Keeping Fit.

[SOSAGES]

I took another step closer to death last week. I have made it to 29 earth years and i am now looking at the big 30.

Everyone i know without fail who got to 30 is a bit of a fatty and i didn’t want this to happen so (and don’t laugh) i started some cardio work every other day and working out the other days.

Ive started with some basic weights and some stomach moves. I even have one of those ball things (but keep falling off)

The idea is to reach 30 and look like Brad Pitt from fight club :) My only worry is how to keep the ladies off!

So i started last week with a quick jog did 5 min warm up of light jogging / 1 min fast / 2 mins medium / 1 fast / 2 med / 1 fast / 2 med / warm down for 4 slow jog.
I plan to do that every other day - on the days im not jogging i plan to do some basic
Dumbell Press
Hip Bridge
Ball Squat with Dumbell
Shoulder Press with dumbbell
One Calf Raise
Seated Bicep Curl
Reverse Crunch with fitness band

i do the first 4 items 3 times and the others twice. I do between 15-20 reps of each one (nothing serious) i plan to do this for a month and then increase the weights.

The only downside is i still just want to eat and drink crap :) and i really cant be bothered to do the exercise ..
its only been a few days and i feel like giving in but im going to stick to it (i hope)

Now all i need is some encouragement and some rocky music.

[Halcyon]

Keep at it !!!
And don't worry about eating a little bit of rubbbish from now and again as the fact that you are doing exercise will help burn that off.
Still, eat some good fruit and veg too. Will keep you going, give you energy, and is good for you too.
And drink lot's of water.

It's really good you are doing all this and I wish you all the best :tu:

[looselipsuk]

Well if it helps I am 56 till tomorrow and still going strong.
Since June last year I have been using a home multi-gym and find it works well.
I think what keeps me motivated is I train with a mate so we keep check on each other.
Also helps as is easier to see the effect the training is having when you can look at your training partner and see how they are shaping up.
The other part is you both try that little bit harder to see if you can improve more quickly than they do.
We do have music playing while training and we try not to take it too seriously either.

[Anonymouse]

There are more fun ways of keeping fit and toning muscles:

Archery - don't laugh; you'd be surprised. When shooting outdoors, you end up walking a fair distance to and from the target. A couple of years after I started, after a summer of regular practice I discovered some of my T-shirts no longer fit...because I'd gone from a 36" to a 38" chest. Carrying targets (bosses, to use the technical term) single-handed helped, as these are about 4' wide and weigh up to 44kg. I draw about 40lbs with my bow and frequently shoot a York round. This breaks down as:

6 sighter arrows at 100 yards, then 6 dozen scoring arrows, 6 at a time - thus you walk 200 yards there and back for every 6 arrows - total distance = 2600 yards.

4 dozen at 80 yards - comes to 1280 yards.

2 dozen at 60 yards - 240 yards, with a grand total of 4120 yards. 150 arrows gives you a drawn weight of 6000lbs, or nearly 3 tons, and you walk over two miles. It mounts up. :)

Swimming

Riding a proper bike rather than one of those damn exercise things - at least you go somewhere!

And if you have a partner, there's always sex!

[zing_deleted]

SOS are you going to a gym or doing this at home? if your using a gym incline walking burns more calories than jogging and you will be able to keep it up longer.
If your at home and street running optimum cardio is 20 minutes you want to aim for around 120 to 150 beats per min heart rate for this time so you will need to increase your running after a week or so

---------- Post added at 16:39 ---------- Previous post was at 16:37 ----------

snip!

the walking side I give a big thumbs up to but would the weight bearing be biased to your prefered hand? like doing 100 20 kg curls with the right and 100 15 kg curls with your left?

[SOSAGES]

just doing this at home currently
i do the cardio for around 18-19 mins anymore than that as i understand it will start to take energy from what muscles i have.

i only drink water apart from when i have a beer at the weekends - this is down to being to lazy to add anything to the water or wait for a kettle :)

As for riding a bike - when i move and get a garage attached to the house i will spend some money on a bike i used to ride a lot (5-6 hours a day) between 12-16 and then girls and the pub took over..

