2018 Fitness Challenge

[DJ]

2018 ... let's get after it!

For those that are new here, welcome. Returning folk, you know the drill.

T-minus 12 days to the Rock N' Roll Half-Marathon here in AZ. I'm pleased with my training for the race; ran close to 11 miles on New Year's Eve and that was my third straight week of getting in one weekly run of 10-plus miles.

I'll start backing off on the mileage a bit as I move closer to race day. Don't need to overdue it and risk injury at this stage.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I got a couple set of dumbbells for Christmas so hopefully I can add a little bit of bulk to my exercising this year.

I'm still sticking with the Hasfit routines. They put out a calendar of routines every month for those that have gone through their other workouts. Nothing is as challenging, overall, as Insanity's routines, but then again they become so repetitious that it probably makes little difference.

Hasfit does a great job of changing routines up and mixing in cardio, strength, and stretching/core. There's some light days and some huffing-and-puffing days, but overall I think it's a much better total body workout compared to Insanity.

Plus, it's free.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

Started doing Beachbody's Body Beast set about 5-6 weeks ago. Stuck with phase 1 through the holidays knowing I'd miss multiple days. Going to do it this week again then go into the "bulk" phase. It's usually either super sets, or reps of 15,12,8,8 with the 8s being a drop set. First time doing weight lifting like this. I think bulk goes sets of 5 5 5 5 5, and 15,12,8,8,12,15.

After just this short amount of time it appears that my lanky biceps muscles are already a little bigger when I'm not flexing or anything. After I finish this I'm going to re-incorporate sprinting and heavy cardio back into the mix. Will be interesting to see how doing legs with weights will affect my straight line speed.

[Herky]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I'm in the worst shape of my life since we had our baby in mid January of 2017. I've been in great shape for most of my life and turned 41 this December but a year of not working out and eating bad food really has made me feel depressed about my appearance. I lost a lot of muscle and just feel tired all the time. I really need to get back into things but due to budget reasons I canceled my gym membership 3 months ago. I'm going to set aside time at night to do yoga and lift. I work in IT at a hospital and walk a lot during the workday so cardio will be taken care of while I'm working. I can easily do 7,000 steps just then.

On the flip side I used Christmas money to buy a weight set and yoga mat. I have DDP Yoga DVD's I bought a year ago and used for a week before going back to not working out. Now I've been building up a home gym in the basement and on January 8th I will start in on my new workout routine. My wife got us both a Fitbit for Christmas so I'll be tracking my steps as well. I'm going to use my old SparkPeople ap to track what I'm eating and my wife and I are already making up menu's for the week.

2018 will be the year I get back into shape after a very unhealthy 2017.

[jct32]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I had turned things around but after my kid's birth in August and constant moving around while waiting for our house to be completed has seen me up the weight again. Nothing horrible but I have a little belly again.

Anyways, the gym at my college opened today and I logged 3 miles for the first time in about 5 months. It hurt and I'm sore but I'm glad to be back on it again.

Going along with that, I think I will start lifting some weights again. I'm not trying to get super ripped but it would be nice to build a little more muscle. Does anyone have any good plans I can follow? I have experience lifting but not with making plans. I don't really know how to do a balanced plan. Any help would be appreciated.

[DJ]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I had turned things around but after my kid's birth in August and constant moving around while waiting for our house to be completed has seen me up the weight again. Nothing horrible but I have a little belly again.

Anyways, the gym at my college opened today and I logged 3 miles for the first time in about 5 months. It hurt and I'm sore but I'm glad to be back on it again.

Going along with that, I think I will start lifting some weights again. I'm not trying to get super ripped but it would be nice to build a little more muscle. Does anyone have any good plans I can follow? I have experience lifting but not with making plans. I don't really know how to do a balanced plan. Any help would be appreciated.

This is a good 3-day, total body program:

https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/the-best-3-day-plan-work-out-less-get-more-ripped.html

[jeremym480]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I'm hitting it hard to start the New Year. 2017 was actually a pretty good year for me. I went from 224 to 195 during the middle of the year. However, fell back into my normal cycle of stuffing my face during football season and holiday over indulgence. Due to this I started 2018 at 211, but still down 13 pounds overall so not too bad...

I'm getting back on the 21-Day Fix (which is really just portion control) and basketball 3-4 days a week. I'm hoping to be out of the "2's" by the end of the month.

[countryboy]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I used to be in shape, at least not fat, but after years of battling depression and just pure laziness, I've gotten out of shape. With the passing of my mom in November and seeing how bad of shape my Dad is in, I decided that I need to get committed to doing something so that my kids don't have be without me at a relatively young age.

