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I've been managing my physical and psychological state with weightlifting since my early twenties. I've never been really ripped but I've always been in pretty

I've been managing my physical and psychological state with weightlifting since my early twenties. I've never been really ripped but I've always been in pretty good shape. That's more than enough for me and it only takes 3 or 4 hours a week to maintain along with making sure I do a lot of walking and or running. The rest of my family presents the counterexample and they're all pretty unhealthy. Any attempt to persuade them to exercise fails. At best, occasionally one of them will try but go extreme and injure themselves and then use that as evidence as to why exercise doesn't work for them and that I should shut up about it. It's not complicated, it's just consistency. Just like almost any other thing actually.

emerged 5y ago
I’ve always loved cardio but found weight lifting to be impossibly boring. Then one day I decided to do 2-3 minutes of power sets, once in the morning and once at night. Every day. I very quickly became stronger than I’ve been before. It’s such a small time commitment that consistency is relatively easy, but you still accumulate a decent amount of volume per week.
- xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
  2-3 minutes sounds sublime. What sort of lifts are you doing? I only have free weights at home and have struggled to find a good routine that doesn't take too much time.
  - brightball 5y ago
    FWIW, push-ups + rowing will give you a virtually full body workout plus cardio.
    - stevesearer 5y ago
      The place I go is a structured workout with row, bike, versaclimber, and strength stuff (free weights, push-ups, core). Agree that row and push-ups would be a great combo.
    - popotamonga 5y ago
      Proper form is also a problem. I went up to 1k pushups a day but started with shoulder pain. No matter you many youtube videos i watch i guess i would need a personal trainer to teach me.
      - koonsolo 5y ago
        Why would you want to end up with 1k pushups a day? That doesn't add strength but endurance. Try to work towards the 1 hand 1 leg pushup, or planche pushups. Way better and more efficient.
      - slazaro 5y ago
        That's an insane amount that will most likely destroy your shoulders if you don't do any pulling to compensate. It might not be the form, but the imbalance between push/pull.
  - emerged 5y ago
    I do a power set of shrugs, curls, and one other I forget the name of. Then I put on a weighted vest and do a power set of ab roller, dips and decline push-ups. My cardio (cycling) includes a mix of sprints of various sorts so I don’t bother weight lifting for lower body. Getting too bulky is also not good for speed in cycling so I’m not trying to get super buff so everything is just dumbbells and weight vest.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
    I have a barbell at home and ensure I get at least one workout including each of the "big 3" at least once a week. If I time it right and don't dally in between sets I'm done in less than 15 minutes. The "big 3" are the core strength workouts of bench press, squat and deadlift. These are the workouts recommended by Rippetoe in Starting Strength: https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs For me this usually translates to one day per week of "upper body" (bench, abs, whatever ancillary stuff like curls or skull crushers) and one day per week of "lower body" (squat, deadlift, ancillary stuff such as calves). Abs are worked in between on both days, usually with body weight exercises. This is enough to keep me in good shape. If I do the above 4 days per week instead of 2, it's enough to get me into great shape. All of the above can be done with a set of dumbbells going up to 20kg/50lb. You might substitute squats with lunges if you don't have access to a barbell.
goodpoint 5y ago
> it only takes 3 or 4 hours a week Sounds incredible, compared to amount of hours people usually spend to be in "pretty good shape". Care to share your method?
- maccard 5y ago
  20-30 minutes of cardio plus 30 minutes of something very loosely based on starting strength [0] 3x a week would have huge returns on a beginner. [0] https://stronglifts.com/5x5/ https://stronglifts.com/5x5/
  - wrycoder 5y ago
    Why not go to startingstrength directly? They have the necessary training information in depth, including a good book on weight training over 40.
    - maccard 5y ago
      I just googled starting strength 5x5 programme and shared the first link. No other reasons or affiliations!
      - wrycoder 5y ago
        Well, for heavens sake, 5x5 is ripping off the https://startingstrength.com/ https://startingstrength.com/ trademark. Pun intended.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- maxerickson 5y ago
  I'm overweight, but fairly consistently running 3-4 hours a week (15-20 miles) has my resting pulse in the low 50s. What is "pretty good shape" is the question.
- lm28469 5y ago