I was thinking of getting some protein drinks to help as well oh and i need some more weights!

anyway cant stop and chat time to look like a fool rolling around on my back with a big black ball between my legs.

[Russ]

You can easily easily crap and lose weight. In fact you can eat nothing but pie and chips if you like and still drop the lard if you listen to your body.

I've lost 2 inches off my waist since Christmas and I eat whatever I feel like.

[tweetypie/8]

I took another step closer to death last week. I have made it to 29 earth years and i am now looking at the big 30.

Everyone i know without fail who got to 30 is a bit of a fatty and i didn’t want this to happen so (and don’t laugh) i started some cardio work every other day and working out the other days.

Ive started with some basic weights and some stomach moves. I even have one of those ball things (but keep falling off)

The idea is to reach 30 and look like Brad Pitt from fight club :) My only worry is how to keep the ladies off!

So i started last week with a quick jog did 5 min warm up of light jogging / 1 min fast / 2 mins medium / 1 fast / 2 med / 1 fast / 2 med / warm down for 4 slow jog.
I plan to do that every other day - on the days im not jogging i plan to do some basic
Dumbell Press
Hip Bridge
Ball Squat with Dumbell
Shoulder Press with dumbbell
One Calf Raise
Seated Bicep Curl
Reverse Crunch with fitness band

i do the first 4 items 3 times and the others twice. I do between 15-20 reps of each one (nothing serious) i plan to do this for a month and then increase the weights.

The only downside is i still just want to eat and drink crap :) and i really cant be bothered to do the exercise ..
its only been a few days and i feel like giving in but im going to stick to it (i hope)

Now all i need is some encouragement and some rocky music.

keep her lit sosages after a couple of months you will be glad you did lol.;)

[Nidge]

Here's a site that will help you along. Meal plan site (http://www.mealplansite.com/professions.aspx) There's everything on there for a person to lose weight. Don't forget to include some excersise of some sort for at least twice a week, below is a routine for people who are new to bodybuilding, it's a long post but it has some good info.

1. Mind-set
So often neglected by the beginner and yet the most important ingredient in success?. DESIRE. So many fail by seeing it as a short term goal to improve your physique. This will contribute to failure. Get it out of your head that you need to get in shape for your holiday in 8 weeks time. You should see it as a lifestyle. A way to live your life. "A bodybuilder is for life not just for Christmas"

Accept the condition your body is in and make the decision to change your life to achieve your objectives. Accept it is a long term plan and you will not be disheartened if it takes time to improve. Lets face it folks, if it was easy then everbody would be doing it.

Be realistic about your goals. A beginner should not be saying I want to lose 30Ibs of fat and gain 20Ibs of lean muscle in 2 months. It Just Won?t happen, yet people time & again put this sort of image in their mind and become disheartened when it doesn?t happen that fast. Time to wake up and forget the brainwashing from much of the health & fitness industry we have endured most of our lives to sell their latest fat loss or muscle growth gimmick.

Prepare yourself for hard work and sacrifice and you will see it as something you love and not as a chore. You will see it as something that distinguishes you from the masses who cannot be bothered or those who shoulder too much pride to seek advice. As soon as you see it as a chore you are on the path to failure.


2. Objective Setting

First of all assess your physique. Decide what you need to do most of all ? Lose fat, build muscle. How fat you are, or how small your muscles are, will determine where your priorities are. I feel this is important so that you can set yourself some attainable targets. Remember?. For fat loss, the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns at rest and while exercising a Ib of muscle burns roughly 10x as many calories as a Ib of fat (approx 70 cals per hour compared to 7 cals per hour for fat).

