Exercise Regimes and Getting Fit: Your Advice

[Triangulon]

My plan is to ease into a routine of morning walks and jogging for 4 consecutive days of the week, and then 1 hour in the gym on the other 3 days. This is because my gym access is restricted to Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. I intend to use my time at the gym to train my upper body strength, and my other days to train my legs and lower body (stomach crunches, situps, squats etc). I'm still trying to find a good route to use on my morning walks with jogging in mind (as I said, very hilly).

This seems like a decent plan but you may not need a full hour just to do upper body in the gym. You need to identify key workouts for each muscle group and don't over do it. Make sure you have a day in between each gym visit. High weight-low rep excercises are better for gaining muscle. Basicly you need to tear the muscle so it heals larger. Don't be intimidated by all the nobs at the gym. Just do what you want to do. My typical upper body workout consists of bench press, bicep curl, horizontal row, tricep extension and pec fly. Typically three or four sets of 5-8 reps with a weight aimed to really struggle on the last set. Again, don't be pressured into putting the weight up too soon. Once you are comfortable, increase the weight and also change excersises or you won't see any benefit.

I hate jogging so I won't give you much advice on that. I do like interval training. You have say six equidistant points and sprint between them (i.e. point 1, point 2, point 1, point 3 etc). I do reccomend doing a high intensity sport if you have time. I play football but my main workout is squash. I play at least 3 times a week and its really good for your legs (lots of changes of direction etc).

In terms of diet it is important. Don't eat more than you burn. Don't eat too little or you won't gain muscle. Do eat meat. The protein is important. Eat lean red meat (good), fish (very good) and chicken (excellent). Stay away from carbohydrates as much as possible (in particular late in the day when there isn't time to burn it all off).

Most important. Get lots of sleep. This is when your body recovers (and rebuilds muscle).

Good luck!

 

[Kashyyk]

Lastly, buy a skipping rope. I am not kidding you here. Once you lean how to skip you can get so much fitter. It can be used for endurance, burst speed you name it. Not only that but you don't need much space for it either. Give that a try if possible.

This is a good one. And if you feel silly while doing it, here's a fun fact for you: Boxers use skipping ropes. And they skip a lot!

 

[ActivatorX]

@Stollos:

Are you trying to be "fit" or "buff"?

If #1:
- running, swimming and cycling on a regular basis along with working out at the gym 3 times a week (mind you, the first 3 activities burn a lot of calories, so the end result would be a more fit, yet "skinnier" person)
- get a proper diet (what matters is that it's low on fat)

If #2:
- minimize running to the stage where it's only for warming up
- eat proper food (low on fat, high on protein), along with bodybuilding supplements; also, no fatty/junk food
- work out at the gym 3 to 4 times a week (for example: 1st day - chest/arms, 2nd day - legs, 3rd day - abs/stomach, 4th day - back)

What's most important for both, is willpower. You must force yourself to stay on a regular schedule. Once you become used to a regular schedule, achieving your goal will be one of the easiest tasks ever, I assure you.

My friend was an amateur nutritionist and a fighter, training in MMA. He made a diet for me, along with suggestions on how to become buff.
Thanks to him, I went from 75 kilograms (beer belly, saggy mantits, "loose" arms), to 87 kilograms (6 pack, firm mantits, "big guns"), in about 8 or 9 months.

EDIT: I usually do 8 repeats of 50 sit-ups per day. They're great for forming abs.

 

[Stollos]

@Stollos:

Are you trying to be "fit" or "buff"?

My priority is getting fit, but i'd also like to fill out my shoulders as well as strengthen my stomach and back muscles. I also got some good advice from a friend of mine who is studying to be a personal trainer/fitness adviser on strengthening my back and ab muscles.

If #2:
- minimize running to the stage where it's only for warming up

Are you saying that jogging/running is counter-productive to building upper body mass? I will be running regardless (because I like it), but if thats true, i'd like to know to what extent that will affect my ability to gain shoulder muscle bulk and if there are ways of mitigating those hurdles.

Again guys, thanks for the replies. I'm actually getting really psyched to get into it now that I know all this stuff but we'll see how long that enthusiasm lasts haha.

