Anyone up for virtual workout pals?

[Anita4162]

Hi! I'm new to the boards here, but seeing the virtual running buddies makes me think it'd be nice to have folks to share workout support with as well. I'm currently doing a four day system, targeting one body part each day (with extra abs and legs a couple times a week) and cardio tossed in on "off" days or on days with lots of energy. If anyone is interested in sharing the pain, let me know ;) .. always up for some encouragement.
-Anita

[mommacloser]

Will email details. I was boxing and doing triathalon last year. Now, after surgery and a series of unfortunate injuries, I have lost muscle and endurance and feel like I am starting over again! I need the encouragement! :)

[Anita4162]

Sounds good, Robin. I'm glad you wrote. Tonight I went to the gym, was in the middle of a new routine and all the lights went out... fortunately, they came back on fairly fast and my sadistic "coach" kept me going :p

[lindrusso]

Welcome Anita and Robin.

Feel free to start up your own group, but I did want to point you in the direction of the August Challenge (soon to be September Challenge :) ) and the HL/WWSG (which stands for Healthy Living/Weekly Workout Support Group) threads. These are two established groups that post each week to provide each other with support and encouragement. New members are always welcome to join in!

Alysha

[mommacloser]

Here is my progress: With the soft cast on my foot, I am limited. Our gym was cutting back on classes due to the holiday. I can only do the bike, yoga and this pilates/yoga/stretching type class at the gym. OK, so for the next week, here is my goal: No class on Monday, but I plan to do 10 minutes of continuous ab work at home. Tues, Wed, Thur and Sat are my 4 planned days for Spinning bike class. Tues and Thurs 50 pushups. Wed and Sat ab work again. Will report back my progress! Alysha, thanks for invite to the challenge. I might do both as I can use all the support I can get.

:)

[Cyberbunnyts]

I'm up for something like this!

Trish

[mommacloser]

Well, with the holiday, I didn't get any ab work in. I should have. I forgot. Today I am trying to rearrange dinner with my mother to make the 6pm spinning bike class at the gym. It is the day before school starts here. If nothing else, when school starts, at 9:15am tomorrow morning, I am free! no more excuses! Anyone else having a hard time over the holiday weekend? Trish, what kind of excercise do you like to do?:D

[Cyberbunnyts]

Right now I'm trying to do a lot of walking and swimming. I'm planning on going tonight after work. I wanted to get up early and walk, but found that I couldn't sleep last night, so that kinda killed that!

Let me know how your spinning class goes!

[ellery]

I'd love to join the crowd and offer up any advice if needed. I'm much better at dispensing advice than actually taking my own - I'm a part time aerobics instructor and personal trainer. I've got the working out thing pretty much down, it's just the eating thing that always gets me. I am the queen of self-sabotage. I'm not and never have been overweight, I'm just a little squishier than I would prefer to be, and about 10-15 pounds above where I foolishly think I would be happy. My goal for this week is to reduce the stress/boredom munching that I'm so good at.

[mommacloser]

Oh, tomorrow has to be a new day! I got stuck going to my mother's house and couldn't get back in all the traffic in time for the spinning class. Tomorrow. I am going to go. Trish, my husband is excercising with me too and he primarily swims and walks. I swim a little right now from time to time since my foot is broken. Our nice pool just closed though yesterday for the season. Leah, what kind of aerobics do you teach? I am not overweight either, but I was about 6 years ago. I lost 100 pounds using a diabetic exchange diet. Still eat that way everyday and it worked for me. I am wanting to really get back into the weight training and kickboxing is my primary sport although I would like to do other sports in a few months to train for another Danskin Triathlon. I just have to get back in there and re build the muscle! Will report that I actually have gone to spinning class tomorrow! :)

[ellery]

Hello "mommacloser". I teach almost everything there is, but lately have been venturing out to a martial arts center to take a kickboxing class. It's much more fun than the aerobics version. I find it very cathartic to beat up a punching bag, and it's nice to be in a different non-aerobics environment.

