The Fitness Thread... Do you even lift?

Squats are great for toning bum cheeks and getting them to look really nice and pert, unless you stuck to it everyday for 6-8 weeks then you wont get rid of your butt completely lol i'd say 3-4 times a week and spread workout days apart so you dont hit em too hard and walk around like john wayne :p

The other side of things would be to do lunges as they work the thighs and the glutes together, though with any compound movement where you are using secondary muscles it takes alittle longer but atleast all the muscle groups will be worked in unison (**)

The problem with working on stomach only is that you'll grow muscle but it wont necessarily get rid of any excess mass... the worst case scenario for that is when you see people with a beerbelly but then these weird 6 packs just poking out the front of the barrel. Cardio work would best suit weight loss all over the body - drink alot of water too, as your body deposits extra energy that it hasnt used up into fat cells. it also does the same thing for water retention. Not drinking enough water generally leads to kidney problems much later down the line but the first signs of water retention are actually in the face, followed surprisingly for some.... by the bingo wings.

My advice, feel free to take it or not... would be to increase water intake to reduce water retention, this will flip the switch in your body thats currently retaining excess water; you'll lose "weight" from your face, arms, stomach, glutes and thighs. You should aim to do atleast 2 sessions of cardio per week (increase the sessions if you want faster results) as a bare minimum. Which should include jogging, running or even go for the afterburner affect if you want to lose weight with a short but high intensity workout. Lunges or squats should be included in your session and press ups & push ups to finish.

**Failing to work muscle groups correctly will result in what i've got right now, front and middle deltoid (Your shoulder is split into 3 "heads" called deltoids) are arguably the hardest muscles in the body to train as they are used 99% of the time for lifting or pushing, raising your arms and like i said, most of the daily things you do are actually using the frontal and middle deltoids so they are used to working... the more they are used the harder it is to push them into going beyond that regular usage and actually gain muscle mass there. I focused on them for roughly 2 months solid and saw some great gains in size and strength.... which only pointed out a very horrible fact; i'd focused on 2 heads instead of all 3 so two thirds of the shoulder are rounded off but the back of the muscle is as flat as a pancake.

I'm now having to incorporate alot of rear deltoid work to make up for the blunder i've made, which is why i said above... working compound movements is better all round as you will hit every secondary muscle too and as a result of that everything should build equally.
 
Thanks for the tips. I shall try to pick the exercise and cardio portions up again after Rome :)
I do try and drink a lot as yeah you're so right with water retention. Swear I've been a camel some times in the past!!!

I have a mortons neuroma on my right foot though so at times cardio just kills my foot regardless of my orthotic (special insole) but i'll see what I can do. My stomach is what I've always been unhappy with. You know like how some people have a tummy but it's like their entire width so to some extents doesn't look as bad? I dont have a belly that is my width, its literally mayby 4-5 inches across in the middle? It's a pain! Like above my belly button you can sort of see definition where if I worked out way harder, thats an area that could look good! lol.

My Jillian Michaels dvd will probably be a good starter for me again, I get really arsey at times as last time I was uber committed to that dvd, I obviously lost no weight on the scales since I was getting muscle but it made me femme out lololol.

Since March last year, ive lost about 20-23lbs (weight still fluctuated a couple of lbs) which I'm really happy about but its half like my body doesnt support the weight loss as I only really look (in my opinion) more slender from a side view. I have dropped a dress size though in tops and trousers :)
 
No problem at all, if you have difficulty with your right foot after prolonged activity the upshot of that would be swimming.

Have you had a child? Usually the excess weight that women gain in that region is down to being pregnant, there are ways to reduce the deposits in that region as a whole such as cardio which will overall deplete any deposits in the body... though as that may be difficult or painful and i know getting time and access to a pool isnt easy for some, there are ways of targeting baby weight or stomach areas; if you have a gym ball (usually only a couple of quid in supermarkets, i've seen them in sainsburys for under a fiver) alot of workouts with a gym ball will target your "core" which is essentially what you are after.

Sitting on the ball you can try and lean back to a 45 degree angle and then back to a 90 degree angle. This will target your stomach really well, try to use only your stomach muscles though, refrain from using momentum to get you from one angle to the next as this wont be training anything and you'll just waste your time.