 

[JemJar]

SNIP

I'd just like to emphasise a point made by Serioli [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/538.246863.9053598]: people often think running downhill is easy, but once you're over a couple of percent, the incline becomes dangerous. You can do yourself some nasty calf injuries very quickly from the effort of stopping yourself going over forwards, whereas generally speaking the worst you can do going up is exhaust yourself.

A system which worked quite well for me when I was at uni was to run up quite a steep route (then down a shallow one). When starting out there was no way I could handle the full hill climb, but I set myself the challenge of matching or beating how far up I'd gone the previous day and walking once I really couldn't continue. Don't expect to beat the target every day, but over time you'll see some progress - I generally failed once every five days.

Which leads me to my big key piece of advice :
Keep a fitness diary.
Record every exercise you do, how many reps, how far and how long. Record every time you didn't go the full distance or didn't go long enough and write down why whether that's because there was a heat-wave or, because you were out on the town getting drunk the night before or whatever.

Don't get too critical of yourself with it, don't berate yourself too much for it, but subconsciously it'll keep you in check. And if / when you're struggling for motivation you can look back and be aware of how far you've come.

 

[Sheinen]

DON'T overdo it! All you'll do is hurt yourself and then give up.

Limit yourself to 30 min runs to begin with. Run until you're really out of breath and then walk until you get your breath back; lather, rinse, repeat. This 'interval' training not only helps you get into it at your bodies pace, but burns calories at a much faster rate than just jogging steadily.

In terms of weight training you really dont want to favour any specific body area: It results in odd posture, bizarre body shape and poor gains.

I'm in the gym 5 days a week for 30mins a day. I do one muscle group a day so that I get effectively 1 week rest between each workout.

Mon: Bicep - Tricep
Tues: Legs
Wed: Chest - Back
Thurs: Core
Fri: Shoulders

Think of 2 machines and 2 free-weight exercises for each muscle group and follow a pattern of a,b,a,b,a,b,c,d,c,d,c,d. EG BArm day: a=Bicep Curl Machine, b=Tricep free-weight, c=Bicep curl free weight, d=Tricep machine.

Because you're alternating between 2 opposing muscles you don't need to sit around and wait between sets - you can get a lot done in a short space of time!

 

[ActivatorX]

@Stollos:

Are you trying to be "fit" or "buff"?

My priority is getting fit, but i'd also like to fill out my shoulders as well as strengthen my stomach and back muscles. I also got some good advice from a friend of mine who is studying to be a personal trainer/fitness adviser on strengthening my back and ab muscles.

If #2:
- minimize running to the stage where it's only for warming up

Are you saying that jogging/running is counter-productive to building upper body mass? I will be running regardless (because I like it), but if thats true, i'd like to know to what extent that will affect my ability to gain shoulder muscle bulk and if there are ways of mitigating those hurdles.

Again guys, thanks for the replies. I'm actually getting really psyched to get into it now that I know all this stuff but we'll see how long that enthusiasm lasts haha.

Running (in most cases) makes you burn huge amounts of fat.
If you're aiming to become fit, go with running. It really is the best way out there to become fit.

 

[PeePantz]

Although very expensive, I would suggest getting a personal trainer for about a month (once a week) or two. A personal trainer will show you different exercises that should give you the results you are trying to achieve.

The key to building and toning muscles is to confuse them. DO NOT DO THE SAME EXERCISES every time! This will lead to a muscle plateau and you won't be able to improve on your physique. Change up different types of pushups, crunches, and pullups. Change up your lunges, jumps, and squats. Your exercises should also combine different muscle groups. Always work on your core (middle of body), and always stretch. Warming up and stretching are so vital, it's useless to workout if you're not going to.

Try things like yoga. If not, dedicate a day for stretching and serious core work. Not only will it vastly improve your workouts, it will give you such a toned body.

If done correctly, your workouts should eliminate the need to run. You should get enough cardio with your exercises. If you do want to run, run twice a week in addition to your workouts. Or, join a cycle class or some other cardio class.

