Periodical Workout Thread ...

What I"m saying is this . . .

The way the Bowflex works mimics free weights far better than any kind of fixed machine. You've got the two hand grips which aren't fixed to anything but the resistance. They can go any which way and you're forced to steady them in the same way you're forced to steady free weights, only from a different direction -- and the angle of the seat/bench takes that into account. The physical vectors are the same as with dumbells.

I'm not saying the Bowflex is 100% comparable to free weights in all respects. I *am* saying that you do get the steadying benefit.

(I also said above that the Bowflex isn't for people looking to be champion bodybuilders.)
 
No no no

I got ya. More orless, I believe I was saying a similiar thought pattern.

The same as dumbbells though ? No ! Close ? Maybe, sure.

-

I still believe the BF is as good or better than Nautilus and that's good enough in my book. As mentioned, I use both.
 
I used a BF for a few years. It was one of the old skool models...from like 1992. At first I hated it, but I figured out pretty quick that I had to learn to steady myself and really target the muscles I was supposed to be working. That's good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

I could do a BF exercise that ONLY did my deltoids, for instance. Nothing else, just delts. Then I would do another exercise that did extreme upper back, and another one for my neck, etc. Or, I could just use 15 lb dumbells to do shoulder flys and work a little bit of all of those muscles with one movement. For me, freeweights made for a quicker workout...obviously not as 'good' as using the BF. But, the freeweights movements were more real-world realistic...ya know?

Nautilus-type machines are somewhere in between. For some exercise movements, Nautilus is the only way to go...lat pull-downs, rows, etc.

FWIW, all of these 'systems' are good...good in their own way. Lately, I've been working out on the cheap, using my trusty old bench system in conjunction with freeweights and resistance bands. It works for me...why? Because I'm a cheapskate.
 
Two years ago there were enough factors motivating me to finally commit to the pursuit of better health and blubber reduction. Through a period of almost 3 months, I lost 20lbs (all I set out to lose) and kept it off for 6 months thereafter through only minimal maintenance.

I think the important thing is forming new habits that work for the rest of your life... er... until you get on a feature with inCREdible catering and craft services and throw it all down the drain for Snickers, Red Vines and Doritos between every setup. Thanks "Gravity Matters"! You know I love you!

Here's what I learned by trial, error and practice. Had I known all of this upfront, my goal would likely have been met much sooner. All diet and no exercise is not likely to deliver the results you seek. Spending 4 hours in the gym, without a proper diet is also a recipe for failure. It's already been said, and I second it, that you've got to keep your expectations realistic. I agree that losing 1-2 lbs a week is not motivating, but it is the only healthy and sustainable reality. Here's the approach:

Get Ready:

1. Know how much you NEED to lose. Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) and compare that with where you should be.

2. Know your cardio limits. Calculate your target heart rate. Don't exceed or fall short of it. When you fall short, you're not working hard enough to lose weight. When you go over your target, your body believes you are trying to kill it and it WILL defend itself and it's fat preserves by releasing first, all excess water (i.e. the first week of your "routine" where you lose 10 lbs) and second, muscle (not FAT). In this defense mode, FAT is the LAST to go.

3. Know your maximum caloric intake. You can use general numbers (which I did) or you can see a doctor for your specific needs.

4. Sugar. Keep sugar intake to a minimum (I can't say NO sugar—see #7). NO liquid sugar (soda). Even diet soda concerns me—0 calories? Really? What's wrong with that picture? Am I drinking air? Something doesn't sit well with me on that (just an oppinion, no imperical data to back it up). NO "sticky" candy (Jolly Ranchers, Starburst, Skittles, Gummy Bears, Worms or Kids).

5. Calories from Fat. This was said earlier. 20%. My diet was 25-30%. I agree 20% would be better.

6. High Protein, High Fiber, Low Carb (not no carb).

7. Know thyself. If you know you can't live without Doritos (as I cannot) then you must factor them into your diet. Don't fight yourself; one of you is bound to lose! Instead know that 11 chips = 150 calories. Count them out. Put the bag away and enjoy "American Idol" with your favorite snack.

8. Enough with the numbers. If you can't stand reading the labels, get a copy of Dr. Vartabedian's book, Nutirpoints. Flip to the food charts in the back and skip all of the math.

Get Set:

1. Make your Excel or Google spreadsheet to track your progress.

Go:

1. Eat Early and every 3 hours. If you're really serious, every 2 hours. Do not exceed your recommended daily caloric intake.

2. Big to Small. Eat more calories in the morning and less toward the end of day. Do not exceed your recommended daily caloric intake.

3. Don't eat after 8pm. If you're really serious, don't eat after 6 or 7pm. If you're REALLY serious, don't eat bread products after 3pm.

4. Know your portions. Measure everything. 150 calories for 1 serving? How much is that? 1/4 cup? Then take out a 1/4 measuring cup and level it off. Don't cheat yourself. If you eat a bowl of cereal that fills the bowl, you're likely eating more than one serving. MEASURE what you eat.

