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All-Purpose Health and Fitness Thread


Super Ape

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Okay, Jenny McCarthy.

 

Yeah, I'm out of this thread.  Try to start your understanding of science with an episode of Mr. Wizard on youtube, buddy.  You have a long way to go.

 

If you understood science, you wouldn't say such ridiculous bullshit like "facts are facts." Take some middle school science and learn the difference between facts and theories. You're far too smug for a armchair quarterback here. Stating something "can adversely affect your health" isn't scientific fact. You're not the dude's doctor, you're someone who read a study on the toilet. If anybody is Jenny McCarthy on this matter, it's you. Just replace vaccines with distance running.

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...Awkward!

Yeah, basically. 

 

I'm not going to argue what studies have actually shown, but the evidence is there that over time endurance running increases scarring of the heart, an increase in calcium deposits in arteries, and some other possible effects to the cardiovascular system.  The only prominent cardiologist who disputes this (and who most endurance runners take their cues from in disputing these studies) is an endurance exercise dude himself who doth protest too much.  A bit compromised. 

 

The primary study you're referencing, if we're thinking of the same one, featured 12 individuals. They had, on average, been training heavily for 43 years, and in that time, completed 178 marathons, 65 ultramarathons, and 4 ironman triathlons. Of the 12, 6 had evidence of scar tissue. (You might notice, after 43 years of training, that these people were rather old. This is a relevant confounder.) Certainly, at the extreme end of all things, there are risks. I grant those and do things to mitigate them, although I would add that every other study I can find on ultra endurance events suggests the body heals itself fully in a week. But I would also add that there are numerous studies which show all sorts of health benefits and decreased risk of all cause mortality for endurance exercise up to one hour a day. While there is no clear additional benefit beyond that, it's certainly unclear where the bar for harm might be. But the evidence suggests it's a high bar indeed. And even then, we're talking about 6 people. Six old people, about whom we know nothing else, in terms of their health habits or racing history. 

 

My wife has an MPH from a really good university and we get a ton of journals since her speciality is health and fitness.  I've read the study paper in Heart on this on the shitter.  :)

 

I studied exercise science and work for a publishing company, proofing and copy editing academic journals. I'm not a cardiologist, but I certainly think I'm pretty well read on the subject. But credentials aren't really relevant here anyway. As you say, facts are facts, and they are the same no matter who cites them.

 

An increased risk does not mean you will be impacted, which is why I sad "can" impact your long term health not "will."  I am glad you are healthy, but facts are facts and science is science. 

 

Facts are facts, indeed. And the available facts say that, even factoring in this spectre of heart scarring, endurance athletes are overwhelmingly healthier and longer lived than the average person. And science is science, also. Which means our understanding and accrual of these facts will thankfully continue. Science, thankfully, is not a stagnant thing.

 

It's a free country, so do what you want to do. 

 

Happily

 

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After losing 40 pounds a year ago in a weight loss competition, I came up with an injured back that severely limited my mobility. Between that and some bad eating habits, I gained most of it back. I'm o on a plan again and dropped 10 pounds this week. The plan is to lose the 40 again and get some definition before going to Hawaii in March. Abs will probably be the main target area. We'll see how it goes!

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Does anyone have any suggestions for weight gain for a diabetic? I seem to lose more than I can gain. I was at one point 170-175 pounds but now I'm down to 140 and it's very aggravating. I am 5'10" if that gives you any indication of my build. I would like to get to 185.

I can see why you're asking.  I just did a Google search and there's basically no helpful info out there.  What about eating a lot more meat, even fatty stuff like hamburger or bacon?  Cheese?

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Details had an article on getting more out of planks. Any thoughts?

 

I think it's a good idea, but only for people who have completely mastered a regular plank. I have not seen a ton of men who have mastered the plank movement to a point to where I think they would get a huge benefit out of making it even harder - not even going into the inflexibility issues and body imbalances that people would exacerbate without even being aware of it. Women are usually much better at planking, but in the interest of full-disclosure/blanket stereotyping: 90% of women's workout programs, from what I've observed from working out at public gyms, goes like this...

 

70% cardio

25% core/hip/butt work

5% weight training

 

On top of that, most of the men doing the planking are likely doing it because they appear to be newer to the lifting game. So it's a move that women typically have a lot more practice/experience at, and my viewpoint might be distorted because I regularly see so many people trying it who have never done it before.

 

I don't typically pay attention to anyone when I'm working out, but when I'm stretching afterward it's fair game. There are countless ways that people cheat at planks, these are just a few of the ways I can think of off of the top of my head:

 

*Balling the fists up really tight (or are squeezing the two hands together), which takes pressure off of the area you should be working 

*Letting the lower back sink to the floor because your hips/butt can't hold the pressure

*Letting the chest drop/sink

*Looking up at the ceiling (keep the head neutral)

 

It's a hard move to do, and until all of that stuff is automatic (i.e. you don't have to remind yourself to keep your chest up) - it really isn't worth adding more stuff for your brain to try to remember to process. 

