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In the same post she said she only exercised 22 times in the entire year (lol), so I guess that's not a problem.
My gym was closed for 2 weeks during the winter and I thought I was going to lose my mind, how can people live like that?
Believe it or not, not everyone enjoys exercise. 😉 I personally actively dislike it, and find it only mildly preferable to being slapped in the face.
Same. I have never ever felt like exercise was even the least bit enjoyable, and I've tried to enjoy it. I've spent long amounts of time trying to get past that initial painful hump and into the addiction phase everyone tells me will happen. It's never happened. In fact I don't even really believe people anymore when they say it's enjoyable. I assume it's some mix of bragging and them conflating the effects of exercise with the feeling they get after exercising. Or maybe masochism.
My relationship with exercise has been a bit masochistic. I got pretty damned fit in my 20's, although never model ripped. I enjoyed the feeling of self determination in reshaping my body. I also greatly enjoyed my new physical capacities. I was working out all the time, did martial arts for 10 years, was teaching and competing. The soreness and stiffness was fleeting and didn't bother me.
Once my 30's rolled around, I was just sore and stiff all the damned time. I didn't enjoy sparring hardly at all like I used to, since every twist or deep bruise took for god damned ever to heal. I scaled way back, and eventually quit when I had a family.
These days I mostly just do kettlebell workouts. One day is 5 sets of 5 70lb turkish get ups. The other day is 5 sets of 30 70lb kettlebell swings. Usually I throw in a lot of crunches, pushups or military presses too. Once I discovered turkish get ups, no other exercise makes me feel as all over strong as them.
Closing in on 40 and I've aged a fair bit better than most of my peers. Still have a good build, even if my belly button is a bit deeper than it used to be. It's not a problem for me to be outside doing yardwork or repairs all weekend. I can mostly keep up with my 3 year old. I still find myself getting sore from time to time, but mostly when I neglect to drink enough water or have a recovery protein shake after a workout. I've achieved a good enough steady state that keeps me from going to seed, at least for now.
How do you program TGUs? Everyone recommends them, I never get anything out of them, just curious if you have any tips?
I want to love them, but just don't.
I just do 5 sets of 5 with the heaviest weight I can do. Which at the moment is 70#. I try to get them in 2 or 3 times a week. I rest as long as I need to between sets.
My wife also complains that she gets nothing out of them, but she does them with 25#. IMHO, they only become beneficial once you are doing them with a heavy enough weight that it challenges you at every stage of the exercise. It should be a weight heavy enough that you feel worked from the tips of your fingers maintaining the grip to the tips of your toes anchored to the floor. Your shoulders should burn by the 5th rep from the maintained tension. Your core should be solid as it remains rigid while you push yourself into the one armed position. Your glutes should strain up from the kneeling position.
I've committed to TGU's for about 10 years or so, and have worked my way up to doing them with 88# on occasion. They have essentially set the strength floor for every part of my body. All the little stabilizing muscles machines ignore.
Contrasted with my wife, who dabbles in them occasionally with low weights, there is always a weak point keeping her from experiences the full benefits. Maybe her shoulder can only handle 25# of TGUs, while her core and glutes could probably have handled 50#. Or her back is all fucked and can only handle 15# at certain parts of the exercise. This results in reps done sloppily as many parts of her body can get away with poor form, with little actual improvement on the weak muscles.
TGUs for me are very much a case of "Go big or go home". There is a possibly apocryphal story about how if you wanted to be a strongman back in the early 1900's, they'd just teach you the TGU and tell you not to come back until you could do it with 100#. I don't know if that story is true, but it's my guiding light in doing them.
Thanks for the reply! Do you use kettlebells or dumbbells or a mix?
Just kettlebells. I like the simplicity of doing my entire workout with a 70# kettlebell and nothing else. I'm also the kind of guy who can eat the same thing for breakfast every day, enjoy the same whiskey for years, and this extends to doing largely the same workout with the same tools for a decade.
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