From: tanais	Date: June 21st, 2003 02:21 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Notes from an endorphin addict

(Saw yer LJ post via Megadog's friends page)

Oooh 27 is good! Although my trainer (who is a complete sadist) would say "yeah I thought you would have done 30" (personally I never do Road Jogging because car fumes give me a smoker's cough)...

You prolly know all this anyway... but some folks reading this might not know how easy a good exercise regimen is and that a Fat Burn cycle (which a lot of people could do with) actually takes less effort than most people think.

There are two types of exercise: Fat Burn (at 65% your heart rate -- dependent on age/weight) and then full-on "bonehead" Cardiovascular (CV) exercise which gets the heart pumping at 85%. "Fat Burn" (say 120-122bpm) depletes fat reserves from tummy, buttocks and legs and is the place where you will find you pull off the most lbs. It doesn't seem like much like exercise at the time (I barely work up a sweat) but it depletes fat more readily than hard exercise (the 85% "CV" kind) pounding away on the treadmill, cycling machines and cross trainers set at level "Macho" getting the heart beat up to 138bpm -- which takes energy from other sources -- and while you tone up better on 85% I don't lose flab and that was what I needed to start with.

But... (and here's the kicker). If I stick to just one regimen then the body acclimatises and while it does me good to always do the easier Fat Burn, the harder exercise will stop the body getting into a pattern -- this is how to avoid long periods of "plateaus" where muscle density and weight loss simply don't increase or reduce respectively. When one hits a plateau (and we all will) juggle it about a bit and also look at tweaking the diet and changing the actual exercise itself...

If I am sensibly eating then nothing serious needs to change diet-wise although one meal a day I now replaced with fruit instead -- mainly for the HPA and readily digested vitamins which I can regard as "baby Bio" for the muscles...

Stretches make my exercise more efficient and at least 2-3 minutes before and after each jog should be stretches, this improves circulation and I *always* end on Cardio work not Muscle work. A good approach would be to devise a loose framework of exersise that one can fiddle about with but still be sure one burns off a quarter of ones daily calorific intake...

One final word about Muscle exercise *always* *always* *always* exercise them in muscle pairs. Muscles Adduct and Abduct so always be sure if you exercise one set to exercise the opposite pair otherwise you'll get into a situation where the muscle development impetes the development of others...

I'm the only guy in the Gym who'se reason for working out was "to get buff for a pony".... If only they knew what that really meant...

	From: vexen	Date: June 21st, 2003 02:35 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Notes from an endorphin addict

Rar, sounds like you know considerably more about popular fitness programs than me! I hardly know anything! I'm following a military pre-training program, which includes warm up/down stretches & things too, so I'm just trusting that it's a good regime.

I admire your research & aims! Orinoco also gives me advise about various things to do in order to get more balance... I don't know anyone around me who I can train with.

I'm doing it because I want to have deep stamina and am doing it as part of an overall holistic strenghtening of my life, body and mind... my aim is to be doing 30 pressups per go. Nearly there! I'm on week 3 of a 4 week course.

	From: megadog	Date: June 21st, 2003 06:32 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Notes from an endorphin addict

30 press-ups per go isn't really that much - I've got a back complaint [arthritis in my lower spine] and part of the exercises I've been given to remediate this involves trying to do 100 press-ups and 100 sit-ups per day [the idea being both to maintain flexibility of the spine, and also to strengthen the muscles of the torso so they are better able to support the injured bone].

I can currently do 2x50 sit-ups and 3x30 press-ups, if I have a 5-minute recovery period between them.

Stretching is good though - thats another thing I have to do: muscles round injured joints naturally go into spasm, and this can lead to them becoming permanently shortened as a result.

	From: rough_angel	Date: June 21st, 2003 12:27 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	NY Ballet workout

a few months ago i discovered the ballet workout and I MUST suggest it to anyone who loves their legs.It is low impact,kinda like yoga,but it works every muscle and firms like nothing else!It rocks!

	From: shuripentu	Date: June 22nd, 2003 03:00 pm (UTC)		(Link)

*ph33rs your ph1tn3ss*

	From: vexen	Date: June 22nd, 2003 03:09 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Not as much as I fear the dextrous fingers of l33t haxor 5P34|<

:-)

*hugs and kind of misses the cub*