'Work out programs and diets

[Deykari]

First off, shocking your body is the best way to gain results. Every work out should be a total new experience to your body. Your body will adapt to the situation it is and therefore all unchanged exercises will NOT produce the results you want. I don't know the resume of the other guys posting, but I can assure you I am quite adept at working out and do such not only on a regular basis, but in a classroom setting.

Now, the entire point of the workouts I do is for the betterment of specially trained military members. If this sort of thing is not for you, I can just as easily tone it down. I am of the mindset that you must be mentally stronger than you are physically strong. To achieve this, you must constantly challenge your mind to the point of wanting to quit, then overcoming that desire to give up. But, I come from a stricter, more focused mindset than the majority of the other posters.

I can not tell you the legitimacy of the other poster's credentials for fitness, but I can tell you my own and you can base your decisions off my resume versus the material they look up online, something you can do yourself.

Studied BJJ under Carlson Gracie BJJ Revolution Team.

Mixed Martial Arts, self defense, and street awareness at Fudoshin MMA and Keishidojo in Columbia, SC and Sumter, SC.

Part of the Shaw AFB Firefighter Combat Challenge Team, ranked #6 in the world.

Studying for my Crossfit Level 1 instructor.

Physical Training Leader for Shaw AFB Civil Engineering Squadron and 20th Fighter Wing.

Assistant Coach for the Squadron Remedial Physical Training.

Military Firefighter.

Each of those requires knowledge in nutrition, supplements, and physical training. You can take that how you want to, but I assure you I am knowledgable in fitness.

I know you know your stuff in this area, and you were in fact the first person that popped in mind when I wrote my first response as to people that would have a good 2p (UK baby) to put in in this area. The thing I see is that evidently this is an area that you are highly motivated in and passionate about. Not everybody looking to adopt any sort of fitness program has that sort of motivation or passion, and these people are motivated by an end goal - to get big, to lose weight, and so on. Beginning slowly and getting used to a routine without going in guns blazing in the way Mali proposes is completely sound advice. Let's face it - the majority of us simply won't maintain sudden drastic changes to our lifestyle like taking on a high intensity workout plan and what is for many, a drastic change in their diet.

How many people do you hear of that join a gym, for them to stop going after a month or two of regular working out? Not everyone's life can or should revolve around their workout routine and for many people, slowly adopting a simple exercise plan into their lifestyle can be a much more reasonable and manageable goal that will show results in the long run over a month of intense workout and then burnout and 11 more months of direct debit payments.

Your credentials are spot on but for the rest of us mere mortals it boils just as much down to being able to maintain motivation and work towards reasonable goals as it does knowing what to do and how to do it.

Dey

[Dlysier]

Well I'm going to start this by saying I am currently a personal trainer, I have my certification with NCSF national council of sports fitness. There's two types of workouts you have your anaerobic and your aerobic. Your aerobics gonna over all increase your endurance, tone, and burn the most triglycerides,lipids, or fats how ever you'd like to say it. **** Ive been training so much and working with the army I have not had any time to play:/ Anyway high reps moderate/low weight to tone and for endurance. 2 types of fibers type 1 slow twitch, type 2 fast twitch for strength and size. core is key as dey said... but if you wanna get big anaerobic is the way to go, it utilizes Adenosine triphosphate which is atp for short energy, a energy that is stored in your muscle. Its fueled primarily off of carbs all foods can be broken down into glucose which in turn is mixed with a few other things then turned into what ever the body needs carbs turn into atp the easiest out of all which is why they give you the most energy now most americans over do the carb scale and anything you dont burn gets stored in your body as fat. The reason people say whole grain is the thing to eat is because we cannot process whole grains as easy as processed food.. All in all you can basically find the info you need on the net diet is the biggest key in weight loss though.. also raw veggies cant be broken down easily by our body so it passes through easy... never ever supplement a meal with a protein shake. Im roughly 205 and max out at 420 on the bench and basically hit 350-400 across the board with every workout most people think i do roids but all in all if you take your essential vitamins and do a balanced anaerobic workout with your aerobic mixed with a healthy diet take the proper days off and add in a cheat day so you dont splurge on sweets youll do good. I cant stress proper form and slow and controlled enough... dont get hurt those who say no pain no gain have never torn a rotator cuff... Btw dont forget to cool down after your 15 minutes of cardio so u dont get blood pooling-the lead leg feeling and make sure you stretch 2 people dont stretch enough that will also help you from cramping. The pain in your muscles is a hydrogen build up 2 btw. But all in all proper diets consist of carbs proteins and VEGGIES **** i could go on for ever about this. I tried to sum up some good info but im super tired and I have to pace some people on a run tomorrow so wake ups 4 am. theres alot of people that have really good info. EVERYONE is different Builds and loses fat differently best thing i can say is experiment and make sure your doing **** right proper form tight is right! God speed!! hopefully ill be able to make a char one of these days

