New Year's resolution

[thewolverines24]

Yeah, for the last few months I played indoor soccer twice a week and basketball once a week in competitive leagues. Now I trimmed it down to indoor soccer once a week and I'll just play pickup ball whenever. I played basketball religiously the last few years and it has absolutely ravaged my knees.

That sucks. It can really be a burden on the knees. I'm thankful I don't have any real issues with mine. I played religiously from kindergarten until I was 30 years old. It started dwindling down after that because of friends having kids and getting married. That old song and dance.

 

[hungry]

I tried what I thought were equal levels of effort put into exercise, diet + exercise, and just dieting and if all you want to do is lose weight, it's easiest just dieting. There's no mystery for 90% of us. You eat X calories, you will weigh Y lbs. I'm in that 90%. But I'm not "on a diet" like it's a temporary thing. I just learned what the right number of calories are for me and it took a couple months for me to learn to eat the right amount. This is my life now. It's impossible through the holidays, but then I bust out my calorie tracking app for a month or so to get an annual checkup on what I think is the right amount of food for a day. The crazy thing is that if you change your diet, it takes 3 years for your weight to fully adjust.

30 lbs since November seems pretty intense. On track to lose well over 100 lbs if the diet can be maintained.

BUT while I'm happy with the weight progress, I've noticed doing chores in the yard my fitness isn't where I'd like it to be. I think cardio is more important for long term health, but I'd also like to get around to doing some weight training for the yard work. I shouldn't feel sore on Monday because of chores.

Weight training increases your metabolism for approximately 23 hours. Cardio increases your metabolism for approximately 6 hours. Weight training can increase muscle mass, which in turn, increases your metabolism even more, since it takes a certain number of calories to maintain that musclemass. Cardio can decrease muscle mass, which will cause the opposite effect. Weight training can increase your pulse rate into the fat burning range.

One problem with cardio is that people overdo it. You just want to get into the fat burning range. Most people will go too hard, get into the range where your body is consuming your own muscles. This causes people to be overtrained, tired, and quit.

 

[UMRules06]

30 lbs is a lot to lose since November for sure, but a lot of it was right at the beginning (think I lost about 7 or 8 lbs that first week), because I was very inactive at that time. Since December began it's been a pretty steady 3-4 pounds per week. Over the holidays thats dropped to about 1-2 pounds per week with all the family meals going on haha.

I have cut out all the things you guys have mentioned. I used to drink pop although not excessively. Maybe 4-5 per week with dinners depending on what I was having. Now I haven't had a drop of it since I started. No fast food either. If I drink I have maybe wine or a real beer, but I barely have any alcohol anymore either. All of it is working and I'm very happy with the way it's been going.

Think I'm just going to start old school style with some push-ups and squats or something like that.

 

[MSUMatt28]

Getting old is definitely a bitch as far as maintaining weight. I started taking up lifting in college and into my 20s if I did that 3 times a week I was golden. Didn't really matter what I ate or drank. I played basketball maybe once a week for some cardio but that was mostly bonus exercise. Tried here and there as I got near 30 to take up running and never could stick with it for more than a month before giving it up. So always had a strong build from the lifting, saying hovering around 200 lbs at 6-1 but not quite that "lean" look.


As I hit my mid to late 30s a friend of mine got the idea that we should start training for triathlons for something differnet to do and that became a thing for about 4 years. The idea of having a race and something to shoot for became a motivating factor for keeping up with the running (and by necessity also biking and swimming). The longest race I ever did was an Olympic (1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, 10K run). So hardly IM or ever Half IM. I cut down weight training to only 1 day a week, but just the sheer volume of training in 3 sports consumed a ton of calories and I shed a decent number of pounds and definitely had a more lean muscled look.


Now in my early 40s and eventually the triathlon fad faded because it gets to be pretty expensive (time at the pool, bike maintenance, etc), and umaintainable time commitment-wise once you start having to run kids around to all their sports when they start to get older. So then it was back to just lifting and running. Hoping for 3 days a week of each. My weight has gradually gone up some, since then to where it is higher now than what it was back in my late 20's when all I did is lift, even though I probably still exercise more now. I'd still say in pretty good shape for my age, but heavier than in the past and getting to where the pants fit a bit tight and that sort of thing.


So returning to triathlon level amount of exercise is out of the question the bitter pill now to swallow is to start looking at the diet. Not a big fast food guy and rarely drink pop. At most once a month. Could probably stand to cut out a few things but overall don't think I'm terribly unhealthy. Maybe swap in a for more vegetable and leaner protein at times. Cutting out beer is some low-hanging fruit, but still undecided if I really want to do THAT.


Exercise-wise weight training supposedly has the advantage of burning calories at rest well after the workout is done, whereas with straight cardio once the workout is over, the calorie burning is as well. I have been reading about the benefits of doing shorter higher intensity types of the workouts vs longer slow runs. Say a 20 minute all out workout rather than a 60 minute moderate jog. I need to be careful with those though as they probably need to be non-weight bearing. Running at near sprint type of speeds is a good way to get injured (already dealing with some more running related aches and pains than in the past). I've banged out recently some all-out 20 minute type of workouts that hit on a variety of movements and would like to do more of those just to save time too. Those seem pretty effective, but boy those 20 minutes are hell, lol.

 

[hungry]

Also a thing with cardio and/or running is that a lot of people will go out and run 4 miles or do 30-60 minutes of cardio and go home and say, "Well, i did this, so I can eat this." NO! Do not reward yourself with extra calories...

If you're going to eat something nasty, do it an hour before your exercise...not after.

