- Joined
- Dec 8, 2017
- Messages
- 293
Hey all! Haven't been around much lately, been too busy in other parts of life. I thought I'd share one of the things that's been keeping me busy.
A few months ago I learned I have dangerously high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, in my early 30's. That was my wake-up call to quit making excuses and start eating better and exercising. I tried the Purple Palace (Planet Fitness) for a while, but quickly got bored of their limited strength training options. After a lot of research, I settled on trying body-weight exercises. It is highly regarded by fitness professionals as one of the best full-body workouts available. You don't gain strength as fast as barbell training, but it has more flexibility (pun intended).
What's nice about body-weight exercises is you can do them almost anywhere. I use my kitchen table for some some of the exercises. Most of the exercises offer progressions, so if you can't do a proper push or pull-up there are easier variations you can start with. At the other end of the spectrum, once the traditional exercises become easy there are creative ways of dramatically increasing the difficulty.
I've been following this routine, which includes exercises for flexibility and body control in addition to strength training. This one also starts out slower for people who are starting from absolute zero. In the early stages, I am benefiting more from the flexibility, and my wife is benefiting more from the strength. The same group of people also created what they call the Recommended Routine which focuses primarily on strength. Flexibility and body control are byproducts in this routine.
I have a personal goal of completing Phase 3 by this time next year. Next summer I intend to build a simple pull-up bar in the backyard using a couple 14' 4x6's, and a metal pipe set at about 10'. That will allow us to hang gymnast rings, and do the more difficult variations of most of the exercises. I haven't decided if I want to mess around with the handstand stuff in Phase 4. That may turn into a summer-only routine so I can do it outside, and I'll just focus on the strength part of things when the weather is crappy.
A few months ago I learned I have dangerously high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, in my early 30's. That was my wake-up call to quit making excuses and start eating better and exercising. I tried the Purple Palace (Planet Fitness) for a while, but quickly got bored of their limited strength training options. After a lot of research, I settled on trying body-weight exercises. It is highly regarded by fitness professionals as one of the best full-body workouts available. You don't gain strength as fast as barbell training, but it has more flexibility (pun intended).
What's nice about body-weight exercises is you can do them almost anywhere. I use my kitchen table for some some of the exercises. Most of the exercises offer progressions, so if you can't do a proper push or pull-up there are easier variations you can start with. At the other end of the spectrum, once the traditional exercises become easy there are creative ways of dramatically increasing the difficulty.
I've been following this routine, which includes exercises for flexibility and body control in addition to strength training. This one also starts out slower for people who are starting from absolute zero. In the early stages, I am benefiting more from the flexibility, and my wife is benefiting more from the strength. The same group of people also created what they call the Recommended Routine which focuses primarily on strength. Flexibility and body control are byproducts in this routine.
I have a personal goal of completing Phase 3 by this time next year. Next summer I intend to build a simple pull-up bar in the backyard using a couple 14' 4x6's, and a metal pipe set at about 10'. That will allow us to hang gymnast rings, and do the more difficult variations of most of the exercises. I haven't decided if I want to mess around with the handstand stuff in Phase 4. That may turn into a summer-only routine so I can do it outside, and I'll just focus on the strength part of things when the weather is crappy.
I loathe push ups but still do them albeit modified. I also have a pull up stand in my workout room. I used that a lot when I was doing P90X. I don't use it as much now, but still have workouts that utilize that stand. When the kids were little they'd play on that thing all the time, so it was worth every penny I paid for it. Honestly, I use it more now to hang and dry towels and blankets.
