Exercise and Fitness

[FootyLovin]

It's come up enough, with recent marathon and running discussion falling in the praise thread, that I think it probably deserves its own space.

Running, lifting, rucking, weekend warrior footy. We can even make room here for those pickleball crazies.

Let's talk all things fitness.

 

[FootyLovin]

mgarbowski curious if you are still regularly rucking. Also, I saw you got the 25L Rucker. Do you recall why you went with the 25L vs the 20L?

Go Ruck seems to have a pretty good sale price going right now (or maybe that's their always sale price - I haven't tracked it). Thinking of supplementing my running with rucking to get more mileage without the pounding.

 

[mgarbowski]

mgarbowski curious if you are still regularly rucking. Also, I saw you got the 25L Rucker. Do you recall why you went with the 25L vs the 20L?

Go Ruck seems to have a pretty good sale price going right now (or maybe that's their always sale price - I haven't tracked it). Thinking of supplementing my running with rucking to get more mileage without the pounding.

I have the 20L, not 25L. I think the confusion is because the post where I specified the 20L I included a link to the product page set to 25L. But it's the same product page. You pick the size from a single page and I wasn't paying attention to that when I generated the link. I'm 6'2" which overlaps the height recommendations for both sizes, plus I'm somewhat broad, but the 20L fits me fine.

I'm still going strong, averaging about 8-10 miles a week and I just passed 360 miles for the year. Looks like I'll finish above 400 miles for 2025. I had a fair bit of life interruptus this year and next year looks to be the same. I'm going to target 500 miles for 2026 and see how that goes. Summer was pretty hard to maintain. I often found myself doing shorter sessions. I also needed a day off after a strong effort. I try to do it 3-5 days a week, but in summer I rarely did more than 3, and occasionally just 2. I could lift or do indoor cardio the day after a hard ruck but consecutive rucking days was tough. The last month I have been picking up both distance and frequency.

Most days I carry 30 lbs. I occasionally drop to 20 and more rarely go up to 40. I have 50 lbs of plates and might try that once soon just for the hey of it. Finally, I work hard to maintain a regular sub 16 minute mile pace. That's a reasonably quick walking pace. As a reference point, I understand a sub 15 minute pace is military standard for 8-12 mile rucks with 40-55 pounds. Being 63, I'm happy with my 15-16 minute pace, 30 lbs, and 2-4 mile standard session.

 

[joe]

Exercise has been a struggle since having a kid, although that feels like a less valid excuse with every passing year. I was weightlifting regularly before that, both Olympic lifting and power lifting, with a crossfit phase prior. (There are a bunch of issues with both CrossFit(TM) and the concept generally, but I think the specific gym I went to navigates them about as well as you can.)

Missing the social element of those is I think a big reason why I've had trouble making things stick in the intervening years. Big asks on both time and money, and when you combine the two, well, here I am.

 

[FootyLovin]

Exercise has been a struggle since having a kid, although that feels like a less valid excuse with every passing year. I was weightlifting regularly before that, both Olympic lifting and power lifting, with a crossfit phase prior. (There are a bunch of issues with both CrossFit(TM) and the concept generally, but I think the specific gym I went to navigates them about as well as you can.)

Missing the social element of those is I think a big reason why I've had trouble making things stick in the intervening years. Big asks on both time and money, and when you combine the two, well, here I am.

I miss the social aspect of a gym, but a little over 10 years ago I started putting my gym money into equipment. The first purchase was the biggest - adjustable DB set and bench. That alone kept me going for a while. Then every year I've gotten myself a new item or two. Now I've got power rack, 4 different types of BB, and a hack squat machine. It really would be nice to have other people around, but can't beat the convenience and speed of home equipment.

 

[FootyLovin]

I have the 20L, not 25L. I think the confusion is because the post where I specified the 20L I included a link to the product page set to 25L. But it's the same product page. You pick the size from a single page and I wasn't paying attention to that when I generated the link. I'm 6'2" which overlaps the height recommendations for both sizes, plus I'm somewhat broad, but the 20L fits me fine.

I'm still going strong, averaging about 8-10 miles a week and I just passed 360 miles for the year. Looks like I'll finish above 400 miles for 2025. I had a fair bit of life interruptus this year and next year looks to be the same. I'm going to target 500 miles for 2026 and see how that goes. Summer was pretty hard to maintain. I often found myself doing shorter sessions. I also needed a day off after a strong effort. I try to do it 3-5 days a week, but in summer I rarely did more than 3, and occasionally just 2. I could lift or do indoor cardio the day after a hard ruck but consecutive rucking days was tough. The last month I have been picking up both distance and frequency.

Most days I carry 30 lbs. I occasionally drop to 20 and more rarely go up to 40. I have 50 lbs of plates and might try that once soon just for the hey of it. Finally, I work hard to maintain a regular sub 16 minute mile pace. That's a reasonably quick walking pace. As a reference point, I understand a sub 15 minute pace is military standard for 8-12 mile rucks with 40-55 pounds. Being 63, I'm happy with my 15-16 minute pace, 30 lbs, and 2-4 mile standard session.

