"Propless" work out.

[Donnel]

Looking for something to do to help lose some weight that doesn't include walking around the block 10 bazillion times.

I'm overweight now and need a change, but at this point I'm looking for some kind of routine that doesn't involve equipment, as I don't have any...

I have a depressive eating problem, so whatever it is I hope to at least counter this a bit so even if I don't lose weight, I can slow the gain til I get that part of my life fixed.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[DESX]

Buy fat burners.

[Lyion]

Walking is the best exercise in the world for most people.

Situps and pushups are good starters.

Leglifts are great for stomach weight.

Also, start writing down what you eat, and tracking it. It seems a bitch at first, but its the best way to lose weight.

[Phlegm]

Run backward. From Associated Press:

ATLANTA - Timothy "Bud" Badyna has broken world records. He ran a marathon in under four hours. He finished a 10K race in 45 minutes.

Wait a minute, you say, that's not so fast.

Right. But Badyna set those records running backward.

Badyna, dubbed "Backwards Bud" by fellow runners, holds the Guinness World Record for fastest backward run in a 200-meter race (32.78 seconds), set in 2001. In the early 1990s, he held the record for backward marathon (3 hours, 53 minutes) and 10K (45 minutes, 37 seconds).

Those records have since been broken. So the 39-year-old hospital nurse from St. Simon's Island isn't the only one who turns his back on traditional running.

Experts say it burns a fifth more calories than traditional jogging.

"Your balance increases. Your hearing increases. Your peripheral vision increases," said Badyna.

"The downside is being blindsided. You don't have any eyes behind you but your senses pick up. As long as you go someplace safe — a track, a familiar road, you'll cut down the chances of any unforeseen obstacles coming your way," he said.

Back in the 1970s, forward-looking runners turned around to continue practicing while injured. Doctors later recommended it as part of physical therapy and it's often used by baseball pitchers or track runners in preliminary warm-ups.

Also called retro-running, it's been popular for years in Europe where races vary from sprints to the 26.2-mile marathon.

"It's a reasonable and a good way to incorporate another means of exercise to lessen the stress on any given part of the body," said Barry T. Bates, a professor emeritus of biomechanics at the University of Oregon.

It also helps people recover from knee-joint surgery and injuries ranging from the ankle to the groin, he said.

And it strengthens the heart, lungs, muscles and joints, said Gary Gray, a physical therapist in Adrian, Mich., who has been recommending backward exercise to his patients for 30 years.

"It's good for the hips, good for the legs, good for the trunk," Gray said. "When you go backwards, your tummy becomes your back and creates a nice reaction for your abdominals. Putting it in reverse for a while is a pretty good deal."

The drawback, of course, is a lack of hindsight. Bates and others recommend that newcomers to backward walking or running do it gradually on a track to avoid potholes, signs, cars and other hazards.

Bill Reitemeyer of Brick, N.J., said he had trouble in his first backward race in 1993.

"I did step directly into a hole — by the grace of God, I literally pulled my foot out straight or I think I would have fallen," he said. Four years later, he won a race when two of his closest competitors tripped and fell over a bump in the road.

Running backward on roads is filled with added dangers from street gutters to parked cars.

"I used to do it on the roads, but now I stick to soccer fields," says Arthur Magni, 34, of Newton, Mass., who has been running backward in competitive events for 11 years. "Start on a quiet track, somewhere there's not a lot of people and just follow the lines."

When Badyna is training at home, he runs backward on streets while his girlfriend cycles alongside to point out any hazards. In backward races, runners often will become familiar with the course by running forward beforehand.

There is an advantage to running backward when it comes to competitions: "When you get the lead, you can see everyone, you can pace yourself better," Reitemeyer said.

"It's strange, but you have an eye on everybody." Reitemeyer won New York City's backwards mile race in 1995, 1997 and 1998.

Back in St. Simons Island, Badyna has his eye on regaining the world titles he lost to overseas runners. He'll have to beat a marathon time of more than 3 hours, 43 minutes set by Xu Zhenjun of China in 2004 and a 10K time of 45 minutes, 31 seconds set by Vangal A. Mathiyazhagan of India.

"I've always said if someone beats that (my record) I'd try to train for that — 3:43 is damn impressive," Badyna said. "I think with the right training, maybe I could do a 3:30."

