Fitness thread #1 timed out after sixty days of awesomeness. By my calculations, the participants on that thread have done about 15,000 push-ups; 25,000 hula hoops; 250 Burpees; pushed around more than 50,000 pounds of various weights; and have wrecked one knee while chasing after Scarlett Johannson (he won't admit it but we all assume that's how it happened). The good news is that PJ's knee does NOT require surgery, only rehab.

So here we go, blasting into the all-important NEXT TWO MONTHS OF PHYSICAL FITNESS. These may very well be the most important two months of the year. Indeed, they may be the most important two months of your LIFE. Why?

Because March and April are the last two months before it either IS bathing suit weather, or is ALMOST bathing suit weather. Who am I kidding? What with the global warming, it IS going to be bathing suit weather everywhere by May 1 - even Down Under!

So, RIGHT NOW is the time to GET. IT. ONNNNNNNNNNNN. If you've done well in January and February, then you will be absolutely awesome by the time Global Warming Summer arrives.

If you're a little late getting going, you still have a solid sixty (60) days before Global Warming Summer gets here. Put your mind to it and you can do awesome things in 60 days!

In fact, I'm going to be awesome right now. I'm heading to the gym! Our big rodeo starts tomorrow and for me, it's pretty much 20 straight days of drinking, eating fried food, and riding a horse. None of those are conducive to fitness, so I have to be diligent in the gym or I will look really bad when Global Warming Summer gets here!

So let's GET. IT. ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sticky

Thanks! Now we are inspired to work extra hard!

luv4u said:

sticky

Thanks luv!! Layla on board and hooping with my 5lb hoop! Still striving for at least 10K/day, 10 flights of stairs/day, and 2 liters H2O/day. Wgt very comfy between 115-119.

Goal: Keep the core tight. Work on leg strength with the stairs. Keep myself hydrated. Perhaps add in some upper arm work for definition.

The Way Out There Goal: Haven't done a split in years!!! But need to work on stretching without injuring!

I've been hitting the gym hard, hope you have too!

I'm not quite as strong as I was, though. I didn't quite get 306 up on the benchpress Sunday. Our machine has independent arms that you stack plates on. I blasted the right side up, but couldn't get the left side quite over the hump and up. Weird!

I'm about to head out to the gym right now and I guess I'll do a lot of left-handed work, LOL.

Hey man, it's March 21! Where are your updates?!? Are you too buzy killing it in your work outs to post here? Did we screw up by making this a sticky and thus never looked at when perusing active threads? Enquiring minds want to know!

I have been drinking a whole bunch (and I don't mean water), but I've also been hitting the gym regularly. All part of the plan...

Yesterday I walked up 18 flights of stairs. First time I'd done the stairs in a couple months. It was awesome! I rewarded myself for doing that with a full plate of lobsster ravioli, followed by a slice of chocolate mousse cake last night. Again, all part of the plan!

LadyLayla said:

luv4u said:

sticky

Thanks luv!! Layla on board and hooping with my 5lb hoop! Still striving for at least 10K/day, 10 flights of stairs/day, and 2 liters H2O/day. Wgt very comfy between 115-119.

Goal: Keep the core tight. Work on leg strength with the stairs. Keep myself hydrated. Perhaps add in some upper arm work for definition.

The Way Out There Goal: Haven't done a split in years!!! But need to work on stretching without injuring!

I was so focused on that pic that I missed the "10 flights of stairs/day"! Are you walking actual stairs, or using a stair machine?

RodeoSchro said:

LadyLayla said:

Thanks luv!! Layla on board and hooping with my 5lb hoop! Still striving for at least 10K/day, 10 flights of stairs/day, and 2 liters H2O/day. Wgt very comfy between 115-119.

Goal: Keep the core tight. Work on leg strength with the stairs. Keep myself hydrated. Perhaps add in some upper arm work for definition.

The Way Out There Goal: Haven't done a split in years!!! But need to work on stretching without injuring!

I was so focused on that pic that I missed the "10 flights of stairs/day"! Are you walking actual stairs, or using a stair machine?

Actual stairs! But not all at the same time (yet)!! Too cheap to buy a stair machine.

