Improving Physicaly What we want and how we're getting there

[Moto42]

I'm currently tipping the scales at about 300 pounds (136 kilograms) and suffer a strong, long-standing shame of my extra weight.
I'm relatively weak, and have little stamina, though with my frame I could probably carry some serious muscle very well (who couldn't).
I've seen 25 winters and I'm in the worst shape of my life. I was once rather agile, but natural ability caused me to never develope the habits that would have maintained and improved it over the years.

What I want and how I'm getting there.

• To be able to ride my bike to work every day.
  • I can currently ride about 1.5 miles (2.4Km) before tiring. I greatly enjoy riding my bicycle.
  • I currently work about 13 miles (21Km) from my parent's home, where I reside. I'm in-between apartments right now.
  • Finding an appartment inside of town will cut this in half, and
  • I can train-up to that distance by pushing myself further and further on my (plentifull) days off.
• Be able to ride my unicycle to work every day.
  • The unicycle has no gearing to assist going up-hill or gaining speed.
  • I can only go about 100 feet max (30 meters) before losing my balance.
  • I wuv my uni, and will practice oftens!
• Be able to walk on my hands, and do chin-ups.
  • Right now, my arms are unable to support my full weight.
  • Lots of odd exersizes using a wall/bed/handrail to maintain my balance and use my legs to support some of the weight.
  • I can squat near a low-bar or hand-rail and use my legs to help my arms pull me up. I don't need /much/ help, but I need it.
• Lose weight.
  • I don't eat a lot, what I eat though is mostly crap.
  • Cooking for myself more often and packing a sack-lunch to work will go a long way toward this goal.
  • As will putting on more muscle mass to burn more calories all the time.
• Put on some muscle.
  • Work out you lazy sunavabitch!
  • After finding an apartment, join a gym and make frequent use of the equipment.
    • I have little-enough disposable income as-is, my mom may be willing to pay part of the cost.
• Increase my stamina
  • Rule number one: don't walk, when you can run.
  • It worked in middle school.
  • Hope I find an apartment with a non-toxic pool.
• Increase my flexibility.
  • ... stretch maybe?
  • Something about my genetics wants to be flexible, daily exercise should show pleasing results.

So, what about y'all? Post your lists and progress!

[jo_alex]

I'm quite happy with my physical condition at the moment. Bicycle is the main means of transportation in Amsterdam, something I had to get used to, but now I love it cause there is no way of escaping a daily exercise this way. I follow an Axe training once a week (1 hour or 1,5 hours depends when I manage to hit the gym) - which helps for my stamina. Go to my gym one more time a week - to do cardio (stamina again) and to use some machines (started working on the muscles in my arms). Since January I started with capoeira - 2 hours training a week. That's the best workout I ever had which increases my flexibility enormously and works on muscles I didn't know I had. I think my legs are as muscled by now as they'd ever be and my abdomen muscles were never an issue. The only thing I want to improve is the strength in my arms/chest/upper back. I always neglected it before and capoeira is quite demanding this way. I want to be able to hand walk across the room!

[Liniah]

I would like to have a flat stomach. Even when my stomach was very strong (especially durring tang soo do), it was never close to flat. Even at my lightest weight my stomach was not flat. I have no idea how to get a flat stomach. I'm begining to think it's not possible. Even if I do crunches every day nothing changes.

[jo_alex]

I would like to have a flat stomach. Even when my stomach was very strong (especially durring tang soo do), it was never close to flat. Even at my lightest weight my stomach was not flat. I have no idea how to get a flat stomach. I'm begining to think it's not possible. Even if I do crunches every day nothing changes.

I was lucky enough to get one from the start and whether I exercise or not it stays that way. Me, I always wanted to have slimmer legs, but I can only make them more muscled - not slimmer really. I think it works the same way for a stomach - you can work on the muscles in it and make it stronger but it doesn't make it flatter.

[Angel]

I'm finally happy with my weight, for the longest time I've had a problem with keeping my weight on, mostly through poor eating habits. I would just simply forget to eat, being extremely busy with work or whatever it was I was doing at the time. It took some time, but I've been able to alter my bad habit, heck I even learned to make sure I eat breakfast everyday, which was for me the hardest thing by far.

About a year or so ago (a bit more than a year, maybe) I started going to a center nearby that has wonderfully patient trainers/instructors. My goal wasn't to build muscle, just to develope some program to increase my metabolism, which I was told would help me with my bad eating habits, and it actually worked. I'm at 125 lbs (give or take a pound now and then), and it's not a chore anymore to maintain it, I'm very happy.

