I would define this as reaching your optimum heart rate for at least five minutes, or at least twenty minutes of vigorous activity. If you don't break a sweat, it doesn't count.
You should really reach your target heart rate for a good 15 minutes. Once you're at your target heart rate, you should be able to burn at a rate of at least 450 calories/hour for moderately vigorous exercise, or 600+ if you're doing some fairly vigorous activity.
Also, breaking a sweat isn't always what matters. I sweat pretty heavily from 15 minutes of cardio, but I don't sweat nearly as much from an hour of heavy weightlifting.
EDIT: Also, I do weightlifting 3 - 4 times a week (~ 1 hour workout), and cardio (20 minutes, after weights) about 3 times a week, on the days when I don't work my legs.
I'm in the Air Force so I get plenty of forced exercise. Not that I mind being fit, but sometimes it is too much. One day we will run 2 miles, the next 6.5 without warning. My body hates me after those days.
This past weekend, I bought a new pair of Brooks running shoes and started running again. I'm on day 3 of running for 30 minutes every other day. I have been a runner on and off since high school. I have at times also been into weight lifting. However, I am coming off 2 years of sedentary lifestyle. For me, it is always a question of motivation. Lately, my aerobic fitness has been so poor that I've noticed it in everyday life. That has motivated me once again.
I play soccer but for the last 5 weeks I have missed training due to babies so my fitness is slowly degrading, which probably means I am going to injure myself pretty soon. It is funny though, the fact that I predominantly enjoy geeky activities has always been quite well tolerated by most people because of my active sport life. In high school when I did a little D&D, played Magic the Gathering at lunch times, and studied hard, I was still able to hang out with all the cooler guys and gals simply because I played Aussie Rules with a decent amount of ability. My theory is that if you want to be a nerd, also try to be very good at the mainstream sport of choice in your town, not something obscure, because that will not help break the geek stereotype.
I train for competitive tennis daily. 2-4 hours of tennis along with an hour (give or take) of physical conditioning. Weekends usually vary, with physical conditioning being normally self-run (opposed to with my fitness trainer).
I guess I fall somewhere between Extremely and Very. I work out 3-5 times a week. 45 minutes of weight training and 30-45 minutes of cardio. I can bench 121% of my body weight. Work isn't hard. Some lifting but not too much by my standards. I am not really a sports guy. SCA fencing when I get the chance, but that hasn't been for a while. I went to military school. My diet is good, but I need to eat breakfast and no midnight snacks. I drink way too much now and then.
I had to put 'somewhat'. Typically, I take martial arts lessons 3-4 times a week, but I seriously injured my knee about 3 months ago, which has pretty much hosed that for a while.
I participate in the sport of dog agility. You have to guide your dog through 15-20 obstacles while running beside them. The course is not revealed until just before you start, so while you are running you have to try to remember which obstacle is next. I am currently showing three dogs and each dog has about 7 runs a day during competition. So even through a run only lasts about 45 seconds, by the end of the day am wiped out.
I walk one block to the bus in the morning and about three blocks from the bus to the office once downtown. Reverse that in the evening, that makes it about a little under a mile everyday. Not really enough to claim anything at all, but at least it's something...
I really didn't know. I guess I'm a little biased because of my own sport, though. The lead the U.S. gets is incredible. Boats just don't get ahead by that much at that level.
I think it's the team aspect of sports that most geeks dislike, and the repetitiveness of most individual sports. Also, many geeks have problems like asthma, and for a long time glasses were fairly fragile things.
Geeks often have trouble working in groups in general, and positions in sporting groups are determined through physical fitness, meaning that usually the geek ends up in a low-level grunt position rather than in a strategy position. Also, atheletes tend to be physical people, who teach and punish in a physical way, so a verbally-oriented geek might find themselves at a disadvantage, and frustrated when everyone ignores them.
"See guys, if we moved in a zig zag pattern, and threw every other ball-"
"You! There!" *shove"
Martial arts are really the exception that changed the rule when it came to sports. Mostly because they are novel, exotic, have an endless amount of fiddly bits. and are intellectual for an individual sport. I think you'll find that most atheletic geeks are those who have been able to make their sports those things. Your running geek won't just run, but will be covered in electronics monitoring bodily functions, will have a book on running theory handy, and the latest in futuristic running shoes, for instance.
