2013 Fitness & Nutrition Thread With Coach Beard

[Wicked Cool Bearded Man]

Coach Beard, sorry for the skim if it's already been asked, but my wife and I would really like to do an in home workout that doesn't require extra equipment, is there one you'd recommend that could work for both of us at the same time?

Hey man, I really like the P90X workouts or even the the P90 work outs. I think they do a great job of incorporating body weight workouts as well as hitting the entire body and muscle groups. You can do the entire workout with bands and your body. They also do a good job of showing you how to do the workouts without a pullup bar.

 

[Wicked Cool Bearded Man]

Sorry I haven't updated MY progress! I ran 4 miles yesterday and did some core work before practice. I am doing a really good job of the cardio right now. Because of my schedule I have to pick 1 workout a day and be happy with it. Right now running is the choice because of the time constraints. The good news is I am feeling good about it right now. Eating is going well also at the moment thanks to the wife!

 

[sudseh]

Will do, sir.
Many thanks for the encouragement.

This is awesome to hear man!! We are glad to have you! Keep us updated!

 

[IceyShanks]

Hey man, I really like the P90X workouts or even the the P90 work outs. I think they do a great job of incorporating body weight workouts as well as hitting the entire body and muscle groups. You can do the entire workout with bands and your body. They also do a good job of showing you how to do the workouts without a pullup bar.

That's awesome, thanks for the info. Would it be the same workout for my wife and me just at different levels of intensity?

 

[TRyan]

That's awesome, thanks for the info. Would it be the same workout for my wife and me just at different levels of intensity?

Ya dude. me and my gf did it together.. thats the beauty of it

 

[Ryan555]

Ya dude. me and my gf did it together.. thats the beauty of it

My wife and I did the Power 90 together, and she got more out of it than I did. Go figure. This time around she's going to do Power 90 again, with additional yoga and I'm doing P90X. But, this time around, we have different schedules and aren't able to workout together.

 

[IceyShanks]

Ya dude. me and my gf did it together.. thats the beauty of it

Awesome, thanks man.

My wife and I did the Power 90 together, and she got more out of it than I did. Go figure. This time around she's going to do Power 90 again, with additional yoga and I'm doing P90X. But, this time around, we have different schedules and aren't able to workout together.

So what info can you tell me about Power 90, I've never heard of it!

 

[chewie69]

Just started back on P90x yesterday, after about a 6 month layoff. I forgot how much Plyo was not my favorite, this morning. Thinking of doing the Tough Mudder in Ohio in April 2013, so that would be some great motivation.

 

[blugold]

Well my daughters respritory virus is now in my nose. No excercise until it's gone.

 

[Ryan555]

Awesome, thanks man.

So what info can you tell me about Power 90, I've never heard of it!

Well, we went with Power 90 because at the time I was wickedly out of shape. I had balooned to 220, and at 5'7", that's no bueno. They have 4 workouts, plus abs. We started off on the easy ones and did that for roughly half of the time and then moved onto the harder levels for the last half. The workouts aren't nearly as intense at P90X or Insanity, but, if you've never done a workout before, like me, then I thought it was a good palce to start. Don't need much room, just some resitance bands. The longest workout I think clocks in at an hour. The only drawback I found is that they are the same workouts all the time. You alternate between cardio and resistance, i.e. cardio, monday, resistance tuesday, and back and forth with a rest on day 7. I lost 20 or so, and got just under 200 for the frist time in a while, but by the end I was bored. I also am looking for more of a challenge, which is why I'm stepping up to P90X. My buddy just started his second round, and he loved it. This is a guy who used to run track and play baseball and SWORE by gyms until he tried X. My wife, on the other hand, she's not really wanting to bulk up and she has some issues with circulation, so she is just wnating to lose some weight, so she is doing Power 90 again. She also wants to work on her circulation and flexibility, so she is doing extra yoga workouts 5 days a week.

Basically, if you are justl ooking for introduction, I would start with Power 90, or maybe the master series. If you are looking for more intense, X would be it. I will be doing X, and then I have the master series as well, which would be a step between Power and X, and will be doing it for a few weeks at a much less intense level, then moving to either X again, or maybe Insanity, not sure. Just waiting for my buddy to get me his discs fo X, as he has burned them into his computer and doesn't use the discs themselves anymore.

