Thursday, August 27, 2020

So I spent a week making workout routines for strangers in an online game. . .

and it was an amazing experience. The game is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game called Guild Wars 2 (GW2) and they were running a week long event "Boss Rush" where I quickly noticed there was ample time before each boss to get in a little 1-3 minute exercise. It started out as a half-joking post on the GW2 subreddit and turned into an entire week of fun. I thought that I would get so much hate but what actually happened caught me by surprise. A small community started to participate, group up with me, and we all worked out together before each boss. We discussed weight loss, nutrition, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed participating. My wife (personal trainer, former powerlifter, crossfit beast) and I spent every night thinking of workouts. Our goal was to design a full suite of workouts that required no equipment and hit nearly every muscle group. Each workout was themed after a positive effect (aka "buff") available in the game. . . hence the names next to each day. This brought a lot of positivity into my world and I figure it would be a nice post here too. My wife and I have both struggled with weight at one point or another so I hope this helps.

(I'm terrified of posting at this point. The mods of GetMotivated removed this and then banned me for providing feedback that I disagree with their decision. Then Fitness removed it because it wasn't a question. I'm cool with this, I should have known. I was originally very excited to share this outside of the gaming community but I can't seem to find the right subreddit. All I want to do is help motivate anyone out there who's struggling to lose weight and stuck inside without workout equipment. If you know anyone that this might benefit please feel free to share. My wife and I put a lot of work into making quality workouts for new comers and old timers alike. If I've found the wrong subreddit again, please help me find the right place. Sorry for the text I'm running out of ideas here. )

Here's the content of everything we did over the last week. . .

The Workouts

If you want to get a decent little workout then I would recommend picking a day below and repeating all exercises 3-6 times. We put in a ton of effort to make sure not over burden a single muscle group for all 6 days. Easy options are designed for those with low mobility, just getting started in their exercise routines, or have an injury which restricts movement. The only equipment you need to complete all exercises is a towel. Stay hydrated, stretch often, and at minimum please try to get up and walk around every hour or so when sitting at a computer.

Day 1 - Might

  1. 10-20 Pushups (Hands shoulders width apart. Keep your elbows tucked in to avoid shoulder problems. I have to use a foam roller for my standard pushups due to fused feet bones so don't think you need one!)
    1. Easy - Cobra Pushup
    2. Intermediate - Knee Pushup
    3. Hard - Pushups
  2. 10-20 Squats (Feet shoulders width apart. Toes out 15 degrees. Keep heels on the ground for the entire squat.)
    1. Easy - Chair Squat
    2. Intermediate - Half Squat
    3. Hard - Full Squat
  3. 10-20 Crunches (No situps! Crunches are better for your spine. Squeeze your abdominal. Do not fling your arms/elbows forward to gain momentum!)
    1. Easy - Lil'Crunch
    2. Intermediate - Half Crunch
    3. Hard - Full Crunch

Day 2 - Swiftness

  1. 10-20 Standing Elbows to Knees (obliques, hip flexors, and abdominal)
    1. Easy - Leg Lift Elbow Tuck (slow and controlled)
    2. Intermediate - Elbow to Knee (fast and intense)
    3. Hard - Hand to Toe (explosive)
  2. 10-20 Windmills (lower back, glutes, hamstrings)
    1. Easy - Halfmill
    2. Intermediate - Windmill
    3. Hard - Weighted Windmill
  3. 20-60 Jumping Jacks (calves, shoulders, hips)
    1. Easy - Step Jacks (slower and low impact)
    2. Intermediate - Jumping Jacks (faster)
    3. Hard - Fancy Jacks (faster with more complex foot work)
    4. Ridiculous - Criss Cross (extreme speed and coordination)

Day 3 - Stability

  1. 10-20 Superman Rows
    1. Easy - Future Superman Rows
    2. Intermediate - Superman Extensions
    3. Hard - Superman Rows
  2. 10-20 Bird Dogs
    1. Easy - Touchy Dogs
    2. Intermediate - Light Bird Dogs
    3. Hard - Bird Dogs
  3. Plank (30-60 cumulative seconds. Please ignore my use of the foam roller.)
    1. Easy - Knee Plank (rest by putting hips on ground)
    2. Intermediate - Full Elbow Plank (rest position shown in video after a few seconds)
    3. Hard - Arms Extended Plank (rest position shown in video after a few seconds)

Day 4 - Retaliation

  1. 10-20 Pop Ups
    1. Easy - Step Up
    2. Intermediate - Pop Up
    3. Hard - Pop Up and Fight
  2. 10-20 Burpees
    1. Easy - Lil'Burp
    2. Intermediate - Up Down Burpees
    3. Hard - Belly Flop Burpees
    4. Advanced - Don't Hate Me Burpees
  3. 50-100 Punches
    1. Easy - Stand Still Punches
    2. Intermediate - Orthodox & Southpaw Punches
    3. Hard - Punch Punch Uppercut Uppercut Switch!

