How to go about Leveling Up?

[shutterpillar]

First, let me say that I read this article: How to Level Up In the Game Of Life. It was a great article and had a lot of great points that I took note of. I've also read the beginner bodyweight article, and do that routine. (hell, i've probably read every article on NF. )

My dilemma is I am not quite sure HOW to level up in a way that is most beneficial to ME.

I am currently doing the Beginner Bodyweight Routine on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday then interval training on Tuesday and Thursday. Strength Training is fairly new to me... before I was trying to lose weight and I thought I needed to do a crapton of cardio. now I am trying to get strong and I realize cardio isnt really going to accomplish that at all. So what do I do? How do I successfully level up? You can find my exercise log in my signature so you can see what I have been doing... there is only a few entries in it right now though. I wanted to get some advice before I did my workout today.

Do I level up weekly? Daily? Biweekly? When I feel comfortable?

What is the highest amount of squats and lunges I should be doing? I understand how to shift my body to make them harder.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to use to increase the weight for my dumbbell rows? How many dumbbell rows should I do before its too much and I need to increase the weight? I have been using a gallon of water, but that seems like its a little too easy. Does anyone have any suggestions for other things that can be lifted during dumbbell rows?

What if my legs are ready for the Advanced routine, but my arms are still stuck in beginner level? Do I wait for them to catch up? I've always had a ton more strength in my legs than my arms.

How do I set goals for myself if I don't know how to Level up? I guess I am just a mess right now and have no clear direction. Any help is extremely appreciated.

[161803398874989]

You level up when you reach a long term goal.

[shutterpillar]

Right, I mentioned that. How do I go about setting a goal if I dont know what the heck I am doing? LOL.

Can anyone tell I am an over-analyzer?

[Elastigirl]

When I do the Angry Birds Workout or Primal Fitness (similar to Angry Birds) I try and add at least one new rep each time. Another way to level up is that if I did 30 push ups in 4 circuits, next time I will try and do it in 3. In that way I continually try and up the amount. When I can do about 12-15 reps in 1 try then I move on to harder exercise (squats to prisonor squats, incline push up to push up) Not only does it build strength it gives me a goal. Just started doing the beginner bodyweight. Today instead of just doing regular squats I upped it to prisoner and I did part of my push ups on a lower incline than before.

[ebm1224]

i feel you on this one. i was pretty familiar with st before coming to nf but i have to admit i was sorta wandering as far as reaching for goals and such.

i'm only a couple weeks into it but i've really been enjoying stronglifts 5x5 because (1) it's my first experience with barbells (aside from a couple faded memories in high school) and barbells make you feel like a badass and (2) you constantly see progression (well, maybe not constantly, but you do have a goal for each exercise each time). i sort of feel like my workouts are building on each other now...and it's fun to think of things like "i can pick up x lbs over my head."

do you work out in a gym or do you have that option available to you? body weight work is great but i agree that it's hard to get that feeling that you're reaching for a goal with it. others will disagree with me of course because you can always set goals of "be able to do x # of circuits in 10 minutes" or "be able to hold a plank for x minutes." don't get me wrong i love body weight work...but i guess i just like dumbells/barbells more.

as for the overanalyzing thing, don't worry too much. your goals can be arbitrary...at least at first. i like the idea of picking a couple exercises and seeing what your max is...how many pushups you can do for example before your arms give out. then add a number to that...since there's a 6 week challenge going on, say 6. your goal is to add 1 pushup to your max every week for the next 6 weeks. work on pushups throughout the challenge and, at the end (or every couple weeks) see how many you can do before you can't do any more.

as for when to add weight, a good rule of thumb is that the last rep of each set should be tough. once that last rep comes easily, it's time to up the weight.

hope this helps or maybe puts you in the right direction!

[aj_rock]

Kwik-time responses:

- a gallon of water weighs less than ten pounds. If you want to do rows, it's gonna quickly start taking up massive amounts of room if you don't use dumbells or something

- if you can complete all the reps perscribed, time to move up. You then won't be able to do all of them, and you can work your way back up

- don't worry about relative levels of strength between legs and upperbody. In the beginner stages you don't really run any risks of muscle imbalance.

I'm no expert in bodyweight routines by any measure, but I'm sure the routine you're looking at will tell you ways to advance, so I don't think you need to worry about doing too many squats/lunges/whatever.

