OT: The Avalounge but every time someone posts the quality declines

[S E P H]

Yeah, leafy greens are great. Spinach and kale in smoothies is awesome, and they're good salad greens as well. I always seem to mess up cooking spinach though, but I'd rather eat it uncooked now anyway.

Oh **** man, spinach and kale are freakin' hard to cook. They're like dinner rolls; one second they're fine, the next second they're just destroyed hahaha. I personally eat a lot of spinach and kale salads because of their cooking attributes, but I do like making myself Kale chips. Just a pinch of salt because you can over-salt them with even a small amount, some extra-virgin olive oil, and bake them.

 

[ABasin]

Oh **** man, spinach and kale are freakin' hard to cook. They're like dinner rolls; one second they're fine, the next second they're just destroyed hahaha. I personally eat a lot of spinach and kale salads because of their cooking attributes, but I do like making myself Kale chips. Just a pinch of salt because you can over-salt them with even a small amount, some extra-virgin olive oil, and bake them.

Sam’s Club has a premixed salad - kale, broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts, and lettuce (I think that’s it) - that’s really quite good. Costs a few bucks. Just grill up a chicken breast and throw it on top.

 

[UncleRisto]

I’ve done cardio and weight training at the same time for quite a few years. I’m not in ‘competitive mode’ with the cardio, but I believe there are a great many benefits to cranking up the heart rate a few times per week. Like I said, I do a minimum of 3 hours per week of cardio, and lift 3 hours per week also.

It’s actually possible to turn strength/weight training into a cardio workout, but I find both my weight levels and proper form suffer when I do that.

Yeah, that level of cardio definitely works. I do 2 hours of floorball (high intensity) every week and I'm gonna start running (about 30-60 mins at a time) once or twice a week again once the snow melts away. Plus some other stuff on top.

 

[The Abusement Park]

On a totally different note, I also need some help. I’ve been looking for boots lately that I can wear to the X Games, but I’m having trouble finding a good mix of a decent looking boot that I can wear outside. Seems to either be a full on snow boot or a dress boot. If anyone has any recommendations that’d be fantastic

 

[UncleRisto]

While we're on the subject, @Cousin Eddie, how often do you change up your workout routine and how do you usually change it up?

 

[ABasin]

Yeah, that level of cardio definitely works. I do 2 hours of floorball (high intensity) every week and I'm gonna start running (about 30-60 mins at a time) once or twice a week again once the snow melts away. Plus some other stuff on top.

Um, what’s floorball?

I do agree with your notion that too much cardio can be counter productive to building muscle mass. But that doesn’t mean that someone into lifting weights should be afraid of some good cardio.

In the past, I have at times gone back and forth between that 60 minutes of steady cardio, and 15 minutes of hard core cardio with very high heart rate. I’ve read articles that espouse either method. Not sure I’ve noticed any great difference.

 

[UncleRisto]

Um, what’s floorball?

I do agree with your notion that too much cardio can be counter productive to building muscle mass. But that doesn’t mean that someone into lifting weights should be afraid of some good cardio.

In the past, I have at times gone back and forth between that 60 minutes of steady cardio, and 15 minutes of hard core cardio with very high heart rate. I’ve read articles that espouse either method. Not sure I’ve noticed any great difference.

 

[ABasin]

Thanks, Risto. I had no idea.

 

[UncleRisto]

Thanks, Risto. I had no idea.

Ya, it's played in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic and Switzerland mainly, plus some other European countries. Great pastime, as any form of ball hockey/road hockey would be. In this form, a more of a legit sport though.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

While we're on the subject, @Cousin Eddie, how often do you change up your workout routine and how do you usually change it up?

Not as often as I should. My workouts have generally been lifting only since I started working out. I play hockey 2-4 times a week and eat clean so I always figured who needs cardio? Since last year I have started rowing for around 15 minutes a day though so I'm finally doing my cardio. Not for long, but it's high intensity.

Regarding lifting, my routine is quite repetitive even though I know it shouldn't be. Monday is leg day, Tuesday is chest, Wednesday is back day. Then I switch things up a little. Thursday becomes a "push" day which means mostly shoulders, but I incorporate some different chest workouts and one or two that incorporate triceps only. Then Friday (or Saturday if I don't make it Friday) becomes a "pull" day where I do some back and bicep workouts but also incorporate different leg workouts every week that I hadn't done the weeks prior or on my leg day.

So my big three days (legs, chest, back) are pretty routine, but then the other days I try to mix things up. My three big muscle group days focus on the big three lifts (squat, flat bench press, deadlift. Deadlift is something I have recently incorporated back in. I was 25lbs away from joining the 500 club a few years back but really did some damage to my back in the process. I was scared to do deadlifts but I have put them back in at a low weight). The other days I hit those same muscle groups and more but do different exercises to keep the muscles guessing. Things always come up in life too. So my plan is to start every Monday with that schedule and continue it until Friday. I schedule 5 days a week and I think that's fair. If I manage to make it Monday through Friday and I'm free on the weekend i'll get in those days too and just do some things to keep the body guessing.

