Reaching Peak Fitness

[undomesticdiva]

or blokesses-cheeky! haha i was like that when i was at school, i had a good metabolism and lost a lot of weight in my teens, i'm coming up to 23 and i'm still quite slim, but i have that midsection which is still quite stubborn, but as long as i do some form of cardio most weight tends to stay off (so far! fingers crossed)

Way to make me feel old, my daughter is 23. I've got bad news for you, if you're worried about your 'middle bit' it doesn't get any better with age. As long as you're happy within yourself that's all that matters. As I said before I'm no stranger to the hot dog stand and I'm as happy as a pig in 5hite. If there was a magic wand, I'd be all slim and stuff but if it requires effort on my part then I'll give it a miss.

Pmsl! sorry! I'm mostly happy in myself, of course, being a woman, i have to have something to complain about, i just need to get to that point where i know i can run if i have to, fight if necessary and walk a good distance without keeling over.
I'm no stranger to a hot dog stand either...mmmm hotdogs... i'm craving one now

[general_panic]

This is quite a hard one for me to write, because it means admitting i have issues- meh!

Over the past few months i have been implementing a fitness programme, starting off slow and working my way up, i have been walking almost every week in a forest nearby, with a break in between due to commitments, with a group of friends, and we have been averaging of around 6-7 miles all round, and once a fortnight me and The Bearded Wonder walk to the nearest town 5 miles away and get the bus back, now i can do this with barely any problems, as my legs, feet and hips have adjusted to the distance. Most walks include several hills/inclines, whatever you want to call them, and a lot of the time i can manage the hills without too many problems (i smoke, so my lung capacity isn't great)

I recently got a bike from freecycle, and i am getting one for The Bearded Wonder when i find one, and we are both going to cycle more once the weather improves, i'm kind of dreading it because i know it will force me to looking into stopping smoking. Ugh. yes, yes i know it's terribly bad for me, blah, blah i've heard the lectures plenty of times lol

On the plus side, i have noticed a gradual change in my body, mainly my calves building muscle (which i am incredibly pleased with, by the way) and my biceps look great due to carrying heavy shopping and working with weights and i am now looking into working on my midsection and flattening the stomach a bit, i'm not fat, just have a little extra around the middle that doesn't need to be there any more.
So, to get to the point, what fitness regimes do you follow? i am open to suggestions, opinions, reviews, things to avoid etc

*UndomesticDiva*

I always find the old British Army Fitness Programme is a great way to get started if you're not a fitness nut and don't really know where to start. It's what first got me into running about 10 years ago. This isn't the original but it's pretty close to it;

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... g.fitness1

You'll be surprised how well it works. Bear in mind that it was designed to take your average lazy teenager and turn them into something the army can work with. It takes up very little time too, less than half an hour a workout when you first start- you'll be running that 5 mile trip with ease soon enough.

Oh- and smoking isn't an excuse! I alway say that I'll stop smoking when I meet a non smoker that can outrun me. It hasn't happened yet

I'm a bit of a fitness fanatic so if you're interested in a more personalised fitness programme and can promise me you'll do your best to stick at it pm me and i'll be more than happy to write one up for you

[undomesticdiva]

I always find the old British Army Fitness Programme is a great way to get started if you're not a fitness nut and don't really know where to start. It's what first got me into running about 10 years ago. This isn't the original but it's pretty close to it;

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... g.fitness1

You'll be surprised how well it works. Bear in mind that it was designed to take your average lazy teenager and turn them into something the army can work with. It takes up very little time too, less than half an hour a workout when you first start- you'll be running that 5 mile trip with ease soon enough.