[Granh]

I know it sounds really stupid, but go buy a yoga ball. Even something as simple as sitting on the edge of this thing causes your legs to hold up your weight in ways it's not used to, making you burn calories. If you sit a lot at work, replace your chair with the ball and you'll gain strength, posture and burn a little at the same time. Simple repetitive moves with it will burn more than you might think. Sit ups and pushups are good burners with these things.

Changes in your daily lifestyle like parking further, taking stairs and morning runs can be easy ways to jump start your exercise energy. When you get 10-15 minutes of down time try walking/running stairs. If you do this a few times a day you’ll burn a good amount of calories with not a lot of work. Don’t get discouraged if you’re out of shape and after 5 minutes of something you’re winded. Just do what you can today, and try to do more tomorrow. Set a goal of doing more each week and eventually the 20 minutes of stairs or 1 mile morning jog will be nothing to you. The more cardio exercise you get in the less fried foods, sweets and sodas sound appealing.

If you think you can make it through 1 week worth of diet I’ve got a pretty good one. 2 weeks on it and I lost 18 lbs. I’ve kept it off because a side effect was more energy and less desire for unhealthy foods.

http://www.idiet4u.com/diets/sacredheart.html

If it sounds too hard, try just replacing 1 meal a day with the soup.

Good luck with the exercise

[Donnel]

I'm trying to avoid an excess of walking mainly because I have knee troubles which are only made worse by my weight. I'm in great pain just doing my normal routine maintaining computer systems in 3 buildings on one street.

Trying to walk for excercise sake would cripple me.

I don't really know what you mean by yoga ball per se, is that just that huge ball you do stomach rolls and stuff on?

Anywho, thanks for the suggestions so far, with everything else changing of late, I really want to get this part of my life on track.

[Darcler]

Medicine ball, yeah the huge rubber balls.

Take a ride around the bloack a couple times on a bike. That shouldnt put too much strain on your knees since your weight is off.
Do laps at the Y.

[Donnel]

Both great, great suggestions, but...

Take a ride around the bloack a couple times on a bike. That shouldnt put too much strain on your knees since your weight is off.

Bike is broken atm, and money is a bit low as I'm buying/fixing up a house.

Do laps at the Y.

See above.

Thanks though.

[Granh]

Yes yoga ball is those big rubber things. Looks really stupid using one, but they're good for all sorts of workouts. If done properly they're a cheap way to get a lot of workouts done. Can find them for about $20ish.

If trying to go for the free route, and knees are a problem, (bad knees run in family so know how that is) try finding random things in the house to lift. Use books or any other simi-heavy object. Once you drink a couple gallons of milk save the jug and fill it with water. Now it's a good weight to lift. Tie a couple together with an old sock to get more weight. Either way, while you're sitting watching TV or playing at the comp, use your free hand to do curls. It doesn't have to be a lot of weight, just as long as you do it for longer a good amount of time you'll get something out of it.


Get creative. Just don't be lazy. As long as you're constantly doing *something* you're burning calories. Sitting idol at the computer while eating donuts is the downfall of too many gamers. Change that donut to a milk jug to lift and now sitting is working out.

[Lyion]

Pushups... Situps,.. Leg lifts... Use the angles in your kitchen to do bar dips.

Do stretches and look for a free Tai Chi course online

[Minrott]

Hindu Squats and hindu pushups. If you don't have the strength to do a true h-pushup then go from your knees instead of your toes until you can. I take that it's the impact stress that harms your knees when walking, and not tension of actually lifting your body weight, so give the squats a try before saying no that won't work.

[Narrock]

Walking isn't going to do jack squat for you. You need to get your heart rate up for about 20 minutes. You can start off with a slow jog, and then every minute increase your speed a little bit for 4 minutes, then slow down to a jog again. Do 4 sets of that, and there you have a modified body-for-life cardio routine. The most important aspect to losing weight though is to reduce your intake, and eat 6 times a day, every 2 1/2-3 hours, portions the size of your fist... except of course if your fist looks like a catcher's mitt (like Muglack for instance).

[Harrison]

Walking isn't going to do jack squat for you.

Wrong...

And if his knees are as bad as they say they are, he isn't going to be jogging anytime soon without serious pain.