 

[interlooper]

Correct, along with BMI. I try not to get caught up in weight too much. If I am eating correctly and working out regularly, that is good enough for me. I try not to worry about numbers. This is only my opinion however. I have friends who swear by numbers.

Yeah; I suppose it depends on what your goals are. If your main goal is to be healthy, then actual numbers might not be a huge priority. Rather, you can look more towards the types of foods and drinks you are consuming, the types of exercising you do, etc. If you want a specific look, shape, etc., numbers could potentially become a higher priority. Those people might find a wealth of knowledge in their chest measurement, fat %, etc etc.

I suppose I fall in between. I do know, however, that weighing yourself every morning can be very frustrating. I weigh myself about twice a week (at the same time each morning). I do other measurements once a week.

 

[Puttin4Bird]

Sorry I haven't updated MY progress! I ran 4 miles yesterday and did some core work before practice. I am doing a really good job of the cardio right now. Because of my schedule I have to pick 1 workout a day and be happy with it. Right now running is the choice because of the time constraints. The good news is I am feeling good about it right now. Eating is going well also at the moment thanks to the wife!

Rock on Coach Beard! Running while I hate it sure gets the blood flowing unlike anything else out there. Last night I did 30 minutes on the EFX elliptical and broke a sweat, but in the 15 minutes I ran I was drenched. Huge difference.

 

[marcv68]

Hey man I hope you get to read this before your workout. I would do legs today to give your tri's some more rest. Go easy on the lower back though, especially if you did that yesterday. By that I mean I might stay away from squats (air squats or body weight squats are ok though) That is what I usually do when this happens. Good luck and have a great workout!

I did that today bud thanks for the response. So far so good.

 

[IceyShanks]

Well, we went with Power 90 because at the time I was wickedly out of shape. I had balooned to 220, and at 5'7", that's no bueno. They have 4 workouts, plus abs. We started off on the easy ones and did that for roughly half of the time and then moved onto the harder levels for the last half. The workouts aren't nearly as intense at P90X or Insanity, but, if you've never done a workout before, like me, then I thought it was a good palce to start. Don't need much room, just some resitance bands. The longest workout I think clocks in at an hour. The only drawback I found is that they are the same workouts all the time. You alternate between cardio and resistance, i.e. cardio, monday, resistance tuesday, and back and forth with a rest on day 7. I lost 20 or so, and got just under 200 for the frist time in a while, but by the end I was bored. I also am looking for more of a challenge, which is why I'm stepping up to P90X. My buddy just started his second round, and he loved it. This is a guy who used to run track and play baseball and SWORE by gyms until he tried X. My wife, on the other hand, she's not really wanting to bulk up and she has some issues with circulation, so she is just wnating to lose some weight, so she is doing Power 90 again. She also wants to work on her circulation and flexibility, so she is doing extra yoga workouts 5 days a week.

Basically, if you are justl ooking for introduction, I would start with Power 90, or maybe the master series. If you are looking for more intense, X would be it. I will be doing X, and then I have the master series as well, which would be a step between Power and X, and will be doing it for a few weeks at a much less intense level, then moving to either X again, or maybe Insanity, not sure. Just waiting for my buddy to get me his discs fo X, as he has burned them into his computer and doesn't use the discs themselves anymore.

Thank you so much for the info. I'm going to ask the wife about both!!!


Tapatalking on my iPhone!

 

[runpuddrun]

Thought I'd join in on here. Like most of you in here, I've struggled recently with some weight gain and not being motivated. To give a little bit of a backround, I was always a runner and took up tri's about 6 years ago and got really into them, pretty competitive locally and would typically finish top 20 most races. I did a couple 1/2 Ironmans and in a 4 year span did about 30 tri's. During this time I was a personal trainer and ate great, lifted weights and was as healthy and fit as I've ever been in my life. In the Summer of 09 I was 152 lbs.

