The gym thread

[306Puggy]

Man, I tell you what, my fitness has changed after uni! When I was at uni I was going mad, For 1 year I did strength training with the sole aim to increase my strength. I squatted, overhead pressed, bench pressed and deadlifted like mad. Because I am also lanky (6 ft, 65% of my body is my legs) I am at a biomechanical DISadvantage. I found that I just hit a plateau, my figures were pitiful, 65 kg on the barbell MAX for squats. But I looked jacked at 14 stone which was not what I was aiming for but okay I suppose. But Ruan, if you want to bulk up a little bit focus on reps of 6-10 with moderate weight for bulking up, anything lower is strength and anything higher is endurance.

Anyway at uni I also started boxing which for those who don't know is REALLY demanding on your cardio. And I thought I was fit before, man did I not know what was gonna hit me! You are up on your toes, throwing and avoiding punches with pauses of maybe a few seconds at most, if your hands go down you are gonna get it. So in my second year of uni I added 3 more days of cardio which bumped my total cardio up to 5 days a week, as well as the 3 days of strength training. Man, I don't think I've been in better shape since!

Now obviously I am not at uni anymore, I still box but I also do my own exercises out in the garden 3 times a week, not strength anymore though because that + cardio was just too demanding! I focus on high reps now to aid my cardio and muscle endurance for boxing. I also try to eat my 5 fruit or veg a day but I do snack as well like I had a whole f*cking irish whiskey cake yesterday to myself and a whole big bag of flame grilled stake flavoured crisps as well but if I look in the mirror I can see that I am still lean thanks to all the training that I do. So yeah, as long as you work hard you can play hard as well.

Also I'm finding with the full time work I am doing at the moment (as a postperson) I am walking up to 8 miles a day, 5 days a week I reckon that has improved my fitness a bit as well.