Nice, Mex. Sounds like you're still kicking some ass. If you posted about it more often, maybe people wouldn't make insensitive jokes about you and candy bars. Did you ever think of that, you stupid sonofabitch?

I managed to run 1.75 miles last night (7 laps around the high school track). when I finally stopped, I was breathing damn near normal, basically like I just had a light workout, but my legs felt like they were going to break in 8 different spots. freaking searing pain. and the thing is, it's in my bones, or at least it seems like it, not my muscles so what the hell can I do. and this is on a nice, cushioned school track. I'm not really sure what I'm gonna do in spring when the little shits start having sports practices out there and I can't use it anymore. running on the road absolutely annihilates my legs.


be easy on him, he's not smart enough to think about things like that.

Well, it's nice that you're making progress on your distances but it really sucks about your legs. I think I remember you saying you can't stand running indoors, but are you completely opposed to running inside on ellipticals? I despise them but they're probably the best alternative for people looking to avoid the impact pains of running on the ground.

no I'm not opposed to it at all, it's just a space and stability issue. I'd rather have a treadmill cause it would be a better workout (I think?), but the amount of shock a treadmill would cause to my house would very likely cause my ceiling and/or floor to cave in. I thought about an elliptical, but there damn big and I don't really have room to put one anywhere. that and those bastards are expensive. I actually have a friend who has one that's cheap and fairly compact, but she won't sell it to me because "I'm still going to move it upstairs eventually and lose some weight!" right.

I'll probably end up looking for one sometime in april or so when I have to make a real decision.

I prefer treadmills, but I was wondering if the impact from those would bother your legs. I cannot stand ellipticals. I just feel completely awkward and unbalanced on them, which probably just proves that I have horrible form when I run.

I tried an elliptical today since both of the treadmills in my gym are broken. I don't understand the appeal to them. I was on it for 30 minutes at a decent pace. I sweat a lot but did not feel tired when I was done. It just doesn't seem like a very good workout if you're used to running. I worked out abs for 30 minutes for the first time in a year. I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

One good thing about the treadmills being broken is that a girl I see in the gym often initiated a conversation about how long it takes my apartment to fix them. Now I have an excuse to ask her out since we've talked once without being the creepy guy that hits on girls at the gym. (Not that there's anything wrong with being the creepy guy)

well I haven't run on a treadmill since college, and I was horribly out of shape then, but I do think I remember them hurting then too. do they have cushioned treadmills? that sounds stupid, but you'd think they'd have them somewhere. I haven't actually ever used an elliptical actually, other than drunkenly getting on the one I talked about above for about a minute. I don't remember if it was hard or not, but I guess if it's my only option, it might have to do. I don't know.


and I have no idea how you guys work out with girls around. there is no way I would want girls to see my fat ass flopping around a gym. fuuuuck that.

I"m such a faggoty fag, I make Ron Mexico seem straight.


Got a Wii board for xmas. FINALLY decided to get on the damn thing today, doing all the beginner exercises.

It told me I'm a fat tub of goo, heaviest I've ever been.

So i went through all the exercises that I could do. (can't do some of the lunges/squats because of my knee).

Better than nothing, I suppose. I'm going to focus on the aerobic ones for now, get my heart rate up, maybe try to melt off a layer of the winter blubbler.

I'm not an expert on treadmill technology, but none at the gym I go to are padded. And I wouldn't say an elliptical is "hard" to run on, it just felt really strange to me.

I like working out around girls because in my mind they really dig the air drumming I do.

It's definitely better than nothing, so go for it.

Well, tonight after work, I hit it pretty hard. I always go extra hard on Fridays because my weekly weigh in is on Saturday morning. I did 60 minutes of cardio. 30 on the elliptical then I got off and went directly to the bike and did 30 more. I was wetter than if I'd gotten out of the pool after I was done, then I did 9 sets of triceps and 10 sets of biceps. I'm pretty spent right now. Phew.

treadmills absorb the shock better, that's why they are better. Sal, if you have 10-15k laying around, they have this special treadmill that basically cuts your body weight in half so when you run, there is less impact. It's primarily for people rehabbing injuries. All the major sports teams and high end rehab places have them. It's like you put your legs into a bag/set of pants and it reduces your impact weight. Those same places also have under water treadmills.
God luck

I went to the local SuperTarget on my lunch break today and walked through the sporting goods section. Man, I miss playing sports so much, but with my knees, I cant even jog a little, never mind sports.

I almost bought some bad ass batting gloves, even though I don't play baseball or softball anymore.
I almost bought a new football.
I really wanted to buy a racquetball racket and some new racquetballs just because I used to love playing that in high school.
I still have my basketball and tennis rackets, but can't use them. I suck so bad.

