Speaking of diet, does anyone have any meal/recipe recommendations?

Don't have any personal experience with it, but the problem with it, and other programs such as P90x is the compliance issue. Yeah you might get decently fit by the end of it but they have such a high drop-out rate because of burnout, injury, inability to keep up and general lack of motivation to push your limits in a workout every day.

Also, pushing your limits and destroying yourself on every workout is not neccessarily the best and most efficient way to achieve results, even if it feels like it at the time ("feeling the burn" = good workout is largely a huge myth). Oh, and you won't get ripped like the guys in the vids because you're not lifting heavy weights.

Basically if you do it and finish it, you'll be a lot fitter, but there are better ways, especially in terms of compliance in the long-term.

You sound like a perfect candidate for Starting Strength (although tbh imo most untrained people are perfect candidates for SS - building a good base of all-round full-body strength is a great way to get in shape and provides the best base for going forward in to whatever sport/fitness activity you want).

There's no reason to need a spotter on squats, just don't lift to failure. Start light, concentrate on developing good form and by the time you're lifting heavy you will know exactly where your limits are. You can just bail it off your back if really necessary, but fwiw I've never had to bail on a squat. Free-squats are just so superior to anything on a machine because they recruit so many more muscles.

Gl with the marathon quest, would love to hear updates as you go. Agree that running is great for the mind. And don't worry about swimming for a tri, the vast majority of people that get into it are weak swimmers to begin with.

A few weeks ago, I started on a diet and doing allpro simple beginner routine.
My goal, lose a lot of weight and get in shape. Good luck to everyone with their goals. We will make it. Good thread.

I did it a bunch of times, but didn't follow the program.
Sometimes I do it on cardio days. It's good. Lifting is the best, imo.

Ron, am I reading this correctly that it's 3 sets of 5 reps etc

I follow a similar gym routine to starting strength called Stronglifts, alternating workouts three times a week based around compound lifts and progressive loading.

Workout A
Squats 3x5
Bench Press 5x5
Push-ups 3xf

Workout B
Squats 3x5
Overhead Press 5x5
Dead lifts 1x5
Pull-Ups 3xf

Been lifting on and off for a few years after i decided to buy a squat rack and Olympic barbell weight set and dump it all in the spare room at home, bargain considering the amount gym memberships cost.

Current Stats:
6ft 1
92kg
16% bf

Squat - 112.5kg
Bench - 85kg
Dead lift - 137.5kg
Overhead Press - 57.5kg

Still very much in the novice standard but hopefully i can get up to intermediate levels and move onto another routine perhaps Madcow(5x5), will have to do a little research before i commit to something.

cool thread. i'm 1.83m and 75kg (6'0" and 165lb, which gives me a BMI of 22.4), so i'm not worried about my weight particularly. i'm definitely not the fittest and/or strongest guy going around, but i can still hold my own. i recently completed a 2km ocean swim that i think 95%+ of people would have no chance of doing. i don't do a ton of exercise (15min of shooting hoops and 30min walk with the dog each day is about it), but i'm very conscious about what i eat, and thankfully that's enough for me to keep slim.

reason i'm stopping in itt is to say that if anybody wants scientific-based dietary advice, i can help out. i'm ~8mths away from graduating as a doctor, and i've got access to (and have read) tons of journal articles about diets and dietary advice for people looking to lose weight. if anybody would like info about exactly why one type of diet is the best/worst for continued weight loss, feel free to ask me and i'll see what i get my hands on.

That is correct. Obv you do warm-up sets first but the 3x5 etc is your work-set.

Sacred - good lifting there, nice numbers, keep it up!

Meal/recipe recommendations could fill a thread on it's own. However if you're interested in healthy eating, this is a very cool read and oft-quoted post by one of the h&f mods that does a good job of explaining and de-mystifying the whole "eating clean" subject: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=102

Requesting TR of the ocean swim, sounds awesome. Can't wait to start open-water swimming as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer. Also some pro-input on nutrition/diet issues would be very welcome.

haha yea it actually was. my sister entered both herself and myself into this charity event that runs every year - it's an ocean swim in sydney from a beach called shelley beach to the next beach north called manly beach. i had actually had 1 night of sleep under my belt before doing it, as the day before i had landed back home from my trip to europe. so it's safe to say i was relatively underprepared.

the swim itself wasn't too bad; my time was ~55min, and apparently doing 2km of an ocean swim under the hour (esp. in our conditions, huge 2m swell) is very good, so i was quite happy. one australian olympian (matt targett) did it in ~27min which is beastly. i have no idea what tactics to use, but every 5min or so i did breaststroke for ~15sec to regain my breath and make sure i was following the right course. it was actually alot of fun, despite me chundering as soon as i hit dry land .

as for dietary input, i would be happy to post excerpts from some select studies/articles; i'll get around to it in the coming days. if anyone has any specific questions about diet, i'll see if i can find any studies that answer that question too.

