Fit at 41
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So it's about time....after probably getting pretty close to the hundy over xmas, starting to get into a bit of a routine and ramp up the exercise. I'll probably post here pretty infrequently but thought it'd be good to check back on and get some tips from you gurus.
Trying to do short and sharp, that I can do with Bonesetta in tow. 45-50 mins is about tops at the moment. So anyone got some workouts similar to below they could throw up as ideas, or some good exercise sets to get amongst?
I should note, I fucken suck at pull ups so steer clear of them, but any ideas to help get towards being able to actually do more than one are welcomed.
Upper Body
4 Sets
1a. Dumbbell press into dumbbell fly x 10-12
1b. Close grip Lat Pull down into row x 10-122-3 Sets
2a. Woodchop x 10-12 both sides
2b. Reverse Woodchop x 10-12 both sides
2c. Upright barbell row x 8-12 (basically to failure)Legs
3 Sets
1a. Front Squat x 5
1b. Box jumps x 81 Set
2a. Back Squat x 10-15
2b. Squat Jumps 60-120 Seconds2-3 Sets
3a. Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift x 8-12
3b. Dumbbell Calf Raises x 15-20
3c. Alternating Jump Lunge x 16-20Whole Body
3 Sets
1a. Back Squat x 10-12
1b. Swiss ball reverse crunch (to failure)3 Sets
2a. Bench Press x 8-12
2b. Wide Grip Pulldown x 10-12 (Final Set as drop set to failure)2-3 Sets
3a. Dumbbell Thrusters x 10-12
3b. Standing dumbbell row x 10-122-3 Sets
4a. Cable Tricep Extension x 10-12
4b. Cable bicep curls x 10-12To finish all workouts:
Rotisserie (2 Sets, 30 seconds per exercise, increase time for progression)- Supermans
- Right Side plank
- Crunches
- Left Side plank
- Front Plank
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@Bones kettle bells would be a good addition. Plenty of stuff you can do with them, in particular things like goblet squats and heaps of pressing variations. Your list of stuff is pretty good, what are your favs? If time is short I like focusing on a balance of what you enjoy and something you can track improvement in. Too many options can feel a bit scattergun.
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Oh, and welcome aboard!!
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@Paekakboyz said in Fit at 40.:
@Bones kettle bells would be a good addition. Plenty of stuff you can do with them, in particular things like goblet squats and heaps of pressing variations. Your list of stuff is pretty good, what are your favs? If time is short I like focusing on a balance of what you enjoy and something you can track improvement in. Too many options can feel a bit scattergun.
Yeah I discovered goblet squats (or as Bonesetta likes to call them, "Goblin squats") a couple of years ago, horrible bastards.
I have an upper and lower body workout that I'm doing on the days I go myself, with slight variations throw in from time to time. Those workouts above are decent for tracking as I can track improvements on reps/weights/time for most of them.
Upper Body
5x 6-12 Bench Press
5x 6-12 seated row
4x 10-12 cable butterflies superset with swiss ball pushups to failure (feet on ball)
4x 8-10 inverse row (feet on ball) superset with side lateral raises (dropset to failure)
2-3x 8-10 DB floor press superset with 6-10 military press
2-3x wide grip lat pull down (final set dropset to failure)Legs
5x 6-12 deadlift
5x 8-12 leg press superset with 6-12 goblet squats
Below superset x 3
8-12 hamstring curl (both legs up, one leg down)
8-12 leg extensions (both legs up, one leg down)
12-20 calf raises -
If you want to nail pullups then the lat pulldowns wiill get you going in the right direction.
Once a bit of weight comes off they will come much easier.
When i first started gymming my PT got me to start one of the regular workouts I was doing with 10 pullups across as many sets as it required to get the 10 done. Right now that will seem tough if you struggle to do one but soon you will be able to do a couple then 3 then you are can try and do them in 3 sets and so on.
I think he got me to do them at the start of the workout as I was probably less fatigued then.
Its a good little challenge and a real acheivement once you nail it
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@JK awesome that sounds like a neat way to tackle it, cheers.
Edit: I should say I think it's a bit of a mental thing too, probably technique also! It's something I've just never been good at despite not typically lacking in back/core strength.
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Another option for the pullups is to train the negatives for a while
Jump, or use a box, to get yourself to the top of the bar and then lower yourself with control. You should be fighting all the way through the negative. A minimum of 3 secs to get down to the bottom but preferably 5 secs. Repeat for reps.
