Gym advice

[Maxf]

Another gym advice thread I'm afraid. I got fed up with my gym trainer chap trying to sell me PT sessions every time I spoke to him (I already pay £70 a month, and he wants another £45 an hour!) so have been ignoring him.

I know my way around a gym, but have been very lazy for a few year and completely let myself go. My aim at the moment is to build some good core strength which I can then build on over time. It would be nice to lose about 1 stone of fat as well, but I'm trying to do that through diet as far as I can as I just dont have time to spend hours on the machines.

At the moment I'm limited to around an hour training and am doing the following...

20 mins CV - maybe 160bpm (I'm 32)

5 mins crunches/situps
5 mins leg raises (laying down, for my stomach/core)
5 mins plank position (3 sets of 1 minute - 1.30), just starting to try and do these on 1 arm/leg

3 sets of deadlifts - 15 reps
3 sets of squats (on leg press at the moment as my technique is pretty poor)
3 sets of benchpress (as heavy as possible, 15-20 reps)
maybe some shoulder press or lat pulldowns.

I tend to do 2 days on, 1 off. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Am I missing anything?

[Maxf]

Oh FFS. Gay thread alert etc etc... I swear I was in the 'health' section when I posted this!

[Buzz word]

I am a comparative gym noob but I think it depends what you really want to build up or slim down. If it's to lose the stone I would try and do a longer cardio stint. If it's get stronger I think your not doing enough types of weight exercises. Having said that it seems a pretty rounded group of exercises.

I like the crunches etc and I think you could do those every session no worries. I would try and mix in a bit of other stuff though like some pull ups, hangs or hanging crunches, some dips, barbell roll outs. I think pull ups are better than the lat pull down machines and if you find them easy just go slower to make it harder or hold at the top.

I think you need to separate your weights a bit too. On a dead lift day if I'm going big I couldn't cope with squatting after and vice versa. I don't see the issue benching and squatting together but I would give the dead a day of it's own and at least alternate maybe even only dead every or fourth time. When I dead I know I have done it for a few days after and wouldn't want to repeat within a week.

Maybe; bench & squat one session, push press or military press if you have had enough on the quads the next and the third dead lift.

[pimpin gimp]

You'll lose more fat from cutting the st out of your diet than you will in the gym, so if you've got your diet sorted anything you do in the gym will be a bonus.

Sounds like you're going in the right direction so far.

[DownUnder.]

First things first, IGNORE WHAT YOU WEIGH.

You are lifting weights at a heavish level so expect to build up muscle, which is a lot heavier than fat.
CV routine seems quiet good, the only advice i have to give you is try more concentrated workouts. E.g.

day 1 - Arms and chest
day 2 - legs and stomach

More focused workouts tend to give quicker and better results. Do a little research on pyramid sets whilst you are at it.

[Slate99]

Maxf said:

Another gym advice thread I'm afraid. I got fed up with my gym trainer chap trying to sell me PT sessions every time I spoke to him (I already pay £70 a month, and he wants another £45 an hour!) so have been ignoring him.

I know my way around a gym, but have been very lazy for a few year and completely let myself go. My aim at the moment is to build some good core strength which I can then build on over time. It would be nice to lose about 1 stone of fat as well, but I'm trying to do that through diet as far as I can as I just dont have time to spend hours on the machines.

At the moment I'm limited to around an hour training and am doing the following...

20 mins CV - maybe 160bpm (I'm 32)

5 mins crunches/situps
5 mins leg raises (laying down, for my stomach/core)
5 mins plank position (3 sets of 1 minute - 1.30), just starting to try and do these on 1 arm/leg

3 sets of deadlifts - 15 reps
3 sets of squats (on leg press at the moment as my technique is pretty poor)
3 sets of benchpress (as heavy as possible, 15-20 reps)
maybe some shoulder press or lat pulldowns.

I tend to do 2 days on, 1 off. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Am I missing anything?

I think as for fat loss your CV and diet will sort that out if you keep it up. I lost 2.5 stone in 4 months doing 20 mins CV 3 times a week and a good diet.

As for you core you are perhaps missing a few muscle groups. Varied type of sit ups is good not just standard ones - a quick google should give you plenty of options. Planks are excellent. If they become a bit easy rotate your hips in that position to help work your back.

Best thing for core is an inflateable ball. They lack the "MAAAAN POWER" image but are an excellent exercise e.g. put your feet on the ball and roll out to pressup position then lift each leg individually of the ball.

HTH

[Maxf]

Thanks guys.

I've train specific areas before (pyramid sets and supersets) but for a couple of months really wanted to build a core strength/fitness level up hence not being too specific and targeted.

I used to be pretty big and definitely dont want to go back that way, hence the high reps, I don't want to overtrain though.

[Maxf]

Slate99 said:

Best thing for core is an inflateable ball. They lack the "MAAAAN POWER" image but are an excellent exercise e.g. put your feet on the ball and roll out to pressup position then lift each leg individually of the ball.

I use one for my crunches and also a bosu ball (half ball with hard top) to do unweighted squats on for my balance/core stability. I'll look up a few other things to try with the ball though.

