2017 Fitness Challenge

[DJ]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Fellas, it's admittedly been a crappy year for me when it comes to exercise. I stopped going to the gym, because I was struggling with motivation and honestly, after spending years and years in various gyms over the years, feeling very burned out and almost anxious to an extent when I enter those buildings.

I still get out and run a couple of times a week, and ride my bike when I have more time, and I do enjoy both activities. I'm just not being consistent with how many days I get out there and do the work.

I'm fairly certain the lack of consistency with exercising is tied to what I believe to be a form of depression that I've been going through. I struggle with bad thoughts in my head (despite getting raises at work, feeling like I'm not doing a good enough job) and feel lonely at times (I'm happily married, but don't really have many friends and my family lives across the country). My diet has also been pretty bad; I'm making small changes to improve, but still plenty of room for improvement.

I know that exercise would help clear my head and alleviate some of the symptoms, but it becomes almost a vicious cycle of the lack of exercise, depression and wanting to change all feeding into each other and then nothing seems to get done or change.

I've been thinking that perhaps the best thing for me would be to get back out of my comfort zone and try something new. Around 10 years ago when I was struggling bad with anxiety and panic disorder, I started taking Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai kickboxing classes. Having to focus on learning new skills re-wired my brain and combined with feeling better physically thanks to consistent training, my symptoms all but cleared up.

Sorry for the long post. Sounds like you guys are doing well with your own workouts, and that's awesome. Any encouraging words would be helpful. I have been a member of OS for 15 years (man, that's crazy to type) and really enjoy the community that's been created here.

Update: A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a membership (month-to-month) at L.A. Fitness. They waived the enrollment fee, so just had to pay the monthly rate. I've been going to a 5:45 a.m. cycle/spin class, and it's been a lot of fun. There's a crew of 10 or so that seem to be there every Tuesday and Thursday, and then the rest of the room usually populates with other people. The instructors do a good job of motivating, but aren't super over-the-top. It's been a good change of pace to be in a group class environment, and just nice to get on a bike since I haven't been riding as much outdoors due to the heat in AZ.

I'm also going 1-2 times a week and doing some strength training, and then still running a couple of times a week.

I definitely feel better mentally and physically on the days I'm working on, so that's been motivation to keep going back.

[KG]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Update: A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a membership (month-to-month) at L.A. Fitness. They waived the enrollment fee, so just had to pay the monthly rate. I've been going to a 5:45 a.m. cycle/spin class, and it's been a lot of fun. There's a crew of 10 or so that seem to be there every Tuesday and Thursday, and then the rest of the room usually populates with other people. The instructors do a good job of motivating, but aren't super over-the-top. It's been a good change of pace to be in a group class environment, and just nice to get on a bike since I haven't been riding as much outdoors due to the heat in AZ.

I'm also going 1-2 times a week and doing some strength training, and then still running a couple of times a week.

I definitely feel better mentally and physically on the days I'm working on, so that's been motivation to keep going back.

There's always some pretty nice ladies in my spin classes. A little extra motivation never hurts.

Just saying though...

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Was feeling awful in my routine, feeling shaky, but managing (struggling) in my lifting sessions, but absolutely bonking in my runs, and suffering through huge performance losses.

I was also just generally feeling awful.

I had been sticking to a pretty strict diet post-iron supplementation for iron deficiency anemia after. A couple of months ago my doctor said my bloodwork had normalized, and wanted to see if we could manage things with diet.

Took an iron supplement today and the difference was shocking. I had all of my old running performance back. It was seriously like doping. No way this was placebo. One of the most odd things I've experienced.

I had gone from being comfortable with half marathon distance to totally gassing out at 5-6k in a matter of weeks, and struggling to finish 10k for the past two months—today's run I was so shocked I just kept going and hit around 20k, and felt night and day better during and after than I did when my body was shutting down at 5k.

Anyone else really inexplicably struggling, check into your iron levels.

[Dave_S]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Was feeling awful in my routine, feeling shaky, but managing (struggling) in my lifting sessions, but absolutely bonking in my runs, and suffering through huge performance losses.

I was also just generally feeling awful.