It's different from the lat pull down because the supporting muscles/core are all engaged tin a similar way to a full pullup. It helps get the mind muscle connection for the full movement.
Treat the negs like any other exercise. Once you get to something like 3 x 12 with 5s negs you then switch to the real exercise. It's an easier way to make that initial progress
Yet another option is 'grease the groove'. I've never tried it, but people have success with that method too. Google it.. (Basically do the exercise often but keep well within your max reps)
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also you can buy heavy elastic bands to assist with pull ups.
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Are you doing shit at home? If so have a look at a set of these
Very simple but very clever design. Mrs Mariner picked up a couple of the lighter ones and it's amazing how many different things you can do with them. I'm pretty impressed actually.
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@mariner4life live in a one bedroom flat so not really and it's 0 degrees outside so the park across the road is out. You Aussies.
Nah moving to a house soon and it's getting warmer so will check them out cheers.
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Nearly 100 ? Fuck that is fat for a skinny funt like you.
There's lots of schools of thought for pull/chin ups. I've grown to love them but then again we're all different, I look at posts by people telling us all about their running achievements with utter disgust at the very thought.
@Duluth I did grease the groove for pull ups. Really effective but I got bad tendonitis in my right arm which still gives me grief.
Try this workout. Get your max number of pulls/chins. Do half. Rest for three minutes then same again. Repeat two more times ( four sets in total ).
Each workout subtract 10 seconds from the rest time. I'm doing this at the moment at the park. Will retest my max in a few weeks.
Oh and not sure if you know but I love a good legless rope climb when I want to show off to my son's or any hot bitches stalking my FB/Tinder/Bumble
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@MN5 Pull ups has always been a huge weakness for me, even when I was a gym bunny.
at least 3 or 4 days a week, I do 3 sets of pull ups...2 weeks ago I was doing 3 of 5, am upto 3 of 7.
Goal is to be able to do 15 pull ups without needing to kick out or use my legs for a little momentum.
I expect it'd be easier if I got back to my preferred weight of 92-93kg too, but weight this morning after a dump at 97.3kg.
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@taniwharugby said in Fit at 40.:
@MN5 Pull ups has always been a huge weakness for me, even when I was a gym bunny.
at least 3 or 4 days a week, I do 3 sets of pull ups...2 weeks ago I was doing 3 of 5, am upto 3 of 7.
Goal is to be able to do 15 pull ups without needing to kick out or use my legs for a little momentum.
I expect it'd be easier if I got back to my preferred weight of 92-93kg too, but weight this morning after a dump at 97.3kg.
Hmmmmm possibly overtraining a bit there me old mate. Watch those tendons !
I think training chins/pull ups twice a week is a pretty decent number especially as we get older.
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it helps my shoulder I had issues with in the past, especially just doing a hang and hold.
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@MN5 I know right, never weighed myself over the main xmas period but did shortly after (when it felt like the weight had dropped) and was sitting solid at about 98.9 or something.
Sounds like a good workout. So half a pullup, 4 times with 3 mins rest in between. Reckon I can smash that.
Have you ever tried climbing a pole with just your hands?
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@Bones said in Fit at 40.:
@MN5 I know right, never weighed myself over the main xmas period but did shortly after (when it felt like the weight had dropped) and was sitting solid at about 98.9 or something.
Sounds like a good workout. So half a pullup, 4 times with 3 mins rest in between. Reckon I can smash that.
Have you ever tried climbing a pole with just your hands?
Yes. It's easier than a rope. Will do a video and tag you on fagbook.
All shit aside how are you only managing half a pull up? Weren't you playing rugby quite seriously until recently ?
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@MN5 said in Fit at 40.:
@Bones said in Fit at 40.:
@MN5 I know right, never weighed myself over the main xmas period but did shortly after (when it felt like the weight had dropped) and was sitting solid at about 98.9 or something.
Sounds like a good workout. So half a pullup, 4 times with 3 mins rest in between. Reckon I can smash that.
Have you ever tried climbing a pole with just your hands?
Yes. It's easier than a rope. Will do a video and tag you on fagbook.
All shit aside how are you only managing half a pull up? Weren't you playing rugby quite seriously until recently ?
Do not. It was a joke. I knew you'd be pretty good at getting hands on with pole.