Ugh! :mad: This eating thing bites. I know how to eat, I just can't seem to summon up the motivation to stick with it. I've always done best with a trainer who was very rigid or mean, who I was afraid of disappointing (the good old days of competition). But without someone berating me... I believe the official term is "self-sabotage."

Sorry. Cranky. Can't sleep tonight, possibly because of a job interview tomorrow morning, so just ate a pack of granola bars and some milk. Ironic to be complaining about food and eating it at the same time. Help!

[mommacloser]

Leah:

That is so great that you kickbox also. Yes, nothing like the bag! I am going crazy with my foot broken right now ( unrelated to kickboxing...it was running that did it). I am an ex financial wholesaler and I used to go to the gym every night and get out my stress on that bag. I know what you mean about the relentless instructor. I do best in that situation also. I did get "back on the wagon". I took spinning class, did ab excercises, even the pushups, and today I also took an extra bike ride with my husband. Good luck on the job interview. My husband is interviewing right now too. When my luck got sour, I just turned into a stay at home mom. You would think I could find more time to excercise now that school is in! :)

Ok, here is a question.....how much protien should one eat when trying to build muscle with weights? I am 5'3" and 105. 33 year old woman. ( I don't know if size and age matter?)

[ellery]

Oh, the famous question. Well, mommacloser, you'll get as many different answers to that question as people you ask. By the way, I'm jealous of your measurements and would love to switch with you, as I'm on the muscular side. There's some formula out there as far as how many grams of protein per pound of body weight that you should eat in order to gain muscle size, but can't remember it off the top of my head, sorry. When I consulted one of my books, just now, according to it, you should be eating about 80 grams of protein per day. However, keep in mind, that all the formulas and books out there are quoting numbers that would be relevant for someone who trains in the gym about 3 hours a day and does seriously intense and heavy training.

Honestly, unless you take supplements or hormones, you probably won't gain that much muscle mass. If you eat more and train heavy, you might get bigger (and also probably a little fatter). I would focus on increasing strength, lifting heavier weights with fewer repetitions, constantly changing up your weight routine, and never forgetting the basics, like push-ups and pull ups (unassisted is my goal). If you're not comfortable with free weights or your gym's weights, I would ask around to find a trainer who's not an idiot (believe me there are a lot of certified trainers who are idiots and/or unsafe) so that you can become familiar and comfortable around them.

Sorry for the long lecture. Hope it helps. Feel free to ask about workouts or diets anytime. :D

[mommacloser]

That helps a lot. Here is another question- If I were to start weight training more seriously ( maybe got a trainer to help me), do you know of any contests a more every day type of person ( who has no experience with contests) could enter? Or where I could get info? I have tried looking, but I am not finding anything. There was a woman that my friend used to work with that really inspired me, but they don't work together anymore, so I can't ask her. I am thinking of what my next fitness goal might be. I do better when I am training for something specific. I have the time to spend while my daughter is in school and I wanted to do something really good for myself.
Ok... one more fitness question: Do instructors when they are teaching step class make it up at they go along? I don't know why I have always wondered that? ( I am not very good at step...I like it though!) :)

[ellery]

Hmmm... well, as far as contests, there are bodybuilding, fitness and aerobics competitions. Bodybuilding just requires a lot of dedication and knowledge as far as eating, and usually finding someone to mentor you through the process. No coordination required. Fitness and aerobics (what I used to do) require a great deal of coordination, gymnastics or dance background, and a coach to choreograph your routine and/or assist with music. All of which require a great deal of time (I basically had no sort of a life, or patience, when I was competing). There are also events like triathalons, or mini-triathalons, 5 and 10K's, which could be fun. I'm trying to work up the motivation to maybe walk/run a 5K myself.

