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Wellness Wednesday for August 16, 2023

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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I started exercising at home a few weeks ago. Bought a stationary bike for a low price. It's great. The treshold for getting a session done is much lower when I don't have to leave the house to do so. I do 2-3 days in a row and then take a rest day. Sometimes I go for longer than I had planned, but I'm careful not to "cheat myself" often. My primary motivation is simply one of general health/longevity. Increased cardiovascular fitness, leg strength and well-being is a bonus.

Leg strength can't be developed using a cardio machine unless you have stick legs. Get yourself a barbell setup as soon as possible.

It does develop a bit of strength (and muscle endurance) for my legs, I've noticed already. I realize the limitations of cardio for strength, but I hadn't trained them for years prior to this, so they probably qualify as stick legs in your estimation. :) I don't have room for a barbell setup atm, else I'd probably get one.

I was just trying to look out for you... some people delude themselves, out of fear, into rejecting barbell training altogether. It's a sad sight, especially considering weight training has one of the lowest injury rates of any sport.

And well, going by your story, you could probably do anything and see growth, however barbell training will always be the most efficient altogether. I'm glad to hear you're looking to get a barbell and rack, that's always good.