Sports & Fitness

Non-neopets general discussion.
Fury
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Fury »

Bif wrote:To everyone who thinks that everyone in the gym will be looking at you: EVERYONE thinks that everyone else is looking at them. They are so busy feeling self conscious that no one actually looks at anyone. Just do it! :D A lot of gyms also have an introduction when you sign up. A trainer will go around with you and show you how to use everything and see what weights you should be using. Ask about it, it might give you more confidence with the equipment.

I was really getting into my Pole Dancing last year and am very excited to continue it this year. I was going 3 times a week by the end of 2012 but due to the schedule I can only go 2 times a week this term. Hopefully next term will be at better times.

My pole goals:

Land the Shoulder Mount
Land the Aerial Invert
Move up to Int 2 Combos by the end of the year
Haha you're so right about the gym! I know once I get through that door for the first time I'll be cool from then on. It's simply fear of the unknown!

Poledancing sounds cool and I've heard it's great exercise! I'm very ill-educated on the subject but I'd imagine it requires you to be pretty supple and flexible. Do you just do it for fun or do you compete? Or even do it in some trendy bar somewhere?!

I've been thinking a lot about this weightlifting routine I want to get into and the appropriate diet to compliment it. I'm not looking to become a bodybuilder but I want to have a defined, lean, muscular physique. I've been reading a lot of advice on forums and have come up with a basic routine/meal plan that I hope to start in February. But of course I'd love more tips from any weightlifters out there!
Spoiler: open/close
MONDAY: Off
TUESDAY: Arms + Cardio
WEDNESDAY: Legs + Cardio
THURSDAY: Abs (CX Works) + Cardio
FRIDAY: Chest/Shoulders + Cardio
SATURDAY: Cardio / Swimming
SUNDAY: Squash

BREAKFAST: 2x Eggs
SNACK: Fruit
LUNCH: Tuna / Veg (Green peppers, Cucumber, Broccoli etc.) / Pasta / CousCous / Meat / Fish
DINNER: As above
POST-WORKOUT: Protein Shake
What do you think?

Main things I need to work on:

1. CUT OUT THE CHOCOLATE: Seriously, I think I am at risk of getting diabetes. I am lucky in the sense that I don't seem to put on weight but all this sugar is not good for me.

2. Drink more water for the love of Christ: I hate water and find it incredibly boring; but flavoured water is good. I just forget to drink unless I'm working out so I need to drink a lot more during the day.
Silver Link
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Silver Link »

I started drinking water after I started sleeping over at my boyfriend's (now husband's) apartment. He would have a glass by his bedside table every night and soon enough, I started keeping my own glass by my bed. Then I started drinking it throughout the day and now I'm pretty sure I drink almost 8 glasses a day. If you work at a desk, just keep a full glass or cup by your computer and eventually it'll start tasting great.

Now, I still have an addiction to regular Snapple and drink soda for the most part whenever I'm at a restaurant but once you regularly keep a glass within easy reach throughout the day, it'll become easier to make the switch
Wingsrising
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Wingsrising »

Re: drinking water. I definitely endorse drinking water instead of sugary drinks (sadly, juice is also sugary drink) but note that the whole "must drink 8 8-ounce glasses of water a day" thing is a myth. Generally speaking unless you're exercising and/or hot, if you drink when you're thirsty you're getting the right amount of water.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

I like plain water much better when it's cold than when it's tepid and I like it even better in the form of (unsweetened) black, green, or herbal tea. :-)

At the moment I'm taking a medication that has dry mouth as a side effect, which means I'm pretty much drinking water incessantly. No worries for me!
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Bif
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Bif »

Poledancing sounds cool and I've heard it's great exercise! I'm very ill-educated on the subject but I'd imagine it requires you to be pretty supple and flexible. Do you just do it for fun or do you compete? Or even do it in some trendy bar somewhere?!
I've been doing pole because all other excise is super boring to me, with pole I'm just having fun but am working my butt off at the same time. I knew I needed to do exercise and it sounded like fun so I started. Plus it's a great conversation starter. :P I don't compete but would love to some day (no way am I going to be super amazing, just a small local competition).

The fantastic thing about pole is that the easier, base levels moves do not require being super flexible or being super strong, I had never done weights or the gym or dance or anything before I started doing pole. I had very little upper body strength when I started and yes, my spins sucked. But more than likely you'll find something with pole that you are better at (for me it was climbing the pole because you use leg strength and naturally my legs are stronger than my arms) and you go from there. So you work your way up to the more flexi tricks and every time you try one you get that little bit better. Just like how every time you try a hard trick you get a little bit stronger until one week you come in, try that trick you've been working on and BAM! You get it! It's SUCH a great feeling. It's all about starting small.

