Katawa Shoujo Forums

dunkelfalke wrote:Cycling uses both a bit different muscles and the same muscles in a different way. I can walk for 6 hours straight or cycle for 3 hours, but jogging kills me after a few minutes

Oh but the reason for this is rooted in how hard you are pushing your heart. Walking? Slightly elevated heart rate above normal. Jogging? 60-70% max heart rate. Cycling will generally put you at about 40%, unless you are going all out. But if you are going all out so your heart rate is 70% of your max, you will last just as long as you do while jogging. (I did a unrigorous test on this at the gym with measuring Calorie burn per minute & heart rate).

Hoitash wrote:I sympathize. I'm pretty sure at least one of my knees is arthritic at this point. I've found starting slow and limping a bit for a couple strides helps work it out. Apparently Newton was right.

You should look into doing weightless squats (but make sure you do them correctly, I used to squat incorrectly and hurt my knee. Then I started doing them correctly and my knees are back up to snuff). When done properly squats strengthen the knees, which counteracts the terrible effects that running causes them.

Auratus wrote:I am stop running for a long while now but I plan to "rerun" later. So I start push-up using Rin's routine. My push-up is very bad that I can only do that twice and found my arm is tired, and despite I have the motivation to keep doing it. My arms just aren't and I have to give up. I think I recall my mom tells doctor that I have some kind of syndrome that make my arm weak. Can anyone give me some advice how to push-up with this kind of weakness. (I am not asking how to push-up properly. I have read enough of it)

It doesn't seem like anyone responded to this, so I"ll crack at it.
1. Push-ups focus on your chest muscles; your triceps, lats and shoulder are only secondary stabilizing muscles that kick in at points during the push-up movement. if your arms are becoming very tired (and not your shoulder to chest area) I might wonder if you are doing them wrong...
2. That said, are you doing straight push-ups or bent-knees? The latter decreases resistance so it might be easier for you.
3. If none of this is working out I would focus for a month on low-resistance strength building exercises. Get a pair of 10 or 15 lb dumbbell, and do bicep curls and tricep curls, hang from a bar for as long as possible (widen your grip on the bar so you are exercising your lats), lie on the ground and do flies with the dumbbells (with arms extended straight to the sides, bring your hands together, and then lower arms back to the ground while keeping arms straight).

zanger wrote:Push-ups focus on your chest muscles

How's that? The chest isn't even involved aside from it being the thing that's pushed up.

Update: Finally got to around to a workout again. No jogging/running yet, just walking. Did about 20 minutes today. Might boost that to an hour, given the temperature's finally started to cooperate. Started on Week 2 of Rin's pushup guide though rather than ending with 'maximum', I ended with 'however long it takes to get sick of the sweat stink'.

Xanatos wrote:

zanger wrote:Push-ups focus on your chest muscles

How's that? The chest isn't even involved aside from it being the thing that's pushed up.

A push up is basically an upside down bench press. The movement is almost identical (or should be), and if you are doing it correctly, the focus is on your chest, with triceps and front shoulders being secondary (by correctly I mean--hands appx. below the chest, placed slightly wider than shoulders, with elbows bending towards your feet, not out to the side, as you go down). Of course, you could modify how you are doing the push-up to change the focus of the muscle groups, but a true push-up concentrates the chest muscles.

That said if you don't feel your chest muscles being used at all while you're doing push-ups, you are probably doing them very wrong and you will probably injure yourself.

Xanatos wrote:

zanger wrote:Push-ups focus on your chest muscles

How's that? The chest isn't even involved aside from it being the thing that's pushed up.

It's the muscles that connect the chest to the shoulders and so forth. I just started a pushup regimen the other day actually, and I definitely noticed some soreness there. But yes, pushups "focus" on chest muscles. They work your entire arm, but the bulk of it is in the chest-to-arm connection.

zanger wrote: You should look into doing weightless squats (but make sure you do them correctly, I used to squat incorrectly and hurt my knee. Then I started doing them correctly and my knees are back up to snuff). When done properly squats strengthen the knees, which counteracts the terrible effects that running causes them.

Thanks, I'm looking into that now

If only something could be done about the humidity. Although I hear the Southwest is lovely this time of year.

Heartless Wanderer wrote:They work your entire arm, but the bulk of it is in the chest-to-arm connection.

The pectoralis major muscle ends at the shoulder, originating from the sternum and clavicle. It's all one big sheet of muscle
the connection you speak of is your chest muscle

zanger wrote:

Heartless Wanderer wrote:They work your entire arm, but the bulk of it is in the chest-to-arm connection.

The pectoralis major muscle ends at the shoulder, originating from the sternum and clavicle. It's all one big sheet of muscle
the connection you speak of is your chest muscle

I know that. But I like to speak in layman's terms since I can never keep the fancy-pants technical words for things straight in my head and there's no guarantee the person I'm speaking to can, either.

The point is that I was sore and the soreness felt like it was a muscley string that ran from my arms into my chest.

Xanatos wrote:The chest isn't even involved aside from it being the thing that's pushed up.

You could also look at it the other way around: the arms serve only as a connection for your chest to the ground.
Your chest is the big slab of muscle in which all resistance a push-up focuses on; your arms are an extension to this core muscle.

Haven't been running much these past few days. It's either the heat or my laziness not letting me do a full 30 minutes run. Also my legs get sore, but that's just an excuse too.

Enemy | wrote:Haven't been running much these past few days. It's either the heat or my laziness not letting me do a full 30 minutes run. Also my legs get sore, but that's just an excuse too.

At first I thought "What, heat? It's November." Then I noticed you live in Brazil and felt like an ass for not thinking of it on my own.

Summer and winter are both incredibly shitty times to get into a running routine. If you're already in one it's just a matter of sticking to it and maybe moving your routine to a warmer/colder time of day, I guess, but it's better to "start" a routine during the spring or early fall, when temperature isn't such a factor--when it's even a good reason to be outdoors.

Starting a habit is always more difficult than maintaining one. I should know! I've diligently maintained a whole host of bad habits over the years, but somehow I always fail at establishing good ones. -.-;;

Heartless Wanderer wrote:Starting a habit is always easier than maintaining one.

I hope you mean the opposite because this seems godly to me.

Hi, I'll be joining you all running :D I'm on week 2 of the guide on the first post.
It's been a few years, but I used to run, so I'm pretty confident about making through the c25k. Afterwards I'll probably start on a Hal Higdon program.
I think it's awesome to find a thread on physical fitness on a forum for a VN. Hadn't seen it before :D

Oh, and I guess it is relevant to say that I was inspired by Emi because a family member of mine who was an active runner became physically disabled just recently. Without going too much into it, prosthetics aren't an option for him. His club held a benefit 5k to raise money for him, but I lived too far away to participate in it. So I'm hoping to get in good enough shape to participate in a general benefit race in his name. So I guess Emi's story hit close to home and here I am.

Anyway, I'll be around :D

Reksho wrote:

Heartless Wanderer wrote:Starting a habit is always easier than maintaining one.

I hope you mean the opposite because this seems godly to me.

That was my fingers typing faster than my brain, it happens sometimes. I meant "more difficult" but it came out as "easier." Not really sure what kind of psychological slip that is, but it's rather hilarious to think about the implications. Suppose it's Freudian... what's the connotation there?

Does anyone still get that stabbing sensation in your sides when running? It tends to disappear when your stamina improves but I still get it every now and then. Not sure what to think of this.

Reksho wrote:Does anyone still get that stabbing sensation in your sides when running? It tends to disappear when your stamina improves but I still get it every now and then. Not sure what to think of this.

A stitch, you mean, this sort of thing?