do you work out?

[CopperCone]

Do you work out? I do strict heavy barbell exercises like stronglifts.

I noticed that engineers seem to enjoy doing 'fun' physical activities with more of a focus on cardiocentric/endurance activity then more then strict muscular exercises. Biking and climbing seem popular with engineers I know in particular. How do you fit in? Some also seem to enjoy jogging.

[Zero999]

I've never got into lifting weights and don't like gyms. I went to the gym once and hated it. I tried a running machine and it gave me motion sickness, so I had a go on the cross-trainer and got bored very quickly

I like cycling. I bike to work and back every day and usually go for a ride at lunchtime. I don't normally do very long distances, usually a few miles at time but fairly fast. In the week I do about 12 and a half miles per day (that's 20km for metric people), at an average speed 17mph or 27kmph, including stopping to wait for traffic lights and slowing down for pedestrians, on the cycle track and idiots in cars who think it's fine to drive really slowly. I cycle at the weekends too but not quite so much, as I think it's good to rest a bit.

[Johnny10]

I didn't start lifting till my 40's.
Wish I would have known sooner the benefits.

Just finished two series of 5x5 stronglifts and liked the results.

[Zero999]

I didn't start lifting till my 40's.
Wish I would have known sooner the benefits.

Just finished two series of 5x5 stronglifts and liked the results.

What are the benefits?

I certainly feel better for doing cardio. I've lost weight and am now at the point where I don't want to lose any more, so actively try not to.

I've heard it's better to do both cardio and resistance training. I probably need to do more of the latter. My strength training is cycling uphill in a fairly high gear, but I should work on other muscles, than just my legs. Some people do weights because they like to have a muscular body, but I don't and don't believe it's healthy either.

[Johnny10]

The benifits:
Stamina
Self confidence
Terrific posture
Mental acuity
I am 66 still bench 185, squat 270, have no backaches, no weakness in the joints.
Feel mentally and physically the same as I did in my late 30's.

Not many of my peers can say the same.

[Zero999]

The benifits:
Stamina
Self confidence
Terrific posture
Mental acuity
I am 66 still bench 185, squat 270, have no backaches, no weakness in the joints.
Feel mentally and physically the same as I did in my late 30's.

Not many of my peers can say the same.

Well cardio is certainly better than weights for stamina and has the other two benefits you've listed, except for posture: I do have sloping shoulders, so should do some upper body work to improve that. The trouble for me is motivation: I don't like gyms. Is there a sport I can do, which would give me some of the benefits of strength training, preferably outdoors?

[Johnny10]

I do some form of aerobics every other day.
Definitely a plus!

I bought an entire gym from two different sellers for less than 600!
Have commercial treadmill, smith machine, squat rack and the most useful piece of equipment is the "Block",
45 lb of adjustable weights in 5 lb increments. You can get in shape with just a set of these.

[nctnico]

Do you work out? I do strict heavy barbell exercises like stronglifts.

I noticed that engineers seem to enjoy doing 'fun' physical activities with more of a focus on cardiocentric/endurance activity then more then strict muscular exercises. Biking and climbing seem popular with engineers I know in particular. How do you fit in? Some also seem to enjoy jogging.

I started doing more about 5 years ago. One of my relatives which has always been very active got a stroke and being fit helped him a lot to recover compared to less fit people. Also I was about to hit triple digits on the scale (in kg) so I had to take some action. Nowadays I swim twice a week (about 4km in total) and if the weather permits I go out for a long bike ride (sometimes I travel to customers on my bike) and usually combine that with a swim in a lake. I prefer to be outside and I do everything in a normal tempo. There is a lot to see in the nature around here anyway:


I also lost quite a bit of weight during the past couple of years. The downside is that people say I'm too skinny now and I have to buy lots of new clothes. Still I don't consider myself a sporty person.

[Rick Law]

Do you work out? I do strict heavy barbell exercises like stronglifts.

I noticed that engineers seem to enjoy doing 'fun' physical activities with more of a focus on cardiocentric/endurance activity then more then strict muscular exercises. Biking and climbing seem popular with engineers I know in particular. How do you fit in? Some also seem to enjoy jogging.

In my view, engineer, management, accounting clerk...  none of that makes a difference.  It is a matter of habit, and of discipline.

Some occupation would make that into a habit - if you are a pro-soccer player, or a former military, you would likely have a habit of doing daily work out.  If you are a construction worker building roads, you probably wont have a habit of working out in the morning because you are working out 9 out of 10 minutes while at work.

[Mr. Scram]

I certainly fit the bill when it comes to "fun" activities. Exercises for the sake of them quickly become extremely tedious. I can force myself to do them, but quickly loathe every second. Having a distinct goal and activity helps tremendously and transforms the tedious into something fun. Add in some friends for friendly competition and amicable encouragement and exercise becomes something to look forward to. I can endure quite punishing schedules without it feeling like a chore this way.

