Eating after a workout

Your body knows what it needs.

It can be wild that way, but you wind up eating shit because your body knows it needs it.

I had a delicious plate of the Colonel's Original Recipe from Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch today myself.

I gave up on doing timed intervals long ago. What I do now is RUN RUN RUN RUN and when I feel my heart has had enough work, I slow down. Once my body says "OK GIMME MORE!" then I RUN RUN RUN until I'm exhausted.

Usually this results in wildly different workouts every day, because on one day I'll be feeling better than the other, so one day I'll be able to keep up a run for 15 minutes, whereas another day I'll have to run for 5 and walk for 10. It depends on my stress level and what I've eaten that day.

Another thing I've noticed is I usually improve when I work out for about 3-4 weeks and then don't go to the gym for a week. Every time I've stopped for a week, I've gone back to a harder workout than what I did before. Interesting.

Oh, I suppose I should update on my parents. They've been working out for 2 hours every day since June. My mom has gone from being wiped out after a half mile to walking over 4 miles a day. She's also lost weight.
My dad looks better than ever. They both have more energy and my dad isn't nearly as stressed out as he used to be.

My legs can take more punishment. I've started resistance training for my core and lower body (OWWW!!!)

And pushups... I always say I'm gonna do the sissy ones and work up to the real ones but I never do. I should make it a goal. Like, I will reward myself somehow for doing one freaking pushup correctly by the end of the year.

I had to take a week-long break due to hurting myself (woops) and getting sick, plus lack of sleep due to other things.

Back at it today. Did the resistance stuff again and it was easier. I'll be able to add more reps soon.

*Whips out the pen and paper*

Oh, not that kind of punishment Damn.

Am I gonna have to show you how it's done? It's the one thing that continuously surprises my dad, as he keeps on going how I couldn't do 10 pushups... and I pull out 25 (I can do more, but I prefer my workouts to include two wheels, two pedals and a strategically employed finger for that next driver that cuts me off!).

I haven't had the time of day to work out in THREE WEEKS. I'm dying over here

On the bright side, I've dropped almost 7 pounds since the summer. I'm at 135.5 at the end of the day so... mission accomplished, that was my goal. Awesome. Now I just gotta get back in the gym and work on running longer and putting on some muscle. But hopefully I can stay at 135. I like it.

I actually say the 130's last spring for the first time in around 10 years. I'm now at 160, but for good reason.

How tall are you? Last time I weighed myself (maybe a year ago? ), I was around 135, and I'm 5'7.75". I could use a little extra weight if that's still the case...

Been back in the gym. Abs hurt. OWW! Had to take a two-day break lol. Back at it tomorrow, hopefully!

Accidentally lost another pound, went to Zaxby's (sp?) to remedy that.

I FUCKING HATE SQUATS!!

I OVERSTRETCHED AGAIN

I'm doing at least 2 3 mile runs a week and 1-2 strength workouts. Ideally I'd like to be up to 3 and 3. About half the time I drink enough water. And once in awhile I'll do the Hydroxycut. My upper abs look OK and as often as not the body does too. I do have a little bit of fat stored--particularly on the lower belly--and I'm having a real hard time getting below 170.

At 158 I'd look like a fucking superhero. Around 162 I'd look pretty damned good. The body I have right now is significantly above average, but still...

Back on topic, how the hell do you "overstretch"!?!?!?

By pulling a muscle presumably.

Wow, trying to tone up for gymnastics is insane. There are so many exercises, all just with body weight!
I feel tired and sore but I gotta keep going!
It's slow going, I've gone from doing 20 sit-ups to 40. I still can't do a real push-up, but I can get *almost* as low as I need to, and I can do about 20 that way. Getting there slowly. It's amazing how I've gotten good at weight-lifting, but when I try something different, it's like starting over!

Edit: SHIT! I'm down to 129 lbs in the morning. I do NOT want that! I've been eating cookies, too!

I can't entirely speak for enlisted boot camp, and for officer training, you really should come into it in pretty good shape, but the vast majority of conditioning is with your own bodyweight (or someone elses).

There is an unfortunately named exercise called "Fartlek" that you may see integrated into jogging trails from the early '80s. Basically it mixes up running and strength training. So you'll have, like, a 3 mile course with exercise stations along the way. So you run a little ways, then you stop and do jumping jacks. Then you run a little ways and stop to do pushups. Run, situps, run, mountain climbers, etc. It is evil because the strength stations let your pulse slow down a little and let you catch your wind--while frying your muscles. Then while you work your heart and lungs your muscles have time to recover.

If you don't have an actual Fartlek course anywhere, you can improvise one (as long as you don't mind people thinking you're insane). When you lay out your run course, look for landmarks like park benches and playgrounds and such. (If you're going to do something like a pullup or a bent-arm hang, monkey bars are handy.) Then you can use those as exercise equipment--or just to remind you to stop and do an exercise.

