Geek Fitness

[magicjoef]

Hopefully these will spread too, as gyms are way overpriced.
http://www.easygym.co.uk/

[TomFum]

Im down the Gym 3 times a week. I havent really lost any weight but ive more toned up.

I like my Gym though, its a 24hr a day go when you want place, only £15 a month as well. No pool or suna etc but lots of good looking women to perv over while you work out haha.

[DomsBeard]

I wasn't going to be the first to comment on the perving potential!

Been to a gig and working late so been eating and drinking crap for 3 days. My body feels crap now can't wait to get back to it tonight!

[NokkonWud]

I started running about 5 months ago and lost a good bit of wait so that now I am actually in the healthy BMI range and can do 5K without dying. Have hit a bit of a wall recently with the pounding on concrete taking it out off my knees and ankles.

Looking at option of joining a gym but they all want you to sign up for 12 months and I am not wanting to make that sort of commitment at the moment for various reasons.

Get in touch with a local University. They often allow people to use their gyms on a pay as you go/monthly deal, better than the crazy prices at some gyms and they have much higher funding levels to buy equipment.

[RoboticMonk3y]

The phrase unicycle hockey just blew my mind! How do you get enough people together that can ride unicycles to get a game?

Bristol's quite a big place! it actually started out after a Charity unicycle ride was organised, from Bristol to Bath. Managed to get lots of people along for that and quite a few were interested in playing hockey, so it's gone from there! It's good fun, and lots of running.

[Marcface]

Trying to up my running stamina, it's pitifully low at the minute though, making maybe like 2km before having to stop and walk for a bit. But it's harder work when you're constantly dodging pedestrians, dogs and cyclists.

Other than that, just doing ~50 push ups and sit ups & crunches a day while sitting at the computer breaking it up to a 10 an hour basis or so, just to do that little bit extra. Been losing weight nicely the past couple of months, aiming to be under 11 stone again by the end of the month hopefully!

[Craymen Edge]

Hopefully these will spread too, as gyms are way overpriced.
http://www.easygym.co.uk/

Looks like the same concept as Pure Gym, which I'm a member of. No contract, no minimum term, all your account stuff managed online & a much cheaper monthly fee.

I find it hard leaving the house to get out to the gym after a long day at work (and an hour or more travelling home on trains and busses). I've taken to bringing my kit to work with me, so I can go before I get home and get comfortable.

[PapaBlingo]

Not long got home from a 14 and a half mile run.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/136541807

[magicjoef]

Good effort!

[Indiana747]

Great stuff Papa, over 23km in 2hrs is pretty impressive man.

[SnakeyDave]

As I think I've occasionally tweeted, I'm quite into running- podcasts are a great help for the boredom factor- as far as fitness goes.

I just did the great north run. First half marathon, finished in 1:38:50 so quite happy with that. Running can't really be beaten as far as convenience goes. Cheap too.

[General Aquila]

Slowly getting into it. Tried an MMA gym but slowly found that I'm more into grappling than anything else (bar wrestling...that nearly killed me!!!) but I'm hoping to join the Birmingham branch of 'The Gym' once my contract runs out in the new year. Closer, quieter when i need it and a distinct lack of teens hanging around the weights doing nothing! Until then there's...wait for it...Scottish Country Dancing which is good fun and breaks up the monotony of just hitting weights (even though I LOVE squats) and cleaning up my food intake really.


Also you should check out a site that gamifies exercise called Fitocracy, sure keeps me into logging my exercises, levelling up and challenges/achievements to gain also!

[PapaBlingo]

I just did the great north run. First half marathon, finished in 1:38:50 so quite happy with that. Running can't really be beaten as far as convenience goes. Cheap too.

Fair play! I am running the Basingstoke half-marathon in a couple of weeks, and would love to get under 1 hour 40, though apparently, the route is pretty challenging.

[chunky_Monkey]

Tend to hit the gym about 3-4 times a week, with a double session of high impact aerobics and boxing twice a week, cant run and never have been able to just got no rhythym and bad knees

still a chunky monkey and no amout of exercise will get rid of that (but then again I have dropped from 25 st to 18 1/2 st in the last 7 yrs so i must be doing something right )

[ratsoalbion]

That's a lot of stones you've lost - well played!

[mik]

I've taken it nice and slow in terms of weight loss. I startled myself into action a few years ago by stepping onto the scale and discovering that I weighed 250 goddamn pounds. But I know myself too well to do anything drastic, so I eased myself into good habits and, three years later, I weigh 189 pounds and have developed habits that are keeping me there with, now, no additional effort. These may seem either obvious or stupid, but the concepts that helped me most were:

1. Portion control. Might be less of a problem across the pond, but in the States, portions are wildly out of control--especially at restaurants. Speaking of restaurants...

2. Know what you're eating--especially the calorie count. I didn't get wrapped up in fats, carbs, etc. Just the calories. That's the easiest arithmetic: knowing what you're taking in and burning off. In many cases, when eating fast food, there would be two options I liked equally, but I'd invariably choose the one with triple the calories when I'd have been just as happy with the other option.

3. Don't deny yourself the things you love. If I wanted a snack, like a candy bar, or a beer, or whatever. I had it. I just understood the price I'd have to pay to work it off. It's just like spending money on games. It's incredibly easy to spend $200 in the blink of an eye. But it's a struggle to make that $200. Same idea.

4. Any exercise is good exercise, and it might be better to start small. I began by simply walking every night. And every night that got a little easier, so the walks got longer, and faster. And now I half run and half walk (I still can't run for too long without hurting my knees and ankles). It might take much, much longer (so don't look at a scale), but there will be a benefit. If I had started by running or exercising to an extremely strenuous degree, I'd have quit in a month.

5. Cook. Oddly, I think this is the single biggest thing that helped me lose weight. I got really involved, interested, and enamored of cooking. Knowing what ingredients you're putting into a dish, controlling the portion size of all your dishes, and finding ways to make foods you didn't consider to be very appetizing incredibly delicious is rewarding on many levels--and certainly beneficial to your waistline.

And, of course, a good portion of why I decided to make a change at all comes down to the two little ladies flanking me in the "after" photo.

[ratsoalbion]

Absolutely wonderful post mik.
Heartfelt round of applause from me!

[PapaBlingo]

BUMP!!

So, who is still on the fitness thing? I still run when I get the chance, and my new job has an onsite gym, which I plan to get stuck into. I managed the half marathon last year in 1.37, which i was dead chuffed about, but haven't done another this year. Also, I'm not sure if anyone uses it, but MapMyRun is a great logging app. If anyone uses it, feel free to add me, JamesMDavis.

[DomsBeard]

Well done! I'm currently feeling the after effects of a week all inclusive

Going to get fit for Christmas though

[Alex79]

I have a very active job that despite drinking quite a lot, eating like a hyperactive eight year old and not doing any exercise seems to keep me relatively trim haha. Having said that I've put on over half a stone since last Christmas. I have started doing weights in the last few months which seems to actually be bulking up my skinny frame at last, but I do occasionally worry that I'm just ruining myself from the inside out >_<