Fitness Questions & Answers

On September 05 2011 17:14 Malinor wrote:
Hooray for our own forum. First question: How do I navigate to this forum if I do not possess the link in the first place?

On September 21 2011 04:15 Orpheos wrote:
anyone have suggestions for exercises that dont require weights or other "hardware"(ie done in my apt) that are relatively intense and work various parts of the body? I have to work alot and dont have a gym membership so I would love like a 30min workout at home that workouts alot of body parts.

Is cardio really so bad for weight loss? Atleast thats the message I got after reading the post in the nutrition thread. Basically right now 7 days a week I'm either hiking for 1-2 hours a day, or sailing for 3-6 hours mostly on weekends. If I cant do either of these because of weather I'll run on a treadmill for an hour or so.

On September 21 2011 07:55 L_Master wrote:


I don't think anyone is trying to say cardio is bad, or even that its terrible for weight loss. I think the point is that hypertrophy training works on both fronts: it obviously burns some calories and stimulates metabolism in and of itself, and additionally serves to help add muscle or even convert fat to muscle.

If your converting fat to muscle, even if your not losing actual scale mass you are "losing" weight in the sense of how you look, as your BF would be lessening. So with strength training you might be doing 500 kcal/day deficit (1 pound per week) but additionally you would be converting some fat to muscle, which would make it appear that your losing weight faster because of the change occurring in your body composition.

In fact, I think the "Why not cardio?" section could use a fleshed out explanation of that in it. My first reaction on reading it was: "Okay, cardio doesn't burn tons of calories for the beginner; but weightlifting doesn't necessarily either." The section doesn't actually explain succinctly why strength training is generally superior for weight loss, though I do feel I understand the point the author is trying to make.

And depending on how you do it, cardio can burn a ton of calories and be very effective for weight loss. I've used running almost exclusively to go from 190 to 145. If I go out and run an 10-12 mile run I can eat well into the 2000's and lose weight at a fairly rapid rate. For me this is much more manageable than trying to eat 1500-2000 calories a day with a much lower amount of running/cardio. For me, especially given my love for food, trying to eat such a laughable amount of food is too brutal mentally even if I don't necessarily feel hungrier one way or the other.

Like all things though different approaches suit different people and lifestyles much better.

On September 21 2011 06:20 Earll wrote:
Is this for simple questions and answer\will we get a slightly more general~ thread for simpler requests?

Last workout (as I posted about in the main thread) I felt really weak\uncomfortable sort of, and ended up going back on squat\bench and stayed same at my already really low deadlift. Its hard to explain, but anyway and since then I have also been feeling really weak. Like my knees feel sort of .. wobbly or unstable, and I have no idea why. It could be lack of sleep i guess but I slept 7 hours last night :[ (But only like 4 hours before that) going for 8 hours tomorrow though. I mean It should not be eating as I am getting like 3k kcals and drink 2.5 liters whole milk which gives me lots of carbs and fats (and proteins )and eat lots of proteins and fruits and stuff.


Guess I will see how work out goes tomorrow.

On September 21 2011 07:34 Hakker wrote:
What are some things that I should to to optimize my weight loss? Im currently an 18 year old that weighed 310 when I started, but have gone down 11lbs in 2.5 weeks so far.

Is cardio really so bad for weight loss? Atleast thats the message I got after reading the post in the nutrition thread. Basically right now 7 days a week I'm either hiking for 1-2 hours a day, or sailing for 3-6 hours mostly on weekends. If I cant do either of these because of weather I'll run on a treadmill for an hour or so.

Also my diet seems really bad. I thought I was doing well but after doing the math I'm only eating around 800-1000 calories a day which seems really low. I don't feel hungry at all which is the strange thing, but I think eating like this will hurt me in the long run.

My short term goal right now is to be 260lbs by my birthday in January, and my long term goal is to be under 220 by this time next year. Is this reasonable? and what should I do to reach this?

On September 21 2011 07:58 RosaParksStoleMySeat wrote:
Is there anything specific I can do for callus treatment? I tore one at the gym yesterday and it looks like I can't grip anything with my right hand right now.

On September 21 2011 08:25 Daigomi wrote:
I hurt my back doing squats the other day (arched my back when it should have stayed straight). What's the best way to recover? Should I still be exercising? If not, how long will it take before it's better?

My back isn't that sore, more just annoying. It aches a bit right after exercise, and if I don't exercise it only hurts when I use it. That said, I don't think I could do anything close to my max with my back like it is.

On September 21 2011 09:52 eshlow wrote:


http://www.beastskills.com/tutorials/tutorials/50

I tend to scratch them off in the shower when they get too big, or just cut them off with a nail clipper.

Also, for treatment I tend to salt them up or use salt water to stimulate mitogenesis. Not much you can do while they are ripped except suck it up.

Can also be a good time for a deload?