That sounds great. Love the 500 mile target for 2026. I think I'm going to place the order - a 20L for me and a plate carrier for wifey.

 

[RunningWise]

Thanks for this section. Love to talk about running or really anything cardio. I was on the crew team in college for one ill fated season and really messed up my rotator cuffs. So I don’t lift much and if I do anything it’s resistance bands.

Got back into running about 2.5 years ago and I’m up to 50ish miles a week.

 

[FootyLovin]

Thanks for this section. Love to talk about running or really anything cardio. I was on the crew team in college for one ill fated season and really messed up my rotator cuffs. So I don’t lift much and if I do anything it’s resistance bands.

Got back into running about 2.5 years ago and I’m up to 50ish miles a week.

Wow. 50 miles is still very aspirational for me. I just finished my longest run to date - 9 miles. Only stopped once, but I really needed to record the memory of this guy.

 

[mgarbowski]

Wow. 50 miles is still very aspirational for me. I just finished my longest run to date - 9 miles. Only stopped once, but I really needed to record the memory of this guy.

View attachment 14223

He looks like you caught him doing something he thought was private.

 

[mgarbowski]

After a few months not lifting for a very minor injury I started again this week. Really very minor btw. Probably could have not stopped but I was being hyper cautious.
Like footy, I lift at home with my own gear but I'm even more spartan due to space issues. I have adjustable dumbbells and that's it. No bar, no bench, no rack. Max weight is 52.5 per so 105 total. I do chest presses on the floor. For my purposes, building and retaining strength as I age, it's fine. I do wish I had a way to occasionally see how much I can press for just 1 rep. I honestly have no idea what my max would be. Without a bar, plates, bench and a spotter I can't even try. It doesn't keep me awake at night, but it would be fun to know.

 

[CCMore]

After a few months not lifting for a very minor injury I started again this week. Really very minor btw. Probably could have not stopped but I was being hyper cautious.
Like footy, I lift at home with my own gear but I'm even more spartan due to space issues. I have adjustable dumbbells and that's it. No bar, no bench, no rack. Max weight is 52.5 per so 105 total. I do chest presses on the floor. For my purposes, building and retaining strength as I age, it's fine. I do wish I had a way to occasionally see how much I can press for just 1 rep. I honestly have no idea what my max would be. Without a bar, plates, bench and a spotter I can't even try. It doesn't keep me awake at night, but it would be fun to know.

Maybe try a free trial at a local gym and then remove your CC info before you’re charged. Then in 6 months try a different gym for their free trial. Game that system lol

 

[FootyLovin]

After a few months not lifting for a very minor injury I started again this week. Really very minor btw. Probably could have not stopped but I was being hyper cautious.
Like footy, I lift at home with my own gear but I'm even more spartan due to space issues. I have adjustable dumbbells and that's it. No bar, no bench, no rack. Max weight is 52.5 per so 105 total. I do chest presses on the floor. For my purposes, building and retaining strength as I age, it's fine. I do wish I had a way to occasionally see how much I can press for just 1 rep. I honestly have no idea what my max would be. Without a bar, plates, bench and a spotter I can't even try. It doesn't keep me awake at night, but it would be fun to know.

I've never cared enough to go for a true 1 rep max. Or more to the point, I have never valued that knowledge more than I've felt nervous about the injury risk of a 1RM lift attempt. I do feel 100% comfortable with claiming 1RMs based on calculators.

I use this one.

I go to failure with a weight that takes me to 8 or 10 reps. Then claim the glory of whatever max the calculator tells me I could do.

With that logic my best ever lift was a 1RM PR of 364 on deadlift. In fact that was 260 for 12 reps on Feb 1 2022, 10 months short of my 50th birthday. Following injuries and backtracking I've been trying to regain that form ever since.

 

[mgarbowski]

I've never cared enough to go for a true 1 rep max. Or more to the point, I have never valued that knowledge more than I've felt nervous about the injury risk of a 1RM lift attempt. I do feel 100% comfortable with claiming 1RMs based on calculators.

I use this one.

I go to failure with a weight that takes me to 8 or 10 reps. Then claim the glory of whatever max the calculator tells me I could do.

With that logic my best ever lift was a 1RM PR of 364 on deadlift. In fact that was 260 for 12 reps on Feb 1 2022, 10 months short of my 50th birthday. Following injuries and backtracking I've been trying to regain that form ever since.

Oooh, I didn't know this was a thing. I'm going to try this. It makes sense there is a bell curve median line that you can build an algo off of.

I've never even done a single set to fail. I do fail, but it's usually on at least my second or third set of a particular lift in a session with other lifts mixed in. I need to set aside a day and test my limits to fail on chest, deadlift and maybe overhead press.