I need fitness direction of the nerd variety...

[Ian]

Hello fellow nerds!

For the last few months I've been following a basic weight lifting program three days a week. I've been making steady progress, which is all kinds of awesome. At the same time I'm slowly but consistently improving my diet. Frankly I'm feeling pretty good.

But I'm starting to wonder. My goal is not raw strength, it is not weight loss, it is overall athletic ability. I want to be *capable* of anything. So what should I do? The difficulty with trying to learn anything about fitness is that there is at least as much marketing bull, buzzwords, and fads, as scientific information. So where can I go to learn about how to be athletic - faster, stronger, more agile, greater endurance. Rather than simply how to be strong?

Thanks,

P.S. crossfit is interesting, but I want to understand enough to build my own program, rather than blindly follow someone else's and hope...

[BarefootDawsy]

You may want to look into athletics and body weight exercises. The Assassins guild has a heap of resources.

Some great reads are Convict Conditioning, The Gymnastic Body, and You Are Your Own Gym.

Apart from this, maybe a sport is what you're after?

[LessJos]

I agree with Dawsy and I am right where you are. Just starting and looking for the same. Come on over to the assassins!

I just started "you are your own gym" this week. There is a thread going in the warrior section, check it out.

And I can recommend capoeira. Martial art but with lots of acrobatic elements. Endurance, strength, agility, power, balance, speed!

[Church]

I'm new here as well and the Assassins guild has tons of useful information. After all, it's built around parkour and you need HEAPS of functional strength, as well as power, endurance, agility, balance, dexterity and grace to do any of this stuff.

That being said, I'm still new as can be and can only manage a roll most of the time. I also know that the Scouts are all about general all round conditioning: swimming, running, biking, etc. there's probably also someone over in the Monks Dojo who can point you towards a solid path, and the Warriors as well.

Personally I've had solid success with compound movements that make heavy use of the Bosu ball as well as the five basic movements: dead lifts/squats, pull ups/rows, pushups, planks/side plank pushups, and lunges, as well as interval training. There's a whole bunch of different ways to reach any goal, ask around and anyone who can will be happy to help. The Rebels are all awesome like that

[Relic]

Here's the shorthand to programming your own crossfit

(to use as guidelines, not laws)

pick 2-4 movements (compound weighted stuff, calisthenics, or gymnastics)

pick a rep/ set scheme

do it for time

try to keep it under 20minutes

keep the intensity up (short rest breaks)

keep workouts varied

there's a lot more to it than that, but if you start there and take a little time to regularly learn something new you will go far.

[SirEarl]

+1 for Capoeira. Super fun, bursting with culture, and it requires quite a high level of athleticism once you really get into it.

The best thing though, is to just go out and do stuff! Wanna jump like a basketball player? Start playing some b-ball! Etc etc

Athleticism starts with having a good body, but ends with knowing how to use that body!

[161803398874989]

Build strength first. Then worry about coordination, agility, speed and all that.

Strength is will take the longest time to acquire and everything else is based on that. If you have a good strength base, you will be less injury prone, you will have greater capacity for endurance, you will be able to practice skills without tiring (because they are easy strength-wise)... in my opinion a beginner should always focus on strength.

That is not to say you cannot have fun, but atlethicism starts with strength.

[BarefootDawsy]

Build strength first. Then worry about coordination, agility, speed and all that.

Strength is will take the longest time to acquire and everything else is based on that. If you have a good strength base, you will be less injury prone, you will have greater capacity for endurance, you will be able to practice skills without tiring (because they are easy strength-wise)... in my opinion a beginner should always focus on strength.

That is not to say you cannot have fun, but atlethicism starts with strength.

I wish someone had told me that years ago...I've only learned it recently and it's so true.

[aj_rock]

At it's most basic, there are five areas of fitness which need individual work: strength, power, endurance, flexibility, and co-ordination. A decent strength program coupled with reasonable cardio and stretching hits pretty much all those bases

[Trad_Climb]

Squat, bench, Overhead Press, Row, pull ups, lunges, dips, dead-lift, snatch, clean & jerk. The only lifts you'll ever need in a strength program to be physically fit, anything extra is for fine tuning.

[Waldo]

At it's most basic, there are five areas of fitness which need individual work: strength, power, endurance, flexibility, and co-ordination. A decent strength program coupled with reasonable cardio and stretching hits pretty much all those bases

This.

Couple a strength traing program, any from (PLing, 5x5, brobuilding, calisthenics/gymnastics, etc...)

With a cardio program, any form (wind sprints, distance running, biking, swimming, etc...)

With a flexibility/aglity program, any form (Yoga, martial arts, parkour, etc...)

And you are good to go.

[Ian]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've decided that the short term plan is going to be to continue the weightlifting unchanged, but add C25K for endurance, and try to do more stretching after sessions. At the same time I'm going to have to get some books and start reading, it seems abundantly clear that I have a *lot* to catch up on.