Sport/Fitness motivations

ManicRower

Afternoon Everyone,


Long time lurker and occasional poster across the forums. First post on the sports forums and looking for a bit of help.


I've just turned 27 and to be honest feel like I'm in a bit of a 'mid-late twenties fitness crisis'. I live in South East London and have been relatively active throughout my life, predominantly playing basketball until I finished university and I then had a London 2012-inspired 18 month stint rowing (which I loved).


Rowing got me into *the* best shape I have ever been in both physically and mentally as I was doing approx 10 training sessions over 6 days each week, with the sessions being a mix of on the water training, long sessions (hours) on rowing machines, circuits and weights. I loved the camaraderie of training as a group and not wanting to let the crew down, and nothing really compares to racing! I also loved that it was very quantitative in terms of performance, for example regular 2k and 5k erg tests to show improvements etc. My diet has never been great but did improve quite a bit whilst training, however if I wanted to I could always 'get away with' the extra piece of cake or whatever due to the volume of training I was doing.


This took me Christmas 2013. Since then I have purchased a flat which required a serious amount of DIY and changed to a better but more time consuming job (consultancy). The location of the flat and the hours I work (not to mention wanting to spend time with my girlfriend) means that rowing is unfortunately not really an option anymore. In addition to this due to work, I was staying in a hotel 3 nights a week and eating out 3-4 nights a week.


I've therefore gone from a very lean/toned/fit 6'4 90kg male to a 90kg male who feels incredibly unfit, has a bit of a belly and a bit of a turkey neck. No 'net' weight gain yes, but a great deal of negative changes to my body!


I'm finding it hard to break the cycle in that I am getting more and more unhappy with my fitness/appearance as parts of me become more flabby, but that alone doesn't seem to be enough to motivate me in a serious way (i.e. 2-3 hard sessions a week) to do anything about it. At the moment I am just really doing a token run round the park or bike ride every few weeks, for example doing a 50m bike ride in a few weeks. I really don't enjoy running. If I do go to the gym on a guest pass or something similar, I get incredibly frustrated that I can't lift/pull the weights/scores I used to.


In amongst my ranting I guess I'm looking for help to try and break the cycle. I want to be active and get back into shape, whilst acknowledging I will probably never be in 'rowing shape' again.


Does anyone on this board have any suggestions of any sports/activities/regimes that would motivate someone like me? I enjoy pushing myself (when motivated) and am looking for something that requires a bit of dedication (2-3 times a week for example) to succeed at as opposed to a 'standard' 10k run. I think ideally I'd like it to be team/group based too as I like that environment.


Thanks for reading, any comments/constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

cherryblossomzel

Climbing? Not a team sport, but you do climb with people, and in my experience it is very social. But, if you're not in the mood for company you can go bouldering alone.

It's the kind of thing where you can push yourself and see very concrete improvements, so you can tell that you're getting better, which can be very motivating.

You should have a few walls to pick from in London and if you join a mountaineering club you can go do outdoor climbing too (actually you don't have to join a club to do this, but again, it's more social). Also, could try taking the girlfriend along, it's a sport where novice women often outperform novice men.

Edited to add: getting a regular partner adds to the motivation as well, because if you bail out of a session, the other person can't climb either, and that makes you feel bad (or at least, it makes me feel bad).

Lizling

BMF or Crossfit?

I've found BMF to have excellent camaraderie (especially at the smaller parks) and I've heard the same about Crossfit. In fact, my impression is that Crossfit relies strongly on peer pressure to make sure you give the workouts absolutely everything you've got.

BMF has regular fitness tests available so you can measure your progress. Not all parks run them but you're in London and membership means you can go to any park you like, so that shouldn't be a problem. Also, you'd progress beginner ->intermediate->advanced. Most parks run a class about 2-3 times a week, but in London you could easily get to one every day if you don't mind travelling a little.

Not sure how Crossfit does it, but I'd be surprised if they didn't have some way to track progress. Crossfit's not cheap, but sounds like that's not a big issue for you. I understand that they have a workout available every day, so that'd fit in with the 3 hard sessions a week plan.

Can't beat a bit of running for loads of lovely stats though! Times, distances, paces, splits, heart rates, V02 max, WAVAs...:D

donglemouse

i know you said you don't like running but half marathon or marathon would fit the bill for "something that requires a bit of dedication (2-3 times a week for example)"

G_Model101

Boxing/Muay Thai?
You could start training with a view to potentially competiting in the future.
A few months of either of these three times a week would certainly get you in decent shape both mentally and physically.

fishybusiness

The flat DIY, the job, the work hours, the location of the flat and your girlfriend.......

How much time do you realistically have in a week to exercise?

ManicRower

fishybusiness wrote: »

The flat DIY, the job, the work hours, the location of the flat and your girlfriend.......

How much time do you realistically have in a week to exercise?

Thanks for the suggestions thus far. I particularly like the climbing idea as a friend does it recreationally too. I had to look up what Muay Thai is and that looks like an option too.


In terms of time, we bought a shell of a flat (rewire/plaster etc needed) but that has now been completed. From Jan-June I was also commuting from London to Edinburgh every Monday-Thursday but I am now based full time in London so have a bit more spare time.


To answer your question, I can realistically spare 2-3 evenings a week and probably a session at the weekend, as opposed to the 6 sessions a week plus double sessions at weekends I was Rowing.

andrew-bowers

Crossfit is the most effective of what has been mentioned above, but also the hardest by some margin!