The Workout Thread - Fitter, Faster, Stronger


The Workout thread, it is pretty simple. It’s about training in all it forms, from bodybuilding to just getting fit. I know there are a couple of users on this forum who workout, and for some time have been wanting to create a thread where we can talk about workouts, supplements and accessorizes.

My thought is that we can share tips, homepages, training routines and even motivation music.

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Ima talk about my diet, since it’s said that controlling it is one of the two ways available to lose weight, the other working out(which I haven’t been able to do much) :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I was hitting about a full 100kg weight around the end of last year, I was doing the last year of the homeschooling course and being in the room all day with my computer didn’t help. I had heard a bit about the Keto diet and did some research on it. It seemed great, just get below about 20g net carbohydrates(carbs without counting the fiber) and max 50g and you’re good to go, assuming of course that you’re eating a lot of fat in place of the carbs since that’s gonna be your main energy source. Bad news was that the food list was full of non vegetarian products which I don’t eat, but thankfully there were 4 or 5 things I found which fit the diet like eggs, cauliflower, paneer(cottage cheese), spinach, cheese, mushroom and almond flour(though the last one is very expensive so I used it quite rarely).

To mix things up I also found another diet called omad or one meal a day, which was like a hardore version of the intermittent fasting where you would have a one hour window of eating and the other 23 hour fasting. AND I found another thing called losing weight with calorie deficit and a good amount seemed like 1200 calories a day. Add to this the fact that there was no lock down last year and I was going to a cricket academy pretty much everyday to play some matches and exercise.

I tried this and could only go for like 4 days before giving up, crazy thing is I was losing like 1 and a half kgs each day. Seems stupid but it did seem like it, and I never felt weak or tired at any point, hell I could sleep better and somehow my eyesight felt like it improved a bit(probably because of the vitamin a in eggs, cheese and butter, then again I’m not sure if thats how it works imao) the only thing which stopped it and i hate myself because of is my inclination for junk food and chocolates, which would result in my days long diet getting broken in a matter of minutes.

I’ve done this this entire year, going for about 4 to 5 days before crashing and eating a ton of chocolates, and starting again. At one point I reached about 87 kgs when I went for like 9 days, the biggest streak.

But one year later, at this point, being off the diet for 2 months, all of that seems like a waste because well I’m at about 95kgs now, 5 less than last year when I started. I’m actually quite disgusted at myself on why I would let my binge eating get the best of me and ruin my days long streak and hard work(should’ve written this earlier, it takes a couple of days to enter ketosis, when ketones are created and fat is used as the main energy source. Eating carbs and breaking the 50g limit gets you out of ketosis and back to the normal form where carbs are the main source).

I’m thinking about doing it one last time, starting next year, for 2 solid weeks, not breaking it at any point and doing a morning run each day along side it, starting with a 2km run on the first day. I really hope I could do it, cause at this point I’m sick of it all and myself :mask::weary: :running_man:‍♂

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Have you considered counting calories instead? Using an app like myfitnesspal will make it quite easy. It will give you an daily calorie estimate based on your height, weight and your goals. The reason I like counting is that it allows me to have it both ways. I can enjoy things, but it will be on the expense of other things.

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I can relate to this so much. I too have had multiple attempts at going on an extreme/unsustainable diets only to quit within a week.

I found 2 things really helped me to commit to a long lasting diet.

  1. Write down all your motivations, literally everything you can think of that makes you want to lose weight. Appearance? General health? It doesn’t really matter but it means that you don’t ever lose sight of why you began in the first place

  2. Be reasonable and realistic. Your body is a machine - if you work it too hard it will break and you will feel the consequence. Instead, learn how it works and how to maximise your progress. Suffice to say, my steady and realistic diet did a hell of a lot more good than the many short crash diets that came before it

One final note, set a small goal, like losing 2 kg. Once you have proof that what you’re doing is working, the rest becomes much easier.

Good luck :+1:

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I’ve skated by on my hummingbird metabolism my entire life but this year I started having problems with my back. I’ve been to physio before for other things but never kept at it but being in lockdown just made something snap in my brain. I’ve been religious about doing my yoga/stretches every night as part of my cool down before bed. My program is obviously specific to my needs but these routines really helped me at least start to do something:

yoga

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Once again I don’t have access to a gym, hopefully it won’t be for 3 plus months and I will be able to return to the iron jungle early 21.

