Get fit 2: Resolution 2K:19!

[Peccavi]

Hey wow! This is exactly the thread I was needing (well, almost exactly. Would anybody from here be interested if I started a mental health thread, assuming I don't find one?).

First let me say, that the progress I'm reading about here is incredible and inspiring. So "congrats" to all that are making progress, a solid "you can do it!" to everyone struggling, an emphatic "I'm really impressed by your attempts/effort" to anybody who feels they haven't progressed as much as they should, and lastly a "thank you" to everyone who's posted at all- for me (really struggling) it helps a great deal!

Spoiler: On to me!

Show

A little background, I started training in martial arts when I was 5 and was always incredibly active. At the height of my physical abilities, at 16-straight out of high school, I joined the army. Reserves at first, then on to full time when I was old enough. I found I was fit enough to qualify for the special forces entrance exams. To say that I was physically capable would be a massive understatement, I was in the top of everything. I felt like I could run forever, of course the army proved to me this was not case, they have a habit of just making things harder until you hit your limit! It was great, I loved every minute of it, and I served for 6 years full time from 1998 to 2004.

Unfortunately that time period included active service overseas, in some really horrible places, doing and seeing some really horrible things. I, like many people faced with traumatic events (certainly not limited to service personnel) found myself unable to cope. I was diagnosed with PTSD and given a medical discharge.

Between the crushing depression, lack of sleep and a small pharmacies worth of medication, I spent the next 10 years or so largely inactive. My health has been steadily decreasing ever since. Whilst I have mostly recovered (or at least gotten a handle on) from the worst of my PTSD symptoms I have developed a pain condition called Fibromyalgia. Which is characterised by severe-widespread pain, particularly in my back, exhaustion and weakness. I currently find myself unable to work, and struggling physically with even the simplest of activities that require movement through the back and core (which I'm beginning to understand is pretty much everything). I've also just discovered that my cholesterol is really high (8.7 as opposed to the healthy goal of below 4) and my blood sugars indicate I may be developing pre-diabetes. I'm currently around 20kg overweight, which is nowhere near as bad as it could be.

For the past 2 years I have been undergoing treatment for the Fibro by way of Physiotherapy (clinical pilates), hydrotherapy and of course more medication. The theory was to retrain my brain into realising that it can move without pain and actively exercising my core and back but very gently. This, however, has not made any difference. We've now changed tac, and I'm now doing a lot of resistance exercise with my upper and lower body, basically now working the core and back indirectly as you need to maintain stability throughout the movements. I am feeling very confident that this method will bring some alleviation to my condition.

I have also begun intermittent fasting at the suggestion of a Dietitian, fasting for 16 hours a day and eating during the other 8 (the last hour is the hardest!). Recent studies have shown, apparently, that this has been proven to have a much more significant effect on cholesterol, blood sugars and weight reduction then a low cholesterol-low calorie diet.

Spoiler: So my goals...

Show

Maintain the intermittent fasting for the next 3 months and recheck the blood work. I'm also hoping to lose 10kg in this time.
Find the time everyday, where my pain levels are low enough to engage in the exercise plan. I'm doing roughly a 3rd of the amount that I want to do, but I'm making progress every week.
Get back into martial arts. I've started doing a little bit everyday, but it is only a little bit. I'm hoping to get the point where I can work through at least 2 of my forms.

[Kyrell1978]

Hey wow! This is exactly the thread I was needing (well, almost exactly. Would anybody from here be interested if I started a mental health thread, assuming I don't find one?).

First let me say, that the progress I'm reading about here is incredible and inspiring. So "congrats" to all that are making progress, a solid "you can do it!" to everyone struggling, an emphatic "I'm really impressed by your attempts/effort" to anybody who feels they haven't progressed as much as they should, and lastly a "thank you" to everyone who's posted at all- for me (really struggling) it helps a great deal!

Spoiler: On to me!

