My pledge to myself: I am going to be BUFF

[Ellen Forradalom]

I bicycle commute a couple times a week and have started using the corporate fitness room after an instructional session with my swim coach. I swim 3+ times a week.

No more soft or scrawny Ellen! I am going to kick ass just like my heroine Skittles!

[Skittles]

1. do it or I WILL kick your ass

yes INDEED :thumbsup:

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. Yes Mistress Skittles!

*salutes*

[GOPisEvil]

2. I need to get back on the program myself.

I've lost weight since you saw me in Boston, but I've looked better honestly.

Good for you and good luck! :thumbsup:

[Ellen Forradalom]

16. Get thee to the gym

Or Skittles will kick your ass.

[flvegan]

4. Stick with it.

I made that pledge to myself some time ago.

You gotta believe in it, live it, own it.

Your buffness awaits.

[Ellen Forradalom]

8. It's just starting to happen.

I showed my son my muscles tonight and he ooh and aahed :-)

On edit: I am gonna want your advice on both buffitude and vegitude.

[flvegan]

9. Ellen, my dear...

If I can call you that...

Consider me "on the payroll" okay?

Whatever you need, if I can help deliver, I'm there.

on edit, for clarity: you just hired me. It's free, but still, you know...

[Ellen Forradalom]

11. Proud to be your latest client

I'll PM you so we can get started. Especially with cutting through all the BS on nutrition.

[flvegan]

12. Looking forward to it.

[Ellen Forradalom]

14. Autobiography sent.

[darkstar]

5. Right on.

How was that morning swim?

As long time swim coach, swimmer, and all around promoter of the sport, if your goal is to swim fast, don't get too buff. But if your goal is buffness, rock on with your bad self.

:hi:

[Ellen Forradalom]

7. How interesting

How does buffitude detract from fast swimming? Bad hydrodynamics?

My goal actually is to swim well and fast. A certain degree of buffliness does not seem to detract from that, although I notice top swimmers aren't exactly body builders.

On edit: The morning swim went great. I even shared a lane with the guy who laid off my husband last week! (It was OK though, the firm's folding, nothing to be done.) The only problem was that I had that ooo-I-got-up-too-early buzz in my head all day.

[darkstar]

13. Well

IMO, anyhow, there's several things at play.

One is buffness at expense of flexibility.

Another is, as you suggest, cut surfaces are not as hydrodynamic as smooth.

But in large measure it has to do, I think, with buoyancy and the "fat floats" idea. That is, you rarely see elite swimmers that look like track sprinters OR distance runners. It's not so much fat around the middle, but subcutaneous fat. Of course there can be a debate--I've been in them--whether it is a self selecting thing, i.e. people with this trait meet with success in the sport, etc.

Don't get me wrong. Ian Thorpe here is in good shape.

But this is that classic swimmer smooth muscled, non-bulked, higher body fat look vs either



or



And to make it apples to apples, here's the fastest woman swimmer around today.


Of course, Natalie Coughlin above is in terrific shape. But at the gym, I see women older than her with both far more chiseling and lower body fat, i.e. Madonna's current physique.



Anyhow, good luck. I've started training hard again in the last few months, so maybe we'll compare notes from time to time...

[Ellen Forradalom]

15. Yes, stay in touch.

I have SO much to learn about proper technique. It's hard!

Good luck to you and let me know how it's going!

[madinmaryland]

6. You're going in the buff?

:hi:

[Ellen Forradalom]

10. You'll just have to imagine me naked

under my swimsuit.

[hfojvt]

17. Buff the magic dragon, lives by the sea

and frolics in the autumn mist in a land called honnalee.



Man, it is hard to get or stay buff when you keep getting the munchies.


Hey, hey we're the munchies and people say we munchie around, but we're too busy wolfing everything edible down. We're just getting so hungry, so come on give us something to eat. We're now the old generation, and we've already been beat. Awwww.

Swimming is fun though. I probably should swim more often. I bicycle 8 days a week though, and it has not made me buff. Not even close.

[Ellen Forradalom]

18. Tell me about it

"Man, it is hard to get or stay buff when you keep getting the munchies."

You got that right. All my snacks are healthy, but still!....Fruit, nuts, wholegrain bread, soy yogurt is NOT safe around me!

[DarkTirade]

19. I just recently made the same pledge...

I work in a warehouse, but right now I'm getting no cardio and all of the muscle work is in my arms and legs, so my torso is being neglected. So I promised myself I'd start doing ab and back exercises and pushups before work every day. Not sure what I'm gonna do for cardio though. Warehouse is rough on the joints, so jogging is out.

[Ellen Forradalom]

21. Swimming is VERY easy on the joints.

Get thee to a pool. If water is not your style, elliptical trainers are easier on the joints than jogging. Consult your friendly neighborhood personal trainer!

[darkstar]

23. This kind of swimming has to be easy on the shoulders, at least

Dolphin kicking, some with fins, some without.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqmA9h43x4g&NR

Humans are amazing, huh?

:hi:

[Ellen Forradalom]

24. Wow that looks like fun

And damn if she doesn't really look like a dolphin! beautiful.

[DarkTirade]

25. Swimming is definately my style, I swim like a fish. Unfortunately I have no pool I can go to

with the exception of the one at my apartment complex... and ever since the complex left little notices on everyone's door politely asking them to make sure their kids stop going to the bathroom in the pool (and they weren't talking about pee), I haven't trusted that pool.

[LynzM]

20. Awesome!!

Good for you, dude. That rocks, seriously! I need to get back in shape, myself! Been slacking big-time since May, and it's starting to catch up with me...

[Ellen Forradalom]

22. TAKE THE BUFFITUDE PLEDGE

Heck that merits its own thread!