For Those Who Don’t Like, Or Don’t Know How, To Exercise

The list of activities is vast... Parkour, both indoor and outdoor climbing, hiking, rowing, (roller)skiing, cycling, running, swimming, all the various ball games and the list goes. There literally is something for everybody, one simply has to find the right method for themselves.

Personally I have found gym and calisthenics mostly boring, but I get the same sort of stimulus from other means and it's actually fun and challenging.

Having low fire characteristics and not being inclined to exercising can be increased with Sun, Mars, Uruz and Sowilo, to name a few methods. Colours such as red work for passion and athletics and black for endurance. All of these accompanied with proper affirmations, of course.

Thank you for the input, Henu :)

I would also like to add that Karate katas are great for the body and the mind.

Repeating the same kata for half an hour daily can greatly increse your profficency in void meditation. It has helped me alot.

I partially agree with that. Most men want a stronger, athletic and attractive body but don't perform the right activities. Cardio/Pilates and the like are relatively good, but don't accomplish the desired goal unless you want to lose weight, and there are better alternatives.

Men who want massive, impressive muscles and an athletic body are scared of it or don't see the point of it, while others love it and it's all they do. Neither extreme is good. Not all cardio is the same. Not every kind of cardio helps you shed fat and not every kind of cardio will devour your muscle mass.

Cardio can help you grow muscle mass faster and get rid of unattractive fat at the same time. But that's only if it's implemented intelligently. If it's not implemented intelligently, you'll lose muscle mass, promote fat deposition, or simply waste your time.

To burn a mass of over 300 kcal you need to spend quite a lot of time doing cardio. For many people even an hour.

Time that would give much better results if you used better weight loss workouts, such as HIIT or EPOC, which last 15-20 minutes and have much, much better effects.

Besides, cardio does not lead to attractive slimming. It doesn't help to maintain muscle mass, especially if you're on ''diets''. Doing it in excess increases cortisol levels, which creates great damage to muscles and the whole body. You get more benefits from a yoga session than from this...
Overdoing it also lowers testosterone levels and causes increased body fat.

Even Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the father of aerobic exercise, the person who coined the term "cardio," has changed his mind about this style of training. After observing a large number of cardio enthusiasts suffering from cancer and heart disease, he was open-minded enough to change his mind about the benefits of excessive aerobics.

A good alternative for men is anaerobic training ( HIIT, EPOC, weight lifting ) combined with cardio. A simple way to make your strength and muscle mass training more "metabolic" and burn more fat from it, is to reduce the breaks between sets. And to do this without affecting your exercise performance, you can use circuits.

I'm not necessarily saying it's bad, but it doesn't give the results you want without anaerobic exercise...

Martial arts are great for increasing capability in handling your body and mind. Arts such as Qigong are like this. Getting better at single pointed focus is not only limited to martial arts, however. Take an example of going for a walk, hike or run. Just do the thing and focus on the moment. Boom, you are leveling your focusing skill.

Thank you, Lydia. I really admire your initiative.

One thing I have wanted to get into for a while is gymnastics, but there aren't any adult gyms for it where I live. I don't really know how to start.

There is this fitness book that I saw recommended by some people though that looks promising, and I was thinking about picking up at some point. It's called "Overcoming Gravity."

Thank you, Lydia. I really admire your initiative.

One thing I have wanted to get into for a while is gymnastics, but there aren't any adult gyms for it where I live. I don't really know how to start.

There is this fitness book that I saw recommended by some people though that looks promising, and I was thinking about picking up at some point. It's called "Overcoming Gravity."

Overcoming gravity is very good. It's a fitness manual written by someone who actually has deep knowledge and experience on the field, unlike most people who give fitness advice, and it doesn't shill for strange programs, diets and equipment.

Another good book is tactical barbell. Same deal, practical, minimal marketing wank. Less dry than overcoming gravity, but more generalized.

To burn a mass of over 300 kcal you need to spend quite a lot of time doing cardio. For many people even an hour.

Perhaps for low levels of fitness. In cycling using 400 to 800 calories per hour is pretty much the norm. Anything above that is elite level race pace and below we are talking about unfit people and easiest pace possible for those a bit fitter. But I do agree that cardio is not as efficient time wise as some other means.

Btw, combining easy cardio with HIIT is pretty good option. For example 20 minutes easy, 20 minutes consisting of intervals and another 20 minutes of easy. This targets multiple systems with one workout. All in all having a wide variety of exercising options and methods is always the best way to go as variety will induce body to adapt in different ways. Always doing the same thing over and over not only stagnates growth, but the ceiling will be faced quite quickly.

