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Hey all,

Lwatcher1 here to say howdy there. I've been reading the blog for about a month now and decided to get in on the Rebellion action!

I am a 6' tall 215lbish, 27 year old from the backwoods jungle; born in the US and raised in the Subcontinent. I've been in the Army Reserve since 06 and I've been a-lookin' around and trying to find a good place to meet people who are motivated about fitness. Looks like I found the right place!

I've learned how to get fairly fit without going to the gym and be trapped on a treadmill or slinging iron around the room-a slow sure death to me. The Army has this nifty book out that tells you how to exercise without weights-just bodyweight exercises, and then you add equipment and gear on to make it tougher. It's a pretty nifty-keeno.

Anyhoo, I'm joining to make myself tougher, stronger, faster, and smarter today than I was yesterday. I want to drop to 200lbs and level up my pushups and situps. I'll add more goals after that, but it's a start.

--Lwatcher1

Excretus Ex Fortuna

On the Bounce!

 


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Hey man, glad to have you! I give a thumbs up to the pushup/sittup goal. What do you want to get up to, and where are you at?

"Let another say. 'Perhaps the worst will not happen.' You yourself must say. 'Well, what if it does happen? Let us see who wins!' ".

- Seneca, 63 AD

"There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength." - Henry Rollins

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Thankee kindly, marm.

I'm at 71 pushups first set, I want to be at 100 at the 2 minute mark. The situps I want to be at 80 situps at the two minute mark if I can get the rhythm right. I'm at 53 first set right now, kind of abysmal. I'll get there, it's only a matter of time. The run portion of the PT test will not get much better until the weather gets appreciably warmer.

On the Bounce!

 


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Nice, man! You're most of the way there already! How are you building them up? Daily, or a couple times a week?

Also, your quote is awesome.

"Let another say. 'Perhaps the worst will not happen.' You yourself must say. 'Well, what if it does happen? Let us see who wins!' ".

- Seneca, 63 AD

"There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength." - Henry Rollins

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Hi lwatcher- welcome. I'm no pro by any stretch, but I have included a few exercises in my routine that might help you reach your goals. I'm a fan of kettlebells because they're fun for me and the exercises are quite a bit different from what you might do with standard barbells and dumbbells. This guy has tons of info about them: http://www.mikemahler.com/kettlebell_exercises.html Also check out his Articles tab for exercises that require no equipment.

Have you tried plyometric pushups? In gym class you might have known them as "hand clap pushups." The burst of power required to get you in the air long enough to clap will stress the muscles and when you go to do 100 regular pushups you should find them easier to do. Also variations like "spiderman," inverted pushups (your feet on a box during the pushup), and mountain climbers will increase the stress on your upper body, will work other muscles, too and don't require any equipment.

There are lots of situp variations. The one I hate is toe touches from your back- feet in the air, touch them toes. Suck.

Increasing leg strength will improve your run times. During the cold months box jumps and squat-jumps will help. Pulling your knees up during the jump helps with the quad workout and launching from your toes helps the calves.

These animations and instructions might give you more ideas for exercises that use minimal equipment: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/plyometricexercises.html and http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/plyometric-drills.html

Just 2 cents, adjusted for inflation...

I read a study once that said doing ANYTHING in the gym is more anabolic than doing NOTHING sitting in front of the computer.

~Chris Shugart @ T-nation

Iron is full of impurities that weaken it: through forging, it becomes steel and is

transformed into a razor-sharp sword. Human beings develop in the same fashion.

~Morihei Ueshiba

Favorites:

* Robb Wolf Podcast #68- Matt Lalonde vs gluten (<-transcript)

*Documentary: Fat Head

*NF blog:Most Inspirational 20 Minutes

*Starting Strength Wiki

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Thanks Alethea, it's from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files; character's name is Michael (knight of the cross, holy badass). I adopted it cuz it's true in my case.

I do pushups (and variations) every other day to rest the muscle groups for 48 hours. I found when I began around the 45 mark that if I allowed myself to rest, I could add another 3-7 pushups per week; and I've done that more or less as a constant-with a few setbacks over holiday week/weekends/months...

Today I went to the top floor track of a local community gym (free space to workout in the warm) which was bone-dry and hot as a Honduran summer; made it much more difficult to do my workout which in turn made me happy so's I don't get the same stimuli every workout.

Gowaduv, I've never tried a box jump, but I'll give 'er a whirl. I assume it'll still work on a picnic bench, so if the weather warms up I'll be able to work out outdoors again this week! Yay!

I will try to incorporate some of those pushup variations in the future; and I love workouts that have little to no equipment. I love to just have the world as my gym instead of being stuck inside-blech.

On the Bounce!

 


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