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[bakazaru]

I decided to try to get myself working out again today, reduce the ol' orangutan belly to something manageable. Maybe get some of my upper body strength back. I only know how to do push ups and sit ups though, without more tools than I've got

Comments

[shizuku_san]

Well orangutans have pretty awesome upper body strength. You would too if you spent much of your day brachiating through the rainforest. :P

[bakazaru]

Man it is true. Really, if I somehow managed to ACTUALLY have an orangutan-like torso, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind the saggery much at all. I used to take pride in my monkey-gut, but that was before I had undergone quite so much atrophy.

[joy_walker]

Heh. If you're looking for a pretty decent workout you can do without equipment, you may want to talk to Carys. He's been doing Crossfit for over a year now, much of that time just doing their warmup (because that's how hardcore they are -- the warmup's a pretty rockin' workout in itself for a beginner). It's http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/faq.html#General7, but here it is in a nutshell:

3 rounds of 10-15 reps of
Samson Stretch (do the Samson Stretch once each round for 15-30 seconds)
Overhead Squat with broomstick or towel, just to keep your arms up
Sit-up
Back-extension (lay on belly, lift arms and legs up, relax)
Pull-up (ok, not so much without equipment....)
Dip (we happened to have a stable chair with arms to dip on)

If you look at the Crossfit site, keep in mind that they are insane, but in exceedingly good shape.

[bakazaru]

Hey, thanks for that. My memory of my high school workouts is rusty at best, and seein as in performing the routine I described in this post I managed to pull muscles both above and below my belly (which, interestingly, converts every stage of hunger from starvation to bloated over-stuff into a sort of constant dull ache--guess that's one way to eat less?) I obviously have less than a good idea what I'm doing. So I appreciate this sort of thing! I'm still going to have to work in something cardio--maybe I'll try biking to the light rail on my way to work or something--but this gives me a solid core to base the muscle-exercise stuff off of. So yeah, thankee!

[joy_walker]

Oh, Carys walks around a fair amount saying things like "My bottom hurts," so it must be doing some good? And he also has become a proponent of jumping rope for cardio, though that, too, kicked his ass for a while. He even does it inside, carefully positioning himself so as not to hit any light fixtures.

Do seriously feel free to contact him on this if you'd like. I suspect he'd be tickled to have an inquiry. He'd also have a much better understanding than I do of what various discomforts feel like and mean.

[bakazaru]

Jumping rope! Now that is an idea. Hmm. Thanks yet again.

[prof_vencire]

I feel ya, brother. I restarted working out recently, finally got to the point of runners high. It's a bitch, but picking up heavy things and being able to run away are key survival abilities.

[bakazaru]

That they are. Course, I've got some nice obnoxious asthma to complement my sedintary basement-dwelling lifestyle and occasional death-like pallor, so working in cardio's a bit tricky sometimes.

[sumbarbarus]

Oddly enough, on those rare occasions I do exercise, I use all those fencing exercises we learned back in the day. I guess they don't help me run faster, but having some sort of reflexes is nice.

As for lifting things, that's what libraries are for. So many books...