5. Exercise Early. When you do your cardio exercises you get kick start your metabolism for the day. Why not get it started early and working for you all day.

6. Pick exercises that work for you. There are several charts on the web which show the calories burned by a given activity. Most of these charts vary. Compare a few of them and choose something that works for you. I set my treadmill to a speed which gets me to my target heart rate (a brisk walk/light jog). This speed will change as you become more fit, so re-assess your efforts at least once a week. When I'm wearing my Steadicam, I can reduce the speed of the treadmill while still reaching my target heart rate.

7. BOTH Cardio and Resistance. Without getting too scientific, cardio jiggles the fat lose and gets your heart pumping/metabolism moving. Muscle-building exercise (weights, etc) burn the loose fat.

7. Build your muscle, lose the fat. Muscle tissue requires (burns) far more calories and fat than other tissue. Muscles work for you all day (someone here said even while you sleep), cardio only works for you while you're engaged in the exercise and a short period after. Build muscle and the fat will literally begin to fall into the fat burning refinery. This is the major reason why, all other things being equal, men lose weight faster than women.

I think that's it. If I've forgotten anything, I'll hop back on and edit. But I can't think of anything else right now.

Side note: After three months your body gets used to eating the right foods and will quickly flush out the bad stuff and get back on it's new habitual course. In other words I found could pig out (Pizza Hut and Keeblers Chocolate Lovers Deluxe Chocolate Chip Cookies) on the weekend here or there and jump back on track without missing more than a day or so. Not a bad lifestyle.
 
bikin modles

bikin modles

J.R. Hudson said:
That time of the year where I want to look good in a bikini.
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let me see you in that bikini!!! start that playmate fold out edition of dvxuser.magazine starring you!!!!!! bust out that baby oil and grab your camera!

rememebr your powder to cut down the shine homie!!


mike d

:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

i want my abs back!!
 
David Jimerson said:
If the "guilty" foods are more of an occasional treat, they taste a lot better, too.
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Totally ! :thumbsup:

3. Don't eat after 8pm. If you're really serious, don't eat after 6 or 7pm. If you're REALLY serious, don't eat bread products after 3pm
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That goes against my 5 / 6 smaller meals a day plan. Assuming one awakes between 6:30 and 7:30, that'd be 12 hours fasting; by this time, your body is shutting down and going into starvation mode.

I also eat every 2.45 to 3.15 hours as it takes approximatley 3 hours to break down a meal and Protiens stay in the bloodstream only about 3 hours.

Great post though !

I tell you what, when I hit San Diego, I havea Carne Asada burritto with my name on it.
 
Free weights are much better than the Bowflex, actually. The best type of exercises (in order of effectively putting on mass) are as follows:

1. Movements that have your body moving through space. For example, weighted dips and squats. Your body is actually moving a great distance when doing these types of exercises... which is why they're the most effective in putting on mass. It has to do with how much your mind thinks your body is "in trouble" and how much is required of it to expend energy in order to get the movement to occur.

2. Compound movements with free weights. These include bench press, military press, barbell rows, etc. They use a main muscle (such as the pecs) plus an axillary muscle (triceps, deltoids) to do the movement.

3. Isolation exercises, such as biceps curl, side laterals, triceps extensions. These use one muscle group.

And Hudson is correct that the more stabilizing muscles, such as the serratus anterior (the rib like muscles on the sides next to the pecs) are involved, the better results you'll get.

Another problem with the Bowflex is that the resistance curve isn't linear. i.e. the movement is harder when the rods are flexed versus when they're straighter. You can make the exercises more effective by making sure that the end of the exercise movement coincides with the full flexing of the rods.
 
I hate exercising. Some people love it, but not me. Still, I recognize it's necessary to exercise if you want to be in reasonable health.

So, I look for ways to minimize the pain and maximize the bennies. Maybe the following can help someone who is in a similar situation.

Pain #1: hate to devote the time to it.

Pain #2: hate the effort.

Pain #3: hate to be hurried, or to wait on people, or travel to a gym etc.

Solution:

For pain #3: home gym. Problem solved. I got one elliptical machine and a set of weights.

For pain #1 & to some degree #2: combine the exercising with something else, so it doesn't feel like a waste of time. Usually, I'll combine this with learning a language - listening/repeating etc. (Pimsleur method). Sometimes it's listening to podcasts or watching DVDs I have to watch anyway (work-related). This is usually distracting enough so that I don't feel the pain of effort, and I don't feel like time is wasted. Find something you can do simultaneously and that will be distracting enough + productive enough, so the annoyances of exercise are minimized.

Sometimes I think circuit training would be best, as that combines cardio with weights and saves you time, but it needs a far more elaborate set up than I have at home, plus the pain of effort is extreme and you can't really do anything else while you do this.

