Exercise Habits

[Gusington]

I have one buddy who works with bell weights as his primary form of exercise. When he was doing it 4-5 times a week he lost about 40 pounds. He is a huge guy, about 6"5', 265 pounds at his heaviest. He also played college football and worked as a bouncer, so I do trust him when it comes to getting in shape. Depending on your size working with weights like that could work well for you. For me it really would not be ideal because I am small and I am just trying to stay lean and healthy, not bulk up...so running with some light weight work is perfect.

[Keunert]

my problem is that i have only dumbells nothing else and i don't want to go to a gym. the first two month i had to increase weight every other day.
now it isn't so anymore. one thing i got was a sore wrist from push ups and similiar stuff.

the other thing is i have three training sets with different muscles that i can do every day (alternating). but what i do not have is for every set an alternative one with the same muscles
that hurts the progress too from what i read. now i could increase weights on some exercises but thats a little work with only one set of dumbells.

i may get a book with lot's of exercises. the ones i checked so far weren't what i was looking for.

[Gusington]

Are you looking to get leaner or bulk up?

[GJK]

P90-X will kick your butt with just a few dumbells, a chin bar and enough area in your living room or garage or bedroom to do the plyometrics and other routines.  You won't get bulky on that program but you will get in great shape and will put on some lean muscle mass.  You just have to have the discipline to stick with the program - but that's the rule with any exercise plan.  www.p90x.com, I highly recommend it.

[Gusington]

Is that meant as a total program on its own?

[Keunert]

i guess leaner, even though i have no idea what that word's meaning is. but not bulky.

[GJK]

Is that meant as a total program on its own?

Yes.  Full body workouts that includes resistance training, cardio, plyometrics, isometrics and lots of core conditioning.  They have a "Before you start" test just to see if you have the baseline ability to go through the course.  It's tough, I won't lie - but I've seen several people have great results from it.  Includes dietary suggestions/recipes as well.

[Gusington]

Thanks I am going to check it out.

[Arctic Blast]

Well, a few months ago I started doing something about getting my ass in shape. Discovering you weigh 232 pounds tends to have that effect.

#1 I realized I was eating way too much food, and my overall diet was incredibly disproportionate. Fixed that.
#2 I HATE cardio. Running bores me. But I've always found walking relaxing. So I pretty much walk everywhere, now. Easily 10 kilometers a day. And I don't tend to be someone who is even capable of 'slow strolls', so I go pretty quick. As an added bonus, I've found that a walk in the evening helps me clear my head, so I'm able to fall asleep that much faster.
#3 About 30-45 minutes of working out per day. Just things I can do at home. Lots of different types of pull ups, crunches, core work and push ups. A little bit of light weight work, mostly things like dumbbell punches and T Pushups. I typically do upper body 3 days a week, lower body 3 days a week and then chill out on Sunday.

As of today, I'm 214 pounds and have noticeably toned up. Most importantly, my back and knees feel a Hell of a lot better than they did before.

[Gusington]

^Awesome man. That's almost 20 pounds. No small feat. How tall are you?

Keunert Bulky means big and muscular...i.e., just the opposite of me (small and swarthy).

[GJK]

As of today, I'm 214 pounds and have noticeably toned up. Most importantly, my back and knees feel a Hell of a lot better than they did before.

Good job AB, congrats! 
Diet is the main thing but the hardest part for most of us to control.  Carb control is my key.  I love pasta and Tex-Mex but my body will store all those extra calories and convert those carbs to fat.  What did Yogi Berra used to say (not about diets, but baseball) "the first half is the exercise, the other 90% is the diet" (modified to fit our discussion). 
The thing with cardio and resistance training - our bodies adapt to that new workload and thus it will stall out and stop responding.  When you first start exercising and dieting, the results are wonderful!  But then your body gets what's going on and it adjusts the metabolism and the next thing you know, you're in a rut.  You have to constantly shake things up to throw your body a curve.  Up the cardio and ease up on the weights or vice-versa for a short period of time and then revert back.  If you do your exercise routine in the evenings, switch to the early morning.  I used to love cardio in the morning (no, not that kind...well, yes, I DO love THAT kind as well of course!).  Done on an empty stomach when you first awake, your body has to go to the fat stores to fuel the cardio session because there is no readily available glycogen that you would normally have after eating all day.  That's a great way to get rid of some stubborn fat. 

[Bison]

I've been on a pretty good routine lately.  Well until last week when I did something and torqued a muscle/nerve in my shoulder doing some push ups.  Getting old is a bitch.  Sometimes you get injured doing some pretty routine exercises that you've done countless times over the years.

[Arctic Blast]

Gus : I'm a bit over 6'1"

GJK : Yep, keep changing things up. This is where having a sister who's a personal trainer helps.  ;D

Diet was probably the toughest change for me. I've always liked working out. But I also really like food...especially pasta. And beer. I was consuming way too many carbs and not enough of everything else.

[Gusington]

I'm the same exact way. I could live on carbs alone.

6'1" and 214 sounds pretty reasonable to me Arctic. What is your weight goal? Mine is 140 for the summer...I'm at 145 now at5"5'.

Bison a good friend of mine threw his back out picking up a pencil for his son.

[Keunert]

i am 6'1'' and 180 pounds, would like to go 170 - 175.
i had 170 punds in my late teens with no belly at all.
this would be great.