[Mali]

With all due respect to Trick and his experiences, it is my opinion that the concept of shocking your body as a requisite to fitness is unnecessary and perhaps dangerous.

If you intend to start doing exercises that you are not familiar with, your first concern needs to be using correct form. Even doing burpees wrong can hurt you. Use the training resources at your university's fitness center or ask someone there to help you master your form.

At this stage, virtually any activity you do beyond what you are doing now will help you move forward.

Eventually, you will get a feel for your capability and you can better gauge when you need to push harder. Your fitness will improve, your body will adapt, and you will increase the load when necessary. If it's cardio you are doing, you will also adapt and be able to increase your intensity and your endurance with time.

A successful lifting plan is marked by variation, consistency, correct form, adaptation, recuperation, overload, followed by further adaptation and recuperation. Then get a good amount of sleep, hydrate, eat, rinse and repeat.

By eating healthier and spending the time to reduce your sedentary lifestyle, you will begin to make the changes you want to. No where in this plan is mental or physical shock necessary for improvement.

Zone diet... cross fit... p90x... atkins... whatever. General principles of fitness and healthy eating that you can sustain over time will always win out.

Worked 50 years ago... works today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBVk071N88M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEboAJf9UVc

If training like you're King Leonidas is what you need to stay interested, more power to you. If you want to avoid injury and improve your quality of life, you can do it without mental and physical shock, or even drastic lifestyle changes. Make good choices with what you eat and get out more = Winning!

With that said, I am 100% certain Trick has resources that can help you improve your fitness goals. Tap his knowledge while you can. Just don't risk blowing your back doing heavy deadlifts with poor form at the first crossfit gym down the street. Let's see how active you are with a brand new herniated vertebrae. Chances are you'll need to improve your hip strength and mobility using something like a swiss ball before even thinking about putting a load on.

[Trick]

My workouts very rarely involve heavy lifting. I used to lift pretty heavily when i was deployed just for the sake of being bigger. Now, I find it a waste really. My workouts generally improve cardiovascular, muscle endurance, and functional strength gain. My maxes remain fairly high due to the effort I put into it, but being able to carry my own body weight appropriately has aided me much more. Again, it is all goal driven. Being 230+ pounds was fun, but not practically for my 5'10" build. I am in far greater health, although not as strong, I am better off this way.

['tarako]

'@Trick - Those are crazy impressive credentials. You are probably a scary person in RL and that's just from the BJJ. I agree that muscle confusion helps with results. As interesting as crossfit seems from what I've read online, the closest one to me is 45 minutes away and I don't really have the money to warrant that drive multiple times a week. Insanity does do muscle confusion, so, that's the closest I'll get for now. Next semester (just finished my last final, woo) I plan on doing lifting and jogging to add to everything. Diet should be the easiest thing to change, however, adjusting to the small amount you showed in your WOD post, erm. I eat less than half now of what I did two years ago. However, I feel like I still eat a little bit more than that a day. Maybe 1400-1700 calories a day. I only drink once a month or so, so that's not as big a deal. I'm currently looking into the zone diet, so thanks for that. ^__^ My goal is not the fitness level of any of the special forces (I have a friend trying for that, he is crazy with workouts) I just want better fitness. I've read I need to get down to 15% ish body fat to have abs. Is that possible? I'm not sure.

If I can build and maintain enough muscle, while eating less calories, maybe I can get rid of enough fat, but this is going to be a time intensive process. I have pretty good mental dedication, but I don't want to push myself to the breaking point repeatedly, unless it's necessary.

Thanks to all of you guys for thoughtful answers.

[egreir]

Hey Dylsier, check ur PMs