Show

A little background, I started training in martial arts when I was 5 and was always incredibly active. At the height of my physical abilities, at 16-straight out of high school, I joined the army. Reserves at first, then on to full time when I was old enough. I found I was fit enough to qualify for the special forces entrance exams. To say that I was physically capable would be a massive understatement, I was in the top of everything. I felt like I could run forever, of course the army proved to me this was not case, they have a habit of just making things harder until you hit your limit! It was great, I loved every minute of it, and I served for 6 years full time from 1998 to 2004.

Unfortunately that time period included active service overseas, in some really horrible places, doing and seeing some really horrible things. I, like many people faced with traumatic events (certainly not limited to service personnel) found myself unable to cope. I was diagnosed with PTSD and given a medical discharge.

Between the crushing depression, lack of sleep and a small pharmacies worth of medication, I spent the next 10 years or so largely inactive. My health has been steadily decreasing ever since. Whilst I have mostly recovered (or at least gotten a handle on) from the worst of my PTSD symptoms I have developed a pain condition called Fibromyalgia. Which is characterised by severe-widespread pain, particularly in my back, exhaustion and weakness. I currently find myself unable to work, and struggling physically with even the simplest of activities that require movement through the back and core (which I'm beginning to understand is pretty much everything). I've also just discovered that my cholesterol is really high (8.7 as opposed to the healthy goal of below 4) and my blood sugars indicate I may be developing pre-diabetes. I'm currently around 20kg overweight, which is nowhere near as bad as it could be.

For the past 2 years I have been undergoing treatment for the Fibro by way of Physiotherapy (clinical pilates), hydrotherapy and of course more medication. The theory was to retrain my brain into realising that it can move without pain and actively exercising my core and back but very gently. This, however, has not made any difference. We've now changed tac, and I'm now doing a lot of resistance exercise with my upper and lower body, basically now working the core and back indirectly as you need to maintain stability throughout the movements. I am feeling very confident that this method will bring some alleviation to my condition.

I have also begun intermittent fasting at the suggestion of a Dietitian, fasting for 16 hours a day and eating during the other 8 (the last hour is the hardest!). Recent studies have shown, apparently, that this has been proven to have a much more significant effect on cholesterol, blood sugars and weight reduction then a low cholesterol-low calorie diet.

Spoiler: So my goals...

Show

Maintain the intermittent fasting for the next 3 months and recheck the blood work. I'm also hoping to lose 10kg in this time.
Find the time everyday, where my pain levels are low enough to engage in the exercise plan. I'm doing roughly a 3rd of the amount that I want to do, but I'm making progress every week.
Get back into martial arts. I've started doing a little bit everyday, but it is only a little bit. I'm hoping to get the point where I can work through at least 2 of my forms.

Good luck with your goals. 10 kg in three months is a fairly quick drop but certainly doable depending on your current level of fitness and all of that. Please make sure you are eating enough that you don't just enter the starvation state and end up losing just to gain it back. That **** is heartbreaking.

[Tvtyrant]

Hey wow! This is exactly the thread I was needing (well, almost exactly. Would anybody from here be interested if I started a mental health thread, assuming I don't find one?).

First let me say, that the progress I'm reading about here is incredible and inspiring. So "congrats" to all that are making progress, a solid "you can do it!" to everyone struggling, an emphatic "I'm really impressed by your attempts/effort" to anybody who feels they haven't progressed as much as they should, and lastly a "thank you" to everyone who's posted at all- for me (really struggling) it helps a great deal!

Spoiler: On to me!

Show

A little background, I started training in martial arts when I was 5 and was always incredibly active. At the height of my physical abilities, at 16-straight out of high school, I joined the army. Reserves at first, then on to full time when I was old enough. I found I was fit enough to qualify for the special forces entrance exams. To say that I was physically capable would be a massive understatement, I was in the top of everything. I felt like I could run forever, of course the army proved to me this was not case, they have a habit of just making things harder until you hit your limit! It was great, I loved every minute of it, and I served for 6 years full time from 1998 to 2004.

Unfortunately that time period included active service overseas, in some really horrible places, doing and seeing some really horrible things. I, like many people faced with traumatic events (certainly not limited to service personnel) found myself unable to cope. I was diagnosed with PTSD and given a medical discharge.

