Strength training should be kept simple (I’m a former personal trainer and a current strongman competitor).

For health 2x per week full body is plenty For strength/size/performance 3-6x (with 4x being the best for most of the time) is ideal.

Ideally compound movements (movements using multiple muscle groups) should be the foundation of your training, and should come first in a session as they are often heavier/more complex. Examples are squats/leg press, Bench/dumbbell bench/chest press, Overhead/shoulder press, deadlift/Romanian deadlift, barbell row/seated row.

If you are making your own “program”/ doing your own thing, first make sure it’s enjoyable, then make sure you either add reps(hard), sets (hard), or weight (easier at first) over time (daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever feels sustainable) only switching out movements when they aren’t progressing/hurt/are boring for similar ones (e.g. replace leg press with hack squat).

And for a rule of thumb, choose exercises such that at least once a week (usually twice is better) you are doing something from each of these categories:

• Knee Flexion (squat, lunge, leg press, etc.)
• Hip Hinge (Deadlift, Romanian deadlift, back raise, leg curl)
• Horizontal Row (barbell row, seated cable row, DB row)
• Vertical Row (Pull downs, pull ups)
• Horizontal Press (Bench, chest press)
• Vertical Press (Overhead Press, Shoulder Press, front/side raises
• Core (something dynamic like leg raises, and something static like planks)

If you are new, 4 tough sets (not dying, but you have to put in effort) per week in each of these categories is plenty.

Rare exercises are usually either pointless, very niche, or should be viewed as a fun movement or warm-up (like dumbbell snatches).

You can use an app like Macrofactor to track food, but honestly if you track your calories over a week using a spreadsheet that might be enough for most people. Better for most would be eat more sources of protein (meat, tofu, protein powder, etc) and track your body weight every day. If you want to be more muscular, your body weight should at least stay the same, or go up slowly overtime (maybe around 1% per month), and if you want to reduce body fat your body weight should go down no more than 1% per week. These recommendations are in the context of strength training.

Eating an abundance of plant based foods ( like fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains) is a great idea. Definitely not in the form of like meat substitutes. The bigger variety the better, there are no “super foods”. But I grow something called Cape Ground Cherries. They are a weird little fruit that grow in husks, and tast like a sweeter, more fruit like tomato (I live in a temperate zone with a shortish growing season, 130-140 days, and hot summer’s).

I think that covers everything as generally as I can.

Haven’t in a while. But up until I did. Definitely keep stretching to avoid injuries, it helps a lot. Follow a plan and if youre doing weight training focus on progressive overload. Keep your goals in mind and build your plan based on what you eventually want.

I did weight training and played badminton and cricket. Stretch before and after anything you do. Don’t go for rare exercises, keep it simple and consistent. Once you get the form perfect for an exercise is when your injury risk is lowest and your gains are maximised.

Hitting my calorie goals was never an issue, when I work out my hunger levels rise naturally. I’d hitting your protein levels is tough, protein powder is a godsend. If you find it difficult to consume more calories, add fag to your diet, if you find it difficult to contain your calories reduce fat.

I rarely eat out since eating out tends to be very calorie heavy. You can use a calorie tracking all and weigh your food for a month of two. After that I would suggest moving to intuition. My diet is intuitive. I trust my body to tell me when I need food and how much. But I have experimented a lot since I was an obese kid and now know my body very well.

If youre looking for workout plans I like Jeff Nippard. Or you could hire a personal trainer if you’d like (would help with your form and plans if youre new although i never got one, too expensive and not worth it for me).

Get a gym partner and use a training plan together. Be consistent and eat healthy. Thats about all I can say.

There’s no special foods. I suggest keeping a high fiber diet and most vegetables fulfill that. So do whole grains. Growing beans or lentils could be interesting, Great for your soil, your health and literally everything else. I’m a big bean and lentils fan. You could consider growing whatever you like or is local to you.

I go the gym 3-5 days a week depending on how busy I am. I mainly start off doing a bit of cardio on the treadmill or bike and then lifting weights. If I have the time and energy, I end it with a bit of the stair machine as well.

Please do share your experience/suggestions/opinions on the it and related topics like sports, calisthenics, general physical health etc.

Different exercises/workouts are geared towards different things. What’s your goal from exercising? To lose weight? Bulk up? Just get more toned and have better muscle definition? Have better stamina? How you should be exercising depends on what you want to get out of it.

Do you know any exercises that are rare? Or ones that seem special to your locality?

I don’t think that’s a thing really. You can look up any kind of workout regimen online from anywhere around the world nowadays. It just depends on what you want to get out of it.

How do you meet your protein or calorie goals? How do you track it? Especially food that is local to your place.

Focus your meals on high protein foods. Meats, chicken, lentils, chickpeas, etc. If you’re doing intense workouts more than 3 days a week then supplement it with protein powder. Unless you’re looking to become some kind of professional athlete/bodybuilder/whatever, counting your calorie and protein intake is a waste of time (in my humble opinion). Just pay attention to your body, things like fatigue joint pain, etc. Be mindful of them.

My routines are a bit more casual and inconsistent than what others have posted. Lately I have been doing intervals on a stationary bike for 30 minutes three times per week. If the weather is nice, I’ll go for a walk 30-90 minutes depending on location and weather on days that I don’t do the stationary bike.

