36 and gaining.......

Weight, that is.

I have a desk job and a less than perfect diet (wife loves Dairy Queen....and so do I, dammit).

I train weight lifting and jump rope 2-3 times a week, the routine being:

5 minutes jump rope warm up (165-175 jpm)

1 set lat pulldowns front 8-12 reps

1 minute jump rope (no rest between sets)

1 set lat pulldowns rear 8-12 reps

1 minute jump rope (no rest between sets)

Machine flys 8-12 reps

1 minute jump rope (no rest between sets)

1 set squats 8-12 reps

1 minute jump rope (no rest between sets)

1 set bicep curls (21's)

1 minute jump rope (no rest between sets)

1 set military press 8-12 reps

1 minute jump rope (no rest between sets)

1 set power cleans 8-12 reps

1 minute jump rope (no rest between sets)

1 set upright rows 8-12 reps
(substitute deadlifts every now and then)

2 minute jump rope

approx. 10-12 minutes Pilates cooldown

on the off days -

5x3 rounds on the heavy bag, followed by pilates cooldown

Bike riding 5-6 miles (lots of big hills in PA!)

My cardio is pretty good, but I have gained about 10-12 pounds over the winter that just don't want to come off.

I am cutting most of the crap that I eat. Any other suggestions? Critiques of my routine?

Anyone? HEELLLLLLLLP!!!!

EDIT FOR THE MODERATORS: I was not sure which forum to put this in, so feel free to move this if it is not in the appropriate place.




[This message has been edited by MattJ (edited 04-15-2005).]

Matt,

I am sure you know that the only way to lose weight is to use more calories than you consume. Ditch the Dairy Queen [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG]
Sharon

Hey MattJ

I eat Dairy Queens and I've managed to go down from 215 to 203 so far.....

I think the older we get, the more diet plays a role ( [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/frown.gif[/IMG]). I think you are wise to do interval training, that seemed to have the best effect for me, as I havent succeeded in making appreciable changes to me diet yet. Also, I would suggest long distance running maybe altered with the biking. If you can run 5-6 miles a few times a week, thats a real calorie burner.

A medium choclate cone per DQ's website has no trans fat, 11 g total fat, 8 grams of protein, and 340 calories. I have one of those maybe once a week or so, but i try and eat less at lunch or whatnot if i know im going to eat a dq. I think blizzards are the real killer, some of those are like 40+ grams of fat. lucky for me, im deadly allergic to nutz, so all i ever get is the soft serve.

hope that helps...
it could be that if you do the same routine to much, your body has adapted to it....

I'd reccomend cranking up the intensity on the boxing rounds....or maybe do some sprints....maybe some of your weight gain is muscle?

Diet is everything, bro, you already know that [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

Rountine looks awesome, except I'd lose the bicep curls, and replace with a more multi-joint movement, like pull-ups, or close-grip lat pulldowns. Bicep curls are for bodybuilders and mirror lovers, not fighters.

Other than that, the resistance training and cardio routine rocks. Diet is 75% of results. You know what you need to do.

Quote by MrEd -

[QUOTE]I eat Dairy Queens and I've managed to go down from 215 to 203 so far.....[/QUOTE]

LMAO!! Wow, I can try to make a diet of this like Jared from Subway!

"Hi there, I'm MattJ. Eating nothing but CheeseQuake blizzards from DairyQueen has helped me to....gasp...*heart attack*

[QUOTE]I think blizzards are the real killer, some of those are like 40+ grams of fat. lucky for me, im deadly allergic to nutz, so all i ever get is the soft serve.[/QUOTE]

Doh.....Blizzards (small....like it matters!) are what I am addicted to.


[QUOTE]hope that helps...
it could be that if you do the same routine to much, your body has adapted to it....

I'd reccomend cranking up the intensity on the boxing rounds[/QUOTE]

Yes, I probably do need to up the intensity of my workouts in general, but my time is fairly limited to how much more I can add.

Thanks for the tips, everyone!


[This message has been edited by MattJ (edited 04-15-2005).]

Hello,
unfortunately the older we get, generally the slower our metabolism becomes. A good clean diet is important. How many meals do you eat each day Matt? If You only eat the basic three meal a days, try splitting those meals into six a day. This should speed Your metabolism a little. And with small regular meals there's less chance of fat storage.

HIIT (High intensity interval training) is good for boosting the metabolism, and fat loss. Im sure Youve heard of HIIT, so I wont go into detail. You can do HIIT using the heavy bag, bike,running etc...
Cheers. Gary

Gary -

I am not actually very familiar with HIIT training. I think my routine qualifies as interval training, but am not sure about HIIT. Do you have a program that you recommend?

I was given this site to check on another forum. It looks interesting. Is this what you mean?
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=04-046-training

Thanks for that tips.