Between the crushing depression, lack of sleep and a small pharmacies worth of medication, I spent the next 10 years or so largely inactive. My health has been steadily decreasing ever since. Whilst I have mostly recovered (or at least gotten a handle on) from the worst of my PTSD symptoms I have developed a pain condition called Fibromyalgia. Which is characterised by severe-widespread pain, particularly in my back, exhaustion and weakness. I currently find myself unable to work, and struggling physically with even the simplest of activities that require movement through the back and core (which I'm beginning to understand is pretty much everything). I've also just discovered that my cholesterol is really high (8.7 as opposed to the healthy goal of below 4) and my blood sugars indicate I may be developing pre-diabetes. I'm currently around 20kg overweight, which is nowhere near as bad as it could be.

For the past 2 years I have been undergoing treatment for the Fibro by way of Physiotherapy (clinical pilates), hydrotherapy and of course more medication. The theory was to retrain my brain into realising that it can move without pain and actively exercising my core and back but very gently. This, however, has not made any difference. We've now changed tac, and I'm now doing a lot of resistance exercise with my upper and lower body, basically now working the core and back indirectly as you need to maintain stability throughout the movements. I am feeling very confident that this method will bring some alleviation to my condition.

I have also begun intermittent fasting at the suggestion of a Dietitian, fasting for 16 hours a day and eating during the other 8 (the last hour is the hardest!). Recent studies have shown, apparently, that this has been proven to have a much more significant effect on cholesterol, blood sugars and weight reduction then a low cholesterol-low calorie diet.

Spoiler: So my goals...

Show

Maintain the intermittent fasting for the next 3 months and recheck the blood work. I'm also hoping to lose 10kg in this time.
Find the time everyday, where my pain levels are low enough to engage in the exercise plan. I'm doing roughly a 3rd of the amount that I want to do, but I'm making progress every week.
Get back into martial arts. I've started doing a little bit everyday, but it is only a little bit. I'm hoping to get the point where I can work through at least 2 of my forms.

Keep me in the loop on how the weight training aspect goes, I have a close friend who has your condition and I would like to be able to help her with it.

She wants to do fasting as well, but I worry that with FM it will lead to her eating insufficient protein and causing her to atrophy. Does your doctor see any issues with that, or is the weightlifting sufficient to prevent it? My friend doesn't exercise which is why the idea is particularly frightening to me.

[Peccavi]

Good luck with your goals. 10 kg in three months is a fairly quick drop but certainly doable depending on your current level of fitness and all of that. Please make sure you are eating enough that you don't just enter the starvation state and end up losing just to gain it back. That **** is heartbreaking.

Thanks. Yeah, I'll be careful. At the moment I'm still consuming the same calories as I was before I started the fasting (just a little under the recommended, because I'm trying to lose lose weight).

Keep me in the loop on how the weight training aspect goes, I have a close friend who has your condition and I would like to be able to help her with it.

She wants to do fasting as well, but I worry that with FM it will lead to her eating insufficient protein and causing her to atrophy. Does your doctor see any issues with that, or is the weightlifting sufficient to prevent it? My friend doesn't exercise which is why the idea is particularly frightening to me.

I will keep you updated on the weights, it's going to be slow progress (not least of which because I'm weak as a kitten!), but everything with FM is.

Proteins are really important, I have to have protein shakes to keep the levels high enough because I'm also trying to gain muscle. The dietitian seemed to be just as concerned with vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, omega-3's, and healthy fats. So I take a lot of supplements on top of a fairly balanced diet.

No, nobody is concerned with atrophy. I did bring it up with the doc, but she wasn't worried. Apparently it's a lot harder to get into into the muscle burning zone then I thought. Having said that I do still have significant body fat to burn first, it might be a different story if I had a low body-fat percentage.

[Kyrell1978]

Oh gosh! My Dad got injured coaching football a similar way, doing blocking drills as a fifty year old with teens.

