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Which activities in life brings you the most fun?


Charlie

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On 10/22/2022 at 9:52 AM, boilermaker75 said:

 

One more thing about doing hard workouts.

 

Glycogen is the way your body stores glucose, an energy source. Glycogen is stored in your liver and muscles. Glycogen in your liver can be converted to glucose and released into your bloodstream for use anywhere in your body. Muscle glycogen must be used in that muscle. I imagine a sedentary person has glycogen that is years, maybe decades, old. I don’t know if it deteriorates but I would not be surprised that it does. So, it is good to exhaust your muscles to clean out the glycogen. Your muscles are then primed for up taking glucose from your blood at your next meal. This helps to ward off type 2 diabetes and type 3 diabetes, dementia.

 

Lyle McDonald's book The Ultimate Diet 2.0 is a really solid book if you're interested in a really tough but short duration (6 weeks) workout/diet plan for losing weight. I've been using it pre-summer after my typically "bulk" the past three years and it works well. No gimmicky nonsense, just a purely biological scientific approach. Might not be great if you're > 25% body fat. But to get sub 20% down into the low to high teens for those abs I personally haven't found a better program. Also fits pretty well into a typical 9-5 work schedule. 

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3 hours ago, gfp said:

 

Awesome.  We have a bunch of excavators in my family (not me personally) - the newest is a "midi" Takeuchi which is a really nice one.  The Takeuchi can dig 14 feet down!  Is your 60hp considered a "mini" or a "midi?"

 

I had to look it up but it would be considered in the midi class. It's a Komatsu PC60-7 with a blade. I'd like to get a hydraulic thumb on it eventually for handling logs and anything else I want to pick up. 😃

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  • 4 months later...

I haven’t had a car in 3.5 years (my wife has one and I just use my e-bike).  I like the bike but I love not paying for gas, insurance, registration, maintenance, etc.  I’ve never been a car guy, and I’ve only owned cheap and reliable Toyotas.

 

I went for a ride in a Tesla “Plaid” yesterday and now i’m rethinking my life’s choices.  It was so much fun i’m still smiling 30 hours later.  The car accelerates so fast (0-60mph in 2 seconds) there were moments I started to lose consciousness  (maybe that’s abnormal — not sure).

 

$100k.  If I weren’t married…

 

 

Edited by crs223
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9 hours ago, crs223 said:

I haven’t had a car in 3.5 years (my wife has one and I just use my e-bike).  I like the bike but I love not paying for gas, insurance, registration, maintenance, etc.  I’ve never been a car guy, and I’ve only owned cheap and reliable Toyotas.

 

I went for a ride in a Tesla “Plaid” yesterday and now i’m rethinking my life’s choices.  It was so much fun i’m still smiling 30 hours later.  The car accelerates so fast (0-60mph in 2 seconds) there were moments I started to lose consciousness  (maybe that’s abnormal — not sure).

 

$100k.  If I weren’t married…

 

 

That gets a lot of people! The reality is that you will almost never need or use that extreme acceleration and while it's fun as hell, after a couple of weeks it's just the expensive car in the driveway.  Lots of reasons to go electric if you buy a car but don't do it for the acceleration 

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Hats off to the guys who like to lift weights in the gym. I used to lift in my 20s and have the stretch marks to prove it. I got into rock climbing about 15 years ago and make it to the rock gym a few times a week. I can no longer bench press 245 lbs. but I would say I am as functionally strong as I have ever been and am closing in on 40.

 

I loath going to the weight gym, running, swimming basically anything that is a workout for the sake of working out. I do much better with healthy activities - rock climbing, slalom water skiing, and pickleball are my big three. Unfortunately, my knees are catching up with me and my passions are all horrible for my knees. I've had to start doing squats, deadlifts, and backward hill walks trying to strengthen them, but it feels like a losing battle. 

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13 minutes ago, Ross812 said:

Hats off to the guys who like to lift weights in the gym. I used to lift in my 20s and have the stretch marks to prove it. I got into rock climbing about 15 years ago and make it to the rock gym a few times a week. I can no longer bench press 245 lbs. but I would say I am as functionally strong as I have ever been and am closing in on 40.