 

 

 

Working out at public gyms suck. I miss my squat rack (RIP: 2009-2013; sold it during the last move)/working out at home.  I only go during non-peak hours (1pm-3:30pm; I don't go if I can't get to the gym and start before 4pm). Between all of the traveling I've done, and all the moving I've done, I would say that I have worked out at well over 100 different gyms (easily). Probably closer to 200 if I wanted to sit down and think it out. Of all of those gyms, hands-down, the dirtiest brand is 24-Hour Fitness. I'm working out at one now and it's in a really nice part of town, but it's still gross. I've probably been to 25 different 24-Hour Fitness locations, in 5-6 different states, and every single one of them is like that.

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So I finally got some knee supports so I don't always feel like my wheels are going to snap off whenever I walk.  They make me feel as tall as a tree, and about as mobile, too.  Hopefully these will serve me well on that charity walk.

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Does anyone have any suggestions for weight gain for a diabetic? I seem to lose more than I can gain. I was at one point 170-175 pounds but now I'm down to 140 and it's very aggravating. I am 5'10" if that gives you any indication of my build. I would like to get to 185.

I can see why you're asking. I just did a Google search and there's basically no helpful info out there. What about eating a lot more meat, even fatty stuff like hamburger or bacon? Cheese?
Unfortunately, I also have nerve damage to the digestive system called Gastroparesis. Poor digestion plays havoc when it comes to balancing my insulin and food intake. Fatty food is a natural digestion delayer, so that is double trouble for me. Even if I did not have Gastro, the fatty foods would play a role in erratic blood sugar numbers. I would drop low then spike once the food digests. Even putting a delay on my insulin pump injections wouldn't help due to the unpredictably of amount of time it takes to digest fatty foods for me. Sometimes 4 hours. Sometimes much longer. Point is, fatty foods would exacerbate my insulin to digestion problems. Good idea, though.
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Only other thing I could think of for you is to find protein powder supplement that doesn't fuck with your sugar levels.  Add in some basic exercise that's aimed to build muscle without over-exerting yourself, like yoga or tai-chi, so that you put on muscle mass instead of fat.  

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Only other thing I could think of for you is to find protein powder supplement that doesn't fuck with your sugar levels. Add in some basic exercise that's aimed to build muscle without over-exerting yourself, like yoga or tai-chi, so that you put on muscle mass instead of fat.

Sounds great. I am really supposed to have more liquids like soups and such. Protein shakes and more exercise would definately help. Thank you.
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Officially 30 days into DDPYoga, and I'm down 17 pounds and an inch off my waist.  Still got about 65 lbs to go, but its nice consistantly checking in 10 pounds under 300 for the first time in 5 years.  Knees are already starting to feel better, and the massive amount of back stretches has started to relieve my constant lower back pain I've had since high school.

 

Added Red Hot Core into the end of Fat Burner, and its an evil, evil 12 added minutes.  

 

I'm finding that my body overall wasn't in as bad shape as I thought, as I'm feeling the workouts but it's not obliterating me the way I thought it would, so I'm confident in switching up to 5 days a week instead of just 3.  I'll be adding Diamond Cutter, but I'm scared of Below the Belt, least until I get a little more muscle endurance built up (Red Hot core showed that while my strength and endurance are better than I thought, my overall muscle endurance is shit.)

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Got package 1.  2 DVD's with 7 workouts.  Been really worth it now that I'm in a routine with it and am sticking to it.  The ability to modify the workout to your own abilities, along with having one of the people on the screen doing recommended modifications to make it easier should you need it is a big plus.  It also comes with a rough template on which workouts to do which days that you can choose to follow, but one of the big things DDP stresses is to do what your comfortable with and what you want to do with it.  I broke off the chart and am ramping it up, because I appear to be in better shape than I thought.  If I'm pushing too hard, I can always back it off.  

 

Also comes with a recommended nutrition plan and schedule, which I'm not fully following because its expensive to get all the organic stuff, and pregnant wife doesn't want to change the diet, so yeah.  I did ramp up my vegitible intake and cut out a lot of shit I was eating.  

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I belong to LA Fitness.

 

I wasn't much of an exercise person but I'm lucky enough to be in good enough shape. I'm naturally tall and skinny. I spent most of my life trying to put on weight as opposed to ever having to losing any. But exercise is exercise and it's good for all sorts of health issues. I mostly swim because my knees are pretty banged up and that's the best cardio for someone who has arthritis/stiffness.Anyways, LA Fitness is really strange.Most gym music is the stuff you'd expect to hear at the gym. But every so often, the LA Fitness DJ has seemingly tapped into my iTunes playlist. I've heard: "Temptation" by New Order, "Disco 2000" by Pulp, "Feed The Tree" by Belly, "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet, "A Million Miles Away" by The Plimsouls and "All My Friends" by LCD Soundsystem.

 

I once witnessed a couple making out in the hot tub.