I tended to steer clear of all the pull up bars on the rugby field, I found they got in the way of actually playing rugby.
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@Bones said in Fit at 40.:
@MN5 said in Fit at 40.:
@Bones said in Fit at 40.:
@MN5 I know right, never weighed myself over the main xmas period but did shortly after (when it felt like the weight had dropped) and was sitting solid at about 98.9 or something.
Sounds like a good workout. So half a pullup, 4 times with 3 mins rest in between. Reckon I can smash that.
Have you ever tried climbing a pole with just your hands?
Yes. It's easier than a rope. Will do a video and tag you on fagbook.
All shit aside how are you only managing half a pull up? Weren't you playing rugby quite seriously until recently ?
Do not. It was a joke. I knew you'd be pretty good at getting hands on with pole.
I tended to steer clear of all the pull up bars on the rugby field, I found they got in the way of actually playing rugby.
Yeah I was kidding too ( MN5 surreptitiously deletes a video on fb )
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rope climbs are much better for grip strength....I have a battle rope that I loop over my pull up stand, and just hold on...I wouldnt last long hanging off a cliff, so I'm staying away from cliffs until I improve.
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Right so, making some solid progress now and body starting to shape up. Feels good. We're into our 4th week of properly setting a routine. Skipped my solo leg day yesterday but not all that fussed, did a decent walk to the supermarket and then back with a full backpack.
I'll start to add up some weights when I get a chance so you all can scoff at my puny attempts. Man my squat efforts these days are pretty pathetic, especially when 15 years ago I wouldn't have thought twice about circa 160.
Really starting to notice the gains from putting it all together when I go for my solo days now, with previous weeks tough weights being easy.
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choice bro! great to hear progress is being made
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@Bones said in Fit at 40.:
Right so, making some solid progress now and body starting to shape up. Feels good. We're into our 4th week of properly setting a routine. Skipped my solo leg day yesterday but not all that fussed, did a decent walk to the supermarket and then back with a full backpack.
I'll start to add up some weights when I get a chance so you all can scoff at my puny attempts. Man my squat efforts these days are pretty pathetic, especially when 15 years ago I wouldn't have thought twice about circa 160.
Really starting to notice the gains from putting it all together when I go for my solo days now, with previous weeks tough weights being easy.
pounds?
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@SammyC said in Fit at 40.:
@Bones said in Fit at 40.:
did a decent walk to the supermarket and then back with a full backpack.
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What a machine!
It's all in the hips.
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@Bones bro I'll pm you my address... wait, what are we measuring again??
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@Paekakboyz said in Fit at 40.:
@Bones bro I'll pm you my address... wait, what are we measuring again??
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Faaaaat Cuuuuuunt! About time I picked up again on doing something about it.
So once the gym closed, Bonesetta and I decided to start getting into a good routine and doing some exercise once a day at home, apart from rest day Sunday.
So came up with something easy with KBs to begin with and that can be easily built on.
Mon/Wed/Fri - Focusing on legs, brief warm up then a set of 4, 8, 12, 8, 4 (reps):
- deadlift
- KB swing
- goblet squats
- single arm push jerk
Finishing off with doing 4 minutes of Russian twists (20 secs on, 10 sec rest). Aim is to get up to 2 sets and then up the weights.
Tues/Thurs/Sat - Focusing on upper body (KBs again) with a few mins skip warmup, then into a set of 10, 8, 6, 4, 2:- pushups
- curls
- dips
- bent over rows.
Finishing off with doing a double arm over head walk from side to side in the garden, doing 5 presses at one end and 5 triceps extensions at the other, then 4, etc. Same aim there as the lower body one. Also throwing in a rotisserie at the end now too (20 secs at the moment on each of supermans, right plank, crunches, left plank, front plank).
Anyway, first week I got fucked off at being a useless fat fluffybunny crumbling under the slightest bit of cardio pressure, so decided to up it and get my lungs back. Leg days I'm doing a couple of miles walk, UB days I'm throwing in a run - Bonesetta is coming with me on Tues/Thurs and then Sat I'm going on my own.
Feeling much fucken better! Oddly weight has been going up and up (jumped on the scales at about 94kg a couple of weeks ago when I thought I was even lighter and have hit 98kg earlier this week), but I'm not that fussed due to how I feel and I don't believe I'm eating more - healthier if anything.
