i was doing a 3 day a week "lifting" at the gym and 2 5 km runs a week. morning and nights i was doing 60 push ups 100 curls. because i have been sick the last 2 weeks i have not done jack but it is time to get back into it.my question is...my gym membership expired while i was sick and my parents wont renew it till mid january (going away for christmas and no sense starting it now). is there any other exercises besides running, push ups and sit ups so i do not lose muscle strength?also now that there is snow on the ground i cant be fucked to go for runs so i was thinking running stairs. is it better to go up, take the elevator down, or run down? i did a test stair work out today and found that the elevator decreased the overall circuit by 25%. (my building is 7 stories tall). according to my physics class running down should not use energy only running up, but it would keep a high constant heart beat and breathing. any suggestions?finally, there are a lot of questions about lifting/work outs, why not make it a section on the forums?
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Questions for helmsman
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There is a section for this, hence the reason I moved it here.
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Tell you what doesn't use energy: falling down. Running, even if the gravity helps in the particular direction, uses energy: you spend it on bending your limbs, and blocking the motion as you step on the next stair. And moving your body weight.So yeah, I call bullshit on that -- it'd be much, much more true to say that it burns less energy than going against gravity.
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While burning less energy, in addition, running down stairs, causes a great deal of eccentric muscle contraction (muscles resisting a motion, but there's a great deal more to it than that) which is harder on the muscles. This can be a good thing, it's great for training your calves, and you'll definitely feel it afterwards.According to your physics class, it would take no energy if you simply fell from the top story... otherwise, yes, it does take energy. If you want to think of it in terms of physics, think of it in terms of every single motion your body creates. Every time that leg lifts and moves forward, it uses energy. Doesn't matter that you're going down. For an absurd example: if a rocket falls from the sky, shoots up again, falls, shoots up again, and then falls to the ground, did it use no energy in getting to the ground? Of course it used energy. The fall itself was simply gravity acting on the rocket, but every time it boosted upwards (like your leg moving in a way) it used energy. It's not the end result, it's the steps taken in getting there.You know why going down the stairs keeps your heart rate and breathing rate up? It's because your muscles are constantly using oxygen to convert the stored energy in your muscles into a form usable by the muscles, so your heart speeds up to pump that oxygen enriched blood through your body and carbon dioxide filled blood to the lungs, where your lungs are breathing fast and deep to continuously bring in fresh air that will absorb that carbon dioxide (to be exhaled) and provide oxygen to the blood.As for other exercises to do, check out other calisthenics (body weight exercises) that you can do. Helms has also posted some great General Physical Preparedness (GPP) workouts that are great. Try going through a run through of those (though you may not have a chin up bar for the one, try doing a regular "burpie") then jogging up and down the stairs, and if you're feeling good, repeat.
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alright thanks for the help, just for clarity im going back to the in about 2 months. im going to america for christmas break and is not worth paying the 250$ a month for 2 weeks. here they make you pay 1st to 1st. so fuck paying till febuary. im going to bring a big bouncy ball back with me from america...kinda girly but suposedly does wonders for core strength (<<<i tried the push ups with my feet on the counter and my mom yelled at me for contaminating the food area so did them off my computer desk. all i gotta say is wow.i gotta find my back packing pack because i have one of those useless but stylish man purses for school so fuck doing it in that.again thx for the help
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Originally Posted By: HelmsmaNYou can get back to doing pushups, all 60 of them twice a day, but to be honest, you're not building much strength there. To build strength, you need more weight and less repititions. A lot less. Strength building comes from doing between 5 and 7 reps for any given excercise. That's odd, my brother did body building, and his strength was nothing compared to mine. I guess weight lifting just doesn't compare to farm work