I'm at the state where having not worked out for a week all my muscles are at their biggest before they begin shrinking. The next month is going to be real sad :(

You're about half way through your month off; how are things going? Have you started back early or been okayed to start back early?

[Tvtyrant]

You're about half way through your month off; how are things going? Have you started back early or been okayed to start back early?

I was a lot stiffer then I realized, my SI joint was locked on my left leg and my neck was locked in a downward position. I was essentially t-rexing, and was too swollen for the chiropractor to work on it directly. This monday my massage specialist, chiropractor and me coordinated me taking a hot bath before getting a glute massage and then get my SI joint popped.

That was very shocking to say the least, I am physically taller now then I was on Monday and much straighter. My joints have been loosened up but keep cracking, so they need to be straightened before they can do much.

I'm on track for getting back to exercise in two weeks but only isolated exercises until then and no hills. I find it very frustrating but today my back feels amazing so it is clearly working.

[Comrade]

Some sweet milestones in the past month or two: hit 4 reps at 90lbs of lawnmowers/one-arm bent-over rows, and hit 5 reps at 205lb on the bench press. Got my weight back on an upward trend and returned to my previous all-time high of 155lb, so now I'm looking forward to chugging on up to 165.

I want to try PRing again on the bench press; last time I did that was a few months ago and my PR then was 225lb, and I think I can go heavier now.

[Kyrell1978]

I was a lot stiffer then I realized, my SI joint was locked on my left leg and my neck was locked in a downward position. I was essentially t-rexing, and was too swollen for the chiropractor to work on it directly. This monday my massage specialist, chiropractor and me coordinated me taking a hot bath before getting a glute massage and then get my SI joint popped.

That was very shocking to say the least, I am physically taller now then I was on Monday and much straighter. My joints have been loosened up but keep cracking, so they need to be straightened before they can do much.

I'm on track for getting back to exercise in two weeks but only isolated exercises until then and no hills. I find it very frustrating but today my back feels amazing so it is clearly working.

Glad to hear you're getting better. I love chiropractors , especially as I get a bit older .

Some sweet milestones in the past month or two: hit 4 reps at 90lbs of lawnmowers/one-arm bent-over rows, and hit 5 reps at 205lb on the bench press. Got my weight back on an upward trend and returned to my previous all-time high of 155lb, so now I'm looking forward to chugging on up to 165.

I want to try PRing again on the bench press; last time I did that was a few months ago and my PR then was 225lb, and I think I can go heavier now.

Nice job. That's quite a bit of weight for your.....well...weight.

[Tvtyrant]

Some sweet milestones in the past month or two: hit 4 reps at 90lbs of lawnmowers/one-arm bent-over rows, and hit 5 reps at 205lb on the bench press. Got my weight back on an upward trend and returned to my previous all-time high of 155lb, so now I'm looking forward to chugging on up to 165.

I want to try PRing again on the bench press; last time I did that was a few months ago and my PR then was 225lb, and I think I can go heavier now.

Nice! Glad to hear the weight is trending upward again, you must look quite shredded now :)

Glad to hear you're getting better. I love chiropractors , especially as I get a bit older .
.

I saw a meme the other day "the only thing I miss about being young is not having back pain." I fully support that message.

[Iruka]

I saw a meme the other day "the only thing I miss about being young is not having back pain." I fully support that message.

I miss other things too, but the complete lack of back pain is definitely among them. Especially since I have a bit of a crooked spine and back then the doctors kept telling me everything was fine as long as I kept up the swim training. Guss what I stopped doing about 10 years ago ...

I was a lot stiffer then I realized, my SI joint was locked on my left leg and my neck was locked in a downward position. I was essentially t-rexing, and was too swollen for the chiropractor to work on it directly. This monday my massage specialist, chiropractor and me coordinated me taking a hot bath before getting a glute massage and then get my SI joint popped.

That was very shocking to say the least, I am physically taller now then I was on Monday and much straighter. My joints have been loosened up but keep cracking, so they need to be straightened before they can do much.

I'm on track for getting back to exercise in two weeks but only isolated exercises until then and no hills. I find it very frustrating but today my back feels amazing so it is clearly working.

