Yeah, it's really not so bad -- but not much muscle, I'm just hoping to get leaner, swimming is really the best for that. Plus the heroic amounts of beer I consume, makes me flabby in the midsection. Swim Swim!
Swimming is the best exercise, period. Full-body resistance aerobic training. If I could swim every day I would. Waterboy, for supplements, there really isn't much beyond whey protein I would suggest. As I always promote, eat lean protein, take the protein supplements, a multivitamin, and if you're doing honest hard weight training, I promote Muscle Milk and creatine.
Appreciate it. I also wouldn't call what I am doing hard weight training. Right now I am on very low weight with high reps. But after so long off I was just looking for a little something extra to help kind of kick start me.
What I would advise, especially if you aren't overweight, is to stick with lean protein, and do heavier core exercises (especially squats and lunges) while continuing whatever weight lifting you can manage. Maybe take a small amount of protein supplement post-workout to feed your muscles. I am leery of giving you this advice though. I don't know what protein supplements will do to your weight if you're not working out most of your muscle groups. You would be working your largest ones by working your core though, which is why I think on a scaled back regimen you should be fine. Just keep in mind, no matter what you do, short of pinning your ass with a steroid needle, the gains will be slow. There are really no shortcuts unless you're willing to go with steroids, which you'll never hear me condone.
props to Alio & the Green Dude Just wanted to extend my thanks to Alio & The Green Dude. I've been using Alio's nutritional advice in this thread as a guideline (I had to modify some things, because i'm a type 1 diabetic...and in turn, have to watch my carb intake closely).......and Green Dude gave me his workout regimen about 6 or 7 months ago.....to which i followed intently. In January 2008...I weighed about 255lbs.....I was working out (not very intensely) about 3x a week....and my diet was the shits (eating fast food at least 4x a week). I felt horrible, listless, bloated......life stunk, basically. I was putting my time in at the gym....but was getting nowhere, because of my shitty diet. Anyways....after reading through parts of this thread (I didn't have time to sift through this entire novel) and talking to Alio/Green Dude directly.....I decided to kick the diet pop and drink only water.....change my diet (more fruits, veggies, broiled chicken, cottage cheese, less junk).....and upped my workouts to at least 4-5x a week (including cardio after every workout...usually 15 mins worth) Guys......it's been 15 months.....and I'm now down to 239lbs (I'm 6'0 tall).....and feeling pretty good. I still have another 10-15lbs to go....but at least i'm on the right track. I can see my cock again...it's beautiful (no homo). Anyways, enough of my blabbering....just wanted to give some credit where credit was due....thanks fellas.....you've both been really helpful and obviously know your shit. For anybody else that's looking to change their eating habits and get into shape.....this thread was a great starting point for me. Use it, follow it, and stick to it. You won't be sorry. Oh....I also have before and after pics. I didn't want to look like a homo or a showoff.....so i refrained from posting them..........plus, WSW threatened to jerk off to them.........that was the dealbreaker. :grin:
Good for you MBGreen. I assume the 15min cardio at the end of a strength session is to help with fat loss right? Ever hear of the Tabata protocol? >: )
Okay well let me preface this to everyone by saying two things: 1. This type of exercise is not going to be for everyone. In fact, I'll dare say there are some people that won't be at the required fitness level to finish this if you are doing it correctly. However, this thread was basically designed for fat loss and Tabatas are great in serving that purpose. 2. This may or may not be a good idea for you depending on what your diet looks like. I'm not sure how many of you are going hard enough at your lifting sessions that you use a workout shake. I won't get into the details of that (unless asked) but instead simply say that a post-workout shake after a Tabata is a very good idea. Also, if you decide to do these after your strength training workouts, make sure you are not on a severe caloric deficit. What I mean to say is be careful that you are not cutting more than 500 calories below your maintenance level (the number of calories you need each day to stay the same weight). Again, getting technical here so I won't explain how you calculate that unless asked. The Tabata was discovered by Izumi Tabata, PhD, in a study looking at high intensity interval training (HIIT) versus low intensity steady state (LISS) training. Basically, his study was looking at how (what are now called Tabatas) HIIT training might be more effective than traditional cardio at burning fat. The tabata asks that the person enter an interval sequence of 20 seconds of (and I can't stress this enough) 100% ALL OUT work, followed by 10 seconds of rest. This constitutes one round and you do this eight times, for a grand total of four minutes total work. He compared this protocol to another group doing 60 minutes of traditional cardio for a total of six weeks. He found that the tabata group actually had a 14% increase in aerobic capacity and a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity, while the LISS group had only a 10% improvement in aerobic capacity and no improvement in anaerobic capacity. So what does this mean? Basically, doing tabatas really kicks your body into high gear with the potential to really get yourself in shape. I really can't say this with full confidence because the research isn't there yet but anaerobic training (HIIT and strength training) seem to be more important for FAT LOSS than traditional cardio. Now please don't get on my case and say that I'm suggesting to ditch traditional cardio. I'm not saying that. I'm simply saying that throwing in a tabata after a workout might be a great way to build up your work capacity and consequently burn more fat. I know this was a mouth full and I hope it was helpful. Here are some video to show you how it is done. Here is an example of a Tabata just straight up doing one type of exercise (bike). While the original study was of one exercise I prefer not to do just one thing as it gets really defeating after round three or so lol. Anyways have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLyRoDUy2vg This second clip is usually what I will do if I am ambitious (and energetic) enough to throw one in at the end of my workouts. This guy decided to do four types of exercises two times a piece. I think this video is a great example of the variety this type of protocol can allow you. Also, note how gassed he is by the second half of this exercise mwahahaha. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Zy56BqCtA
^ so should the entire workout last 4 minutes, or is this just part of a workout that includes lifting, etc?? Glad to see this thread back in action....I got out of the routing for a good 4-5 months and have put some of my guy back on. I started a job three weeks ago and can't fit into the pants that came with the 2 suits I bought back in Feb. Need to lose a good inch and maybe 2, so I will be bitching on/reading this thread again and hopefully the other guys on the board can get back to keeping this up to date as well. I thought about doing a weekly update with a progress picture but I think this is sort of the wrong place....
