Early Retirement Extreme Forums

C40 wrote:+1 to what BRUTE said.

If you have space for it in your home, you can get weightlifing equipment for pretty cheap (and sell it later for the same price). For my basement I had a power rack, barbell, bench, and abotu 300lbs of weights. Got it all for $300 I think and sold it for $300 (or even more because right when I bought it, I sold the third pair of 45s which I didn't need). With that, I could do all kinds of stuff. I liked working out at home WAY better than going to a gym:
- No transportation required
- Lift whenever you want
- Can take however long rest you want and do productive things at home during rest periods (I liked 5 minutes between sets) , and thus for strength training your actual time required for working out can be reduced by like 80% (because for weightlifting, most of the time in a gym you're just standing/sitting there doing nothing

Yes, with three athletic boys that are now mostly grown, our basement has gradually become a work-out room with all kinds of this stuff acquired over the past 10 years, including the rack and weights, bench, dumbbells, kettlebells, the thing that converts a regular bike to stationary, and a rowing machine. You have to love kids who ask for these kinds of things for their birthday/Christmas presents. And having spent money on them motivates me to use them!

After mulling over "what to do about fitness" this year, I've settled on a do it at home, "less is more" (don't f-up my knee again) program with one all-out 2K per week on the rowing machine (trying to get my time low enough to compete in the over 50s next winter without embarrassing myself), 75 kettlebell swings three times per week, and one short big-compound-exercises lift-slowly-to-failure "Dr. McGuff" style workout per week.

After listening to a podcast with the "Happy Body" guy (some old Polish trainer dude) and getting his book, I've also started doing those workouts every morning, too. But they just involve dumbbells, breathing and a lot of flexibility movements. My spine is already thanking me. My glutes are not, at least not yet.

what's Dragline's 500m pace on the rower?

by the way, brute isn't sure that Body By Science is compatible with free-weight compound exercises, McGruff seems to recommend isolation machines. it relies on going to failure (in a single set if brute remembers correctly?), something that's usually not a great idea with either free weights or compound exercises, for form and safety reasons. if Dragline actually hits failure in the leg-press machine, it's just a loud bang. if Dragline fails a squat or deadlift, it could mean a loud bang in the knee or lower back. most compound exercise programs with barbells recommend doing 3-5 sets of around 5 repetitions, and not going to failure much.

Sell your car and keep your job.
But for strength, a fixed gear and a lot of elevation was efficient.

BRUTE wrote:what's Dragline's 500m pace on the rower?

Ooohhhh. I often warmup on a concept 2. I sense a competition coming.

@Ego - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXN9zTFzWyo ... Game on! We'll do this. 10 paces apart.

His laugh makes me want to run away.

BRUTE wrote:what's Dragline's 500m pace on the rower?

About 2:16 at the moment for the 2K, which is pretty laughable. Of course it was much worse about a month ago when I tried a real 2k for the first time and bonked after the first 800m, and I am taking seconds off every week. I would need to get it down to around 1:45 to be one of the top competitors in my age group locally. Anything below 2:00 and I would not be embarrassed. I've learned that there is a whole lot of technique to it that I am still struggling with. Physical coordination does not come easy to me.

Then there is the other demoralization factor of your high school and college kids doing it with splits under 1:35.

DW and I have talked about learning to scull together in a double at some point. I'm inspired by seeing the 70 and 80 year old masters out at some of these events.

brute also hits the wall around 700-800m. in shit shape

Holy shit! Maybe put ping pong balls in there instead?

C40 wrote:Holy shit! Maybe put ping pong balls in there instead?

I don't understand that one.

Watch the video I posted above.

Yikes! Too bad aiming it would be such a pain.