I currently go to the Pure Pole Academy in Brisbane (Australia, just in case anyone else wants to know), they have classes in 8 week blocks from Beginner to Advanced as well as casual, pay as you go, classes. I used to do casual classes in a strip club before opening hours but then the teacher changed and it wasn't as good. I LOVE where I do pole now, I learn so much and all the instructors and super nice and talented and encouraging.
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Madge
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Madge »

Agreed on having water available. Especially at work; I like to use water as an excuse to get out of my desk and go on a wander.

I also used to do pole; I probably still would if I didn't have so many other options. My new roller derby team is going to be taking up a lot of my time I think (4 hours pw), plus I'm starting to ride to work (didn't today because I'm having my first session back on skates in a month and don't want to tire myself out; will probably do 2-3 times pw to start with). But yeah, mine was just like Bif's; it was called SheMoves, and you could do 1 hour workout classes which were basically just aerobics classes but done in a sexy way and with a pole involved, or the 6 week courses. I've done the beginners course twice so I can still do a few basic spins, but it's expensive and with Derby costing $50/mo I'm really not willing to throw down $10 per session for it. It was great though; the staff always said we did great and were attractive/sexy ladies, which even though you know they're saying it because it's their job it's wonderful for your self esteem. Plus the demographic being young, attractive girls was very nice for people like me who have a sly perv (and also great for people like me who don't want to feel like they might have unattractive people perving on them; yeah I know this makes me a bad person but whatever makes you comfortable, right?).

Something that I've always noticed about my exercise is I drink a LOT of water or else I feel really, really faint. I drink about 2L (half gallon) in two hours. I read somewhere you're meant to drink 250ml every 15 minutes so I'm not so worried about it, but it's always a bit worrying when you require what seems like twice the water of your teammates!

But yeah, first day back at derby with a new team. Through being in the derby community in Perth for a number of years I know quite a few people already, but it's always intimidating to join a new team. But hey, I'm gonna get out there and hopefully not make an ass of myself! :D
EofS
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by EofS »

Fury wrote:2. Drink more water for the love of Christ: I hate water and find it incredibly boring; but flavoured water is good. I just forget to drink unless I'm working out so I need to drink a lot more during the day.
I've never been good at drinking enough - I remember as a child once proudly telling my mum "I've not had a drink aaaall day" and being told off. Then when I was 14 I got dehydrated and nearly collapsed in town on a hot summer's day and it gave me a bit of a wake-up call. After that, I made it a habit to start having a water bottle with me all the time - I can only assume that the school I transferred to at 14 allowed students to have water with them in the classroom? I don't really remember, but I guess it must have been allowed.

So I turned drinking water into a habit. Oddly I'm not too keen on it from a glass, much prefer it from a plastic bottle. (Tap water that is, I don't drink commercial water if I can avoid it.)

I don't have a particularly good recognition of thirst - whatever in my brain is meant to create the sensation just doesn't do it. But turning it into a habit has worked well. I'm still not great on weekends and might find myself having had only a couple of glasses all day, but when I'm at work I'll easily drink 2-3 litres. (It's also better now that I live with my fiancé, because he gets himself drinks and then gets me one at the same time. Before he lived with me I usually wouldn't remember to have a drink with my evening meal. Now I will sometimes even be the one to remember to pour them.)

Which is a rambley way of saying, try just having a bottle with you at all times. If it's there, in arm's reach, you might be surprised how much you'll drink.
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Madge
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Madge »

I rode my bike to work again and I was wondering - does anyone know how long it takes your body/muscle/lungs/etc to adjust to an exercise like this? It's only my second time riding a bike in YEARS so I was not expecting to be anything other than tired and sweaty, but I am curious as to how much longer I can expect to feel this way?

Like, if someone could tell me that after three months will my body have adjusted enough that the trip, whilst still physically demanding, doesn't leave me ridiculously tired and sweaty, then I'd feel a lot better about it and more motivated because I'd have something to look forward to. I'm of the understanding that eventually my 6km ride should be easily achievable within 20 minutes, and it takes me forty at the moment. (Which is still comparable with the amount of time it takes on the train so I'm not complaining; annoyed I can't really listen to podcasts and ride, though I think I might try it on the bike paths that are well separated from the road).

That said, I'm not so tired I collapse or anything. Once I get off the bike and cool down/shower I feel fine. (Possibly even "great", maybe better than I do when I take the train because endorphins? though the train does give me 20 minutes of walking so...)
Fury
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Fury »

Madge wrote:I rode my bike to work again and I was wondering - does anyone know how long it takes your body/muscle/lungs/etc to adjust to an exercise like this? It's only my second time riding a bike in YEARS so I was not expecting to be anything other than tired and sweaty, but I am curious as to how much longer I can expect to feel this way?

