BaconHunter

Totally not a double post, just here to agree with myself.

Here you go: Note that this is not a strength-only issue. You might have tight hamstrings that prevent you from getting your toes straight to the bar. Stretch your hamstrings everyday.

Heavy bag stuff can be a good conditioning option. You can easily swap out a treadmill session for a heavy bag session. You could do intervals. Pick a combo (like jab-jab-hook or something) and do that for 30 seconds. Rest 30 seconds. Do that 10 times. You'll be toast afterwards

The simple (but not easy) solution I see is to seek closure. Talk to her, tell her how she makes you feel. This is not about becoming friends again, but clearly stating how you see the relationship. You could look for a way to "ignore" her or find a way to cope with the stress (the symptom), but ultimately, wouldn't you want to be able eliminate the root cause of the problem indefinitely? She probably won't be the last person in your life that can cause this kind of stress. I think it's better to find a way to deal with these people.

Some quick tips: 1. Make meal prep and grocery shopping your priority. 2. Make protein a priority. Have a generous serving of protein at breakfast. 3. Drink water. Lots of it. Nothing else (occasionally unsweetend tee or coffee and some red wine). 4. Walk every day. Don't do all of this at once. Pick the one point that looks the easiest to you (maybe that's drinking water?). Then get that one thing dialed in and get to the next point when it's second nature.

Just googled Miss Muddy. Looks like serious fun, congrats! 7 months is more than enough to get in decent shape for that. First off, the main part is simply running. So practice running 1-2 times a week. Second, handling your own bodyweight competently will give you a huge advantage. Do some bodyweight circuit training 1-2 times per week. Here is beginner routine with 4 basic movements. 3 workout days per week will be plenty. Try this structure: Week 1: Run, bodyweight circuit, run Week 2: BW circuit, run, bw circuit Repeat. Have at least one rest day between workout days. Hope that helped!

I've tried a few in different gyms. I like the ones from DragonDoor the most. They've got a really nice touch, they don't chip (meaning no paint will come off if they bounce against something), they have no weld seam at the handle. They're pricier than most, but these will last you a lifetime and you can easily resell them on ebay once they get too light (they'll be basically as good as new). You can get them here.

Great job, man! Be aware of the fact that walking home first for the BBWW can be a trap. Once you're home, it's much easier to hit the couch or get distracted by something else. I'd advice you to do the BBWW at the gym. I have just the perfect thing for your mornings: 5 minute flow. Read that article! Really did change my life. I did an article where I provide a little bit more structure to it if that's your thing.

First off, very smart move to get proficient with BW exercises first before doing anything with weights. I'm not a big fan of cardio machines, but the rowing machine is a bit of an exception, so great choice What's great about rowing is that that's a movement you don't usually do during the day. Working at a desk every day can lead to a slumped-over posture. Rowing counteracts this. One question: Is this just a plan or did you actually try doing it? Going from doing not much to 6 days a week sounds like eager-beaver syndrome. You're highly motivated right now and overestimate your willpower (happens to everyone. Been there, done that). Personally, I wouldn't do the endurance days because rowing for 30-60 minutes without getting anywhere sounds incredibly boring to me. My suggestion: Start with 3 workout days a week. Warm up with some light rowing, do the BW circuits. Do that for a month. Your cardiovascular capacity (i.e. endurance) will improve from only that. Once that gets easy, add 4 minute tabatas of intense rowing at the end of your session (go as hard as you can for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat for 4 minutes). As a side note: You will outgrow the BBWW quickly. When that happens, maybe switch over to the Angry Birds Workout (much more scalable), or try my beginner routine. Hope that helped!

Personally, I wouldn't nerd out with the numbers too much. Now matter how diligent your measurements, this will always be a rough estimate. I know it sounds woo-woo, but tune into your body. You said you feel nauseous when you eat bigger portions, so don't eat bigger portions. Everybody is different. I'm someone who thrives on 1 or 2 big meals a day, you seem like someone who functions best with more frequent but smaller meals. How long have you been plateauing? Usually, people don't hit a real plateau but just run into a speedbumb down the road. Fat loss is not a linear process. You sound very active. Do you sleep enough? Could you get to bed half an hour earlier each night? Do you sometimes chill and eat ice cream?