Glad to hear things are improving for you!

[Comrade]

I'm on track for getting back to exercise in two weeks but only isolated exercises until then and no hills. I find it very frustrating but today my back feels amazing so it is clearly working.

Glad to hear you're back on track! Few things suck more than being banished from the gym for a long period of time by injury or illness. Getting back into the swing of it and making up for lost strength is tough.

Hit chest today and managed to get two reps of dumbbell bench press with 95lb dumbbells. Even got a little video/gif of it here. Got the weight up both times with no help but the movement wasn't as smooth as I'd like, so I plan to try again soon and really nail it. Still, felt pretty good!

(Less flatteringly here's a video of me totally bombing at a subsequent set. Word to the wise, if you're doing dumbbell press with heavy weight, make sure you really get the weight up at the start or you'll end up flailing on the bench like a lunatic.)

[Tvtyrant]

I miss other things too, but the complete lack of back pain is definitely among them. Especially since I have a bit of a crooked spine and back then the doctors kept telling me everything was fine as long as I kept up the swim training. Guss what I stopped doing about 10 years ago ...



Glad to hear things are improving for you!

I mean we are apparently the same person :p My doctor suggested swimming but my eyes don't like chlorine.

Glad to hear you're back on track! Few things suck more than being banished from the gym for a long period of time by injury or illness. Getting back into the swing of it and making up for lost strength is tough.

Hit chest today and managed to get two reps of dumbbell bench press with 95lb dumbbells. Even got a little video/gif of it here. Got the weight up both times with no help but the movement wasn't as smooth as I'd like, so I plan to try again soon and really nail it. Still, felt pretty good!

(Less flatteringly here's a video of me totally bombing at a subsequent set. Word to the wise, if you're doing dumbbell press with heavy weight, make sure you really get the weight up at the start or you'll end up flailing on the bench like a lunatic.)

Comrade I resent you and your swanky looks :/

Honestly though, looking good and you can see the hard work. The dumbbells look way harder then a barbell, I am impressed.

[tonykakkar]

My Fitness Resolution is going to a gym regularly nearby my residence.

[Kyrell1978]

So....my wife started the AthleanXX program (the one he designed for women) about a month and a half ago. It has been amazing to watch her progress thus far. That point was illustrated to me yesterday when her sister decided to stop by and just do a workout. She was dying about a quarter of the way into it and my wife was still hitting it hard. Super proud of her.

[Tvtyrant]

So....my wife started the AthleanXX program (the one he designed for women) about a month and a half ago. It has been amazing to watch her progress thus far. That point was illustrated to me yesterday when her sister decided to stop by and just do a workout. She was dying about a quarter of the way into it and my wife was still hitting it hard. Super proud of her.

Is there a major difference between the guy and girl workouts? How long are the workouts?

[Kyrell1978]

Is there a major difference between the guy and girl workouts? How long are the workouts?

I've done Xero and AX2. Xero is all bodyweight and does two str days and two conditioning days with a challenge that usually combines the two. AX2 is a weightlifting and bodyweight program that generally does the chest/tri, back/bis, leg day, and shoulder/rot. cuff, with a challenge day at the end of the week. It throws some conditioning in but not a lot. XX is all conditioning with a small amount of dumb bells and resistance bands thrown in. Her workouts are usually around 30 min or so. It seems to be a series of 10-12 workouts that are repeated in a slightly changing sequence.

[Dragonquetra]

I resolved to get down to 200 pounds in January, starting at 230. Went up a little last month, but doing well so far this month in moderating my caloric intake. Need to start exercising.

[Kyrell1978]

I resolved to get down to 200 pounds in January, starting at 230. Went up a little last month, but doing well so far this month in moderating my caloric intake. Need to start exercising.

Glad to hear it. If you need any help finding resources Tvtyrant put a pretty good list up. If you need anything feel free to ask though my experience is mostly with martial arts and the athleanx programs (I lost about a 100 lbs doing them).

