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What are you folks doing to stay fit?

Old 05-20-20, 07:17 AM
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carleton
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What are you folks doing to stay fit?

Now that things are different for a while with gyms and velodromes being closed and racing suspended, what are you folks doing to stay fit...or not?

Luckily, I built a home gym a year ago with basics (squat rack, bench press, deadlift platform, spin bike). Apparently it's near impossible to buy home gym equipment now as like-minded people have bought up all of the stock and the unexpected demand has most things on backorder. So, I'm doing basic weight training. I'd like to say that I'm riding the spin bike, but I'm not.
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Old 05-20-20, 07:42 AM
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I'm mostly on the bike.

I thought about buying a full weight set, but that stuff is way more expensive than I realized. By my math, it would take me 5-10 years of gym memberships to make up for it. Not sure that's worth it. (Cheaper if I went used, but not much used available, and even used prices are pretty high now.) We had a TRX system, which is good for some things. And, I had bought some bags of concrete and jugs of water to use for lifting. The concrete bags, while not as heavy as weights I would normally lift, were actually quite challenging due to size and shape and being a little loose.

But my back has been bothering me a lot more than normal recently, so a spinal surgeon friend referred me to a back orthopedist. Turns out that in addition to breaking my collarbone and ribs in my crash last fall, I also fractured my L5 vertebrae, which explains my recent back issues. So, my coach gave me some on-bike work I can do to build leg strength without lifting things that trigger my back.
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Old 05-20-20, 07:45 AM
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If you want a home gym, and have the space for it. Weider makes a bowflex knockoff that's really just as good. It doesn't go up to hundreds of lbs of resistance, but it's a good overall gym in a compact space. Pretty easy to move too.

Something like this only runs $500, which I think is about what I paid for mine about ten years ago.

Even if you go to a cheap gym, that's only about 4 years of gym membership at $10/month.
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Old 05-20-20, 08:20 AM
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My wife runs a gym so during the lockdown we had free reign.

That said... I'm on the trainer/zwift the majority of my riding these days anyways, so nothing really changed for me, other than I had more time to ride. Actually really fit, hitting pr's... and nothing to do with it. (except get crushed in zwift crits)
@topflightpro Dang that's not good. Back pain is the worst.
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Old 05-20-20, 08:23 AM
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topflightpro , the bike was the cause of my back problems. Being hunched over and pushing stress across my lower back made it unhappy.

Training 100% on bikes (road, track, and spin) for a season confirmed this for me. That season my watt numbers where highest ever...and so was my back pain. I was straight debilitated. There were days where I'd stay home from work it'd be so bad. Then one day I went and did some squats at the gym because I couldn't ride. Guess what? The pain went away almost immediately.

Maybe it's my gut. But, whenever I have back pain, squatting with proper form and even light weights makes me feel 100% better.

I know this may be contrary to popular belief, but squatting may fix your back due to strengthening muscle imbalances.

Squats are amazing for rehabilitating injuries. When I tore my hamstring a couple of years ago being too aggressive with single leg press (pushing hard when the leg was fatigued), following the Bill Start rehab program I started squatting just a few days later, and was back to 100% sooner than I ever expected.
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Old 05-20-20, 12:50 PM
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I've been doing emergency response work 55 hours a week with no days off in over two months, so, i'm not doing anything to stay fit frankly. i'm down almost 10 lbs for some reason.
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Old 05-20-20, 02:00 PM
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The heaviest weights I have at home are 30lb dumbbells. I've been doing Bulgarian split squats, and single leg RDLs. I bought some rings and ceiling anchors for upper body, they have been really fun.
For bike, I'm trying to go through the upupup sprint workouts on my road bike + dumb trainer. Also doing simple spinning on the rollers with my track bike.
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Old 05-20-20, 07:29 PM
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Been doing short on the bike sprints and lots of time on the rollers. Also been doing more stretching and yoga with some body weight exercises. Switching to school online and still working (bike mechanic) has meant less time for training than before . Although I am down 10 pounds and spinning faster than ever.

fitness stuff---
-Lots of 10-25 second sprints
-yoga
-pull ups, squats, dips, ab work.
-cadence drills
-working on better fit on the track bike
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Old 05-24-20, 08:07 PM
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Obviously the best answer is to keep lifting weight. I been home gym since start so I don't have problems with this.

Velodrome is close in my country so .... got to live with it. Of course, still cycling outdoor occasionally. I am surprise that my cycling fitness maintained well despite only 20-30 mins sessions 2 times a week for past 3 months.
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Old 05-24-20, 09:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Altimis
If you are not cheating, you are not trying hard enough.
Seriously?
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Old 05-26-20, 06:40 AM
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Altimis
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Originally Posted by Baby Puke
Seriously?
lol I pick that from randoms. And I think its cool. Is it offending?
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Old 05-26-20, 12:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Altimis
lol I pick that from randoms. And I think its cool. Is it offending?
Nobody likes cheaters.