[Edited 3/21/17 11:46am]

LadyLayla said:

RodeoSchro said:

I was so focused on that pic that I missed the "10 flights of stairs/day"! Are you walking actual stairs, or using a stair machine?

Actual stairs! But not all at the same time (yet)!!

Awesome! I've never been a stair machine user, but dang! Actual stairs are really hard!

Oh man, thank goodness the rodeo is over. It was EPIC but I drank enough to float a battleship! Luckily, I was able to hit the gym 3 or 4 times during the last 3 weeks, and maintained the 100 push-ups almost every day. I haven't done any push-ups today, but then again I think I drank 2 bottles of wine last night, so may I be forgiven for missing the push-ups?

OK, time to get REAL! Time to lay off the alkyhaul, the sweets, and whatever. I have been really good with portion size this year, so I'm not too far behind the 8 ball when it comes to the goal of Six Pack Abs.

The goal is to be rippling down there by June 1. Here we go!

I go 2 the gym 3 to 4 times per week. My favourite machine is the LateralX elliptical. And 80% of the workout music 2 which I listen is Prince (partly because my phone is a Blackberry, from 2015, and it's hard 2 upload music 2 it.)

Anyway, my staple Prince workout songs in no particular order (and ones that I have on my phone, of course):

Little Red Corvette

Let's Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

Computer Blue

I Would Die 4 U

Baby, I'm A Star

Cream

Gett Off

Live 4 Love

Kiss

If I Was Your Girlfriend

I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man

Sign O' the Times

Staple Prince cool down songs:

Purple Rain

The Beautiful Ones

Diamonds and Pearls

206Michelle said:

I go 2 the gym 3 to 4 times per week. My favourite machine is the LateralX elliptical. And 80% of the workout music 2 which I listen is Prince (partly because my phone is a Blackberry, from 2015, and it's hard 2 upload music 2 it.)

Anyway, my staple Prince workout songs in no particular order (and ones that I have on my phone, of course):

Little Red Corvette

Let's Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

Computer Blue

I Would Die 4 U

Baby, I'm A Star

Cream

Gett Off

Live 4 Love

Kiss

If I Was Your Girlfriend

I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man

Sign O' the Times

Staple Prince cool down songs:

Purple Rain

The Beautiful Ones

Diamonds and Pearls

Awesome! I usually listen only to Prince when I work out.

It's been what - a decade? - since the iPhone came out? And I'm still amazed at the music function. As a 58-year-old man who grew up in the days of NOTHING in the car but the radio, the concept of having only your favorite songs playing all the time still tickles me!

And I know why - it's the "Shuffle" feature. We've been able to make CDs and other recorded stuff for a long time. But having 200, 300 or 500 songs on one device, and each one of them a personal favorite, and not knowing which of those songs is going to be played next, is still my favorite thing in the whole world!

HEY - FORTY-FIVE (45) DAYS UNTIL THE START OF SWIMSUIT SEASON.

HOW ARE WE ALL DOING?

RodeoSchro said:

HEY - FORTY-FIVE (45) DAYS UNTIL THE START OF SWIMSUIT SEASON.

HOW ARE WE ALL DOING?

I fell off the Fitness Wagon for a few weeks, not getting my longer hooping sessions in and not making my stair count. No weight gain which is good because I keep about a 5lb variance. I know progress is NEVER a straight line to the end point but rather a zig-zag of highs and lows. I need to re-think my strategy so that it doesn't get stale!

So...basically I've been off and on since February with eating right and working out on the regular. Luckily, when I do fall off, a lot of time hasn't passed where my body has forgotten what its like to really go hard in a workout. The eating thing has been a challenge, but again, once I falloff for a few days, I get back into sync. I try to eat mostly veggies, 1-2 servings of fruits, 1-2 servings of protein and no bread. I've cut back significantly on fast food, but on days when I'm super busy and have no choice, I opt for a salad. I drink water all day, that's about the easiest thing since I've never been a regular soda drinker (a childhood incident with orange soda did it for me, lol). The hardest part is gaining energy without drinking coffee or an energy drink. I've cut out both in recent weeks but now I have no energy and it takes a lot for me to even WANT to work out. Any suggestions for how to muster up some energy without coffee/energy drinks/protein shakes?

