My personal Fitness, Diet and Nutrition Plan for losing fat and staying fit : ) (1 Viewer)

[JonZ]

Bill,

IMHO dumbells are safer than barbells. If you cant bring the weight up, you simply drop it. If you fail on barbells, the weight can fall on you.

With barbells, you know when u wont be able to do more so youll stop before absolute failure becuase u have to have the strength to lift the weight and put it back - the routine I showed u guys ONLY works if you go to absolute failure. I would suggest sticking with dumbells.

Do u go to the gym with someone who can spot you?

 

[Bill Catherall]

I don't go to the gym with someone who can spot me.
This morning I was working out with 155 lbs on the barbell. There's no way I could put 75 lbs in each hand, laydown, press it until failure, then be expected to sit back up again to put the dumbbells down safely. And I can't just drop the dumbbells from a laying down position. I'd either hurt a joint or rip a muscle. Or the dumbbells go bouncing across the floor and I get thrown out.
So how do you safely drop dumbbells when you're laying on a reclined bench? And, how would a spotter spot you with such heavy weights, at such an odd angle? If you had a spotter, barbells are easier to spot.
I'm afraid that working with dumbbells I would stop early because I know I've got to get that weight down to the floor. This morning I couldn't get the last rep up so I just arched my back and I was able to utilize muscles that weren't quite so tired to put it back.
Maybe what I'll do is just ask someone around me to quickly spot me while I do that one set of barbell presses. That way, I won't get stuck and have to call for help.

 

[Dave Falasco]

I couldn't get the hang of lat extensions either. Even with a small amount of weight, I found myself bending at the waist a bit to counterbalance myself. I felt the exercise in my abdomen and legs more than my back. I'm sure I'm doing it wrong, but I can't seem to find a diagram of how to do it correctly.

 

[JonZ]

Spotting would be someone putting their hands under your elbows and giving u a slight push to get the weight up. Never push up onthe weights itself.

Its so difficult to describe. I wish I had a digital camera with a timer, I could take pics for u guys and put them on my website.

Basically what I do it.

1.Pick up the weight off the rack.

2.sit on the bench with the weight on my knees

You can do 2 things here:

-Lift your knee - with the momentum you can swing the weight up.

- Let the weight drop down under the bench, lean foward and swing the weight up

BE CAREFUL AND TRY THESE WITH LIGHTER WEIGHTS FIRST Dont hurt yourself.

Otherwise just ask someone to spot u. Every one in the gym is there for the same reason and people will always help you.

Since Im getting into the heavier weights too Im gonna have this problem too. I dont think Ill be able to swing up the 120s.Some will have to hold the weight so that after u decline, u can grab the weight in the ready position.

As for dropping them, I always lower the weight down to my chest and rest the weight on my chest, sit up and with the momentumput the weights back on my knees and then can put it down.

Does this help?

 

[Chris PC]

Thats what I do. Mind you, I'm only working 55 lb db right now, but the same principle. I pick em up, walk over and with the weights on my thighs, I sit down, letting the weights rest on my legs. I then swing back with my thighs pushing the weights into an upright position. If I cannot lift it on the last one, or if I'm done, I can let the weight fall beside the bench, provided my water bottle isn't there. Otherwise, I just reverse the process when I'm done. I let the weight down to my chest and situp with the weights rolling onto my quads again and I just stand up with my quads lifting the weights a bit for me if I want to immediately stand and put them away or I just place them on the ground. Usually, I stand up and put them on the bench, so I don't have to reach down to the ground to lift them up for any other sets.
I work out alone too. I should ask people in the gym to spot me actually, but I hate to interfere with peoples routine. The people who work there may be the ones I ask for help. I used to ALWAYS weight train with a partner, but your lives NEVER match time wise. Its impossible. Before, it was great because I would weight train with a friend at University, or my two co-workers and we all worked out together, those work great. If I plan to work out with someone at a certain time, it just never jives and schedules get thrown out of wack. I am going to add in true failure via spotting into my workouts, but I'm going to have to ask someone who works there or just someone else in the gym. That is one drawback from working out at home alone, nobody to spot you.
Again, JonZ, you are doing how many sets? Your plan lists 1 x 8. How many times? I am going to do 3 sets of 8 reps. Thats what I've been doing

 

[JonZ]

the routine I listed is one set to absolute failure. the routine doesnt work unless u fail on the last rep.

Supersets and Pre exhuast sets are considered one set because theres no rest.

Right now Im doing 3 sets for larger muscles and 2 for smaller.But those are heavy and intense sets with very strict form and I make sure I keep the reps under 12. If you can do 12 reps, its time to go up in weight - remember that.

Im 1/2 way through this and will probally go back to pre exhuast routine afterwards.

Remember to keepo making progress u have to change things up every 8 weeks or so.

The routine I gave isnt the be all end all. But it is the routine I make the most progress with. It always makes me stronger and I get good gains with it. But like other routines u have to change it.

