Fitness 2015

[Barrister]

This is true - the hiking isn't very hard, but it is done with a 50lb backpack.

There was discussion of this in this thread back in early january, but you were insisting the backpack would be light. 50 pounds is not light!

There definitely needs to be a combination of strength and cardio. A 50 pound backpack is going to make any hiking tough. Not discounting the need for strength, especially core, but a dude I know when with a group on a hike in Nepal (with 50-60 pound backpacks). A body builder also signed up, and ended up being helicoptered out just a couple days in. Cardio is important.

I"m quite positive I never said 50lb was light!!!  Like I said, I have done this before, so I know what I'm getting into.  It's just that was awhile ago and I need to be in better shape to do it now.

That's why I figure cardio is important (plus, running is about the only exercise I've ever even moderately enjoyed doing), but I'm open to adding other exercises into it.

[alfred russel]

Otto set out a good program a number of pages ago iirc.

Basically the theory is that the resistance training acts a multiplier to the cardio training.  Even if you don't have access to weights, even if you did squats with your own bodyweight you will still get some benefit.  If all you do is cardio then your muscles are not being worked and the conditioning benefit only lasts for as long as you are running.  When you work in resistance training you keep accruing benefits for a long time after you stop exercising.

Besides when you are hiking you are going to be carrying a lot more weight then when you are just running.  If you haven't developed the muscle strength and endurance to deal with that then the straight cardio training isn't going to help much.

God bless Otto, but I don't think his program was sound for what I was getting ready to do. A lot of the top mountaineers are getting in 50-60 miles of trail running a week (or more). They do weight training of course, but it is limited compared to running and they certainly don't look like body builders.

I came with a specific question regarding cycling as substitute cardio and whether that could substitute for some quad strength training, and Otto recommends a new training program drastically reducing running. Reducing distance running was contrary to what the guides were advising and not consistent with what others I know did. I think it would have gotten me in trouble.

[alfred russel]

I"m quite positive I never said 50lb was light!!!  Like I said, I have done this before, so I know what I'm getting into.  It's just that was awhile ago and I need to be in better shape to do it now.

That's why I figure cardio is important (plus, running is about the only exercise I've ever even moderately enjoyed doing), but I'm open to adding other exercises into it.

Without re reading everything from 2 months ago, I was left with the impression you would have a light load. I guess I was wrong. 

As I mentioned, squats are standard, but Ive used step up exercises as a substitute. I just put on a rucksack with a weight inside (50 pounds may be a good idea), and just step up and down on a chair.

[Malthus]

After the past two shitty months, I'm as pale and flabby as the Pillsbury Dough Boy. 

It has been too damn cold to do much outdoors - normally, I'd be cross-country skiing, but with the windchill often around -25, that's more chore than recreation.

At least I've been doing some weights at the gym.

[crazy canuck]

Otto set out a good program a number of pages ago iirc.

Basically the theory is that the resistance training acts a multiplier to the cardio training.  Even if you don't have access to weights, even if you did squats with your own bodyweight you will still get some benefit.  If all you do is cardio then your muscles are not being worked and the conditioning benefit only lasts for as long as you are running.  When you work in resistance training you keep accruing benefits for a long time after you stop exercising.

Besides when you are hiking you are going to be carrying a lot more weight then when you are just running.  If you haven't developed the muscle strength and endurance to deal with that then the straight cardio training isn't going to help much.

God bless Otto, but I don't think his program was sound for what I was getting ready to do. A lot of the top mountaineers are getting in 50-60 miles of trail running a week (or more). They do weight training of course, but it is limited compared to running and they certainly don't look like body builders.

I came with a specific question regarding cycling as substitute cardio and whether that could substitute for some quad strength training, and Otto recommends a new training program drastically reducing running. Reducing distance running was contrary to what the guides were advising and not consistent with what others I know did. I think it would have gotten me in trouble.

Ok, but I still think Otto is correct. 

[Caliga]

Had a physical yesterday morning.

Vitals:

blood pressure 110/64
pulse 77
SpO2 97%

I appear to be shrinking though as she measured my height and insisted it was 5' 11".

glucose 89
cholesterol 126

I guess those numbers are ok.  At one point when I was a kid my dad got a cholesterol score back of over 400.  He was forced to permanently give up liverwurst 

[mongers]

Had a physical yesterday morning.

Vitals:

blood pressure 110/64
pulse 77
SpO2 97%

I appear to be shrinking though as she measured my height and insisted it was 5' 11".

glucose 89
cholesterol 126

I guess those numbers are ok.  At one point when I was a kid my dad got a cholesterol score back of over 400.  He was forced to permanently give up liverwurst 

To me it seems non-Brits often take a more scientific approach to health and fitness; I really have no idea what most of those numbers are, other than pulse. 

[Caliga]

To me it seems non-Brits often take a more scientific approach to health and fitness

Or could it just be that your national healthcare system kind of sucks?

[crazy canuck]

To me it seems non-Brits often take a more scientific approach to health and fitness

Or could it just be that your national healthcare system kind of sucks?

Wouldn't it make more sense that the people who can more readily depend on their health care system need not be as obsessive about the metrics of their health.

Yes, I worked in the word metric 

[jimmy olsen]

You should all feel ashamed of yourselves! 

watch the video here
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/150310/watch-95-year-old-badass-destroy-the-200m-sprint-world-record

Watch this 95-year-old badass destroy the 200m sprint world record
Charles Eugster is a retired British dentist. He's also apparently a superhero.

His name is Dr. Charles Eugster but you should probably just call him BEAST MODE.

Eugster, a 95-year-old retired British dentist, just crushed the indoor 200-meter sprint world record in his age group at the British Masters Athletics meeting in London this past weekend. He finished in 55.48 seconds, improving on the previous record, set by American Orville Rogers in March 2013, by 2.4 seconds.

Born in London in 1919, Eugster now lives in Switzerland and didn't start working out consistently until he was 85.

"I looked in the mirror one morning," he told the Telegraph in 2013, "and I didn't like what I saw."

Like a lot of people who look in the mirror and don't like what they see, Eugster started working out. Unlike most people, though, he transformed himself into one of the fittest nonagenarians on Earth.

When he's not breaking running records like a complete boss, he's a competive rower and bodybuilder, and advocates for improving physical fitness for people over the ages of 65.

Here's the video. It'll either inspire you or make you feel terrible about yourself.

[mongers]

Did a quick 30 miles yesterday afternoon to see a man about a dog. Slow, slowly getting into some form of fitness.

[Liep]

I've been very lazy for the past 2 weeks and with the weather this nice I've been feeling more guilty than usual about being lazy.

[mongers]

I've been very lazy for the past 2 weeks and with the weather this nice I've been feeling more guilty than usual about being lazy.

I'll have an lazy day today, as I'm a bit tired after yesterday, using a aluminium framed mainly road hybrid for quite a bit of off-road wasn't ideal.

[Caliga]

Yes, I worked in the word metric 

Hey on that point we can agree.  It's absurd that we aren't using the metric system here.

[mongers]

Yes, I worked in the word metric 

Hey on that point we can agree.  It's absurd that we aren't using the metric system here.

I largely agree with both of you, but when I'm doing say 32 kmph on my bike, I don't 'know' how fast that is, I guess it's getting on for 20 mph, but I don't have the certainty that I'm doing 18.5 mph and so need to speed up or slow down a bit depending on my schedule and how much I have remaining in the tank.


edit:
see, 32kmph is actually 19.88 mph, so that would significantly put my pacing out, which thinking about it, was probably what happened yesterday, I went too fast on a couple of roads/routes for what I was intending to do.