RodeoSchro said:

HEY - FORTY-FIVE (45) DAYS UNTIL THE START OF SWIMSUIT SEASON.

HOW ARE WE ALL DOING?

I'm definitely not going to make my goal by swimsuit season, lol, that ship has passed. However, I do have 2 months to drop 2 dress sizes in order to fit into a nice halter dress in my closet to wear to a wedding in mid-June.

[Edited 4/17/17 12:42pm]

missfee said:

So...basically I've been off and on since February with eating right and working out on the regular. Luckily, when I do fall off, a lot of time hasn't passed where my body has forgotten what its like to really go hard in a workout. The eating thing has been a challenge, but again, once I falloff for a few days, I get back into sync. I try to eat mostly veggies, 1-2 servings of fruits, 1-2 servings of protein and no bread. I've cut back significantly on fast food, but on days when I'm super busy and have no choice, I opt for a salad. I drink water all day, that's about the easiest thing since I've never been a regular soda drinker (a childhood incident with orange soda did it for me, lol). The hardest part is gaining energy without drinking coffee or an energy drink. I've cut out both in recent weeks but now I have no energy and it takes a lot for me to even WANT to work out. Any suggestions for how to muster up some energy without coffee/energy drinks/protein shakes?

I have a friend that went through the same thing. I think time is the only thing that really cures the come down from quitting energy drinks. But the good news is that you WILL get your natural energy back. Just let it happen.

Do you use music when you work out? I've noticed that music really pumps me up. I use an iPhone and headphones, and work out to a playlist I created. I've noticed that large playlists work best for me because with a lot of songs, I have no idea what is coming next. But when "Guitar" comes on, I get GOING!

Let's get back on it!

RodeoSchro said:

missfee said:

So...basically I've been off and on since February with eating right and working out on the regular. Luckily, when I do fall off, a lot of time hasn't passed where my body has forgotten what its like to really go hard in a workout. The eating thing has been a challenge, but again, once I falloff for a few days, I get back into sync. I try to eat mostly veggies, 1-2 servings of fruits, 1-2 servings of protein and no bread. I've cut back significantly on fast food, but on days when I'm super busy and have no choice, I opt for a salad. I drink water all day, that's about the easiest thing since I've never been a regular soda drinker (a childhood incident with orange soda did it for me, lol). The hardest part is gaining energy without drinking coffee or an energy drink. I've cut out both in recent weeks but now I have no energy and it takes a lot for me to even WANT to work out. Any suggestions for how to muster up some energy without coffee/energy drinks/protein shakes?

I have a friend that went through the same thing. I think time is the only thing that really cures the come down from quitting energy drinks. But the good news is that you WILL get your natural energy back. Just let it happen.

Do you use music when you work out? I've noticed that music really pumps me up. I use an iPhone and headphones, and work out to a playlist I created. I've noticed that large playlists work best for me because with a lot of songs, I have no idea what is coming next. But when "Guitar" comes on, I get GOING!

Thanks for the advice.

Since I workout at home, I'm usually catching up on the shows on my DVR while I'm working out which helps to pass the time quickly. But it doesn't mean that I can't still blast some music now and then too. It wouldn't hurt.

I'm guessing this thread will lock on May 6th so there will be a third Fitness Thread then. But.............

We're only ONE (1) MONTH away from the Official Start of The Northern Hemisphere Bathing Suit Season!

So, with 32 days left from now until then, let's hit it hard and then POST SOME PICTURES!

Good luck!

RodeoSchro said:

Let's get back on it!

I am back ON IT! I've been averaging 15K a day and the 10 flights of stairs.

LadyLayla said:

RodeoSchro said:

Let's get back on it!

I am back ON IT! I've been averaging 15K a day and the 10 flights of stairs.

YEAH!

I've been a pretty good boy most of the first four months of the year but for the next thirty days, it's nothing but crunches, sit-ups, jumping rope and a healthy diet for me. Can't wait to see what the ol' tummy looks like come June 1!