Good going dude. I know standing on a weigh scale is very tempting. But also try just looking at the mirror (vanity) to look at some progress. Sometimes you won't notice because you're so used to looking at yourself but when certain lines start emerging....you can't help but bust out a few poses Diet is your frenemy. I'm not sure what is near you, or what your eating habits are (apart from the afore mentioned subways/McD meals). But what I do... is that every week / or few days... I will decide to cut something out from my food intake. For example: Week 1 : No crisps/similar "bad" carbs. Helps a lot when you start bringing down your carb intake to about 25-30g per day. Week 2: Chocolate Week 3: Soft drinks And all that would be whilst you will be trying to eat clean anyway. And the weight will drop and quite rapidly. I hope what I said above is not "teaching you to suck eggs" but that's my weight cut/pre comp diet regime.
Awesome, thanks 'shroom Gym again tonight. 10mins on cross trainer 3x sets of 10 on forward pressy machine 3x sets of 10 on upwards pressy machine 3x sets of 10 on arm curly machine 3x sets of 20 on leg pressy machine (double legs) 3x sets of 20 on leg pressy machine (single legs each) 3x sets of 10 on leg stretchy forward machine 1x set of taijiquan neigong 1x set of taijiquan form 10 minutes on sitty down peddly machine Will be back on Friday, and this time I will take my notebook and write down exercise names and weights.
Didn't gym yesterday as I was busy adulting and getting a mortgage, so I went tonight. -Cross train 5 min -Prone leg curl X5 sets of 15 @ 40lbs -Leg extensions X5 sets of 15 @ 70lbs -Leg press X5 sets of 15 @ 85lbs -Abdominal crunch X5 sets of 10 at 80lbs -Arm curl X5 sets of 10 @ 50lbs -Converging chest press x8 sets of 5 @ 70lb - About 5 mins of bagua "heaven palm" (arms extended to the sides at about shoulder height as walking the circle) with 5kg dumbbell in each hand - grasping birds tail X5 each side slowly - Zhan zhuang neigong - 5 mins on stationary bike
You motivate others, and give them encouragement when they have none{,or very little.} have faith in yourself.you can do this!-think of how fit you are going to be at the next m.a.p. event. small steps at a time.or do i need to take a stick to you?
Back to the gym again this evening. Cross trainer, 10 mins @ "level 10" Converging Should press: 60lbs 4 sets of 6 40lbs 2 sets of 4 Converging chest press: 40lbs 5 sets of 6 (both arms) 40lbs 5 sets of 7 (single arm [both sides]) 40lbs, one-two X10 Lat. Pull down: 55lbs, 5 sets of 6 Arm curls: 50lbs, 5 sets of 5 Abdominal crunch: 60lbs 3 sets of 6 70lbs 3 sets of 6 Recliner peddly bike: 5 mins I had trouble with the shoulder press tonight, hence having to drop the weight. I'll pay attention to this in future and see if I can work on improving.
Went to the gym again last night. I've got a vague plan in my head; I'm going to go 3 times a week; Day 1 : arms & core Day 2: core & legs Day 3: legs & arms This way, each section gets worked on twice a week, still plenty of rest days in there to recover. So, last night was day 2. Core & Legs -Cross trainer, 10 mins -Prone Leg Curl; 70lbs x3 sets of 10 -Leg Extensions; 85lbs x5 sets of 10 -Leg Press; 115lbs x5 sets of 10 Abdominal Crunch; 70lbs x5 sets of 10 Warmed down and stretched out with a rep of Tai chi form.
Ok, so got a few sessions to catch up on.... Day 3 (23/09) Legs & Arms Cross Trainer: 5 mins Converging Shoulder Press: 50lbs - 5 sets of 6 Converging Chest Press (both arms): 55lbs - 5 sets of 6 Converging Chest Press (each arm singly): 55lbs - 6 sets of 6 Lateral Pull Down: 55lbs - 5 sets of 10 Leg Press: 115lbs - 5 sets of 10 Taijiquan form; 1st and 2nd sections Day 4 (26/09) Legs & Core Cross Trainer: 10 mins Leg Extensions: 85lbs - 5 sets of 10 Prone Leg Curl: 70lbs - 4 sets of 10 Leg Press: 115lbs - 6 sets of 10 130lbs - 15 reps Hip Abductor: 130lbs - 3 sets of 10 Hip Adductor: 115lbs - 4 sets of 5 Lateral Pull Down: 70lbs - 5 sets of 10 Abdominal Crunch: 60lbs - 4 sets of 10 Peddle-boat machine: 5 mins Day 5 (28/09) Core & Arms Cross Trainer: 10 mins Converging Shoulder Press (both arms): 50lbs - 7 sets of 6 Converging Shoulder Press (each arm singly): 40lbs - 6 sets of 6 Converging Chest Press (both arms): 55lbs - 8 sets of 6 Converging Chest Press (each arm singly): 55lbs - 7 sets of 6 Arm Curl: 50lbs - 5 sets of 6 Lateral Pull Down: 55lbs - 5 sets of 10 Abdominal Crunch: 60lbs - 4 sets of 10 Taijiquan form: first section Day 5.5 (29/09) Extra day because I had a day off and Mrs. Bian had gone out Cross Trainer: 10 mins Taijiquan form: 1st, 2nd and 3rd sections Xingyi 16 Exercises (general stretching routine)
You've gone from, "Arm pressy thing" to "Converging shoulder press" Great work all round, keep it up! Personally I reckon you could do well with some free movement stuff like the bear. It gets you away from the machines and into fundamental movements that will benefit everything from your Tai Chi to your normal life. It will build strength, cardio, flexibility, everything It will also be a great warm up for your Tai Chi and flow much more. See here first variation. And a video here. The weight you use should be very light, and you should focus on keeping the bar in motion. I promise you, a few sets of this and you'll love it Enjoy! Mitch
Have to be honest, there are labels on the machines Awesome! I'll have a look into it and try some out, cheers
Ick, it's been a while!! I've decided I'm going to push the next 10 days to the MAP meet and see where I can get to. Mainly going to be working bodyweight and a bit of cardio. I'll do a proper update a little later, but I need a kickstart back into this
Hi Dan Bian, great! Here are a few thoughts for stuff you might like to consider? After a good warmup, the usual advice is to do the exercises in decreasing order of difficulty: any power exercises first (e.g. Olympic lifts), then any resistance exercises (including body weight exercises), then any steady-state cardio, before the cool down. In addition, you can split your intensity over the week. E.g. low intensity lower body and high intensity upper body on one day, then the reverse on another day (high intensity lower body and low intensity upper body). You may find this helpful for recovery. Also, have you considered periodisation?
Not being funny but periodization and optimal workout planning is sensible for an athlete but someone looking to lose weight and get healthy really doesn't need this at all, nor stuff like bear complexes etc. They just need to actually turn up at the gym and do something they like so they are motivated and at the same time cut out calories and clean up their diet
Just remembered this log and thought I'd update! So, although I haven't continuing to gym, I've worked hard on the diet aspect and am now weighing around the 14st mark, so still a little way to go, but I'm feeling much better than I did. The first part of the year was definitely hard, following my marriage breakdown, but since the summer I've pulled it back and am doing well. The goal of fitting into spandex came to fruition a couple of weeks back, and I must say I don't think I looked too bad!
Right. I'm back on this now. I started January at 18st 3lbs - I'm lost a few pounds over the last couple of weeks and I'm now at 17st 10.5lbs. The other guys in the office with me are all working on losing some weight too, so we're encouraging each other. Aside from fitness, I've also decided to be more active here on MAP!