March goal:
[ ] 3x gym per week
[ ] play A game at the gym

few links I would like to share

Train Like a Man! (8 parts so far)
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...ain_like_a_man

Shut the Hell Up
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...ut_the_hell_up

The Anti-Pussification Program (other articles by TC Luoma are also pretty good)
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...on_program&cr=

Not to rain on parade/reigimine but..

Forcing yourself to jog for as long as possible is the best way to jog long distances, forget the walking.

Day 1 FORCE yourself to jog 10 mins and if you don't exercise you'll be dead at 6 minutes and have to force yourself last 4 mins.

A really good way to increase is to run a circle say 2 times which = 10 minutes~ do this for a 3 days and no days off, then on the 4th day you do 3 laps and that would be 15 mins. Then you just force yourself to finish 1 more lap etc.

I went from barely being able to do 2 laps = 10 mins to being able to do 10 laps = 50 mins in about 4-5 weeks.

The key is to push your body to limits you didn't even realize were possible. Also jogging long distances is way more effective than dieting. But that's just me.

Nutrition is equally as important as exercising imo, they go hand in hand. If you neglect one or the other, your just hampering your progression with whatever goals you've set yourself.

I agree both are important just exercise is more effective than strict nutrition but that's just for me, bro-science lol

This sounds like an incredibly quick way to injury. Running is notorious for injuries - as would be expected when you're landing with several times your bodyweight onto vulnerable joints over and over - and one of the main causes of these injuries is beginners ramping up their distance and volume too quickly. Just because it worked ok for you doesn't mean it's a good idea (think calling all-in with 76s and hitting a straight), and I'm pretty sure you won't find a single reputable source that advocates the approach of running to your limits every day, and especially running 4 days in a row as a beginner. There's also the issue that pushing yourself to your limits every session isn't neccessarily the most efficient way of improving fitness and in a lot of people will be very bad for long-term compliance too.

On the subject of running injuries, I seem to have developed plantar fasciitis in my right foot which sucks. It's only mild atm so I'm hoping I can keep on running while doing rehab exercises on the side to get it better. It's really bad timing because my first race of the season is in about 6 weeks and I was supposed to be entering a 4-5 week intensive race-fitness training cycle. Even more frustrating is that I spent the first couple of months of this year recovering from an IT band injury that I'm pretty sure was caused by the new running shoes I got "prescribed" by the running shop after a gait analysis session. I'd just got back into full training then this happens... gay.

actually you're both wrong. diet>>>>exercise for initial weight loss. for overall health both are equally as important, but when it comes to weight loss diet is about 80%.

this is how it works. for people needing to cut fat, they have basically 2 options - eat less calories, or increase exercise. you lose weight when you burn more energy than you consume. let's take a single chocolate bar as an example. depending on what you get, average energy is 250-300 calories (or 1-1.1k kJ). to burn the equivalent of a single chocolate bar off, it takes 40min of jogging at a moderate pace. what do you think is easier for an overweight+ person - eating 1 less chocolate bar, or doing 40min more of semi-intensive exercise.

this is essentially why diet>>>>exercise if you want to shed some flab. cutting out empty calories is so simple - if you looked at the diet of an overweight individual, there would be so many non-essential items that could be cut easily from the diet which would result in almost instantaneous weight loss (or cessation of weight gain at a minimum). a single 600mL bottle of coca-cola has 250 calories. a single choclate bar has 250 calories. a single slice of white bread has 100 calories (!!!). and think of any fat person you know, and think of how much unnecessary stuff they eat. that's how easy it is to lose weight. i'm not a heavy guy at all, but when i went sober for a month (with no other change in diet or exercise) i was able to shed ~8lbs just from all the beer calories i wasn't consuming, and i didn't even intend to lose weight.

this is even before changing overall meal habits to healthier alternatives btw. even if they had fried breakfasts, hamburgers for lunch and pizzas for dinner, fat people could shed even a few kilograms by switching their soda for water and cutting out dessert. it's really that simple (at least initially). obviously this is not to take away from the fact that exercise is important (it certainly is), but i'm just trying to dispel the notion that exercise>>>diet in weight loss (or even as important).

