Making the most out of each exercise session

[Kate Abernethy]

 

My goal is to sleep well for once in my life. 

 

For that, assuming other conducive factors (e.g. quiet place to sleep etc), you need to be both physically and mentally tired at the end of the day.

 

If I've understood correctly, you hate exercising. How about doing a physical/active job (bricklaying/ plastering/ etc etc), so you're exercising without noticing it?

[Christian Nogueira]

If exercising is that big a deal I second the suggestion to take up a sport, as your trouble seems to be mostly in motivation. 

[mememe123]

 

Good idea, but I don't have the time. and I started this thread because one of my problems is that I don't feel physically tired enough after the workout.

 

 

 

Tried martial arts once. didn't last 10 minutes of a 1-hour class. It was very humiliating, and basically the reason I'd rather work out at home for now.

 

 

I'll bite. The single best preworkot that I have found is caffeine. It's so effective it was actually a banned substance by the IOC for a while.

 

Really? I thought that if it had any effect, it would be small. Coffee it is! thanks

[Joseff Lea]

Maybe you should try sports with a slight element of danger, mountain biking, climbing because they do force you to concentrate, plus you do get a good kick of the old adrenaline  

 

My goal is to sleep well for once in my life.

I don't know if exercise is the way to go here necessarily, it can help but is certainly not mandatory.
Make sure where you're sleeping is dark and quiet and at a nice comfortable temperature

Make sure your mattress is nice and comfy

Do not do anything too stimulating immediately before going to bed, this includes TV.
Have a ritual (e.g 10pm go get changed for bed, brush teeth etc, read book for 30 mins, lights out to sleep at 10:30) this helps prepare your mind for sleep and is VERY important imo. 

No caffeine after 6pm, no eating after 8pm, make sure you're hydrated
Try to sleep with the hours of darkness, for me at least it seems that sleeping 8 hours 10pm to 6am is much better and restful sleep than sleeping 3am to 11am
Wake up and go to sleep at a set time, this is very important also, it's all about routine!
The better your diet the better you will sleep, some people find alcohol helps, I find it helps with getting to sleep but that I sleep less well

Hope that is of some help, above all routine is the big thing!

[mememe123]

 

interesting suggestion about the danger thing. climbing is a possibility.

and about the sleep, except for the "no eating after 8", I follow all these. I've already done quite a bit of research on the subject, believe me.

 

Alcohol is a bad idea. it makes you sleepy at first, but the quality of the sleep becomes much worse.

[Connor Davies]

If you want better sleep, you need to be tired.  This means you need to trend towards endurance rather than strength based work.  You'll sleep better after running a marathon than you will after setting a deadlift PR.

 

That being said, I can understand where you're coming from with the 10 minutes thing.  Back when I first started I started small, with just a set of pushups here and there and things like that.  Just remember that while 10 minutes might be your starting point, you will eventually have to build the work capacity to go beyond this in the future.  Realistically speaking, you should most always be working out for less than an hour unless you're doing specific skill training, so you don't have that much further to go.  Just take your time and build up slowly.

 

Alternatively to starting with low volume and building slowly is to start with low intensity and build slowly.  But really, that's what we've been advocating from the start.  Either will work, as long as you're sensible about it.  But you will need a balanced program with proper progressions either way.

 

I'll second the coffee advice.  It's the greatest performance enhancing drug known to man.

[Rob Kowalski]

Sleep: One thing I found helps a lot is a Magnesium and Calcium supplement.  Look them up on google to find all the info/support for taking them for sleep.

 

Energy: Vitamin D is very important for keeping your energy levels up.  I'm not sure where you live, but where I am the days get really short in the winter and everyone here should be supplementing during the winter.

 

Stress: Vitamin C and vitamin E are known to reduce the stress hormone cortisol.  I noticed a change once I started supplementing vitamin C.  High cortisol levels present themselves in love handles (flabby sides).

 

Mood: I'm not going to assume you have issues with this, but just in case you do, I'll give some info on it.  Zinc will inhibit the enzyme aromatase from turning testosterone into estrogen.  High estrogen levels present themselves in man boobs, and will make men more moody/irritable/emotional (more than what's healthy).  Along with this, vitamin B will help raise testosterone levels (only if you're deficient, it won't raise them past normal).  I wouldn't consider myself to have problems with this, but I've noticed that when I start to get irritable (from lack of sleep, stress at work, relationship problems) if I start supplementing vitamin B, C, and Zinc I start feeling a lot better.

