binnyc:
I am tired of going to the gym and see a lot of new hour long calorie burning, muscle building workout options. Which are the best? Thinking of F45, Orangetheory, etc who else has tried alternatives to going to a regular gym?

What are your goals?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Depends on your goals. Here's some generic advice:

  1. Find something sustainable. Getting effective workouts consistently over a long period of time beats something hardcore that you'll drop. Everyone has different thresholds for sustainability. Your level of sustainability should increase as you get more and more in shape.

  2. Diet is half the battle, but you probably already know this.

  3. I think swimming is the best workout for the least amount of time and least amount of potential for injury. It's pretty damn hard to hurt yourself while swimming once you know the basics.

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

I’d say my goals are to maintain the level of fitness I’m at now. I’m not trying to get absolutely huge but don’t find the need to spend 2 hours in the gym anymore, and I want to work on cardio as well.

 
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if you're self motivated, just find a gym that's close by, reasonably clean, and has free weights. it's the best value. you can get cardio from doing your own HIIT/tabata stuff, kettlebells, going outside for a run/swim/bike, etc.

if you lack discipline, seek out gyms that are close by and ideally between your office and home so there's less possibility you avoid the gym. do trial memberships, see what you enjoy. try something new as well, like a title boxing club, ufc gym, 9round, and maybe supplement that with some weight training.

more info is really needed before we can advise you on what to do. if you're literally looking for workout/specific exercise ideas you can do yourself, men's health has that sorta thing, as does bodybuilding.com and t-nation (despite the inherent roidy-ness of those sites). try a bunch of shit, see what you like, and go from there. my circuits may bore you to death or not be what you want to accomplish, strongfirst may be all you need, maybe that's too boring, maybe you'd like crossfit, maybe all you need is an app like marcus filly's and that'll be the ticket, incredibly hard to say.

TLDR: there is no one "best" workout, it's dependent upon goals and the individual. since you don't wanna get huge and take forever in the gym I can rule out basically any powerlifting schemes, but beyond that, we need more info bro

 

As you said, at the end of the day its about building muscle. Not crazy, steriod, 30 inch arm muscle, which is fine if you want that, but gaining muscle and losing fat.

A lot of that comes from eating, but its also workout dependent. A lot of people get board doing the same workout, but you can mix it up with different amounts of sets, reps, circuits, or supersets.

My advice would be to take 5-10 minute everyday and try to learn something about fitness. Read an article, watch a youtube video, then apply it. Also, figure out a workout style that works for you, and don't attach working out to time spent in the gym. 20 minutes is pretty efficient to get a workout in (might not be your best) but good in a pince.

 

Here's something to try based on your preference to maintain fitness level while incorporating cardio and keeping time in the gym relatively quick and efficient.

  1. Get a fitbit, apple watch, etc. something that tracks your heart rate.
  2. 5 day split, 2 push, 2 pull, and 1 leg day.
  3. Push day - 3 chest 3 triceps, and 2 shoulder exercises ( iI've been doing bench, incline bench, and then chest flys for chest, close grip bench, pushdowns, skullcrushers for triceps, and hammer press shoulder press and seated dumbbell shoulder press for shoulders)
  4. Pull Day - 4 back, 3 bicep, 2 shoulder exercises (Ive been doing lat pull downs, seated rows, barbell rows, and dumbbell bent over rows for back, dumbbell curls, barbell curls, and preacher curls for biceps, and dumbbell lateral raises and upright rows for shoulders).
  5. Leg Day - 4 leg exercises (Squats, leg press, leg curls, and leg extensions)
  6. End of each workout can add a quick 10-15 min cardio session. If you dont like distance running on the treadmill, Ive found pyramiding is effective. 4 levels of incline from flat to fully steep, run for around 30 seconds or until you are out of breath and then break for 30 seconds. Do this to thew top and then back down, repeat another time if necessary
  7. 3 sets of 8 for all exercises is something that Ive found works best for me
  8. Keep your heart rate up above 130 the entire time where its in "cardio range", take breaks in between as necessary so its not a full circuit, but heart rate will determine how quickly sets are done

This can be tinkered with and customized as necessary, but in general, this is an effective workout schedule for both maintaining muscle while upping cardio fitness, while keeping gym time around 45 mins to an hour tops.

 
radio528:
Get a fitbit, apple watch, etc. something that tracks your heart rate.

first things first - these devices are dogshit for tracking heart rate while exercising. while resting, fine, but do not believe what they say when exercising, you'll need a chest strap.

otherwise, his exercise ideas are good, but again OP, we need more info

EDIT: just reread all of this. he doesn't deadlift, take his advice with a grain of salt.

 

Dude. That is WAY too much volume on non-compound exercises for someone who from the OP sounds presumably like a novice lifter. This type of frat boy bro split does more damage in the long run and hinders long-term progress for someone who is new to lifting, and even for experienced/intermediate lifters who are unassisted (i.e. steroid-free). A piece of me dies inside every time I see some BS bro-split someone found on bodybuilding.com recommended online because 99/100 times it is horrible advice for the person it is being recommended to.

You also recommended chest flies - quite literally one of the most shoulder damaging and ineffective chest exercises that can be performed, and upright rows, another shoulder impinging exercise, both of which have significantly more effective alternatives that do not force the shoulder into internal rotation/impingement and put the chest/delt through a complete range of motion in the direction of the muscle fibers.

OP, if you're interested in getting more muscular/building strength, start with a basic 5x5 program such as starting strength or Stronglifts 5x5 and go from there. Compound lifts are the most bang for your buck and the foundation of every good program that exists. Run it for as long as you can - it will get you very far. You can add any sort of cardio that interests you to stay conditioned, although stay away from more intense forms of cardio (i.e. heavy farmers carries, yoke walks, sled pulls, tire flips, etc.) until you are much more experienced. Do this CONSISTENTLY and you'll make rapid and drastic changes to your physique and athleticism. It really boils down to the basics.

EDIT: Also, invest time learning proper mechanics and technique of the compound lifts. There are a ton of good resources on YouTube for this, but for every good channel, there are five bad channels. Alan Thrall's channel probably has the best how-to's on the compound lifts. Good: AthleanX, Alan Thrall, Omar Isuf, Every Damn Day Fitness, Mark Bell, Chris Duffin/Kabuki Strength, Silent Mike Grain of Salt: Starting Strength (Rippetoe is very dogmatic) Avoid: Kinobody, Layne Norton, Jason Blaha, Jim Stoppani, Vegan Gains, KennyKO,

 

Muay thai pad work is super fun once you learn the fundamentals. I went from 260 to 220 in 4-5 months doing this 3-4 times a week and cutting carbs. This plus pushups, situps, burpees, and jump squats builds real functional strength application.

If you want to go the muay thai or boxing route, I would suggest getting 10 hours or so of private lessons before you join the class. Also, if you want to spar make sure not to go with the guys training hard to try to make pro.

 

As someone who absolutely hates repetitive cardio and has a relatively low level of motivation to do aerobic work in the gym, I've come to rely on sports to get my workouts in. Men's league hockey one night a week, tennis or squash league/mixer one night a week, and then sprinkle in one or two weight training sessions and a weekend round of golf when weather allows. Occasionally I'll have a season of softball/kickball/volleyball going on as well, usually with a work team (although these are usually much more drinking focused tbh).

 
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