 

Also, I had the following conversations:

 

1) I was at the stretching kit. Some guy comes up to me and says "HELLO!" in all-caps. I nod and he starts talking. "This is the first time I've been to the gym in eight months. That's when my ex-girlfriend dumped me. I got really depressed so I stopped coming here. But it's time I get back into it!" I nod again. There's a pause of about 15 seconds. "I'm going to jail soon. A few weeks ago, I was at the bar, thinking about my ex-girlfriend. I guess I had one drink too many. I got in my car and bumped into someone. A cop was right there and he saw me come out of the bar. So he gave me the test and I failed it just barely. It's my second DWI so I have to do a few weekends. But it's my fault. Completely my fault. Everything in my life is my fault."2) I was in the hot tub when a dude who looked a lot like current Ric Flair gets in. He starts talking to me about lord knows what and ends every sentence by calling me either "daddy" or "baby." He talks about the Italian restaurant he owns. "You name it, we got it, and it's good, daddy! You like linguine? You like calimari? Ohhh, baby, let me tell you, our place is the best, daddy!" I then ask if they have fried zuchini. They don't. "But I'll tell you what, baby. You come in with the zuchini, we'll fry it up right there for you, daddy!"

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 Some guy comes up to me and says "HELLO!" in all-caps. 

 

I died.

 

People are weird. I go so far the opposite way though, so I may not have the best perspective to offer.

 

My go-to move is to avoid eye contact with everyone. That alleviates 99% of the potential problem-causers. I superset that with generally looking like a madman, and if I'm really feeling it then I will TRI-SET those two by dropping my rest time to under five seconds. No one ever bothers me usually.

 

I take my anti-social gym behavior very seriously!

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So I've lost more girth than I thought.  When I started in March, I could comfortably wear most size 40 or 42 slacks and jeans.  I had reached a point where anything in my closet without an elastic waist would fall clean off my ass.  So I enlisted the help of some of my more fashionable friends to help me get some new stuff.  I went into the changing room with a pair of size 38 jeans, and was immediately told that I would not be trying on any more of those.  There are plenty of size 36 that I can't wear, as I still have a decent amount of fat left on my ass, but finding out that I'd dropped not only 40lb but one more pants size than I had realized (and three sizes since I started) was pretty fantastic.  I don't expect I'll ever be a 34, as I can feel bone at my waistline.  I'll just "shrink into" a slimmer size 36.

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I'm amazed that I'm in better shape than I thought, but I'm still way overweight.  Dropped officially down into a size 40 so I'm estatic.  I still haven't dropped enough out of my chest area (I carry almost all my weight in my gut and chest), so I'm still working with XXL shirts, although I've kept my XL's because I'm fucking determined to fit into them by Christmas.

 

Its absolutly amazing how fast my body got back into a 5-day a week workout groove, especially how I haven't been in one in 15 years.  Also pushing myself harder so I'm getting a good sweat and rise in heartrate, and watching it now that I got ahold of a monitor.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

So I haven't done this in a while, and I really enjoy jae's pep talks.

 

On the left is me in May. On the right is me the other day, almost six months later.

 

Posted Image

 

I'm 30 lbs down, but that isn't the entire story. I've packed on A LOT of muscle. I'm doing the DDPYoga Diamond Cutter workout once a day (except Saturdays or Sundays, depending on my schedule). I also run at least two miles a day 3-4 times a week (once again, depending on my schedule) and on the days that I don't run I lift weights. I originally started just doing the circuit at the gym, but a month ago I started the Bill Pearl bodybuilding program. The change in my body since then has been intense and pretty-life changing. I've altered my diet (still not completely organic and gluten-free, though I am working on it) and I've cut down my soda intake to maybe one can a week (instead of the 1 2-liter size bottle I'd drink in a day before).

 

The crazy part is that this stuff is hard to start, but so fucking rewarding once you do it. My life is completely different now and it's for the better. I feel stronger, more confident and those strange pie-in-the-sky goals that I had jokingly said when I first started are actually possible now (my body WILL resemble a doughier, 40 year-old Cesaro in a few years!).

 

So, congrats to everyone on doing this stuff, but especially me.

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Did the walk. Body felt like fresh death for a few days after. Reminded me how out of shape I really am, and how I gotta get that facet of my life together.

Today we had health-screenings for work (as part of our insurance plan), and did not like what I saw. Glucose is 120 after comsuming nothing all day but sugar-free cough drops, total cholesterol wasn't so bad at 185, but my HDL is low, and my BP wasn't bad. And I exceeded the weight limit on their scale, so I know I'm still a fat fuck.

Maybe once we get this line of credit OKed I'll plunk down the 60 quid for DDP Yoga like the rest of ya'll are.

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I rather wish I could do the DDPYoga thing, as I'm kind of reaching the limits of what I can do with my apartment complex gym, but all my attempts to do anything video-based have run up against the whole "legally blind" wall.  I think for yoga to work, I'd have to do one-on-one instruction at first, and that's WAY out of my price range.

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