Day 5 - Regeneration

  1. 5-10 Downward Dog to Cobra (5-10 seconds in each pose, drive your heels as close to the ground as you can.)
    1. Easy - Puppy to Dangernoodle
    2. Intermediate - Downward Dog and Cobra
    3. Hard - Downward Dog to Cobra
  2. 5-10 Bridge (5-10 seconds in each pose)
    1. Easy - Bridgeish
    2. Intermediate - Half Bridge
    3. Hard - Full Bridge
  3. 5-10 Salute Fold to Tree (5-10 seconds in each pose)
    1. Easy - Handy Sproutling
    2. Intermediate - Shins and Shrubs
    3. Hard - Salute Fold to Tree

Day 6 - Vigor

  1. 10-20 Towel Bicep Curls (difficulty is up to you! The more weight you add with your leg the harder it is. Turn hands outward at top of rep.)
    1. Easy/Intermediate/Hard - Bicep Curls
  2. 10-20 Towel Tricep Extensions and Hammer Curl (difficulty is up to you! Reps are per arm so 20-40 total. One arm provides the resistance while the other pulls against it.)
    1. Easy/Intermediate/Hard - Tricep Extension
  3. 10-20 Lunges
    1. Easy - Half Lunge
    2. Easy/Intermediate (Bad Knees) - Back Lunge (difficulty based on knee depth)
    3. Intermediate - Lunge
    4. Hard - Back Lunge to High Knee

Day Cat - Fury (Bonus Cat Workouts)

  1. Bonus Kitty Bench Press
  2. Bonus Cat Tricep Extension
  3. Bonus Kettlekitty Squats
  4. Bonus Shoulder Press Kitty Kisses
  5. Bonus Kitty Stretch Backflip
  6. Bonus Kittyjacks

About weight loss

This was my response to someone asking about exercise and weight loss.

"Before I answer - I want to provide some information about weight loss because exercise is a small part of the equation. I don't know if you care but I do think it's important to get the information out there just in case it helps you. There is so much nonsense out there designed to exploit people trying to lose weight but the answer is to simply pay attention to the numbers.

Take this advice for what it is - a stranger on the internet telling you stuff. I have experimented with weight loss multiple times in my life and one of the biggest lessons was learned going from 225lbs (102.05kg) to 165lbs (74.84kg). I simply wanted to see if I could do it with a fairly sedentary lifestyle. . . programmer by day, gamer by night, and pretty much no exercise. This is when I learned that weight is mostly controlled in the kitchen. I started at probably 2500 calories a day (weight/size specific) and I would lose .5lb (.22kg) - 1lb (.45kg) a week. Every 5-10 weeks I would plateau on weight loss, remove another 200+ calories, and check again in 2-3 weeks to see if it was working. I did this for about a year until I reached a weight that felt healthy. (EDIT) This does not mean my heart or body was healthy, it simply means I got rid of all the flub that was making me depressed. I didn't want to work out because I was depressed and I was depressed because I wasn't happy about my weight.

I strongly believe that you shouldn't diet to lose weight. You should fix the lifestyle that you're unhappy with and create a new normal*. This is why I'm happy your asking questions because it looks like you're doing just that! A diet or goal weight feels like a punishment that will end after a few months but if you can fix a lifestyle then you can keep that change forever. There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a pizza, soda, cake, donut, or cookies. When you are eating bad food you should go all out, don't get the fat free junk, and enjoy the full experience! However, you should remind yourself that these things are intended to be consumed as a treat and treats should be rare. Bad food is extremely addictive because it makes you feel so good. . . we often forget that things like pizza are a treat and not actually a good dinner.*Now to actually answer your question. . .If you can get your heart rate up for about 20-30 minutes a day and exercise those muscles you will 100% improve your bodies ability to efficiently shrink fat cells. The more healthy muscle have the more calories your body will naturally burn."

About nutrition

A few people asked me about nutrition. I don't want to comment on nutrition because everyone has their own nutritional needs. I'll just list off a few key things. . .

  1. Liquid calories are like fat ninjas. It's easy to pack on an extra 500-1000 calories a day with these and not even notice. (e.g. Soda, Starbucks, fruit juice, beer, liquor, SAUCES, DIPS, OILS, etc)
  2. Perishable food is king. If it doesn't go bad it's probably not doing you much good.
  3. Take it easy on pasta, rice, grains, etc
  4. Meat/Soy/Protein + Vegetables > Fruits > Pasta
  5. Fat isn't bad
  6. Hunger pangs don't mean you need to stuff calories in your face. It's your stomachs way of saying "Hey, I'm not as full as I usually am! Things are different!". This goes away after a few weeks of proper meal sizes.
  7. If you eat less calories than your body burns in a day, you WILL lose weight. It doesn't matter if you're a sedentary couch potato or an Olympic athlete.

Take care of your hearts and try to stay healthy reddit. <3

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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3lq6d7m

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