Sit ups with your feet under the bed or sofa also work, keep to the same angles and you will feel a real burn - unlike a full sit up where you go from a laid down position to a sat up position you will aim to negative (the returning to the floor motion) only inches from the floor before you return to the sitting position "why are you telling me to do this? Surely if i'm doing most of the movement of a normal sit up then its no different!" Actually the difference is that you will be building tension with every sit up that you only negative by 90% of the movement, that tension build up is what strains the muscle and will produce results. Normal sit ups are for maintaining the level of fitness you want, tension training is for slimming down deposits and replacing with muscle and fast repetitions of movement are for toning.

Now i'm not saying "go for broke" and get a six pack, i dont even have one anymore. The upkeep of a six pack is more hassle than its worth, Once you get down to the size that you are comfortable with; start doing the normal sit ups as maintenance.

With weight loss its not always about getting the weight off but rather keeping it off, it'd be very cliche to say;
"I can say to any bloke to go out and eat like a horse everyday, dont care about what you are eating or how much. Thats because men and women are wired differently, a mans body temperature is usually hotter, metabolisms are related to testosterone levels as it is a growth hormone that the body naturally creates, not just a reproductive byproduct like we were taught in schools lol. With womens estrogen levels, colder body temperatures as a byproduct of lower metabolisms they tend to store weight easier and also when pregnant the estrogen levels increase dramatically, the body starts to store more and more energy deposits as 1 they are told to sit down alot and refrain from any activities that could harm the child... it just reduces the amount of energy that the body uses per day - yet the food portions increase so the body has even more energy that is just stored as a deposit as it isnt used up.

When a woman has had her child the body has a harder time burning off the excess for 2 reasons, 1 the body has a annoying mechanism called a brain.... which will dramatically change the body if it feels it will need the energy again (for future children) or if it is not getting enough of something (as mentioned, an example of this is water retention) not to mention the stress that the body undergoes during childbirth.... basically with women they are fighting against their own bodies alot harder than men do. It takes control over how much training or food should be taken and used each day, which is why you'll see places like weight watchers raking in people every day."

And to most that would be a reasonable argument, some may take it as full facts but in reality its only partly true, sure blokes have a natural growth hormone that directly affects metabolism which generates more heat ect ect but in reality its the same rules for anyone trying to lose weight and keep it off; you need to work at it then maintain it, there are no yo-yo or "quick fix" diets that will keep the weight off, sure you may lose abit of weight because of that low calorie weight watchers chocolate cake or "healthy eating range" but thats a short term fix. The body will realize that the calories it was once getting are now nowhere to be found and will automatically start to raid the reserves of fat deposits to get its daily "fix" but that only occurs if you use more energy (EG. Regular exercise) than you take in (food portion sizes)

So long as you keep that in mind, anybody can go out and eat whatever they like in moderation but so long as there are some healthy carbs and protein (Such as my first few posts where i explained food) and more energy burnt off than energy put back into the system through eating, then you'll lose the weight and keep it off.
 
I was at a friend's yesterday and he had some scales in his bathroom. I'm down to 8 stone 12. At my heaviest about 8 months ago, I was 9 stone 12. Well pleased with that.

@Tachi - Any advice for getting rid of bingo wings?
 
Wow you've lost a stone in 8 months, nice job :)

Bingo wings you say? Use dumbells or bags of sugar or tins of beans as weights.

You can curl to work on your bicep but as two thirds of the arm is actually tricep i'd advise to work on tricep extension movements prodominantly. Here's a few Tricep based workouts;

Stand next to a chair or bed, now place the arm closest to the bed (lef or right side, it doesnt matter which as you'll be reversing sides shortly) fully extended with your palm as support for the body, now keeping your hand on the bed, raise your leg and place your knee on the bed too. You will now be bent over slightly so that your hand and knee can both remain flat on the bed. With your free hand you pick up the weight from the floor and bring your arm up to meet your chest (aim to bring the weight so it is as close to your shoulder as possible but continue to have your knuckles facing the floor) as you bring the weight up and begin to close your arm so that the weight is close to your chest you should raise your elbow as high up behind you as possible.

