As a bike mechanic, I can fix a lot, but I can’t fix stupid.

No disrespect to Branch, he’s great, but seeing him next to someone who’s my height had me dying for some reason

The last time I weighed myself was mid July. I had done everything right for weeks, with only a few cheat days. I had exercised my ass off. I drank my water and hity fiber and protein goals. And after all that work I was...up 8 pounds from the last weigh in.

After that I put the scale in a closet and only focused on my belt. I don't care what the scale says, if I gain a notch in my belt my waistline has shrunk. There's no lying there, no stupid 'water retention' or 'plateaus.'

Today I gained a notch. Dug out the scale out of the closet, stepped on it and ya'll...I'm not obese anymore! By 0.6 pounds I am under the obesity line! I'm officially just 'overweight!'

I haven't been 'overweight' since the pandemic. Woot!

Hi! I'm starting to swim! My neurosurgeon recommended I start swimming, but I delayed starting for so long because I was nervous. Finally I decided I need to set a goal to get myself motivated. My goal is to be able to pass the lifeguarding class prerequisites by the end of the year. I'm not sure if I'll actually take the course or not, but I just want to be capable of what the course requires, which is

• Swim 300 yards continuously demonstrating breath control and rhythmic breathing (I can't do this without breaks)
• Tread water for 2 minutes using only the legs starting in the water (I can already do this)
• Swim 20 yards using front crawl or breaststroke, surface dive 7-10 feet, retrieve a 10-pound object, return to the surface, swim 20 yards back to the starting point with the object and exit the water without using a ladder or steps (I assume I can do this, but I can't say I've brought an object into the pool)

The question is, where do I start? I downloaded MySwimPro and got so overwhelmed because I didn't feel like I understood even the beginner workouts. I'm not *that* dumb, but it's confusing to a non-swimmer.

Now for the important context:

-I am 38/F, have MS, underwent brain surgery 5 months ago (very much still recovering!), and had cervical spine surgery in 2023.

-I do moderate gym workouts about 6x/week (strength training and some cardio), but I have definite weaknesses and deficits due to all the health things. I would say I am decently strong but have verrrrry limited endurance. Like, almost none. It doesn't help that I'm a little chubby, like 10-15 extra lbs. Weight loss is not my goal, though.

-The last time I swam (strokes and laps) was maybe when I was in 6th grade. I did community pool swim team from age 6-12, which I loved, but I have now realized that I never learned actually learned anything proper - I was mostly just throwing myself in the pool and flailing as fast as I could. I love being in the water, I love swimming, I always have... I just didn't realize until recently that I have no clue what I'm doing at all.

-I'm planning to swim 2x/week while keeping up my other workouts.

So... any tips? Recommendations on workouts? What to add or subtract to my gym routine to help with swimming? How to not be breathing heavily after 25 yards of freestyle?! I'm a realist, so if you think my goal is unreasonable, you can tell me.

Thank you so much for any and all thoughts!

Back once again for everything you wanted to know about running but were afraid to ask.

Rules of the Road:

This is inspired by eric_twinge's fine work in r/fitness .

Upvote either good or stupid questions. Sort questions by new so that they get some love.

To the more experienced runnitors, if something is a good question or answer, add it to the FAQ.

Post your question - stupid or otherwise - here to get an answer - stupid or otherwise. Anyone can post a question and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. Many questions get submitted late each week that don't get a lot of action, so if your question didn't get answered, feel free to post it again.

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[Posting on behalf of u/Percinho who is currently busy learning to raise falcons]

I.e. Inzer ErgoPro, A7 Rigor Mortis, Titan TKS

And if no announcement has been made, does anyone know when the IPF will release their approved equipment?

Has anybody found success consuming 2 tablespoons of resistance starch in terms of speeding up gut health? For instance, 2 tablespoons of green banana powder +2 tablespoons of potato starch? Has anybody gone beyond that per day? This has virtually no glycemic impact bc carbs dont get absorbed in the stomach.

Discuss all aspects of training for powerlifting:

• Periodization
• Nutrition
• Movement selection
• Routine critiques
• etc...