Sticking to around 3km at the moment and getting through it with relative ease now, after feeling like I was poisoned on the first one 2 weeks ago. Getting through on average about 5:30/km but the big difference being no longer needing to take a few puffs on the ventolin at any stage now. Same for the workouts. Felt good today so did another run this afternoon after doing one with the other half this morning.
Measurements this weekend.
Annnnnyway, junior stuff at the mo, but getting there! Going to start doing some sprint/interval type training stuff on leg days soon too.
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@Bones Good on you mate. It's difficult without having that sense of imperative that going to the gym gives you. At the moment very easy to put things off till later and then realise that later has turned into another four days. I've tried to get Mrs C and Ms C No1 into a short, sharp HIIT workout but getting them to do it is like trying to herd drunken cats. This of course despite them saying "Yeah, great. What are we doing tomorrow".
So with them we're doing 30 seconds of burpees, step ups, planks. skipping. No rest periods and 5 sets of each. It's enough to get the heart rate up significantly (as long as you really go for it), without getting too much muscle fatigue.
In addition I do some KB stuff every other day. This consists of ten one minute sets. 10 reps in each set. First day cleans, then snatch, then shoulder press, then swings. Must use as heavy a weight as I can. The quicker you do the reps, the longer rest you have within your 1 minute. I have to say I am breathing out of my arse at the end of it, despite the rests.
Trying to do some running as well but I'm really suffering from "heavy legs" at the moment and I don't know why. FC probably.
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@Catogrande some good ideas to change it up a bit there thanks mate! I'm usually a very early morning gym goer, can't face it any other time and for some reason exercising at home seems harder! We got into a routine of aiming for 11:30am so it's a "reward" to sit down to lunch a bit later.
I hate running, but have been getting into the tunes and was initially driven by frustration. Now just driven by competing with my fat self. Only short runs anyway.
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In a similar boat in terms of missing the gym but stuck with less equipment. Would kill for a couple of KBs!
Even with some weights I reckon AMRAPs and putting some time pressure on each set is the way to go. Depending on what you were doing at the gym the following might interest you. A really good vid from one of my fav fitness guys about how to push harder with body weight stuff to keep that volume of work up.
I've been 'enjoying' picking 4-5 superset combos and running through it 3 times with 30-60sec breaks between sets. Can work really well if you pair up arms + legs, or chest + legs, etc. So you aren't just smashing legs in one superset. Very similar to what @Catogrande is inflicting on the family
But the main thing is you are moving and exercising so that's a big win bro!
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I would like to get the men-sahibs incorporating some KB swings into the workout but for two problems:-
- Poor form and an inability to accept guidance. This results in them constantly trying to lift the KB with their arms/shoulders, rather than the more explosive stand up/hip thrust.
- They get sore arms and shoulders.
You'd think that it might sink in but no.
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@Catogrande I hear ya! hmm so the challenge is to make it all about the booty and hips. So they have to get the KB swing going without any arm or shoulder movement. You could try warming up with hip thrusts and some squats where you really get them to accentuate the hip and glute thrust at the top of the squat.
That should take the arms out of the equation as swings are all about your posterior chain, not the upper body. I suspect they might be trying to swing/muscle the KB too high as well? it doesn't need to go right up to your face sort of height etc - or at least not until they can achieve that ROM via their hips/glutes.
Step-By Step: Proper Kettle Bell Swing
Get maximum benefits from the Kettlebell Swing and perfect your form with this guide.
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@mariner4life said in Fit at 40.:
@JK said in Fit at 40.:
Fark I miss the gym!
yeah, me too. At least i am running again.
Yeah and if you asked me 6 months ago would i be running twice a week heading in to winter then I would have laughed it off!
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@JK said in Fit at 40.:
@mariner4life said in Fit at 40.:
@JK said in Fit at 40.:
Fark I miss the gym!
yeah, me too. At least i am running again.
Yeah and if you asked me 6 months ago would i be running twice a week heading in to winter then I would have laughed it off!
i'm at 3 times! it's ridiculous. April on target to be my highest km month ever
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Feeling good, was in charge for upper body today even with half a cider in me after a vid chat with some boys back home.
Little break then a run just over 3km again, pace down to 5:16 on average now and was bloody easy. Was tempted to kick on another couple of k's but the small rise at about 2.5km made me decide to quit while ahead.
2 runs tomorrow, one with Bonesetta then another on my old route later on to check progress. No workout.
Still fat.
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