I’ve decided that I’ve been out of shape for long enough, and I want to be in as good (or better) condition as when I was doing martial arts. To this end, I’m adopting a new fitness regimen. To keep myself honest will be posting semi-regular updates on here. If I start to fail, please guys, let me know. I’m hereby giving you guys permission (and requesting you) to nag me about it.
Hopefully with you guys nagging me, and me posting about it on here, I’ll stick with it until it becomes a habit. That’s always been the hard part for me, getting going. I’ll do well for the first couple of weeks, and then I’ll find an excuse or two to miss one workout, then another, and before I realize what’s happened, I’m not working out at all anymore. Once I get going, and do it for a few weeks it becomes a habit, and is very easy to stick with, at least until something majorly rearranges my life (like a new job, going back to school, getting married, or having a child), and then I often fall off the wagon.
I’ll be using both weight training and cardio work. I’ll be lifting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with at least a 45 minute bike ride or run on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays (and also on Saturdays, time and energy permitting). I picked up a heart rate monitor so that I can make sure I’m pushing hard enough to get benefits, but not so hard that I can’t finish my 45 minutes. If anyone else thinks they should be in better shape, feel free to post your efforts and progress in the comments.
Nice work Devin! I started getting myself back into shape in January (I still have a ways to go) and I droped 20-25lbs since then. I might recomment (which I haven’t been doing, but plan on trying) high intensity interval training to replace 1 or 2 of your 45 minute cardio sessions. The idea is you alternate periods of high intensity (where your heart rate gets very high) and periods of less intensity (where your heart rate drops about 30 beats from the high intensity) to recover. I often hear times of 30 seconds of high intensity and a minute of low intensity. You do this for 15-20 minutes total. The interesting thing is this apparently does a much better job of increasing your metabolism than anything else.
Also, the last suggestion, if you want to lose weight the most important part is cutting calories from your diet. I lost most of my weight early on when I was following a much stricter diet. I have sort of fallen off of the wagon with eating and my progress has been much slower.
Also, how far is your work? Would riding your bike to work contribute enough to your exercise to replace some of the work out time? That would be ideal as you would kill two birds with one stone.
Steven,
To start, I’m going to go with “plain” cardio. Once I get going, I will probably add high intensity interval training (HIIT) at the end of my cardio sessions. I’ve used HIIT in the past, and, while effective, it leaves you very worn out.
I didn’t comment on my diet, but I’ve cut out the sugary cinnamon bread from my breakfast, and replaced it with a protein shake. The rest of my meals are usually fairly healthy, though I’m going to try to cut down on unhealthy snacks.
Unfortunately the bike ride to my work is only about 10 minutes, and I don’t exactly want to get to work and be all sweaty. Though I do intend to start riding to work as well, it won’t be for long enough, or high enough intensity, to replace any of my workouts.
Thanks for the suggestions. If you want to post your progress here in the comments to keep yourself honest, feel free.
Sounds like a good routine Devin. I was going to suggest HIIT as well, it’s something I personally like, even though is is exhausting and doesn’t leave you much to continue with anything else.
So far my efforts in fitness are limited to karate and a helathier diet with minimal snacks, but with the coming of better weather I may start rollerblading or something. I don’t know if I’ll make any significant strides from now on, karate has already kicked me into shape. But I will post any on here.
Be sure that I will nag you as well…
Thanks to the snow today, and then being occupied with other stuff later in the day when the weather improved, my first workout will be tomorrow (though I suppose that’s actually today at this point), as I hit the weights.
Once I start to get back into shape, I’ll add the HIIT to my cardio workout. I’ll likely do the first 25 minutes as regular cardio, and the last 15 to 20 minutes of HIIT.