GeekWingChun

@Harriet without fatiguing yourself, you will not get results because you will not be making your body say, "Whoa, that was tough. We need to be stronger before we go through THAT again!" As for specifying results, when most people say they want results from an exercise, they mean they want less fat, more muscle. All the other things you mentioned can stem from being stronger, and I know because it is what I have experienced myself, and what many others have who train similar to me. I'm not saying the way I do things is the only thing that will cause changes to your body composition. However, it DOES do it faster, not to mention safer. I'm not here to make anyone drink MY Kool Aid. I'm simply stating what I have observed, and what many scientific studies I've read back up. I'm not the Exercise Police, coming to arrest anyone who does something other than me. We all have the freedom to choose whatever we want, just like we choose the books we read or movies we see. This is merely what I believe based on the evidence I have seen.

I'm not talking about H-I-I-T though. That is classified as a "cardio" workout, but I am talking about weightlifting. (Of course, having said that, there really is no need to split your workouts between "strength training" and "cardio." All that does is complicate your workout, and exercise should NEVER be complicated.) Some folks call it High Intensity Training, WITHOUT the second I"," but I hate that name, specifically because it makes people think I mean the OTHER workout. Also, high intensity training is NOT circuit training. Granted, you do strive for minimal rest between moves, but that is about the only similarity between the two protocols. Lastly, all that "progressive overload" means is that you are putting a higher and higher demand on your body, AKA you are lifting heavier weights. And yes, sure, every protocol can get results because you are doing something other than sitting on the couch. I guess it's just a question of when you want to actually SEE results. With low-intensity protocols, it is going to take longer...but if you have the free time, go for it.

If the OP wants results, then they absolutely need to worry about high versus low intensity. There really aren't any "weeds" to get into, and the list of pros and cons isn't that long: high-intensity gets results...low-intensity does not. End of story. If the activity does not tax you enough, you will not get any results...and if results are what's important to a person (which they are to the OP, given the subject line of this thread), then you need to do what GETS results. However, the last comment is right about one thing: worry about something you can stick with, not the length of the exercise. In fact, you need to do away with worrying about length of exercise entirely. When it comes to exercise, "more" is NOT "more." If you lift weights seven days a week, you won't get results any faster than someone who lifts just two or three. In fact, you might even get LESS results because you aren't giving your body time to heal.

I see. Well, "low-intensity" anything will not get you much in the way of results. Why? The answer is right in the name: low-intensity is not intense enough. Best of luck. I hope you find something that works.

Boxing will NEVER be enough to gain muscle. It does NOT tax the body enough to trigger an adaptive response.

I'm not sure if by "low impact" you mean you are moving the weights slowly. If that is the case, then that is the BEST way to lift. So many people lift weights super fast because they are trying to perform a certain number of reps, but that will only wind up putting more wear and tear on their joints and could lead to injury very quickly.

If you are doing an activity that has fast, explosive movements (sprinting, practicing a martial art, etc.), then yes. However, if you were to do something like lift weights SLOWLY, you wouldn't need to, because you'd get warmed up during the workout itself.

Over time, muscle soreness becomes less and less extreme. In fact, there will come a day where you don't feel ANY. People mistake this for not pushing themselves hard enough, but it's just not the case.

Hello there, I haven't been on the forum in a while, and I see that this thread was started a while ago. Still, I am going to put in my thoughts. Beachbody programs have people working out way, way, WAY too much. They might see results at first (whenever you go from doing nothing to doing something, you WILL see results), but it isn't long before they plateau. Why? Because rest is just as important as exercise. Also, the WAY they have you work out won't get results either. You mention that you are doing "low-intensity" exercise. That is exactly the OPPOSITE of what will get you results. I will have to look up the exact study, but there was one where several people were put on different training modalities. They all had one thing in common: they had to put out a high intensity of effort, they had to go to failure, and they had to get enough rest. Each group had significant gains, but there was no statistical difference BETWEEN groups. What this study showed was that the modalities themselves didn't matter. The ONLY thing that mattered were those three factors.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF-ESTEEM by Nathaniel Branden

As my subject line states, I live in Troy NY. I would love to meet up with any Nerd Fitness folks nearby. I am also not too far from certain parts of MA (like Pittsfield) and Vermont.

The responses to my thread "Bizarre Occurrence of Emotional Eating" got me thinking about this. I was beating myself up over eating 3 small bags of chips. The response I got in the other thread was to NOT beat myself up over it. That got me thinking: how much cheating is too much? My guess is that one of the most common answers I will hear is, "It's different for everyone because of metabolism." Even so, sometimes there are general patterns that will emerge. I'm curious to see what people will say.

Just a random update, since a lot of things have been basically the same for me. I am running into a snag, which is...things have been basically the same for me! It's weird how, on some days, I do the routine and I feel great. On others, I feel bored. Why? Because as you can see from previous entries, it is always the same stuff. However, next month I am joining a boxing gym. Hopefully that will give me enough new stuff to train on where I won't even notice the time passing by.

Telling her is one thing. Getting her to go is another. LOL

I was out late helping a friend whose car broke down and left her stranded in a bad neighborhood, so I did NOT get to try out my new routine today. Tomorrow is another day though. :-)