[Jaksavage]

Convict conditioning had some great tools for measurably progressing bodyweight exercises.

ie....wall pushups to full pushups...full pushups to decline or diamond pushups...squats to bosu squats to pistol squats....chair dips to bar dips etc.

The key is finding how YOU can measure your progress...even if it's just how feel after X number of whatever lol

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[shutterpillar]

Thanks everyone.

ebm - I do not have access to a gym or barbells. Believe me, I would LOVE to lift heavy. My husband is starting up his own company right now so we are trying to take it easy on our wallets, but hopefully when everything gets up and running we will both be able to get a gym membership and begin heavy lifting. There are a few cheap gyms in our area, but none of them have the option for childcare, which is something we would need. So for now its bodyweight exercises for us. (which I love doing so far).

[161803398874989]

So the problem is not really levelling up, but setting goals that you think make you level up. Well, that depends on how you like your levels. You seem to be more of a beginner, so levels should come quick. As you advance, levels should come slower. [that's my take on it, at least]

From your log, I see you're doing squats, pushups, lunges, rows, planks and jumping jacks. For a certain time. I think these goals would be very reachable within a couple of weeks (before the end of the challenge):

Pushups: 15/15/15 or 20/20/20

Dumbbell rows: 20/20/20

Planks: 60/60/60

Jumping jacks: 50/50/50

I'm not so sure what to do about the lunges and squats, as for strength you won't need high repetitions (jumping jacks are a conditioning exercise). Try some harder squat variations, building up to one-leg squats. A good starting point would be assisted one-leg squats. Stand next to a chair, balance on one leg and squat down with your hands at the chair. Then get backup with leg power and assistance from your hands. Maybe something like 10/10/10 would be cool. For lunges, meh, I'm not really a fan of those as they're hard to make progressive. Maybe you could make them explosive? That means you lunge, then jump up and switch feet midair and land in lunge position.

After you reach this, I think you should be in good enough shape to move on to the advanced routine. Dips are going to be very hard, but if you can complete 20/20/20 at a moderate pace (chest to deck, of course), you should be able to do a couple if you keep the pace high. The hardest part by far of this workout are going to be the chinups and the pullups. Substitute inverted rows until you can do 15/15/15, then work on negatives/jackknife pullups (where you put your feet up a chair in front of you for assistance).

[shutterpillar]

Thanks, numbers. thats pretty much what I was looking for. I was confused about how to keep advancing with bodyweight since I don't expect to be packing on tons of weight to make the resistance harder.

Right now I am still having to take breaks inbetween circuits, so what you described above would be a great goal for me.

[Waldo]

Thanks, numbers. thats pretty much what I was looking for. I was confused about how to keep advancing with bodyweight since I don't expect to be packing on tons of weight to make the resistance harder.

Right now I am still having to take breaks inbetween circuits, so what you described above would be a great goal for me.

Ideally, at least for many, you'd like to be taking weight off the bar so to speak. (lose weight).

More reps, more circuits/sets, faster, more explosive, harder exercises, there are a lot of different ways to keep advancing; which way you go depends on your goals.

[shutterpillar]

Ideally, at least for many, you'd like to be taking weight off the bar so to speak. (lose weight).

Yep, that would be the ideal thing. though I would be completely happy staying where I am now and just swapping my fat for muscle. Actually, adding on 5-10 lbs of muscle wouldnt be bad either.

[cracked_belle]

ebm - I do not have access to a gym or barbells. Believe me, I would LOVE to lift heavy. My husband is starting up his own company right now so we are trying to take it easy on our wallets, but hopefully when everything gets up and running we will both be able to get a gym membership and begin heavy lifting. There are a few cheap gyms in our area, but none of them have the option for childcare, which is something we would need. So for now its bodyweight exercises for us. (which I love doing so far).

look for a park or a recreation centre in your area. (your city or parish's gov site may have a list, such as mine does.) I was paying for an pretty inexpensive membership at Planet Fitness (11$/month, plus one sign-up then yearly renewal fees). however, during one of the Frontier Girl meetings I help host, I noticed the rec centre had a weight room. after inquiry, I learned it was free to use whenever the centre was open. not most available hours, sure. but it's gonna save me money and time.

[bzald]

First, let me say that I read this article: How to Level Up In the Game Of Life. It was a great article and had a lot of great points that I took note of. I've also read the beginner bodyweight article, and do that routine. (hell, i've probably read every article on NF. )

My dilemma is I am not quite sure HOW to level up in a way that is most beneficial to ME.