I don't know if it's the biggest recipe for success, but it's what I have come comfortable with as a way to get the regular, "required" exercises in all while still trying to add some variety.

 

[UncleRisto]

Not as often as I should. My workouts have generally been lifting only since I started working out. I play hockey 2-4 times a week and eat clean so I always figured who needs cardio? Since last year I have started rowing for around 15 minutes a day though so I'm finally doing my cardio. Not for long, but it's high intensity.

Regarding lifting, my routine is quite repetitive even though I know it shouldn't be. Monday is leg day, Tuesday is chest, Wednesday is back day. Then I switch things up a little. Thursday becomes a "push" day which means mostly shoulders, but I incorporate some different chest workouts and one or two that incorporate triceps only. Then Friday (or Saturday if I don't make it Friday) becomes a "pull" day where I do some back and bicep workouts but also incorporate different leg workouts every week that I hadn't done the weeks prior or on my leg day.

So my big three days (legs, chest, back) are pretty routine, but then the other days I try to mix things up. My three big muscle group days focus on the big three lifts (squat, flat bench press, deadlift. Deadlift is something I have recently incorporated back in. I was 25lbs away from joining the 500 club a few years back but really did some damage to my back in the process. I was scared to do deadlifts but I have put them back in at a low weight). The other days I hit those same muscle groups and more but do different exercises to keep the muscles guessing. Things always come up in life too. So my plan is to start every Monday with that schedule and continue it until Friday. I schedule 5 days a week and I think that's fair. If I manage to make it Monday through Friday and I'm free on the weekend i'll get in those days too and just do some things to keep the body guessing.

I don't know if it's the biggest recipe for success, but it's what I have come comfortable with as a way to get the regular, "required" exercises in all while still trying to add some variety.

Yeah, you don't have a whole lot of room to change stuff up when it's so heavily built around the compounds. Mine is too. I just switched to a quads/push/hams/pull split though, for four workouts a week, two on the legs which is new. Used to do push/pull/legs but I felt like three workouts wasn't enough. Of course I won't get any more work on the upper body than before. Trying to beef up the ol' chicken legs. Well, at least until my Varlamov hips crap out again.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Yeah, you don't have a whole lot of room to change stuff up when it's so heavily built around the compounds. Mine is too. I just switched to a quads/push/hams/pull split though, for four workouts a week, two on the legs which is new. Used to do push/pull/legs but I felt like three workouts wasn't enough. Of course I won't get any more work on the upper body than before. Trying to beef up the ol' chicken legs. Well, at least until my Varlamov hips crap out again.

Meh I've given up hope on the chicken legs. Genetics plays a major role. I'm 6'4 with long legs and a short toso. I've been working out steadily for nearly 10 years and my lower legs still look like an 8 year old boys lol.

 

[UncleRisto]

Meh I've given up hope on the chicken legs. Genetics plays a major role. I'm 6'4 with long legs and a short toso. I've been working out steadily for nearly 10 years and my lower legs still look like an 8 year old boys lol.

I feel like at 155 pounds I could still have untapped potential in my ballerina legs. My brothers both have big hockey legs so I figure if I at least tried... lol. I think I got my mother's genetics build-wise though, which is okay since I'm seemingly incapable of gaining weight (at least so far).

 

[Foppberg]

Thanks for all the tips guys, saving this page for future reference.

Finally, take the long view. A lot of people join a gym and start working out, thinking that they're going to get easy/immediate results in a week or two or something. If you dedicate yourself to it for 6 months, you'll absolutely feel the difference, and quite likely see it as well.

Yup. I've been guilty of that in the past, I've gone to the gym before, had no idea what I was doing but just threw myself into everything and a few days later I'd be insanely sore and be like well I'll need a few days to recover from that!... And end up never going again.

I've talked about this with Henchy in private, but given the prolonged conversation in here, I'll join in:

When my fiancee and I split in July, I stopped eating a lot of the junk food I used to keep in the apartment, and made a hard switch to drinking diet soda (if I'm drinking soda at all). I slowly incorporated different vegetables into my diet, where I now typically enjoy eating spinach and steamed broccoli with my entree.

On January 3rd I joined the YMCA here in Wichita, went for the first time on January 4th, and have been every day since then, primarily doing 35-50 minute exercises on an elliptical or cycling machine.

Since July I am down 43 lbs. I've got a long way to go before I hit my target weight, but I've already cleared my first benchmark and am in general having fun going.