 

I loath going to the weight gym, running, swimming basically anything that is a workout for the sake of working out. I do much better with healthy activities - rock climbing, slalom water skiing, and pickleball are my big three. Unfortunately, my knees are catching up with me and my passions are all horrible for my knees. I've had to start doing squats, deadlifts, and backward hill walks trying to strengthen them, but it feels like a losing battle. 

Have you given the ATG Program a try? He's a bit promotional (knees over toes guy), but I've been working through his program and I've never been as explosive. The gist of the program is strengthening and lengthening (stretching) joint areas. I've lifted very heavy in the past but it never felt functional to me. This feels like a much more athletically minded program with a focus on improving durability. I've got no relationship other than paying a monthly fee. I'd be curious if anyone else on this forum has any familiarity with the program.

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12 minutes ago, spartansaver said:

Have you given the ATG Program a try? He's a bit promotional (knees over toes guy), but I've been working through his program and I've never been as explosive. The gist of the program is strengthening and lengthening (stretching) joint areas. I've lifted very heavy in the past but it never felt functional to me. This feels like a much more athletically minded program with a focus on improving durability. I've got no relationship other than paying a monthly fee. I'd be curious if anyone else on this forum has any familiarity with the program.

I have a buddy that is into that program and gives me bits and pieces to work on for my knees, but I haven't spent any time looking into the program myself. I'll have to check it out. 

 

The first time I tried rock climbing in my 20s I was humbled. I was a gym bro and thought I would easily be able to pull my way up a plastic ladder; One or two routes in, I had no grip left and was exhausted. I've avoided the gym since, but it looks like I'm going to have to hit the gym with a a program like ATG to get back to what I like doing. 

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The last time I was in a gym, was a very long time ago, and I got banned from it.

 

Fired a 6lb steel/lead bolt from a home-built crossbow, against one of the gyms 12" thick exterior brick walls from roughly 700 ft away. Seem to recall a spectacular thunderclap, a cloud of brick dust, and a distant roar as a 3" thick hawser (in the gym) with two people hanging off it, got sliced by passing metal. About 16 at the time, and even I didn't think that I could top that 😊 Shortly thereafter I learnt brickwork repair, got banned from shop, and put into advanced physics, chemistry, and applied mathematics.

 

SD

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2 hours ago, Ross812 said:

Hats off to the guys who like to lift weights in the gym.

 

I'm a little surprised the analytical types frequenting this board wouldn't like lifting for the numbers.

 

After running, boxing, and/or crossfit for 35 years, I first found lifting itself not very fun.

 

But measuring progress against standards now makes it pretty entertaining.

 

https://legionathletics.com/strength-standards/

https://outlift.com/how-much-can-the-average-man-lift/

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On 1/19/2023 at 4:51 PM, gfp said:

 

Awesome.  We have a bunch of excavators in my family (not me personally) - the newest is a "midi" Takeuchi which is a really nice one.  The Takeuchi can dig 14 feet down!  Is your 60hp considered a "mini" or a "midi?"

 

I truly admire the guys who have mastered operating these monsters. Last year my brother in law had rented a midi excavator for a guy to landscape his garden. On one weekend we played around with the thing and it was a lot of fun but it took us hours before we could perform something useful, and even then it took us a lot of time.   

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Running - I am a long distance runner and training to run the NY marathon. I currently train for ~6-8 hours / week and it is the greatest part of my day. We all have some kind of stress from work, family etc and during this time, none of that exists as it is “me” time.  I really love the process of investing but it does not compare to my daily runs 🙂 
 

 

Edited by ourkid8
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I ran for about 32 years and miss it greatly.  Mountain bike regularly and hike now.  I have been the lead person in several trail building projects totaling about 50 miles.

 

But nothing is as simple and stress relieving as running.  Enjoy it all you can while you can.  I had to stop because of feet, knee, and hip issues, none of which are a problem cycling and hiking.

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On 7/22/2023 at 9:42 PM, dealraker said:

I ran for about 32 years and miss it greatly.  Mountain bike regularly and hike now.  I have been the lead person in several trail building projects totaling about 50 miles.