You can try a standing tricep extension (i've posted a picture because describing it will be too much hassle lol)
tricep_extension.jpg


DIP
Sit on the edge of the bed and using your arms at a 45 degree angle so your are in the "dipping" posture, begin to lower the rest of your body off the bed and down towards the floor, as you descend it would be ideal to start "shallow" so do not let yourself lower too far - just until you find the range of movement to be comfortable. The last thing you want to do is try and dip but injure yourself by lowering too far and damaging something in your shoulder. Keep lowering past the shallow first few dips until you feel a burn or "stress" in your tricep.... as i said before, do not go from shallow to deep in the blink of an eye, it has to be progressive.


Sit on bed as before and extend arms down towards the floor in unison with weights in hand, bring them up so that as you are leaning forward (only slightly lean forwards though, 45 degrees maximum) as you pull the weights up to you the tricep will be equal to your back, allow the forearm to bend and become a 90 degree angle as you lift. continue to raise and lower your arms roughly 8 reps (times you repeat the movement) and 4-6 sets (times you complete 8 reps). Doing so in a controlled manner (AKA Form - using both arms in unison and without using momentum) whilst also trying to complete the whole routine as quickly as possible will work to slim down and tone muscles.


I think i've said it before but the key points to remember are;

Slow controlled form with heavy weights = muscle gain.
Fast controlled form with light weights = definition/tone/cutting.

Fast with no form (relying on momentum) = cheating yourself, it wont grow muscle or tone it'll just waste energy.
 
I've had to buy new shorts, the current pairs from last year are just to loose now.

Although it's good I've gone down from a XXL to just "large" :)
 
Hey Tachi~ thanks for the thread on this. Will work on the *coughmanboobscough* aspect of it hopefully it should work :)

and hopefully with the nicer weather coming I should be push-biking more

Edit: that said thing's like benching I can't do since I don't gym, is there some basics that can be done at home apart from the press ups?
 
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Lawrence said:
Oh, sounds like you're making a lot of progress then, congrats man. Do you have a goal in mind for your weight/physique or are you just gonna keep hammering away?

Also, I went for my first run tonight, usually I avoid running due to my flat feet but I found the whole thing quite invigorating, especially at the start where I was just cruising along. I look forward to the day when I'll be able to run for extended periods like that.
Click to expand...

Keep hammering away
 
Otaku-san said:
Hey Tachi~ thanks for the thread on this. Will work on the *coughmanboobscough* aspect of it hopefully it should work :)

and hopefully with the nicer weather coming I should be push-biking more

Edit: that said thing's like benching I can't do since I don't gym, is there some basics that can be done at home apart from the press ups?
Click to expand...


Glad to hear its helping some people around here, i'll keep giving advice to any that would like it :)

You can go down two routes;

Using body weight and objects of equal weight
Going on that you're looking for a substitute for benching i'm going to presume you are aiming for chest (i'll explain the different chests), arms (mostly Bicep with some Tricep) and shoulders (frontal deltoid with trapeziums)

Dips - which will strengthen your forearms and tricep which are beneficial when doing negatives (lowering the bar to your chest)
First of all you need to find a suitable area to workout, you'll need a leverage point - chairs or a bed as i mentioned in the previous post.

Deadlifts with shrugs
Lift with your lower back only and keep legs straight, bend forward to lift up anything you can approximate the weight safely - if you lift with your lower back and the weight is too great you WILL damage your back, theres no ifs or buts about that. So ensure that the weight is manageable. Once you have picked up the object and stood up to full height again, shrug your shoulders together or backwards in unison using only your shoulders, do not clench your arms at all otherwise the movement would become a compound movement and you will have to do 3 times as many to get the same result as shrugs without the aid of arm muscles. This will beef up your traps which are the muscles which sit above your collarbone and are like 2 right angle triangles of flesh eitherside of your neck.

