thread of getting sw0le

but real answer: focus on attainable short term goals and you'll get hooked.

make it a habit - what's worked for me in the past is going to the gym every day for 30 days. Even if that means just doing 20 minutes on an elliptical, getting into the habit of going to the gym is 90% of the battle.

The habit will wane if life intercedes or I get lazy, but doing it again sets the habit up again for a while.

I agree with ryan. Attainable, short-term goals. Or, baby steps!

Don't exceed or overdo it because you'll wear yourself out quickly.

Eating habits becomes more important. Unless you're trying to lose weight, you will most likely need to eat more, and of the right stuff. Macronutrients and stuff. Basically, your essential nutrients. If you're a hard-gainer, you can look into protein shakes with weight gainers, but I would suggest trying to get your protein and gain your muscle mass naturally (not powder form) first.

I'm looking to maintain my weight but shift my body composition. I guess I will need to eat more, which seems inconvenient as I just kind of graze on things here and there and dont plan my meals in advance. But yeah, this is all about making a lifestyle change to be more mindful of my health.

Also, less coffee and less booze should be a goal as I think I'm constantly dehydrated right now.

^I've met quite a lot of people who weight-lift yet manage to drink coffee regularly and drink alcohol on the weekends. It boggles my mind, because I can't do that. It messes up my body and makes for poor workouts. But that might have to do with coffee/alcohol dehydrating my body and my not drinking enough water.

i drink a 16oz of coffee a day minimum and drink with meals about half the time, and fully on weekends. maybe i'd be EVEN HUGER if i didn't but then i'd be useless in the morning at work and bored in my personal life so, idk, tradeoffs

i think sleeping and eating right/enough are more important than caffeine and alcohol, within reason

Sleeping is the tricky part, because on weekdays, I end up working out late, so I can't get to bed early. Or I'll force myself to sleep early then I'll wake up in, like, three hours.

which i don't do either! full disclosure i've been bumping up against the same maximums for about 12 mos now so

xp

i also bought mark rippetoe's first book! it's pretty good, informative (often over-informative). i should come up with a capsule review here because it's a fascinating book just as a text

er, idk if it's his first first, but "starting strength," i mean

yeah I mean the basic starting strength program is really what you want to do, better results in less time than the dudes who just go from machine to machine and do 20 reps of each or whatever

Has anyone used System Six? I think it's for people like me who keep saying they're going to do something to get started and then don't.

http://i.imgur.com/23VgKGY.gif

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to change my routine to concentrate on weight loss, which was my motive for starting with weight training in the first place. I have a lot of difficulty balancing productive weight training with a more restricted diet and more frequent cardio and I'm always convinced I'm sabotaging myself or screwing up what little I've accomplished to begin with.

1) do no cardio or reduce cardio requirement to super chilled out walkin cardio. forget doing steadystate cardio for weight loss. don't do that. no treadmilling. if you need to speed things up, sprints, hill runnns, shit like box jumps with minimal rest, burpees shit like that, short high intensity work that you can get thru in 10% of the time.

2) convert weight training to something that will sweat ur fat off and retain muscle: complexes. look up some actual complexes designed by real people but the idea is banging shit out as fast as possible, minimal rest, low weight, not too high of reps but not too low, ex you load a bar, hit a set of front squats, 60 second rest, bentover rows with the same bar, power cleans (or something else if you're not into this), 60 second rest, overhead press, 60 second rest, deadlift, 60 second rest, etc. start with 5 reps for each, whatever, then decrease by one or two reps per set as you go through. end: heart racing, drenched in sweat, vomit in corner.

Ha, I knew I was doing it wrong! I had just started reintroducing cardio into off days, doing 20 minutes of moderate/high walking on the treadmill (4 mph or so) after weights, and doing the same sets with slightly lower weights until failure.

yeahhh... i shouldn't say NO CARDIO because that's not what i meant to say but low low grade cardio that's good n healthy for fat loss/general health and the intensity is made up hitting weights fast and relentlessly, or high intensity cardio.

dietwise i know you kids are into the low carb nowadays but remember to have enough carbzzzz to fuel your workouts. if i'm trying to lose fat my carbs never really move too low. if they're below ~100 g/day, i'm weak as fuck and suicidal and way more likely to lapse into off-diet binges. and beyond the baseline give-or-take 100 i let the preworkout meal get carby. for me, most of the day carbohydrates are coming from legumes cause i really like to eat beans, the meal before i go to the gym might be kinda dirty in comparison but it doesn't matter and it makes life more enjoyable and if i really need to eat red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing that's when i do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocQAJTFxfg0

look at that. no rest.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/complexes_made_simple

unrelated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPln7W2Nvtk

i don't know how to maintain sw0leness with my shitty tiring job. i've gone to the gym 4 times in 2014.

