Troper Fitness Thread

Just came across this article about a curvy woman with body image issues opening up about having a health business coach as her husband. Imagine how baffled I was when after I see her photo, I see her admission that she essentially sees herself as ugly even to this day. WTF? Ma'am, you're not fat... unless "plump" counts as "fat", in which case, yes, you are, but it's the good kind of "fat". There are a lot of men out there who prefer their woman to have some meat on her bones, and IMO you fit the bill.

There ought to be a revision of what the term "fitness" really means, I'm thinking.

I started a weightlifting program on Sunday, and I'm using this introductory program here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/wiki/phraks-gslp I'm just using the bar, to get started with the movements and improve my strength. But I'm having trouble doing deadlifts and barbell rows without rounding my back. Am I not strong enough yet, or is there something else I need to do?

Any general advice would be fantastic too. Thanks!

This comes quite late, but here are some suggestions.

1. Regarding rounding your back. On deadlifts this is best avoided by raising your chest, tightening your back and abdominals and face looking forward. You should also make sure that your upper back, your lats really, are tight. The cue here should be as if you're placing your lats in your "back pocket" or "squeezing an orange". On barbell rows, again tightness is extremely important as well as maintaining a neutral spine. Always watch your starting position, bar grip length, feet, etc. If your back is still rounding despite all of this, the weight is too heavy and you should go lower.

2.As for the workout routine you've chosen. It seems almost perfectly fine for a novice. You have three days with one day of rest between each and two days of rest after the last day. The squat I think you should include in all three days and ignore the AMRAP on the last set since as a novice you have no need to do it (it isn't optimal as you bring unnecessary fatigue on yourself and it won't benefit you in terms of strength to do it). AMRAP is a tool that is useful further down the line and not entirely appropiate for a novice, assuming strength is the focus here.

I'd change it to something like this.

Squat: either 3x5 or 5x5 Bench press or military press (alternating): either 3x5 or 5x5 Deadlift/Barbell Row (alternating): 1x5 (for deadlift) or 3x5/5x5 (for barbell row)

You may add some assistance in the form of chin-ups, pull-ups or any other compound exercise you feel like doing. Don't overdo it though. Limit your assistance to 2 or 3 exercises, of 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps.

Make sure you're eating and sleeping properly.

Since I've posted this though you've been at it for a few months now, so it's fine to keep at the routine you're currently doing if you're making progress.

edited 20th Apr '18 4:47:18 AM by germi91

Does anyeone know what form of exercise is this?◊

So, it's official: Despite having lived my life as a pretty thin man who has trouble packing any sort of extra meat despite a rather healthy appetite (then again, I've rarely eaten more than a couple of light snacks per day on average), I've recently discovered that I've gained quite a bit of a paunch over the last few years, likely due to having adopted a pretty inactive lifestyle during that period where I usually spend the better part of my waking hours not moving much.

Mind you, it's not really big, but I concur with my concerned mother that I will not wait until I hit the point of obesity before I start dealing with it.

Any suggestions for good ways of exercising off this potbelly without going to the gym (I'd rather not waste ~$400 for a subscription of several months just to work off a few pounds of excess weight) would be much appreciated.

Darebee is love, darebee is life. (I've been following its programs/workouts for a bit more than a year now, and it's been quite effective and low-stakes).

... Even at a first glance I feel very optimistic. Thanks!

Yeah, you can never go wrong with good old calisthenics. Well, you obviously can but you don't have to worry about it yet.

Plank can be a very effective exercise to fight off potbellies, from my experience.

Bump. Is it a good sign or a bad sign that my leg muscles began burning when I went on the elliptical machine? ^_^;;

A good sign?

I need to go to the gym more often. I was thinking of getting a Planet Fitness membership

Okay, this would be a good time to revive this thread. As of now I'm training less just for health and wellness and more for a sexy, aesthetic physique and bodybuilding.

I've been bulking up lately, and I've so far hit 218 lbs body weight. The goal is 240 lbs.

• Bench Press: 225 4 reps, I think I hit 265 1 rep.
• 315 1 rep deadlift. I felt like I could've done more though.
• 180 lbs cable curl - I think that's the best I could get to with good form.
• 220 / 230 machine row at 8 reps.
• I regularly do 100 to 200 lateral raises, rear delt raises, and occasionally shoulder presses with dumbbells all before bed.
  • I've also started doing 50 hammer curls, and 50 DB Skullcrushers.
• I think my squat is comfortably at 185 right now, and I'm working on getting to 225 to 315 at good rep range and range of motion. I've just got to work on getting the right form.
• My front squat is admittedly shit, but I'm working on getting to 135.
• My incline bench is increasing in strength at a good rate - every day it seems to get better.

As far as diet...

• I just now ate 2 protein bars (each 20 grams of protein), a workout milkshake (40 grams of protein) and a heavy serious mass workout shake (40 to 60 grams of protein).
• I eat every two hours, piling as much as I can.
• I don't observe much dietary stringentness, as I'm bulking I just try and make sure I'm putting on weight. When I shred down, I can take off any of the fat I put on.
• I love sandwiches - I eat sandwiches made with whole grain bread and honey treated turkey. Really fills me up.
• So yeah, eating 5 to 8 meals a day.