About 3 years ago, we had our first child and it was a huge adjustment to me as I was used to spending hours biking, swimming and running. I switched to a Crossfit style workout and did well and then just fell off the face of the earth. I slowly gained weight and by winter of 10 I was around 180 lbs but still ok for my height/weight. Fast forward to this summer and crap went downhill fast. I was 180 lbs in August of this year and not 3 weeks ago after entirely too much life stress, horrible eating and complete laziness on my part, I ballooned up to 224. The most I've weighted in my entire life by a healthy margin. I felt horrible, looked horrible and hated myself. My wife knew how I felt, I just couldn't get out of the rut. She reminded me of something I told her when we started dating 10 years ago and it totally rang true to me. Coming from where I was and how I felt about my body and how I treated it previously, it made me ill to just think about how I was acting, selfishly!

In the past 3 weeks, I made some DRASTIC changes to my diet, started working out again, got the clubs out of the corner of the room, and mentally changed my mind to fix my body, and life. I've been eating pretty strict Paleo with some IF thrown in for fun. I FEEL tons better, have lost 15 lbs already and am well on my way. I normally don't weight myself a lot but i've been doing it every morning to track and measure and get back to being in tune with my body and how it reacts to certain foods. I've also been measuring my body to track my progress. My goal of 200 before Christmas should be easily attainable and my secondary goal of 180 by February 14th is up next after that.

 

[Ryan555]

Thought I'd join in on here. Like most of you in here, I've struggled recently with some weight gain and not being motivated. To give a little bit of a backround, I was always a runner and took up tri's about 6 years ago and got really into them, pretty competitive locally and would typically finish top 20 most races. I did a couple 1/2 Ironmans and in a 4 year span did about 30 tri's. During this time I was a personal trainer and ate great, lifted weights and was as healthy and fit as I've ever been in my life. In the Summer of 09 I was 152 lbs.

About 3 years ago, we had our first child and it was a huge adjustment to me as I was used to spending hours biking, swimming and running. I switched to a Crossfit style workout and did well and then just fell off the face of the earth. I slowly gained weight and by winter of 10 I was around 180 lbs but still ok for my height/weight. Fast forward to this summer and crap went downhill fast. I was 180 lbs in August of this year and not 3 weeks ago after entirely too much life stress, horrible eating and complete laziness on my part, I ballooned up to 224. The most I've weighted in my entire life by a healthy margin. I felt horrible, looked horrible and hated myself. My wife knew how I felt, I just couldn't get out of the rut. She reminded me of something I told her when we started dating 10 years ago and it totally rang true to me. Coming from where I was and how I felt about my body and how I treated it previously, it made me ill to just think about how I was acting, selfishly!

In the past 3 weeks, I made some DRASTIC changes to my diet, started working out again, got the clubs out of the corner of the room, and mentally changed my mind to fix my body, and life. I've been eating pretty strict Paleo with some IF thrown in for fun. I FEEL tons better, have lost 15 lbs already and am well on my way. I normally don't weight myself a lot but i've been doing it every morning to track and measure and get back to being in tune with my body and how it reacts to certain foods. I've also been measuring my body to track my progress. My goal of 200 before Christmas should be easily attainable and my secondary goal of 180 by February 14th is up next after that.

Good luck Run. It looks like we may have a good winter for working out inside as, from what I've been told, it could be rough. But I have a question, what are PALEO and IF? I've heard the Paleo temr before but I don't understand it.

 

[runpuddrun]

Good luck Run. It looks like we may have a good winter for working out inside as, from what I've been told, it could be rough. But I have a question, what are PALEO and IF? I've heard the Paleo temr before but I don't understand it.

paleo is just a way of eating.

IF is Intermittent Fasting, eating at certain times of the day to enhance and optimize fat loss and minimize muscle loss.

http://artofmanliness.com/2012/01/25/intermittent-fasting/

 

[Ryan555]

Nice chart. That would take me some work to get into, but I could probably get to that. My biggest problem, and what's going to be the hardest thing for me to do is eat properly. I despise nearly all vegetables, and will only eat like kinds fo fruit. It's not that I'm stubborn about it, I've tried it all. My problem is that I am very much a texture and taste person. If I don't like one or the other, I won't eat it. This eliminates pretty much everything that is good for me, I know.

The IF is not something I could do. Being diabetic, I've been working on controlling it with my diet, which involved cutting much of the processed food I ate, and cutting my proportions down. But, I can't skip meals, as my glucose levels will drop dramatically in a very short period of time. this is one of the reasons I'm going to start working out, to help with the diet change. Maybe next year.