This time around I found a body weight workout pogram I find enjoyable and takes max an hour to complete.

Chest – Slider Reaching Push-Up

Shoulders – “Floor Is Hot” Drill

Back – Chinese Back Plank

Quadriceps – Split-Squat Sissy Hybrid

Hamstrings – Hamstring Bridge Drop Set

Core – Ab Walkout

Exercise Sets Reps Rest
A1 Slider Reaching Push-Up 3 AMGRAP/side 30 sec.
A2 Split-Squat Sissy Hybrid 3 AMGRAP/side 1 min.
B1 Chinese Back Plank 3 HALAP/side 30 sec.
B2 Hamstring Bridge Drop Set 3 AMGRAP/leg then both legs 1 min.
C1 Ab Walkout 3 1 min. 30 sec.
C2 The Floor is Hot Drill 3 1 min. 1 min.
  • “AMGRAP” means as many good reps as possible.
  • “HALAP” means hold as long as possible.
  • This workout can be done as supersets (A1/A2 etc.) as written to save time, or you can just do each exercise individually.

I pair these exercises with my TRX (door mounted) where I’m able to do some biceps curls and Triceps extensions.

It really good at hitting the different parts of the body, creating a nice pump. Especially Split-Squat Sissy Hybrid really burns.

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I lift weights and I run. I also hula hoop (not the heavy kind, the dance kind.)

I decided to take the rest of the week [W/F] off lifting because I’ve been pretty sick this week, but I have kept running. Last night, I had to cut the run off by a few minutes, so I did an easy long run today, 60 minutes!
This progress is from yesterday, I am making good progress, horay!

I have been lifting weights for a long time, as well as hooping and going on very long walks, but I just started running in December. I went from only being able to run for a few seconds, to now about 90-100 minutes. I’m excited to see how much better I can get!

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This week have been a quite Challenging week, well the challenge was inside my head that is. I’ve only been able to train the lower part of the body and abs. I was unlucky while biking on my way to work. There is a larger bicycle path that’s near my house that cuts the overall travel distance in half. However to get to I have to go down a residential area, sadly apparently this area isn’t a priority and the road hadn’t been salted.

I got less then 1 meter onto the road after turning to it from a larger main road, I instantly felt my bicycle slipping under me. I slammed my left shoulder directly onto the ice cold and very hard pavement, where me and my bike took a small sliding tripe for around half a meter. Not far from a incoming car, who had trouble breaking. The road was extremely smooth due to the pavement being maximum 2 months old and the small fine icecap just made it extremely icy.

Luckily I didn’t break any bones or damage my shoulder, and it’s becoming better from day to day. However I’m amazed that this area isn’t a priority, since there is at least a couple of hundred people travelling this path in both directions on bike every morning.

I’ll give my shoulder until a full week of rest, to give it the time it needs to recover from this fall.

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The fact that you didn’t break anything is a miracle. Stay safe out there man

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I imagine that if I was older or not physically fit, it could have been a lot worse. Now I’m just battling with the thought of not being able to train my upper body. The worst of all it’s also left shoulder I in general have discomfort in if I do certain exercises, my plan is to visit a physiotherapist too see if they can help me with whatever been bothering my shoulder for a couple of years.

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I was thinking, if anyone here uses Fitbit, Garmin, Strava, etc, they could post their stuff here so others could add them. I’m not really sure if people do things like that or not; I’m the sort of person with very few Steam friends lol.

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I’ve take a day off work yesterday and felt super motivated ! :laughing:


I didn’t realise I was so slow before seeing this. I think I was more focused on the squirrels in the park than my performance :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:


A quick kettlebell workout :
GOBELET SQUAT
ALTERNATING LUNGE PASS UNDERS
UNEVEN LUNGE
UNEVEN LUNGE (opposite leg)
ROMANIAN DEADLIFT
BENT OVER ROW
BENT OVER ROW (Second arm)
OVERHEAD PRESS
UPRIGHT ROW
TRICEP PRESS

20 rep for each exercices with 10 kettlebell swings in between. I was supposed to do more, but it was lunch time and I was HUNGRY :sweat_smile:


I just practiced some basics and played a bit with my new Guan Dao. I don’t really have enough space for this, so it’s a miracle that I managed not to break anything !