Other than the obvious physical benefits, I feel the mental aspects are as important or maybe even more important. Life simply is more fun if you move about a bit.

[VK5RC]

At 56yrs, per week
Cycle about 1x 25km, 1200 vertical feet
Walk 3x6km,  each 300 v. feet
  1x10km 1000 v. feet
Daily 20 push ups and sit ups.
Swim 2x700m
Keeps a bit of aging at bay!

[newbrain]

I think I fit with the OP stereotype

Weekends:
Though I've abandoned both free- and mountain- climbing, I still mountaineer/hike a lot when in Italy usually 10-20km length, 900-1300m elevation (wife would not even consider tying her boots for less than that  ).
In winter it's mostly cross-country/light mountaineering skiing, sometimes snowshoes or crampons.
At least one week of downhill skiing in the Alps, too.

Work days:
During the week I usually walk home from (but rarely to  ) work, just 5km, mostly in the woods.
While I hate gyms and running, strangely enough I love swimming: I just turn my brain off, it's just like sleeping for my mind, not for the body...so if the weather is bad it's the swimming pool for me.

EtA: and biking! Sprinkled all over, as a convenient mean of transportation or just for leg stretching...

[IanMacdonald]

Do quite a lot of walking. Used to do martial arts but stopped due to a back problem. (Basically due to trying stuff my instructor said was beyond my level, silly me..) Thinking of getting back into it.
When you do a sedentary job like ours you really need something to occasionally get the blood stirring.

[EEVblog]

I've only ever done endurance weight work. Have done in excess of probably 5000 BodyPump classes.
So don't ask me how much I can bench, I don't know. But if you need someone to bench 35kg continually for 6 minutes, I'm your guy.

Used to do regular cardio classes like boxing, circuit, BodyCombat and others as well, but that's taken a bit of a back seat since the knee operation when my surgeon said I shouldn't really be doing any jumping or running any more (and jumping is my thing):



After a badly bruised and swollen knee after a pretty easy (by my standards) 10km obstacle race the other week, I think he's probably right.

[EEVblog]

Is there a sport I can do, which would give me some of the benefits of strength training, preferably outdoors?

Climbing/bouldering?
Obstacle racing. Some like Spartan focus more on strength obstacles.
Many of the "bootcamp" type classes run outdoors have strength stuff like tyre or log carries etc.

[NiHaoMike]

I get quite a workout moving boxes of stuff around as I try to find the right part for whatever I'm working on. Why waste time in the gym when I can clean up the lab a bit and get exercise that way? Also have plans to make an improved version of my stationary bicycle generator.

On that note, Rinoa Super-Genius rarely, if ever, works out in a gym, yet she's incredibly strong. Her workout routine is pretty much just working in the yard and some bicycle rides.

I also lost quite a bit of weight during the past couple of years. The downside is that people say I'm too skinny now and I have to buy lots of new clothes. Still I don't consider myself a sporty person.

What's your BMI? If it's well within the normal range, prove to them that you're perfectly normal.

[EEVblog]

Some people do weights because they like to have a muscular body, but I don't and don't believe it's healthy either.

That's why there are endurance weight workouts like BodyPump. Hundreds of reps instead of 10's at much lighter weight.
It's a really inefficient way to bulk up, so you can go to town on endurance weight work and not look that muscular.

It's always funny to watch the huge body builder guys try a BodyPump class, it's always the same - they scan the room to see what others are lifting, eye me off because I always have the most weight, think "huh, I can at least lift what that skinny guy is lifting", and then hilarity ensues 
They learn very quickly that they are two very different ways of lifting.

[nctnico]

Some people do weights because they like to have a muscular body, but I don't and don't believe it's healthy either.

That's why there are endurance weight workouts like BodyPump. Hundreds of reps instead of 10's at much lighter weight.
It's a really inefficient way to bulk up, so you can go to town on endurance weight work and not look that muscular.

IMHO it also depends on what your work-out goal is. Burn calories (body fat) or build up muscles. Burning body fat means doing a light exercise for a long time.

[Johnny10]

I have seen the most improvement with light weights and body weight.
Pushups, situps, chin-ups.
I am definitely not a muscle head but being stronger and spending maybe 45 minutes a day on exercise is a no-brainer from my perspective.

Looking back at choosing options for better, healthier lifestyle, I know I have won that race.

[Rutherfordium]

I run Starting Strength.  It's great.  It's like taking antidepressants that work (never tried the pharmaceutical kind).

[Rutherfordium]

Some people do weights because they like to have a muscular body, but I don't and don't believe it's healthy either.