 

[BIGBALL]

Thought I'd join in on here. Like most of you in here, I've struggled recently with some weight gain and not being motivated. To give a little bit of a backround, I was always a runner and took up tri's about 6 years ago and got really into them, pretty competitive locally and would typically finish top 20 most races. I did a couple 1/2 Ironmans and in a 4 year span did about 30 tri's. During this time I was a personal trainer and ate great, lifted weights and was as healthy and fit as I've ever been in my life. In the Summer of 09 I was 152 lbs.

About 3 years ago, we had our first child and it was a huge adjustment to me as I was used to spending hours biking, swimming and running. I switched to a Crossfit style workout and did well and then just fell off the face of the earth. I slowly gained weight and by winter of 10 I was around 180 lbs but still ok for my height/weight. Fast forward to this summer and crap went downhill fast. I was 180 lbs in August of this year and not 3 weeks ago after entirely too much life stress, horrible eating and complete laziness on my part, I ballooned up to 224. The most I've weighted in my entire life by a healthy margin. I felt horrible, looked horrible and hated myself. My wife knew how I felt, I just couldn't get out of the rut. She reminded me of something I told her when we started dating 10 years ago and it totally rang true to me. Coming from where I was and how I felt about my body and how I treated it previously, it made me ill to just think about how I was acting, selfishly!

In the past 3 weeks, I made some DRASTIC changes to my diet, started working out again, got the clubs out of the corner of the room, and mentally changed my mind to fix my body, and life. I've been eating pretty strict Paleo with some IF thrown in for fun. I FEEL tons better, have lost 15 lbs already and am well on my way. I normally don't weight myself a lot but i've been doing it every morning to track and measure and get back to being in tune with my body and how it reacts to certain foods. I've also been measuring my body to track my progress. My goal of 200 before Christmas should be easily attainable and my secondary goal of 180 by February 14th is up next after that.

It's funny - I never, even when I was bodybuilding in the late 80's, worried about the scale. One look in the mirror will tell you all you need to know. I told a couple clients not to weigh themselves for a month, and if they didn't get the results we agreed were reachable ( and I tended to tell them they could lose more than they thought most of the time ) I would train them the following month for free. Never had to take anyone up on that offer. The problem was, and it was more with women than men, is that if the scale didn't move one or two days, they would sometimes just trash the whole thing! Weight loss isn't linear, especially after training for a while.

 

[runpuddrun]

It's funny - I never, even when I was bodybuilding in the late 80's, worried about the scale. One look in the mirror will tell you all you need to know. I told a couple clients not to weigh themselves for a month, and if they didn't get the results we agreed were reachable ( and I tended to tell them they could lose more than they thought most of the time ) I would train them the following month for free. Never had to take anyone up on that offer. The problem was, and it was more with women than men, is that if the scale didn't move one or two days, they would sometimes just trash the whole thing! Weight loss isn't linear, especially after training for a while.

I know all of this. I'm doing it mostly for information/ data and because I've been treating my body like crap the past few years I don't have a great feel for my physiology right now. I like to track stuff and it gives me incentive to not lose focus. Everyone is different. As a trainer you should know that.

I'm not worried about the scale moving. At all. It's all about how I feel and getting healthy again.

Regarding IF, it is difficult to get into but once you get into a groove and make it a habit, it is awesome. With being diabetic, it's probably not the best idea but I haven't done enough research on it. Always better to ask a dr. And/or do some research before jumping into it though. For me, it helps a lot but ymmv.


Pity the fool who Tapalks

 

[GolferGal]

My DVD's arrived today. That means tomorrow morning starts my workout, I can't wait! Now I just need to figure out how to connect the DVD player. For someone who owns a website, I don't know anything about technology haha.

 

[Wicked Cool Bearded Man]

That's awesome, thanks for the info. Would it be the same workout for my wife and me just at different levels of intensity?

Same level pretty much just different types of bands- she would get lesser tension bands.

 

[dhill]

Thought I'd join in on here. Like most of you in here, I've struggled recently with some weight gain and not being motivated. To give a little bit of a backround, I was always a runner and took up tri's about 6 years ago and got really into them, pretty competitive locally and would typically finish top 20 most races. I did a couple 1/2 Ironmans and in a 4 year span did about 30 tri's. During this time I was a personal trainer and ate great, lifted weights and was as healthy and fit as I've ever been in my life. In the Summer of 09 I was 152 lbs.

