Define Fitness Fanatic. Any Fitness Fanatics Here?

Off-topic
1

I’m no fitness fanatic, and I don’t aspire to be one. Do you?

About 2 weeks ago, though, I found myself everyday near pull up bars which others occasionally used. So every day, I went and tried to do a pull up. I struggled but could not pull myself up. I kept at it, and Wednesday I finally did one, rested, and almost did another one. Yesterday I started out doing 3 consecutive. Today I did 4.

I also weigh 195, but I’d like to get down to 180 or 185, which would make it easier (less weight).

And UW several times/week seems like an intense fitness exercise, thighs always burn.

3

What’s your BMI? If you don’t know, you probably aren’t a fitness fanatic. :slight_smile:

I know I’m not…

5

So you might be a fitness fanatic.

6

I’m incredibly skinny… like lots of the time you can see my ribs.
but that’s not the same as “fit” per se…

7

I’m mad skinny as well, I wouldn’t consider myself fit though. I can do lots of things that people would consider fit (I did 50 chin ups and could have done more a couple days ago), but I definitely need some more meat on my bones for me to consider myself fit.

Chin ups can be a fun way to push yourself. A great way to push once you can do a couple is to do a pyramid. Start at 1 and go up to 7 or however high you can, then go back down to one and you’ve done 49. It sounds like a lot but it is much easier to do than you would think. You also don’t have to do them all in one go, do it over the day.

8

bmi isn’t a measure of fitness, it’s a measure of body fat. i know a guy who weighs 310-330 pounds and is squishy but is in phenominal shape. he just hangs onto the fat for some odd reason. anyway he is an mma fighter and held a belt in two weight classes. he’s in good shape.

9

i personally define a fitness fanatic as someone who trains heavily to no obvious end. Example, my brother who runs over a hundred miles a week and competes at national level is not a fitness fanatic, he’s a dedicated runner. A guy in my rowing crew trained regularly for atleast 10 years without ever competing in any sort of sport. He was a fitness fanatic, he put that effort purely in to being fit (obviously now he’s in a rowing crew by my definition he’s no longer a fitness fanatic, infact we’re racing today!).

Personally I have a BMI just over 30 and do little exercise but can whip the fit and toned rugby player in my crew on a rowing machine, short or long distance. I’ve never quite understood that.

10

I don’t think an occasional race means you’re not a fitness fanatic.

Seeing ribs, as many methamphetamine and crack addicts know, is no sign of fitness, either.

11

no, Not lately.

I wish for a poll.:wink:

+4 hours a day =yes
4-10 hours a week= gray area
<3 hours a week=no

That’s a bit simplistic. The other part would be diet.

12

Interesting question, Billy.

The negative connotations of “fanatic” imply that a “fitness fanatic” would be so single minded about fitness that it would be harmful to him or her. There are such people. Due to depression, I was a fanatical unicyclist for about a year, to the extent that I lost so much weight and looked so gaunt that I was asked if I had cancer. (That was several years ago.)

I think there is an important distinction between improving and maintaining a high level of fitness for a specific purpose, and doing so as an end in itself.

I would expect Paula Radcliffe to say no to extra chocolate pudding in the days leading up to a marathon. I would like Flintoaf to say no to a beer on the night before playing cricket for England! They have a specific reason to watch their fitness to that degree.

However, a person whose interest in fitness is purely narcissistic, and who takes it to the extremes of not having a pudding and a beer at a family party; who leaves the party early because he has to be at the gym for an hour before work; and who does exactly enough additional exercise to burn off the number of extra calories consumed at the party, is a fitness fanatic.

I used to be in a bicycle club. Each weekend we met up and rode 60 - 100 miles, stopping off at a tea room or pub. One bitterly cold day in December in the late 1980s, one of the older (aged 65 - 70?) ladies in the club refused to come into the pub for a coffee, but instead rode laps of the village in near zero temperatures to “get her miles up” for the week. That was fanatical.

I just did a Google search for her - it’s 17+ years since I saw her, and there are three matches, all relating to cycling.

13

lol. He is a hard case. Obviously he is not a fitness fanatic. He never really grew up I guess. :roll_eyes:

I’m the kind of person that exercises to be fit and excel in whatever cycling exercise I am doing.

14

You are the fanatic Billy, Chill a bit and eat an oily fish

I am an expert at lifting weight and putting on muscle. I am also an expert at sloth over the summer, and losing muscle. I have a notebook that goes back 11 years, so I know what I did and how well it worked. I have been going up and down in strength a decade or so with records.

Everything you generally see, read in magazines, or watch on TV about growing muscle, is oriented to selling you crap, supplements, or gym memberships. Avoid these bogus professional advises. :sunglasses:

What you are doing fanatically wrong Billy, is the everyday thing. Because you can do 3-4 pull ups now, try this …

Do one pull up. Wait 10-30 minutes. Then kill yourself, to do as many pull ups as you can in one set (not letting go of the bar).

Here comes the critical part. Abandon all fanaticism, do not do pull ups again until you repeat this in 3-5 days. You are really screwing up with the every day thing. It takes 3-5 days for the growth (caused by the exercise stimulus), to finish.

It is OK to lift each day, just not the same muscle group. Not only will it be a lot less work doing your pull ups every 4 days rather then every day, you will get better results. Don’t make the fanatics mistake of cutting short the growth period.

I think we all could agree that as long as we are having fun riding, pushing it helps. The rider who rides 4 hours/day, as long as they are having fun, might learn twice as fast as a rider who rides 2 hrs/day. They might, because the benefit of riding is largely mental. The body part of uni riding uses mostly the type 1 endurance fibers, and the progresses with lots of practice are almost all in the brain.

Weight lifting is not like that at all. It is about over stressing the type 2 muscle fibers, which tears them slightly, then the body rebuilds them stronger. This process takes 3-5 days. Don’t forget to eat an oily fish, I suggest salmon.

Every fanatical lifter needs to eat some magical thing to help their muscles grow. For me it’s cheap canned salmon. I suggest picking a useful and homemade snoil for yourself. Don’t let other people sell you expensive bullshit, always make your own snoil.

15

my bmi is 8% but its not very reliable cause i could have been dehydrated or something.I used to do alot of triathlon so i WAS a fitness fanatic.I like to get my fitness up aswell.I would say a fitness fanatic is someone who does almost everything they can to be as fit as possible

16

that would be your body fat percentage

17

I like to eat and unicycle when I feel like it. I don’t even know what BMI means. I weight about 145 pounds and am about 5’8". I doubt I’m a fitness fanatic.

18

SNOIL??!

Whatever it is it’s prolly good advice.

“Heath food” = health fraud

19

oh yeh lol thats what i meant

20

You’re not overweight, don’t worry.:slight_smile: I’m close to 5’9" and 160lbs. My brother is taller and lighter so he calls me obese. :roll_eyes:

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21

I am, quite literally, off the scale of that chart. How depressing.

22

Which way? Are you too tall? Or too short? Or too heavy? Or too light? Too lean? Too obese? :slight_smile: