Blonde will make thin ....Here we go again !

[Patonius2000]

I've decided to add a small weights routine into my weekly exercise.  Nothing major as I'm still focusing on cardio but feel that its good to mix things up & lots of people have told me its a good idea.  

Today was my first go.  I am just using dumb bells so obv not going to be that varied but I did the following & would love to get the input from the Evil Pie on ways I can add/improve without getting loads of equipment or a gym membership.

Hammer curls 12 x 3 sets

Incline Chest Presses 12 x 3 sets (using my reclining chair!)

Lateral Raises 12 x 3 sets

Upright Rows 12 x 3 sets

Plan to do something once or twice a week to compliment by bike riding/walking.  I guess I've just done things I that are easy or I had seen before.

What are your long term goals?

Ideally you want to work out each muscle group once a week to begin with. I split my training up like this:

Day 1: Legs
Day 2: Chest & Back
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Tri's & Bi's
Days 5: Rest
Day 6: Shoulders
Day 7: Abs & calves

You can split that up however, just avoid doing back to back days of exercises that use the same stabilising muscles, i.e. chest one day then tri's the next. There are lots of videos about on youtube that will show you correct form or if you want post a video here I'l take a look.

Do you not do abs everyday? How about when you started compared to now?

Sometimes I will do abs 2/3 times a week if I can fit it in, but once a week is enough. You won't start to see proper ab definition until you reach about 10% bf anyway. Spot training ie. training one muscle over and over, does not work. 1000 situps a day won't get you the abs you want but proper diet and reducing your bf% will. I've always weight trained and played sports growing up but have always been slightly overweight due to bad diet. I just finished my first ever proper cutting diet and went from 170lbs/20.8%bf to 155lbs 12.6% bf in 12 weeks. Diet is everything.

Surely you do it for core strength more than anything though, will it not help with most of the weight exercises with a stronger core? Thats one of the key reasons I do it, I hope thats the right logic. Totally understand that without losing the fat the 6 pack is never happening but I always feel I am lifting/running/better posture, better when I am really pushing myself with abs. I'm with you on diet, as you wont notice too much in anything if the fat is covering it, and I have a much higher energy level when I am eating better/healthier.

Idk, I treat abs like any other muscle group. I hit them hard and hit them 1-3 times a week. My abs workout usually resembles something like this:

3x25, decline weighted situps
1xfailure negative decline weighted situps.

2x40 medicine ball twists, super setted with 2x25 adjusted crunches
2x20 oblique v ups (basically situps lying on your side)
2x20 leg raises
1x failure adjusted situps.

I usually feel sore in my abs 2-3 days afterwards so it wouldn't make sense for me to do this every day. It's important to give the muscles time to recover. I think with any muscle group if you are able to work them in consecutive days you're probably not doing the right workouts or training hard enough.

You're right about abs being important for core strength of course. You'd also gain core strength from compound exercises like deadlifts and as Cos mentioned, squats. These are really great exercises that I didn't used to do because they look pretty daunting and stressful on the lower back. But take some time to lift light and get the form down and you will see massive overall benefits.

[iRaise]

I've decided to add a small weights routine into my weekly exercise.  Nothing major as I'm still focusing on cardio but feel that its good to mix things up & lots of people have told me its a good idea.  

Today was my first go.  I am just using dumb bells so obv not going to be that varied but I did the following & would love to get the input from the Evil Pie on ways I can add/improve without getting loads of equipment or a gym membership.

Hammer curls 12 x 3 sets

Incline Chest Presses 12 x 3 sets (using my reclining chair!)

Lateral Raises 12 x 3 sets

Upright Rows 12 x 3 sets

Plan to do something once or twice a week to compliment by bike riding/walking.  I guess I've just done things I that are easy or I had seen before.

What are your long term goals?

Ideally you want to work out each muscle group once a week to begin with. I split my training up like this:

Day 1: Legs
Day 2: Chest & Back
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Tri's & Bi's
Days 5: Rest
Day 6: Shoulders
Day 7: Abs & calves

You can split that up however, just avoid doing back to back days of exercises that use the same stabilising muscles, i.e. chest one day then tri's the next. There are lots of videos about on youtube that will show you correct form or if you want post a video here I'l take a look.

