Exercise

[gazzyk1ns]

OK I'm just going to spew this all onto the screen via my keyboard, I've had such a strange few days of limbo.

Exercise is so weird, I run a lot and have been training quite hard for the last few months to try to get back up to speed after not running much at all for the first time in my adult life during 2003. But I kind of burned out a little sometime last week, I ended up sitting here at the PC drinking some beers rather than running, going for a walk or doing any weights at night. It didn't worry me at all for a couple of days, a break every now and then is good. But tehn the weekend came, so I went out as usual. And come Monday I didn't knuckle down and get back into the swing of things even then, one of the guys from the club called me up for a run but I couldn't be arsed with it. The last three days have been the same, not much physical effort at all, some beers on most nights.

But then at about 5pm today, Steve from the running club calls me up. "We're going to be at the High School at 7" he says. "hmmmmmm...." I went for a walk to loosen my legs up and thought hard about it... in the end I decided that I'd just go and trundle round with them, most are training for London this time of year so they'd only want some slow distance work. But limbering up in front of the girls going to the gym (next to the school) always makes you feel good, you've got your kit on and it's freezing, they all look at you and think "Wow they're running in this weather!". And then, round the corner come Steve, Gordon, and Matt... but... there's someone with them I don't recognise. Someone younger than any of us usual lot. Unless Gordon's kid had aged about 10 years, grown a foot and developed the ability to run, then it was someone new. And indeed it was, a right ponce. I introduced myself, and he muttered his name and then something about being "the fastest guy in his 6th form" and looked away. Any thoughts about trundling around slowly went out of the window. I had to stop myself from shouting "I'll show you how fast you are, you stupid little PUNK!"[/i] in his face.

And that was it, instant energy. I caned him around our favourite 5 mile course and then when he came huffing and puffing back into the High School car park a minute or so after me I said. "Oh sorry, I hope I didn't go too fast, haha don't want to put you off from joining!" With a big beam on my face. ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHH that felt good, best run in ages.

So now I'm kicking myself for being a lazy bum for the last few days, with any sport the hardest thing about training is actually getting up from in front of the PC or telly and getting your kit on - at times it's so hard and as I've said, sometimes laziness gets the better of you but it's so strange... you never regret doing it when laziness doesn't get the better of you. The psychology of this sort of thing is hard to understand.

[wasp_f15ting]

Heh I started training in the middle of January, and it at times seems like the most pointless thing ever. I used to be physically fit and quite strong before my folks flew off to India, this lead to me drink drink and purge all the constraints I had on my eating and drinking habits. The end result was extreme weight gain.. 3 stones in fact, and after working full time and doing full time education I didn't have much time for punching metal for a bit of adrenaline..

But since I have started it again now, it is one of the most boring things in the world.. spending 2 hrs in a gym listening to crap records and having other peoples sweat wafted at you is no fun at all. I am regaining some of my stamina and muscular strength back, and losing weight very very slowly.. a stone and a bit from 7weeks of training and that is 3 – 4 a week... shows you how fucking stupid and pointless those lose 10million kilos in a week programmes are.. Its strange how the body works. I started eating around 100-190gms of protein a day, and muscle strength has grown so much.. I struggling to lift 15kg(per arm) dumb bells when I started, now I can repeat 25kg dumb bells per arm 4 times over without much effort. My lower back feels better and my posture has changed too..

The only nemesis of training is laziness and alcohol. I got pretty damn shit faced last night, and today I couldn't be arsed working out, I won't tomorrow either.. it's a horrid fucking circle. Training can become addictive.. when I was training a couple of years back I used to keep logs of body measurements and training records and chart them on excel.. yes that fucking bad. It is interesting to see how your body develops though, rather than neglect it. I don't want to get into that level again, but want a functioning body.

[gazzyk1ns]

I struggling to lift 15kg(per arm) dumb bells when I started

Haha fuck you strongman, if I get around to doing any weights tonight I'll be curling 12.5 at the most!

The only nemesis of training is laziness and alcohol. I got pretty damn shit faced last night, and today I couldn't be arsed working out, I won't tomorrow either.. it's a horrid fucking circle. Training can become addictive..

Yeah both of those things are so true, aren't they... binging and having a good time is very addictive, as is exercise. Unless you're trying to compete at an international level though I think it's about finding a balance, I wouldn't want to be a boring bastard and I'm sure you wouldn't either... if only drinking and lazing about didn't make you a swelling lethargic bastard...

