Fitness and exercise thread 2023

loads of people put out youtube videos for resistance band workouts during the lockdowns and I was pretty impressed with how strenuous they could be. as well as getting different “weight” bands you can hold the band in different places to make it easier/harder within the same “weight”. they’re very versatile tbf

yeah, seems so. also much cheaper than actual weights, and much easier on your body

although there are some exercises that are better with the tube ones with the handles, which is annoying, as I just got three regular bands

Yeah you still get a good burn in the muscles but it doesnt knack your joints like weights can. If your bands don’t have handles it might be worth wearing some gloves or something. It sounds daft but it can really sting when the heavy bands stretch and contract in your hands

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I keep losing my bands

I have both tube and the other ones, i think the tubes are pretty limited/unhelpful for anything above conditioning. There’s very few things you can do with tubes that you’re not much better doing with a cable machine or weights. Regular ‘hip’ bands on the other hand, you can do some cool exercises with them and they’re great for mind-muscle activation

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Nothing better than a swim on a Saturday afternoon is there

what do you mean by the mind-muscle activation bit?

will take the gloves tip! found it quite uncomfortable with bare hands for sure

Sometimes when you’re doing an exercise, if you’re form isn’t nailed down then you might not be recruiting the muscle(s) that the exercise is designed for. ‘Mind muscle’ is focusing on the area of your body that you’re working on most during a specific exercise. Using a band can really help with this in my experience, it can be the difference between actually feeling the muscle being worked (burning or throbbing sensation) and not really feeling anything at all. Which is very encouraging and motivating,

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Oooh, this is really interesting. Makes me want to buy some bands! Thanks!

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Why would V02 Max go down if heart rate and pace haven’t, and have in fact improved? Not hugely bothered because I doubt a Garmin watch’s reading is 100% accurate and evidently I’ve not lost fitness, just curious what the maths/logic behind it might be.

joined a gym and went to a boxing training there today, was fun. my legs are burning now

got no interest in the people smashing up eachother’s faces aspect of boxing but the training is a great workout, think i’ll do it again

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I’ve been wondering why mine hasn’t improved despite twice-weekly spin classes

I feel fitter so there’s that, but it’s weird that my Garmin doesn’t notice anything different. My heart rate is freakishly low for someone who isn’t an athlete so maybe that’s part of it

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Have given myself a couple of goals for the year that are more about keeping myself consistent, rather than huge feats in themselves.

Firstly, I started doing Park Run at the end of last year, so set myself the target of running 40 of those in 2023. Or 40 Saturday runs anyway. If Park Run is on, and I can get there, then it has to be that, but if it’s cancelled or I’m away, but I do a 5k run on Saturday morning, that counts. Done every weekend so far, so 5/40. Think I’m on 52km total too, so might end up ripping off guntrip’s 500km thing, and have that as a notional target in the background as well. We’ll see.

The other one’s to swim 100km. Would pretty much always do 1.6 - 2km when I go, so it’s just once a week or thereabouts. Easy enough if I just keep going, trickier if I just don’t go for 6-8 weeks at a time, as I’m prone to. 12.2km down so far, 87.8 remaining.

Think writing this stuff down will really help.

If we’re banging our 5 a side stats in here too:
Played 4, scored 4, with 2 assists. Target’s just 1 a game average of each.

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A week of mostly playing football. My right foot and ankle are very sore after someone raked their studs yesterday. Not playing again until Wednesday.

Current stats:

Football games played: 18
Results: W 7 D 3 L 8
Goals scored: 24

Swimming distance: 18.8k

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week 5

:white_check_mark: 4 cycles, bike was temp broken (2x 1 hour which makes up for missing one)
:white_check_mark: 5 FitOn workouts
:white_check_mark: Left the house on Sat and Sun
:x: no 5K walk

Staying with my sister tonight - Thurs eve so won’t be able to cycle, going to try to force myself up for a pre work walk instead.

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I’m starting running again today to do a half marathon in November

Might get back into the pull ups as well, but maybe start that next week

:muscle::muscle::muscle::muscle:

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Got a PPPB (post-pandemic PB) on barbell back squats this morning, 70kg :sunglasses:

Managed to get to 75kg before the pandemic but my range was much smaller then and I’d count it as a squat as long as my knees bent and my bum stuck out a bit, these days my range and hip mobility is a lot better so even though I’m not lifting as heavy I’m doing proper full squats

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Garmin etc extrapolate VO2 max from the speed you’re running at. If your training paces are a good bit slower than your race ones, then it’s likely an artefact to do with that.

And I basically wouldn’t pay attention to watch readings at all to gauge improvements from e.g aerobic/excise classes in the gym.

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can confirm

speedwork is starting this week, will report back