[Dragonquetra]

I've been considering martial arts and/or yoga. Don't know where to start though. I'm more interested in a curvy body rather than getting muscular, although I wouldn't mind having some definition to my abs.

[Tvtyrant]

I've been considering martial arts and/or yoga. Don't know where to start though. I'm more interested in a curvy body rather than getting muscular, although I wouldn't mind having some definition to my abs.

A few things to consider:

1. If you are estrogen dominant you are unlikely to get bulky muscles unless you very deliberately train for them and/or start taking steroids. Bulky muscles require the hormone testosterone to be prevalent.

2. Body fat locations are determined by your hormones, so if you are curvy now you will likely remain curvy down to a certain percentage of body fat. If you aren't curvy naturally diet and exercise won't make you curvy.

3. Losing body fat is done most easily through gaining muscle. When losing weight your body tends to strip resources from sources equally, so your body composition doesn't change much while losing weight but does while gaining weight or maintaining a stable one. The easiest way to lose body fat as a percentage is to put on muscle first while staying the same weight, which is called recomposition. Then you drop weight, losing some of both fat and muscle but staying the same ratio as when you were heavier.

If you are starting from a position of being very obese like I was this is less applicable, and you are better off dropping weight first.

4. From my experience avoiding injury while losing weight and building a core is the most important thing to do first, as I was very out of shape and injuring myself was easy. Starting with something like yoga/low impact cardio + 10,000 steps/swimming laps and working up to martial arts and weight lifting is the way to go. Being out of shape makes injuries likely, and those can scare you off or set you back in a cycle.

5. In negation of point four, make sure you enjoy what you are doing or you will find it hard to keep doing it. If that means jumping into judo/kickboxing and getting hurt it is better then quitting out of boredom. There is a fine line there.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask them.

Edit: I am not an expert, I just spend a lot of time looking at information online and have the personal experience of losing a lot of weight in the last few years and getting into shape.

I've done Xero and AX2. Xero is all bodyweight and does two str days and two conditioning days with a challenge that usually combines the two. AX2 is a weightlifting and bodyweight program that generally does the chest/tri, back/bis, leg day, and shoulder/rot. cuff, with a challenge day at the end of the week. It throws some conditioning in but not a lot. XX is all conditioning with a small amount of dumb bells and resistance bands thrown in. Her workouts are usually around 30 min or so. It seems to be a series of 10-12 workouts that are repeated in a slightly changing sequence.

One of the things I notice watching Athlean X routines online is how many isolation exercises he promotes, which seems at odds with the "no more then 50 minutes" rule for weight lifting. The exercises being about 30 minutes makes sense from the latter position, I might look into purchasing a plan then.

[razorback]

5. In negation of point four, make sure you enjoy what you are doing or you will find it hard to keep doing it. If that means jumping into judo/kickboxing and getting hurt it is better then quitting out of boredom. There is a fine line there.

As a martial arts instructor, I respectfully disagree. I would rather people would quite (for whatever reason) rather than seriously hurt/injure themselves or others. If your rolling and pushing too hard and/or out of your depth can lead to blown joints or worse. If your striking, this can be anything from pulled muscles/ligments/tendons, blown out joints or brain damage. Obviously, this is towards the extreme but newbies and/or young men, in general, tend to push harder than is either good for them or their partner and this is where we see the most injuries.
As you said, there is a line between working techniques so they are effective and reflexive vs. one that push you beyond your abilities and injury. Good instruction and forethought go a long way.

[Tvtyrant]

As a martial arts instructor, I respectfully disagree. I would rather people would quite (for whatever reason) rather than seriously hurt/injure themselves or others. If your rolling and pushing too hard and/or out of your depth can lead to blown joints or worse. If your striking, this can be anything from pulled muscles/ligments/tendons, blown out joints or brain damage. Obviously, this is towards the extreme but newbies and/or young men, in general, tend to push harder than is either good for them or their partner and this is where we see the most injuries.
As you said, there is a line between working techniques so they are effective and reflexive vs. one that push you beyond your abilities and injury. Good instruction and forethought go a long way.

