cousin_it comments on Open Thread, Sept 5. - Sept 11. 2016 - Less Wrong
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Exercise
In previous attempts at exercising, I've never lost weight; never gained in strength or dexterity; never even gotten a second wind. I've never met any significant exercise goals. But in the long-term, exercise is still worthwhile. So I'm trying something new: Changing my self-conception to Someone Who Exercises Daily. No expectations of any gains, rewards, or second winds. Just someone who slogs through the painful routine each day, every day.
I've picked a routine that can be done anywhere, with no equipment: Burpees, in descending sets (ie, for 15, do 5, 4, 3, 2, 1; for non-triangular numbers, add at the start, ie for 17, do 7, 6, 3, 2, 1), adding 1 per day. (Supposedly, burpees work all the major parts of the body, etc, etc.) If-and-when I make it to 30-descending, I'll consider changing it up.
Today: Did 5 burpees.
Also today: Set up https://twitter.com/DPR_exercise to semi-publicly keep track. (Or, as an RSS feed, http://twitrss.me/twitter_user_to_rss/?user=dpr_exercise .)
I did burpees for a while. Now I'm not sure what's the point. Sure, you get tired quickly, but you don't feel strong or fast while doing it. Lifting average-heavy stuff for 10-15 reps, or running 100m dashes with short breaks, is much more fun for me because I can go all out and push against my limit of power, not just my fatigue.
I am, close to literally, starting from scratch, exercise-wise. I've started a thread in the bodyweight subreddit about a better exercise regimen, and am entirely literally in a mall right now looking for some exercise bands to let me do more types of movements in the area I have to exercise in. You could think of the burpees as a placeholder while I work out something better.
Consider couch to 5k. It's a good basic place to start.
Expect at least 2 months before you are feeling fit. You get to feel progress in the sense of "could run a bit further today" each new run. the two most important things:
I appreciate the suggestion, and have added a few bookmarks on C25k to my to-read pile.
Given my experience today, attempting to add some of the warm-up routines from /r/bodyweight's Recommended Routine, I'm afraid that it seems that I have a bit of a ways to go before I'm even at the level of 'couch'. Ah well; I knew what I was getting into when I started this, and am picking up as much theory as I can to adapt pre-existing routines to my circumstances.
FYI, my current plan is 3 days a week of bodyweight exercises (working up to /r/bodyweight's recommended routine), and 3 days a week of jogging starting with a pre-C25k program. How well that plan succeeds, well, we'll just have to see. :)