Oh- and smoking isn't an excuse! I alway say that I'll stop smoking when I meet a non smoker that can outrun me. It hasn't happened yet

I'm a bit of a fitness fanatic so if you're interested in a more personalised fitness programme and can promise me you'll do your best to stick at it pm me and i'll be more than happy to write one up for you

Thanks for the link it all sounds great apart form the running part, my co-ordination isn't great and i'm likely to fall arse over tit and make a spectacle of myself
A personalised fitness plan i think would be more my style

[tanstaafl]

Women's midsections ... sigh ... I'd suggest toning exercises for your whole core, like these: http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/ ... exercises/

Not just your abs, but your side and back muscles too. I don't do these enough, but I do do them, or slight variations, but it would take an essay and still not be helpful

I know right? lol Thanks for the link, i'm going to try some of those tomorrow , i may have passed out somewhere haha
Back is pretty strong, as i'm adding weight to my rucksack when we go walking/hiking and upping the weight a little more each time

Sorry Arzosah please dont use the word "toning" , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reduction ..........but the short version is that toning exercises don't work for removing stomach fat............undomesticdiva ...walking is great keep it up ..........


Myself... never smoked , tea total (at the moment ) and have lifted weights since I was 15 and the last 20 without a break , currently working out on a 4 on 1 off routine

But not as good as it seems, I got fat lifter syndrome and as long as I could lift large weights I thought I was fit


Then got Diabetes T2 which knocked me for six, but just getting there now, should do more walking but have lost a lot of fat and regained a lot of musccle I had lost.............

And notadog you are correct its extremely hard to loose weight and put muscle on at the same time, but you can get stronger and loose weight so get lifting lol..........



Jase

[Arzosah]

Women's midsections ... sigh ... I'd suggest toning exercises for your whole core, like these: http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/ ... exercises/

Not just your abs, but your side and back muscles too. I don't do these enough, but I do do them, or slight variations, but it would take an essay and still not be helpful

I know right? lol Thanks for the link, i'm going to try some of those tomorrow , i may have passed out somewhere haha
Back is pretty strong, as i'm adding weight to my rucksack when we go walking/hiking and upping the weight a little more each time

Sorry Arzosah please dont use the word "toning" , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reduction ..........but the short version is that toning exercises don't work for removing stomach fat...........


Jase

Sorry

I'll tell you the two things I'm thinking of - and its not particularly about getting rid of fat, that much is true. I used to do ballet as a child and as a teenager - at age 18, I was doing 20 hours a week. Stopped when I went away to college, but I had whats now called washboard abs and it took 10 years for that level of fitness to go completely away...

But the other thing is that even now (and I'm jansman's age) if I want to use my stomach muscles to hold myself in and give myself a better outline/better posture, I can, even though I don't do those exercises very often - I think a lot of women simply don't know that those muscles are controllable. When I do that, I have the same silhouette as I did when I was about 30 which is a shock for any bloke that ogles me and then overtakes me in a car

[undomesticdiva]

Women's midsections ... sigh ... I'd suggest toning exercises for your whole core, like these: http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/ ... exercises/

Not just your abs, but your side and back muscles too. I don't do these enough, but I do do them, or slight variations, but it would take an essay and still not be helpful

I know right? lol Thanks for the link, i'm going to try some of those tomorrow , i may have passed out somewhere haha
Back is pretty strong, as i'm adding weight to my rucksack when we go walking/hiking and upping the weight a little more each time

Sorry Arzosah please dont use the word "toning" , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reduction ..........but the short version is that toning exercises don't work for removing stomach fat............undomesticdiva ...walking is great keep it up ..........


Myself... never smoked , tea total (at the moment ) and have lifted weights since I was 15 and the last 20 without a break , currently working out on a 4 on 1 off routine

But not as good as it seems, I got fat lifter syndrome and as long as I could lift large weights I thought I was fit


Then got Diabetes T2 which knocked me for six, but just getting there now, should do more walking but have lost a lot of fat and regained a lot of musccle I had lost.............

And notadog you are correct its extremely hard to loose weight and put muscle on at the same time, but you can get stronger and loose weight so get lifting lol..........