I appreciate your point of view. I mangled my right shoulder doing Judo when I was younger and acknowledge the risks are there.

My larger argument was that you should try to get into exercise slowly and build up to high impact stuff like martial arts. The issue is motivation until that point; if the options are not exercising at all and doing a martial art too early I think the latter is a more acceptable risk.

[Kyrell1978]

I've been considering martial arts and/or yoga. Don't know where to start though. I'm more interested in a curvy body rather than getting muscular, although I wouldn't mind having some definition to my abs.

If you are doing it for fitness and not learning how to defend yourself I would suggest taking a Karate or Tae Kwon Do class to start. They are generally a bit easier on the body than say Judo or Jui Jitsu. If you are looking to be able to win a fight I'd go with grappling first then striking. Abs are 100 percent made in the kitchen. You can do exercises to make your abs "pop" a little more but generally the "six pack" (or four or eight pack depending on genetics) starts to be visible around 12-15 percent body fat and gets more defined from there.

A few things to consider:

One of the things I notice watching Athlean X routines online is how many isolation exercises he promotes, which seems at odds with the "no more then 50 minutes" rule for weight lifting. The exercises being about 30 minutes makes sense from the latter position, I might look into purchasing a plan then.

I think they are super worth it. There is usually an option to get 3 months access or lifetime (not for XX though). I picked the lifetime on both of these programs. I am doing ax2 right now and am going to repeat Xero afterwards to keep things mixed up. Most people start with AX1 though. I'm weird and started with Xero since I didn't have the equipment at the time.

[razorback]

I appreciate your point of view. I mangled my right shoulder doing Judo when I was younger and acknowledge the risks are there.

My larger argument was that you should try to get into exercise slowly and build up to high impact stuff like martial arts. The issue is motivation until that point; if the options are not exercising at all and doing a martial art too early I think the latter is a more acceptable risk.

Agreed, if taken intelligently.

[Astral Avenger]

Just discovered this thread, I love the encouraging vibes.

I'm registered for a canoe-bike-run triathlon in May, I got second last year and want to take Brian of the top spot of the podium that he's apparently been on for the last 6ish years (I may not be remembering his name correctly, I don't know the guy). Assuming he is in similar shape to last year, I need to work on my running leg more than the other two. Tentative goal is sub 1-hour paddle (depends on water levels though), sub 23 minute bike and sub 20 minute run (bonus goal is sub 16 run).

If anyone wants, I have a workout generator that I put together to help avoid the monotony and could post a few workouts.

[Dragonquetra]

If you are doing it for fitness and not learning how to defend yourself I would suggest taking a Karate or Tae Kwon Do class to start. They are generally a bit easier on the body than say Judo or Jui Jitsu. If you are looking to be able to win a fight I'd go with grappling first then striking.

I want to do it for fitness and to defend myself.

Abs are 100 percent made in the kitchen. You can do exercises to make your abs "pop" a little more but generally the "six pack" (or four or eight pack depending on genetics) starts to be visible around 12-15 percent body fat and gets more defined from there.

What exercises are good for developing the abs?

[razorback]

I want to do it for fitness and to defend myself.

I would suggest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

[Dragonquetra]

I would suggest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

How can I learn that?

[Kyrell1978]

I want to do it for fitness and to defend myself.

What exercises are good for developing the abs?

There are a lot depending on level of fitness. Planks, sit ups, crunches. leg lifts. All of those work different parts of your abs. Here is an awesome one as an example. That's what is great about Jeff Cavaliere....he puts enough stuff on Youtube that you don't actually need a program. The programs just package it all together to make it optimally effective.

I would suggest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

BJJ is good stuff though I've never taken it. I did Shingitai Juijitsu.

How can I learn that?

Depending on where you live it can be as simple as looking up "BJJ classes near me" on google and then going there. If there aren't any in your area Gracie University is available online. It's not what I would suggest and you will still need at least one partner to get anything out of it but it is a place to start for a beginner that doesn't have access to a school.

[Dragonquetra]

Thanks Kyrell! ♥