Finally Hitting the Gym!

[Kuniku]

Hello again dwellers of these here fitness forums!

Some of you may have seen a few threads by me about my recent fitness goals, and questions related to it, but as this is a different topic of questions, I decided to start a new thread to make things simpler.

The new diet seems to be going ok, since starting it about a month ago I've lost about 5kg, now down to 100kg.

Anyways, onto to the topic, the gym I've joined is finally open, and after my induction at the weekend I stuck around for a bit of a work out, and nearly killed myself, which felt good ^_^

I've done gym stuff quite a bit before, but usually I've just been doing whatever the friend I went with was doing, figuring it would all help (and at the time it did have an effect) but back then he was trying to put on muscle mass, this time i'm primarily focusing on stamina and cardio (along with weight loss - target is 93kg)

Previously I used to mostly do Pyramid Lifting, and occasionally super sets.

I understand for cardio and stamina etc I want to work on lots of reps at a low weight - but how low and how many reps? what percentage of my one rep max should I be looking at?

Which leads on to - can anyone suggest a good iPhone app (preferably free) to track what I'm doing at the gym, the diet one can have weights, but its mostly cardio that that app is interested in. So suggestions are welcome.

Lastly - how much cardio warm up/down should I be looking at each gym session, and can anyone suggest ways to make it less boring? I never used to do more than 5 mins on the bike before starting my pyramids, but now i appreciated i need more cardio work, but after 20mins on saturday I was bored off my face . . .

[medievalman1]

5kg in a month? Dunno what's been going around in the physical fitness/diet circles, but 1kg a week is pushing the boundaries of healthy weight loss while maintaining adequate and healthy nutrition standards.

[Kuniku]

1kg a week was my target, and what my diet allowed for, plus is was told that once you start your lose more quicker and then it slows down, I dropped 3kg in the first 2 weeks, and its a steadier ~1kg a week since.

I've read several places that 1kg a week is a safe and achievable goal.

[Asphyxiate9]

Yeah I did 1kg a week for 5 weeks and it worked out (just from diet alone). I'm 85kg at the moment, aiming for 80kg which is actually very slim for my size, however I'm just going to diet it off.

Getting an exercise bike is nice, for the days you aren't going to the gym you can spend some time on it, especially if you are home all day.

And yeah, warming up is boring as hell, I'm going to assume you are relatively unfit so it would be important for you to stretch and then do roughly 10-15 mins on a treadmill or bike. Just get an iPod/mp3 player (or use your iphone) and you should be fine for that bit (still relatively boring though).

Sorry I cant answer all your questions, i'm not enough of an expert to make the calls.

[Kuniku]

i'm not horribly unfit, i had a serious injury a couple of years back and put on some excess weight, and its just kinda been there, I want to up my game in jujitsu, and as I've progressed through the belts i've found that my frame isn't big enough to compete against people the same weight as me - the heavyweights are just too big, and all my weight is in my legs (from lots of cycling) and admittedly a slight paunch.

currently I do 2-3 1.5-2 hour jujitsu training sessions a week.

my aim is to drop a weight class, down to light-heavy - which is about 93kg and increase my cardio and stamina so that i can fight a full fight without being absolutely knackered at the end of it.

Now that i've joined the gym i should be doing some sort of exercise - be it jujitsu or gym roughly 5 days a week (2 jujitsu and 3 gym sessions, picking up an extra jujitsu sessions once the uk squad training picks up again in the new year)

I always stretch fully when i work out, as maintaining flexibility is important to my training, especially with a taekwondo background - need to be able to get those legs up!

[Deleted]

Hey, good to see you've hit the gym ^^

Lots of reps with "low" weight is mostly considered the maximum weight you can lift for 12 to 15 reps. In the first weeks you should go light and perhaps try 20 reps for 3-5 sets, to let your muscles adapt to the movement. After 2-3 weeks just go with 12-15 reps and 3-4 sets.

