Here is my current workout (last couple months): 2 x lunchtimes per week -1.5 mile on treadmill or 10 mins skipping -Bodyweight workout (3 or 4 rounds, 1 minute rest between rounds): 10 x Bodyweight squats 10 x Bodyweight lunges 10 x dumbbell curls 10 x press-ups 20 x sit-ups/crunches 3 x evenings per week (days depend on work) -Grappling class - 1.5 hours Every day -My share of dog walking (1 hour) I work Monday to Friday and I'm out of the house 12 hours per day. Friday and Sunday are rest days. I need to slim down a bit more without changing my eating too much. Any suggestions? My eating habits aren't too bad. When I try to cut down on food, I start to get really tired and can't train as much.
Hey Ghost frog, Good to see you've maintained a program, have you increased the intensity of your workouts (eg. either increased weights, reps, reduced rest time between rounds). I found that I plateaud with a similar routine (more cardio in mine though). Things I've changed up that have worked for me: 1. Picked up weights!!!!!! No more bodyweight crap for me. Do your squats and lunges with weights GF, add more exercises in there (check out the relevant threads) 2. Increased High Intensity Interval training sessions (again I'm sure you have an idea what this is and there are lots of threads on it).
Cheers for the input. The important thing for me is that I can't do any more exercises, as the workout has to fit into 35 minutes during my lunchhour, but I could change some of them. For the squats, I'm a bit cautious about my knees, tbh. I am fairly heavy already so I get a good workout from lunges and squats. Probably good to increase it slowly though. The ideal thing would be to do pull-ups in there as well, but I can't do them at the moment, only hangs. I also have equipment to do dips on, so they might be good to add in? Think this calls for another thread...
Erm lily, body weight 'crap'? Don't think so... For martial arts i find Fartlek training to be great. Basically you just run at various levels with no structured time for each interval ie Sprint for 10 seconds walk for 10 seconds jog for a minute sprint for 15 seconds jog for 30 seconds sprint for 5 seconds walk for 20 seconds It's totally random but you have to be quite disciplined mentally to push the intensity. Regular intervals are good too ie 2 minute jog, 1 minute sprint, 2 minute jog, 1 minute sprint etc etc The lunges are a great functional exercise, throw them in in varying planes of motion ie forward, back, side, transverse (pivot on front foot) have a look on www.rosstraining.com and check out all of the articles for ideas of really intense workouts that don;t take up too much time. I also recommend his two books. Two of my favourites: http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/noexcuses.html http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/sequentialfatigue.html If you have access to weights then by all means throw them in. If not you could buy some resistance bands or a weighted vest to work with to increase intensity when you are ready. Also, burpees are one of the best all round exercise going! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxrFducMgYQ"]Exercise Videos- Jump Burpees - YouTube[/ame] Variation is the key Could you say a little more about your diet? There are probably improvements yo could make, i've made loads this past month
There's no reason for you to be doing 60-80 situps/crunches. Try holding plank variations at the end of your round, for say 30 seconds.
I was going to rehash it but it needs a bit of an overhaul. The cardio is fair enough, may want to do a bit of swimming too. High intensity Rowing is great too. You ideally want to add some more cardio intensity in there to gain more fitness, but whatever you are up for. For more strength/challenge I would recommend: Pressups 3*20 - Replace these with dips on occasion if you have the facility Lying Leg Raises 3*10 Circle these a bit too You can add some situps if you want too, do russian twists ideally. Chins over or undergrasp. Alternate. 3*Fatigue - ie. cant get another clean rep out Pistols 3*15 - better than the squats Sailor Lifts 3*10 This should add some intensity too it, make it a bit harder for you.
Like it people... lots of good ideas to get me moving. -Definitely do more fartleks (when the pollen dies down and I can run outside again). -Like the idea of varying the direction of the lunge. -Planks for my abs is a great idea -Leg raises, I'd forgotten about. -Chins I would love to do, but haven't been able to do any for about five years now. Might try to build up again. Although I think pistols and burpees are awesome exercises, they seem to put a huge amount of strain on my knees, so I'm erring on the side of caution. -Might start swimming again once a week. Yeah, this is my major area of improvement. I have a very sedentary job, I'm at my desk for ten hours a day and I drive for 2 hours per day, so its mostly about watching the calories. I'm basically trying to have slightly 'better' snacks, smaller meals during the day and eat mostly protein and veg, with not too many carbs. The real danger is that I crave sweet and fatty stuff when I get tired, so I'm trying to anticipate that by eating healthy snacks and drinking lots of water to stave off hunger.
Sounds pretty much like my diet. I've cut out a lot of starchy carbs throughout the day in place of more fruit/veg and i eat a fair amount of protein. The temptations of junk food can be so hard to resist but it's good to have some now and then so that you don't go on an all out binge instead! I'll have porridge in the morning, potatoes in the evening and if i'm training i'll go for something like brown basmati to keep me going. My energy levels are so much better now though and the reduced amount of complex carbs in the day has stopped me from feeling groggy after eating. With the pull-ups, you could buy some resistance bands to aid them. You loop them around the bar and then step into them to give a little bit of assistance with the upward movement. Finding the right band is trial and error but they are a really versatile piece of kit.