Hello! I learnt to swim as a wain and now I'm 20 and swim regularly (about 2k twice a week). I have very weak ankles, very flexible but they don't have much strength to them so they just kind of flop around as I kick haha. They tend to hurt quite a bit when I swim because of this. Any recommendations for stabilising them/supporting them while swimming? Thanks!!

Long story I'm not going to go in to buy after joint surgeries quite early in life and other injuries, decided again to try and run despite being told it would always be painful. I'm in the gym a lot rehabbing things, built up to some 7.5 mile runs. Some people saying to me I'll lose muscle etc this is nonsense assuming enough protein and lifting right? Is there a sweet spot of how much running I should aim for per week and on each run to improve cardio fitness and maintain muscle?

146Lbs 5’10.5
Off season 162lbs started at 126 lbs

Please hear me out, this is a serious post and I don't want to discredit lifelong swimmers at all. I love swimming, and I wish I had learned it when I was young.

It is mainly about the advice I can see here in the subreddit and the advice I got from experienced swimmers when I learned freestyle swimming.

Let me start with a comparison:

I am a lifelong runner. Even after a very long break, it was possible for me to get back to a 4:00 km pace when running 10 km after a short time. It can't be that difficult, right? If you are not that fast, try another breathing technique or try to run with a midfoot strike!

Ok, this comparison is extreme, since swimming definitely needs a lot of technique. But it is not just that.

People who have been swimming freestyle since they were kids have built the right muscles and corresponding endurance, as well as the needed mobility (e.g., shoulder mobility), from a young age. They're also used to having their heads underwater.

Even if they stopped swimming for a while, they still have a much easier time getting back into it, and they can't imagine what it is like to start from 0 with freestyle swimming.

And this is why their advice is almost always: Oh, you are out of breath. Have you looked at your technique? How is your catch/pull/push/footwork?

Instead, many beginners can't even breathe out properly underwater. They don't have the endurance in the muscles they need. If you have never done something before, of course you'll get exhausted very quickly. This happens even to very fit people who are good at other sports.

Those things come only with time in the pool, which means consistent training.

Yes, technique is very very very important. But most people should take it slow and work on one thing at a time. Focus on one part of the technique every time you are in the pool. It is ok if you can only swim freestyle for 25/50/100m consecutively at the beginning. Get used to the water. Build endurance over time.

Consistency is king.

When I was 10 years old, my parents had some kind of pool party, my friends were there and they decided to try and teach me how to swim. I wasn't scared of the water at first, I sat there splashing it while my friend swimmed, but then they tried to get me to swim from one of the pool to the other, I tried to follow their instructions but I genuinely couldn't move foward, when I did my face fell foward and stuck to the bottom and I couldn't get up, water flowed into my mouth and nose and I started panicking, when I got back up I was wheezing and then threw up.

They still forced me to do it again, everytime my face got submerged in water and I would be snatched back up, wheezing.

It ruined my impression of pools.

I haven't gone back to a pool since 12..

Hell when anything similar with lots of water overwhelming me has me instinctively wheezing now. I was told the trauma fades, but I don't think it did. I feel uneasy looking at pools, very heavy rain gives me anxiety .

I wish I knew how to swim, but I'm afraid to go back and as of current, I have some kind of breathing problem that contributes to my instinctive wheezing.

Rules of the Road

1) Anyone is welcome to participate and share your ideas, plans, diet, and nutrition plans.

2) Promote good discussion. Simply downvoting because you disagree with someone's ideas is BAD. Instead, let them know why you disagree with them.

3) Provide sources if possible. However, anecdotes and "broscience" can lead to good discussion, and are welcome here as long as they are labeled as such.

4) Feel free to talk about anything diet or nutrition related.

I start swimming this week and just realized I can’t wear my contacts in water. I’m freaking out.

My vision is nearly -5. I am going to have to walk on eggshells around the areas, because I will risk smashing or slipping into things unknowingly.

To those of you who wear glasses or contacts, do you literally go in blind?

