Help me change myself

[sonz]

So i've been lurking here for almost 2 months, and let me just say that it's a great community. Ok now for my problem.....


I'm 6 feet and around 6 or 7inches tall and I weigh about 245 pounds. I consider myself hardworking (well...kinda) and don't mind workouts. I have been doing 45 min karate lessons 4 days a week for 6 years, 3 years ago I started coming 2 times a week for 1 hour each. These are the only times that the school teaches my style of karate so I can't come more. I want a way to lose my huge belly and gain muscle in my chest and stomach area, all while getting healthy. My diet is too messed up to even mention, one week I might eat fruits only, then stop eating fruit for a month.

I'm doing this because people keep telling me I have a good body to use to work out, My crazy small skinny ass freinds are getting ripped and keep telling me to get into shape. Don't think im being pushed into this, the way I think of it is that you're body is the most important thing you have and that I should put mine to good use.

I'm open to all ideas but i'm mostly looking for tips on whole body workouts, sort of like an all around thing.

 

[gvibes]

Getting in shape will be more than just your work-out - you are probably going to need to alter your diet as well.

But for work-outs, I suggest reading Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength

http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Stren.../dp/0976805405

 

[sonz]

I'll give it a look, as for diet I'm not a very picky eater and if told what to eat then I can eat it.

 

[Braunsweig]

You can start by tracking your eating habits; time, what and how often. Here is a free website that can help. http://www.thedailyplate.com This website can also help you track your exercises and hw many calories each utilizes. Losing weight I would begin with eating 1 gram of protein for every pound of lean muscle you wish to weigh. Another way to help you succeed in your weight goals is to eat all of your carbohydrates or at least 80 percent before 3pm. Eat vegetables and meat for dinner. Doing this you can actually lose weight as you sleep. Good luck with your goals!

 

[hotspur]

I have been using Rippetoe's workout program for the past two months. The results have been fairly good, and I would especially recommend it if you are trying to get leaner. Generally speaking I use higher reps, like 8-10, when I am trying to bulk; when I am cutting I use lower weights so that I may still be gaining strength even when I am losing weight.

Most exercises are 3x5, which means three sets of five reps. These three sets of five reps are to be done with your working weight, which you should determine for each exercise before you start this program. Prior to these three working sets, you should start out with a few warm-up sets. For example on squat you could do 8x95, 4x135, 2x155, and then 5x185 three times.

Pick a working weight that is a little below what you know you can do. If you know you can do three sets of five reps of 225 on the bench, start out with 205 as your working weight. Each workout you should increase the weights a little bit. On bench I tend to do 5 pounds per workout (two 2.5lb plates), while squats and deadlifts can be somewhat higher, like 10 pounds.

The program is setup in a MWF split, although you can use any three days as long as you keep the same pattern of lift rest lift rest lift rest rest.

For example, day 1 is on monday, then day 2 on wednesday, and then day 1 on friday. The following week you would do day 2 on monday, day 1 on wednesday, and day 2 on friday.


Of course I am assuming you can do all of these lifts properly. If not, you can make some substitutions. I do dumbbell rows instead of barbell rows, and I sometimes do shrugs instead of power cleans. The dips are meant to hit your chest, not your triceps, so you need to lean forward while doing them, in a motion that is similar to a decline press.

If you don't know how to do squats properly, google squats, and look at pictures or videos. Your lower back must never round, and you need to put the bar on your traps, not your neck. Same thing goes with deadlifts, you need to keep your lower back from rounding, although your shoulders should be rounding forward.

Squatting three times a week is a lot of fun. It will increase your free testosterone, and make your entire body grow/lean out faster. After a week or two, you can add a few sets of arms on friday. I do three sets of skull crushers, and three sets of barbell curls.

The program is this:

Day 1
Squats 3x5
Bench 3x5
Deadlift 1x5
Dips 3x5
Rows 3x5
Abs

Day 2
Squats 3x5
Military press 3x5
Power Cleans 3x5
Chin ups 3x5
abs


Obviously you need to eat protein. I don't know who eats only fruit. Hopefully you are not a troll, because then I just wasted 10 minutes. Buy protein powder. dpsnutrition.com is the best place, with the lowest prices. ON whey is a great value. chocolate flavor is what I recommend. Aim for 5 meals a day. Protein, good carbs, unsaturated fats, etc. When you can't eat solid protein, like chicken, beef, pork, fish, etc. use a protein shake and some oatmeal. Blend it all together with some peanut butter and its delicious.


There you go. Something I know about. Now continue answering my style related questions.

 

[sonz]

Helpful much?


I know, I have like a store that sells that protein stuff like 5 min away so I'll go over there and get some. Thanks for the advice so far.

 

[rjmaiorano]

... only you can change yourself...

 

[Shraka]

Sort your diet out

• Eat 6 times a day, eat less for dinner to loose weight, eat more for dinner to put on weight.
  