Fly
Sitting down, hold 2 objects of equal weight (bags of sugar/cans of beans/two 2litre bottles of water) and hold your arms out eitherside of your body as if creating a cross. Bring your arms round in a semi circle movement round to infront of you until parallel with each other, hold for a few seconds and then return the arms (still kept outstretched, do not bend your elbows to complete any part of the movement if you want to just target the frontal deltoid, once you bend that elbow the bicep comes into play making it a compound movement. as you're after isolation movements when it comes to deltoids due to their regular use its much harder to train so a compound movement is going to take much longer to see results.... like i said though, i over compensated the isolation movements on my shoulder.... thankfully for you the dips will correct that isolation of the frontal deltoid by working on the rear) this will also be an isolation of the chest muscles so although the frontal deeltoid and the chest are directly involved in the maneuver of the workout they do not directly aid each other so theres no risk of compound movements.

The differences in chest, believe it or not but you have 2 types or areas of your chest, no its not left and right. It is infact higher and lower. the higher chest is the part just below the collarbone, to train that we would ideally use the bench decline (which is when you are benching with your head below your waist or knee level) to train the lower chest which is - if you imagine a invisible belt around your chest which sits roughly in line with the nipple area (we would use a incline which is where you are sat at a angle similar to sat in a chair but not quite 90degrees, more like 110-120degres)

Now you can use a mop or bar and load each end up with shopping bags with 2 litre bottles of water or some other weight substitute and complete the normal benching method which will mostly target your lower chest, the workouts i've already mentioned are substitutes for benching all together so its more or less upto personal preference.

Tension Controlled Movements

As mentioned in a previous post, the tension controlled methods are usually completing 2/3's of a movement, so for a push up you would only press up off the ground so far and not straighten your arms (or form a diamond with your thumb and first finger of each hands touching each other to form the diamond completing push ups that way)

You can complete all of the body weight and object weight methods but when you get so far through the negative (the point that you are returning to, so for instance on the deadlifts with shrugs if you bend forward enough for the weights to "kiss" the floor briefly but without actually resting the weight back onto the floor it will increase tension build up which increases strength size and endurance of that muscle)

Why use just the full reps and not tension? because at first you'll want to get the proper form down, once you have that comfortably then aim for tension control. It'll boost your results but the aching will also be more intense, make sure to remain hydrated and eat foods high in protein low in carbs if trying to lose weight and build definition or eat high carbs for more bulk but you still need the protein to start working on rebuilding any damaged muscle tissue!!!

A word about techniques

Pyramid training
So far i've implemented both pyramid schemes into my workouts and honestly i found them to be largely different which is why i created something i call a target rep scheme.

Pyramid 1

Start of set
1 rep @ 50kg
2 reps @ 45kg
3 reps @ 40kg
4 reps @ 35kg

Basically you're lowering the weight but increasing the reps - this is ideal when trying to tone the muscle for shape and definition.

Pyramid 2

Contrast to the first pyramid you're increasing the weight but lowering the reps, ideal for building muscle size and strength but at a much slower rate (or so i've found)

Start of set
4 rep @ 35kg
3 reps @ 40kg
2 reps @ 45kg
1 reps @ 50kg

Using target reps and increasing them once you can comfortably complete the set is a much safer way to increase muscle size and strength but at the same time definition.

Target reps

To sum it up in a nutshell, the best of both pyramid schemes.
Comfortable weight, follow a workout of 6-8 repetitions for 4 sets, once you can comfortably dip/lift/whatever 8 times for those 4 sets its time to either increase the sets to 5 or increase the reps to 10 but regardless of which you choose, always increase the weight. This way you gradually increase the strength of the muscle but also the endurance of that muscle.


Can't i just do what it want?

Ofcorse you can, these are only suggestions and methods. So long as you aim to get the correct form on whatever exercise you do thats the main thing, if tension control is not down your alley or you dont want to stick to a progressive or regressive pyramid then thats completely upto you. I'll only ever give advice on what i've personally tried and tested, if i think its safer or more beneficial i'll say but the main reason i list all of the methods i've tried is because different techniques work for different people, just because 1 method works really well for me, doesnt mean that it'll do exactly the same for others, we all come in different sizes and shapes so to someone who is 6ft 5 like my best friend, he can't do dips because of his size, whereas i find them very easy to go as i'm smaller.

Different strokes for different folks afterall.

I'd be very interested to hear from some of you guys, which bits of information you've found useful or if i haven't explained something properly and which bits have or haven't worked for you. :)
 
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