That's why there are endurance weight workouts like BodyPump. Hundreds of reps instead of 10's at much lighter weight.
It's a really inefficient way to bulk up, so you can go to town on endurance weight work and not look that muscular.

IMHO it also depends on what your work-out goal is. Burn calories (body fat) or build up muscles. Burning body fat means doing a light exercise for a long time.

"Burning" body fat is only accomplished by maintaining a calorie deficit.  This could just as easily be accomplished by eating less.

Building muscles requires a calorie surplus and sufficient stress to muscles to induce an adaptation.

[CopperCone]

What I found happens if you take a stronglift program somewhat seriously being fat is that you typically maintain or slightly decrease your weight but you can lift like 250lb so that means you at least made some kind of fat muscle trade off but its highly satisfying anyway, and you cardio/ability to run increases greatly, but the problem is that you will have various stabilizer muscles and stuff that is not used for running so you may suddenly as a previously heavy man be able to run a seemingly long distance if you have been doing heavy lifting for a while but expect all the auxiliary stuff to hurt/encounter serious damage.

I kind of think (though I am very uneducated here) that the type of muscles Dave Jones talks about is more grown to have high blood flow and possibly production of glycogen or whatever, while muscle grown for heavy/sporatic activity will not have as much infrastructure in it dedicated towards getting large volumes of blood into it or using blood to produce energy (I have to recover for a long time).

Probably for most labor you will find that the endurance type muscle is more useful, however, I do wonder what the effect on heart strain is, I would expect the endurance type muscle to have higher fluid resistance because of its possibly higher surface area, so if you have a huge amount of it, it may be slightly more stressful on the heart then the other type, but I am pretty sure it would still be far better then fat.

I got this idea by kind of following the BB community and noticing that many people (well steroid users that basically do heavy weights endurance (freakish)) seem to have an abnormal amount of heart problems.. and the debate is if it is purely due to steroids, related to 'good looking' obesity (mass term only, not fat, meaning that the mortality is the same as for a regular fat person), or a type of muscle growth that has a very high surface area so it acts as a strong resistance for the heart, possibly making the excess of such tissue more dangerous then an excess of fat for the heart. (but I suspect the people are still much much happier psychologically)

 Based on others peoples comments (taken with a grain of salt), it seems that the mortality of heavy muscular is higher then equally heavy fat(tissue) obese people, so there might be something here, but this would require me to put alot of effort to research problems I don't have or really care about too much . This would be people that weigh like 300lb.

May be of interest to study if you want to make the choice between TRENT, methamphetamine and do heavy squats till exhaustion/death every day , or crushing 6 bags of family sized doritos every day

[Mr. Scram]

That's why there are endurance weight workouts like BodyPump. Hundreds of reps instead of 10's at much lighter weight.
It's a really inefficient way to bulk up, so you can go to town on endurance weight work and not look that muscular.

It's always funny to watch the huge body builder guys try a BodyPump class, it's always the same - they scan the room to see what others are lifting, eye me off because I always have the most weight, think "huh, I can at least lift what that skinny guy is lifting", and then hilarity ensues 
They learn very quickly that they are two very different ways of lifting.

I think there's some relatively recent research that challenges the classic workout wisdom that high intensity training gains mass and low intensity training builds lean efficient muscles, but I won't make the mistake of arguing for or against that wisdom.

[Zero999]

Some people do weights because they like to have a muscular body, but I don't and don't believe it's healthy either.

That's why there are endurance weight workouts like BodyPump. Hundreds of reps instead of 10's at much lighter weight.
It's a really inefficient way to bulk up, so you can go to town on endurance weight work and not look that muscular.

IMHO it also depends on what your work-out goal is. Burn calories (body fat) or build up muscles. Burning body fat means doing a light exercise for a long time.

"Burning" body fat is only accomplished by maintaining a calorie deficit.  This could just as easily be accomplished by eating less.

Neither losing weight nor bulking up were my goals which, was to become more healthy. The weight loss was unexpected and not planned.

In theory eating less can cause fat loss, but in practise isn't easy, is unsustainable, in the long term and ultimately results in muscle loss too. Exercising regularly is more sustainable and can result in a reduction in body fat, without the need to restrict energy intake. It's certainly much more healthy, than dieting which normally fails, in the long run.

[malagas_on_fire]

I do swim twice per week, at least 1200m to 1500m in one hour.

I have swimmed last two weeks 2km but it was during 2 hours period. Also i do hinking on parks, across the rivers.

When the pool closes for holiday usually i go to a river that mininal safe to swim without hitting rocks or branches, or run ocassionally.

I do freestyle ( crawl) , backstroke and breastroke, but butterfly only leg training, two pools...