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I'm 27 years old, 5'8" 200lbs. I recently had double knee surgery so I could be more active, play sports, and go running. I'm almost fully recovered, I do a lot of biking now.
Basically I've started working out 5 days a week. I feel I have a pretty good routine, but I'm definitely looking to improve. My focus isn't on my legs as much as I get plenty of leg strengthening now with my physical therapy, and I know how to lift for upper body strength. My focus is on my core. I've had weak back and ab muscles most of my life, and although a six pack would be nice, I'm just trying to be healthier and get rid of my gut.
Here's what I do at lunchtime:
I usually bike for about 20 minutes or until fatigue, sometimes I do short running intervals (2 min walking, 2 min run) which is a lot of work for me now since I'm still recovering. Once I am fully recovered, I'll probably run for at least an hour every day after work, in addition to the 20-30 min cardio at lunch time.
Then I work my back and abs. I do lifts on the roman chair for my lower back, and then I do them sideways as well which I can feel on the sides of my lower back, and a little in my obliques. I do 3 sets of 12 for each holding a 25lb plate
I then usually do about 80-100 crunches where I try to just get my shoulders off the ground. Situps are tiring on my back and I can only do about 30, and then each set after the 1st I can do only like 5 less each time. I also do what I call side crunches. I lay on my back, but turn my hips/legs to one side so I'm using only half of my abs to do a crunch. I can feel that burn, I think it works well. I also do 2 sets of planks for 1:10 each. I don't do side planks because I don't really feel it as much, more tiring on my shoulder. I do leg lifts as well on an incline bench, I do 3 sets of 30, but my back usually gets more tired before my abs do.
I'd like to strengthen my lower back so I don't get fatigued as easily doing ab exercises, as most of my fat area is my gut and love handles, although doing this routine the last 3 weeks has helped me look a little better, I can feel it working.
As for upper body, I mix up the inclines with my bench press, but I only use freeweights, 3 sets of 10-12. I do curls with either free weights or bars or standing or sitting (just mixing it up). I do various shoulder exersises Side raises, bent over side raises, shoulder press, and upright rows. For triceps I do rope pulldowns, and bench press over the top of my head with the bar/weights.
I've cut my diet down to 1500 calories a day, and I stick to oatmeal/fruit in the morning, maybe a healthy cereal like cherios/special K, bananas/fruit for snack, lunch I go with a healthy sandwich hand made or from subway, snack mid day is yogurt/fruit/oatmeal, dinner is eggs/chicken/vegetables.
Any thoughts, suggestions, tips, advice is all welcomed. Thank you.
Last edited by cdubs3201; 04-15-2010 at 09:45 AM..
If your goal is to get rid of your gut, I would focus on three things. Diet, cardio and weight training.
Diet - Your diet may be low in calories, but it's full of carbs. Do you have a physically demanding job or a desk job? If it's the latter, I would reduce a lot of the processed carbs and replace them with protein and healthy fats. For example, your breakfast consists of oatmeal and fruit or cereal. While milk has protein, the meal seems heavily slanted towards carbs. How bout eggs instead? You'll get more protein, stay full longer, and if you eat the yolks, you get healthy fats too. You could mix some veggies and make an omelet. Likewise, if you're going to snack, don't let it just be carbs. Fruit is good, but fruit with a handful of nuts is even better. The nuts will leave you feeling fuller longer and slow the rise of your blood sugar.
Cardio - One thing that really helped me get lean was doing cardio first thing in the morning. While it's not necessary and probably not practical for a lot of people, it definitely works. The fat just melted off of me when I started doing steady-state cardio in the morning. But intervals are great too and I'll do those some evenings. If you do cardio in the evenings, I would save it for the end. For example, you might lift weights or do ab work and then finish with cardio. The advantage of doing it this way is that whatever resistance exercise you did will have used up your blood sugar and stored glycogen so that by the time you're doing cardio, your body has no choice but to dip into stored fat. The exception is intervals. If you're going to be doing those, do them first since they rely on glucose, not fat.
Weight training - If you focus on compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, rows, and presses and use free weights as opposed to machines, you'll work your abs. I rarely do ab work and at most, I'll do one or two sets of crunches and one or two sets of hanging leg raises a couple times a week. Your routine seems to emphasize ab work more than other types of exercise, which is unnecessary. I also think if you can do 20 reps of any ab exercise, then you need to increase the resistance.
Another great post by DennyCrane. OP, I would follow that advice exactly.
Cardio first thing in the morning for me has always been the way to do. It'll take about 7 times in a row of you doing it and it'll become a habit. All you really need is 30 minutes or so. You can do a good 5k in that time and add a few more minutes for cool down and stretching and your good. Then, do some resistance (weight) training during your lucnch.
But most importantly, watch what you eat. You really need to clean up the diet and once that happens you'll notice the fat % just dwindle away while your energy levels skyrocket.
Cardio first thing in the morning for me has always been the way to do. It'll take about 7 times in a row of you doing it and it'll become a habit.
7 times? Wow, you're lucky. It took me about 3 weeks for it to become a fully-formed habit. I've read that's how long it takes for the brain to adopt most new habits.
If your goal is to get rid of your gut, I would focus on three things. Diet, cardio and weight training.