 

But nothing is as simple and stress relieving as running.  Enjoy it all you can while you can.  I had to stop because of feet, knee, and hip issues, none of which are a problem cycling and hiking.


Cycling / hiking are a lot of fun and it’s great you are still staying fit!  What distances are you cycling/ hiking? 

Edited by ourkid8
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On 7/22/2023 at 9:42 PM, dealraker said:

I ran for about 32 years and miss it greatly.  Mountain bike regularly and hike now.  I have been the lead person in several trail building projects totaling about 50 miles.

 

But nothing is as simple and stress relieving as running.  Enjoy it all you can while you can.  I had to stop because of feet, knee, and hip issues, none of which are a problem cycling and hiking.

 

@dealraker as a runner are the feet, knee and hip issues inevitable or is there something you wish you did or took care of in your younger days? I for one wish I paid more attention to looking after my back and mobility in my twenties.  

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7 hours ago, ourkid8 said:


Cycling / hiking are a lot of fun and it’s great you are still staying fit!  What distances are you cycling/ hiking? 

I mostly mountain bike, luckily now we have 10 trails within 30 minutes drive so I generally ride a few times a week for about 1-2 hours.  The time is down from earlier life but I had blood clots after an extended ride where I got somewhat dehydrated. 

 

Angela and I hike all over, we go to the NC or VA moutains for a couple night stay at least once a month.  We've also hiked extensively on the coastal path in England on several trips there.  We tend to hike about 5-8 miles a day, just day hiking and no backpacking.

 

 

Edited by dealraker
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7 hours ago, Dean said:

 

@dealraker as a runner are the feet, knee and hip issues inevitable or is there something you wish you did or took care of in your younger days? I for one wish I paid more attention to looking after my back and mobility in my twenties.  

I'm pretty sure running on trails or other softer surfaces would have extended that part of my life but that may be untrue of course.  I also was a tennis player, a mid level college player and tournament type so you know the story of what that does.

 

I do lots of yoga every day and it is the foundation of my older life along with moderate weights and resistance strength maintenance.  

 

The guys who ran more than me earlier in life, who extended that well into their oder ages have all, and I mean all of them but one, had to stop.  One guy ran well into his 80's though so it can occasionally be done by the human body.  

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On 7/22/2023 at 3:24 PM, ourkid8 said:

Running - I am a long distance runner and training to run the NY marathon. I currently train for ~6-8 hours / week and it is the greatest part of my day. We all have some kind of stress from work, family etc and during this time, none of that exists as it is “me” time.  I really love the process of investing but it does not compare to my daily runs 🙂 
 

 

 

What kind of mileage are you putting out in a week? I've been trying to shift my running focus to longer clips the past two months from 3-5 to 7-9. Most of my workouts are on trails though. 

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On 7/21/2023 at 10:15 AM, spartansaver said:

Have you given the ATG Program a try? He's a bit promotional (knees over toes guy), but I've been working through his program and I've never been as explosive. The gist of the program is strengthening and lengthening (stretching) joint areas. I've lifted very heavy in the past but it never felt functional to me. This feels like a much more athletically minded program with a focus on improving durability. I've got no relationship other than paying a monthly fee. I'd be curious if anyone else on this forum has any familiarity with the program.


I herniated a disc and went through 6 months of pt before insurance kicked me off. The pt told me I could start lifting weights again, but to avoid working out in the low rep/high weight ranges like I always have before. 
 

So I started with the bare bar and I’m adding weight every session with 3 sets of 10 reps. I’m embarrassed by how little weight I’m moving, but maybe this is for the best. One good reason to lift weights in the garage, I hate the gym. 
 

Doing back squat, Romanian deadlift, bench press, standing overhead press, and pull-ups (sad to say I’m nowhere close to being able to 10 reps, but that’s my goal by sometime later this year.)  
 

The great thing about being out of shape are the easy gains. And at least I’m not trying to lose any weight, so in a month or two when the workouts get really tough, I’m going to be eating like a python. 

Edited by RedLion
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Getting ready to do a 9 day wilderness backpack thru the

Clark Range in the Sierra's... have to "cart" our food so have been training with a 40lb pack...Love this the best because no cell\electronics and the variablility of the weather...also nice being "isolated" from civilization.

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