[5 Knuckle Shuffle]

I've never been fat as such, but I did go through a stage of putting on some weight when I stopped taking copious amounts of amphetamine and started drinking beer instead. Added to the fact that I had almost hit 30 and my metabolism was beginning to slow, I started to get love handles and the old favourite, double chin syndrome.
I hadn't run, exercise wise, since I'd left school, and harboured no thought of ever running to keep fit at all ever since, but one Saturday for some unexplicable reason, I just got up and went for about a mile and a half run, just in my jeans, t-shirt and trainers. I really don't know why I did it, but it felt fucking awesome.
After that, I bought a pair of running shoes and tracky from a sports shop and started stretching out my runs and really going for it every day. Then I realised that I was doing too much, so I begn going about twice a week instead. The thing is though, I really am starting to get lazy again because I have been missing a month here and there and I hate myself for it.
I'm thinking of getting a MP3 player to take with me on my runs as I reckon it'll be more of an incentive to keep going again.
Does anybody else take a MP3 player on their runs?

[gazzyk1ns]

This is the thing 5KS, I suspect that if you motivate yourself to get your kit on and go out the door then an MP3 player or whatever is irrelavent. But hey, if getting one to motivate you to do that is necessary then do it, and you'll have a nice toy to play with whenever as well, I suppose. If running regularly starts to feel like a chore then vary your route - even doing the same loop backwards is refreshing. Mixing speedwork or fartlek with more 'traditional' running also makes it less monotonous and you'll get faster (or find running at your existing pace a lot easier, whichever you'd prefer), which of course will motivate you further.

I've never run with music but something to bear in mind is that you'll not be able to hear traffic/cyclists with Aphex Twin blaring out in your ears.

[Cerys]

I started to read this thread.  Honest I did.  But then I got a nasty reaction to the very idea of physical effort and had to retire to the sofa, hyperventilating.

[hencole]

I've lost a stone in the last month, partly due to exercise, partly a radical cut down on bad food. I've even started jogging everynow and then which is something I've always despised. I think exercise and alchol/smoking are equally addictive particluarly drinking after exercise. I used to be quite fit and play sport most days upto the age of 17, but the last 7 years the bad life style has won and now  I'm trying to get my health back. This all started because I was trying to get a date. I think you need something like that to motivate yourself.

[Uncle_Z]

I have rambled before about my excursion into the world of the mighty so I will just summarise as I peaked at a bit over 15.5 stone and lean on a 5'9 frame.  The serious training  - recording weights and key sizes, taking creatine and massive amounts of protein - was shortlived as I got fed up of never feeling hungry.  PM me for list of daily food intake if really interested.

Before, during and after this phase I used to love going to the gym.  Good cathartic grunting, competing only against myself (well okay, now and again their would be some scrote comparable to Gazzyk1ns' runner who would have to have their ideas redefined but largely it was just me).

However I picked up a back injury playing squash a couple of years ago (recently aggrevated by snowboarding) which kind of scuppers the proper compound exercises like deadlift and squat.  Training with weights for "fitness" with no real goal is just fucking dull so my motiviation wandered off for a while and I got flabby (as painfully indicated in the Brum meet photos).

Have decided I need to get down to a more manageable weight.  It's sort of been decided for me really.  I was happy being a heavyweight when I was strong as a bastard, but I am not happy right now.  I feel sick at the thought of becoming average but hopefully that will pass.  I am aiming at 13-13.5 stone which my GP will no doubt tell me is still a stone into obesity.  Recently bought a bike and have cut out my customary beer or two on "skool nights".  Half a stone off in the last two weeks and I am under 14 st for the first time in about four years.

[mook]

I've really got to get my arse into gear and lose a bit of weight, for the first time in my life I've got a bit of a belly and it isn't pleasant. With me though I just know that joining a gym would be pointless I would go once or twice and be bored shitless by it. I'm going to have to find a another sport to play but which one? I'm 34 so returning to football is just about out of the question, theres nothing more pathetic than seeing a sweaty thirtysomething puffing like a train trying to get to the ball on a sunday morning. I've thought about taking up tennis, there are literally dozens of courts just a couple of hundred yards from where I live so I'd have no excuse not to wander down a have a game, but there is something intrinsically camp about tennis that puts me off. Oh I don't know, anyone got any info on liposuction?