Cheating is selfish. It only benefits one person/team/fanbase, while hurting everyone else. So, it literally does more harm than good.
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Old 05-26-20, 03:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Altimis
lol I pick that from randoms. And I think its cool. Is it offending?
It is absolutely not cool. Are you a racer? Nobody who sees that will want to race with you or even talk with you.
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Old 05-26-20, 05:59 PM
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I didn't change signature for a long time. I will put it off if until I find something or don't. All cool.
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Old 06-22-20, 10:18 AM
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My wife is a runner and was never interested in riding the spin bike and the spin bike still activates my lower back pain. Lifting weights simply converted me from being round to being strong...and round. I've missed being leaner and I want to explore being even more lean.

...so we bought a treadmill.



I've secretly always wanted to be a jogger, or at least be proficient at it when I needed it. But, not understanding muscle fiber types, I was constantly frustrated when I couldn't even keep up with my most out of shape friends when jogging. The idea of simply buying some decent shoes and exploring the neighborhood for 45 minutes 3-4 times a week to stay fit is awesome.

Anyway...I'm still a "fast twitch" person and jogging is still a challenge. But, wind sprints are awesome.

This treadmill is really awesome, too. I never really liked traditional treadmills. The belts sliding under my feet never felt natural and I think because I'm heavier it felt even more unnatural for me than humans of normal weight (hahaha). I really like this treadmill. The best way to describe it is: If a treadmill were rollers.

It's expensive as hell. We weren't going to buy one new. I was able to get lucky and find a gently used one being sold by a gym 2.5 hrs away.

Videos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0JEltVMK8U


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skWUFe-_wYw

Last edited by carleton; 06-22-20 at 12:13 PM.
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Old 06-22-20, 12:52 PM
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That's fancy. In my triathlon life I had free access to a gym (sadly too far away for it to be useful) with one of those, the single time I ran on it I thought it was pretty sweet. But $$$, so I ended up with a SOLE (which now holds my bibs quite adequately)
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Old 06-23-20, 01:51 AM
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Originally Posted by Morelock
That's fancy. In my triathlon life I had free access to a gym (sadly too far away for it to be useful) with one of those, the single time I ran on it I thought it was pretty sweet. But $$$, so I ended up with a SOLE (which now holds my bibs quite adequately)
Yeah, they are crazy expensive. Like "hell no" money. But, we were lucky to find one that was gently used for slightly more than our max budget for a gym-quality treadmill. So, we went for it. I'm glad we did.

The whole talk about it improving your running form is true. I used to lumber and slap my feet on the treadmill. This one won't allow for that. It only responds well to good form, exactly like rollers. It took a few sessions for my body to accept the changes, but it works. I'm a more fluid runner for it. Exactly like how rollers cleans up one's cycling form.
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Old 06-23-20, 10:11 AM
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Whats the resistance like on that treadmill? Using rollers to compare, is the resistance quality like a 2.5", 3", or 4" drum?
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Old 06-23-20, 11:13 AM
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Originally Posted by taras0000
Whats the resistance like on that treadmill? Using rollers to compare, is the resistance quality like a 2.5", 3", or 4" drum?
Many people say that it feels slightly more difficult than running on flat ground. Personally, I find it to be the same or less. I would say the 4" drum. This may be because I'm heavier and it's easier for me to get the treadmill going when I step as the majority of the load is vertical and almost none horizontal. It's the vertical component of the step that gets it moving. That's why I have to be up on the front of it, at the incline.

The glute engagement that people talk about, which is real, is probably related to one having to keep the shoulders back and hips forward to run properly on this, which is sort of like how load comes through the body during a front squat. Engagement is more glutes than normal which was probably lots of hamstrings.

Speed changes are exactly like with 4" rollers, too, instantaneous. This makes me confident going all out in ways that I wasn't comfortable doing on a motorized treadmill where I'd have to fiddle with the speed buttons at full stride or crudely hop off. With this, just dial it back step by step or simply let the track take you back a few inches off of the incline and you'll slow. So, doing full-gas sprints are just like doing blowouts on rollers. As best I can, I can mimic the form used by the sprinter in the spikes in the video above (albeit not as gracefully), running only on the front of my feet.

Running "midfoot" is easier as the angle of the incline sort of mates with the angle of the foot. I do find that if I'm lazy and dragging my feet, my heels will catch unexpectedly, even with low-heel running shoes (Nike Free 4.0).
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Old 06-24-20, 12:19 PM
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I've focused on strength and power training via Olympic Weightlifting. I was fortunate enough to buy gym equipment before everyone decided to build a home gym.
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Old 06-24-20, 05:03 PM
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Originally Posted by AmahlAmahlAmahl
I've focused on strength and power training via Olympic Weightlifting. I was fortunate enough to buy gym equipment before everyone decided to build a home gym.
Nice setup!
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