Set some sensible targets e.g. to lose 10Ibs of fat in 5 weeks and gain 5 Ibs of lean muscle mass. Despite what we think, it is physically more difficult to build muscle than to lose fat. You can, though not advisable, lose 4 or 5 Ibs of fat in a week (as you are likely to lose muscle mass). You cannot build 5Ibs of lean muscle in a week.... live with that fact as It will not happen.

Setting some lifting targets as you become familiar with the exercises and your routine e.g adding 20kg to your bench press in a month, will help you gauge your progress.

3. Training ? Weights

Your weights routine will be the bedrock of your lean muscle gains. To make consistant and long term gains you should make of point of having a structured weight routine from the start.

My first recommendation is to join a good gym. A gym that offers a comprehensive induction process, members of staff who know what they are doing. It should have a full range of free weights & equipment, lots of dumbells and plates (especially plenty of the heavy plates-20Kgs) for you to work your way up to the bigger weights. A good gym will be one where you feel comfortable.

It is very important that as a novice you are NOT INTIMIDATED by training alongside much more experienced bodybuilders. They won?t bite you !!!! Most are very nice, helpful and normal people that are good fun and very helpful. They will not be looking down at you because you are new to the sport. We all were at some time! In fact use their experience to help show you how to do exercises correctly, etc as most of us just love the sound of our own voice and will not hesitate to help someone less experienced. Swallow that pride folks.

My preference is to start as you mean to go on and learn to use free-weights asap. They will allow a much more thorough workout of the muscles than machines due to the full range of natural motion you can achieve in the exercises and that they recruit many more fibres in the supporting muscles and working muscles than machines. More fibres recruited?.. More muscle gains you?ll make.

GET YOUR FORM RIGHT!!!! This cannot be stressed enough. Poor form is rife amongst the MAJORITY of gym goers and will vastly hinder your progress. Do not sacrifice good form in ALL exercises for more weight just to feed your ego! Your muscles will develop MUCH quicker and you will have much less risk of injury if your form is good. If you cannot complete good form with the exercise then the weight is too heavy for you. It's that simple! Live with it! And work at getting stronger while having perfect form. Do not try and compete against the bloke next to you who is doing it wrong but lifting heavier. (in 6 months time he'll be the one that won't have grown much at all and you can leave him to wonder how you have put on so much mass.)

To see how any exercises are done correctly click here ?
www.exrx.net
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm
http://www.coopersguns.com/videos/exercise-encyclopedia/

Try and separate your workouts into splits ? chest, biceps, triceps, back, traps, legs, calves, shoulders, abs. Train each group once a week and your body will have plenty of time to recover and rest. You grow when you rest.

A nice 4 day split that will not kill you is
- Chest/Triceps/Abs
- Back/Biceps
- Shoulders/Traps
- Legs/Calves

As a good rule aim for 9-12 sets (MAXIMUM) for Large Muscle groups (Chest/Back/Legs) followed by a smaller muscle group for 6-8 sets (MAXIMUM)(Biceps/Triceps/Shoulders/Abs/Calves). Go easy on the biceps as they are much smaller than the tricep so will probably respond better at the lower end of that set range. Forget about doing 50 sets of bicep curls for big arms! You'll overtrain them and they will not grow to their full potential.

Also as a good rule work at a weight that you can perform 6-8 reps with strict form with before you can?t hold good form anymore. When 8x becomes comfortable then you can add a little more weight on. 6-8 reps is the best compromise between hypertrophy gains (muscle growth) & strength gains. Where you see "train to failure " - this means until you cannot do anymore reps at that weight with perfect form.

