Just got a gym membership

[DyslexicHobo]

I just got a membership to World Gym (open 24 hours 5 days a week). To start off, I'll post my short and long-term goals, and then hopefully you guys can tell me if I'm taking the most practical approach.

Short-term:
Lose 15-20 lbs before college starts (mid-september, currently 200lbs ~23% fat)
Gain some upper-body muscle

Long-term:
Get to <150lbs or <10% body fat (not really sure how much muscle I'd like to gain)
Have a decently defined upper-body

So basically I want to lose weight and get bulked up a little.

Right now I've decided that I'll work my entire upper body (I've been doing triceps, then delts, then biceps, then pecs): 3 sets of 8-10 reps. After that I go run for 20-25 mins (usually about 2 miles). I'm hoping to up my distance slowly all the way to 5k in ~25 mins.


I really have no experience with exercise, but it seems like it should work. Is my workout plan okay? Is it enough, or should I add some more stuff to it?

Also... I usually work out on my way home from work (I get off at 11pm), and then go to sleep shortly after. Is there any drawbacks to this? It seems like most people tend to work out in the morning.

 

[MegaVovaN]

@ workout time: whenever is good for you

@workout exercises: for novices, compound exercises are infinitely better than isolation exercises. So ditch what you wrote and do a full body workout such as Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5. SS is Squats, Bench, OH press, deadlift, and rows or pullups. Squats are done every training day. Look up this program in the sticky.
For cardio, do it on off days, but don't push it because you need to recover for next day's lifting.

@diet: what are you doing for it? All exercise in the world won't help if you eat wrong. Read sticky on top of the forum. But in short, you want healthy foods with plenty of protein.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Yes start out with compound. Build your core muscle groups before you start accessory exercises. DOn't do more then 5 to 10 minutes of running before just to get your heart rate up then jump right in to weightlifting (after stretching of course). Continue this 3x a week and see how you feel. IE how fast it takes you to recover. Typically it takes 24-48 hours for your muscles to recover, but just starting out it might take longer. Then you can start up the cardio. Reason being, if you push yourself too hard in the beginning you will make super slow progress.

Otherwise you can do it in reverse, and begin an almost daily cardio routine then ease in the weightlifting once you have yourself in a little bit of shape.

But you can start right away with your diet. Plenty of clean foods. Cut out all things that have sodium, and make sure you are getting about a 1 to 1 ratio of lbs to grams of your lean muscle weight in protein.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

How long should I normally stretch? I usually only do about 5 mins of stretching before I lift or run, and sometimes less. Is that adequate or no?

And as far as my diet, I'm cutting out a lot of high-calorie foods that I normally catch myself eating. I don't want to take any extremely dramatic steps like cutting out the majority of the foods I like or limiting myself too much, or else I feel like I'll quit and binge. I'm not expecting to do anything too spectacular; I just want to feel a little better about my physique (well, as of now the lack thereof) and shed a couple pounds for the new school year.

I really enjoy lifting weights, so I think I'm going to be doing that right off the bat. And if you guys recommend only doing weights OR cardio, then I'll lay off of the cardio for now (instead of two miles I'll just run one before weights).

I can understand why I shouldn't work out every day, to let my muscles recover and rebuild... but is there anything I can do on my off-days? Sometimes I just really feel like exercising, and when I get that feeling I don't want it to go to waste!

Thanks for all the tips, too. Oh and about the protein... I should have 1g of protein for every 1lb of lean muscle I have? How do I go about finding how much lean muscle I have? Also, do you have any ideas on cheap, tasty, and easy ways to up my protein intake?

 

[MegaVovaN]

@protein: to find LBM just find your percent bodyfat, find weight of the fat and subtract it from the total weight. Or you could just take your bw in grams of protein (200g protein/day).
Cheapest protein is whey protein shake.

Don't stretch too much, especially cold muscles!

 

[DyslexicHobo]

Is it to bad to run 3-4 miles on the day between lifts? Or should I just let it recover?

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Running is ok, if your other muscles are recovering. But if you are are going into weightlifting with sore muscles, it's not going to help you. Reason being instead of your body concentrating on restoring the muscles from weightlifting it now has to restore the muscles used for running.

But don't fear, it will only take like a week or two for your body to figure what you are doing weightlifting wise. On the off days just make sure you are resting enough, eating well and getting enough protein. Also stretching on the off days is good too.

As far as stretching, I usually give mine a little stretch before lifting weights. But don't skip stretching afterward that's when you need it most.

You also said your short term goal is to lose 15-20 pounds. You're going to see the best results from cardio. So if that is your first goal, you should put more emphasis on cardio and concentrate on getting your diet in check. Basically to lose weight you want to take in less calories then what you are burning. And when you start bulking you are going to want to eat more calories then you are burning. So bulking up and losing weight don't really go hand in hand. That's not to say you can't build muscle while cutting fat, but you will see much better results if you shed the extra weight before you really start bulking up. You will also be surprised what muscle does show through when you start losing weight.

To find your lean mass, you know how to do math right, I hope. Get your body fat %, multiply that by your total weight and it will give you your actual fat weight on your body. Then subtract that number from your total body weight to find your lean muscle weight.

