Everybody Gothercize!!!
 

The point of this thread is to discuss fitness and be 'body positive'. It's pretty pointless to whine about what size you want to be and how much hard work it is to get there if you're not doing any work, right? Right. There's a Rant thread for that in Whining. This is not supposed to be a 'skinny/fat' debate or anything of the sort. This is about fitness, sharing what you like about your body and sharing tips or useful info on keeping ourselves healthy and happy.

If you have any fitness tips or new advice you've learned feel free to share it. I think that we can all agree that fad diets are not a good idea, yes? Fitness, not necessarily weight loss. Although if you want to share that you're reaching a weight loss goal and you're proud of yourself for doing it, that's cool. Most people don't reach their goals because they start feeling unmotivated or think that it's taking too long. If you're lacking motivation at the moment, I(and I'm sure other members here, as well) will try to help you out. You can help motivate others or tell people what things motivate you.

Share what you do to keep active or what your favorite workouts are.

Since I began the thread I'll go first.

Over the last few months I've noticed a big change in my 'bat wings'(bingo wings) and my arms are getting a lot more toned. I love the shape of my ass, which is mostly due to squats.

I like to Bellydance, it's fun, it doesn't even feel like exercise. It also focuses on doing movements correctly rather than the shape of the person doing it. I also like to do some of the Tribal Fusion* workouts. I do some strength trainiong with resisitance bands. My arms feel like they do more with the bands that than regular free weights.


*Some examples of Tribal Fusion:

One

Two

Three

Four

Just some examples. I'm nowhere near that good.

This thread is for everyone, not just the ladies. I hope you guys out there will contribute, as well.

Well, I don't have any weights, and don't have the money to spend on some, so I went out in the woods and found me a huge fuckin' rock. Now I lift the rock, and I put it down, and then I LIFT IT SOME MORE

OH GOD I'M PUMPED WHERE'S MY ROCK FUCK YEAH

For anyone wanting to lose fat and get in shape by building lean muscle, I would really reccomend Tom Venuto's E-book .

The site looks on first glance to be a scammy sort of thing , but I have bought the book, it is real and it does contain some excellent advice. He cites all his sources of information and he does his research. He has a blog too.

I've just bought his other book the body fat soloution. It's more to do with exploring the causes of emotional eating and how to stop it ( as well as info on how to lose fat but the E book is more detailed ) . I managed to find it in a bookstore the other day which was extremely pleasing as I now don't have to order it online.

Seriously look him up. http://www.burnthefatblog.com/books ( that's the blog as well )

http://www.burnthefat.com/carb_cycli..._fat_loss.html

:D

These are a few links I like on Stumble for fitness and weight training. Weight training is essential for losing fat , as it's a fat burning tissue. So the more of it you have, the better you will burn fat off ( as long as you do cardio and the right diet as well obviously )



http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9plBgl...Directory.html

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1dbAfM...s_or_crunches/

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/3JiDgV...wordpress.com/

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/24H1Vo...atomy-big.jpeg

KMD - There was a book released in Australia a few years back - the clothesline diet - the woman lost weight by walking around her clothesline and lifting 2L coke bottles and cutting fatty food out of her diet - anything can be used for weights, it's all in how you lift it. You tube has some great videos. I found one where a woman was doing tricep lifts with a gallon milk carton in the supermarket.

Graus man that is some awesome bellydancing.

I go to the gym five times a week, my longest workout is 1.5 hours, where I do an hour on the treadmill and 30 minutes of weights (arms).

I do my own circuits when I'm feeling inclined to do so, but when I'm lazy I just walk 6.8km in a hour with an incline on the treadmill. I can't run, because of my knee, so I do a funny shuffle thing up to about 8km/h. Maybe when I lose more weight I will be able to run.

Last week I was sick (nothing contagious), but i still went to the gym and walked slowly for 30-40 minutes

My weight has plateaued and I need to break though the barrier.

@fruitbat

Any more info on homemade weights you'd happen to have? I like the bottle idea. I want to take weightlifting back up to kill some of the flab on my arms, but I haven't found many exercises that don't require shelling out for either a gym membership or a large set of weights.

I walk at least 2 miles every day (usually more with going to the shops and running various errands for my mum), eat a healthy diet and do alternate days fucking hula hooping and skipping ( don't be fooled, they sound like nice gentle exercises but they are more tiring than you'd think). I have trouble with weights as I have a chronic pain problem in my left arm, my muscles waste and my wrist and shoulder dislocate at will so I don't tend to do weights as I can only do them on one side and I don't want to look weird by only having one toned up muscly side! I do try and do sit ups and a modified version of press ups at least every other day ( I have a steel bar splint for my left wrist so I can manage a small amount of press ups if I'm careful). That's about it for me. Gyms too expensive so I look things up online and modify what I can to account for my problems with my left arm.

I'm thinking about taking a belly dancing class in the fall. It sounds like awesome fun (and I can't tell you how much I love the outfits) buuuut I'm really self conscious.

My old roommate had Wii Fit and it was good fun, but she decided to sell it. I just loved it because I can get really competitive, so if she beat my score I wouldn't stop exercising until I beat her XD HOWEVER it was a mean game. It uses BMI so if it thinks you're overweight, it'll change your Mii to look fat. In my case it said I was underweight, so made my Mii a toothpick. And it talks to other games! Henceforth on Mario Kart Wii my Mii could only use lightweight cars.