[UncleJoseph]

I would like to have a flat stomach. Even when my stomach was very strong (especially durring tang soo do), it was never close to flat. Even at my lightest weight my stomach was not flat. I have no idea how to get a flat stomach. I'm begining to think it's not possible. Even if I do crunches every day nothing changes.

Simply exercising the stomach muscles will no make your stomach flat. For some people, getting the stomach to flatten is one of the hardest areas on their bodies to lose weight. For me, it's my love handles...they're huge, even though the rest of me doesn't appear all that overweight. It sounds like your stomach is where you carry your extra baggage most prominently. In order to lose it, you have to lose ALL your extra weight (if any) before your stomach will flatten. Then it'll likely be the first place you start putting extra pounds if you gain weight again. Even when I was at my lightest at 165 and in the best shape of my life after the police academy, I still had some love handle action going on. Of course, now I'm up to 210, and they are enormous...it seems to be the first place I put on weight.

[Johnny the Bull]

I have been trying to keep fit and healthy, but for the last year I've forgotten to eat an awful lot - when March was approaching I often forgot to eat for a whole day - and the gym closes at 11pm, which is before I finish work.

I'm penning 2009 in as a year of physical self improvement.

[Daki]

The important thing is to exercise every day. It doesn't have to be a several mile run or 60 minutes of lifting weights. It can be anything above and beyond what you do in a normal day (walking for a mile, using a resistance band set at home, etc). These are the little things that will help start the weight loss and ease you into a full, regular routine.

[Serious Paul]

The important thing is to exercise every day. It doesn't have to be a several mile run or 60 minutes of lifting weights. It can be anything above and beyond what you do in a normal day (walking for a mile, using a resistance band set at home, etc). These are the little things that will help start the weight loss and ease you into a full, regular routine.

I can't agree with Daki more.Someone once told me that 80% of the energy you consume in a day goes to keeping your body warm. All you have to do is push a little harder and get your body to do more, even just a little bit more.

Each little bit you do adds up, eventually.

[Crazy Elf]

I want to be able to bench press twice my body weight. I can currently press 120kgs. I weigh 71kgs. It's not that much further to go.

[WillyGilligan]

The important thing is to exercise every day. It doesn't have to be a several mile run or 60 minutes of lifting weights. It can be anything above and beyond what you do in a normal day (walking for a mile, using a resistance band set at home, etc). These are the little things that will help start the weight loss and ease you into a full, regular routine.

I can't agree with Daki more.Someone once told me that 80% of the energy you consume in a day goes to keeping your body warm. All you have to do is push a little harder and get your body to do more, even just a little bit more.

Each little bit you do adds up, eventually.

I'll agree here. My general health has gotten better since I started walking a mile from my house to my desk last summer. When I actually pay attention to my diet and push just a little more, it's even better. Too bad I work at a desk and can't resist that tasty, tasty Mountain Dew in the snack fund. On the upside, I also have a big ass bottle of water (ok, 1 litre isn't that big assed) which I'll drink and refill 2-3 times a day as well.

[Marius]

Dude, Diet Mountain Dew. It's not like Mountain Dew tastes that good anyway.

[WillyGilligan]

Two things:

1) I don't drink beer very often because I couldn't see forcing myself to adjust to something I couldn't stand the taste of for no good reason. Likewise with diet sodas, I'd have to drink it for a while before I stopped noticiing the difference. That said, I did used to drink my mom's diet coke when there was nothing left in the house, and I've switched to Splenda in my coffee with little effect. It's possible.

2) Supposedly studies are showing that people who drink diet sodas are just as fat or fatter than people who drink the regular ones. http://www.mercola.com/2005/jun/30/diet_sodas.htm If it lowers my risk of diabetes, then it might still be worth it.

[Jeff Hauze]

Yeah, I was really surprised at my own results when cutting the soda (diet or otherwise) out of my diet. Water and fruit juice are the primary drinks for me now. When I'm really craving something sweet to drink (especially with my evening meal), I'll grab some iced tea. It still has some sugar and caffeine in it, but just that one little change had huge results for me.

[DrunkenMaster]

Monday Wednesday Friday
0500 - Swim for 30 minutes, Elliptical for 30
0900 - Run, either for distance(4-8 miles) or time(2-3 miles) then 30 min elliptical
1300 - Weight Training, either body weight or free weight, though for whatever reason I feel like I improve more with body weight.

Tue - Th
Add Stair drills, sprints, Rucksack march, or whatever is popular for the week.

My greatest gains for cardio have strangely enough been on the elliptical machine. I try and hit this 2-3 times a day for 30 minutes. Cardio has been way up and my running form has vastly improved, mainly because I'm striding out more.