Think of it as a type of "finisher" where you throw it in at the end of a lifting session if you have it in you. I read your post and saw that you have taken some time off. Don't be discouraged to try this out. When I first started doing them I barely got through the whole 8 rounds. It's okay to do it and take 20seconds worth of rest initially, just as long as you are pushing yourself.
InChadWeTrust, I wholly support the Tabata methodology, and it's sort of a modified version of which that this entire thing is based on. The key is to get your body into a maximum state of work for a period, then taking a short rest, then doing it again. My mental image of this is basically like moving a piano into a 3rd floor walkup. You'll have to kick your own ass for each flight, while stopping at each landing to catch your breath. (I always try to liken things to real-world examples. It just makes more sense than "bench your max until you almost fail." People visualize the bar and think "Oh screw that!" whereas they think about helping a friend move his couch that one time, and while it sucked, it was doable.) The bonus is, when you actually do help a friend move his couch, it's not so hard anymore! So MB, good work man! You should be proud of yourself! It's so awesome when you can look in the mirror and see results, or put on pants and be like "Oh shit, it's time to buy smaller pants!" I haven't written in this thread in a long time, but my progress really picked up over the past few months. My wife had wanted to lose some weight, so I joined her on a "salad diet." Basically, we had salad for lunch and dinner, supplemented with chicken breast for the protein (and me mixing in protein powder into a yogurt and fruit breakfast.) We were both also snacking on fruit during the day, and drinking nothing but water and coffee. I'm still mostly doing the same thing months later (with other dinners sprinkled in sometimes, and BBQs every weekend.) Right now, I'm 185, which was my optimal weight in high school. I literally don't own a single pair of pants that actually fits me correctly, and it's freaking awesome. People are even starting to listen to me offline as well. Good work everyone!
F*g A. I've finally committed to getting my diet to match my workout. I expect a 4 pack by the time I get home from LBI in august.
I'm bumping this thing because I had an awesome weekend and did some things I've never done before. Saturday, I hiked 2 mountains, Craggy Bald and Craggy Knob. Here's the view of Craggy Bald from the summit of Craggy Knob, and the main parking area in the valley Okay, so that was easy, I never even broke a sweat (it was in the 50s above 5k feet) So Saturday night, I stayed in a motel and got up at 6:30 am Sunday and went to Grandfather Mountain. I hiked the connector trail to the Grandfather Trail (I mentioned in another thread about the bears closing the trail, the main trail was still closed in sections.) I had to climb ropes, cables, and ladders up cliff faces and giant boulders. Here's a shot from midway up one of the ladders: And some terrain up in the clouds: Till finally, I climbed the last ladder up McCrae Peak: And took a different trail back down the 2k+ feet to the parking lot. I've never had to climb ladders on a hike before, nor pull myself up with knotted cables bolted into cliff faces. It was awesome, terrifying, and managed to give my whole body one excellent workout. Better than any gym you could ever visit.
Hiker, have you ever tried the cables on top of Half Dome in Yosemite? It took me about a half hour to build up the nerve.
I've been back into the gym and healthy diet pretty strictly lately but brought a small lunch to work today (not enough food) and it just so happens to be "lunch day" at the office. Every month there's a day where you can place a takeout order to be brought to the office....they had an extra so I bought it...chinese food...how bad is it?...should I just eat the food I brought and deal with the hunger till the end of the day?
Being hungry means you're not losing weight. You're not even maintaining, you're gaining fat. Plus Chinese food is not healthy at all. Start accurately counting calories and go to the gym. I work out. Right now I go 5 days a week. M- Squats, Bench, Bent Rows, Weighted Hypers and Sit-ups. T- Cardio -Treadmill 30 minutes (jog/run)-Stationary bike - 20 minutes (hard core) W- Squats, Mil Press, Dead Lifts, Situps Th-Repeat Tuesday F- Squats, Bench, Bent Rows, Nose Breakers, Bicep Curls, Hypers and Sit ups I also cut out all alcohol.
Thanks for the tips. I stay in shape by regular gym workouts but my diet needs to improve and this helped. Also, I have a few friends that say P-90 X is the best thing that has ever happened to them.