Also, there's only so much time in a day. Books won't read themselves, anime won't watch itself, video games won't beat themselves, roleplaying games won't DM themselves, and flamewars won't continue themselves, so sport often finds itself at the bottom of the pile.
I have being running almost everyday for the last 3 weeks (my shins were killing me last week). Now that the swimming pool is open I will run one day and swim the next day. I started running for only one mile and then little by little and by pacing myself I am able to run 5 miles and my shins are not hurting anymore. I gotta say I get inspired every time I run. However, even though I have lost about 5 kilos since I started running, every time that I come back from my daily run I eat a lot :P
I was very, I work out at our crappy 24 hour gym every other day. I also go walking on my days off. The only thing is being outside in the midwest pretty much sucks. I used to live in Virginia, 30 minutes away from part of the Appalachian trail, which was super cool and I used to go biking with my mom all the time. Now, I just go walking around bean fields. hum... no wonder I'm depressed.
I have not touched my Wii fit for the past two weeks. I have been so busy getting ready to put hardwood floors in this weekend. I feel like crap from not working out but after doing all the work around the house I don't feel like doing anything...
I put "very" because a lot of the work I do around the house is either outdoors work or chasing my 2yr old brother. I do like biking, but I haven't had a chance lately.
Well, if you mean "frustrated and fiercely competitive" then yes, yes they do. I book up the mountain when I am with Rym. However, it used to be that if I couldn't keep up, a little seed of resentment would blossom deep in my heart and I would be like "No! I can't lose! Oh man he's still beating me DAMMIT! ARGH!" Running with someone makes me faster but I have a better time by myself.
Do you find that work out partners or buddies help keep you motivated?
Only if the partner is close in skill level.
I used to run with my wife but I had to stop because her running speed and my running speed were off by several MPH. She wanted to run with me but after years of doing PT every morning in the Army I was used to running a mile in the six minute range. It was painful for me to slow down to her pace. Even when I was in the service I would request permission to run laps around the formation if we were going too slow.
Now we go for walks instead and she still complains I walk too fast!
So, my personal experience has been that it only works on the motivational level if you and your workout partner are close in athletic ability.
Comments
Also, breaking a sweat isn't always what matters. I sweat pretty heavily from 15 minutes of cardio, but I don't sweat nearly as much from an hour of heavy weightlifting.
EDIT: Also, I do weightlifting 3 - 4 times a week (~ 1 hour workout), and cardio (20 minutes, after weights) about 3 times a week, on the days when I don't work my legs.
I'd say so.
The lead the U.S. gets is incredible. Boats just don't get ahead by that much at that level.
2-3 runs a week
weight lifting sprinkled in depending on how motivated I'm
Geeks often have trouble working in groups in general, and positions in sporting groups are determined through physical fitness, meaning that usually the geek ends up in a low-level grunt position rather than in a strategy position. Also, atheletes tend to be physical people, who teach and punish in a physical way, so a verbally-oriented geek might find themselves at a disadvantage, and frustrated when everyone ignores them.
"See guys, if we moved in a zig zag pattern, and threw every other ball-"
"You! There!" *shove"
Martial arts are really the exception that changed the rule when it came to sports. Mostly because they are novel, exotic, have an endless amount of fiddly bits. and are intellectual for an individual sport. I think you'll find that most atheletic geeks are those who have been able to make their sports those things. Your running geek won't just run, but will be covered in electronics monitoring bodily functions, will have a book on running theory handy, and the latest in futuristic running shoes, for instance.
Also, there's only so much time in a day. Books won't read themselves, anime won't watch itself, video games won't beat themselves, roleplaying games won't DM themselves, and flamewars won't continue themselves, so sport often finds itself at the bottom of the pile.
I gotta say I get inspired every time I run. However, even though I have lost about 5 kilos since I started running, every time that I come back from my daily run I eat a lot :P
I used to run with my wife but I had to stop because her running speed and my running speed were off by several MPH. She wanted to run with me but after years of doing PT every morning in the Army I was used to running a mile in the six minute range. It was painful for me to slow down to her pace. Even when I was in the service I would request permission to run laps around the formation if we were going too slow.
Now we go for walks instead and she still complains I walk too fast!
So, my personal experience has been that it only works on the motivational level if you and your workout partner are close in athletic ability.