Took the puppy out for a challenge today. (She's about 9 months old.) Two miles or so uphill much of the way cross country running on roads. Took almost 20 minutes with a couple stops mostly for the pup's sake for breath or to break away distractions.

According to my Fit Bit, I hit about 174 heart rate during it at maximum but very briefly. I know at 33 that kind of heart rate is a wee bit indicative that I've fallen a wee bit out of shape in the past year.

And yet right now apart from hot it feels (then again it's a pretty warm day), I feel fine actually pretty good. The puppy was tired for about all of 5 minutes until she cooled down and then back to energetic she went.

Hey there,

I started training a good 3 months ago. But I still can't see any results.... I think my problem is that I just can't eat enough for the gains :/ Do you have any tips?

(I'm vegetarian btw)

Hi guys.

I have an autoimmune health condition, which is currently in remission and want to pick up exercising as an alternative means of treatment and maintaining my health.

I've read about studies on the effect of regular exercises on people with my condition and it came to a conclusion that the exercises are beneficial as long as they are of moderate intensity. Low intensity might not have the desirable effect. Vigorous intensity has a risk of exacerbating the condition.

I've read up about the HRR method of measuring the exercise intensity and it seems that moderate intensity in my case means that heart rate lies within 140 to 160 beats per minute range during the exercise.

I've already been doing the plank (3 set front, 2 sets side 2 minutes each) and doing the long brisk walks (5 to 7 km) daily for reasons unrelated to treating my condition, but the former gives only about 145 heartbeats per minute (closer to lower border of the desired range) and the latter doesn't seemingly affect me at all (110 beats). I can and want to increase my daily physical exercise intensity. What else can I add to my regimen?

Oh man, How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, aka Do You Even Lift, Girl?

Few weeks ago, I started to semi-seriously work out a couple of weeks (working on weight cutting and upper body, or more specifically, biceps, triceps, pecs, and abs) and I just happened to come across this series. It just feels more so appropriate!

I never actually watched the episode so far, but I find some of the clips and the very concept rather amusing. Here is a review by Jax Blade, an anime reviewer and a certified (IIRC) fitness trainer.

Wow, been a while since anyone posted here.

I did a huge HIIT Workout today, namely This one.

It absolutely obliterated me, and I've never felt better. I'm proceeding into officially calling myself a bodybuilder.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Feb 19th 2020 at 9:18:25 AM

Damn bro. You DO lift.

Been doing my trainer's workouts for the better part of a month now. I'm working with Nate Sauberan over on Instagram, and I'm getting more confident in my lifts. Went up to 225 on bench when I workout for sets as opposed to just hitting like a few reps to max out.

This Summer I'm going to try and enter the modeling circuit (most likely fitness modeling), I think I look good enough for it.

I can swim 10 laps in just six minutes.

Currently, my exercise plan is, for every day,

• 50 crunches when I wake up

• A walk, usually to a nearby park or around the block, anytime in the afternoon

• 15 push-ups before I go to bed.

It’s not much, but it works for me.

I have some good news.

I used to not like road trips because my back would hurt from sitting in the car for too long. But on the one I did last week, my back was actually pretty good. All those sit ups I’ve been doing must be paying off. :)

Cross-posting from the COVID-19 thread.

Random, amusing anecdote time.

So, in my country government has loosened the social distancing level and now some facilities like gyms became available again. I've resumed going to a boxing gym, but I had to wear mask while exercising, just like every other gym.

At first it was hard, but as minutes passed I got used to it. At least, so I thought until I started to feel more suffocated and then I nearly collapsed. It turned out that my mask got completely wet due to all the sweat and saliva (I don't think I need to explain how intense boxing is).

That's right, I just waterboarded myself. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who experienced this kind of mishap during exercises.

From tomorrow on, I'm bringing a spare mask to the gym.

So, I'm sitting out the Spring Semester for college because of financial troubles. (Don't worry, I'm going back to class this summer.)

I'm left until May or June and I'm kinda bored and drifting from day to day. I want to try an exercise schedule at my home to fill in the time (and lose some probably much-needed weight) so I guess I'm asking for tips to do that because...well, I'm not entirely sure where to start, what exercises, how many reps and how much in those reps, etc.

Basically, I'm a rank noob. >_<. So, help and advice would be appreciated. I'm willing to answer questions.

Aside from losing weight, anything in particular you want to train? Stamina/endurance, strength? Any particular muscle groups? It's pretty easy to find good exercises online these days.

Though no matter what you choose, make sure you warm up properly before you start, so you don't get hurt.

...Strength of the arms sounds good.

Errm...how do you warm up before exercises?

Well, at taekwondo practice, we usually do stuff like jumping jacks, jogging,^note Both in place and around the room, though I understand that the latter could be a bit tricky if your room isn't big enough and/or you can't do it outside high knees, ski jumps^note Like jumping jacks, but alternating the arms and legs forward and backward etc. It's all about getting yourself warmed up, so you don't have to tucker yourself out. A warm-up should take around 5-10 minutes, approximately.

Here's an article with some warm-up exercises, and another one.

It's also good to do some stretching after you're done with exercise.

Edited by MagmaTeaMerry on Mar 1st 2021 at 10:42:17 AM