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Stop Making Excuses
"I have six [to] eight years of trial-and-error evidence to show that I am incapable of building strength to any measurable degree from any form of exercise."
Either you have a serious medical issue or I call bullshit. I bet the reason you're not getting results is that you "have [never] been satisfied with results from any workout ...
28
Ok... for your situation, unless you're good at doing things cold turkey, read on...
Forget weight training (and definitely squats) for the moment. At 400lbs, your body weight is doing plenty for your legs and body as you move around.
First thing is changing what you eat. It's easy to say eat veggies, oatmeal, etc., but that's a difficult change for ...
23
Supplements
Muscle Core X won't do any good. I don't know what's in it, and it doesn't matter. It could be anabolic steroids mixed with cocaine and it wouldn't make much of a difference for you, because what you need cannot be distilled into a powder.
For someone just starting to work out, no supplement will do much good. Powders and shakes are well-...
18
Diet - Unless you get your diet under control, exercise alone will not make enough of a difference on its own. Craig Ballantyne does a great diet versus exercise video that will stick in your mind when you are considering calories going in and just how hard it is to work them off with exercise.
The best resource for a specific diet for you is to meet with ...
17
We get a lot of this type of question: "we know X, but can we scientifically prove X?" The answer, almost invariably in the field of strength training, is no.
Science is dead; long live science
There's an enormous number of variables in strength training: nutrition, hormones, time of year, mood, prior training, genetics, exercise selection, proper form, ...
15
There is a common saying that abs are made in the kitchen. Having a strong core and abdominal muscles is not enough to get "six-pack" or "washboard" abs, because there will likely be a large layer of fat over the abdominal region. In fact, you aren't able to really see six-pack abs until you are in the 8-15% range of Body Fat Percentage.
Furthermore, the ...
15
Being able to touch the toes depends mainly on two things:
hamstring flexibility
body proportions (relative length of legs, torso, and arms)
It is not possible to change body proportions, so, to reach the toes, someone with longer legs and shorter torso/arms will need to have more flexibility in the hamstrings. It is possible for anyone to reach that level ...
14
You're 15, you still have several years of development left. There's no magical panacea that will suddenly give you a few inches of height, platform shoes or heels not withstanding.
Height is determined by genetics, primarily. However, maintaining a healthy diet, low in processed foods, and keeping yourself fit and active will allow your body to grow to it'...
13
The problem with body weight exercises
In the world of free weights, you have something called a one-rep max (ORM) which defines the maximum amount of weight you can lift at your current level of strength. Using the ORM you can calculate the intensity of any workout with a simple formula, which if I recall correctly is (reps * weight) / orm. What's ...
13
Whenever we start something, we may find it boring.
So, I would suggest you for a change of mind, i.e., try different sports.
Running is good for you at this stage. You said you are unable to run continuously for more than 5 minutes. If I were you, I would rather follow the run/walk strategy. Run for 2 or 3 mins and walk for 1 min and continue this for some ...
12
You've got your work cut out for you.
Here's What You are Competing With
There's a concept called "gamification" which is really what social oriented sites use to keep people addicted. This site uses the concept:
You have a reputation score
That rep is improved or detracted by the voting process (up or down)
You can get badges for extraordinary events (...
12
Great question! As you probably expect, to get the results you're looking for, you'll need to do some work. 20 lbs is a lot of weight to gain, but it's an attainable goal! It's probably not what you want to hear, but in your first year, you shouldn't expect to put on more than 10 lbs of healthy weight. You'll need to be patient!
A great way to get ...
12
The most important thing with getting people started lifting is to help them to like lifting. The worst thing you can do is to overwhelm them with details. The dirty little secret for newbies is they can do just about anything and make some relatively quick increases (with few exceptions). That means it matter less what they do and more that they do ...
11
First of all, you must change your diet. Eating fast food all the time is bad for you in multiple ways, including your pocketbook. Switch to unprocessed food as much as possible. Regular oatmeal in the morning as opposed to quick oatmeal or cold cereal is much better for you and doesn't take more than a few minutes to prepare. Add some cinnamon, nutmeg ...