For those interested in doing cardio, but not knowing anything about it is best to look up info from online and to ask from people who might know a thing or two about the subject. For example, there are plenty of scientific studies about specific types of cardio and how they effect the participants. Having multiple sources of info will help to make informed decisions on how to achieve particular goals.

Fitness beginner advices (from a woman's perspective, but also in general):

https://youtu.be/MI660UG8b-o?t=32

If you’re a woman, the book “ROAR: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong, Lean Body for Life by Stacy T. Sims (PhD)” is a must read. Men and women have different nutritional needs and they need to train differently. \
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The biggest difference is that women need to structure their training around their menstrual cycle. The menstrual cycle impacts your performance and according to the studies cited in ROAR, the menstrual cycle improves the athletic performance of a woman. \
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I love running and swimming. These are good fitness books on running and swimming: \
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Pliability for Runners: The Breakthrough Method to Stay Injury-Free, Get Stronger and Run Faster by Joseph McConkey\
Chi Running by Danny Dreyer \
Run For Your Life by Mark Cucuzzella\
Ready to Run: Unlocking Your Potential to Run Naturally by Kelly Starrett \
Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier by Terry Laughlin \
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HPS Pythia recommended the fitness program below, she did this and got a six pack after having 3 kids: \
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The Navy SEAL Workout: The Compete Total-Body Fitness Program by Mark De Lisle (1998)\
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These are ToZ articles on physical fitness: \
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Sermon on Physical Fitness by HPS Pythia \
Body Advancement by Stormblood \
https://archive.ph/NJKv1\
https://web.archive.org/web/20220223080821/https://ancient-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=68365\
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Exercise and Spiritual Development\
Zevios Metathronos"]Weightlifting. This is extremely important. Muscles are ruled by the Solar Plexus Chakra. Weightlifting will increase your confidence by increasing your hormones and this will not only aid in your confidence, but you will in time look to yourself through a different eye. When you see your body evolving and seeing that it has extreme capability, you will love yourself even more. This helps physically, more physical power equals more spiritual power.\
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People who practice forms of exercise have more powerful bioelectric fields. It will give you an aura of power and combined with cardiovascular exercise, will definitely aid you a lot. This will too make you more brave, competitive, powerful and even help your magick, because your confidence will be increased. The hormones weightlifting increases empower the Soul, since chakras correspond to glands.\
Source: (page 22-23)

Want to throw in another recommendation for weightlifting. I started merely 7 months on Hypotrophy, high intensity, low rep training mainly focused on gaining raw strength and muscle mass. It transformed my life and not just physically. I was able to perform more meditation and for longer periods of time. Along with a consistent and constant drive to improve myself. Which in turn lead to me fixing things about myself spiritually. This started a feedback loop where my body prompted my mind and soul to improve, and then my mediations to improve my body.

I cannot recommend it enough for those capable of weightlifting. Add in some bodyweight exercises too, like the pull up/chin up.

I love exercising. I didn't know how or why anybody wouldn't like it? Or have a problem with trying to stay in shape? And it doesn't matter how old we are. It's kind of a necessity. ⚡ ❤ my grandma would always tell me! If you don't have your health you have nothing! And to an extent she is right!. And it doesn't matter how old you are? Or what medical condition you're in mentally or physically!? Is all in the state of mind and your attitude?. And you don't have to be an Olympic athlete! You don't have to be a football player and you don't have to be an expertise at anything! :-) you find the joy in yourself getting out and doing something that is both beneficial and happy❤ anything is going to make you feel good about yourself! Build up your confidence and give you that self-esteem you're looking for!🐍 and it opens up many doors for each and individual depending on what you're looking for and what you want out of it! 🙂🔥 HAIL ZEUS!❣🙏🦚

If you don't eat enough, you will not bulk up, ,, I don't care how much you exercise. Run 100 laps around the Eiffel Tower, do 200 sit ups,,, pushups,,, pullups. lift weights 3 hours a day. If you do not eat enough,,, you will not gain weight. I know.

For the hormones of happiness had I heard, but among other things physical activity such as calisthenics, martial arts, forced stretching ect. it raises the flexibility of the body which can be useful, such as facilitating hata yoga exercises (some a bit more difficult), but not only.