Warming up is important, 5 minutes is the minimum, 10 minutes is pretty good for a warm up. No need to do 20 minutes warm up on a threadmill or stationary bike, you will just use your energy for warming up, and thats not exactly what you want i guess :P
warm up for 5-10 minutes and then use that energy you've got for some weight lifting, for a half an hour or so (its up to you ofcourse, but there is no need in going to the gym for 2 hours). After that weight lifting you can go do some cardio. You've used all your energy in weight lifting so now if you do cardio, your body will use your stored energy or fat as fuel ^^

Even if you just want a day of cardio, still do 15 minutes of workout, abs or a quick leg training, just something before you hit the threadmill. If you do cardio right away, you are waisting your first 15-20 minutes since your body will use the energy you still got from food before switching to fat burning.

Unfortunally i dont know many things to make it less boring. Cardio is a chore :/ At my gym we have some threadmills/bikes with a tv in it, so you can watch something while running/cycling. But music can help aswell.

[Devolution]

Which leads on to - can anyone suggest a good iPhone app (preferably free) to track what I'm doing at the gym, the diet one can have weights, but its mostly cardio that that app is interested in. So suggestions are welcome.

If you are simply just trying to track what you've done, I find www.fitocracy.com to be pretty darn fun.. It's sort of like a facebook for exercise, but you input your workouts and receive "experience points" and can level up from those and doing challenges, which are kind of like quests I guess. It kind of reinforces that addictive tendency towards progression that many gamers have and turns it into something positive.

Edit: And there is a free iPhone app.

[HPLathus]

Hello again dwellers of these here fitness forums!

Some of you may have seen a few threads by me about my recent fitness goals, and questions related to it, but as this is a different topic of questions, I decided to start a new thread to make things simpler.

The new diet seems to be going ok, since starting it about a month ago I've lost about 5kg, now down to 100kg.

Anyways, onto to the topic, the gym I've joined is finally open, and after my induction at the weekend I stuck around for a bit of a work out, and nearly killed myself, which felt good ^_^

I've done gym stuff quite a bit before, but usually I've just been doing whatever the friend I went with was doing, figuring it would all help (and at the time it did have an effect) but back then he was trying to put on muscle mass, this time i'm primarily focusing on stamina and cardio (along with weight loss - target is 93kg)

Previously I used to mostly do Pyramid Lifting, and occasionally super sets.

I understand for cardio and stamina etc I want to work on lots of reps at a low weight - but how low and how many reps? what percentage of my one rep max should I be looking at?

Which leads on to - can anyone suggest a good iPhone app (preferably free) to track what I'm doing at the gym, the diet one can have weights, but its mostly cardio that that app is interested in. So suggestions are welcome.

Lastly - how much cardio warm up/down should I be looking at each gym session, and can anyone suggest ways to make it less boring? I never used to do more than 5 mins on the bike before starting my pyramids, but now i appreciated i need more cardio work, but after 20mins on saturday I was bored off my face . . .

I am a professional dancer, just throwing it out there so you understand my LIFE revolves around fitness.


Healthy weight loss should consist really of cardio, and simple excersises using your OWN BODY WEIGHT.

People automatically go to weight lifting as part of their "work out" routine which honestly is a terrible way to lose weight. It PUTS ON weight.

You won't really want to weight lift until you reach your weight goal.

Then you should work on toning your body using lighter weights and not automatically going to super hard reps with heavy weights.

Once your body is toned and you are used to the physical activity you should start upgrading your weights and doing super sets.


If you go right into the heavy weights without teaching your body how to function under times of physical stress you will injure yourself and actually GAIN MORE WEIGHT then you will lose.


As far as dieting goes, you really should not be starving yourself. You need a lot of carbs, carbs = energy for cardio workouts. A lot of people go straight into thinking carbs are fat blah blah but no they are actually VERY healthy for you if you are doing a lot of cardio and high energy workouts.

Salad is a terrible source of nutrition and should only be eaten as a side portion to a meal. Your body needs food to help lose weight, without food and proper nutrition your body cannot properly function and work to actually lose the weight.


It's about content of what you eat, not quanity.

[Imreallybadwithnames]

I've found that as I get stronger the easy stuff gets easier....food for thought. Weight loss is mostly a function of diet.

[Kuniku]

I am a professional dancer, just throwing it out there so you understand my LIFE revolves around fitness.


Healthy weight loss should consist really of cardio, and simple excersises using your OWN BODY WEIGHT.

People automatically go to weight lifting as part of their "work out" routine which honestly is a terrible way to lose weight. It PUTS ON weight.