Jase

Spot reduction doesn't have the same ring to it as toning lol, i am already on a caloric deficit, i very rarely eat the amount of calories i'm supposed to
i think my problem started when in my teens when i first started smoking, i used my lunch money to buy cigs, and very rarely ate lunch, so i wasn't getting enough calories to begin with, and it worked for a few years, and now my body has clearly laid down fat stores because of that, so really i need to find a way of tackling that, which apparently lifting weights can help, i just need to afford them now lol

[tanstaafl]

Arzosah

Sorry

I'll tell you the two things I'm thinking of - and its not particularly about getting rid of fat, that much is true. I used to do ballet as a child and as a teenager - at age 18, I was doing 20 hours a week. Stopped when I went away to college, but I had whats now called washboard abs and it took 10 years for that level of fitness to go completely away...

But the other thing is that even now (and I'm jansman's age) if I want to use my stomach muscles to hold myself in and give myself a better outline/better posture, I can, even though I don't do those exercises very often - I think a lot of women simply don't know that those muscles are controllable. When I do that, I have the same silhouette as I did when I was about 30 which is a shock for any bloke that ogles me and then overtakes me in a car

Ballet is great, ........and gives you core strength........ and as you say good core muscles give you a better posture (chest up belly in etc) the thing is anything that uses your body as a whole will strengthen your core, so undomesticdivas walking with a backpack and shopping is also great, for belly fat and hip fat I am afraid the only way of really removing it is to get your overall bodyfat down, but it has never been my thing ,,, I squat and deadlift so my core is strong, but I look more like geoff capes than brad pitt lol ..........

"undomesticdiva"
Spot reduction doesn't have the same ring to it as toning lol, i am already on a caloric deficit, i very rarely eat the amount of calories i'm supposed to
i think my problem started when in my teens when i first started smoking, i used my lunch money to buy cigs, and very rarely ate lunch, so i wasn't getting enough calories to begin with, and it worked for a few years, and now my body has clearly laid down fat stores because of that, so really i need to find a way of tackling that, which apparently lifting weights can help, i just need to afford them now lol

Go on lol lift them weights....


Gonna preach now Try LCHF .............http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf No more diets lol, I use it as its great for diabetics and as said its not a diet just a change in lifestyle

Jase

[Arzosah]

Ballet is great, ........and gives you core strength........ and as you say good core muscles give you a better posture (chest up belly in etc) the thing is anything that uses your body as a whole will strengthen your core, so undomesticdivas walking with a backpack and shopping is also great,

Absolutely!

for belly fat and hip fat I am afraid the only way of really removing it is to get your overall bodyfat down, but it has never been my thing ,,, I squat and deadlift so my core is strong, but I look more like geoff capes than brad pitt lol ..........

You know what, I agree with you, about "spot" removal of body fat - I'm not using the word "toning" as a synonym for that, really I'm not! I don't really need to lose weight personally, though I *do* need to get a whole lot fitter, including my immune system. I just need to get through the next 9 months without picking up another virus (takes about 6 months to go), and then I can retire and concentrate on my own needs.

Slight hijack here, undomestic diva, sorry!

[raz]

i find circuit training shifts my fat pretty quickly i can easily drop a stone a month if im doing it and it focuses on all ur core muscle groups.. most martial arts clubs usually have lessons 2 or 3 times a week its a great way to get in shape and as a fellow smoker i find my lung capacity increases the more i train.. but ofcourse i need to quit smoking but its easier said than done

[undomesticdiva]

i find circuit training shifts my fat pretty quickly i can easily drop a stone a month if im doing it and it focuses on all ur core muscle groups.. most martial arts clubs usually have lessons 2 or 3 times a week its a great way to get in shape and as a fellow smoker i find my lung capacity increases the more i train.. but ofcourse i need to quit smoking but its easier said than done

I like the idea of circuit training, sounds like my cup of tea, also apparently HIIT is good for a quick fat burner too
yes it is easier said than done! I can't even count the number of times I've tried, not a nice experience lol