Fitness Questions & Answers - Page 101

On October 05 2012 19:34 BoxingKangaroo wrote:
What's the best way to fix muscle imbalances? I think the reason my Bench and OHP are stalling is because my right shoulder is weak and I haven't been engaging it during the lifts. Simply deload and fix the form?

On October 05 2012 19:34 BoxingKangaroo wrote:
What's the best way to fix muscle imbalances? I think the reason my Bench and OHP are stalling is because my right shoulder is weak and I haven't been engaging it during the lifts. Simply deload and fix the form?

On October 07 2012 00:26 mordek wrote:
I think my lower back is imbalanced, what do you do for that? I've added in glute ham raises so far.

On October 07 2012 07:39 eshlow wrote:

Too weak or too strong?

Compared to your glutes, hamstings, etc?

What are your lifts

On October 08 2012 22:11 mordek wrote:

Well, I'm not sure relative to my glutes and hamstrings. I would say they are all weaker than they should be. I asked about it because to me, which is subjective, it feels like the right side of my back is bigger and stronger than the left which I would think isn't terribly uncommon. So it's more of a left/right imbalance. I added glute ham raises just because I know my posterior chain needs assistance work but I wasn't sure if unilateral was enough. I just had the feeling this is just another factor in my SI joint issues.

On October 09 2012 06:56 phyre112 wrote:


Chiro told me that that was pretty much the entire cause of my SI issues. (left spinal erectors stronger than right, right glute/hams are compensating and rotating my hip) so I'm doing reverse hypers and unilateral glute/hamstring work. See one if you can, they should be able to help you out with specifics.

On October 10 2012 23:55 mordek wrote:
Well you need to have a desire to reach a goal(s) which I'm assuming you have. Simply, you are not going to reach that goal without being intentional and consistent. Remind yourself of this, ask yourself if you really want that goal. If it's something vague you're probably not going to get fired up about it and workout in the morning. Also, spending time towards a goal you care about is more easily spent and much more rewarding Recording progress really helps overcome hurdles.

Personally I lifted from 6:30-7:30 last winter/spring despite work starting at 9 am. I didn't always enjoy it, wished I was working out after work but that's when I had to do it (plus getting up early when it's freezing outside plain sucks). This may not be the case for everyone but once I adopted the routine I found myself feeling better once I arrived at the gym and for the rest of the day as well. I workout in the evenings now and I've been tempted to go back just for that benefit.

It sucks your schedule will be changing but there's lots of stuff in life you can put off because it's going to be a pain later so why start now but that's how you get no results. Be as consistent as possible starting today is the best route imo.

TL;DR Have a goal that makes you want to exercise, stick to the routine as best as possible. You just might find you start enjoying it. If the goal is important enough to you, it won't matter if its uncomfortable/inconvenient.

The only goal I can think of so far is to perform certain activities a certain number of times a week. For example:

1) I must do 30 minutes on the bike 3 times a week: once Monday, once Wednesday (where I have time in the evening) and once on the weekend
2) I must do at least X sets of Y exercises Z times per week.

On October 11 2012 00:59 mordek wrote:

Not everyone is into lifting heavy weights, I get that. I think it will help if you give some thought to what the level of fitness you want looks like in real life. Is it just a trim and healthy looking body? Is it normal activities are effortless? Do you want to play sports recreationally to the best of your ability.

Do you enjoy biking? You could work towards participating in road races or mountain bike races. I like my exercise (which can be dull or enjoyable by itself depending on who you are I would think) to have some kind translation to something I love to do. When it's functional, it's worthwhile.

Lifting weights carries over into athletic ability so that when I play ultimate frisbee, volleyball, or soccer I can see my work having effect.


It seems like that goal is the opposite of what you want (repetitive, boring). It's like adhering to a schedule is your goal. You should stick to a routine to attain your goal. Something like biking could be starting at X miles in 30 minutes and working towards Y miles in 30 minutes. Or for exercise bike it could be an avg RPM of X for 30 min and increasing that to be able to do Y avg RPM.

Really just think of what you love to do, build a routine that contributes towards that and your health at the same time. If you don't like doing physical activity I think any routine you pick can be good but it will be boring!
It seems like setting your goal as completing

On October 11 2012 01:44 Daigomi wrote:

Puosu has a banhammer (afaik), so I'm not sure how you confused us. Anyway :p

If you want to do biking for endurance training, that's great. As Mordek said, you can still set yourself goals. Abstract goals like "heartrate zones" are hard to aim for and very hard to work towards. They also don't keep you motivated. The reason I almost never miss a gym session is because each gym session is an opportunity for me to beat my previous best. I woke up excited this morning because I knew today I had an opportunity to attempt to squat 152.5kg and bench 82.5kg. What would excite you about waking up and keeping your heart rate at 130bps, the same rate it's been at for the last month? When you're not in the mood to exercise, how will you look back over the past month and tell yourself that your hard work has been worth it? "My heartrate used to be 130bps, now it's 130bps, so I'm probably fitter?" Many people have the same problem with weightlifting, they do it to get a six-pack. But abs take 6-12 months to become visible, so what happens is they spend three months looking in the mirror every day, and then get demotivated and lose interest.