gains are coming much slower these days but i think that is normal after i had some great initial results. i really have begun to enjoy lifting heavy so i'll keep at.

is there a thread for not wanting to be swole and just wanting to lower your body fat percentage and get all thin

lol thread title is a little misleading. i don't think anyone here is going for the Sw0le look really it's just about being stronger and healthier in general.

dylannn's post up there is pretty OTM in regards to getting lean

I read some crazy tip in GQ or something where they said to get on an elliptical, set your weight, then crank it up to maximum resistance and work your ass off until you work off 100 calories. If it takes less than 8 minutes, you are a machine.

I am totally trying this later today. I will report back if I do not die.

i don't know how to maintain sw0leness with my shitty tiring job. i've gone to the gym 4 times in 2014.

― sent from my butt (harbl), Wednesday, February 19, 2014 5:24 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hmm maybe go tired? sounds like a dumb answer i guess. do you have a program, or do you just go and do whatever? i think going through a set routine/goals and doing badly at it is "easier" than just having a vague idea of going to the gym

sorry about your shitty tiring job btw

I read some crazy tip in GQ or something where they said to get on an elliptical, set your weight, then crank it up to maximum resistance and work your ass off until you work off 100 calories. If it takes less than 8 minutes, you are a machine.

the elliptical says that I burn about 1100 cals an hour on resistance level 15 (out of 20) which leads me to believe it's exaggerating the amount of calories burned by a lot.

to be fair, frogs have very muscular legs

xps harbl to continue: i shouldn't have written as if you don't know what you're doing. i don't have any good advice beyond "go anyway" i guess.

i have numbers i'm trying to hit every time and if i don't have it in me and miss them they just get repeated. it's kind of a mental get-out clause, but i don't have to rely solely on energy and motivation to do it at all.

I always tell myself that I am allowed to stop midway through a workout if I am just not feeling it. but almost always once I get started I see it through, the energy comes. but I think it's important to allow yourself that mental get-out clause because it makes deciding to *go* in the first seem like less of a mountain to climb.

I finally made up my damn mind and dropped the $40 on a real gym membership- not the first, I spent a few years in shitty suburban NJ tied to an LA Fitness, but I've spent most of the last year just using dumbbells and some basic equipment in my apartment building's exercise room and I'm excited to have access to barbells, a squat rack, a pullover machine (discovered that on a recent guest visit to someone else's gym and it left me sore as hell, probably a good sign), rowing machine, etc. I'll get a walkthrough on barbell form as soon as I'm done with this horrible fucking paper and then see if I can start in with dylannn's advice re: complexes over the weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMduPeGtTwk

the heaviest weight he does the elbow catches etc with is 60 kg, i believe.

i switched gyms to the y which is a little farther away but has parking lot so that should help. i went today. it's better than my other gym. less bros, more middle aged dudes just pumping iron. i was the strongest girl. also where i used to deadlift there was a little pit in the floor under the rubber mat so the barbell would roll crooked and it was awkward to set up. the y has a nice flat rubber floor. also rowing machines! pool! stuff! horseshoe goes there too but i didn't see her.

i switched gyms to the y which is a little farther away but has parking lot so that should help. i went today. it's better than my other gym. less bros, more middle aged dudes just pumping iron. i was the strongest girl. also where i used to deadlift there was a little pit in the floor under the rubber mat so the barbell would roll crooked and it was awkward to set up. the y has a nice flat rubber floor. also rowing machines! pool! stuff! horseshoe goes there too but i didn't see her.

Wait I messes that up!

I go to the C4tonsville Y more often these days but I like the one you go to more! Yay! That is a very nice Y. I am woefully unswole, but maybe my new project of working less will help.

also lol suburbs but the Towson Y is like a palace. It has a fireplace o_O

the Y has body pump classes which for someone like me who has no idea what I'm doing when I'm strength training are good.

now I am messing up this serious thread. But in terms of general chillness the 33rd street y is my fave.

this is not a serious thread! look at the picture! i might try the towson one some weekend

My brother just bought a house in Towson, I'll have to tell him he can join a pimped out Y.

i work out in the oldest, grubbiest Y in the whole metro area. there are plans in the works to rehab it but idk. i think working out with actual matched unrusting plates and unbent bars in something better than a beige basement might be weird now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=panCh8MkYxo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIlL-ibwOlA

remember greg valentino?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYlNfvwFN_I

synthol city

^haha. ya. god. gregg valentino. sad thing is he did so well at the beginning.