And I also can't wait for fall, my best friend is going back to school so we're taking up badminton and I can actually use the gym.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSJW3wGb8hs

This is the video I was talking about. My MIL had arthritis in her hands, and she used to use 440g tins of tomatoes.

If you used milkbottles, then you could start off with them filled with something like, then move to heavier objects like sand/dirt/gravel.

There's stacks of stuff you can do without going to a gym:

Pilates and/or Yoga
Sit-ups
Lunges
Plank
Push ups
Step ups
The tricep one where you lower yourself down off a seat, can't think of the name of it.

You can also do boxing, moving your arms in uppercuts and jabs, really quickly, you don't need gloves/mitts unless you are pairing up with someone

The programs I've been given at the gym are easily modified to be done outside of it, with a good pair of sneakers, a skipping rope and a couple of light weights and a selection of the exercises mentioned above.

Is there a local leisure centre near you with a gym? They usually tend to have much cheaper gym prices for joining, and no contracts. Mine is £27.50 a month and you get all the classes included with that, and swimming.

I can't believe some people pay over 40 quid a month for some gyms :eek:

Fru, Tribal Fusion is fun to both watch and (try to) dance! Most people think that bellydance is a woman's dance, but I think it originated with men doing it. I either watched or read something somewhere that said that. I watch way too much youtube...

BlacKat, if your house is carpeted, I suggest sweeping your carpet with a broom. *Yes, I hear y'all snickering in the back! Not that kind of carpet and not that kind of sweeping!* I've begun doing it lately out of sheer frustration that every single time I vacuum the damn circuit breakers flip at least 3 times. You can probably find some weights for cheap at a garage sale or resale shop.

Saya, if I had someplace near me offering classes I'd sign up! I use my resistance bands with my Wii Fit. :) They are better than the olde band(which deteriorated from use).

Absolutely no carpet anywhere in my house due to my mother's allergies. I've been debating getting a pair of walking sticks and taking them out on walks with me.

Are walking sticks supposed to help with exercise while walking? I thought they were just for fending off dangerous animals. I was attacked by a lab that kept trying to bite the backs of my legs while I walked one time. It didn't leave me alone till I was able to find a piece of metal to swat at it with. I walked with a big stick after that.

I lost a shitload of weight cutting dairy and meat out of my diet, around 30 pounds and I didn't exercise. Then I started getting kind of fat again so I started calorie counting, subtracting 500 calories from my diet a day to lose a pound a week, only I was losing like 3 pounds a week that was probably just water. I was doing good for a long time and then I just stopped and now I'm fat again.

I like my....deltoids? because no matter how fat I get they're always well-toned.

Didn't I tell you that you're not allowed to call yourself fat?

Oh yeah, that guy in the first video had my attention. I think bellydancing is sexy whichever sex does it.

PJ - drink 2L (1/2 gal) water a day sweetie. Pick up the exercise, it will make a difference, plus you will feel so much better about yourself.

Oh and for the record, screw fat and thin - fit is the only way to go! (gotta be fit to outrun those zombies :D)

Managed to get past 6.8km/hr on the treadmill - by .1 but I did it for 25 minutes before I felt like I was going to get spat off the back.

I managed 65 minutes, burnt 700 calories and babybat had a ball in the creche (which is the only reason I go to the gym, that and the fact i'm a cheapass and i want to get my money's worth).

I think the idea is you get two sticks and actually walk with them. You have to be using them for balance while you walk, not just carry them. Comes originally from Scandinavia, as a way of balancing better when walking across icy ground. But it forces you to use your upper body

I'll contribute to this when I get a chance. But for now: Abdominal exercises are boring.

^PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!^

No downing yourself or 'fat talk'.


Versus, I agree.

I've been trying to workout at least everyday over summer, AT LEAST doing something. So far I feel better than I have in the longest time.

Goos job, Sinneh! ^_^

Look forward to your contributions man :D

They are boring but it's the only way to get abs/tone your stomach area.

It took 9 months after a c-section for me to be able to lie on my stomach on the floor for five minutes (because they pull your abdominal muscles apart to get to the uterus) and during that time I walked my ass off and I still had a post-baby tummy. It's only now that i've been able to do ab workouts that it's tightening up.

Sin - keep up the great work. It's all about routine and habit.

Perhaps as an addition to the "keeping ourselves healthy/happy," we could talk about managing body image?

I've been noticing lately that when I get depressed or upset I tend to pick apart what's wrong with my looks today. I've been trying to remind myself that I don't have to look perfect all the time, but...well, it's hard sometimes to convince yourself when you're down that everyone's not staring at how awful <<insert body problem here>> makes you look.

Honestly, people are too self-absorbed to really notice or care when someone's looking a little bit worse for the wear. They're usually too busy focusing on how bad they think THEY look.

Aside from the "Obese but healthy" thing, body acceptance websites and stuff are something to look into. I suggest having a google-thon on Fat-O-Sphere and DietsNotRiots.tumblr.com if the issue is weight.

I walk and do some toning exercises.