Glad the advice isn't just to quit being tight and pay the chap though!

Edited by Maxf on Wednesday 14th October 21:36

[GreigM]

I'd up the CV - you only really start to burn fat once you've had your HR at over 140 for 30 mins - I'd go for 40-45 mins at 145-150bpm....160 is unnecessary unless you want to build your CV performance...

[Digger]

Yup. . .upping the cardio to say 3-5 times a week between 40-60 minutes per session should reap dramatic results as long as diet is sensible. If you want to take it more seriously my usual suggestion of purchasing a heart rate monitor that shows % of max HR may be of benefit?

[Maxf]

GreigM said:

I'd up the CV - you only really start to burn fat once you've had your HR at over 140 for 30 mins - I'd go for 40-45 mins at 145-150bpm....160 is unnecessary unless you want to build your CV performance...

That would only give me 15 mins to do everything else though. Won't I lose fat by building strength/muscle and eating properly?

I'm not actually 'fat' (IMO) - just a bit wobbly in places.

[CHIEF]

F**k all these superset b***ocks and all that crap. If you want to build strength then stick to the basics and ignore any rubbish that you may read in Flex magazine etc.

Do not and i mean do not train a bodypart more than once a week. Break your strength training days down over 3 days, apart from warming up for 5-10 minutes keep cardio seperate from weight days.

Like i said stick to the basics and another important point, do not overtrain by doing too many sets and too long in the gym 40-60 minutes absolute max.

Now we all know how important it is to warm up, anyway what i mean is thissay you do bicep curls and you warm up with 2 or three sets then do 2 heavy sets, the next time around you dont need to do 4 or 5 sets because that muscle is already warm. i see loads of people pounding out set after set and wasting energy.

Keep it simple, warm up, train as heavy as possible with basic movements, keep it short and sort your diet out and plenty of rest and you will get stronger.

[Animal]

If you're interested in building core strength then have a search on YouTube for Turkish Getups.

[bales]

Depending what you are wanting to gain doing sets of 15 reps will not build strength, its a waste doing more than 8 reps to be honest.

1-4 reps for max strength
5-8 reps for hypertrophy

Also if you want to build core strength sack of all the machines and work on doing your exercises with free weights and go right back down on the weight if you have to.

Squats, military press etc...will do so much more for your overall strength if you use free weights rather than machines.

[CHIEF]

What the man said

[Maxf]

bales said:

Depending what you are wanting to gain doing sets of 15 reps will not build strength, its a waste doing more than 8 reps to be honest.

How do things like the 100 press ups program work? I did that and felt much stronger but avoided putting on the bulk (which I didnt want to do - I've done the massive arms/chest thing before and definitely want to avoid it).

[bales]

Maxf said:

bales said:

Depending what you are wanting to gain doing sets of 15 reps will not build strength, its a waste doing more than 8 reps to be honest.

How do things like the 100 press ups program work? I did that and felt much stronger but avoided putting on the bulk (which I didnt want to do - I've done the massive arms/chest thing before and definitely want to avoid it).

High rep stuff is great for an initial boost in strength to get up to a good base level, as to be honest what ever you do as an untrained individual you will get good gains.

However if you were to get a relatively mature (in terms of training years) athlete and put them on the same program you would get nowhere near the same results.

A lot of people can be bulky but not necessarily strong, its just down to how you train. In general to develop max strength you need to work in the 85%+ range of your 1RM for for 1-4 reps. This will add strength but not bulk, i.e this is how weightlifters and powerlifters train and they are very lean as they have to meet weight classes.

High rep workouts are usually for bodybuilders.

[GreigM]

Maxf said:

Won't I lose fat by building strength/muscle and eating properly?

I'm not actually 'fat' (IMO) - just a bit wobbly in places.

In the answer to the first one - no.

Go to a gym - any gym, and look at the guys doing weights - 90% of them look fat - they think they are all muscles, but they all look fat because unless you burn off that wobble the muscle simply builds under it and pushes the wobble out....you need to get rid of the excess body fat, then work up the muscles. You can of course do both, but prioritise burning the fat, then any muscle you do put on will look so much better...

[bales]

GreigM said:

Maxf said:

Won't I lose fat by building strength/muscle and eating properly?

I'm not actually 'fat' (IMO) - just a bit wobbly in places.

In the answer to the first one - no.

Go to a gym - any gym, and look at the guys doing weights - 90% of them look fat - they think they are all muscles, but they all look fat because unless you burn off that wobble the muscle simply builds under it and pushes the wobble out....you need to get rid of the excess body fat, then work up the muscles. You can of course do both, but prioritise burning the fat, then any muscle you do put on will look so much better...

Indeed!

It always gets me when you see normalish blokes who are quite big built anyway jump straight into all the protein shakes, supplements etc who expect to look like the cover of mens health! Most just end up looking big but a little fat as they have no definition whatsoever!

Then of course they start taking the fat burners and more supplements to get the 'cut' look....whatever happened to hard work?

Its like people who want to lose weight and will do everything under the sun with the weird diets, weight loss pills etc etc basically anything other than some actual hard work...

[Digger]

Cardio cardio cardio. . . my oft repeated mantra.