emerged 5y ago

I’ve always loved cardio but found weight lifting to be impossibly boring. Then one day I decided to do 2-3 minutes of power sets, once in the morning and once at night. Every day. I very quickly became stronger than I’ve been before. It’s such a small time commitment that consistency is relatively easy, but you still accumulate a decent amount of volume per week.

xyzzy_plugh 5y ago
2-3 minutes sounds sublime. What sort of lifts are you doing? I only have free weights at home and have struggled to find a good routine that doesn't take too much time.
- brightball 5y ago
  FWIW, push-ups + rowing will give you a virtually full body workout plus cardio.
  - stevesearer 5y ago
    The place I go is a structured workout with row, bike, versaclimber, and strength stuff (free weights, push-ups, core). Agree that row and push-ups would be a great combo.
  - popotamonga 5y ago
    Proper form is also a problem. I went up to 1k pushups a day but started with shoulder pain. No matter you many youtube videos i watch i guess i would need a personal trainer to teach me.
    - koonsolo 5y ago
      Why would you want to end up with 1k pushups a day? That doesn't add strength but endurance. Try to work towards the 1 hand 1 leg pushup, or planche pushups. Way better and more efficient.
    - slazaro 5y ago
      That's an insane amount that will most likely destroy your shoulders if you don't do any pulling to compensate. It might not be the form, but the imbalance between push/pull.
- emerged 5y ago
  I do a power set of shrugs, curls, and one other I forget the name of. Then I put on a weighted vest and do a power set of ab roller, dips and decline push-ups. My cardio (cycling) includes a mix of sprints of various sorts so I don’t bother weight lifting for lower body. Getting too bulky is also not good for speed in cycling so I’m not trying to get super buff so everything is just dumbbells and weight vest.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
  I have a barbell at home and ensure I get at least one workout including each of the "big 3" at least once a week. If I time it right and don't dally in between sets I'm done in less than 15 minutes. The "big 3" are the core strength workouts of bench press, squat and deadlift. These are the workouts recommended by Rippetoe in Starting Strength: https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs For me this usually translates to one day per week of "upper body" (bench, abs, whatever ancillary stuff like curls or skull crushers) and one day per week of "lower body" (squat, deadlift, ancillary stuff such as calves). Abs are worked in between on both days, usually with body weight exercises. This is enough to keep me in good shape. If I do the above 4 days per week instead of 2, it's enough to get me into great shape. All of the above can be done with a set of dumbbells going up to 20kg/50lb. You might substitute squats with lunges if you don't have access to a barbell.

goodpoint 5y ago

> it only takes 3 or 4 hours a week Sounds incredible, compared to amount of hours people usually spend to be in "pretty good shape". Care to share your method?

maccard 5y ago
20-30 minutes of cardio plus 30 minutes of something very loosely based on starting strength [0] 3x a week would have huge returns on a beginner. [0] https://stronglifts.com/5x5/ https://stronglifts.com/5x5/
- wrycoder 5y ago
  Why not go to startingstrength directly? They have the necessary training information in depth, including a good book on weight training over 40.
  - maccard 5y ago
    I just googled starting strength 5x5 programme and shared the first link. No other reasons or affiliations!
    - wrycoder 5y ago
      Well, for heavens sake, 5x5 is ripping off the https://startingstrength.com/ https://startingstrength.com/ trademark. Pun intended.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
maxerickson 5y ago
I'm overweight, but fairly consistently running 3-4 hours a week (15-20 miles) has my resting pulse in the low 50s. What is "pretty good shape" is the question.
lm28469 5y ago