Getting into shape

[Freed Roger]

Yeah, it is funny that a guy challenges you to a post-Festivus feats of strength all the [expletive] he is good at. All he has to is sandbag and he wins.

And yikes, the armstrong program looks dreadful.

[jim]

I started my diet tonight. It's grill night - which means a 1/3 pound cheeseburger, a hot dog, a big bag of chips, and two beers. Tonight I had a 1/4 pound cheeseburger, a hot dog, a big bag of chips, and two beers. Unfortunately after I consumed my burger I realized the buns were all full of mold.

How many calories in mold?

[Freed Roger]

You might get the most bang for your buck focusing on improving mile time. I would think that dude has a decent mile time already-so his potential for gain cant be near yours.
(unless you let him create the scoring system too).

You'd get weight loss from that, and I'd guess you gain 2 pull-ups from 5-7 lb loss. a better engine for the burpees. Weather works against though.

[jim]

He does the scoring system too.

I've been interested in what the PT guy told me yesterday about the Marines, and I was shocked when I saw this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_St ... tness_Test

The minimum a 17- to 26-year-old male Marine must complete are 3 pull-ups, 50 crunches, and a 28-minute 3-mile run.

I gotta' tell you, my impressions of the Marines fitness just went waaaay down. I'm almost 53 and I could nail all of those pretty easily.

To earn a perfect PFT score of 300 points, a male must do 20 pull-ups, 100 crunches in less than two minutes, and complete the three mile run in 18 minutes or less.

Now this is a little more impressive. I'm shooting for the 20 pull-ups, the crunches I'm not sure about because I don't do them, but I know there is no way in hell I could ever sniff that 3/18. Maybe 3/24. I'm not a long distance runner at all, never have been.

http://www.military.com/military-fitnes ... pft-charts

My score today would be around 155-ish. 55 for pullups, 50 for crunches and 50 for the run. Completely guessing on the crunches though.

http://www.usmcofficer.com/physical-fit ... re-charts/

[IMADreamer]

Speaking of bench press and the marines. I haven't done it in years but my 18 year old hot shot cousin was a little cocky over the holiday because he's going into the Marines next year and he's been working out. He can't out bench press me. I still stand by that corn fed farm boy work everyday beats the gym for strength. Pretty sure he'd whip my butt in a fight though because he is kind of a stud so we won't mention that to him.

[Freed Roger]

I can't recall the last time I bench pressed with barbell. Maybe 20 years ago.

Never cared much for it, and when I heard it isnt so great for the joints, I gladly ditched it. Using dumbbells is harder, and supposedly better.

[lukethedrifter]

Update: shoulder still hurts. Considering doc.

It's funny having that uncle intimidation factor. Over the holidays challenged my professional soccer playing nephew to a foot race. He would kill me at this point but he begged off.

"Uncle!!"

[IMADreamer]

I can't recall the last time I bench pressed with barbell. Maybe 20 years ago.

Never cared much for it, and when I heard it isnt so great for the joints, I gladly ditched it. Using dumbbells is harder, and supposedly better.

I think dumbells give you better muscle coordination because there is more balance involved. I was told that once anyway, not sure if it's true.

[jim]

I can't recall the last time I bench pressed with barbell. Maybe 20 years ago.

Never cared much for it, and when I heard it isnt so great for the joints, I gladly ditched it. Using dumbbells is harder, and supposedly better.

When I was younger and playing football, that was THE weight lifting exercise. They still use it at combines today to test strength. I have to admit that I bench too much - too frequently and with far too much weight. Part of it is just that old school mentality of associating bench press with true strength, and part of it is that I can bench a fair amount just like it. That natural inclination to try to improve what you are good at I guess. But I've had wrist problems from it, and now I suspect I'm having shoulder/neck/cranium pain from it although I can't be sure. Something somewhere put a little strain in my neck that goes up to the base of my skull, and I noticed last week after I did bench it seemed to aggravate it more. I really should stop, but I have this weird emotional attachment to it. I only do it 1x per week, but I should probably drop that to every other week or better yet.

[jim]

I can't recall the last time I bench pressed with barbell. Maybe 20 years ago.

Never cared much for it, and when I heard it isnt so great for the joints, I gladly ditched it. Using dumbbells is harder, and supposedly better.

I think dumbells give you better muscle coordination because there is more balance involved. I was told that once anyway, not sure if it's true.

I use dumbells alot, the biggest thing for me is I think it's less stressful on the joints. If I need to tweak how one side is going up I'm not locked into the other side, and can do so. I think it helps avoid injury.