Here?s an idea for a routine as an example which was my own routine based on gaining lean mass and shifting some bodyfat:

SATURDAY - Chest/Tri
5 Min warm-up
Dumbell Flat Bench - 4 sets 6-8 reps
Weighted Dips For Chest - 4 sets 6-8 reps (last set to failure)
Incline Dumbell Fly- 4 sets 6-8 reps (last set to failure) (Lay so head is at the top of the bench)
Skull Crushers - 3 sets 6-8 reps (or close grip bench press)
overhead cable presses 3 sets 6-8 reps (last set to fail) (or close grip bench presses)


SUNDAY - Back/Bi
5 min warm-up
Deadlifts 4 sets 6-8 reps (last set to failure)
Bent Over One Arm Dumbell Rows 4 sets 6-8 reps
Chins or Lat pulldowns 3 sets 6-8 reps (last set to fail)
(I would prefer you to do chins instead though if you are strong enough to lift your bodyweight)
Barbell Bicep curl 3 sets 6-8 reps
One arm Dumbell Hammer curls 3 sets 6-8 reps


MONDAY
REST & Cardio (30 mins swimming before brekkie approx 40 lengths)

TUESDAY - Delts/traps
5 min warm-up
Seated Dumbell military press (Sit on Bench while executing) - 3 sets 6-8 reps
Lateral dumbell raises (side) 3 sets 6-8 reps (last to fail)
Barbell Shrugs 5 sets 6-8 reps

WEDNESDAY
REST & Cardio (30 mins swimming b4 brekkie)

THURSDAY - Legs & Abs
5 min warm-up
Barbell Squats 4 sets 6-8 reps
Stiff Legged Dead Lifts 3 sets 6-8 reps
Calf Raises (link shows seated) 4 sets 8-10 reps (last set to fail)
Weighted Swiss Ball crunches 4 sets 6-8 reps
hanging leg raises 4 sets 6-8 reps
Dumbell side bends 3 sets 6-8 reps

FRIDAY
REST & Cardio (30 mins swim b4 brekkie)


[SEE END OF POST FOR ALTERNATE ROUTINE TO CHANGE TO WHEN YOU HIT PLATEAU]



4. Rest
This is very important. You should aim to give your muscles a week?s rest for recovery and growth. Muscles grow while you rest. It is very easy to overtrain and when you do your body goes into catabolysis (where it starts using the body?s protein source ? muscle). This is not good. Many budding Bodybuilders overtrain and wonder why their biceps haven?t grown in the last 6 months! (that is why I have listed the rep & set numbers like I have). It is very easy to overtrain, especially when you are very enthusiastic at the outset. To begin with you will most likely gain some muscle but not nearly as much as if you rested properly. No good doing 20x sets of bicep curls 3x a week. Your arms will not grow!

You should get a minimum of 8hrs sleep every night. You grow while you sleep. Less than 7hrs and you start to risk catabolysis of the muscles and lose those hard earned gains.

5. Training ? Cardio
Important for fat loss & cardiovascular fitness. You should aim to do cardio on separate sessions from weights so that your muscle glycogen is used while weight training to fuel the muscles. DO NOT perform cardio before the weights sessions otherwise you reduce the potency of the weights session.

Fat loss cardio should be at 65% Max Heart Rate (MHR) for 30-40 mins and ideally before breakfast so that your body can tap into its fat stores for fuel immediately. Any more than this and at a higher intensity then your body will also utilise protein for fuel and lead to muscle loss (HIIT is the exception to this but we?ll keep it simple for now). If time is a prob then if you have to do cardio in the same session as weights then do it AFTER the weights and for no more than 20 mins at 65% MHR. Always try to have a protein shake before cardio (even 1st thing in the morning).

Endurance cardio is done at higher intensity. Not great for bodybuilders as it is more catabolic but with protein taken before & after the session it should minimise catabolysis.

6. Diet
I?m gonna keep this real simple ? EAT CLEAN, EAT BIG - Try and eat every 3hrs to keep protein flowing through your body to provide a positive nitrogen balance and to keep your metabolic rate high.

<b>Muscle growth</b> ? High Protein, High Complex Carbohydrates, Moderate Fat (good fats ? flax seed oil, rape seed oil, etc)
<b>Fat Loss </b>? High Protein, Lower Complex Carb, Lower Fat.