Like, if someone could tell me that after three months will my body have adjusted enough that the trip, whilst still physically demanding, doesn't leave me ridiculously tired and sweaty, then I'd feel a lot better about it and more motivated because I'd have something to look forward to. I'm of the understanding that eventually my 6km ride should be easily achievable within 20 minutes, and it takes me forty at the moment. (Which is still comparable with the amount of time it takes on the train so I'm not complaining; annoyed I can't really listen to podcasts and ride, though I think I might try it on the bike paths that are well separated from the road).

That said, I'm not so tired I collapse or anything. Once I get off the bike and cool down/shower I feel fine. (Possibly even "great", maybe better than I do when I take the train because endorphins? though the train does give me 20 minutes of walking so...)
I'm probably not the best person to answer as I don't ride a bike outside of Spin class but I only started exercising (at all) around June last year. I was fairly knackered and achey the following day after an exercise class for a good month or so but the exhausted feeling left me soon after and all I was left with the next day was achey muscles. I hardly ever feel completely shattered unless I've not eaten properly before a high intensity class such as Spin & Pump.

If you ride a few days a week I'd imagine you'd get used to the strain on your body in a lot less than three months - but everybody is different. You're always going to feel it in your legs if you cycle hard but your body will be able to cope with the cardio exercise the more you do it. Of course eating is vitally important too!
Kantark
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Kantark »

Madge, I used to cycle an 8-mile round trip daily to work come hell or high water (literally, as the road had a tendency to flood at one point after heavy rain) and could easily manage the 4-mile journey home, including a couple of moderate hills, in around 20 minutes. But that was a loooong time ago. This week I've been cycling the (now much shorter) journey to work at about 2 miles each way and I'm out of practice and it feels like it! Good news though: it does get much easier with more practice.

Pace yourself - don't be tempted to cycle harder than you have to, e.g. by trying to get up a hill faster by staying in a higher gear. You'll just get exhausted, lose momentum and have to knock down to a really low gear or stop altogether. Knock it down to a lower gear at the bottom of the hill and then make slow but steady progress. Some years ago I did the London to Brighton Bike ride, about 54 miles the hardest part of which is near the end: the ascent of Ditchling Beacon (158 metres altitude in about a mile). I paced myself in 1st gear and made achingly slow but steady progress, which took about 15 minutes but I got there without having to stop and walk up, and from there it was pretty much downhill all the way to the sea.

Don't discount the effect of weather - if it's at all windy (even a breeze) and you're cycling into the wind then it takes more out of you than you think. Of course if you're on a circular route you'll get the benefit of the wind behind you on the way back.

I'd say don't push yourself to achieve the route in a certain time, especially if it's to/from work, you don't want to feel tired/achy all day. Go at an easy, comfortable pace and you should find that your average speed will gradually increase over time. I would think that 6km in 20 minutes, for a reasonably flat run, is achievable depending on how often you have to stop for traffic junctions, etc. A cycle computer is very handy for keeping a check on your average speed.

EDIT: oh, and don't underestimate the benefits of a comfortable saddle.
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Madge
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Madge »

Thanks for the tips - just arrived into work after my daily ride. Today was a much cooler morning (height of summer here and all!), and it's been relatively still (I think). I'm very lucky that my house is pretty much straight down a big bike path (well seperated from the road) and then to work, with underpasses under a freeway and busy street. I only have to ride down a couple of suburban streets and then cross a two-lane street with a decent volume of traffic but at low speeds and a rail crossing, with some nice parks and a river on about 5 minutes of my journey.

Funny you should mention a bike computer - I found a good app for my phone and I managed to do the trip to work in 30 minutes today! (I think this is because yesterday arvo I used the bike pumps here to inflate the tires to "40" on the gauge, whatever units that is.) But yeah, I felt noticeably less puffed for the trip - I remember going past the train station I normally have to talk myself out of leaving my bike at because I'm so tired without a thought other than "at Maylands station already?! awesome!". Not really feeling sore - my right arm's a bit, I guess, but that could be from roller derby training as much as anything.

I am hearing you on the saddle, though. My butt is certainly sore! I'm just glad I don't have testicles, I can only imagine how much more of a problem that would be.

I'm wary about buying more things for the bike until I'm certain I'll be keeping this habit. At the moment I've spent $85 on the damn bike. (Basket: $50 [essential, otherwise it's too difficult to carry everything], Toolbox: $10 [allen keys to do the bike stuff], Bike Lock: $15 [haven't used it yet because it goes from my back yard to the locked underground carpark at the office], Water bottle + Cage $10 [damn bike doesn't have a bracket to attach the water bottle cage to with the included screws, so I've attached it with cable ties]).

However, so far it's saved me $9 worth of train trips (I spend $3.50/day on the train). Once it's back in "paying for itself" territory I might see about getting some more accessories. But I think my butt will acclimatise to the seat before that happens.