I eat fairly healthy and almost always at home. I make an effort to get two servings of raw fruit and veg each day, in addition to anything that I put into my meal prep for that week. I don’t eat much meat though, so I struggle a bit with protein intake.

In the past I’ve used MyFitnessPal to track my meals and check protein and calorie intake in particular. It’s a decent app and gave me what I needed.

Judo 3x/wk. Usually 1.5hrs of hard randori.

Weights or hard cardio 3x/wk:

• cardio: 90min zone 3-4 assault bike
• 5x5 DB rows pyramid
• 5x10 front/back squats
• 10x10 single arm pull downs
• 5x10 landmine obliques (don’t know the name)
• 5x5 kettlebells overhead press
• 5x10 single or double RDLs
• 5x5 feet off the ground bench press

3 egg whites/1 with yolk + 250g chopped spinach omelette for breakfast.

Big bowl of salad with an apple, orange and almonds/walnuts and 150g of chicken. Basalmic vinegar over it.

My goal is slowly go from 94kg to 89kg over the next year and keep getting stronger.

Yoga 4x a week (vinyasa)

Weightlifting, theoretically once a week but it’s been so busy more like once a month lately.

Ride EBike to work, walk daily too.

Food, I don’t track calories (history of disordered eating) but do try to eat pretty healthy and do have a garden. I’m in Florida and right now growing lettuces, spinach, mustard greens, butternut squash, jalapenos, fennel, broccoli, cauliflower. In the summer okra is the star here, love it, and also grew some watermelons, Stokes Purple sweet potatoes, and heat tolerant lettuce, mint and basil.

So my “routine” is to not purposefully exercise at all.

Hear me out.

Working out at gym or just lifting for the sake of exercise drives me crazy. I always want to be accomplishing something or getting something done. So I bike to work twice a week. That’s 18 miles round trip in a hilly area. Great for cardio and legs. I also rock climb with my son twice a week for roughly 2-3 hours. So thats uppwr body and hand strength. Throw in an “active” weekenf life and i get plenty of exercise.

Now diet is the big one. Last year, after some experimentation I removed nearly all sugars from my diet. The calories I would have consumed from straight sugars I replaced with complex carbs (bread, pasta, rice). It was a hard transition to make and I had to teach myself to crave different things. But the result was 40lbs down over one year (205 > 165ish) . I can see my abs (not a super 6 pack or anything) and I get those sexy little hip lines that my wife loves. The one downside is that none of my pants fit and I have to cinch them with belts.

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I train primarily for powerlifting, secondarily for hypertrophy. At a high level, that means my workouts are organized such that each day focuses on one of the three main powerlifts (squat, bench, deadlift), plus accessory exercises to address weak points.

You might enjoy something similar if

• You like seeing numbers go up or big numbers in general
• Don’t like being sore after workouts
• Enjoy simple workouts

Join us at !https://lemmy.world/c/fitness if you have further questions

Do you know any exercises that are rare? Or ones that seem special to your locality?

That’s kind of an odd question. I’m not sure what kind of answer you’re looking for. People choose exercises based on goal, the available equipment, and ability to perform the exercise. So I’ve never seen anyone do a belt squat in person because I’ve never been to a gym with belt squat equipment. I don’t see many people do front levers because few are able to do them.

How do you meet your protein or calorie goals? How do you track it? Especially food that is local to your place.

If you have a particular problem with meeting your macronutrient goals, then that might be a more concrete question to pose. I feel like this is a bit too individual to give you anything useful. Tracking, I do with Macrofactor. It’s a paid app.

I try to train 3 days a week. Simple compound body weight movements are my personal focus. So pullups, dips, squats. Then accessories to compliment muscle groups. Bicep curls, tricep push downs and/or lateral raises, and Romanian deadlifts respectively. Lastly core is important for your overall health and stability so sneak that into your workouts.

I priorotize walking to most places if I am able, keeps staying active easier than dedicating time to running. However, sprints are a really great athletic movement so don’t be afraid to find a field and do sprints or something explosive like it.

As for diet, there’s no real counting anything for me. I typically just prioritise getting proteins on my plate then veggies and complex carbs. Try and cook your food yourself rather than eating out and you’re 90% of the way to your goals! The rest is consistency and effort.

As for local plants I’m not sure if there’s anything special but growing your own food does seem to taste better in my opinion!

I’ve been going to the gym 4 days a week (often just 2, but ideally 4). 2 upper body days, 2 lower body days.

For me, going to the gym means that I’m much more likely to do a full workout than if I stayed home. It’s also easier to properly target all of the important muscle groups. Machines are a good place to start. Use lower weight than you think, and really focus on feeling the muscle and doing slow, controlled motions.

I just do protein shakes, which is maybe not enough. I definitely don’t get enough calories, as I live alone and have a very hard time preparing food and eating a proper amount. Calorie surplus is important for building muscle. I’ve made very little progress because I keep losing any weight that I gain :(

Not a direct answer, but I highly recommend reading Outlive, by Peter Attia. It’s completely changed the way I think about these things. And it’s actually grounded in science.

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