 

Focus: Have you ever tried a pre-workout supplement?  They will get you fired up and focused like you wouldn't believe.  May not be right for gymnastics training, but when lifting weights I've noticed a difference.  I'm sensitive to caffeine though, so too much makes me jittery.  So use with caution.  I've also found BCAAs (branched chain amino acids) help you give that extra effort. They're expensive in supplement form though, so I've only used sample packs.

 

Ideally you would get all of this from eating a healthy diet, but it's not always possible in today's world.  The best thing I can suggest is to get in tune with your body, and discover what has effect and what doesn't, and go from there.

 

Another tip I will give, if half an hour seems too long (which can be the case if you're busy, not just lack focus) is to spread it out over the course of the day, with more of a 'grease the groove' type of approach.  I read about a guy who put a pull up bar in his kitchen, and every time he went to get a drink he'd do as many pullups as he could.  Within a few weeks he was doing 20+ with strict, controlled, form with ease.  I did something similar, and I really noticed a difference.  Who doesn't have time to do a few pullups here and there?

[mememe123]

Just remember that while 10 minutes might be your starting point, you will eventually have to build the work capacity to go beyond this in the future.

After my past failures, I decided this time that my first focus is making exercising a habit. Haven't thought much about what comes after that. But from everything that's been said here, I understand that short exercises won't be enough If I want progress.

 

But like i've said, first goal is making it a habit, so it doesn't matter much if what i'm doing isn't very effective. I'll get 30 minutes eventually I guess. That being said, I'll probably always prefer to make the workout as short as possible while getting as much progress as possible without making it too dangerous (from the description given here, crossfitting sounds incredibly dangerous...)

[Kevin Conley]

I am most definitely not assuming I know better than him, or anyone else in this forum for that matter. I'm just saying, I'd rather risk injury than do the easier, longer exercises.

I don't need any specific exercises (unless there is some kind of exercise designed specifically for someone with very little energy and poor sleep quality)

 

I think I might enjoy learning some martial arts, but I couldn't survive 10 minutes of a one-hour class. I also like sprinting, but not the stress fractures which always seem to come back when I start running again (I have recently started using minimalist shoes and reading about how to run correctly with these. Right now i'm only walking, but hopefully, within a few months I can start running and then sprinting)

 

And when it comes to quitting, I've tried the regular exercises and I've quit many times, because, as I've mentioned, I just can't stand them. In my experience, I've managed to hold on much longer when doing high-intensity exercises

 

I have to ask, why does everyone say it will eventually cause injury? is it not possible to do high-intensity exercises properly with the same risk as that of regular exercises?

 

 

Well, thank you for pointing me to the sticky - i'll go look for it right now (and I'll google "contrast baths" too)

 

one of my problems that I don't even come close to burning myself out. I feel perfectly normal after the exercises - about an hour after i'm done, my muscles fell almost as if I didn't do any exercise, even though when I work out, I do it until I feel I can't anymore.

Team stuff just makes me feel very uncomfortable and all I want is to get out of there. I've worked very hard to be able to get myself to stick to the exercise even though I hate it. and what I'm currently doing is, as far as i'm concerned, the easiest for me to stick to.

Obviously a troll lol.

[Coach Sommer]

Obviously a troll lol.

 

I agree.  Let's move on.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Rob Frase]

and what i'm hoping to achieve is to have more energy and not to feel weak and exhausted all the time.

 

Here's what you need to focus on, irrespective of the type of exercise you choose to do:

 

1) Eat well. Read the perfect nutrition thread for a good place to start.

2) Sleep well. Aim for 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night.

3) Lift heavy things a couple times per week. It doesn't matter if it's lifting weights or decreasing leverage on body-weight exercises, but a progressive, periodized structure is important.

4) Sprint once or twice a week.

5) Move around a lot at a slow pace. This means walk a lot every day.

 

:EDIT: Sorry, didn't see the "move on" post...moving on.