You won't really want to weight lift until you reach your weight goal.

Then you should work on toning your body using lighter weights and not automatically going to super hard reps with heavy weights.

Once your body is toned and you are used to the physical activity you should start upgrading your weights and doing super sets.


If you go right into the heavy weights without teaching your body how to function under times of physical stress you will injure yourself and actually GAIN MORE WEIGHT then you will lose.


As far as dieting goes, you really should not be starving yourself. You need a lot of carbs, carbs = energy for cardio workouts. A lot of people go straight into thinking carbs are fat blah blah but no they are actually VERY healthy for you if you are doing a lot of cardio and high energy workouts.

Salad is a terrible source of nutrition and should only be eaten as a side portion to a meal. Your body needs food to help lose weight, without food and proper nutrition your body cannot properly function and work to actually lose the weight.


It's about content of what you eat, not quanity.

Thanks for the detailed reply =)

I am planning on doing a lot more cardio than previous gym usage periods, i'm going to aim for at least 30 mins cardio warm up (plus some time on the heavy bag) and then some cardio on warm down.

I'm not planning on doing any heavy weights (bar finding out my one rep max) purely because I don't want to bulk up. the examples given were what i USED to do. Before I wasn't concerned about my weight, as i wasn't competing in any martial arts at the time, so bulking up wasn't a problem etc. This time I'm trying to make a weight class.

Due to recent injuries there are a lot of own body weight exercises that I cannot do properly, namely press ups and pull ups, I need to build up to them a bit.

This is why I'm planning on doing very low weights, but lots of reps, this should help muscle stamina and will be LESS weight that using my own body weight.

The weight training is to increase stamina, the cardio is to lose weight (and improve stamina)

Regarding diet:

I'm aiming for 1600 Net Calories a day, which are certainly better food that i was eating before the diet. On days when i'm doing exercise I tend to eat another small meal - mostly wholegrain carbs about 2 hours before i train, to provide that energy.

While it did take a while to get into the hang of my new diet, after a couple of bad experiences only eating 400 calories between getting up in the morning and going to jujitsu in the evening and the subsiquent feeling like death - I have figured out how to do it. I am by no means starving myself, I've just cut out the crap that I used to eat.

Before I started the diet my daily food would look something like:

0900 - 1-2 breakfast bars
1030 - sweet treat
1300 - lunch - BIG supermarket sandwich, crisps, cherry coke
1530 - more sweet treats
1730 - get home from work grab a snack - this was usually fruit tho =p
2000 - dinner - decent home made food, but very big portion
2100+ - more often than not share a small tub of ice cream with the gf watching a film.

Now its much better:

0900 - 1 pack of breakfast biscuits - 138 calories
1300 - lunch varies, sometimes i go home and make a sandwich, sometimes i still buy one, but if i buy one its from their healthy range, wholegrain bread and low calories. An apple and either orange juice or water.
1530-1730 - exercise food - be it gym day or jujitsu day changes the time of this one, but usually its wholegrain pasta or rice, or sometimes shreddies =p
Dinner - again decent homemade food but more sensible portion sizes

So basically, i've controlled portion size, cut out the shit snacks, and cut out the large quantities of ice cream and cake =p

[HPLathus]

Well theres more to body weight training then just pushups and pull ups.

You can do things like Pilates to combine a bit of cardio and using body weight into your routine.

Yoga as well, basically especially since you have injuries the more you do things like pilates and yoga for your workouts and using body mass as training, sweating ect your injuries wil flare up less.

Pilates can be a form of therapy for injuries because it involves MOVING the body by using body weight as training.

[Deleted]

I find Running to be the best cardio, especially if you find cardio a tad boring. Just load up the MP3 player and run, set yourself new targets each time whether it be time wise or difficulty level. Make sure to not constantly look at the clock. Luckily my gym has TV's on each machine, so I stick something on as a distraction.

The biggest thing really is cutting down on snacking and fizzy drinks, especially snacking at night time.

[Kuniku]

I'll keep an eye out at my gym and see if there are any classes available that i could attend, i don't have much regular free time to attend a class, with other commitments/activities i partake in on my evenings which is why i've specifically joined a 24 hour gym ^_^

[Deleted]

That's funny. I finally quit.