Diet is huge. If you want to lose weight, for about a month or two, eat very little carbs. Eat a ton of protein, eat 2-3 servings of veggies, and a fruit. Snack on nuts and learn to love lowfat cottage cheese. Make sure everything is low fat and healthy for you. No junk food and stick with water. After you've trimmed down, eat a balanced diet and make sure you eat good carbs such as whole wheat, brown rice, or quinoa. Also, fiber is great for you. Eat small meals throughout the day and avoid really big meals.

 

[Powertool]

I was in a similar situation to yours, but here's what i did and it helped me out completely. This may not be workout related but it will lead into that and it improved almost everything in my life.
1. I cut out all my "negative" friends and replaced them with outgoing and nice people.
2. I started going out in nature and this really helped me appreciate life more
(optional, this is not for everyone) When I vaporize THC It brings me clarity and through that I was able to make a priority list.
3. I began eating way better. no processed foods, no soda, organic, "raw foods"
4. when my Psyche was at peak condition I started just working out and meeting great people who I can work out with (this helped me stay committed to a routine)
5. I stopped living in the past, future and started living in the now.

After did all this i feel so great all the time that staying in shape is easy. I have a six pack for the first time ever and I have noticed a huge self-confidence boost because.

 

[dmase]

If you have the time run every day, unless your over 45, you won't hurt yourself. Start running at a slow pace with the intention of running a full mile nonstop, get to the end and judge your exertion either take a break or keep jogging back. When you get to the point where you can run the mile down and back without stopping increase your speed. If your breathing hard thats alright just try and slow your breath down. Keep moving after your done and stretches before and after.

[I've always hated lower body exercises if you get up to 3 miles in a lowish amount of times and then come back and do wind sprints that may take 5 minutes your lower body should be taken care of with just that no extra needed.](opinion)

Upper body start doing 15 triangle pushups, make a triangle directly under your chest make your chest hit the ground and come back up. When you do push ups your head is up looking directly in front of you not the ground and your back is straight.

25 situps, situps you push straight up, that bs you got in gym class about touching your knees isn't right. Find a video online for best technique.

15 regular pushups, arms even with your chest.

30 side to side situps situp like going to you knees but to the left or right.

15 outstretched arm pushup, Start with your arms at your chest then move them out to you have your elbows about even with your back. You should be comfortable tho and do pushups like that.

The last one is your choice. Find something you like upside down bicycle, 6 inch leg lifts, reverse sit ups. These are different sets of exercises so decide by how comfortable you are with which one.

I don't have anywhere to do pullups so i never did, but pushups with your legs up at a certain angle can give you and extra shoulder back work out, you have to be at a pretty steep angle.

This upper body workout should either be done everyday or twice a day ever other day. These aren't tough exercises and maybe starting up you shouldn't do this quite so often but as you feel like you wanna increase reps do it this way first.

If your around 15-25 you could probably do any of this as often and as hard as you feel comfortable with. You probably won't hurt yourself using self weight techniques... unless your provoked(don't do 500 pushups in two hours). Don't use free weights unless your comfortable with doing a decent amount of these exercises. They aren't the best if your looking to get ripped but you can hurt yourself with free weights easy, I've done it a few times.... use common sense.

 

[Srdjan]

Hit yourself, not litterelly, but with execise as hard as you can, if you really want to achive something you just have to get throught first couple of days, it gets easier and easier later. I know this is not some of that slow progress and mild start and respest for yourself bullshit, but also I know that this balls to the walls, torture training can work if you have willpower to endure it, if you don't there is not a training program out there that can help you. And forget any selfrespect, you must earn that shit, we are not all special and unique and other motivational shit.

You can do whatever exercise you want, and do it as much as you physiclly can, but you must also reduce food intake, just eat half of whatever you eat now and forget about junk food, sweets, any greasy food, any sugar rich food, any soda, avoid bread especially white bread. Also no drinking. I know this can be really hard but it is possible, you just need to man up.

I did some fitness instructor thing while back so if you want more tips or instructions feel free to contact me on private messange or just quote me.

 

[Stollos]

Update bump!