I am currently doing the Beginner Bodyweight Routine on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday then interval training on Tuesday and Thursday. Strength Training is fairly new to me... before I was trying to lose weight and I thought I needed to do a crapton of cardio. now I am trying to get strong and I realize cardio isnt really going to accomplish that at all. So what do I do? How do I successfully level up? You can find my exercise log in my signature so you can see what I have been doing... there is only a few entries in it right now though. I wanted to get some advice before I did my workout today.

Do I level up weekly? Daily? Biweekly? When I feel comfortable?

What is the highest amount of squats and lunges I should be doing? I understand how to shift my body to make them harder.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to use to increase the weight for my dumbbell rows? How many dumbbell rows should I do before its too much and I need to increase the weight? I have been using a gallon of water, but that seems like its a little too easy. Does anyone have any suggestions for other things that can be lifted during dumbbell rows?

What if my legs are ready for the Advanced routine, but my arms are still stuck in beginner level? Do I wait for them to catch up? I've always had a ton more strength in my legs than my arms.

How do I set goals for myself if I don't know how to Level up? I guess I am just a mess right now and have no clear direction. Any help is extremely appreciated.

After reading the post shutterpiller, it seems that what you need to start looking for is a good mentor/couch near where you live that they can either come to you or you go workout there. Of course that maybe a little hard since your a NF not everyone is so they may not even know about this site.

One of my questions would be have you seen this site?

If they have ask them what they think about it?

If they have not ask them to look at it and give there thoughts on it?

IF they dismiss it then most likely you need to go somewhere else

IF they like it ask them to develop a training regiment useing what you been doing and in the theme of NF, if they refuse then you should look else where

well i hope that helps, i cannot give too much advice on number of reps or anything like that because that effected by the person working out as well

[bzald]

I just relise my picture scaries me................

[oystergirl]

One thing that I think is a bit confusing for folks who are not into gaming is the whole Idea of leveling up.

In gaming, you do a bunch of things (small goals) in a level and then you get to the next level--which is much more like climbing up a hill in incremental ways to reach that level.

To some folks, me included, leveling up is more mentally like jumping up to the next FLOOR...or going up to the next STEP and that becomes much more mentally overwhelming.

So, if you need to think about making SMALL incremental steps to reach the next set of steps to reach the next to finally get to your overall goal it seems much more valid for some brains to wrap around. Frankly, other than Super Mario Brothers on the ORIGINAL grey nintendo box (which I still have by the way) I have never played video games besides miss packman so the whole idea of levels and what those entail was a bit new to me, but being a nerd, I found out and then I was like OHHHHH, this is just a wicked cool nerdy (cause nerdy is the new cool...) way of saying, break each area of your life that you want to improve into small, incremental steps and goals and FEEL good about each step you achieve so you are constantly leveling up...and getting better...

If you have NO access to weights, one option is to do straight body weight exercises and baby, those can be killer--I did the beginner body weight routine 3 days a week and increased its difficulty quite easily to continue leveling up. Wider stance on the lunges, using a 20 pound bag of cat food on my shoulders for the squats, doing some of the push ups on my toes, etc. your going to improve each time, I also then made the body weight routine into a time challenge by seeing how fast I could get it done and then if you have a gym boss timer and I recommend this to EVERYONE because it helps with intervals, you can use the basic exercises to create a full body interval workout using a 50/10 time split. This beginner body weight can be killer...its all about pushing yourself as hard as you can.

Another GREAT no weight (or limited weight) workout is the ZWOW...zuzana light is a killer simply amazingly fit workout leader who has a facebook page and a you tube channel and her workouts are less than 20 minutes long and simply awesome. I have been doing her routines since she was at bodyrock.tv which is also a good resource but they separated ways and now bodyrock uses a lot more equipment. Simply search for Zuzkalight on facebook or you tube and check out her routines...you might have to modify some stuff..I still do, but I LOVE the results--and I love how strong I am getting.

Doing a challenge will also help you. Set up a blog and write your goals in there and then post every day--that really helped me! Big hugs!

[shutterpillar]

I just now saw your reply, oystergirl. Thank you, that helps tremendously!

[Ryan Sannar]

http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/05/setting-and-achieving-goals/