[Kuniku]

I find Running to be the best cardio, especially if you find cardio a tad boring. Just load up the MP3 player and run, set yourself new targets each time whether it be time wise or difficulty level. Make sure to not constantly look at the clock. Luckily my gym has TV's on each machine, so I stick something on as a distraction.

The biggest thing really is cutting down on snacking and fizzy drinks, especially snacking at night time.

yeh my gym has TV's on each machine, and USB sockets so i can even load my own videos to watch if i want, although i've not managed to get that ready for tonights trip to the gym.

I've cut about 80-90% of the fizzy drinks i used to have out of my diet - its only really on the rare occassions i go out that i drink coke now (as i'm t-total and coke is cheap =p) and as i said snacks are gone now =)

[HPLathus]

You are more likley to find pilates at a yoga studio then at a gym, and better quality no less. Even a lot of dance studios offer adult pilates classes.

[Kuniku]

as previously said i'm going to struggle to attend a class =p

last night i was doing 3 sets of 30 reps at 30lbs/14kg on all the upper body stuff (except bicep curls, which was lower because my wrist didn't like the weight) , and about double that weight on the legs.

did about 20 mins on the theadmill at about 5.5mph and stretched out as warm up and about 10 mins on the punch bag to warm down.

[meekus]

I am a professional dancer, just throwing it out there so you understand my LIFE revolves around fitness.


Healthy weight loss should consist really of cardio, and simple excersises using your OWN BODY WEIGHT.

People automatically go to weight lifting as part of their "work out" routine which honestly is a terrible way to lose weight. It PUTS ON weight.

You won't really want to weight lift until you reach your weight goal.

Then you should work on toning your body using lighter weights and not automatically going to super hard reps with heavy weights.

Once your body is toned and you are used to the physical activity you should start upgrading your weights and doing super sets.


If you go right into the heavy weights without teaching your body how to function under times of physical stress you will injure yourself and actually GAIN MORE WEIGHT then you will lose.


As far as dieting goes, you really should not be starving yourself. You need a lot of carbs, carbs = energy for cardio workouts. A lot of people go straight into thinking carbs are fat blah blah but no they are actually VERY healthy for you if you are doing a lot of cardio and high energy workouts.

Salad is a terrible source of nutrition and should only be eaten as a side portion to a meal. Your body needs food to help lose weight, without food and proper nutrition your body cannot properly function and work to actually lose the weight.


It's about content of what you eat, not quanity.

This is so wrong. You should definately be working out with weights as well.

Not only does weight lifting itself burn a decent amount of calories while doing it. But it will also help you keep more muscle, and instead a higher portion of the weight you're losing will be of fat. As long as you burn more than you eat, you will NOT be putting on weight.

I'd suggest you do 2-3 full body workouts a week, combined with cardio on most off days and daily walks.

[Deleted]

and increase my cardio and stamina so that i can fight a full fight without being absolutely knackered at the end of it.

I don't know much about Jujitsu, but most Martial Sports require short, incredibly powerful bouts of maximum exertion, consistently over a period of time. If you look at the kinds of training that these athletes do - it's predominately high intensity, short, sharp, brutal interval training over rounds to mimic the flow of a fight.

My 2p would be to ditch the half hour of cardio in favour of high intensity interval or circuit training utilising sprints or low-distance runs at max (or near to max) intensity.

[Strah]

Healthy weight loss should consist really of cardio, and simple excersises using your OWN BODY WEIGHT.

People automatically go to weight lifting as part of their "work out" routine which honestly is a terrible way to lose weight. It PUTS ON weight.

Puts on muscle. Gets rid of fat.

Heavy compound exercises burn insane amounts of calories in a short period of time, and excessive muscle regeneration also burns calories, hence lifting heavy is a good way to lose fat.

And yeah, it is about quantity, not content. You can lose weight by just eating chocolate, but that will harm your body in the long run.
The basic principle of losing fat= calories in< calories out. The quality of the diet IS based on the content though.


OT:
My favourite cardio would be skipping rope. Double or triple jumps for 60 seconds make me sweat my ass out, and dem calves burn hard afterwards. When warming up for lifting - you don't need to warm up your whole body by doing running or biking - before doing, lets say, bench, just do 3-4 light sets of 8-20 reps of bench so you prepare your benching muscles for a heavier load.