For health, 30-50 minutes of variable cardio 5 times a week, is optimal. More will get you into better shape, but not necessarily better health. Variable cardio is more or less the concept behind interval training.

So, I do 45 minutes on the elliptical with interweaving sessions of 5 minutes intense, 5 minutes less intense. Mon-Fri. I take off Sat-Sun. I also try to squeeze 3 weight sessions a week, 15 minutes each.

That really is enough for health. The only other thing you may want to do is flexibility and balance stuff like yoga, plus some exercises which keep your reflexes alive (like ping pong). I ain't got the time or motivation for either :)

Don't overthink it!
 
Okay. I'm going to do this.

If several of you are swearing by "Burn the Fat" then BTF it is. I will scour the information to try to get things down to an exact science (right down to the 5 or 6 daily meals and planning the correct number of calories for me...my biggest dread. Who the hell wants to plan a meal around a measuring cup???)

I will spend the next couple of days getting ready in the ways I need to get ready to mentally prepare myself for the work that lay ahead and target Monday, March 3rd as Day 1. (Also, it gives me one last hurrah type weekend to have some cold drafts and BBQ tri tip.) Ahem. But I'm gonna do this.

I'll get my notepad going and document my progress, or lack of progress, frustrations and whatever else I feel I need to jot down. I'll get a vision board and pin a big fat calendar on it where I can X the days I went to the gym so I can visually see my day to day commitment to the unveiling of ‘mantini day’. I will title this board “Man Boobs be Damned!” I will even cut out pictures of men in speedos with physiques with which I aspire and tack them on the board. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. I will figure out my Body Mass Index. I will even figure out to the very last calorie how many I should consume daily to be on the fast track to losing weight. Yeah, fast track. I said it. So, to all of you fitness pundits who swear by the creedo “heyyyy, you shouldn’t lose more than ½ to 1 pound a week…it’s the healthy way to gooo” save it. I ain’t listening. I am well prepared to do intensive ultra sacrificial work. That should entitle me to at LEAST 3-4 pounds a week at bare minimum. I want the tits gone by Easter.

Heck, I might even swallow my pride and take a ghost white Rosemary Clooney-like picture of myself in all my glorious man-boobness holding the day’s newspaper. Hell, it’s for a good cause. Summer is a comin’.

I'm committing to this publicly via this thread to use it as supreme motivation. I keep telling myself "I need to do this" but now it’s out there. And so it must be done.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go and get myself an ice cold corona. Go time is on its way…
 
Alright Rick !

I swear it is gospel. You will trip the hell out when your bodies metabolic rate goes into furnace mode; the fat will drip drip drip

Combine some weight and cardio ? Watch out.

It is a science though; as mentioned, I forgot all about the 20% Fat Calorie thing; so take some time, phyche up and indulge until the day !

-

Old Corpse ?

I love working out; love tennis, love fullcourt basketball; would love to go back to surfing. I'm spaztic and have energy, it's weird.

Something I always liked about gyms is the energy levels. It is just alive; I'll be rejoining a gym (LA FITNESS) when I get home to Cali. They have everything I want, fullcourt ball, a pool, weights, running machines ...

But I just pumped when working out with other people; it's sorta a competition thing, and the chicks are hot. That helps.
 
J.R. Hudson said:
It is a science though; as mentioned, I forgot all about the 20% Fat Calorie thing; so take some time, phyche up and indulge until the day !
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Yes! It's the science I am most focused on!!! I can't wait to add science to getting in shape.

As an avid on again off again gym goer, I have always started a routine with 1/2 of intense cardio followed by another 1-1and1/2 hours weights. So, I'm good there. That transition will be very smooth for me. Its the attention to detail with my diet I am really anxious to get started.

The whole 5-6 meal a day thing and precise calorie counting...I'm intrigued by the possibilities. Growing up, I've always been in decent shape. But, the past 4ish years I've put on stupid pounds. I know how to work out. I don't know how to lose weight. At 36, this is completely foreign to me. So, I appreciate the input. That goes for everybody. This thread has struck a chord with me.

It feels good to get amped up about the gym again. It ain't no community Mud Run. But, its my Mud Run...
 
Rick Meyer said:
lol. Terry, i'll post my BEFORE pic if you post yours!:D
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I look pretty good in clothes, and let's just leave it at that.

I'm not sure if everybody here knows this, but a couple of us from these boards shot a thing (on RED) with Mac and The Spanish Inquisition out on the Salt Flats... and damn! Those Spaniards are RIPPED!

You think the "fat Americans" thing is an exaggeration? I got's me a belly man... and well... they didn't. "Hey letz get in de' hot tub and plan out tomorrow" (say in Spanish accent)... and meanwhile I'm thinking "yes we do have quite a cast here... I'm game..." and then BAM! All the dudes look like Chippendales when their shirts come off... I'm standing there thinking "you gotta' be kidding me"... :embarasse


Wait a minute... now this smilie just doesn't seem right > :bath:
 
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