[JDaveG]

20 min. run yesterday evening. Nice and slow, tomorrow is race day.

[I'm the Answer]

I tend to do 2 to 3 hours of cardio a day

i also lift weights for an hour a day i do individual days.

[Steve_Bartkowski]

I can finally post in this thread. I got a membership to the Y and lifted weights for the first time in years. I took it easy so I won't be too sore starting back up again. It felt good to get back into it though.

[atl_sportjunkie]

Anybody know a good routine to start for toning up? I have alot of strength, but I want to tone up what I have... Legs are fine, I'm toning them nicely. Mainly the arms and stomach area I'm looking to tone.

[JDaveG]

It sounds like you already have good muscle tone, and you need to burn some fat to reveal it.  I'd do complexes (circuits).  Join a local boot camp or kickboxing class or something similar.

The other route would be heavy cardio, but you risk burning muscle with fat if you aren't very careful on intake/output.

The key is to create a mild calorie deficit so your body burns fat instead of retaining food that gets stored as fat.

[JDaveG]

Ran the Hillgrove High School Holiday Classic in 30:38 (PR).  Goal was 30 min., so I fell short, but it was a well run race for me.

AWFUL hilly course, but the last 1/4 mile or so was a nice gradual downhill.

They did not announce placement in my age group, but I missed 1st by 3 min. give or take a few seconds.

[atl_sportjunkie]

Ya, one day I was at the gym, and maxed out on the squats machine.. so that was fun. But ya.. I need to get a good diet going. Not a diet diet, but more healthy, less fat, lol.

[Quicksand]

There's no such thing as 'tone' the way your thinking it is, the tone look is a function of how much fat is covering your muscles.  The only way to lose weight is by creating a caloric deficit, the easiest way of doing this isn't focusing on exercise but rather on changing your diet, exercise is still important.

[JDaveG]

Low fat, high fat and low carb, high carb doesn't matter except that low fat, low carb will tend to be lower CALORIE (which is what you want).  A few rules to think about:

Avoid most carbs other than what you get in vegetables except pre-workout or post-workout (immediately pre- or post-).

Cut out any beverages with more than zero calories (switch to water and diet soda, no sweet tea, no alcohol, minimal coffee).  If you drink coffee, for goodness sake don't put any cream or sugar in it.

Cut out refined sugars and flours.  Whole grain bread, brown or wild rice, sweet potatoes, etc.  If it's a white carb, don't eat it.

Make sure you get enough protein.

When you do eat carbs pre- and post-workout, try to make them fruits or whole grain breads/muffins/etc.

Eat several smaller meals during the day, ALWAYS eat breakfast, and always eat frequently.  You should be eating constantly enough that it is a pain in the butt to stop what you are doing and go get some food.

Then make sure to do your normal training routine.  You should see steady results that you will notice within a month or so.  Keep at it until your bodyfat percentage is where you want it, then you can slowly add some calories to maintain (be VERY careful about this -- it's a good way to end up looking "soft" again, and it usually doesn't take as long to gain the fat as it does to lose it).

[MidWest Falcon]

Since I finished my football career up at last year I told my self I was going to take a break for a while.  Well I took and break........a long, drunken, beer chugging, break :P  Well I have a gut and I'm going to stop it in it's tracks!!!!!  I've been running at least a mile a day and doing push ups and sit ups for the last week and a half.  I'm really dedicated to this and plan on hitting the weight really soon:D

[JDaveG]

Good deal, MidWest Falcon.  I waited until I was 34 to start exercising again.  It gets harder to start and progress the longer you wait :(

[atl_sportjunkie]

Part of my thoughts on tone is getting my muscles tighter. But it's also shrinking to fat around them...



The biggest guilty pleasure I drink right now is Sweet-T, and Blue Demon energy, lol.



Once I get my work routine set in a normal motion, I'll start getting back into the gym

[falconskill]

So would you guys recommend an elliptical or a treadmill for home use?

[Ramen]

The mods were going to pin this thread, but the "pin" function is broken on the new boards.



:D

[ki45toryu]

It will be a minute before this board is fully operational.

[kicker23]

Treadmill. Elipticals are a good non-impact exercise and all, but they don't really simulate anything you'd actually do in real life. The idea, in my opinion, is to use the treadmil when you can't be outside running.

[MidWest Falcon]

Thanks JDave, I always told myself I would not let myself get fat.  Playing football in college is a year long job.  We only had 4 weeks off (christmas).  So when it was over I took a little break and man it caught up to me fast!  Not only does running and working out get me in shape but it helps every aspect of my life.  I'm in a better mood more and it just gets me in the zone for the day ;)

BTW, BJ Penn is my favorite MMA fighter :cool:

[JDaveG]

MWF, no problem -- AEN (I think it was) started this thread on the old board so those of us who don't take naturally to exercise can encourage each other.  I pretty much use it as a training log, so y'all will hopefully see another post on Tuesday when I get back into the gym.

BTW, Penn is absolutely awesome.  I've trained jiu-jitsu for 2 years now, and the guy just amazes me.  As lost as I feel in class, he was over halfway to a black belt 2 years in, which is unheard of.

Re: treadmill v. elliptical, falconskill, I think you can go either way on it.  I would buy the elliptical, but that's because I use the machine not to get out of the weather, but to save wear and tear on my knees and feet by running less.  I agree that it does not -- in any shape or form -- simulate running.  But it does keep your cardio base up.  If you don't have problems with your knees and feet (i.e., if you're a lot younger than me :crying:), the treadmill would do a better job simulating road running, but be aware that it is STILL a lot easier than running on the road, trail or track.  The machine is still doing part of the work for you.

[falconskill]

I did buy an elliptical.. a few days ago actually. It seemed that it would generally burn more than a treadmill. I also was given one of those Tony Little Gazelle's but I have no idea how to calculate calorie burn on it as the computer was not with it. I just compare it with walking for exercise when I input my data into my database. What I also need to learn more about is nutrition.. I have not been eating anywhere near what I should the past 5 months and have shed alot of weight. But people tell me I am doing it wrong.. But I dont see how considering my drastic loss.

[rsa linkster]

Can we migrate the old thread?



CRAP!!! How do we access the old thread? ALL my training data is there! And nowhere else!



I turbo trained twice last week, not much going on though. Nice little mountain bike ride to and around "flat creek" Saturday. Cross race today. It was perfect: I did the "C's" race because it was the most convenient and a friend of mine did it. I BIFFED going into the first barrier because my pedal came OUT of the crank. (That's not supposed to happen, but after eighteen years, the bearings of my very first generation spd's sort of seized up.) Anyway, I got MY bearings, asked some folks for an allen wrench, waited for a bit, realized no one was going to bring me one. Road out to the parking lot. Used my allen wrench to put my pedal back on TIGHTLY, got back on the course, passed back about twenty folks and finished 13, which was cool because I was racing below my catagory and it would have been uncool to place AND to NOT place because I got my butt kicked. This way, I had fun, a decent result, good excuse, and didn't take anyone's prize money.