They had kettle balls, which was intriguing, but I wouldn't know what to do with them.
Sadly, the didn't have any heavy bags or speed bags or gloves, wraps or mitts. Off to Sports Authority I go.

And yes Blue, ANYTHING is better than nothing, but really, Wii exercise game? Just do some pushups and situps every other day, straight leg lifts, which you're going to have to do after your surgery anyway. Ride a bike, another thing you can do with a banged up knee. Trust me. Keep at it.

Ya, that's how I started last time, pushups and crunches every night. The Wii Fit breaks down into four categories Balance, Yoga, Aerobic and Strength. It's actually not bad.

i've always hated working out on the gym, too boring for me

i stay fit, well, reasonably fit by doing excersise that is fear based

kick boxing and jiu jitsu, move fast and work or just punched and choked

rockclimbing and mountain biking, try hard or fall or crash

surfing, do it or drown

i find these work best for me

being poor right now is helping to keep me from drinking like a fish and eating like a pig too

Sal, I used to have shin splints about 3 years ago. It was terrible and you really can't do any running without wanting to chop your legs off afterward. I wish I could give you a sure fire solution, but I don't really think there is one. I tried everything I could find, even acupunture (which helped a tiny bit but not worth the money). I decided that I would just work on an elliptical, and bike for a while to get my cardio and try to run every couple of weeks, stopping at the first sign of trouble (which didn't really help because it seemed like it really kicked in after stopping). I don't know if you are overweight, but I was, and after I lost some weight, the shin splints went away.

So, what I'm saying is do whatever cardio you can, and try to run occasionally, and hopefully the shin splints will go away.

you talking about this thing Ron?

For all of you people with bad knees/shins, how about swimming?


It's great cardio, and is a full body workout too. Underrated, imo.

I don't know what the hell that thing is

good grief my legs are sore today.

Considering my many knee surgeries, I keep my leg workouts pretty simple.

Incline leg press (many sets, more than everything else)
calf raises
squats (not with a barbell, but usually without weights or holding dumbells)
step ups (low box, without weights for now)
hamstring curls


Well, I hadn't done it in a couple of weeks, went pretty hard yesterday, and I'm sore as heck today. It's that good sore though, like you know you did something. I almost wanted to go and do some cardio today just to shock the legs, but it's Sunday and I'm gonna be lazy, then fire it back up tomorrow. Because as we all know. "The sun'll come out, TOMORROW"

legs don't get sore if you wear flannel, just sayin'.

pussy

I'll have to give that a try


call me when you're 36, have a confirmed herniated disc in your back confirmed by an MRI (13 or so years ago, doesn't affect me much at all) have had 6 knee surgeries on two different knees, carry too much weight on those knees (working on that) and just have no need to squat. Also, I don't rock a flat top either.

But yeah, my squatting days are over. Although, I have done 5 plates on each side, free weight squats with no spot, but those days are LOOOOONG ago.

so basically, I agree that I'm a pussy, but have come to grips with it.

Meh, idk about no need to squat, they're probably the best exercise possible, but I imagine you already know that coming from a football background. I wish I could defend my hair but it just looks awful these days. Also, who gets spotted on squats? There's pretty much nothing a spotter can really do for a squatter to reduce danger

While I agree that the squat is the best lower body exercise you can do, it's a high risk, high reward exercise. Done properly, it's one stop shopping, glutes, quads, hammys. But, any bad form, your back is screwed. So, people more advanced in age with a high body odometer, can find other exercises that are less taxing on the body, such as lunges, incline leg press, box step ups, hamstring curls and many more.

Also, a spotter on a squat can be very helpful. Now, I'm not talking about the kind of spot I see all these high school kids in the gym doing today on the bench, where they throw 275 on the bar, do barely one rep and have the spotter pull it off them 4 more times. A spot should be a simple assistance when applicable. Now, I'm not discounting the benefits of forced reps, but that isn't what they are doing. Back to my point. A spot on a squat is someone behind the squatter, going down and up with him, in sort a gay type form, wrapping their arm under the squatters while kind of holding their chest, while the other hand is in the middle of their back. You're not gonna help them go up with 405 on the bar, but you can keep the momentum going if they stall.

I've rambled.

gym squatters in general are by far the most frustrating thing ever to watch. Obviously my form isn't perfect, I've worked on it a lot but I still have some small errors but the stuff I see people do drives me nuts. Half squats, quarter squats, lifting with their back, etc. Prob the worst is when some big strong dude comes in, throws on 4 plates and a neck pad, does 2 or 3 quarter squats with a ton of grunting and calls it a victory. f those people

edit: as far as spotters, I guess i'm lucky we have a few power racks at the gym so if need be I can just dump the weight if i stall

Hiked out in Anza Borrego on Saturday. We were doing a combo of awesome rally driving in my friends 4Runner and then getting to a place and running/Hiking a side trail. We probably did about 7-8 miles of hiking total which was really awesome. I had been doing a lot of Stairmaster at the gym as of late and that helped tremendously as I think I was the only one that wasn't really sore the next day. All in all the desert was awesome and we are planning our next trip which will be in the more mountainous portion of Anza. This will be a 2 day adventure and we are hoping to get the peak in which I believe was about 5,000 feet and offers a great view of the surrounding area.