I had been sticking to a pretty strict diet post-iron supplementation for iron deficiency anemia after. A couple of months ago my doctor said my bloodwork had normalized, and wanted to see if we could manage things with diet.

Took an iron supplement today and the difference was shocking. I had all of my old running performance back. It was seriously like doping. No way this was placebo. One of the most odd things I've experienced.

I had gone from being comfortable with half marathon distance to totally gassing out at 5-6k in a matter of weeks, and struggling to finish 10k for the past two months—today's run I was so shocked I just kept going and hit around 20k, and felt night and day better during and after than I did when my body was shutting down at 5k.

Anyone else really inexplicably struggling, check into your iron levels.

Last half marathon I ran both my knees completely shut down about 3/4 of the way into it. It was weird, but my cardio, muscles and heart all felt great. I felt like a turd having to practically walk the last portion, and couldn't bend my knees for like a week afterwords.

Doctors said it was psoriatic arthritis, and almost immediately after my knees broke out with psoriasis. I don't trust doctors. I'm stuck with psoriasis now, but maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go over my blood work myself? (The VA keeps my blood work results online where I can look at it)

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

An update on my HASfit experience.

I finished the first week in the Warrior program and wasn't feeling impressed overall with myself. I think the 90 Day Warrior routine would be suited for somebody getting back into exercising after 6-12 months off as the routines are all short and sweet, but looks like it builds up to be on the level of the first month of Insanity by the end of 90 days.

I remained impressed with the balance of strength and cardio training. The strength training routines kicked my butt and had me feeling muscles the next day. Overall I think the Warrior routine would work best as a supplement to someone's current exercise plan that is experiencing a plateau before eventually transitioning into only doing the HASfit program.

With that said I started the 90 Day Hero routine yesterday and nearly got my *** handed to me thanks to the 30 Minute Blazing Weight Loss workout. It was a nice feeling after becoming too comfortable with the Insanity routines. Unlike Insanity there are no 30 second breaks between rounds so I was doing everything I could just to keep up.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Last half marathon I ran both my knees completely shut down about 3/4 of the way into it. It was weird, but my cardio, muscles and heart all felt great. I felt like a turd having to practically walk the last portion, and couldn't bend my knees for like a week afterwords.

Doctors said it was psoriatic arthritis, and almost immediately after my knees broke out with psoriasis. I don't trust doctors. I'm stuck with psoriasis now, but maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go over my blood work myself? (The VA keeps my blood work results online where I can look at it)

From what my doctor told me, if you're a distance runner, and you have these symptoms, there's a good chance there's an iron deficiency.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Where do you guys get your whey/protein powder from?

[RockinDaMike]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Where do you guys get your whey/protein powder from?

I used always get it from bodybuilding.com. They always had sales and tons of options and reviews.

[Blzer]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Where do you guys get your whey/protein powder from?

GNC, but it's unlikely the cheapest place to go.

[DJ]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Where do you guys get your whey/protein powder from?

T-Nation.com is where I'd get mine from, but to be fair, I haven't purchased protein powder in several years. I'll still eat protein bars on occasion, but tend to try and get as much of my protein from my food sources.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

T-Nation.com is where I'd get mine from, but to be fair, I haven't purchased protein powder in several years. I'll still eat protein bars on occasion, but tend to try and get as much of my protein from my food sources.

I don't want to buy a big tub and put it in everything. I just found a couple recipes that were substituting chocolate whey powder for cocoa.

[mattsb84]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Amazon has had a few deals for ON recently. Tried a few different whey/casein proteins and always go back to ON. Doesn't have too much fluff in it, reasonably priced, and good selection of flavors.

[Scott]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Joined the UFC gym. Been taking some boxing conditioning classes and have gotten into Brazilian Jiu-jitsu also. Has been a whole lot of fun.


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[DJ]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

Joined the UFC gym. Been taking some boxing conditioning classes and have gotten into Brazilian Jiu-jitsu also. Has been a whole lot of fun.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

That's awesome, Scott. Wish there was one by me, because that's what I want to get back into. There's a few MMA gyms in AZ, but nothing close to me.

[Scott]

Re: 2017 Fitness Challenge

So far down 7 lbs and 3% body fat in less than a month.


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