Hacker News Reader

Comment by hakunin | Hacker News Reader

I hate gym too (also mid 30s), and use the hate as a tool. I hate it so much, that nothing will stop me from going, because I'm always at the lowest possible desire level anyway. I don't care if the weather is bad, if my mood is bad, or anything else. I just deliver myself to the place no matter what. For over 13 years now.

(People who like gym risk not going when they don't like it. I have no such risk. I'm not tethered to liking.)

But here's the real trick: if you can afford it, get a personal trainer.

Pick a cadence (e.g. Mon/Wed/Fri or Tue/Thu/Sat), deliver yourself to the location no matter what, and let trainer take over from there.

View on HN

Over the years, I tried gym memberships and always go bored and stopped going after a week or two.

I got a personal trainer 7 months ago, and it's been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I find having someone besides myself to feel accountable to very motivating.

It's also nice to have someone walk you through all the movements, proper form, and telling you what to eat.

When I started with the personal trainer; I was skinny, lanky, nerd. In the last 7 months, I've added 25LBs of muscle. I'm still a lanky nerd, but I'm now a stronger lanky nerd!

I feel like the most rewarding part of the gym is tangible gains. The weights don't lie.

its physically impossible to have gained 25lbs of muscle in 7 months unless you're doing steroids

I don't have the science to back this up, but I think it's plausible, if we make some assumptions. It's basically 3.5lbs/month.

- 2lbs/month is reasonable for beginner gains [citation needed, but sounds right to me].

- If you're really skinny, you'll get bigger gains.

- If you're training optimally (adequate diet, good exercise volume) you'll get better gains than the average beginner.

- Genetic lottery chances.

- Measuring body fat changes isn't perfect (and there will be changes if you're bulking), so it might not be exactly 25lbs.

2lbs a month is basically the maximum if you are perfectly optimizing everything.

3.5lbs a month is impossible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQkRDGz1Nkw

2lb/month of weight gain, including muscle, fat, and water, is very doable for a beginner lifter. 2lb/month of true lean tissue mass is indeed "impossible" without exogenous hormones.

And it gets harder adding muscle. Adding 2lb the first few months is doable. Eventually adding even 1lb gets harder to do and you plateau.

wink wink nudge nudge

If I'm going to waste time going to the gym, I'm going to get the maximum time to benefit ratio.

Yeah it is not like there are any life fucking up side effects

Have some sources

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32081788/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3897047/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j232kdcnSQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBhfP3MBYLU

https://www.reddit.com/r/trt/

Oh right your wink is about testosterone! I have had supplemental testosterone because of low levels. No big deal I reckon.

I thought the nudge was about anabolic steroids, since that is illegal most places.

Hmmm I was 6'0" 142 first day in the military... After 19 weeks of abuse, (infantry school + airborne) often active 20 hours per day I emerged 165. So 23 lbs of almost lean muscle in under 5 months. I would rate the previous commenter's claim as plausible.

How do you know there is no fat, water or bone in the mix?

I suppose I don't. But it makes less sense to me that I would increase bone density in 19 weeks in a meaningful amount and even less sense that I would put on any fat when we had roughly 2-5 mins to eat every meal.

This. So much.

It's the key I use as well to hit the gym. Just go there physically. Even with the lowest amount of motivation when everything's shit.

The line “if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly” comes to mind. If you are already at the gym, you might as well do it badly and then most of the time you're doing it well in the end.

I am on a fatigue wellness plan but basically I go in each session with % perceived effort goals, estimate what I should do, write it down, do it, tick it off, go home. Works great Muscle gain will be slow but no strength regression has happened and importantly I can stick to this for the long term.

The point is I go every time on schedule knowing I won’t over do it - as per the plan!

Out of sheer curiosity -- when did "gym" replace "the gym"?

Is this a UK thing?

OP's writing doesn't sound British, at least to this Brit. The last sentence, "What will be a good way to stay in shape", reads as non-native, even, due to the non-idiomatic use of "will" (compare "What would be" or "What is" here). Dropping articles (the, a, an) is a feature of the English of people whose first language is Russian or another Slavic language - just guessing.

The post you are replying to drops an article on "trainer" near the end. Could also just be shorthand/hurried/casual writing, though - like this sentence. That poster otherwise uses "the gym".

On topic: +1 to getting a personal trainer if you can afford the money and time.

I assumed it was an American thing. Gym is a noun.

This is me, since 2010 too.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com