I do the pre exhaust/Heavy Duty routine 3 or 4 times a year.

 

[Chris PC]

Wow. One set. Thats weird. I guess I'm used to 3 sets. I'll play around and try to set up a new workout now.

 

[Matt_Marlow]

Those look like great workout routines, but I noticed that noone (unless I just missed it) does deadlifts. Deadlifts are arguably THE most important body building exercise. They work about 80% of your muscles. In fact, you could, for example, omit bicep curls all together, and still build strength in your biceps. Also, by building up your back muscles (a huge group) that should help speed up your metabolism. Not to mention the fact that a strong back will prevent lower back injury. I do Romanian dead lifts where you don't lower the bar to ground each time, and I can't think of a workout that's as intense, even squats aren't quite as grueling. A lot of people have said that if they could only do one muscle building exercise it would be the deadlift.
If you're already doing them, and I missed, forget what I just said.

 

[JonZ]

Matt, I do them, just not with that routine.

I used to have a bad lower back and cured it completely with deadlifts.

 

[Chris PC]

True. As my back gets stronger, I will venture to try the deadlift. I was going to replace back extentions (the ones you do on those aparatus where you hang off and swing up and down) with good mornings, but after going through the motions of a good morning, it still feels scary. I noticed that after doing leg workouts for a while, I am able to run and not feel sore in my knees or back. I figure its cause the muscles and tendons are a wee bit stronger.
Time to celebrate a wee tiny bit although....
I have reached a rather weirdo time. I had my body fat percentage checked on Dec 16 2002 and got 17.6% at maybe 166-170 LBS? That was after I had jumped into 1 1/2 months of intense exercise, weights and cardio and the low sugar diet. I must have started out at 20% body fat or higher just before the change, although gradually all year I was MTB'ing more and more, but I digress.... The only other time I had it checked was at extreme Gym about 10 years ago when I was 173 LBS and was 25%. That has to have been a bunch of crap. I had it re-checked again in January after a workout and found it was 15.8%. Well, I thought I gained my belly back in January, but I now realize that I've increased the size of my abs, which has only made my mini-belly stick out. I guess the chub and skin are there to stay. I now weigh 162-ish. I had my body fat tested after my last workout and it was 11.8%. It was nice to see but per-plexing. I don't get it. I am below normal fat. I am a lean slim machine and yet I don't look it. The mini-belly haunts me. I have to admit I have no love handles around the waist. There's practically nothing there. Does 11.8% even make sense? Oh well, superficiality be damned, I'm just gonna keep weight training, doing abs, doing cardio and eating the same. More muscle mass may do ok for me. I know the fat percentage could be off, and I'll have it checked regularly before AND after my workouts from now on, and maybe even double check the data input in the fat tester thingy. I'll even see if there's somewhere else I can have it checked for comparison. There is one thing for sure, when I'm eating my regular predictable diet from day to day, I can now pig out quite a bit in single instances and get right back to normal routine within one day and not even notice any change in fat or fitness. Also, I can FEEL that I have less fat. There is something weird about my cardio. Just sitting around, I can tell my heart and lungs are no longer feeding my fat.
Another bonus. I get the biggest kick out of being in good alround physical shape including high cardio. If I am late for something and I have to run, or I just feel like running, I can frickin sprint somewhere at like super fast pace for up to a minute or longer and when I slow down to walking speed, or even stop, I am barely, and I mean, barely even noticabley out of breath. I ran to class today and after running for almost a minute I went inside the school and my body went through this routine of catching my breath, which used to take 25 or 30 seconds of panting, and now it takes like 5 to 10 seconds of controlled breathing and its like I'm right back at rest. I find that amussing.
Well, after spending 95% of my life not within close range of being very fit, I feel I have sort of arrived. I haven't quite reached my destination, and I'll always stay active, but I had to come on here and toot my horn. I don't talk about this stuff to people or friends unless with other fitness oriented people where we discuss technique exercises etc. I have quite a ways to go in the muscle strength department. I have hardly gone up in weights over the 3 1/2 months, although obviously, I've lost lots of fat and become fit again Yay.
Anybody else reaping the benefits of muscle strenght and cardio improvements? Lets hear some positive reports. I know they're out there

 

[Bill Catherall]

Chris - What method are you using to measure your % body fat? The most reliable method is by being dunked underwater, but even that can be off because you have to breathe out all your air while the measurement is taken, and most people don't breathe out all the way underwater. Too much fear and it's uncomfortable. The other methods (calipers, electrical probes) are never very accurate and should be taken just as a ball-park figure.
My positive report: My clothes fit. In fact, they're too lose and I need to buy new ones.
Actually, the biggest benefit is having more energy. Even after losing only 20 lbs I was able to climb to the top of Yosemite Point with very little trouble. I had sore legs, but my heart and lungs felt great. If I were 20 lbs heavier and out of shape there's no way I could have done that. And now I'm another 25 lbs lighter and looking forward to another climb this summer. I'm going to really train for it this time and see if I can run it.
Also, people say I look 10 years younger.