About 3 years ago, we had our first child and it was a huge adjustment to me as I was used to spending hours biking, swimming and running. I switched to a Crossfit style workout and did well and then just fell off the face of the earth. I slowly gained weight and by winter of 10 I was around 180 lbs but still ok for my height/weight. Fast forward to this summer and crap went downhill fast. I was 180 lbs in August of this year and not 3 weeks ago after entirely too much life stress, horrible eating and complete laziness on my part, I ballooned up to 224. The most I've weighted in my entire life by a healthy margin. I felt horrible, looked horrible and hated myself. My wife knew how I felt, I just couldn't get out of the rut. She reminded me of something I told her when we started dating 10 years ago and it totally rang true to me. Coming from where I was and how I felt about my body and how I treated it previously, it made me ill to just think about how I was acting, selfishly!

In the past 3 weeks, I made some DRASTIC changes to my diet, started working out again, got the clubs out of the corner of the room, and mentally changed my mind to fix my body, and life. I've been eating pretty strict Paleo with some IF thrown in for fun. I FEEL tons better, have lost 15 lbs already and am well on my way. I normally don't weight myself a lot but i've been doing it every morning to track and measure and get back to being in tune with my body and how it reacts to certain foods. I've also been measuring my body to track my progress. My goal of 200 before Christmas should be easily attainable and my secondary goal of 180 by February 14th is up next after that.

Great job man, glad you've joined us!

Rock on Coach Beard! Running while I hate it sure gets the blood flowing unlike anything else out there. Last night I did 30 minutes on the EFX elliptical and broke a sweat, but in the 15 minutes I ran I was drenched. Huge difference.

That's the reason I'm getting back to running as well. It really gets my heart rate up

My DVD's arrived today. That means tomorrow morning starts my workout, I can't wait! Now I just need to figure out how to connect the DVD player. For someone who owns a website, I don't know anything about technology haha.

LOL - I'm sure you'll get it figured out! Good luck in the morning.

 

[Wicked Cool Bearded Man]

Well my daughters respritory virus is now in my nose. No excercise until it's gone.

Sorry dude! Feel better!

 

[dhill]

A Brief History / Why I'm doing Insanity

2002 - Late 2006 - Very Overweight - at my heaviest I was 253+ (I'd already started doing a little exercise when I bought a scale). Had a terrible job and marriage. Got rid of both of those things.
2007 - Worked out about 4 hours a day for 3 - 4 months and dropped weight down to around 200. Met My current wife.
2008 - gained weight back to around 230. Harder to run a marathon with the extra weight but it happened.
2009 - Re motivated and got engaged, dropped weight through a lot of cycling that spring summer / lowest weight since high school was in June of that year and it was 194 (after a long day cycling) around 198 otherwise. Gained some weight again going into 2010
2010 - started the year around 220, started run training and training for a triathlon weighed 205 for my wedding that June.
2011 - gained about 25 pounds, dieted with some exercise in early 2011 and got to 211.2. Steady increase / hold / lose / increase for the rest of the year.
2012 -
Start 230.6
Heaviest 234 in September
Current 221.6
I started eating better about 2 months ago and in the past month have started trying to work out more regularly. 10/4 - 231.6 . Today 221.6 ( I was under 220 again for a day, gee thanks Thanksgiving. )
As you can tell weight control has been a problem for me since around 2002. But I've taken steps in the right direction several times. The scary thought for me is that I might be able to get to my goal but staying there will be the new challenge. I have incremental goals set up for myself with my final goal not being really clear in my mind. I'd like to see the 180's again and then decide where to be from there. I have a larger build but I think that somewhere in there is possible.

DDXU was kind enough to lend me insanity. I was already planning on using Coach Beard and everyone in this thread for support but thought I'd add an extra layer / incentive to do so. He asked me to keep the thread updated with my progress and I intend to do that as I work my way through the next few months.

I won't be doing insanity every day but I'll do an update after each workout. I'm looking forward to sharing my journey and yours in here, together I have a feeling we can accomplish great things.

--And I'm sorry, whenever I start anything with "a brief" it will never in fact be brief.