Hello,
Let me introduce you to HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training and list the benefits & mechanisms for you to have a look through:
· It has been established that as exercise intensity increases the amount of fat used for fuel decreases which is why its so common for long duration, low intensity exercise to be recommended but it was not until more recently that the post workout period was also taken into consideration which showed surprising results.
· A study was made over a period of 20 weeks with one group participating in endurance type training and the other with HIIT methods for 15 weeks. Even though the energy expenditure in the endurance group was about double that of the HIIT group the HIIT group resulted in a skin fold reduction nine times greater than the endurance group.
· The reason for these findings seem to be due to the fact that there is a marked increase in metabolism following HIIT training which results in greater energy expenditure for the hours following exercise as well as for the rest of the day. The faster your metabolism is the more calories your body will throw off as heat which is a waste product from inefficient chemical reactions. This will therefore increase your calorie expenditure and seeing as the formula for losing fat is expending more calories than you ingest this is a distinct advantage in the fat war.
· It has also been found that there is an increase of fatty acids released into the blood following intense exercise which can be used by the body to refill your glycogen stores through a process which also requires energy thereby giving double benefits.
· More studies have also shown that HIIT reduces appetite and saturated fat intake than low intensity exercise does.
· The benefits to HIIT are numerous & include improving your VO2 max, which is the amount of oxygen your cells can absorb per minute whilst exercising at full capacity. It follows that the more oxygen you can absorb the better your performance will be and the more calories you will burn. It is the fact that HIIT uses 'active recovery' i.e. after your sprint period you do not stop to rest but carry on at a moderate pace that challenges your body's system, which in turn adapts and improves rapidly. You should see marked changes in your fitness level after as little as two weeks.
· HIIT also causes you to breathe much more deeply and strongly, which strengthens the intercostals and the diaphragm muscles.
· Your lactate tolerance increases, which means your muscles will still be able to contract in a high lactic environment therefore allowing you to exercise comfortably for longer.
· Your aerobic capacity is increased and you will be able to exercise for longer before reaching your oxygen debt.
· HIIT will also improve your cardiovascular and pulmonary systems far more than low intensity exercise and other internal changes will take place like an increase in mitochondria, which are the energy powerhouses for your cells.

A sample workout: (this sample is sprints.,but You can do bike, bag work,rowing etc...)
Week 1:
Workout 1. One 5-minute cycle: 30 seconds sprint, 30 seconds jog. continue this pattern for 5 mins.
workout 2: same as previous workout.
workout 3. One 6-minute cycle: Add one 30 second sprint & one 30 second jog.

week 2:
workout 1: same as previous workout.
workout 2. One 7-minute cycle: Add one 30 second sprint & one 30 second jog.
workout 3: same as previous workout.

week 3:
workout 1. One 8-minute cycle: Add one 30 second sprint & one 30 second jog
workout 2: same as previous workout.
workout 3: one 9-minute cycle: Add one 30 second sprint & one 30 second jog.

Continue this pattern until You reach 15-20 mins. You'll be as fit as a fiddle, and should shed those extra pounds. keep your protein high.
Sorry its a long post...
Gary.

Good stuff,

In the mornings before work, I do heavy bag rounds as HIIT, and of the stuff gary mentioned, i'll verify what i've actually experienced.

higher V02 max
reduction in appetite (i think my appetite has gone down since previously, but its considerably more noticible on the days i do HIIT)
increased cardio and pulmonary function
lost approx 10 lbs over a month

I do the following (or a variance of it) in the mornings 4x week

Heavy bag
3 minutes on
1 minute rest
two minutes from crouching position (think horse stance plus boxing = pain)
1 minute rest
3 minutes on
10 pushups
50 thai kicks right leg
10 pushups
1 minute rest
50 thai kicks left leg
1 minute rest
2 minutes heavy bag crouching position
30 seconds burpees
game over

that usually takes between 23-25 minutes for me, although i have been working my way up and including additional things slowly (like the burpees). The important thing for me is to never let the rest period go past a minute. there are times i end up clinching the bag in later rounds for a couple of seconds. I dont want to go past 25 minutes for this workout, i focus on improving the quality (aka intensity) of the rounds i'm doing. The last 10-15 seconds of each round, i do ballasitic, which is basically striking as fast as possible for that period of time. It helps to pick a simple combination to start with and just repeat it over and over with as much speed and power as possible. Although with practice i've been able to incoropate jab cross kick & jab cross hook elbow ballastically, i am not happy with my speed or performance quite yet....

for balance, i see nothing wrong with LSD (long slow distance) and i try and run/jog 3-5 miles 5 days a week (box in am, run in pm)

I cant emphasize enough how splitting my training into two sessions per day helped. I get enough recovery sitting on my butt at work, to be able to do the evening workout better than if i picked one time and worked out for 70 minutes...


hope that helped

great post gary.

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I am going to try some of these routines to see how they work, and I will report back in a while to let you know what I have found.

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