Strength training. Like, real strength, not wannabe bodybuilding. Stop reading fitness magazines and inform yourself about the big lifts: Squat Deadlift Press (Overhead or Bench) Pull-up Here is a Youtube playlist from The Art of Manliness with Mark Rippetoe: Get some popcorn, sit down, watch and listen. For programming, there are tons of good predesigned programs out there. The two most popular are Starting Strength (based on the book) and StrongLifts. StrongLifts also has a whole wiki with videos and recommendations on how to do the lifts. Ya'know, we can argue all day that you got to develop some personality, have some sense of humor and all that, but to be honest: being strong (and looking strong) really does help. The secret to success is: Pick a good program (good programs focus on the big lifts in some form) and stick to it for a year. Yes, a year. You won't get what you want in a couple of weeks. You have to acknowledge that. It would be optimal if you invested in a few sessions with a coach/personal trainer who can teach you the lifts. But you sound like a young fella, so here's what I would do if I were you: Spend the first 2-3 weeks in the gym just learning the movement patters. Use the empty bar to practice. I know you're probably eager to get pumpin, but I guarantee that these few weeks will pay off. After watching the videos and maybe reading a bit about them by yourself, look for people in your gym who are doing these lifts. There probably won't be a lot of these guys, but I'd say at least one or two. Approach them and ask them if they can give your form a quick look. Ask them if you're doing everything right, let them correct. People usually love to play coach and will be happy to help, just don't go through ALL the lifts with them at once. Every time you're at the gym, seek out a competent looking guy and ask them to correct your form for ONE lift. If you can't find anybody, shoot a quick video of yourself and post it on the forums here. Everybody will be eager to give you some tips. I hope that helps.

You won't overtrain. Overtraining is a phenomenon that happens to the whole body (it's got to do with hormones and stuff), when you just work out too damn much. That happens when you train 2-3 hours every day and you will definitely "feel" this through your overall health (feeling tired all the time, but unable to sleep, nervousness and lots of other unfunny stuff). It will not happen if you worked your back muscles a tiny bit too often. Another thing that one may worry about: Repetitive overuse. Think about tennis elbows from doing one specific joint motion over and over again. The sweet thing about climbing: It's not repititve. You'll have to grab the wall from all different angles and move like humans are supposed to. Awesome! So your schedule looks safe to me

Okay. So I've picked these 3 for you. I have never seen you move, so this is just my best guess on what can be helpful to you. Squat to Stand: (hamstring and hip mobility) Half Kneeling Dorsiflexion: (you don't need all those props. If you don't have a stick, just support yourself with your arms on your front knee) Crab Walk to Squat: https://youtu.be/zJBLDJMJiDE?t=1m On your StrongLift days, you always have 3 main lifts. Pair each of those lifts with one of these drills. In every rest period, spend some time on these movements. You don't have to count reps or time it or anything. Just spend some time with one move and deliberately focus on making it look pretty. On your rest days, do 3 rounds of these 3 drills (kind of like a circuit workout, but with low intensity mobility drills). That'll take 10 minutes. If you add this up, you'll have about 2 hours of extra mobility work per week without living on a yoga mat.

Looks like a solid plan! As long as you're making progress with your fat loss goal, consider your plan perfect and don't let anybody tell you something else. Regarding mobility work: First, find a why for your mobility work, i.e. in what area do you lack mobility that you want to increase? If you have mobility issues that you want to work on, pick 2-3 mobility drills that specifically address these issues. Then sprinkle these drills into your rest periods while lifting. So instead of sitting around for 2-3 minutes between sets, do a mobility drill. This will save time, make the rest productive (active rest) and it will keep your heart rate up during training, which can help with fat loss. You can do mobility drills to specifically improve the movements you're doing while lifting. So when you're doing squats, do drills that improve hip and ankle mobility. When doing overhead presses, do shoulder mobility drills.

Of course, situps are the best exercise if you want to get good at doing situps. However, if you can't do them because you burned your back doing them on the carpet, hanging knee raises can help. Find something to hang from and raise your knees to your chest. Consider getting a mat or something if you plan on doing lots of situps on the floor again.

Let's just stop the name calling right there. No one was trying to be condescending and everyone is here to help. Most trainees will experience DOMS regardless of their training "level". People are different, though. Some just don't get very sore, no matter what they do, and then there's people like me, who get sore from a hard workout even if I've done the exercises for hundreds and thousands of reps. But, from my own experience and from what I hear from everybody else, the degree of soreness does decrease with training experience. Being intensely sore all the time (that's what I think PaulG was referring to), even after months of training, is a sign that you're overdoing it. However, a little DOMS here and there is just fine.