 

[Chris PC]

Yep. Feels good to be in improved shape. The fat testing I did was electronic. I know its ballpark. Still, its weird to have lost that much. I think I can trust the relative amounts. Going from 17.6% to 11.8% is at least a drop of 4% body fat from a time when I was already slim, in December. Hahah. Laugh at this. I did something loony today. I rarely ever eat chocolate. Well, while at the grocery store getting whole wheat pasta, long wild grain rice, tuna and other good stuff, I picked up a chocolate bar, some swiss chocolate bar with raisens and almonds. After breakfast of branflakes, shredded wheat and puffed rice cereal (all mixed in one bowl, I rarely eat a single type of cereal.) I then proceeded to eat the chocolate bar, about 1/2 hour later. Sort of a celebration or treat. Well, I ate the whole thing and I garantee I had a reaction to the sugar etc. I ended up with a migraine. The type where your vision is affected. Luckily i work from home right now so I just lay down for a couple hours. I had to take a couple aspirin. Oh boy. I'm not doing that again! Heheh. That was ridiculous. Oh well. Back to the fitness
I am wondering if I should forgo the ab mass building and go back to high rep ab exercises. I would slim my waist down, but should I really do that? I think thats doing it for the wrong reasons. Who cares if I have a belly. At least I'm strong in the abs. I just remember that in the past, I had done high reps of ab crunches and gotten very slim. I thought I needed to build the abs to take up the space that the fat occupied, but apparantly, that fat ain't going anywhere, so the larger muscles there are increasing the apparant size of my belly. Anybody else have this problem?

 

[JonZ]

Yes if you build up your abbs without dropping some fat it will make ur belly a bit bigger.

For me I do Abs but I dont try to build them up too much. I have a very thick waiste naturally - that why I work so hard on back to make my waiste appear smaller.

 

[Chris PC]

Right. But going from 17.6% body fat to 11.8% tells me I did drop fat. Anyways, I'm on hiatus last two days and have to get back into it today.

 

[Chris PC]

Spring is coming! Yay! March is only a few weeks away.
That means 99% of my cardio will be done outside

 

[JonZ]

How r u guys holding up?

 

[Dave Falasco]

So far so good for me, Jon. I haven't been posting much because I am still just a greenhorn and a lot of the posts and questions here have been pretty technical, but just to give an update, I've been following both your exercise routine and Chris' diet recommendations, and I feel pretty good after two weeks. I know there are better measures of progress than weight loss, but I am pretty proud that I lost 5 pounds the first week and 3 the next, and my jeans are starting to fit just a bit better.
I started out pretty light with the weights because I had never done any weight training before, but I am adding weight each week, and in some cases adding sets until I figure out exactly how much weight I should be doing for each exercise. The massive blizzard yesterday was a bit of a setback because normally that's my chest/tris/shoulders day and I couldn't get to work to use the gym, but between shoveling and snowblowing for a few hours and doing pushups, dips, and lifting weights with things like Poland Springs water bottles and bottles of bleach () I was able to get at least some training in. Certainly my chest and arms are sore today, so I must have done something right.
Anyway, that's my progress so far. Thanks again for all of the tips, suggestions, advice, and support everyone.

 

[JonZ]

Stick with it!

 

[Bill Catherall]

Going good. I couldn't wake up yesterday so I didn't make it to the gym, so I did my chest/tri/shoulder workout today. I tried it with dumbbells this time instead of the barbell and I think I've got it now. Putting down the weights was much easier by following your suggestions. I just rested them on my chest as I sat up, then dropped them to my knees. I worked to full exhaustion by doing 9 (almost 10) full reps. I used 70 pound dumbbells for the incline press...the heaviest I've every tried using. I'll see if I can do 75 pounds next week.

I've noticed some improvements. Each week I'm able to add weight. Usually 5 pounds. Sometimes as much as 10 pounds. I know that some of the exercises I could have lifted more the first week, so that may be why I can add 10 pounds. But some of them I know were really at my max, but I was still able to increase the weight.

I figure if I keep adding weight each week then either I'm getting closer to my real maximum or I'm actually showing improvement. So that's basically what I've been doing. If last week I was lifting 45 pounds then this week I'd make it 50 pounds and see what happens. I've been surprising myself each week. I know that last week and today I really felt like I was at my maximum, so if I can add weight next week and continue to do so over the next few weeks then this program really does work.

At the end of next week I'll post my progress so far.

 

[Robert G]

I am doing pretty good. My only problem is that I cannot quit losing weight. I NEVER thought that I would have this problem. I am still lifting but have cut the cardio almost completely out. This week I am actually taking a break. I plan on starting back next Monday with only heavy weight training and ab work. I am still trying to decide exactly what my routine will be. The only thing that I do know is that it will be low reps and heavy weight. My diet needs a change as well. I am having a hard time getting my mind out of weight loss mode. Hopefully this week off will give me a chance to sort things out and come back fresh.