Pushups and situps: Greatest gains I've had for a long time from a simple program. Do a 1 minute max on either pushups or situps. Subtract 10, this number is your set. Do your set 3 times for 1 minute. If you miss any in that minute, you pay 1 for 3. So, my max in 1 minute for pushups is 50. My set is 40. If I only reach 37, I owe 9 pushups, done immediately. For pushups you can go to your knees, but after a week or two of this program you really won't need to anymore. Situps work the same way.

Core strength: Planks, Planks, Planks. Look em up. Do em. I hate them but they are really good at building core strength.

Next few goals: Stop smoking, or at least switch to dipping. Improve my form in swimming. Down and back subsurface. Dips, I suck at them and need to improve.

Another good program for those who don't have much time is CrossFit. Basic idea is using simple exercises like pushups, situps and pullups in a constant circuit with no breaks. It is extremely effective. Check out their website if you want to know more.

[Daki]

Diet Drinks tend to have aspertame (sp?) in them. I learned all about that little bastard while on the Atkins diet. It was an inhibitor to breaking down fat.

[Ampere]

Yeah, cutting out sodas helped a lot.
Eating less bullshit snacky stuff.
Splenda is my friend.
Like Daki and Paul have said, just a little increase in activity makes all the difference. Dude, walk the dog, or simply take a lap around the block after dinner. Don't even need to run, walk around the frigging block.

[DrunkenMaster]

Possible caution on Splenda. My best friend from college started losing hair pretty rapidly a couple of years ago. I, of course, used this as ammunition and we both figured his mom had slotted him with some bad genes, so he trucked on with life. Well, he stopped using Splenda after doing a little research on it and in his case, he is gaining grounds in the hair loss department. This might be urban legend, but I don't see anything on Snopes and google has a few hits regarding splenda and hair loss, among other possible side effects.

Once again, I'm not certain if this is true or not, I'm just relating my friends experience.

[Serious Paul]

Huh, I've used splenda for years now and had no hair problems at all. We use it for anything we'd normally use sugar for.

[Liniah]

Diet Drinks tend to have aspertame (sp?) in them. I learned all about that little bastard while on the Atkins diet. It was an inhibitor to breaking down fat.

Damn, somebody should've told me that sooner...

[Szechuan]

After 2.5 years of varying dedication to kickboxing, weightlifting, and healthy eating, I am up to 217lbs. In other words, I've gained 12lbs. while trying to cut myself down to a fighting weight around 185-190 or so.

Even after a break, I can go about 3 rounds of sparring with the Women's Amateur KB National Champ. [Yeah, it's a girl, she has spectacular conditioning, wanna fight about it?]

Possible culprits include:
-Poor monitoring of eating habits.
-Unprecedented and unnoticed muscle gain [according to Nancy, I am skinnier than I was when we started dating, in spite of me being so much heavier now].
-Insufficient dedication to my health, e.g. eating and exercise.
-Stress from thesis and lack of time/energy.
-Have been diagnosed with depression. It contributes to poor eating, and poor eating contributes to my poor mood.

Goals:
-Hit a fighting weight, which basically equates to whatever I weigh when I lose my gut and some excess fat.
-Get up to a minimum of 6 rounds of sparring.
-Kick my bad eating habits for good. The fridge is literally packed with healthy food, and it often goes bad because I keep taking the easy route, e.g. instant foods and pizzas and shit.

Foods To Eat:
-Navy Beans w/ various healthy garnishes and sides. [These things are amazing. 2/3 of a cup has 23G of protein and fiber!]
-Spinach with healthy dressings [no creams, reasonable amounts, sticking to the lean stuff like vinaigrettes]
-Mussels
-Oatmeal
-Eggs
-Peanut Butters
-Cottage Cheese and other low fat dairy
-Whole grain pastas in sensible servings. I come from a family that fills the plate and expects it all to be eaten. When that equates to like 1000 calories of pasta alone at dinner, that ain't good.
-Flax breads

At a 'safe' level of 1.5-2lbs. a week, I can drop almost 25lbs. this summer if I can stay dedicated. If it starts to work, I'm-a photo diary myself.

.. Suggestions?

[3278]

-Unprecedented and unnoticed muscle gain [according to Nancy, I am skinnier than I was when we started dating, in spite of me being so much heavier now].

.. Suggestions?

Dude, for what you're doing, I would be suspicious if you did lose weight. Weight is a phantom, an easy target that actually is meaningless. I generally gain 10-20 lbs when I start working out heavily: that's good, it means I'm building muscle. I'm down to under 180, and while some of the missing weight is fat, most of it is muscle I've lost since Paul and I stopped lifting.