I turn 40 in October and have committed to being in shape, or at least better shape by then. I don't do gyms or workout tapes or regimens or anything of the sort. I guess maybe I should, but basically I just run/walk, do pushups/situps, work outside, and a little weight lifting.

Anyways, we'll see how this goes.

#committedtolosingthedadbod

[Kriech23]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I'm probably in the best shape I've been in since I was a Freshman in HS (10 or so years ago). Tax season and getting meals catered in does no favors for trying to keep weight off. Always leftovers & cookies sitting around in the office. I'm down from 265 middle of May last year to 210 currently. Basically all I did was eat leaner & smaller portions, workout/cardio at least a little everyday, and keep sugary snacks to a minimum, and oddly enough started drinking coffee around this time frame. We'll see how these next 4.5 months go.

[tdawg3782]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

Just wanted to give an update on my 5x5 Stronglifts progress. I'm pretty proud of myself so far. Let me preface this by saying I was coming off a LCL strain (not to bad but irritating) and a shoulder sprain. Just ware and tear from my job over the years. For any who don't know about Stronglifts 5x5 basically you have 5 main exercises (Squat,Bench,Barbell Row,Over Head Press, Deadlift) that you do 5 sets of 5 reps on (except Deadlift which is 1 set of 5 reps). So with the injuries I wanted to start out very light and work my way up. No need to hurt myself again. I've been going at this pretty consistently for 3 months now of roughly 3 workouts a week. Here's where I'm at:

Squat
Started at 45lbs
Currently just completed 190lbs at 5x5

Bench
Started at 45lbs
Currently just completed 130lbs at 5x5

Deadlift
Started at 95lbs
Currently just completed 215lbs at 1x5 (the is a PR for me)

Over Head Press
Started at 45lbs
Currently just barely failed at 115lbs (got 4x5 and then only 4 reps on the last set)(this is a PR for me)

Barbell Row
Started at 65lbs
Currently just completed 130lbs at 5x5 (10 more lbs will be a PR for me)

All in all I'm very pleased. Really starting to feel tighter in my body. Had a baby hiccup in my LCL early on but powered through it and now it feels better then ever. All exercises are insane tough right now (except bench) so I feel as if every workout is really improving my strength. It's funny that I PR'd my Over Head Press and my shoulder feels great but I'm still slowly building up bench because that angle for whatever reason gives me a twinge here and there. I'm at a little over 190lbs (6'0" tall) which is about 8-10 lbs heavier then what has always been my ideal weight. Man I never fluctuated in weight until I turned 35 lol. It's like a switch just turned off and now I have to really pay attention to what I eat. For the most part I eat very well but my portion sizes can be huge sometimes. Calories in/calories out blah blah blah lol. I actually got up to 205lbs about a year ago. Felt terrible. Anyways with this being a strength routine I am anticipating gaining weight with added muscle so hoping to stay around the weight I'm at now but still slimming down. I can already tell a big difference even though I've really only dropped 1lb overall. Much fuller and less fluffy lol. Anyways just feeling real good about this and wanted to share. I love reading all your progresses (or even slip ups) as I think it helps motivate us all. Thanks for reading.

[pietasterp]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

Great job, Tdawg (and everyone else).

I was a consistent gym-goer for years and fell off the wagon hardcore last year, but will try to pick it back up. The holidays did a real number on me, so I need to get back to it. I think I'll mix in some cardio (which I never paid attention to before) and the 5x5 mentioned above (which is basically what I used to do but modified to fewer sets of more reps).

But really, doing anything is better than nothing, which is what I've done for the past 9 months. And it shows...I'm soft as Charmin right now.

[roadman]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I read 3D Body Revolution by Donald Driver and he is a firm believer of core body workouts over static cardio.

I tried the first day and I am sore, no doubt.

Pushups, Squats, Full situps and burpees.

After a month or two, I will jump to the intermediate using weights and core body.

[DJ]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

I read 3D Body Revolution by Donald Driver and he is a firm believer of core body workouts over static cardio.

I tried the first day and I am sore, no doubt.

Pushups, Squats, Full situps and burpees.

After a month or two, I will jump to the intermediate using weights and core body.

Driver always kept himself in great shape when he was in the NFL. Didn't realize he had a fitness routine out there. Pretty cool.

[countryboy]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

My light workout regimen has thus produced a 2 pound weight loss.

Obviously nothing to be overly excited about, but it feels good to see 2LBS less when viewing the scale.

[roadman]

Re: 2018 Fitness Challenge

Driver always kept himself in great shape when he was in the NFL. Didn't realize he had a fitness routine out there. Pretty cool.

He said his lowest body fat % was 2% on Dancing with the Stars.