Do you not do abs everyday? How about when you started compared to now?

Sometimes I will do abs 2/3 times a week if I can fit it in, but once a week is enough. You won't start to see proper ab definition until you reach about 10% bf anyway. Spot training ie. training one muscle over and over, does not work. 1000 situps a day won't get you the abs you want but proper diet and reducing your bf% will. I've always weight trained and played sports growing up but have always been slightly overweight due to bad diet. I just finished my first ever proper cutting diet and went from 170lbs/20.8%bf to 155lbs 12.6% bf in 12 weeks. Diet is everything.

Surely you do it for core strength more than anything though, will it not help with most of the weight exercises with a stronger core? Thats one of the key reasons I do it, I hope thats the right logic. Totally understand that without losing the fat the 6 pack is never happening but I always feel I am lifting/running/better posture, better when I am really pushing myself with abs. I'm with you on diet, as you wont notice too much in anything if the fat is covering it, and I have a much higher energy level when I am eating better/healthier.

Idk, I treat abs like any other muscle group. I hit them hard and hit them 1-3 times a week. My abs workout usually resembles something like this:

3x25, decline weighted situps
1xfailure negative decline weighted situps.

2x40 medicine ball twists, super setted with 2x25 adjusted crunches
2x20 oblique v ups (basically situps lying on your side)
2x20 leg raises
1x failure adjusted situps.

I usually feel sore in my abs 2-3 days afterwards so it wouldn't make sense for me to do this every day. It's important to give the muscles time to recover. I think with any muscle group if you are able to work them in consecutive days you're probably not doing the right workouts or training hard enough.

You're right about abs being important for core strength of course. You'd also gain core strength from compound exercises like deadlifts and as Cos mentioned, squats. These are really great exercises that I didn't used to do because they look pretty daunting and stressful on the lower back. But take some time to lift light and get the form down and you will see massive overall benefits.

Yeah I am starting to hit squats more and more, pretty much do 3x20 everyday now. I have certainly neglected them in the past. But I do do abs everyday, I'm never in that much pain and I feel it really helps in other areas. Having said that its only really this month I have been really going hard in the gym for a long time. Do you use protein? I always feel that with protein I recover much much better, so I'm rarely stiff after any session. What kind of diet set up are you on? I'm considering cutting carbs out of my diet for July and see how it goes.

[Patonius2000]

I've decided to add a small weights routine into my weekly exercise.  Nothing major as I'm still focusing on cardio but feel that its good to mix things up & lots of people have told me its a good idea.  

Today was my first go.  I am just using dumb bells so obv not going to be that varied but I did the following & would love to get the input from the Evil Pie on ways I can add/improve without getting loads of equipment or a gym membership.

Hammer curls 12 x 3 sets

Incline Chest Presses 12 x 3 sets (using my reclining chair!)

Lateral Raises 12 x 3 sets

Upright Rows 12 x 3 sets

Plan to do something once or twice a week to compliment by bike riding/walking.  I guess I've just done things I that are easy or I had seen before.

What are your long term goals?

Ideally you want to work out each muscle group once a week to begin with. I split my training up like this:

Day 1: Legs
Day 2: Chest & Back
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Tri's & Bi's
Days 5: Rest
Day 6: Shoulders
Day 7: Abs & calves

You can split that up however, just avoid doing back to back days of exercises that use the same stabilising muscles, i.e. chest one day then tri's the next. There are lots of videos about on youtube that will show you correct form or if you want post a video here I'l take a look.

Do you not do abs everyday? How about when you started compared to now?

Sometimes I will do abs 2/3 times a week if I can fit it in, but once a week is enough. You won't start to see proper ab definition until you reach about 10% bf anyway. Spot training ie. training one muscle over and over, does not work. 1000 situps a day won't get you the abs you want but proper diet and reducing your bf% will. I've always weight trained and played sports growing up but have always been slightly overweight due to bad diet. I just finished my first ever proper cutting diet and went from 170lbs/20.8%bf to 155lbs 12.6% bf in 12 weeks. Diet is everything.