And, can't speak for everyone, but classes are a mix of making it up as we go along, and pre-planned combinations. I usually have my class pretty well thought out in advance, and I've been teaching for 15 years. A good instructor should be good at cuing (telling you what move is coming next), and you should never really feel as if you're fumbling in class once you have the basic moves down (right basic, left basic, turn step, etc.).

[mommacloser]

Here are my goals for the week:

3 biking ( spinning) classes, 2 free weight workouts and 2 yoga classes.

My results for this week are: 2 days push ups, 2 ab days, 3 bike days.

Leah: Where would a person look for a coach for the aerobics/fitness? I do have a dance background ( college degree is in dance) but am and always have been horrible on the gymnastics end. I did the Danskin Women's triathlon last summer. That was such a great experience. I want to do it again. Skipped this year because of all the injuries I had and I just had my shoulder surgery done this year ( boxing...bad form, need new coach). I highly reccomend the Danskin if they have one in your area. :)

[ellery]

Ugh, having competed myself, I can't imagine why anyone else would want to put themself through that torture...

That being said, to find an aerobics or fitness coach, you can check out the sportaerobics website - I'm not sure how to include a link in this, but their webpage is http://www.sportaerobics-nac.com/uscaf . Doesn't look that came through as something you can click on, but if you do get there, they have a link on how to find a trainer in your area. I think I just called the NAC headquarters and they gave me the name of someone somewhat in my area (I commuted over an hour to meet with mine once or twice a week). I would imagine that to find a fitness coach, you could find a fitness web page and do the same thing - Fitness America is one organization, and ESPN does its own fitness thing too. Having a dance background is great, but the gymnastics piece seems to be pretty important too, as far as strength. We were doing one-arm pushups, as well as a number of gymnastics moves. Ugh. Can't believe I did that...

I would suggest that you invest in some videos and preview what exactly the competition is about before you invest in it. There are fitness magazines out there (Miss Fitness, etc.) that have ads in the back, where you can order videos from. I saw a competition on ESPN and thought it looked easy and fun (ha!) and that's how I got sucked into it.

Let me know what you decide!

sorry to sound so negative, but wanted to be honest...:rolleyes:

As for your doing a triathalon, that's great! If I were you, I'd stick with that goal. I'm just trying to muster up the courage to maybe do a 5K at the end of October. I'll see if my feet can handle the running (too many years on pointe and teaching aerobics on concrete floors). :mad:

[mommacloser]

Thanks for all the info. I decided to hold off on doing a contest for a while. My husband and I are going to try and have more babies and I know that that kind of intense excercise probably isn't a good idea until I am done. Not pregnant yet though. So, I did take 3 spin classes this week, 2 yoga classes this week and a pilates/yoga class. Got the ab work in. I did go and find a new boxing trainer that I start with on ( I think) Tuesday? Going to a brand new gym for that in addition to the current gym. Kinda scared. The people there are more intense than the last place I trained. I signed up to do it for 3 months and then see. I got the go-ahead from my doctor to use the foot. I bought a workout log at barnes and noble to write everything down with. Someone told me that if you have something to look back at ( all the time and energy you have put in) that it can really be a boost when you need it.

Week of Sept 14 goals:

2 spin classes, 2 tae bo classes at old gym, 1 boxing workout, 2 yoga or yoga/pilates classes.

[ellery]

Are you working out 8 days a week? Sounds like an awful lot of classes... are you taking any days off?

Wish my workout schedule was that ambitious. I'm still trying to decide if my feet are going to let me do that 5K. My original goal for this past week was to teach class 2 days, run for three. I only ran twice, as I had the feeling my feet wanted me to take it easy.

We'll see how next week goes.

Good to hear from you! It's been a while since anyone posted on this board so I wasn't sure what was going on...

[mom2garret]

I would like to get into this group too! I am trying to get back to the gym at least 3 times a week and if I am really good 4! I am going tomorrow so I will come back with progress.