Fitness

I have the get up and go to run every other day or everyday for maybe two or three months at a time. Then, out of the blue, I'll skip a run, then two runs, then the whole week.

I'm currently in one of these ruts(I'm lacing up my shoes right now, I swear) but I was just wondering if anyone has any strategies for getting out of it. Mine is brute force my way back into it until I'm back in the groove. But this usually ends with me doing too many miles too quickly. Then the injury, the the time off, oh the cycle repeats.

What are your strategies for getting out of a rut? Or even better not getting into it in the first place?

As I understand it, HRV - Heart Rate Variability allegedly measures the spacing in beats. More variability means your body is chillin' and relaxed; less variability means something is physically stressing you, like sickness, lack of sleep, etc.

At the end of Aug, I was starting to feel under the weather so I cut back on training and spent some time resting. Eager to not lose momentum, I headed out on a 40 mile bike ride as soon as my HRV was almost back to normal and pushed it right back down again.

Lesson learned: err on the side of giving yourself too much time to recover. Hope you found it interesting!

My wife and I are trying to eat a little less meat, starting with 1 dinner per week. I'm having trouble finding vegetarian recipes that can fit my desired macros for dinner, which are 52/41/16 C/P/F. I like tofu, but the protein/fat ratio isn't great for what I'm trying to get. I don't really love the "fake" meat substitutes and would rather eat real foods.

Any suggestions on high protein lower fat veggie mains or resources for recipies would be greatly appreciated.

Not sure how I didn't register this Lovecraftian horror yesterday

15 kg are the heaviest. Guess I'm going for that high rep range dumbell press (•_•)

I want a program, preferably through an app, that applies the principles of progressive overload to ab routines that does not require equipment.

What do you recommend?

I as many others don't eat enough fish so I try to get a can of tuna in my system every other day. But it really kills me how dry and boring it tastes.

Anyoke got a good way to make it taste good? As low calorie as possible but I am willing to forfeit a bit of my dinner if I necessary.

I’ve dropped 20 pounds off my 275 bench in a month and a half

I'm a bit new(ish) to working out and utilized a personal trainer to get me started over the last few weeks. I can't afford to continue using a trainer and was wondering if there was an app out there that helps you build a routine? I looked at Apple Fitness and I don't want videos, just something that can help build a routine such as - 3 sets 12 crunches, 3 sets of 8 standing overhead dumbbell presses, etc. Ideally it would just list out the exercise, number of reps/sets, etc. as a checklist that you can mark as complete as you go. Most apps I have come across are only videos. Any suggestions?

Hi! I can currently train once a week in my local gym, and I like to train at home with some bodyweight exercises and resistance bands. I'd like your input on my current workout schedule.

I would like to focus on basic strength (squat / push up / deadlift / pull ups) and a bit of muscle mass, with a sprinkle of some calisthenics skills, such as the handstand, currently.

• Monday: home workout

  • Pistol squats: 3 sets for each leg, with an 8kg (17?6 lbs) backpack (I can currently do sets of 8 reps)
  • Decline push-ups (superset with previous exercise to save some time): 3 sets (I can do 10 decline push-ups in a row)
  • Bodyweight row with a TRX band: 3 sets (currently at 16 reps)
  • Abs crunch with a resistance band: 3 sets

• Wednesday: gym workout

  • Pull-ups: 3 sets (I can do sets of 4 clean pull-ups)
  • Seated calf raise machine: 3 sets of 10 reps (currently at 39 kg/86lbs per leg)
  • Romanian dumbell deadlift: 3 sets of 10 reps (currently lifting with a 30kg/66lbs dumbell in each hand)

• Thursday: running/zone 2 cardio

  • I run about 5km in around 30 min

I would like to use the gym to train the muscles I can't efficiently hit at home: hamstrings, calves and lats, mainly.

What exercises am I missing? I can easily add more exercises when I'm home, such as chest flies with a resistance band, superman, etc.

I've been lifting consistently for about 18 months. In that time, I did 5/3/1 for Beginners and GCZLP.

I can squat 200 5x3, bench 145 5x3. I do lower weight deadlifts because I hurt my lower back last year doing them. I avoid overhead pressing because of right shoulder impingement.

I do accessory exercises as well.

I find myself getting bored doing these exercises. I want to continue to build muscle and strength, but I am not sure what to do.

I like to run but I am working through an injury so I am progressing slowly to get back to where I was a year ago.

What do you suggest I do?

I feel like some beers just have such a terrible negative affect on me, that profoundly surpasses what most people meany when they dicuss the negative effects.