Will probably take today off and then get back into it tomorrow. My shoulder is starting to feel better, so i will probably try to see how the Incline Bench feels with some free weights and do a couple sets to see where I am at. I need to start in on the weights again as last year I was starting to see some actual definition in my arms and chest. I will also weigh in tomorrow to see how I am coming along on my goal of getting to 200 by the summer.

Did a Sal like home workout yesterday. My thighs still hurt.

Did some dumbbells work, pushups, crunchs, but the squats with and without dumbbells have someone created this crazy feeling in my thighs that I do not enjoy.

full two miles tonight. SUCK ON THAT MEXICO.

How'd the legs handle it?

I've got a mini-vacation coming up at the end of the week so I'm scaling back a bit for the next few days. Didn't go last night and decided that I'd do some shorter distances tonight and push up the pace to see where I'm at.

Tonight I did 1.5 miles in 10:50 and wasn't super-tired afterward. Tomorrow I'm thinking I'll shoot for 2 miles in the 14-14:30 range. Likely closer to the higher end of that range.

you know, not all that bad. my right knee tried to give out twice but I pushed through it and it ended up fine. I need to start timing myself. no idea how long I'm taking, and since I'm on a pretty tight schedule, it'd probably be better to try to improve my time on two miles than to try to increase the distance.

So I went to the gym last night and hopped on the bike for 15 minutes at level 8. Then I went and did three sets of abs. Tried to see where my shoulder was at and did some pushups. It is not ready for lifting yet. I am thinking I might have to go see the Dr about this as it has been hurting for almost a month. It's not as bad as it was a month ago, but it is not 100% yet either.

So after that I was on the stairmaster for another 10 minutes and then did three more sets of abs and called it a night. then I went to weigh in and found that I gained some weight ... lame! Oh well weight as of last night was 218. My goal is still to get to 200 by summer so we will see how that turns out. I am defining summer as June 1. So I basically have three months to lose 18 pounds.

yeah, superb. I walked home from the bar drunk and it was two miles.

But yeah, I've been going Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays the last couple of weeks.

Did 41 minutes of cardio and 200 crunches, which are getting easier, so I need to change it up/step it up. But when I finished that, I was going to do some chest, I just said "eff it" and walk out. I need to work on that. Tomorrow is another day.

Man, ****ing balls are squats hard

oh yeah, this is also why I don't do them anymore. They're hard

I COULD RUN CIRCLES AROUND YOU FATTY



have you tried those alternate ab exercises? like planks and whatnot? from everything I understand, they're a lot better for abs than crunches. and if you think walking out after what you did is bad, try working out at home. it's damn near impossible for me to do my stationary biking on tuesdays and thursdays. I get on, my legs hurt like hell, I'm still ridiculously tired, I can smell my coffee brewing, and it's only 20 feet away. making it through 30 minutes of that ain't easy.


yes they are. I hate them. do dead lifts too; I've heard they're even better than squats for a full body exercise.

2.0 miles, 14:12. Unlike last night, I was pretty fucking tired by the end of it.

Tomorrow my goal is 2.5 miles in around 18 minutes. I reserve the right to determine exactly what window of time constitutes "around" 18 minutes.

Then a nice little break until next week.

Ya i deadlift too, today was squats/overhead press/deadlift

yeah, maybe you could run better than I, but put us in a cage and let you take a shot. I'll choke you out, uppercut that mustache right off your face and do some awfully bad jujitsu on your ass buddy. and no, I'll never have a 6pk, I'm just trying to do enough to strengthen my core and be a little tighter

curious, why are you doing all these type of lifts? Don't you just lift for recreation? These are big lifts for just a "hey, look at my guns" type workout plan. Pardon my ignorance. Are you training for something specific? I mean, I just always thought those were exercises for hardcore athletes and not necessary for the average joe. Not trying to offend, but I know I don't do that shit and have no urge to. A good burn and workout can be achieved without that shit. I hated doing those. Don't mistake what I'm saying, they are great exercises and you're a good man for doing them.

I'm lifting solely to add mass for now, ideally I'd like to be adding anywhere from 20-40 lbs over the next year or so, so I'm pretty much just going to be sticking with compound lifts and eating to bulk for a while. Assuming I hit my goals I'll eventually scale back my diet and the workouts in an attempt to cut excess weight but that's a bit down the line.

Nice, good luck with that.

You doing heavy weights, low reps I assume.

Taking anything to help with the weight gain?