[leah]

I know it sounds really stupid, but go buy a yoga ball. Even something as simple as sitting on the edge of this thing causes your legs to hold up your weight in ways it's not used to, making you burn calories. If you sit a lot at work, replace your chair with the ball and you'll gain strength, posture and burn a little at the same time. Simple repetitive moves with it will burn more than you might think. Sit ups and pushups are good burners with these things.

Changes in your daily lifestyle like parking further, taking stairs and morning runs can be easy ways to jump start your exercise energy. When you get 10-15 minutes of down time try walking/running stairs. If you do this a few times a day you’ll burn a good amount of calories with not a lot of work. Don’t get discouraged if you’re out of shape and after 5 minutes of something you’re winded. Just do what you can today, and try to do more tomorrow. Set a goal of doing more each week and eventually the 20 minutes of stairs or 1 mile morning jog will be nothing to you. The more cardio exercise you get in the less fried foods, sweets and sodas sound appealing.

If you think you can make it through 1 week worth of diet I’ve got a pretty good one. 2 weeks on it and I lost 18 lbs. I’ve kept it off because a side effect was more energy and less desire for unhealthy foods.

http://www.idiet4u.com/diets/sacredheart.html

If it sounds too hard, try just replacing 1 meal a day with the soup.

Good luck with the exercise

i am totally going to get a fitball for a desk chair as soon as i'm settled in at my new job. at my grocery store job i was on my feet for 6 of the 7 hours of my shift and i know it helped keep my blood pumping. definitely gonna have to compensate somehow, damn desk job...

[Minrott]

Also that diet is the win for true. The contractor that built my parents house has done it twice to go from 385+ to 195ish.

[liquidstayce]

I've posted the couch potato workout before. Look through the threads or you can also google for "no weights workouts" .. lots of stuff on the web.. Sorry to lazy to find it right now but if you cant come up with anything PM me and I'll get you a program.

[Narrock]

Walking isn't going to do jack squat for you.

Wrong...

And if his knees are as bad as they say they are, he isn't going to be jogging anytime soon without serious pain.

Seriously. Look at all the fatasses that walk for 3-5 miles EVERY DAY... they're still fatasses and always will be unless they pick up the pace. Walking will help your lungs and start getting your legs in basic shape, but that's about it. Walking is probably the least effective cardio exercise unless you're disciplined enough to do brisk power walking, and that looks totally retarded.

Running is far superior to walking when trying to lose weight. If you have bad knees then power walking is going to hurt them too. Just do a strict diet at first if your knees are bothering you. After you lose about 20 pounds or so then try jogging. Also, try to jog on a track where they have DG down, or run on grass, and get good shoes with a decent arch support.

[DESX]

Walking isn't going to do jack squat for you.

Wrong...

And if his knees are as bad as they say they are, he isn't going to be jogging anytime soon without serious pain.

Seriously. Look at all the fatasses that walk for 3-5 miles EVERY DAY... they're still fatasses and always will be unless they pick up the pace. Walking will help your lungs and start getting your legs in basic shape, but that's about it. Walking is probably the least effective cardio exercise unless you're disciplined enough to do brisk power walking, and that looks totally retarded.

Running is far superior to walking when trying to lose weight. If you have bad knees then power walking is going to hurt them too. Just do a strict diet at first if your knees are bothering you. After you lose about 20 pounds or so then try jogging. Also, try to jog on a track where they have DG down, or run on grass, and get good shoes with a decent arch support.

Seriously walking is extremely useless and a waste of your time. I also agree to just find a diet but I think you should also consider going down to your local nutrition store (GNC) or something and getting some fat burners. Look for a fat burner with Citrus Aurantium, it is considered the best fat burner atm. It increases your metabolic rate, increased your caloric expenditure, promotes weight loss, and give you more energy. This does not have ephedrine either. Some 7-keto might be good also.

All good fat burners will do 3 things...

1. Your stored fats will be burned off to be used as energy.

2. Fat cells will be broken down.

3. Turns up the metabolic rate to burn fat and stop fat cells from enlarging.

[Narrock]

But don't take any "fat burners" that increases your heart rate artificially. Don't mess with your heart. Increase your heart rate only by doing exercise.