Thanks again for all the great advice from everyone! I'm just getting into a proper routine now that i'm working 3 days a week down from 5 days. My 6am wake ups for jogs are sleep-ins compared to my 5 30 mornings for work hehe. Bought some proper workout cloths today (gym top and shorts). Its hard to not overdo myself, but i'm taking JemJar's advice

Keep a fitness diary.

and i'm doing great. It also really does make a difference on my sleeping pattern. This time two weeks ago i'd toss and turn and basically have a hard time getting to sleep (summer over here doesn't help either), but after all this exercise, I sleep like a rock.

The only thing i'm not doing as well as I'd hoped are gym workouts. I'm a litte self conscious of my current form so I figure i'll wait until i've toned up a little from my home workouts and runs before I go and use their equipment.

Other than that, nothing can describe my attitude better right now than a humble and fuck that i'm tired g'night guys.

 

[wolfshrimp]

If you're doing gym work; freeweights are good. As is boxing- alternating between heavy bag and light bag for five minutes with intervals of about 2 minutes in between.

Set yourself a steady pace when jogging and, like the others have said, sprint occasionally, go all out when you are coming to the end but DON'T stop dead. Sprint till you're about to lose it, then slow down progressively.

As for diet, eat regularly and make sure stuff is balanced. I'm a vegan and get all my protein from oats, nuts and supergrains like amaranth, which have more human-digestable protein in them per 100g than any meat. You can get plenty of amino acids (the most important part of meat) from nuts and seeds. DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying you shouldn't eat meat, that's your call but you will get more easily assimilated protein from the foods I've mentioned.

Also, take natural protein shakes after a workout like whey powder, hemp and soy powders, avoid anything with creatine in it like it was AIDS, it will give you mass and a brief strength boost but the longterm effects will harm you.

Good luck, I know what it's like trying to improve.

 

[Stollos]

If you're doing gym work; freeweights are good. As is boxing- alternating between heavy bag and light bag for five minutes with intervals of about 2 minutes in between.

Set yourself a steady pace when jogging and, like the others have said, sprint occasionally, go all out when you are coming to the end but DON'T stop dead. Sprint till you're about to lose it, then slow down progressively.

As for diet, eat regularly and make sure stuff is balanced. I'm a vegan and get all my protein from oats, nuts and supergrains like amaranth, which have more human-digestable protein in them per 100g than any meat. You can get plenty of amino acids (the most important part of meat) from nuts and seeds. DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying you shouldn't eat meat, that's your call but you will get more easily assimilated protein from the foods I've mentioned.

Also, take natural protein shakes after a workout like whey powder, hemp and soy powders, avoid anything with creatine in it like it was AIDS, it will give you mass and a brief strength boost but the longterm effects will harm you.

Good luck, I know what it's like trying to improve.

Thanks for your post. I was thinking about trying the punching bag the other day when I was listening to some music that I thought would be great to punch in rhythym to. If I were to do so, would I have to buy some special gloves? Or something like glove-skins, just so I wouldn't skin my knuckles? Or am I doing something wrong? Also, i'll look into the protein shakes you suggested. I hadn't given it much thought before now, so thanks for that.

 

[tricky_tree]

for pure fitness, i.e no mass increase etc, the best thing to do is intervals. Start off with a 5 min jog to warm up, run at 8/10 of your maximum speed (10 being a full sprint, 1 being a slow walk) for 45 seconds, jog at 4/10 for 2 mins to recover. repeat these 3-4 times so your routine would be:
warm up jog (5 mins)
8/10 (45 secs)
4/10 (2 mins)
8/10 (45 secs)
4/10 (2 mins)
8/10 (45 seconds)
4/10 (2 mins)
cool down jog (3-5 mins)
do this 3 times a week, and you will have a decent level of fitness, then increase the high effort times while lowering the recovery times untill you can manage to do a 6/10 run for a solid half an hour.
Also, a lot of people on here don't have a clue about supplements, creatine does not add mass, nor are there any real documented long-term effects.

 

[Zaik]

A lot of people are going to give you a bunch of crap about heart rate and distance and i'll be honest with you, I have no idea how any of that crap works.