Ya 3x5 for everything but deadlifts with 3-5 warmup sets (of 5) for every lift. Granted I don't lift very heavy relative to most people doing these lifts, but I lift heavy in regards to what I'm capable of. Only things I really take are whey protein/creatine the rest is basically just working hard in the gym and eating 800-1200 calories over maintenance per day

dude, that's all you have to worry about. Eff those people using heavy weights thinking they're badasses. I used to care a little about that, especially when I was one of the stronger guys in the gym. Now, I couldn't give a shit less. I have relatively weak biceps and I do higher reps, so I have no issues grabbing the 25lb dumbells and doing seated curls with a twist, and I'll see other guys grabbing the 40lb'ers, etc. I'm there for me, to do what I need to do. You have a good plan and seem to be working it.

I wish my problem was needing to add bulk but I'd imagine it's just as annoying for you to add is it is for me to take off.

Ya whenever i feel girly about what i'm lifting I just look around at everybody's form and laugh and then I feel better. There are worse problems in life than needing to eat to gain weight, it can get annoying when I'm not hungry but need to get calories but that's aboot it. I imagine cutting weight is prob a bit more difficult.

YES!!! Don't ever let your weight get away from you. EVER


Totally agree with the bad form people. Watching old men workout is really funny. They make up exercises and just push the weights around

Ya, I'm not too concerned for now, my metabolism seems to be super high, so I'm having some trouble gaining mass, I seem to be burning some fat around my stomach area which I can't really explain since I'm eating at a surplus (I think). If my metabolism slows down and I start eating again like I used to I'll get fat pretty quickly, but right now I'm struggling to gain weight at all.

As for the old people, ya you see some pretty crazy shit. I see a lot of elderly dudes on the machines just spacing the **** out looking off in the distance occasionally doing a rep or two it's bizarre. I kind of like watching the old people just milling about, it's nice to see their at least making an effort, even if their workouts are pretty poor. What I don't like is people who do curls or w/e and leave the curl bars on the floor with clamps, and weights and just ****ing leave, or really anybody who does this anywhere in the weight room. That and people who do squats on the smith machine. It's apparently incredibly bad for your knees and back but people like it because they don't have to stabilize the bar and it "doesn't hurt their backs/necks". The weights being left around on the floor is probably mostly do to the fact that I constantly workout at about 4:30 which is like perfect time for all the high school kids to come in and crank out some assisted bench press reps where the bar gets halfway to their chest.

Hey guys.

I started a thread awhile ago. Anyway, I lost 15 lbs this month. 25 more to go, but things are looking good!

I wanted to be Sal's ass buddy, but not if that means you're going to do bad jujitsu on me.

I don't know, he does a mean triangle. (not to be experienced directly following a workout, however.)

That's awesome, I started one once too. Didn't go that well.

I'm on my way down, but I refuse to get on a scale until the one month point (I feel like I've lost about 10 pounds, two more weeks and I can check). I'm planning to join a gym after I diet off 30-40 pounds, and I'm already dreading it. I'd love to have that exercise gene where you really enjoy going to the gym everyday, but I've never had it and I doubt I ever will.

If you keep at it for a while and see some progress, it makes it a lot easier to go on a regular basis. I wouldn't say I enjoy going to the gym, but I've definitely reached a point where I can tolerate it and feel lazy if I don't. I guess that's good.



So, 2.5 miles in "around" 18 minutes means 17:47 I guess. Pretty happy with that.

I wrote a rant post in this thread about shit at the gym that annoys me and not clearing the weights kills me. I have squated on the smith machine. It was more for in case my knee gave out.

But I did think of you and our "conversation" last night. I did chest today and I used to warm up with 225lbs and go up from there. Today, I did 225lbs 4 times, coulda got 6 if I had a spotter behind me, not for the help, but for the security. I've had to dump weight or have weight pulled off of me while benching before, so never again. I'll always stop 2 reps short of what I can do. Point is, half of me is upset that I'm not that strong any longer, especially for my size, the other have doesn't give a shit.

There's more than enough room to ride that ass. My jujitsu is bad, awful actually. I have no form, since I've had no "formal" training. I mean, I've watched at least 5 tutorials for moves on ESPN.com's MMA page.


You should weigh yourself at least every two weeks, just to see the progress and help dangle that carrot. Doing cardio will help you "diet off" the weight faster, speed up your metabolism and help your overall health. Think about it. Although, if you feel that way about the gym and have never been a workout guy, save your money on the gym membership. It's not going to change. Paying a monthly membership bill won't motivate you to go. Look on Craigslist, etc and maybe get some basic home equip. A cardio machine, a bench and some interchangeable dumb bells. If you do them for a couple of months, you're golden


60 minutes of cardio 30/30 bike/ellip
200 crunches
8 sets of chest
bench, pec dec