  
• Eat lots of protein. Make sure you have some with each meal. Chicken, Turkey, Tofu, Whey powder, eggs. Cut down on red meat. When you have any meat, make sure you are having quality, un-processed, low fat meat.
  
  
• Get as many veggies as you can. Lettuce, Spinach, broccoli, beans, carrots and cabbage are all good. I don't count potato as a vegetable for the purpose of this recommendation. Cut down on potatos were you can, and/or replace regular potato with sweet potato.
  
  
• Eat a plain, low sugar, high(ish) protein, filling breakfast EVERY morning. I have shredded wheat with soymilk because I can't stomach a lot of milk, especially first thing in the morning. You might want to add some whey powder.
  
  
• Cut down on basic carbs throughout the day. These are: Pasta, rice, sugar, bread etc. Don't have basic carbs after 5pm. When you do have bread earlier in the day, make sure it's rye or brown bread. NO Softdrink (or soda, or whatever you call it where you live). In place of sweets, have fruits.
  
  
• Cut down on saturated fats. Eat more nuts for unsaturated fats and protein, stop eating cheese or cheesy foods. No more chocolate except as part of your cheat meal, and if you do have it have dark chocolate (much better for you)
  
  
• Drink lots of water, pop a multivitamin, get at least 8 hours of sleep a night (this is very important for loosing weight or building muscle).
  
  
• Chilli and caffeine speed up your metabolism so are good for loosing weight
  
  
• Give yourself a meal off and a snack off. One meal in the week where you can have a pizza and a beer, and then a snack (I usually do it on the same day) where you can have a sweet tart, bit of chocolate or what have you.

Sort out your exercise routine

Get a gym membership and go at least 3 times a week. Warm up for at least 10 minutes. There are lots of theories of what workouts work best, and it is different for different people so ask a personal trainer what you should do, then modify for whatever you think is working better for you.

My week looks like this:

• Monday: Calves (calf raises, light weight high reps), abs (situps and machines)
  
• Tuesday: Back (Including lats on the lat pulldown), shoulders (shoulder press)
  
• Thursday: Upper legs
  
• Friday or Saturday: Pecks (Bench press), arms (Curl, tricep pulldown)

Most of my workouts are done 1 warmup set at low weight, 3 sets at full weight of 6-10 reps (once I can do 10 reps for each set, I go up weight and aim for at least 6 reps of the higher weight, then slowly add reps till I'm up to 10 again.)

I will usually focus on one particular muscle group too. So say I feel like working out my biceps on a Friday, I'll do a high rep freeweight curl, then bench, then low rep bar curl, then triceps, then curl machine.

You'll notice that my biceps pretty much get to rest for a whole week until they are worked again. Remember, your muscles need about 2 days off after extreme workout, and they repair and grow when you are RESTING, not when you are working out. Some people find a whole week off a bit much, but I find it's just perfect.

Once you have had a couple of personal training sessions and they've shown you how to use the machines, if you have any questions, ask the trainers. They wont be able to spot you, but answering your questions is what they're there for.

 

[sonz]

My school has a workout room with all the equipment needed for what you mentioned in your post so Im ok there. How long have you followed that plan for? and has it worked for you? it seems perfect for me (not to hard to follow but not easy at the same time)

 

[AMAR420]

why change yourself, enjoy yourself

carpe diem my friend

you live only but once..

 

[Shraka]

Originally Posted by AMAR420

why change yourself, enjoy yourself

carpe diem my friend

you live only but once..

That's kinda the point. If he gets into the shape he wants to be, he'll enjoy life that much more (I know I am now that I'm in the best shape of my life) and he'll probably add a few more years to his life to.

 

[Sauwan]

Originally Posted by Shraka

pop a multivitamin

I would agree with everything you said except this. With a proper diet, multivitamins are unnecessary, expensive, and potentially even dangerous. (I can't find the article, but there's a potential correlation between people who take multivitamins and earlier mortality...take that how you will)

 

[breakz]

Shraka: don't tell people to cut back on saturated fat. Like all other naturally occuring fats, its essential in moderation. Studies link sat fat directly to testosterone production, for example.

sonz, Google "john berardi 7 habits" for a starting point for ANY diet you want to use. He suggests that all great diets start with seven basic rules you must follow, and the rules are simple and easy to follow with some preparation.

 

[sho'nuff]

try to lower your caloric intake to about 1800-2000 a day in good solid calories .

walk about 30 minutes a day briskly on a treadmill or around the neighborhood a couple of times.

start off with push ups and situps. if you dont have access to a gym or weights just yet.

all this above if done faithfully for about 1 month can drastically positively change your look and health.

then afterwards when you arein the full swing of things, you can start implementing some other high tech , more opinionated , highly researched methods employed by others here.

 

[drizzt3117]

You're 6'6'- 6'7" and 245? That's not really a bad BMI, just hit the gym and lift weights and you should recomp quite nicely if you're a neophyte.