I'm afraid you won't get very far with the free weights (I guess those are dumbbells?) you listed. They're too light, or they will be after a couple of sessions. If you want to do some strength training at home, I would recommend bodyweight training. Here is a beginner routine.

I think you're off to a great start if you exercise out of pure enjoyment! It's the same as someone who wants to try learning a new instrument: It's supposed to be fun right? It's a skill you want to acquire. Once you get down the fitness rabbit hole, you'll soon discover what kind of workout modality gives you the greatest pleasure. When you're at that point, you probably want to get better at what you're doing. Goals will develop naturally from there on. Just be adventurous and try stuff out that sounds like fun. My advice would be to stick to something for 6 weeks. This way, you'll really see if it'll be fun in the long-run and if you get the benefits you've hoped for.

Just recently (as in, today), I did a blog post that gives you a little introduction into the different training routines that are out there and how to pick the right one for you. You can read it here.

If you don't enjoy cardio, don't do it. If fat loss is your primary goal, make food a priority. Your first workout must be: Shopping healthy foods and cooking. This will give you the most bang for your buck. If you don't do this, you can work out as much as you want, it won't help much. Here's how I define a healthy diet. Strength will be most effective in helping with fat loss (it's got to do with hormones and increased metabolic rate and all that). One more thing than can help: Walking. It's highly underrated and much more effective than cardio. Walk an hour a day. Take some podcasts or audiobooks with you so you'll get smarter while losing fat. Win, win. And don't do ALL of his right away. Start small. Pick the easiest thing first and continue from there. You probably spent a few years accumulating that fat you want to lose, so give this at least a few months to get results.

Pick a well-established routine, like Starting Strength or StrongLifts. They both work (and so do many other routines). Stick to it for at least half a year. It's that simple, but I know that it's also very hard. Get an accountability buddy, or better, a workout partner (or maybe even a group). Don't rely on willpower alone. Set up some kind of system. I always overestimate the amount of willpower I have in the future. Other than that, there is no magic formula. Pick a routine, stick to it and results will come.

Awesome jrosto! This is a serious improvement. As far as bodyweight squats are concerned, this looks pretty solid. You can experiment with foot positioning. Just try different stances and see what feels best. I found that if I jump up vertically and try to land softly, the stance I land in is optimal for squats. Another thing that you can work on is core activation. One simple thing that helps with this would be to do goblet squats. You can use a dumbbell or a kettlebell for this (or something else that's about 15 kg / 30 lbs heavy).

Although I've never come across someone "wrecking" their abs, I would advise you to start the program exactly as described first. Give it 4 weeks. With the big lifts you're going to do, your abs will get plenty of work. Adjusting to a whole set of new movements is challenging enough. After 4 weeks, you may get more confident with the lifts. To make sure your form is OK, make a video of yourself, compare them to the ones you'll find when you do a youtube search "mark rippetoe art of manliness" (they did a bunch of in-depth tutorials of the main lifts). You can also post them here on the forums. You'll get lots of help from everyone. After 4 weeks, you'll probably already be a little stronger. Physique-wise, there might not be a lot going on because the adaption will primarily take place in your nervous system. Your body literally "learns" to do the movements more efficient. If you really feel the need for ab work, add it, like you said, at the end of a workout. With your little adjustments, do this program for another 8 weeks. That's 12 weeks following a program to a T. It sounds simple, but many people (especially us nerds) have trouble doing this. We're bombarded with information overflow and everybody cries for your attention. Don't buy the hype. Most of the popular programs will work if (and that's crucial) you do them consistently and long enough. If you can follow a program for a year (that's freakin' hard), you'll make more progress than 90% of all the gym-goers. Good luck to you, sir!

This might get you started: https://gmb.io/handstand/ Other than that: Keep working around the injury and work on stuff you can do. Btw, training the non-injured arm can help maintain and maybe increase the strength of the injured arm a bit (it's neurological thing). Look for one-arm stuff. Bottom-up presses with a kettlebell have been really good for me (teaches shoulder stability, packing the shoulder while pressing and grip strength).

I meant handstands, not HSPU. Does getting into a handstand hurt? Similar to the TGU, this works shoulder stabilization (so shouldn't hurt rotator cuff) and is a fun move to practice. I'm pointing out all those alternatives because I know it sucks not being able to work out hard. But if you look at it as an opportunity to focus on the stuff you can do, this gets a lot easier.