11
The answer is going to be pretty much the same for all three sports, in that you need to do a fitness/threshold test, and then use that to compute training paces.
For swimming, I recommend the 3x300. Warm up completely, then you swim 3 different 300 meter swims, with :30 seconds rest in between. You want to try to keep them as close in time as possible, ...
11
I'm a fan of the following progression(1), which is the simplest I've seen that hits all the major movements (press, pull, squat, hinge). The beauty of the workout is that each exercise warms up the next one. It goes like so, adding weight to the bar both between and within each step:
Clean and press the bar. (You can front squat it--before or after the ...
11
After scouring the web for resources on the subject, I have come to the following conclusions:
High intensity interval training ("HIIT") programs are typically defined by a 2:1 ratio of work to rest/recovery periods, with anywhere from 4 to 10 cycles of work/rest, for a total workout session between 4-15 minutes depending on its structure ([source]).
An ...
11
Optimal Jump Training Without Restrictions
"Arioch" recommends squats, plyometrics, and speed work with submaximal weights to improve jumping height:
An athlete wishing to improve his vertical jump should not only squat, but perform a variety of assistance work specific to both improving squatting strength as well as specifically improving jumping skill. ...
11
Don'ts
The biggest mistake people make when learning to flip, is that they try to flip into pools and onto mattresses.
This is a mistake because it doesn't prepare you for the inevitable challenge of having to spot your landing. And it takes away the need to really cushion the landing with your legs. And this needs to be practiced.
Dos
Trampolines is a ...
10
Here's something most people don't know: when people say that 1 pound of fat is 3500 calories, that's not actually true. Or rather, it's not the whole truth.
You see, 1 pound of fat is 3500 calories only in an oven. That's how we determine how many calories are in a given food: we burn that food and measure how much heat is produced as a result. We can't do ...
10
Weight training has been going on for well over 100 years using basic tools like barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells (originally cannonballs with handles attached). The reason you don't see much active research on the matter is a combination of the following factors:
What works has been handed down from coach to student over the years.
Research is only ...
10
Properly performed full squats are not unbalanced. (Also, I doubt that a medicine ball is heavy enough to produce any muscular imbalance anyway.) I worry somewhat that the 90 degree angle you describe is not deep enough, so I advise you to read this history of squat depth recommendations. Squat deep, with the crease of the hip getting lower than the top of ...
10
Yes! Squatting -- as part of a proper regimen of exercise, eating and rest -- can lead you to lift huge weights, improve lung capacity, or reduce body weight. The squat exercises the body's largest muscles and is one of the most basic functional movements. Until the invention of sitting toilets, squatting was a daily necessity for all humans even into old ...
10
One work-out routine for high-intensity is "Tabata", see this search on this site: Search:tabata and this question: What is tabata? How effective is it?
Answering your question, you would do 20 seconds of burpees, rest for 10 seconds and repeat this for e.g. 8 times. That would take you about 4 minutes. The more fit you are, you can add more sets.
...
10
Many people make the mistake in running that they think it's ok to just go out and run, without any base training. This misconception leads to a lot of injuries. My LONG run for the entire week is 10ish miles, and that's when I'm running between 30-40 miles/week.
If you don't have a lot of base, then 10 miles twice a week is not what I would recommend. Plus,...
10
First, get strong
People who haven't yet done strength training should generally avoid overly task-specific exercises. Instead, they should get strong generally. As Mark Rippetoe puts it:
Strength is the most general adaptation. It is acquired most effectively through exercises that produce the most force against external resistance, and as such is ...
10
What the author refers to as Burst Workouts most other people will call HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training. The reason this is highly effective, compared to say slow-poking it on an elliptical for 60 minutes, is that it generates an "afterburn" effect that lasts up to 24h after your workout. Multiple studies shows this and a quick search on Google ...
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