To lose fat you need to use more calories than you consume. To gain muscle you need to raise the calories to a higher level than you would utilise. This means a little fat gain but with some gentle adjusting you?ll find where your level is at. Aim for 1.5g of protein per Ib bodyweight for gaining & fat loss. 200Ib person would need 300g protein in diet per day for bodybuilding.

Worth going to the diet forum for specific diet advice as this is a BIG area.

Also remember to get protein in you before you go to bed, when you wake up and immediately after weights. This is when your body needs it most.


7. Supplements

Food.
Good whey Protein supplement for post training & when you wake up.
That?s it! As a beginner you are wasting money on all the muscle solutions, fat burners, etc that are out there as your body will change drastically with 6 months hard work. Once you have the basic platform then you can think about extra supplements. As for beginners thinking about steroids?. Forget it. They are for the serious & experienced Bodybuilder who has reached their natural limit. A get big quick solution may seem appealing to a novice but do not be tempted as you need to know what your body?s limits are to use these effectively IMO.


Finally remember that bodybuilding is about getting a good balance between attitude/weight training/Rest/Cardio/Diet. If you neglect any of the areas I have mentioned so far then you are not fulfilling your natural potential.

Good luck and any questions you have feel free to post away??

Likewise, if any of the experienced Bro?s have anything to add (I?m sure there?ll be plenty ) then please do so.

8) Wear Comfortable clothing!


--------------------------

Alternate Routine 1.

When you find that your strength & mass gains start to slow and you want to change the routine then you can try this one for size...

Chest/Shoulders/Tri

5 Min warm-up
Dumbell Incline Bench - 5 sets 5 reps (very low incline)
Weighted Dips For Chest - 5 sets 5 reps
Seated Dumbell military press 5 sets 5 reps
Skull Crushers - 5 sets 5 reps (or close grip bench press)



Back/Trap/Bi

5 min warm-up
Deadlifts 5 sets 5 reps
Wide Grip Chins 5 sets 5 reps
Bent Over Barbell Rows 3 sets 5 reps
Barbell Bicep curl 5 sets 5 reps (Strict Form!!!)
Incline seated dumbell curls 3 sets 5 reps (arguably this exercise can be cut out. Just listen to your body and decide how knackered your biceps are by this point)


Legs & Abs

5 min warm-up
Barbell Squats 5x sets 5 reps
Stiff Legged Dead Lifts 5 sets 5 reps
Calf Raises 5 sets 5 reps (last set to fail)
Weighted Swiss Ball crunches 4x sets 6-8 reps
lying leg raises 4x sets 6-8 reps (if you can do these resisted tyhen even better.)
Dumbell side bends 3x sets 6-8 reps


I've put a combination in that will work you hard. Start to push yourself hard on the weight and on the 5x5 exercises don't worry if you can only do 2 reps on your last set. It's better that you work harder on your early sets and keep the weight the same on your later sets but drop the rep numbers as your muscle tires, than to drop the weight. When you can actually hit 5 sets of 5 reps then it's time to add some more weight. Your strength should progress nicely.

[superbiatch]

30 is a great age - embrace it :D

[handyman]

Blimey what a good post.

My aim is to get fit in 2008 as well but my goal is to stay fit in the long term so I'm not looking for immense gains up front but more a gentle weight loss in line with increasing fitness. I've started doing the Natalie Cassidy work out after 'acquiring' it for someone then testing the dvd to see if it worked. When I sat started doing I did 40 mins of it the first day which was excruciating but then tried to play it from the vob files the other night and did 30 mins of it.

I have to say its a pretty intensive work out and If I can do that together with a swim 2-3 times per week and some badminton it will be 1000x better than the zero I'm getting now.

[Graham M]

If anyone uses Whey Protein/Soya Protein or any other Sports Nutrition for that matter, I may be able to do you a deal on certain brands, if anyone's interested, gimme a shout and I'll look into it!