I don't think I've put together a course like that since my mid-twenties because they are so evil, but they get results and can be kind of fun variety. If you can borrow someone's infant or find a midget to carry in a backpack and put big ears on them, you can pretend you are Luke Skywalker.

[Edit: According to Wiki, apparently what the Marines currently call "Fartlek" is a bastardized version of it and the original form was just running at varied speeds and distances.]

That's a great idea! The track at school is an indoor one, and 6 times around is a mile. If I do one lap and stop at the resting area (there's a bench and room for stretching to one side) I can do sit-ups, lunges, squats, jump around, or do tricep dips off the bench, and then run another lap.

Ooh boy

Edit: I just ate two more cookies and a pack of pop tarts. I don't wanna be rail-thin again!!
Edit again: I HAD PIZZA FOR DINNER! :zen:

I think you're getting Fartlek mixed up with something else. It's a type of interval training, it doesn't include any strength work. We've been doing it for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fartlek

I kinda said that up above, in my edit. That said, upon re-reading the article, it goes on to talk about how it can be highly customized, depending on what you're training for, and combine aerobic and anaerobic exercises.

My sister insists that lying down or sitting down after running is terrible for your health. I have no idea why this could be. Is it a myth?

You will lose some flexibility in your muscles and joints if you don't go through a cool-down period of stretching after the exertion, and the effect will become more pronounced the older you get. I'm not sure I would classify it as "terrible" for your health, but you can prevent a lot of injury by maintaining flexibility.

I'm just gonna say... gymnastics is hard work. I had no idea that 10 cartwheels, 2 roundoffs, some drills, 10 swings from a high bar and 20 handstands would feel like FUCKING HELL, not to mention my hips hurting from going into an ATTEMPT at a side split. OUCH!!
But it was fun. I felt confident, my joints gave me no trouble, and it turns out I have a rather pretty handstand (against the wall at least, I can't hold it without the wall yet).

I have a lot of work to do. First thing is pull ups - uneven bars require a TON of arm strength, but I can't do a single pull up, even after months of doing weights. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me tips on how to improve this. I have to have 2-3 pull ups in a row to have the strength for a basic-level routine.

OK. I don't entirely know how to teach a girl to do pullups. So take all this as brainstorming.

One thing you could do is some kind of assisted pullups. Either have someone cup their hands around your toes (with your knees bent into a sort of hanging kneeling position) so you can use your lower legs to help you get up. Alternately, if you have a bar that is mounted off a wall, you could maybe use the wall to help you up--a little like an "cheater" incline pushup, only hanging from a bar.

Another thing you could do until you get strong enough to do pullups is incline hangs. Men have to do pullups in the Marines, but because women have less upper body strength, they do incline hangs. Get yourself into a pullup position on the bar, in the "up" position and then just hang on as long as you can. Count how many seconds before you're hanging with your arms fully extended.

From there I'd do a variation of my pullup regimen.
On Monday I do pyramid pullups. 1, drop off the bar, 2, 3, 4, 5, taking a short break between each set. Then 4, 3, 2, 1. You could get on, hang for 10 seconds, then hang for 20, 30, 40, and 50.

On Wednesday do five sets of hanging on for, say, 70% of your max time.

On Friday do three max hangs.

Duh. Or if you have a weight room, you could get on a lat pulldown machine. Maybe start it out at 100# and try to do pulldowns with that. Then move the weight up until you're working out with your body weight. When you get to that, you should be strong enough to do pullups.

Heck, you could do my pullup workout, but on a lat machine. Set it to whatever weight you can do the 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 pyramid at for Monday, do 5 sets of 10 for Wednesday, and then 3 max sets for Friday. Add more weight as you get stronger.

Because it takes like 2 weeks to get an appointment with him and it takes all kind of trouble for pretty much the same advice I get here.

There are machines that give you a weight assist for pull-ups and dips at my gym.

Ooh! You could tie a rope around your waist, throw it over the pullup bar, and tie weights to the other side of it. That isn't the stupidest thing I've ever come up with, but it is up there. But it would work if you couldn't come up with anything else.

I've never been able to do a pullup. Even when I was a lineman in high school.

It is my greatest shame.

I did the pyramid thing on the pulldown weights, with 60 lbs. Ouch. lol, I gotta get up to 130. Wonder how long it'll take... I can also hang from a bar for about 3 seconds before I HAVE to straighten my arms out.

Well then those might actually turn out to be fairly useful starting points. I don't remember the details, but I'm pretty sure you've come a long way on your running in a pretty short amount of time.

It's too bad you didn't get started around 10 or 12, but 21 isn't too bad. You should still be able to program your body to a pretty decent level of fitness in the next 10-15 years.

(After around 40, I'm told it is pretty much just staving off death. )

Volpone, I will kill you. ARGH! I mean yes, your advice is working. I'm hanging from the bar longer and letting myself down more slowly (and by that I mean 2 seconds vs 1), but OWWW my arms
It works though, I saw a tiny improvement today so I'll keep going