Everyone is different, and will achieve results in a different way. For me, my key has been regulating my caloric intake in combination with exercising enough to burn off calories. On top of that, developing the will power to tell myself "NO!" when I sometimes want to cheat myself and have something like pizza or honey-BBQ wings (of which I *really* want some right now). I still have a lot to learn when it comes to what foods are good and bad for me, especially because I have a decent amount of belly fat that I'd like to GET RID OF, lol.

But @Foppberg it's great that you're wanting to start this. Please know you can always lean on this group here for encouragement. I know that despite what the scales are telling me, I haven't necessarily felt like I've *seen* the results. It was actually my sister-in-law and the girl I'm trying to start dating telling me, unprompted, that my progress is showing.

So keep it up man!

Damn that's awesome RL! I know a major change like that can be insanely hard to do, breaking a routine is so difficult. I appreciate the encouragement too, when I told my family/friends about my plans to start going to the gym routinely there was mixed reactions. My friends didn't, and still don't get why I'm going, considering I'm not "out" of shape, but I'm also not "in" shape, which is ultimately what I'd like to get to. But they're also not the most athletic type since HS ended so.

Also, what's everyones routine for a workout? To do each workout one at a time, or to do it in a cycle type of thing? So for example do 5 reps of squats and then move onto x, or to do 1 rep of squat, then move on to the next workout, and the next, the next, then the 2nd rep of squats, etc etc.

As for diet I've just been planning on eating enough protein and calories, while eating the majority of my carbs for the day right before my workout. Would that be a good beginner plan? I feel like the whole thing, especially the diet, is something that I'll slowly tailor and change the longer I get into this kind of lifestyle.

 

[Ceremony]

I've been looking at memes. Is this Peter Forsberg?

 

[ABasin]

Yup. I've been guilty of that in the past, I've gone to the gym before, had no idea what I was doing but just threw myself into everything and a few days later I'd be insanely sore and be like well I'll need a few days to recover from that!... And end up never going again.

One of the ways to combat soreness, is to work areas of your body that aren't sore. That's why you're seeing so many posts about working specific parts of the body on a particular day. Then you can rest that body part the next day, and work something else.

A simple and obvious way to do this, is to work upper body one day, lower body the next. Probably a good place to start - you can get more refined about it once you figure some things out (about both working out and your body).

You'll never make that perfect, btw. I suspect I'm a bit older than most in here, I work out hard almost every day, and something always effing hurts. Over time, you'll figure out that you can, in fact, work out sore muscles. You just have to do it in a way that makes sense.

 

[ASmileyFace]

I've been looking at memes. Is this Peter Forsberg?

That is Foppa

What the f***. Where did you find that


EDIT: I call it. My avatar now. Unless Ceremony wants it.

 

[Tweaky]

I've been looking at memes. Is this Peter Forsberg?

Yep. He owned the franchise for Crocs in Sweden for a while. After his company lost the franchise, it lost tons of money and he shut it down and liquidated it. He was also an early investor in Crocs, which is based in Niwot, CO.

 

[Murzu]

Ya, it's played in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic and Switzerland mainly, plus some other European countries. Great pastime, as any form of ball hockey/road hockey would be. In this form, a more of a legit sport though.

Floorball rocks. I've never heard about anyone that hasn't liked to play it.

 

[Murzu]

Oswalt is such a joke. Just complete ****.

@Murzu Had some time and watched Your Name last night. Absolutely unbelievable movie, Japanese dudes for some reason have this amazing knack for storytelling, either in games or movies.

I just randomly remembered I didn't react to this lol.

Yeah, it's a masterpiece. I've watched it three times now. And I just simply put like everything about it. Pretty close to a perfect movie.

 

[Ceremony]

Yep. He owned the franchise for Crocs in Sweden for a while. After his company lost the franchise, it lost tons of money and he shut it down and liquidated it. He was also an early investor in Crocs, which is based in Niwot, CO.

Well then. Presumably his current rakish handsomeness is a reward for spectacularly bad life choices.

 

[Bonzai12]

If you’re sore from working out it’s because you’re not stretching after your workout.

 

[ABasin]

If you’re sore from working out it’s because you’re not stretching after your workout.

I don’t agree - at least not fully.

Stretching after a workout certainly can help reduce the buildup of lactic acid, but it does not eliminate it.

 

[hockeyfish]

I've been looking at memes. Is this Peter Forsberg?

More importantly, are those pot crocs?

 

[UncleRisto]

Lactic acid doesn't cause DOMS, and stretching doesn't prevent DOMS. Muscle soreness is caused by microtrauma in muscle cells, which is caused by the physical exercise. To try and prevent this damage from happening again, the body will overcompensate and create more of these muscle cells than there were before, which shows as muscle growth.