Michael569

if it's not painful and uncomfortable, you are doing it wrong. Your muscles have to be put under stress to react and grow, same for your bones( not to grow but to avoid osteoporosis). If you see people smiling and chatting in gyms, that's a money and time wasted. Red face, sweat, grunt and contracted face is what counts. The chemistry behind the pain is that glucose ( final product of carbohydrate digestion) in your body is being converted to energy in your muscle cells. Glucose gets into the cell with help of insulin, gets converted to ATP ( more compatible molecules for cellular mitochondria) with help of oxygen. This is the standard process when to activity is not vigorous, like walking, easy running. Basically body has enough time to convert the energy so it uses oxygen, the need for energy is stable and not large. However if you engage in a harder exercise and body cannot get enough oxygen, lactic acid is being formed to get the glucose pushed into your muscle cells, to produce ATP+waste products( co2 that you breathe out) . This is much faster but not long sustainable. The accumulation of lactic acid and debt of oxygen is what causes the muscle pain. The pain you feel afterwards however is your muscles recovering from micro tears that are formed whenever you work out. This is a normal process and in order to grow, muscle has to damage itself to repair and add additional mass. It is important to distinguish between "good" muscle pain and "bad" joint pain. If you feel pain in your knees, elbows, back, usually it means you are doing something wrong or over training and should take it easy, see a masseur or just optimise your nutrition. Listen to your body and learn to obey its signals. With experience you'll learn to distinguish the good and bad pain. Hope that helps

Your are your own master and you only are responsible. You either cut the crap and start exercising and eating clean or don't and you will feel guilty, miserable. for the rest of your life, being victim and whining, most likely ending up with a heart attack in your 40s. So what's it gonna be? Nobody can help you unless you agree to help yourself first. Lift your ass up, trash all the junk food in the bin and brute-force your way into the gym. You think for the rest of people health comes as privilege? Served on a pedestal? Hell no, we work our asses of day after day after day. Wake up or keep sleeping and be miserable.... It's all up to you.

Untethered Soul by Michael Singer if you were looking for something a bit spiritual Topics of this book: awareness and enlightenment meditation (slightly) death contemplation internal purification and emotional mastery

Has anyone tried joining Toast Masters group? Can you please share some of your experience and how do you think it helped you? What weakness in your life did you overcome? Thanks

@Wilm than I guess time might will reveal it for you. Try to boost this topic, maybe someone more experienced will have an alternative suggestion for you

@Wilm Have you tried contemplating your own death? If not, I suggest you do this tonight. Switch of all lights and get in the deep, dark mood. Ideally after your family has gone sleeping. Leo's contemplation video can be quite depressing but the fear of death and this taught realisation can open new perspective to you. Also I assume you are getting quite close to that..in LP Course, the Section with LP Excercises, 2nd one(auditorium). I won't say anymore but that was an eye opener ! Let me know how it went. Keep dreaming brother and don't give up on your life. You only have this one chance. Let me motivate you with a quote that i borrowed from @Nahm “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. I pasted this on my computer screen and my mirror and read it aloud for myself every morning and every night. This shit is like steroids for subconsciousness mind.

@Wilm just because you are not good in something now (working with people) doesn't mean that you cannot develop the skill or even become an expert in it. You didn't know how to ride a bike and tie you shoes once or perhaps speak foreign language. Maybe instead of what you can think of, try to think what is missing on the market? What is lack of? What do you hate about this industry? What do you think could be changed? You could try to look at running from a nutrition perspective, from a medical perspective or long term health. Or look into runner's clothing, shoes. I'm not an expert but do your research. What are some growing trends in running? What is the market heading towards? Also you say, there are other interests. What are they? Write it down and journal or meditate on it. Perhaps you could combine some of them. I suggest you get back to LP course and pick up where you left of. Don't be discouraged by the amount of question but focus on each point as if it was a single lesson. Do 1 per day of that is needed. Don't be shallow but look really really deep. Alternatively think of getting a coach. Haven'd done it myself but heard people getting some pretty awesome results.....What do you have to lose? Many of us here are in the same boat and the struggle is real.