It was more streching than real yoga but my watch don’t have stretching activity.

I really hope gyms will reopen soon. My workout routine has become sooo messy since it’s closed. But, I guess it’s ok as long as i keep doing something :sweat_smile:

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Finally got my watch back after several weeks, this friday. Unfortunately it means I can’t complete some challenges I was going strong on, such as this one:

I ran 60 miles in the interim, but even though I synced my fitbit to the garmin, it doesn’t count the miles towards the challenges. There’s no way I can do 4.6 miles (7.4km) a day for a month, I’m not that fit yet, sadly.

On the other hand, I did manage to run 8ish miles Feb 28th on my long run and juuust eek out this one:

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There is a small break in the rainfalls this morning, so I went for a quick run.

I run for a year and a half approximately and I have made huge progress in terms of distance, I can run 15 km smoothly now (which would have been totally unimaginable before) but I’m struggled with my speed. I’m stuck around 6 min/km for quite a long time now :cry:

On my way home, I saw that Caroline Girvan had released a new kettlebell workout so I did it too.

With a 16kg kettlebell, except for the bulgarian lunge where I changed for 12kg. That was pretty fun. I really like how this girl talk you about being stronger instead of having slim waist/legs, visible abs and all the usual craps of fitness youtubers.

In the meanwhile, I win Zen Master badge : doing 200 yoga activities :upside_down_face: You run a lot that’s impressive. I wanted to try to get the march rundown this month, but I only have the time to run 25 km until now, so it’s a bit fucked :laughing: May I ask you how often you run in a week ?

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I started running midway through December because I was upset that I could only run for about ten seconds. So I’m pretty new. I lift weights 3 times a week and run 6-7 days a week with a cross training walk day. So, I do have abs and arm/leg muscles and stuff, which is funny to me because that wasn’t the plan, I just wanted to be really strong for a very small person. Nowadays people always ask how I got abs, but I didn’t TRY to get abs and I don’t isolate them, so I don’t have a real secret other than just lift more weights in general :joy:. Everyone wants a hack, though :joy:.

I went from a few seconds to running 10k continuously this past Thursday, which was great. I do strides and interval training as well as long runs so I’ve been improving both my endurance mph and my high speeds, but I’ve never run 15k continuously, I had to take a walk break! Maybe when I’m closer to a year, haha. That’s super awesome :smiley:
I am slowly getting this badge though!

I was worried when I didn’t have the watch for two weeks but it looks like I might be able to complete it :slight_smile:

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This reminded me of this thread.

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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
My initial reaction to this was “That’s a myth”

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I need to ask something about caffeine pills. Do any of you have experience?

I want to start getting them for the only purpose to give me a boost in energy at my job so that means to take only one pill in the morning. My question is do they work? Do you get the feel once you took them that it does something?
I have a problem of being motivated in the morning and I notice that with just a small dose of coffee I’m getting a decent boost of energy and so I tough that maybe a concentrated pill of caffeine might work even better.

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I have no experience with caffeine pills or caffeine in general. However I see no reason why it wouldn’t work, it’s just in a concentrated and pure form. Personally I have decided to stay clear of coffee and other products as an energy boost in the morning, since I personally don’t need it. It doesn’t really matter how much I slept or when I wake up. I’m personally fearful for if I began, I would need it every morning and I don’t want to depend of outside sources to function.

That said I don’t know if it has similar effect as Preworkout, where if you do it every workout you won’t feel the effect after some time. That said they are relative cheap and It won’t hurt to try them, if you dislike the effect stop using them.

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I have not taken caffeine pills but I when I flew for the military I was given go-pills when we were on deployments to the desert. It’s the same only the go-pills are more potent (they are either dextroamphetamine or similar).

I recommend comparing the caffeine level in the coffee you drink with what’s in the pill you would take. If the coffee has less and it’s working then stick to that. As Mads pointed out, our bodies get used to the stimulants we give them and then we need or want more over time. No reason to triple your dosage if it’s not needed.

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