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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: January 26th, 2024

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  • Strength training should be kept simple (I’m a former personal trainer and a current strongman competitor).

    For health 2x per week full body is plenty For strength/size/performance 3-6x (with 4x being the best for most of the time) is ideal.

    Ideally compound movements (movements using multiple muscle groups) should be the foundation of your training, and should come first in a session as they are often heavier/more complex. Examples are squats/leg press, Bench/dumbbell bench/chest press, Overhead/shoulder press, deadlift/Romanian deadlift, barbell row/seated row.

    If you are making your own “program”/ doing your own thing, first make sure it’s enjoyable, then make sure you either add reps(hard), sets (hard), or weight (easier at first) over time (daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever feels sustainable) only switching out movements when they aren’t progressing/hurt/are boring for similar ones (e.g. replace leg press with hack squat).

    And for a rule of thumb, choose exercises such that at least once a week (usually twice is better) you are doing something from each of these categories:

    • Knee Flexion (squat, lunge, leg press, etc.)
    • Hip Hinge (Deadlift, Romanian deadlift, back raise, leg curl)
    • Horizontal Row (barbell row, seated cable row, DB row)
    • Vertical Row (Pull downs, pull ups)
    • Horizontal Press (Bench, chest press)
    • Vertical Press (Overhead Press, Shoulder Press, front/side raises
    • Core (something dynamic like leg raises, and something static like planks)

    If you are new, 4 tough sets (not dying, but you have to put in effort) per week in each of these categories is plenty.

    Rare exercises are usually either pointless, very niche, or should be viewed as a fun movement or warm-up (like dumbbell snatches).

    You can use an app like Macrofactor to track food, but honestly if you track your calories over a week using a spreadsheet that might be enough for most people. Better for most would be eat more sources of protein (meat, tofu, protein powder, etc) and track your body weight every day. If you want to be more muscular, your body weight should at least stay the same, or go up slowly overtime (maybe around 1% per month), and if you want to reduce body fat your body weight should go down no more than 1% per week. These recommendations are in the context of strength training.

    Eating an abundance of plant based foods ( like fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains) is a great idea. Definitely not in the form of like meat substitutes. The bigger variety the better, there are no “super foods”. But I grow something called Cape Ground Cherries. They are a weird little fruit that grow in husks, and tast like a sweeter, more fruit like tomato (I live in a temperate zone with a shortish growing season, 130-140 days, and hot summer’s).

    I think that covers everything as generally as I can.


  • I do something similar. But I also have a huge master list organized by category (for chores it’s rooms based) and frequency (daily, monthly, etc) with a check box next to each thing.

    I have it posted up on a wall where I can’t help but see it, and next to it is a whiteboard calendar where I schedule all of these tasks. You could always try something like this (I know it’s borderline insane but ADHD gonna ADHD) or make it your own.

    The key though is to make it iterative. Pay attention to what works (for example with chores, is sweeping daily too often? Then change it. Same goes for studying) and modify it on set intervals (every 2 weeks, month, whatever).

    It gives a visual representation of what needs to be done, when, and provides accountability because you can see what you did/didn’t do, and so can anyone else who has access to it.

    It took me probably 6 hours to initially set it up, but it’s been huge for me.

    Alternatively (or as part of some organizational strategy), focus your effort on tasks you do like and subjects you do like, while doing enough to just get by on everything else. Breaks are important, but try not to interrupt any states of flow you get into.

    Bonus: Post Secondary School is hard! Be gentle with yourself. And remember it is rarely a life or death situation. Follow your syllabus, it’s there to guide you, and talk to your instructor and classmates when you can. There will never (unless you have insane physics professors like did) be new material on a test. It’s always something you have covered. It may not be a specific question/problem/topic you have solved/written about, but it will use all the same skills and knowledge you’ve developed. Plus, a lot of questions come from fairly standard question banks with digital learning software becoming nearly ubiquitous.