Agree with what has been said above though, If you are into serious lifting and muscle gain, the only way is doing heavy weights, home workout just won't do it unless you are ready to invest into barbell and at least a pair of 45lb (20 kg) weights ( and few lighter ones). Also there is a certain sense of companionship and spirit in gyms. You get to meet like minded people , share tips and tricks. You need as much as 30 minutes to get a good workout. If you want to avoid gym but still want to do a hard work though,try to split your training into home and outside ( say park or street) Home Focus more on muscle mass, slow contraction and reps/sets. 1. pair of dumbells ( not too heavy) 2. flexible bench that can be moved to horizontal and inclined angle 3. ( optional) for more serious gain, consider a large barbell (the long bar) and a set of weights that you can challenge yourself with. Thus is however tricky because for some heavy lifts you need a rack or a partner. 4. ABS Wheel - amazing tool for core, greatly underestimated and mocked by bodybuilding community. Outside This is where you should do most of your cardio, speed , circuits. There are many cool workouts you can do outside besides jogging. Not to mention, you don't sweat over your carpet and have a fresh air and sense of freedom. ( especially after dark) 1. TRX is an amazing tool, that you hang on a tree, old gate, wall ( need to have a hook) , street lamp and can work your ass of. Any part of body can be practiced. Great both for cardio and strength excercise 2. Kettlebell (weight depending on your strength and fitness level). There is so much you can do with it and it requires minimum space. Although better used outside. 3. Jumping rope - great for warm-up as well as vigorous cardio once you improve a bit. 4. A mat to lie/ sit on. In your Outside session, focus on circuit. Ideally work with time ( or count reps). Usually you only need like 20-30 minutes to completely destroy yourself if you are short on time and prepared to "sweat blood" An example of "Outside" would be: 1. Burpees (60 seconds) Break 20 sec 2. Rope Jumping (60 seconds) Break 20 sec 3. deep lunges in 20 meter lengths ( for 60 seconds) Break 20 sec 4. high jumps on spot, tapping your knees with your palm in the midair ( 60 seconds) Break 20 sec 5. star jumps on spot ( to cool down from previous) ( 60 seconds) Break 20 sec 6. TRX - whatever you like ( 60 seconds) Rest 60 seconds and restart the round. Do 3 rounds in total. Looks easy, but can ruin you for couple days if you are unused to it. There are literally hundreds of options here, research internet and be creative. Sorry for long post, wanted to give you a practical example. Hope that helps.

Maybe the issue is that you are afraid to be a dreamer? It is definitely something I am struggling with. Although I am trying to be as open minded and as brave when completing this course as if there were no obstacles, it is sometimes difficult to me to write down those answers anyway just because I can't see it right now. Our society conditions us to go for what is certain and never go "all in" unless you are sure. It took me probably 10 hours to go through this exercise just because of all the deep contemplation I was doing. Did a lot of visualising and journaling on it but it certainly helped. Try to open your mind beyond your world of your current possibilities. You can for example certainly tailor your LP around running btw if you could visualise it.

My mom has developed an alcohol problem some time ago. Of course as all alcoholics, she will not admit it. We had family interventions, she stopped for a while but than got back to it even more. Not only is it making her fat and destroying her self esteem but there is also all the negative effects of alcohol and emotional instability. Having watched Leo's addiction video helped me work on my PC gaming addiction however to an unconscious person like my mom seeing world black and white, an idea such as contemplation or meditation is so so far out there. Sometimes it is like teaching a toddler to use calculus. If I were to dig deeper, I'd say it has to do with her having no purpose of life. She stopped working years ago and nowadays spends time around the family house mostly. Also the divorce of my parents didn't help. So my question to whoever would read this is: How would you approach a person who is super easily offended, does not realise that she has problem, is very emotional and would not want to do any high consciousness work. How would you soften the mind of this person to be a bit more open-minded to potential solutions that do not necessarily lie out there but within? Thanks a lot for any advice

@Arman that's an amazing perspective, thank you.

@Whywolf thanks for suggestions. I have identified several causes. First of all it is the lack of purpose in life. She does not work and has not worked for year. Of course she is frightened even by thought about going back...became very complacent. Its is a shame because she has a degree in two languages , both of which she is still fluent after all years of low usage. Another might be that our dad found another woman and left her , went living to Denmark. Me and my sister have made peace with him considering that my parents' marriage was rubbish for many years. She can't and has very very hard time forgiving people who wronged her. And lastly she has very victim mentality. She feels like the world is hurting her and that nobody cares about her and that world isn't fair. I tried to explain it to her in a soft way that she is causing all her problems but that results in her getting offended....so it's a challenge. Her addiction is just a way of her dealing with anxiety and victim thinking. I agree with what has been said that the person needs to want to be helped first and presently she is definitely not in that state of mind. I'll try to have a talk with her and show her how it is hurting all of us as @Venus suggested. Thanks folks, it is good to be a part of a like-minded community

Thank you all for valuable suggestions, much appreciated ! These gave me a lot of perspective. Cheers

Routines - 3* times a week vigorous Cardio circuit. Doing 30 minutes of 5-6 excercises. Trying to do as many sets as possible and competing against my previous record, kinda creates a self-competition. Or Tabatha sessions. - 2* times a week lighter circuit or strength training or boxing circuit. - alternatively sprinting sessions if its nice outside - that is a killer. (6 * 50m) * 3 sets Excercises 50% bodyweight, 30% heavy barbells, 20% battle rope, kettlebells, abs wheel, fitballs, TRX Warmup Starting every workout with treadmill (15-20) or skipping rope (10). + of course include Yoga or stretching at the end, very important for muscle, bone and joint regeneration and protection. Agree , it is sometimes difficult to stay motivated. I used to have a lot of resistance. It helped switching to 90% plant based diet ( still struggling with few pieces and occasional cheating). Working out with mate helps or joining class sessions. Generally though workout shouldn't be much fun. If it is fun and it doesn't hurt, it has no value. Muscles and bones have to bee put under a lot of very hard stress to prevent later degeneration.

Astaxanthin, Watch Leo's video on Supplementation