it's a peer-reviewed meta-analysis in a well-respected journal, so there's presumably some value in that. Like I said before, it's working well for me at the moment, but I'm not super attached to it and will reevaluate whenever I start to hit a plateau. Everyone's mileage may vary.

1/19/2011 10:14:02 PM

Stayed up way too late last night but still got 10 minutes on the bike in this morning as well as some core workout and pullups.

1/20/2011 9:54:33 AM

Finally started working out yesterday again after being out of town for the past week. Hopefully I can get down to where I was last year. Ive gained about 15 pounds but I think this time I am going to try to do more cardio.

1/20/2011 10:49:42 AM

Back/Biceps this morning

This is always my least favorite day in the gym, or rather, it always seems that this is my least productive day in the gym.

I've never been a bicep kinda guy, I work them as I should, but I definitely don't go for the MASSIVE GUNS!!1 that I see a lot of guys striving for. Additionally, while my form on all my exercises is pretty f'n good, back/bi day always gives my elbows problems

Not really a joint pain issue, as much as it feels my elbows are the limiting factor when it gets up to the highers reps. Applies to both downward pulling motions (for back exercises) and for upward curling/lifting motions (biceps.)

Eh...

1/20/2011 11:39:18 AM

Nice horizontal push/pull session:

Bench 205/220x5, 230x7. 255x1x2.
Pendlay Row 155/165x5, 175x10, 215x1x2
DB Bench MyoReps 80#DBs 10+3x5.
1A Row 80#DB 2x10.
Bi/Tris/Delts pump x 2.

1/20/2011 2:50:49 PM

I don't have any sort of running mileage goal for the year, because that would be dangerously close to calling myself a runner, but I'm up to 75 miles so far. If I can make it to the LA Marathon without injury, I'm thinking about trying a 50-mile ultra. The problem is that they seem to all be trail runs (around here at least), and that would be a lot harder to do in Vibrams.

1/20/2011 3:32:46 PM

I love muscle memory

I look like ive been working out for a month and its only been a week.

Going to go find a big hill later today and do some sprints up and down it.

1/20/2011 3:45:38 PM

Whelp, no turning back now. I've registered for a half Ironman in October.

1/20/2011 3:47:54 PM

^ WOOT!

1/20/2011 4:16:35 PM

Finally got back in the gym last night. Felt good
And I've actually gotten stronger in my time off from the gym.

1/20/2011 4:21:23 PM

hey has anyone heard of http://www.gymga.com? its a "social networking" site that you log your workouts into. sorry if its been mentioned, i dont follow this thread as much anymore

might be a good tracker if someone is interested in posting their workouts online

1/20/2011 7:29:10 PM

the difference in strength from my left bicep to the right is really irritating

and no, it's not from beatin' it. i beat with the left, which is the weak one. (overuse! nah)

i think i might have caused some tendon damage about a year ago, jacked up on all sorts of things and doing stupid things. i couldnt really bend the elbow for a few weeks then, but never had it looked into. i'm pretty retarded when it comes to getting medical attention and just ignoring pain.

either way, my 2011 progress is coming along. started running again, and a more freeweight based workout plan. need to work on the diet still, but that, too, is coming along.

weight's down a couple pounds, but putting on the beginner's muscle again. my upper body is so pussified. ha. seems like im the only guy in texas who can't bench 300. can tell a lot in the face. chin's pulled up, cheeks aren't fatty. for some reason that's the first place i change. it's nice not to have to do squats every morning to stretch out the jeans a little bit. lol.

either way, feels good to get back into a legit routine. just irritating that since i've moved, i have a much longer commute. so, working 9 or so hours, an hour to commute, an hour at the gym, seems like cooking, cleaning, and playing with the dogs pretty much is all i have time for.

1/20/2011 7:57:38 PM

took my first cold shower as recommended by 4-hour body

skin itched for the next 2 hours, some sort of reaction to the extreme temp changes...it sucked, bad, but I can't wait to do it again. The shower itself, while shocking, eventually evened out. Going for 5 minutes next time.

1/21/2011 1:58:59 PM

^ What's the point of that?

1/21/2011 2:13:03 PM

burn a marginal amount of calories and experiment with shrinkage.

1/21/2011 2:30:27 PM

cold shower or contrast shower?

1/21/2011 3:49:33 PM

^^ Strange. Never heard of that.

I just ran 4 miles. My left knee feels really tight. I'm thinking that I need to start stretching a whole lot more.

1/21/2011 5:13:52 PM

Try your hamstrings and calves first...then quads/hip flexors and IT/TFL

1/21/2011 5:17:55 PM