Fitness exercise diary

Wednesday, June 12, 2024 sunny

First of all, I would like to give an accurate message to all those friends who are confused about "whether exercise is in vain and how long it takes to persist before it is useful": as long as you can train effectively 3 times a week, your muscles will feel sore and swollen after each exercise, and you are not trying to fish in water, even if your movements are not so standard and your diet is not boiled every time. If you stick to it for a year, you can get 80% of the basic benefits you want - your body fat rate will be steadily reduced by 5-8 points, you won't need to use handrails to rest when you climb the fifth floor, your waist and neck pain caused by sitting for a long time will be reduced by 70%, and the number of colds you get during seasonal changes will be reduced by half. There is no such thing as "waste training".

I am currently slumped on the plastic bench in the gym locker room typing these words. The back of my sportswear is mostly wet, and my socks are stained with magnesium powder from the equipment. Next to me, Lao Zhou is talking to people about the strain caused by the bench press last week, saying that he will never blindly press the weight again next time. His voice is so loud that the entire locker room can hear it.

Speaking of weight training, the fitness circle has been arguing for almost ten years, right? One school of thought says that the principle of progressive overload must be followed. Every training must be pushed to the limit. Failure to practice to exhaustion means training in vain. ； The other school says that ordinary people do fitness and don’t compete. They only need to train until their muscles feel strong. Injury to their joints will outweigh the gain. In fact, progressive overload is not that mysterious. You just need to lift 2.5 kilograms more than the last time, or do two more movements. I have followed suit before. When I increased the deadlift to 60 kilograms, my waist pulled. I lay at home for three days.

A few days ago, my mother asked me if I wanted to dance square dance with the aunties in the community. She said that Aunt Li from their team had been dancing for a year and her fatty liver had disappeared. She also said that I was tired from lifting iron every day. This is another endless debate: Which is better, aerobic or strength? In the first three months of last year, I ran 3 kilometers in addition to dancing and lost 4 pounds. My knees hurt first. I went to see a doctor who told me that the patella joint was worn out and asked me to run less. ； Later, I added strength training, and I didn't lose much weight, but my waist circumference was 6 cm smaller. The jeans that I couldn't fit into before can now be stuffed in easily. Which one do you think is better? I think they are all good. Aunt Li is happy and able to persevere when dancing in the square. I feel good about lifting irons, so they are all useful. There is no need to step on them one by one.

Speaking of this, I have to mention diet. I believed in the online saying that "you must eat clean to keep fit". I ate boiled broccoli and boiled chicken breasts for half a month. I felt nauseous when I saw green vegetables. I got up in the middle of the night and ate two bags of potato chips, but I gained two pounds. After asking around, the registered dietitian said that as long as ordinary people control the total calories and avoid eating high-fat and high-sugar meals, there is no need to completely stop eating and drinking. ； A veteran who has been working out for nearly ten years is more direct, saying that he has to eat a bowl of ice powder after training day. As long as the overall calories are not exceeded for a week, he can eat anything. I just eat the company lunch box for lunch and drain the soup from the braised pork ribs. I don’t have to eat hot pot and barbecue with friends on weekends. My body fat is stable at around 22%, which is much better than the previous 28%.

Oh, by the way, novices should not believe in the nonsense about 7-day waistcoat line and losing 5 pounds in 3 days. When I first started practicing, I followed the 7-day waistcoat line tutorial with an internet celebrity. My stomach hurt so much that I even laughed when I opened my clothes to see if there should be fat or not. Later I learned that if the body fat rate is not reduced, no matter how developed the rectus abdominis is, it will be covered with fat and cannot be seen, which is a waste of effort.

Some people also ask whether they should hire a private tutor. There is no standard answer to this. Some people say that personal trainers are all about cutting leeks, and you can learn by watching Bilibili videos. My colleague is like this. After practicing with the videos for a year, he can bench press 70 kilograms. Except for the wrong movement at the beginning and shoulder soreness for a month, there is no problem. ； I was afraid that I would hurt my back by practicing blindly, so I took 10 classes at the beginning to learn movement patterns and force generation. Now I have been practicing for more than half a year without any problems. To put it bluntly, as long as you are willing to spend time thinking about it, or you can find a reliable person to teach you, you can do whatever you want. If you are unwilling to learn and go crazy about the weight, it is only a matter of time before you get injured.

To put it bluntly, I don't think about practicing the peach buttocks vest line now. Three times a week, I will be sweating after practicing, and I will lie on the bed and sleep on the pillow at night. It is better than anything else. Oh, by the way, after I finished my shoulder training today, I rewarded myself with half a glass of iced Americano, and added two pumps of syrup. It was so cold that I shivered, and it felt so good.

The dressing room is about to close. I pack my things and go home. I have to do leg training tomorrow. I hope I don’t kneel down in front of my colleagues when I go down the stairs.