Treadmill--uhhggg

Lol. I had no idea this thread had diverted into a workout thread. I was checking to see if his treadmill had turned into a coat rack like other said early on

In the last couple years I've gotten more into Obstacle Course Racing and trail running. I usually do 1 Tough Mudder a year, 2-3 Spartan races, 2-3 trail 10Ks, and maybe a couple 5Ks. I've been on a solid workout regimen for about 10-11 months now. And a better diet for about 6-7 months.

I've always been kind of "skinny fat". Not really overweight, but not in shape with a small beer gut. I'm 6'0", When I started working out last March, I was around 190lbs, 10min track mile, 12min trail mile, poor endurance, and poor strength overall. My biggest wake up call was when I did the Spartan PA Super race last July. 8-9mile course that absolutely destroyed me. Took me 4hr:20min (the hills are no joke) to complete, and I was in "ok" shape at that point. It was good enough for top 20% of finishers, but to put it into perspective, the guy who won... Did it in 1hr:38min...

From then on, I got a lot more serious with my training and started slowly cutting crap out of my diet. I cut out alcohol a lot and started eating more straight up meat and a lot of veggies. I'm not perfect, I don't count calories or do macros or any of that shit, I just try to make better food decisions with a cheat every now and then.

My workouts are mostly HIIT type. With some running speed work and strength-endurance and endurance built in. Lots of heart rate based stuff. I mainly follow the Spartan Race WOD that they post on their website every week. I'd say I workout maybe 4-5x/week. Signed up for a cheap $10/mo gym so I don't be lazy over the winter, and usually workout outside, track, trails when it's nice out. Running, pull ups, some variation of body weight squats, and burpees are probably 95% of what I do lol. I've recently added workouts from a OCR athlete trainer, and I go rock climbing with my friend every couple weeks to work on grip strength/endurance.

Currently I'm down to about 170-172lbs, lost 2-3" off my waist, noticeable muscle increase, noticeable endurance increase (I've had several 10+ mile runs), fat % down around ~15% (guessing really, I can see my top 4 ab muscles, couldn't before) trail mile down to about 7:30-8min, track mile down to about 6-6:30min. I pulled out a 24min trail 5K last October that I felt really good about.

My goals are different than a lot of you guys. I don't really care about how much I can lift. I just want to be able to run for a long time and run up a lot of hills.

Glad to see you guys all working hard. It bothers the hell out of me seeing 75% of the people in the gym just lazily doing whatever, not even breaking a sweat, hogging equipment, talking on the phone, reading a book, etc.

true story about machine hogs

there's these 2 girls that come in every night. a good deuce and half a piece. they ride the bike on 0 resistance for about 10 min and then leave. Like, do you honestly think you are doing anything besides wasting your time? lol

My goal is not how much i can lift...
my goal is to be heatlhy

Just weighed myself. Down to about 167/168. Damn lol. Don't think I've been this light since high school/early college (I'm 30)

Current goal is to work on my endurance and hill climbs. Half marathon Trail run April 23rd, then a Spartan Beast (13-15mi) in NJ April 30th.

Id like to be around 2hrs for the half marathon, and under 6hrs for the Spartan beast, but I'm just guessing on the Beast, I really don't know what to expect lol.

I guess it did kind of turn into work out thread. No the treadmill is used every single week. My wife really likes to run so it was really for her. But I have put it to plenty of use.

I can care less about how much I can lift and I don't really care about how much I weigh in reality.....my goal is to change my body so that I am happy...I was originally obsessed with getting down to 180lbs but I need to stop focusing on weight loss and more focus more on body change..if I can be 206lbs with 10% body fat, so be it.

10% body fat is near pro athlete levels. It's incredibly hard to obtain without A) a shitload of work or B) amazing genetics.

Yeah I just looked it up, 10% is lower than I thought it was.

From the pics I saw, 13-15% is a better representation of where I'm currently at.

I don't think 10% is as crazy as you make it seem though. It's more about diet than work.

So since I couldn't care less about football. I decided to go to the gym during the super bowl knowing that it would be dead. At one point I was the only one in there lol.

45 min run @ aerobic pace
Set the treadmill to random incline, it varied from 0-4%
5.73 miles, 7:51 avg pace
Avg HR 164

45 min climb at 15% incline
Intervals of:
4min @ aerobic pace
1min @ tempo pace
2.83 miles, 2200+ ft of vertical climb
Avg HR 163, Max HR 180

Did a few sets of low rows and pull-ups

Finished off with a 20 min cool down run @ 2.5% incline.
2.25 miles.
Avg HR 157

*aerobic pace is 75-85% of max HR
*tempo pace is 85-90% of max HR

180 is insane. i hit 170 and im dropping dead

my Maximum HR is somewhere around 190, but i've seen slightly higher when really pushing myself.

