#workout stuff

I try to work out at least 4 days a week 30mins- 1 hour depending. I prefer to just go really hard for a short amount of time rather than sit around resting and taking a long time to do my workout.

Two of those days are upper body, one is legs, one is core. The legs and upper arm I kinda do whatever but the consistent thing is 40 second rest inbetween sets (i use a timer to keep myself honest). If my workouts take too long I am less likely to do them because I am a busy bee.

On core day I find a youtube home workout to follow like this one:

My muscles TRICKED ME. Yesterday, they were like "wows, feels great! No pains at alls!"

hmmmm that's okay lil bro i started small and took a long time to become more active and strong

i would recommend learning to get comfortable with bodyweight workouts/calisthenics like pushups, planks, squats and stuff because if you don't have access to a gym that stuff can be done at home and lots of other places (sometimes i do pushups in the break room at work) plus they can be modified to meet your level of experience or endurance

stretching is also really important to move your joints and it tells your muscles it's okay to move and grow; i like movementbydavid on youtube he's really nice

also make sure you get plenty of sleep and drink enough water and remember you're going to burn calories doing activities so you'll need to eat a little more than what your base calories are for a typical day with no movement because working out = body needs more fuel in it

i workout for fun and so i can be strong for my family mostly so you'll want to look up whatever best fits the results you want (ex. strength, endurance, mobility, conditioning for a specific sport, etc.) and how to do the right form and stuff

im not an expert so im only giving this advice like, as a bro to bro kinda thing and not as a personal trainer or anything

also most importantly don't let people tell you you can't meet your goals because of your body type or size/height/gender whatever because they're lying and you can do anything because it's not "cheating" to accommodate yourself based on your specific needs

i believe in you bro you can do it 🐻👍🏾 thank you for asking me this question

You probably won't like this answer but, running.

Understand I'm RELATIVELY new to HEMA (less than 2 years) and also fairly new to being non-sedentary (couldn't run a mile before this year and only started sort of working out ~3 years ago), so I am not an expert. But Sparring WIPED me when I started. I cross trained with climbing for several months, figuring strength and balance were the trick, especially since my arms and back were sore CONSTANTLY at first. And climbing helped like, a tiny bit, but I still had zero capacity for long or multiple bouts. Then I picked up regular running specifically to increase my endurance for steel kit HEMA. In 3 months of regular cardio I went from fencing like, 2 bouts a day max before I was too wiped to continue, to fencing 5-6 high intensity bouts in a day with a energy to spare.

And, honestly, running sucked ass at first. I took 5 months to complete a "9 week" couch-to-5k program. I walked over 90% of my miles for the first month. But holy shit, I feel like a fucking Olympian in the ring. Even when my technique needs work I'm literally running circles around fencers whose only cardio is fencing.

Here are my current stats

5’2”

138lbs

Squat 200lbs

Deadlift 205lbs

Bench press 125lbs

OHP 60lbs

1 mile run time 11 minutes

5k time 34 minutes

10k time 1 hour and 12 minutes

1/2 marathon time 2 hours and 48 minutes