Valiant
Courage is immortality
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2007
- Messages
- 3,895
- MBTI Type
- ENTJ
- Enneagram
- 8w7
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/so
Alright. This here will be an exercise diary to keep a check on progress.
As I might have told you guys, I had serious double-sided pneumonia in august and september.
That pretty much destroyed everything I had built up previous that year through gym training.
Just walking up a flight of stairs left me out of breath.
You might also have heard about my knee injury that got me discharged from the army back in 2006.
Can't say i've done much jogging since. Until now. It seems to have healed with frequent doses of glucosamine, I don't even feel it now.
So. I've been thinking the whole gym thing is just a stupid-ass thing to do.
You're just paying money to do way too static exercises that won't give you a balanced body unless you do EVERYTHING in an equal amount.
Machines are useless training anyway compared to what you can do yourself.
Besides, it takes precious time to get there, and
The only real benefit of a gym if you live in a cold climate like I do are the treadmills.
I need to get myself one of those for my livingroom.
Anyway. I've been working out for a month now.
No gym, just doing exercises with my own body weight.
In the beginning of January I could manage:
- About 15 Squats and then exhaustion.
- 5 correct form pushups.
- 5 minutes of jogging, and then I was utterly spent and my body hurt for days.
- 30 situps.
- 5-6 leg lifts (lying on back, lifting legs straight together)
I could not perform this regime in one session, just doing any of these points were sure to exhaust me.
Anyway. I decided that I had to make a change, fast.
So I quit smoking and started eating less. I also started working out more or less every day.
At first, I did not jog, I focused on re-activating my dormant muscles through the above exercises and some walking.
I made up excuses to go out on errants just to walk up and down the double spiral stairs up and down to my apartment.
About one and a half weeks ago, I started jogging. I still don't do this every day, since it still gives me muscle soreness, although not that bad anymore.
Anyway, like I said, in the beginning of January 5 minutes left me dead to the world due to muscle soreness.
Yesterday I managed to jog for 25 minutes and I was still in a good enough condition to perform 40 pushups afterwards.
This is about what I can manage now, just four weeks later.
- About 35 Squats
- 40 correct form pushups.
- 25 minutes of jogging
- 50 situps.
- 25 leg lifts
AND, I can do these in one session now, at least with a two minute breather and water somewhere in there.
Like I said, I still don't jog every day since it still gives me sore calves... But every other or every third day.
And on the days that I don't jog I still do several sets of the above-mentioned exercises.
Sometimes just one, sometimes three or four different exercises.
Yesterday, I counted to about 200 pushups, 40 leg lifts and perhaps 30 squats. My stomach and my legs were sore, since I jogged the day before.
That's a low point, the minimum of what i'll do in any day.
See why I get results?
Now to the aesthetical improvements. My belly actually sagged bad for the first time in my life. It doesn't now, and i've lost about 5 inches (12-13 cm) around my waist.
If I keep this up for a few months, I might even look sort of ripped. Of course I won't quit, since one is never "done" with exercise.
My arms have increased in size and are more toned, even my face, neck, back... Everything is starting to tighten up.
I've even lost my dear love handles that had started to develop.
My old good looks are slowly returning.
The goal for me this summer is to be able to run for an hour through woodland/hilly terrain.
And of course to get insanely fit again.
Hell, if (or rather when) I succeed, I might consider re-enlisting or becoming a cop.
(Those over here aren't famous for eating donuts, the selection is hard).
To be honest, I started doing pushups so that I would be able to draw a longbow later this year.
I'm going to start practicing with the English Warbow, with a minimum draw weight of 100 lbs.
While I still will go ahead with this, the exercise has become a purpose in its own right now.
I haven't been this determined about this at any point earlier in my life... And I have never seen results this quickly and consistently, either.
As I might have told you guys, I had serious double-sided pneumonia in august and september.
That pretty much destroyed everything I had built up previous that year through gym training.
Just walking up a flight of stairs left me out of breath.
You might also have heard about my knee injury that got me discharged from the army back in 2006.
Can't say i've done much jogging since. Until now. It seems to have healed with frequent doses of glucosamine, I don't even feel it now.
So. I've been thinking the whole gym thing is just a stupid-ass thing to do.
You're just paying money to do way too static exercises that won't give you a balanced body unless you do EVERYTHING in an equal amount.
Machines are useless training anyway compared to what you can do yourself.
Besides, it takes precious time to get there, and
The only real benefit of a gym if you live in a cold climate like I do are the treadmills.
I need to get myself one of those for my livingroom.
Anyway. I've been working out for a month now.
No gym, just doing exercises with my own body weight.
In the beginning of January I could manage:
- About 15 Squats and then exhaustion.
- 5 correct form pushups.
- 5 minutes of jogging, and then I was utterly spent and my body hurt for days.
- 30 situps.
- 5-6 leg lifts (lying on back, lifting legs straight together)
I could not perform this regime in one session, just doing any of these points were sure to exhaust me.
Anyway. I decided that I had to make a change, fast.
So I quit smoking and started eating less. I also started working out more or less every day.
At first, I did not jog, I focused on re-activating my dormant muscles through the above exercises and some walking.
I made up excuses to go out on errants just to walk up and down the double spiral stairs up and down to my apartment.
About one and a half weeks ago, I started jogging. I still don't do this every day, since it still gives me muscle soreness, although not that bad anymore.
Anyway, like I said, in the beginning of January 5 minutes left me dead to the world due to muscle soreness.
Yesterday I managed to jog for 25 minutes and I was still in a good enough condition to perform 40 pushups afterwards.
This is about what I can manage now, just four weeks later.
- About 35 Squats
- 40 correct form pushups.
- 25 minutes of jogging
- 50 situps.
- 25 leg lifts
AND, I can do these in one session now, at least with a two minute breather and water somewhere in there.
Like I said, I still don't jog every day since it still gives me sore calves... But every other or every third day.
And on the days that I don't jog I still do several sets of the above-mentioned exercises.
Sometimes just one, sometimes three or four different exercises.
Yesterday, I counted to about 200 pushups, 40 leg lifts and perhaps 30 squats. My stomach and my legs were sore, since I jogged the day before.
That's a low point, the minimum of what i'll do in any day.
See why I get results?
Now to the aesthetical improvements. My belly actually sagged bad for the first time in my life. It doesn't now, and i've lost about 5 inches (12-13 cm) around my waist.
If I keep this up for a few months, I might even look sort of ripped. Of course I won't quit, since one is never "done" with exercise.
My arms have increased in size and are more toned, even my face, neck, back... Everything is starting to tighten up.
I've even lost my dear love handles that had started to develop.
My old good looks are slowly returning.
The goal for me this summer is to be able to run for an hour through woodland/hilly terrain.
And of course to get insanely fit again.
Hell, if (or rather when) I succeed, I might consider re-enlisting or becoming a cop.
(Those over here aren't famous for eating donuts, the selection is hard).
To be honest, I started doing pushups so that I would be able to draw a longbow later this year.
I'm going to start practicing with the English Warbow, with a minimum draw weight of 100 lbs.
While I still will go ahead with this, the exercise has become a purpose in its own right now.
I haven't been this determined about this at any point earlier in my life... And I have never seen results this quickly and consistently, either.
I walked for three hours yesterday. With my body weight, the duration and distance of the walk and through that getting the actual speed, I managed to calculate that I burned 1713 calories just through that.