Diet - Your diet may be low in calories, but it's full of carbs. Do you have a physically demanding job or a desk job? If it's the latter, I would reduce a lot of the processed carbs and replace them with protein and healthy fats. For example, your breakfast consists of oatmeal and fruit or cereal. While milk has protein, the meal seems heavily slanted towards carbs. How bout eggs instead? You'll get more protein, stay full longer, and if you eat the yolks, you get healthy fats too. You could mix some veggies and make an omelet. Likewise, if you're going to snack, don't let it just be carbs. Fruit is good, but fruit with a handful of nuts is even better. The nuts will leave you feeling fuller longer and slow the rise of your blood sugar.
I was told carbs aren't bad if you're working out because you're using them to burn fat. My job is a desk job. What exact foods should I be going for? You say nuts...what KIND of nuts? I'm going to the grocery store today, if you can give me exact kinds of foods to get I'll do it.
Cardio - One thing that really helped me get lean was doing cardio first thing in the morning. While it's not necessary and probably not practical for a lot of people, it definitely works. The fat just melted off of me when I started doing steady-state cardio in the morning. But intervals are great too and I'll do those some evenings. If you do cardio in the evenings, I would save it for the end. For example, you might lift weights or do ab work and then finish with cardio. The advantage of doing it this way is that whatever resistance exercise you did will have used up your blood sugar and stored glycogen so that by the time you're doing cardio, your body has no choice but to dip into stored fat. The exception is intervals. If you're going to be doing those, do them first since they rely on glucose, not fat.
I am not a morning person, no way I'm getting up early to do cardio, just can't do it. I can do it at lunch, and I can do it after work. I'll only be doing cardio after work, probably running outside. I usually do biking for 10-20 min first for my warmup, but if you recommend doing cardio last, then I'll give it a shot.
Weight training - If you focus on compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, rows, and presses and use free weights as opposed to machines, you'll work your abs. I rarely do ab work and at most, I'll do one or two sets of crunches and one or two sets of hanging leg raises a couple times a week. Your routine seems to emphasize ab work more than other types of exercise, which is unnecessary. I also think if you can do 20 reps of any ab exercise, then you need to increase the resistance.
I don't quite feel the good burn in my abs while doing those exercises, but I do those anyway. I can tone down the ab work, or try to increase my weight or resistance while doing ab exercises. I've been doing ab/back/core work because my physical therapist said I'm weak in that area and I need to strengthen it, so that's been my focus for now, not necessarily just to burn fat.
Thanks for the help. I'll also be playing basketball here this summer, hopefully at least 3 times a week, and I know that usually made a pretty good full body workout as I remember being in the best shape of my life while playing a lot of basketball.
If I could just find out what exact foods to buy/eat then I think I'll good to go.
The more active you are, the more carbs you'll need in your diet. As someone who also has a desk job, I know that I don't need a lot of carbs to get through the day and I generally try to focus on carbs that are high in fiber and loaded with valuable nutrients. That's why I emphasize fruits and vegetables, especially foods like blueberries, spinach, and broccoli. I also try to reduce my carbs as the day progresses. Think of carbs as only the fuel you need for the day. By the evening, your body is slowing down cause it knows you're going to go to bed soon. So why give it a lot of carbs then? That's why my dinner usually consists of lean meat or fish and some fibrous veggies. Nothing beyond that and no dessert except for maybe once a week.
As far as nuts are concerned, I try to get a good variety. Walnuts are probably the best, but they're hard to come by. Pecans, cashews, almonds, and brazil nuts are my favorites. Peanuts are pretty common, but they're actually not a nut. They're a legume. You don't need to eat a lot of nuts and, in fact, I would be careful about having them around. They're high in calories and very easy to eat too much of. A handful is plenty. In general though, my diet consists of fruits, veggies, lean meat, fish (especially salmon) and nuts. Go for wild fish cause the farm raised stuff is contaminated and if you can afford it, try to get organic produce. Also, if you get eggs and chicken, try to get free-range. Lastly, if you can find it, go for grass-fed beef. You probably won't be able to do all this depending on your budget and location. I have a hard time with it too. That's OK. There are some fruits and veggies you can get away with eating that aren't certified organic and eating a piece of corn-fed steak once in a while won't kill you.
I wasn't a morning person either. The first time someone told me to do morning cardio, I said no way. It was hard at first, but once I got used to it and started seeing results, I was hooked. I would at least try it before you rule it out. They say it takes 3 weeks to form a habit. Do it for 3 weeks and if you still can't do it, then you can go back to doing cardio at lunch or in the evening. But there are a lot of benefits to doing morning cardio. One is that you get your workout over with in case something happens later that prevents you from working out. Second, it'll put you in a healthier mindset for the rest of the day. I've found that I have a much easier time eating healthy on the days I do morning cardio. Third, you may find that you have more energy and an easier time concentrating at work. Lastly, it's a kind of an insurance policy in case you ate too much the night before or maybe indulged in something bad for you like ice cream.
You may not feel your abs getting a direct workout when doing things like squats, but trust me, they're being used. Exercises like the squat that force you to use your core are fantastic. But remember. If you really want to see your midsection slim down, the key is the diet. There's a saying among bodybuilders. Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym. You may not want a six-pack, but the same principle applies. If you want to get rid of belly fat (or any fat for that matter), you have to eat really clean.
I don't see how you could have a gut. Im 15 lbs heavier an inch shorter and I don't have a gut. And I actually look underweight.
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