Well I'm working my way there. IT'll be hard but thats why we have this thread. To keep yourself motivated by posting here and asking questions.
I've lost just over 20 pounds since I joined the gym at the start of the year. 171 down to around 150 (I'm 5'6). I might try to lose a few more pounds then increase my caloric intake back up to maintenance level. But I've more or less reached my goal. Going back home in a couple of weeks to take some family portraits, so the motivation is there to look my best.
Just ran my second half marathon in 2:06. Every mile under 10 minutes with the last mile in 9:19. Temperature ranged from around 16 to 19 with a nice breeze from the north. After mile 6 I was thinking to myself "I can run a marathon". After mile 8 I was thinking to myself "what the hell am I doing here?".
That's sick, congrats man! I can confidently say I will never be able to run a marathon... it's tough enough doing 20-40 minutes of cardio on the damn treadmill with ESPN playing on the screen.
Hey guys i was wondering if someone could help me with this I'm real skinny, 5'8 135. While i am skinny i don't have a 6 pack, i have a little layer of fat on my lower abs. I would love to get a cut 6 pack, but that would require me to drop my body fat % (caloric deficit). I'm 16 and wouldn't want to stunt my growth by not eating enough. I already am a vegan and don't eat a whole lot as it, but i do eat plenty of veggies, fruits and good grains (brown rice, sweet potatos) My friend thinks that it would be bad for me to get on a caloric deficit, and thinks i should forget about abs til i get older, and should just try to bulk up to improve my physique. What do you guys think?
Sweet man. How long did it take you to get to that level of running? Right now I'm at 6 ft 160 and never really ran before so I'm trying to gain weight. So I only run 10 min and go at 7mph and it is not really getting easier. I have been doing it for about 6weeks or so. But I have also gained about 10 lbs and cut my body fat % down. So I'm content with the progress so far.
there is absolutely no point in cutting. you're already very light, and the fact that you don't have a 6 pack simply means you haven't built enough muscle. I'm assuming youre 'skinny fat' at 135 pounds, and its very common at your age especially if you're not particularly active. You really shouldn't be worrying about abs. If you have a specific reason why you're vegan then so be it, but I'd recommend trying to get more protein into your diet by whatever means, chicken, meat, eggs, etc. Your physique will look infinitely better if you try and put on mass and lift properly for a decent amount of time, THEN cut down your body fat a bit.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140314095102.htm "Older adults: Build muscle and you'll live longer"
IN 2013 I made a conscious decision to start running regularly and drop a few pounds. I ran over 1200 miles last year starting with about 4.5 miles in 50 minutes on a treadmill and my heart rate was at about 175+ after the run. By July, I was easily doing 6+ in 55 minutes and my heart rate was around 140+. At that time I decided to run a half in October. I have committed to three halts this year with another in June and the 3rd in October. In January 2013, I was about 205 with 26% body fat (6' 1"). In January this year I was around 175 with 15% body fat.
I've been running about 8 weeks now (but I lost a 1/2 week when I was in Louisiana for Mardi Gras). I'm preparing for the Bellaire Trolley Run 5K on the 29th. I'm not going terribly fast. My goal is to finish in about 27:30 which is an 8:51 mile (or 6.8 mph). I ran 6 miles for the first time on Saturday (in about 70 minutes) and did about 18.5 for the week. I've lost 4% body fat (from 26% to 22%) but I've only lost about 11 lbs (from 221 to 210), probably because I've also been doing some moderate weight training which I've done before and I've heard that you can put muscle back on quickly if you've had it before.
Ab workouts. Vacuum ab workouts. Back workouts. Basically, I'm trying to use my core as much as possible. I try to keep my core tight when I'm doing different workouts. Like everyone says, try to use your core as much as possible. It also has to do with mental. How do you perceive yourself? How do you take negative things? Etc... When you're more confident, your posture seems to get better. Etc.. This week was a bad week for me although I did go lift for 3 days because of the unhealthy food.
Also, for a marathon type things, you should sign up for different events rather than just do treadmill. Sign up for a 5k a month away. Set a goal. Train to achieve that goal. Do that 3-5 times. Move to a harder running event.
Depends on your goals and what the work outs are. I don't think there's really any reason you have to change up a good program. You'll continue to see results, as long as your increasing the load/intensity. I think people are too quick to change things up because they have become afraid of plateauing. They start changing things up weekly, for example, but it seems ridiculous to think the body will learn, adapt to, and then stall on a certain program/exercise within a week. You can thank infomercials for that. It just doesn't happen that way. It'll take weeks just for the body to learn and get use to the movement. Even after that, as you increase weight and/or speed, it's not going to plateau because there's something new for it to try and adapt to (change in weight/speed) A true plateau would only come when you're doing the same exercise and weight for a long time. Once your body has the movement and control of the weight down, there's no reason for it to improve physically. It's "mastered" it.
You can mix it up. High reps or low reps strength training. I shake my head at people that say this is better than the other. If you hit a plateau the time to change it up.