Very well said. Me if I do workout, after it I feel refreshed, energised, centered, happy, sometimes even ecstatic and drunk… benefits are countless, I will not start to talk about long term benefits, that are THE thing which I mostly like. Even if I am tired after hard work day, still if I do it, it makes me feel like that anyway, and then I am kind like fully ready to finish my day with other activities that is of my routine. I think to be living fully worth life of living, working out is essential.

The more you develop your muscles, the more calories you burn.

Swimming is one of the best sports to increase the amount of oxygen into your body, it helps developping the cardiovascular system by adding capillaries in each part of your body. When swimming, try to do more strokes without breathing.

Thank you, Lydia. I really admire your initiative.

One thing I have wanted to get into for a while is gymnastics, but there aren't any adult gyms for it where I live. I don't really know how to start.

There is this fitness book that I saw recommended by some people though that looks promising, and I was thinking about picking up at some point. It's called "Overcoming Gravity."

I need to clarify something here. With artistic gymnastics, it depends on what your goal you are trying to achieve.

If you are trying to develop the same SKILLS as Olympic gymnastics, gradually, then you will need a proper gym. You cannot do on your own as you don't foam pits, tumble tracks, fast tracks, trampoline, sprung floors, vaulting tables, mats, blocks, and gender-specific equipment (pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and high bars for men; beams and uneven bars for women).

If you just want to develop strength, moderate agility, flexibility, stamina, power, endurance, balance... then you can do those at home or in a calisthenics park with tailor-made programmes based on Overcoming Gravity 1 and 2, or customisable programmes like Gymnastics Bodies. These are generally thought of gymnastics STRENGTH programmes. They don't develop the gymnast body in terms of equal performance and skill. They are the other side to skill training.

@anyone: I would avoid making overgeneralisations about pilates if you don't have a sports and exercise science degree. And "cardio" doesn't mean anything. It's the word for heart, and an abbreviation for cardiovascular which means a myriad of things. Running is not "Cardio" or rather it is, but every form of exercise has cardiovascular involvement. Just existing is cardio, as you cannot exist without your cardiovascular system being active. Also there are different types of running for different type of goals. Weightlifting is absolutely UNNECESSARY... unless you like it. And it's also incomplete. But this post is not about ego-lifting. If you want to have a debate about that, please let's open another topic or comment under one of the other topics where I mention ego-lifting. Let's keep Lydia's post free from fights.

In general, I would look at how German troops were trained during WW2 for those who want well-rounded development. Just look at the books of the Head of PE in WW2 regime Germany, instead of listening to random people online with anecdotal and biased knowledge. For the lame people who don't want well-rounded development, then only look at what you like. If you don't like anything currently, then try different activities until you find what you like. The only thing you should never give up is the path of Yoga.

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Thank you for the information.

I'm not seeking to do gymnastics competitively so I would be in category two, I believe.

AFAIK, there aren't any calisthenics parks where I live. What a shame.

Do you think I can still make use of those books even in a small home environment? Or will I need to expand my access to fitness equipment to really get anything out of it?

@anyone: I would avoid making overgeneralisations about pilates if you don't have a sports and exercise science degree. And "cardio" doesn't mean anything. It's the word for heart, and an abbreviation for cardiovascular which means a myriad of things. Running is not "Cardio" or rather it is, but every form of exercise has cardiovascular involvement. Just existing is cardio, as you cannot exist without your cardiovascular system being active. Also there are different types of running for different type of goals. Weightlifting is absolutely UNNECESSARY... unless you like it. And it's also incomplete. But this post is not about ego-lifting. If you want to have a debate about that, please let's open another topic or comment under one of the other topics where I mention ego-lifting. Let's keep Lydia's post free from fights.

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I'm glad someone else clarified OP here (no shade casted on OP, fyi). I've read some of the stuff you have written about concerning strengthening tendons and isometric training and I have to say, you are RIGHT on the money when it comes to actual For-Real strength training. You also, I have read, have a Lot of experience with training and experimenting with said training, so street cred goes to you. I respect your input about not wanting to do "muh debate" and this is fine but if you know something more about something than OP and have first hand experience, then sharing it is the best cause. There's nothing I respect more in a person than someone having lived life through trial and error and obtaining wisdom through it.

We are here to learn and having as many different inputs and Experiences on a topic is most preferable, especially when it comes to health and working out (as wrong advice could lead to serious injury).

I will leave some good threads on the subject here:
About body advancement
What diet and exercise for gaining muscle? (read through the entire thread)