#1: HYDRATION: Most people are dehydrated. I'm minorly dehydrated right now, because the water is so bad here i have to run it through a filter to not end up in the hospital, and my last one is well past used up. Anyway, if your pee isn't clear you're wrong. Drinking sufficient water will not directly increase your comfort while running, however it will greatly affect the deteriation of your condition during running.

!NOTE!: Despite what "nutritionists" will tell you, sodium is FREAKING MAJORLY IMPORTANT IN YOUR DIET. If you do not have enough sodium, you can not keep enough water in your system to stay hydrated. A normal diet will provide enough on it's own, if you think you have an issue, salting your food to taste is all you really need. This isn't a problem for most people, however a few will make the mistake of cutting sodium out entirely and not know why they can't run for crap. If you get a little bit dizzy immediately after stopping running, be proud, you pushed hard. If you get really dizzy after, or dizzy during running, stop, walk slowly, and drink water.

PS: You can over hydrate, if you feel symptoms of dehydration even though you had 8 glasses of water for breakfast, chances are you drank so much you flushed your entire system of all your electrolytes and water. DO NOT DO ANYTHING STRENUOUS OR YOU WILL HAVE A HEAT STROKE LOL. Go eat something salty immediately and sip water. Drink a gatorade if you've got one, but salt + water will keep you out of the hospital.

#2: JUST RUNNING FREAKING SUCKS. It's true. The thing i don't really get is how people expect to lose weight around their midsection by using their legs and arms a lot. It will work, over time, but it's kinda inefficient. Instead, try setting a few points, do so much of a workout, say, pushups, as fast a possible, then RUN to the next one, do something ab-related, run to the next one, do squats, etc.

#3: STRETCH. It helps warm you up, which i will address next.

#4: WARM UP. If you just go run you will puke shit everywhere. You don't take off in a car at 85 miles an hour from a dead rest when all the standing water within 50 miles is frozen solid, unless you want to turn your engine to shit. Likewise, if you make your body take off well out of normal operational range from normal operational range, it will get revenge. Do some stretches, run in place a little. Then pick a point a little ways away and jog to it so slowly people would think they were playing max payne or some shit. Go back and forth a few times. This will make exertion feel good rather than like you are going to freaking die.

TLDR: Read the all caps.

Edit: Minor note, when i first started running i plateaued really quickly and never could find out why. I'd run for weeks and never once improve at all. Years later, after i'd given up, I happened across some information about iron deficiency and found out that there's a good chance i didn't have enough, and it was likely the cause. Later in boot camp I had no issues at all improving, so i assume it was the case.

 

[wolfshrimp]

Thanks for your post. I was thinking about trying the punching bag the other day when I was listening to some music that I thought would be great to punch in rhythym to. If I were to do so, would I have to buy some special gloves? Or something like glove-skins, just so I wouldn't skin my knuckles? Or am I doing something wrong? Also, i'll look into the protein shakes you suggested. I hadn't given it much thought before now, so thanks for that.

No prob mate. Rhythmic punching eh? Careful with that or it will begin to look like battle-dancing ;D Yeah music works well, I like to psych myself with fast-paced aggressively edged stuff- anything from Crystal Method to Metallica even dabbling into the heavier end of Led Zep when needed, make sure you either have deep pockets or a clip-on mp player though otherwise the bloody thing will keep falling out (I usually stash my mp3 with my John Thomas but it looks rather odd when trying to change track).

If you want to work the bag, you'll need boxing gloves. Buy sparring gloves as opposed to proper bag gloves as that way if you find someone to spar or do pad work with you won't have to buy a second pair and the sparring gloves have more padding. That will protect your hands from bruising and impact damage a bit. Against skinning your knuckles and generally protecting your wrist and knuckles you will need hand wraps: some people like the slightly elasticated 'Mexican' wraps, I use the normal cotton ones. ALWAYS wear them, I was lazy yesterday and now have to wait until the skin grows back on my middle knuckles. Here's a good vid on how to tie them, practice at home while watching movies and TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ud54cZly8o

Best,

WS