In general, max HR will decrease with age. but it really varies depending fitness level, and how much suffering you can endure.

one of the Spartan Pro Athletes that I follow (Matt Novakovich) is 41, and I've seen him push his HR over 200 doing hill climbs at 40% grade and 3mph lol.

i target 150-155. if i hit 160 i'm just not efficient. I feel like i'm going to die and i'm actually slower.
at 150 i get a solid sweat on and it's sustainable for the long term

Yeah about 155-165 is my target for sustainability. But I usually let it creep up as high as 170 if I'm not too uncomfortable.

There's good merit for pushing yourself beyond that past your lactate threshold (usually HR 90+% of max) to build your tolerance. You do that in short intervals of work and rest. Like 2min on, 3 min off kind of thing. For 5+ sets.

When I did my last 5k back in November, I sustained my HR over 180 for a good portion of the race. Pushing myself to beat my brother lol.




It was uncomfortable and fast. I couldn't have gone much longer at that HR though.

what happens if it goes to fast? do you pass out? have a heart attack and die?

If you have heart problems already probably. i mean some people over exert themselves shoveling snow and have heart attacks. but that's usually elderly people or people with heart problems already.

Your body generally knows what it can handle. When you start getting close to your max HR, your brain makes you feel like utter shit to get you to stop. you can ignore it to a certain extent and keep going if you have the drive/willpower/grit for it.

when i'm really pushing, especially on intervals, i can get a slight light headed feeling, almost zombie like, and struggling to breath, but it's what you have to do. I know my body pretty well at this point, i know when i HAVE to stop, or when i can afford to suffer a little bit.

GSRCRXsi said:

Yeah I just looked it up, 10% is lower than I thought it was.

From the pics I saw, 13-15% is a better representation of where I'm currently at.

I don't think 10% is as crazy as you make it seem though. It's more about diet than work.

Click to expand...

no really, 10% is incredibly difficult. lol

NCAA testing with 2006-2013 NFL combine testing.

http://www.ncaa.org/health-and-safe...itute/body-composition-what-are-athletes-made

I think what you don't get is that body fat % is not an indicator of skill.

Yes being a pro athlete is hard. Not everyone can do it. But that's because not everyone has the required skills, not that they couldn't get their BF% low enough... How many pro football defensive players are straight up obese from a BF standpoint?

And yet thousands, maybe millions, of people (men) into body building are achieving <10% by diet and cutting. But they can't play a sport at a pro level.

Genetics and willpower/self control are a huge factor.
Last tax season (May measurements) I cut down to 160 ish pounds and about 12% based on 7 point caliper measurements. (Feb 2015 I was in the 14% range)
Lots of clean eating, lifting at least 2x a week, and walking or running.
2015 Summer into fall i was in the 164 range through october, then went on a dirty bulk for winter, hit 177ish. Now on the way back down again.
10% or under would be very hard for me to achieve, and almost impossible to maintain.
I can put on weight incredibly easy.

GSRCRXsi said:

I think what you don't get is that body fat % is not an indicator of skill.

Yes being a pro athlete is hard. Not everyone can do it. But that's because not everyone has the required skills, not that they couldn't get their BF% low enough... How many pro football defensive players are straight up obese from a BF standpoint?

And yet thousands, maybe millions, of people (men) into body building are achieving <10% by diet and cutting. But they can't play a sport at a pro level.

Click to expand...

No no no, i'm just saying that people with 10% bodyfat or less are peak athletes as far as fitness is concerned, not just skills. All I'm saying to to be that lean, and not just skin and bones, you have to to work out a LOT, and have great diet. You have to have a considerable amount of muscle to reach that lean of body weight, unless you just have stellar genetics.

yean 10% body fat is hard as fuck ...I was just given an example lol.....I highly doubt I will ever be at 10% body fat...that takes a special kind of discipline with eating in which I will never have...i'd be happy with 15-17%.

get_nick said:

No no no, i'm just saying that people with 10% bodyfat or less are peak athletes as far as fitness is concerned, not just skills. All I'm saying to to be that lean, and not just skin and bones, you have to to work out a LOT, and have great diet. You have to have a considerable amount of muscle to reach that lean of body weight, unless you just have stellar genetics.

Click to expand...

i'll agree to disagree i guess.

i don't consider someone to be a "peak athlete" JUST BECAUSE they have a low body fat %. i'll reference body builders again, you see very low BF numbers in a lot of them because that is their specific goal. yes they may have 3-4% BF, but that in itself does not make them a "peak athlete" in my mind. Being a true athlete to me requires a lot more than the presence of muscle and the absence of fat. skill, and other physical attributes like flexibility, dexterity, cardiovascular all play a very large roll in being defined as an "athlete".

i'll stand by my assertion that hitting the 10% number is relatively achievable by most people with the required exercise and diet (mostly diet). I'm not in any way saying that it's EASY, just that it's not a unicorn. my main point was that it's more related to a very strict diet than spending 8 billion hrs in the gym.

now for values less than 10%, i'd agree and say it gets exponentially harder and unsustainable.

also keep in mind (and you're probably aware) that what i'm saying is in regards to males only. as BF% for women is higher.

Big Country is a fat fuck (30%?) and is a solid contender in the ring.

I'd be happy with 20% BF to be honest. lol i'm probably 25%