My suggestion is not to concentrate on your weight, but on fitness. You'll naturally notice your fat content will decrease, and your muscle will increase. It's not "low weight" you want, but "useful weight."

[Szechuan]

-Unprecedented and unnoticed muscle gain [according to Nancy, I am skinnier than I was when we started dating, in spite of me being so much heavier now].

.. Suggestions?

Dude, for what you're doing, I would be suspicious if you did lose weight. Weight is a phantom, an easy target that actually is meaningless. I generally gain 10-20 lbs when I start working out heavily: that's good, it means I'm building muscle. I'm down to under 180, and while some of the missing weight is fat, most of it is muscle I've lost since Paul and I stopped lifting.

My suggestion is not to concentrate on your weight, but on fitness. You'll naturally notice your fat content will decrease, and your muscle will increase. It's not "low weight" you want, but "useful weight."

Oooops. Major blunder on my part. I often use weight interchangeably with 'excess fat' in spite of being fully aware of the reasons why that's a bad idea. The only place where weight becomes an issue is in the ring when dealing with weight classes. In that case, I'd like to focus on fat loss with less muscle growth, until I'm in fighting trim. Then, if I'm still stuck at, like, 210lbs., I won't feel bad.

[3278]

Oooops. Major blunder on my part. I often use weight interchangeably with 'excess fat' in spite of being fully aware of the reasons why that's a bad idea.

You're not alone. I do it all the time. I'll think, "Dude, I'm down to 175!" And then I'll remember that doesn't mean much of anything. So I stopped weighing myself altogether, and just judge my fitness by the fat on my chin and my belly, my two clearest indicators. Mostly, though, I don't "judge my fitness" at all: I just try to lead an active lifestyle and eat well, and my fitness seems to take care of itself. Frankly, I find thinking about it detracts from my ability to do anything about it, and makes me stress for no reason. If I notice I'm putting on fat, I just cut back a little on something, and everything sorts out. But I don't understand people who have problems losing fat, either, unless they have some sort of willpower problem.

[Daki]

If you're talking about trimming fat and creating some leaner muscle, I'd recommend going from heavy lifting to a lower weight/higher rep program. Resistence bands will help as well. Throw in some of Matt Furey's exercises and you're set.


Also keep in mind how most fighters make weight classes and that they will normally carry a weight 5-15 pounds higher than their class and sweat out the excess before a weigh in.

[Szechuan]

If you're talking about trimming fat and creating some leaner muscle, I'd recommend going from heavy lifting to a lower weight/higher rep program. Resistence bands will help as well. Throw in some of Matt Furey's exercises and you're set.


Also keep in mind how most fighters make weight classes and that they will normally carry a weight 5-15 pounds higher than their class and sweat out the excess before a weigh in.

I already do the ~11 rep standard for my workouts, though I haven't done them in as while due to aforementioned reasons. Same with the Furey stuff.

[Daki]

Ah, bit of a disconnect there. My definition of higher rep has always been minimum 20, maximum of 25. Once you hit 25, you up the weight. It's also a nice program to shift to if you plateau.

[3278]

That's what I do, and I've found it quite effective.

[Szechuan]

Ah, bit of a disconnect there. My definition of higher rep has always been minimum 20, maximum of 25. Once you hit 25, you up the weight. It's also a nice program to shift to if you plateau.

And this is for what sort of gains, exactly?

[3278]

You tend to burn more fat, and build muscle tone, as opposed to bulk [which you don't want, in your case*]. The muscle you get will be leaner, and won't be as heavy strength-for-strength as low-rep/high-weight lifting. As a general rule, it'll also be quicker muscle - which depends to some degree on how you choose to lift it. Perhaps most importantly, you get increased endurance, which I guess is useful fighting, but which I find most helpful fucking.

The downside is that it takes longer to build strength and bulk, but you don't need bulk, and for what you're doing, absolute high strength is less useful than lean control and endurance.

*Well, you want some, to look cool, but that'll come naturally.

[Szechuan]

You tend to burn more fat, and build muscle tone, as opposed to bulk [which you don't want, in your case*]. The muscle you get will be leaner, and won't be as heavy strength-for-strength as low-rep/high-weight lifting. As a general rule, it'll also be quicker muscle - which depends to some degree on how you choose to lift it. Perhaps most importantly, you get increased endurance, which I guess is useful fighting, but which I find most helpful fucking.

The downside is that it takes longer to build strength and bulk, but you don't need bulk, and for what you're doing, absolute high strength is less useful than lean control and endurance.

*Well, you want some, to look cool, but that'll come naturally.

Frankly, I'd look huge already if I built some lean muscle while cutting the fat. I'll see what I can do. As it stands, I'm still freakishly unmotivated.