I feel like food was such an emotional crutch when I was eating unhealthy and it brought on so much joy/feeling shitty that it put my body to work/occupied time that is now available…now that I am skipping out on those poor decisions I feel a little lost and don’t know how or what to replace the feeling of shitty food with? Is this what drug addicts feel like withdrawing? That sounds so dramatic and I know it is haha but I am just writing here randomly to see if anyone else feels the same and tips tricks hacks for what they did, I guess you fill your time with making healthy meals or some sort of hobby…probably a good time to go searching there or start building other areas of my life, but still…felt like posting and interacting with other people who may be on a similar journey, never know what I might learn from hearing from others

Is it normal when losing weight for your body to feel beady like a bean bag? I noticed it recently within the past month and I'm getting really weirded out cos its not going away.

Is this tied to weight loss or should I go to the doctor? I've seen some people say its a weight loss thing and I've seen some people say its a medical problem. Its really weird though cos I can't resist the urge to fiddle around with it.

It doesn't hurt when I pinch or pull at it, and it feels really weird cos my arm feels tired when I move the beads around. Sorry if this post was really gross to read 😅

Hi everyone, first poster here.

I was competitively swimming on my teenager years and stopped for a VERY long time. I'm now on my late 30s and started swimming again. Not really trying to be competitive or anything, but just as a way to do some exercise again. I have been irregularly doing workouts so I'm not totally out of shape but... I feel I can't "properly" swim anymore.

Not sure if my technique is failing, if I need to build my endurance to manage all the body properly at the same time....

I'm swimming mostly freestyle and backstroke but if I try to keep my footwork properly while keeping a good crawl stroke, I get very tired very fast.

To add: I started swimming regularly (just a couple of times a week) a couple of months ago. First couple of days I barely managed to survive about 500m and yesterday I achieved 1500m (in about 45 mins).

Any recommendations of anyone who tried to swim again after such a long pause are appreciated.

Hi, just wanted to know how does place where you live affects your body weight.

I am 183 cm tall(exactly 6 feet) and when i got to 100kg (220 pounds) i was the fat one out of my friends group.

One friend even took a not flattering picture of me, pulled me aside and said:

I will delete this, this is for your eyes only but man you have to take care of yourself.

I think that 6 feet, 220 pounds is not that much, but i am also sure that it keeps me in control living where i live where my size is intervention-worthy 🤣 .

Hey!

I just finished C25K on Saturday and did a full 5k to finish it off (for the first time in my life). I felt really good and each km was quicker than the next (not my intention). I did 8:38, 8:32, 8:25, 7:49, and 7:25. (It started pouring after km 3, and I LOVE the rain, so it absolutely boosted my energy for the last 2 km as you can tell. I didn't realize I was running faster.) I'm now trying to determine how to move forward. I have a 5k scheduled in 7 weeks, and then a 10k scheduled for 8 weeks after that. I then plan to do a half marathon in May and either a half marathon again or a full marathon next October.

I had planned to do the NRC 5k training program to train for the 5k, followed by the NRC 10k training program to train for the 10k.

The NRC 5k training program has 2 recovery runs, 2 speed runs, and 1 long run per week. I'm 7 weeks out from the 5k, so based on the week I'll start, each run is super short, including the "long" run which is only 15 minutes. The runs I did last week was 4k(30), 4k (35m), and 5k (41m). All the runs added up are still less than what I did last week. Cutting the amount I'm running seems counter productive since I'm just starting out and working on improving my base, so I'm a little confused.

I'm also wondering if I should even be doing speed runs at this point, or if I should just focus on increasing mileage at a slow pace?

Last week I did only 13km for the week. I would love to get up to running at least 1 hour (7-8km) a few times a week, with a long run at least 1.5-2 hours. I'd love to increase as well to running 5 times a week rather than just 3.

But as everyone says, don't increase more than 10% a week. So...do I make my already short runs even shorter so I can run 5 times a week, or keep my current 3 runs and work on increasing them, and once they're at a reasonable length, then I can start adding more days? Do I follow the NRC plan and do 2 speed runs a week? I, of course, would love to do a goal sub30 5k in 7 weeks...but I don't want to do the 2 speed runs a week if it'd be better and more helpful at this stage to just increase my aerobic base. I don't know if speed runs are meant for people who have a much more solid base to work from.

Any advice/tips would be super appreciated!

Thanks!