 

[Gulo Blue]

30 lbs is a lot to lose since November for sure, but a lot of it was right at the beginning (think I lost about 7 or 8 lbs that first week), because I was very inactive at that time. Since December began it's been a pretty steady 3-4 pounds per week. Over the holidays thats dropped to about 1-2 pounds per week with all the family meals going on haha.

I have cut out all the things you guys have mentioned. I used to drink pop although not excessively. Maybe 4-5 per week with dinners depending on what I was having. Now I haven't had a drop of it since I started. No fast food either. If I drink I have maybe wine or a real beer, but I barely have any alcohol anymore either. All of it is working and I'm very happy with the way it's been going.

Think I'm just going to start old school style with some push-ups and squats or something like that.

Really impressive. When I started cutting out all the junk, I was a jerk for a while. I couldn't imagine going through that adjustment period through the holidays. The good news is that after adjusting, I fell off the wagon for a few months (for a good enough reason) and getting back in the habit was uncomfortable for about 2 days.

 

[hungry]

Eating during the holidays is OK if you limit yourself to a big meal on Thanksgiving and another on Christmas or whatever day you celebrate that. 2 big meals, one per month, will not ruin any diet or calorie control schedule.

Eating cookies, cakes, pies, and all for 35 straight days will...

 

[Gulo Blue]

Eating during the holidays is OK if you limit yourself to a big meal on Thanksgiving and another on Christmas or whatever day you celebrate that. 2 big meals, one per month, will not ruin any diet or calorie control schedule.

Eating cookies, cakes, pies, and all for 35 straight days will...

Yup. 7 pounds worth! Well, some of that is salt/water sooo, maybe 4 pounds worth. Should take about 4 weeks to undo the damage...except I have all these leftovers to get through before I can return to my regularly scheduled programming.

 

[dubbsco]

It's not like my knees are completely cooked where I can't walk. But after playing bball extensively for awhile, my feet and entire body can feel it. It's just not a natural thing to stomp and jump up and down on a brutally rock-like surface. There's zero give on that court.

At least with soccer, you have grass or astro-turf that has some squish to it.

 

[MSUMatt28]

It's not like my knees are completely cooked where I can't walk. But after playing bball extensively for awhile, my feet and entire body can feel it. It's just not a natural thing to stomp and jump up and down on a brutally rock-like surface. There's zero give on that court.

At least with soccer, you have grass or astro-turf that has some squish to it.

Whenever I play basketball, which is pretty infrequently now, I hurt for about 3 days afterwards. The issue for me is my back. After 90 minutes of pushing, bumping and boxing out under the boards, that is usually wrecked for a few days.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Might be a long shot, but try seeing a physical therapist for knee and back issues. For some things they can give you exercises to build up muscles that can help.

 

[tinselwolverine]

It's not like my knees are completely cooked where I can't walk. But after playing bball extensively for awhile, my feet and entire body can feel it. It's just not a natural thing to stomp and jump up and down on a brutally rock-like surface. There's zero give on that court.

At least with soccer, you have grass or astro-turf that has some squish to it.

I punch a heavy bag eight rounds for three days a week; and I do eight two minute sets on a stationary bike the other three day - 30 second sprint; dismount and about a minute of leg isometrics, another 30 seconds sprinting, and 30 seconds between sets.

Very low impact on the back and knees.

I haven't developed any shoulder or arm or upper body problems from impact on the heavy bag.

 

[thewolverines24]

I punch a heavy bag eight rounds for three days a week; and I do eight two minute sets on a stationary bike the other three day - 30 second sprint; dismount and about a minute of leg isometrics, another 30 seconds sprinting, and 30 seconds between sets.

Very low impact on the back and knees.

I haven't developed any shoulder or arm or upper body problems from impact on the heavy bag.

I have been considering this. What type of gloves do you use for the heavy bag?

 

[tinselwolverine]

I have been considering this. What type of gloves do you use for the heavy bag?

I use standard 16 ounce training/boxing gloves.

Really for working the bag for fitness in my opinion a person doesn't need to pay more than 40 bucks for a decent pair.

I like working the bag because it combines and amount of cardio with an amount of upper body work, and it's a little bit therapeutic to be able to stand and beat the hell out of something Without fear that you're going to get into any trouble for it.

 

[thewolverines24]

I use standard 16 ounce training/boxing gloves.

Really for working the bag for fitness in my opinion a person doesn't need to pay more than 40 bucks for a decent pair.

I like working the bag because it combines and amount of cardio with an amount of upper body work, and it's a little bit therapeutic to be able to stand and beat the hell out of something Without fear that you're going to get into any trouble for it.

Thanks for the info. My buddy had a bag when we were in our teens and I loved it, but could not remember what type of gloves he had. I'm sure I could have Googled it, but I like hearing from an actual person.

 

[hungry]

I punch a heavy bag eight rounds for three days a week; and I do eight two minute sets on a stationary bike the other three day - 30 second sprint; dismount and about a minute of leg isometrics, another 30 seconds sprinting, and 30 seconds between sets.

Very low impact on the back and knees.

I haven't developed any shoulder or arm or upper body problems from impact on the heavy bag.

How long is a round?

I just started back at my heavy bag last week. I use 5 minute rounds. Did 4 rounds one day last week and was exhausted. Glad i'm getting back into it. This seems to be the only cardio that I can stand right now.

 

[thewolverines24]

How long is a round?

I just started back at my heavy bag last week. I use 5 minute rounds. Did 4 rounds one day last week and was exhausted. Glad i'm getting back into it. This seems to be the only cardio that I can stand right now.

Official boxing round is 3 mins.

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