Thanks for the tips on pacing; the building I work in is at the top of a steep hill (~4%; not sure if that's steep in UK terms as I hear we've got notoriously flat land) and I usually just push the bike up the steepest part (for about 200m).

But yeah, like I said - I have a bike computer app now. Says my average speed is 13.75km/hr; I believe I should expect to get that up to 19kmh eventually, right? What sort of other data should I be tracking? (I love tracking data. I have a spreadsheet to calculate my 5 day moving average of my speeds and automatically work out how much my bike has cost/saved me.)
Kantark
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Kantark »

Oooh, yeah, I forgot to mention about pumping your tyres up... under-inflated tyres will really increase the effort required (and wear the tyres out quicker). '40' sounds like PSI (yay prehistoric imperial units), which sounds about right for knobbly off-road mountain bike type tyres. I put 60 PSI in mine which are road tyres. Over-inflating tyres can burst them so check your max values before getting carried away. Look on the sidewall of your tyres, the min/max pressures should be printed there - something like 'Inflate to 55-75 PSI'.

19 kmh = about 12mph which sounds like a pretty good average speed to me on a relatively flat run. I can't tell you what mine is cause I've lost my bike computer but I guess it's at least 2-3mph short of that at the moment :-/
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Madge
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Madge »

Yeah, I heard they have the recommended pressure written on the walls of the tyre but the dark basement carpark wasn't doing me any favours and I wanted to get home already, so I just pumped it as much as my feeble strength would allow :P.

I have no idea what sort of bike mine is. I inherited it from a friend who moved away. But it seems to be working OK! I've got a friend who is into bike racing, and when I told him I was thinking of getting a bike he said you need to spend $600 or you may as well not bother. Ha, ha, ha. My first car cost less than that!

Today the chain fell off when I was changing gears too quickly. Whooops. I managed to fix it just as a friendly fellow cyclist was stopping to see if I needed any help. Very glad that the parts of my journey that are far away either from home or work are regular bike commuter paths so I'm sure if I sat around looking helpless for 5 minutes I'd have someone help me with any problems I might encounter!

Thanks so much for all your help Kantark :). I was thinking of you and using a low gear going up some hills!
Fury
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Fury »

Well I made it into the gym last week with the help of my friend and we had a go on a few of the machines and he gave me some pointers. I went another couple of times during the week to get used to the feel of the place and tonight I started my "routine" - yay! I am so proud of myself!

It's a really small gym and there were only a couple of guys in there tonight, happily chatting away to each other, so I got on with my leg workouts and slipped out pretty much unnoticed. I think going late (8:30pm onwards) is a good move, to minimise the risk of being stared at and having to wait around awkwardly for equipment to be free. But, you know, if I could meet a hunky fella in there that would be pretty amazing?!

Good news is that I've started drinking water at work. I'm into the habit of having a glass during the morning before lunch, a glass during lunch and then a glass for the afternoon. Bad news is that I think I've got a serious addiction to chocolate - it sounds stupid but I really think I do. When I crave chocolate (pretty much from 11am onwards) I crave chocolate specifically. I don't crave 'something sweet', it's specifically the taste of chocolate that does it for me. I can't be lacking in sugar as I eat plenty of fruit. What is wrong with me? Help!?
Madge
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by Madge »

I tend to be like that but with soft drink; my advice is either to have a couple of small chocolate pellets that you can eat one at a time without it being too bad calorically speaking (after all, if you enjoy something why not have it?); the alternative is to do a complete cold turkey. I did this with my soft drink; the first three days I was awful and obsessive but after that I stopped needing it at all. Getting through the first few days is the hardest part.
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Re: Sports & Fitness

Post by thelonetiel »

Fury, you could also look into cocoa nibs. As I understand it, they are a precursor to chocolate - you'd continue grinding them and mix them with fats and sugars to make chocolate. They might fill in your cravings without being so unhealthy (the linked article will instead espouse how awesome they are, but I'd take it with a grain of salt). They are a lot like coffee beans only chocolate flavored - if you've ever had chocolate covered coffee beans you'll know that texture and bitterness, so they aren't the tastiest plain. But you could use them in (healthy, oatmeal based etc) baked goods, in yogurt or smoothies, or cover them with a little real chocolate, and get the benefits of cocoa (caffeine-ish effects, antioxidants, satisfy cravings) but in a less sugary-fatty way. I don't think a little chocolate will kill you, little bits like Madge said might be enough, but cocoa nibs certainly have fewer calories if you want frequent chocolatey snacks.

I know the local chocolate factory here in Seattle sells them, so if you have a similar place that roasts their own beans near you might ask. Or apparently the internets sells them, like everything else.
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