And also no running 2 miles before lifting. 2 miles after lifting is fine.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

Blah decisions decisions! I enjoy lifting much more than I enjoy cardio, but I also want to lose weight more than I want to strengthen.

To lose weight, should I still keep a high protein intake? I just realized that my mom bought a bunch of protein shake powder a while ago and there's still half a container left. Low cal, low carb, low fat, AHHH this sucks. Oh well I have enough motivation; gotta look good for the girls next semester.

What do you guys suggest for cardio? Running is going to get boring after a while. Also, how long should I stay in my target heart rate? What's the best way to keep track of progress in my training log... to increase my distance or increase my speed?

Thanks!

 

[spamsk8r]

Losing weight is mostly about diet, not exercise. Get yourself in a calorie deficit, stop eating processed foods (anything in a box = bad), eat more meat, eggs, and nuts, and lift heavy. If you want to do cardio I suggest sprints, as they have a much larger hormonal impact, which will help you to burn fat while maintaining muscle. Lose the idea that cardio is for losing weight, lifting is for getting big, you can lose weight with minimal cardio AND strengthen your body with weights. Any cardio sessions should be kept short, and the intensity kept high.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

If running gets boring. Mix it up. If you run on a treadmill, then switch to elliptical or bike, or even swim. Cardio is simply about keeping yourself moving and your heartrate up. 30 minutes in your target heartrate would be a good way to start. Although the more you do cardio the less and less calories you are going to burn in a 30 minute period. I use one of those heart rate monitors and do cardio until I've burned 400 calories.

As far as protein, there are all different types that all work differently. Like dairy, fish, poultry, red meat. You want to balance them all out. Protein powder is fine, but it should not be your main source of protein. If you are serious about losing weight you will need to start being exact with your foods. As in measuring, until you get the gist of it. Because if you end up overloading on protein it's just going to turn into fat.

In reality there are very few people that actually like cardio. I'm torn as sometimes I feel good about it because I have pent up energy, and other times I just think "do I have to?"

As far as your log goes just keep track of everything. How long, your average heart rate, how many calories and what you ate that day. You're also going to want to devise 6 meals throughout the day. This will help get your metabolism into shape. Also it will stop you from stuffing yourself at meals. If you never get ful, then you never get hungry.

But really start with the diet. It sounds like you have some extra weight and even just changing your diet is going to show a difference even without exercise. Try to cut out as much sodium as you can. Like Spamsk8er said, don't eat anything from a box, OR a can. No more frying things in oil, and especially no dressings as those carry a lot of sodium. The diet is the hardest thing to get down, and one of the hardest things to stick to. But after you get into the habit it will become second nature.

You can still lift weights. Lower weights and more reps per set is going to be what you want though.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

Okay, I think I might be overthinking this. For a while I was thinking "Oh, this Stronglifts 5x5 program is awesome! I'm gonna stick to that." Then I thought "Oh, I want to lose weight instead. Let me do cardio." But now from what spamsk8r (and some others) have said, I think I'll do compound exercises (squats, deadlifts, and other exercises noted in the Stronglifts 5x5 program) along with 20-30 minutes of cardio. Lift 3x/week, do cardio 5x/week. Pretty good idea?

Oh, and diet, too. Diet is by far the hardest thing. I'm doing well so far, but haven't even been on it for a week. I'm used to eating out, because during the summer I hang out with my friends a lot. I'm either lanning, going to philly, golfing, or going to parties, etc... none of which are good dieting environments.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: DyslexicHobo
Okay, I think I might be overthinking this. For a while I was thinking "Oh, this Stronglifts 5x5 program is awesome! I'm gonna stick to that." Then I thought "Oh, I want to lose weight instead. Let me do cardio." But now from what spamsk8r (and some others) have said, I think I'll do compound exercises (squats, deadlifts, and other exercises noted in the Stronglifts 5x5 program) along with 20-30 minutes of cardio. Lift 3x/week, do cardio 5x/week. Pretty good idea?

Oh, and diet, too. Diet is by far the hardest thing. I'm doing well so far, but haven't even been on it for a week. I'm used to eating out, because during the summer I hang out with my friends a lot. I'm either lanning, going to philly, golfing, or going to parties, etc... none of which are good dieting environments.

Diet is the most important aspect when it comes to weight loss. You need to be eating less than maintenance calories in order to lose weight. Lifting is important for preventing muscle tissue loss and perhaps gaining a small amount. Cardio is good to add slightly more of a deficit and allow a bit more flexibility in your diet, in addition to the cardiovascular health benefits.

EDIT - Make an account on sparkpeople.com and start tracking your food intake and fitness. That way you know exactly how much you're eating and it's easy to make adjustments if needed. You can keep track of weight changes and other measurements and set a number of different goals for yourself. They also have a lot of good motivational stuff and tips for easing into a healthier lifestyle.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

Thanks for the tip, Drew. I'll look into sparkpeople when I get home. Headed off to the gym now. I'm really excited about trying these new lifts. I've never really done squads or deadlifts before (except for last night when I tried em out).