^^ listen to this man, he speaks the truth.

Just want to add in terms of ************, the "healthiness" of the food is often misleading. For example many people who want to lose weight start drinking fresh fruit juice because they believe it is healthy and therefore will help them lose weight - but while it may be full of nutrients, it is also pretty calorie-dense with most of the calories coming from sugar, meaning it's actually pretty bad for weight loss. This is the same for many "healthy" foods, so just remember that for weight loss, the calorie content trumps all other considerations.

So much this.

Good example of this happened to me the other day. I came home from hospital and my mum made me a mango smoothie (blended fresh mangoes, milk and yoghurt). I made some off-hand comment about how much unhealthiness I was drinking, and my mum retorted, "but I use low-fat milk and yoghurt!!!". I then had to educate her on the fact that fat content has little no bearing on overall calorie content of foods, and that by nature milk and yoghurt are high in sugar and thus very calorie dense regardless of whether you choose the regular or low-fat options. I actually went and compared the nutritional info of full cream and light milk, and lo and behold the light milk only had 50 less kJ (~12cal) than full cream for a 100mL serving.

Personally I think low-fat food products are the biggest scam of the century with the way they are forcefully advertised. But that's another argument.

Makes me think of the people ordering Diet Coke at McD's (not that I eat there).

50 kJ doesn't mean much unless you know the total energy value of milk. I though milk contained only around 3.5% of sugar.

Subbed.

I just need to get my ass in gear. 6', 255lbs. I have an active gym membership which I never use. I work from home 4 days a week, and my job is fully sedentary. Unless I'm purposeful about it, my only activity in a day consists of walking downstairs to get coffee or food.

I'm almost 39. This weight and lack of exercise are having huge negative effects on my life. I have very little energy, and I don't sleep well. I'm developing a chronic lower back pain.

I'm also scared to death of getting started.

Really interesting thread. I'll make a post later about my workout routine and my sports experience looks like I could get really good advice from well informed people here

Just a question. I am a football player (not soccer) and since you guys seems to be spot on about training and diet have you guys any advice, link, articles or something about a) gain some weight efficiently b) gain speed c) be more explosive.

Any good info/advice is welcome

Cba atm, but hopefully this thread will inspire me to get fit enventually

Don't be worried about starting out. Just remember you're not competing with anyone else, you're working to better your life. Given that you have a gym membership that you don't use, I'm guessing that you've tried a bunch of stuff, wasn't sure how to do it properly, didn't see results and gave up through lack of motivation? If so, you are the reason training plans were invented. Plans such as the couch-to-5k or Starting Strength are perfect for beginners because not only based on solid training principles, but they provide liner progress from workout to workout, hence keeping motivation high. Given your back problems I'd highly recommend some strength training involving squats and deadlifts - they will strengthen your entire back (as well as everywhere else) and are generally awesome for anyone with chronic back issues (unless your issue is an actual medical condition, in which case see a dr).

To gain weight, eat at a calorie surplus, incorporating plenty of protein (1-1.5g of protein per lb of lean body mass is a generally accepted level), and do a good lifting program. If you want explosive power then add power work into your lifting - cleans, snatches etc. These develop good all-round power although there'll prob be more sport-specific exercises if you search around. As for speed, I guess that's going to be a combination of all-round strength+power combined with sprint training but I don't really know any specifics about that.

Hey guys. Back at school and my first attempt at university I was a pretty serious sportsman, would traind 5-6 days a week up to 4 hours a day, competing at national level track and field as well as lower level rugby, hockey, squash and other stuff. During my first attempt at uni I got sick which lead me to be bedridden for 3-4 months and I lsot a lot of muscle weight and cardio fitness.

I feel now after a while like getting back on the horse and getting into the shape I was back in the day. I wouldn't say I've gotten horrendously unfit but I want to build up slowly to make sure my body adjusts well to it.

Goals:
3x Runs a week
3x Spartacus workouts on days not running
100 situps
50 pushups

Pretty basic and I expect to ramp up the situps and pushups, as well as introducing more body weight exercises as I get into the swing of things. Lets do this

Gl to all.

Count Calories.
Weigh training 3x+/week while eating around BMR + minimum protein macro.
or
Eat at caloric deficit + do lots of cardio.

I have no idea how effective this is. But a friend of mine suggest this + their website, never tried it though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekeOQYUpmps

May be what you're looking for?