How can I lose this spare tire without pssiong off the neighbors?

September 13, 2009 10:23 PM

Inspired by this askme thread and particularly this response recommending Fitdeck, what sort of exercises can I put into a random queue to get back into shape? Background:

Fifteen years ago I was 15 and in great shape thanks to martial arts training. Since then I acquired a philosophical aversion to fighting, abandoned exercise, and took up smoking, drinking, and general hedonistic excess. Fast forward 15 years and you've got a pear-shaped male programmer looking to get fit. Two weeks ago I successfully quit smoking and adopted a max-one-beer-per-day rule, and since then I've stabilized at roughly 160lbs thanks to a healthy diet. Now I'm looking to setup a daily exercise routine in order to lose the spare tire.

Martial arts classes involved a 30 minute warm up and 30 mins of training. My instincts are to fall back on that, only now I'm an apartment dweller concerned about disturbing the downstairs neighbors. Work is a 1.5 mile bus/bike ride away, weather permitting (Cleveland), so what can I do to supplement or replace that without disturbing the neighbors? FitDeck seems like a good option, but I'd rather not pay for a list of common exercises. What can I do with nothing but floor space to get results, short of jumping rope and pissing off the neighbors?

posted by waxboy to health & fitness (9 comments total)

If you can get one of the door-frame pullup bars, and a barbell and some weights, you can do a reasonable facsimile of the majority of the CrossFit benchmarks. I'd skip the olypmic lifting in the apartment, though. Dropping the bar is the most convenient way to end those and the downstairs neighbors probably wouldn't dig that.
posted by ctmf at 10:52 PM on September 13, 2009

Oh, and by the way, those workouts SHOULD and are supposed to be scaled way back for quite some time. See the Brand X forum for standard scaling for various workouts.
posted by ctmf at 10:56 PM on September 13, 2009

+1 Crossfit benchmarks. I've found it to be very effective cross-training.
posted by thedaniel at 11:59 PM on September 13, 2009

Bodyweight Workout Resource v2.0 via the CrossFit forums.

I think you'll find the PDF included in the first post useful.
posted by Loto at 5:34 AM on September 14, 2009

Three suggestions:

(1) Look into interval training, specifically Tabata training. This is a good complement to Fitdeck-type approaches.

(2) Check out some of the sample workouts here, many of which feature burpees - a great all-around exercise.

(3) Look through the postings at the blog malepatternfitness. Examples:

- Core training (click through the links in the article for specific exercises - especially this link.
- Nasty Brutish and Short workouts
- Bodyweight training
posted by googly at 5:47 AM on September 14, 2009

CrossFit is excellent, however without any kind of strength background you're likely to have trouble with it. I'd recommend at least a few months of a beginner strength progression, e.g. Starting Strength, then moving to CrossFit for best results. Failing that, stopping by a CrossFit affiliate for at least a few classes is a good idea. Kipping pullups, which are the default pullups in CrossFit workouts, can be a pain to learn, not to mention some of the other technique-dependent movements.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:01 AM on September 14, 2009

Why not just do the WoD on crossfit.com? It will provide a random workout geared towards exactly what you are working for.
posted by ShootTheMoon at 10:01 AM on September 14, 2009

The exercise routine is going to have little impact upon the spare tire; cutting refined fructose and glucose out of your diet will probably get rid of it.
posted by zentrification at 11:54 AM on September 14, 2009

Thanks everyone! It looks like I'll be dumping section B of this PDF into a randomizer, possibly with an adjustable scaling factor for getting up to speed.

Also, zentrification, I hear ya, although it seems better to rely on burning more than is consumed over the long haul than to take dietary shortcuts.
posted by waxboy at 10:02 PM on September 14, 2009