Whenever I try and look into it, I just see the standard "top ten hangover symptoms" or whatever.

It's increasingly hard to find useful information on the Internet.

Is there a difference? Or are we all allergic to alcohol and just the symptoms vary?

same question as here: https://fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/46328/washing-athletic-wear

Is washing powder safe for undearmour clothing? Else what would be some alternatives?

I tried the vinegar approach but it wasn't working out for me. I guess maybe I can try the baking soda one

Hey guys, I have been looking at building a home gym (possibly outdoors) in my new house we are renovating.

I want to get back into lifting as it has been about 4 years since I did it seriously.

I was looking at bars and the market here is ridiculout it seems. I can't find a single stainless steel bar for under 475€($520). The Ohio bar is one of the cheaper ones at 550€ instead of $370. Of course I get why it is more expensive for an import bar, but I literally can't find any bar here non-imported that says that it is stainless steel that isn't calibrated and insanely expensive (550€+)

The difference here betweeen cerakote and stainless is even greater (>100€ in some cases).

I was hoping to just get a second hand rack, some basics weights, and a barbell for around 1000€ or so, but it looks like I would have to spend at least 2000€ to get any kind of setup. Cage here are 850€ or so on the lower end just by themselves.

I am looking at strengthshop.eu, roguefitness.eu, fitness-seller.nl, but I don't really know what are the best bang for your buck options.

It looks like one of those sites has a 340€ stainless steel ATX bar, but I don't know if that is a reliable brand.

Anyone in the EU with any advice?

Basically, I took on too many miles too quick. And boom knee pain even when walking now. I don't want to stop moving entirely, but I'm just not sure what I should be during this downtime. I'm pretty new to running so only been doing it for about 2 weeks and I'm a little heavier, so it probably beat my legs up. But I love running and don't want to give it up.

How much does drinking after a workout affect recovery and growth?

Right now I do free weights a couple times of week, a little bit of yoga, and then a fair amount of cardio. Now that I'm in my late 30s I seem to be injuring myself a lot. Little stuff like pulled muscles, tendonitis, joint pain etc. Yoga has definitely help and I've adjusted the cardio I do. Any recommendations for a strength plan that focuses more on mobility, flexibility and not injuring yourself?

This is not necessarily a fitness question persay, but i figured this would be the community to ask. About 3 months ago i started a new job, a factory job, where i'm constantly pushing and lifting tonnes of weight daily. i've gotten used to it, i don't feel nearly as sore as i did when i started, the only thing is how i feel when i wake up.

you see, when i first wake up the first thing i notice is how stiff i am, literally it feels as though each of my individual muscles has turned into cold rubber. And the cracks! every time i move now something or another pops or cracks in any given part of my body. Suffice to say none of this is painful, just... uncomfortable. It's not like they gave me a "how to adapt your body to suddenly doing manual labor 101" pamphlet when i joined, so what exactly should i be doing different? Or is this just a normal phenomenom that i'm not used to?

My flexibility is not good. It affects a lot of what I do. Tight legs, tight back, which keeps me from doing things I want to do, mainly cycling.

I know I need to stretch. I just don’t know where to start, and I’m the type of person, if I have an app or a program to follow so I don’t have to think, I’m more likely to do it.

I get a ton of adds on instagram, but with most adds, I don’t trust any of them.

What are some suggestions for apps/programs for stretching I can use?

We want to know!

I've been doing the Couch to 5K program for a while now, and I'm currently at the last week of it. I can run for 30 minutes now, but at a much, much slower pace than the average novice runner at my age and sex (as I've seen when I looked it up, at least).

So what now? The program says that I should be able to run 5k now, but I can't run it in 30 minutes, not even 40 at this pace. How do I increase my speed?

Thank you so much for the responses in advance.

EDIT: I feel like I might've been misunderstood. I can now run for 30 minutes straight, but way less than 5K in that time. The issue is that if I were to run 5K, I would be able to run it a lot slower than 40, let alone 30 minutes, at my current pace.

I'm currently using strong, but I find it not very customizable

I've started sprinting, but strong only lets me track minutes and seconds.

Is there any app that is more customizable and would let me input the time freely?

Does anyone here use any Open-Source Workout Trackers? I've been using hevy, but their high fees, the fact that they are a company that holds my health data and has made no commitments to open source, User privacy, or fair trade practices like user data import/export has me looking around. I wanted to see if anyone had reliable open source alternatives.

Tell me your workout tracking stories here! Tell me what you liked and what you disliked.

I have to do squats every Monday