What you really want is a concrete goal that will encompass all your other goals. For example, I also want to have a better body, but rather than make that my goal, my goal is to be able to deadlift 220kg because I know that there's no way my current body can deadlift 220kg. As such, every time I deadlift 5kg more, I feel motivated because I'm getting closer to my goal, and eventually, when I reach my goal of deadlifting 220kg, I know that my goal of having a better body and being healthier would also have been reached.

For you, what I would suggest is do a practice run on your bike with your heart rate averaging 130 and see how far you go. Lets imagine you do 10km in the 30 minutes. Now, set your first goal as riding 18km in 30 minutes after 2 months (or whatever is reasonable), and make a plan to do so (ride 500m further every session). Now, if you reach your goal after 2 months, you'll know for a fact that you're considerably fitter and healthier than you used to be because there was no way in hell that you could have made 18km in 30 minutes when you started. That would be undeniable evidence of improvement. You'll also find that if you set your goals correctly, your heart rate will stay at 130bps every session. The point is, you'll have something to work towards and, just as importantly, you'll be accountable for every exercise session. If your goal is to maintain a heartrate of 130, how does skipping a session here or there harm you? It doesn't, because you can still aim for a 130 heartrate. On the other hand, if you have a concrete goal (18km in 30 minutes), you know that with every session you skip, your chances of reaching your goal diminish.

Other than that, if you want to do every day things effortlessly, strength training is really good. I know you said you don't want to go to gym, but perhaps you can look into bodyweight training? There are tons of good bodyweight training programs, all with concrete goals for you to work towards. I can definitely confirm that being stronger does make every day things more effortless. I never thought I'd say this, but being physically strong is really liberating in a strange way. I constantly find myself doing pull-ups where I can, or just sitting on the couch doing L-sits, not for any particular reason, just because I can do it and it feels awesome. It's also helped me with more practical things. We had to move furniture recently and me and a friend could comfortably carry large wooden desks together. We have a 48kg dog, and even working together my parents couldn't pick him up to put him in the bath, but I could do it on my own with very little effort. The other day a beggar had an epileptic attack outside our yard and his friends/associates asked us to drive him to his shelter. I could pick the guy up and carry him to the car on my own. None of these things are central to who I am or important for my happiness, but for some reason, just knowing that I can do what I want to do, and do it without getting tired, feels great.

On October 11 2012 04:07 Daigomi wrote:
The term functional training is, at least to me, super vague which is why I generally avoid using it. Different people consider different types of exercises functional and others not. For example, squats and power cleans are some of the most functional exercises (they help out in pretty much every sport there is, as well as improving things like jump height and sprint speed), but they're generally not grouped with other functional exercises. What strength training means is more straightforward, which is why I prefer using it.

The gols you set will depend on the exercises you plan on doing. What are you planning on doing? If possible, you want your goals to aim for heavier weights rather than more repetitions. That is to say, it's better to do the same number of repetitions at a higher weight, rather than doing more repetitions at the same weight. Heavier weights are better for strength while still being useful for endurance while more repetitions are only really useful for endurance.

Regarding the biking progression, I would suggest having a fixed rule for progressing. For example, if you succeed at your daily goal, increase the distance (per 30min) by X amount. Generally, people "progress" when they feel like they have mastered the current step which results in them progressing very slowly. What you want to be doing is something similar to what I do with maths. Typically as I work through a semester, I have only a basic understanding of the chapter I am currently reading. By the time I get to chapter 5, however, chapter 1 is super easy even though I never put extra effort into it, and by the time I get to chapter 9, chapter 5 is easy. Your muscles work in a similar way. In order to cause optimal muscle adaptation (whether it is cardio, strength or endurance), you should basically never feel comfortable with what you're doing. So if you feel comfortable doing 5km in 30 mins, you should be aiming for 5.5km. It's a bit frustrating because things never get easier, but at the same time, if you ever go back to what you did at the start you'll realise how much you've improved. The only way to guarantee that you're never comfortable is to have a system where the difficulty increases without taking your preferences into consideration (for example, the moment you're successful). That way, if things are comfortable you'll progress until you reach point where they are no longer comfortable, and then you'll fail to reach your targets and stay there until you've improved enough to progress again.

If all this sounds very prescriptive, don't worry, you can do what you want to do. These are just guidelines that have helped me (and all my friends) a lot, and I really think they are useful for most people starting out. Once you get into it a bit more, you'll get a better idea of what works for you and what doesn't, and then you'll have more confidence to make changes to the program.