Surely you do it for core strength more than anything though, will it not help with most of the weight exercises with a stronger core? Thats one of the key reasons I do it, I hope thats the right logic. Totally understand that without losing the fat the 6 pack is never happening but I always feel I am lifting/running/better posture, better when I am really pushing myself with abs. I'm with you on diet, as you wont notice too much in anything if the fat is covering it, and I have a much higher energy level when I am eating better/healthier.

Idk, I treat abs like any other muscle group. I hit them hard and hit them 1-3 times a week. My abs workout usually resembles something like this:

3x25, decline weighted situps
1xfailure negative decline weighted situps.

2x40 medicine ball twists, super setted with 2x25 adjusted crunches
2x20 oblique v ups (basically situps lying on your side)
2x20 leg raises
1x failure adjusted situps.

I usually feel sore in my abs 2-3 days afterwards so it wouldn't make sense for me to do this every day. It's important to give the muscles time to recover. I think with any muscle group if you are able to work them in consecutive days you're probably not doing the right workouts or training hard enough.

You're right about abs being important for core strength of course. You'd also gain core strength from compound exercises like deadlifts and as Cos mentioned, squats. These are really great exercises that I didn't used to do because they look pretty daunting and stressful on the lower back. But take some time to lift light and get the form down and you will see massive overall benefits.

Yeah I am starting to hit squats more and more, pretty much do 3x20 everyday now. I have certainly neglected them in the past. But I do do abs everyday, I'm never in that much pain and I feel it really helps in other areas. Having said that its only really this month I have been really going hard in the gym for a long time. Do you use protein? I always feel that with protein I recover much much better, so I'm rarely stiff after any session. What kind of diet set up are you on? I'm considering cutting carbs out of my diet for July and see how it goes.

Squats are really intense and stressful on the whole body, everyday for squats is definitely overkill. What is your typical workout week?

Re: Protein, I try and get 1g/lb body weight each day at a minimum. That usually comes from lean meat/egg whites/protein powder. Protein shakes are great post workout because the body absorbs them very quickly compared with say, a steak.

Diet depends entirely on what you want to achieve. During my cut (where I'm eating at a deficit) I'd egg whites for breakfast and lean meat with salad 3 times a day, usually with light salad cream and soy sauce. On heavy training days I'd sub the salad out for a 1/3 cup of brown rice and some onions. I would have a protein shake post workout and pre bed to make sure I hit my 1g/1lb rule. These are incred and I'd sub these in if I couldn't prepare meals http://www.myprotein.com/uk/products/mybar-cookie. Always making sure I'm staying within my deficit.

I followed this program http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kris-gethin-12-week-daily-trainer.html for most of my workouts. Changed the supplements slightly as I think a lot of them are unnecessary and followed my own cutting diet.

[GreekStein]

iRaise just do a good leg session once per week. Doing them every day isn't gonna be good.

[BorntoBubble]

are there any good gym tracker apps that you can get hold of now

ideally i want an app that will tell me what to do in the gym at what weights and reps and then push me when i need pushing to loose weight gain muscle etc

[DaveShoelace]

Kinda good, kinda bad session today. Did all my usual deadlifts, cardio etc.

My old personal trainer suggested to me today that I practice doing pressups holding kettlebells down on the floor, the logic being is not only are they harder but they get you much lower down. That they were, that they did, but I could only manage between 6-10 in a row, and by the time I went back to normal I could barely do 5 normal ones.

I suppose thats a good thing. I'm gonna spend the rest of the week working on my form (getting lower) and start the programme proper on Monday, giving me pretty much bang on 8 weeks.

[millidonk]

This morning before hopping in the shower I thought I would do a best effort to see how I have improved... [  ] went well. Managed a whole 14 which is 2 less than my original. Hoping it was either because my arms were a little too narrow which makes it a fair bit harder or just because I am still hurting from my last session. Still taking far too long to recover and I am eating bucket loads of chicken. Obv not KFC buckets..

Probs end up doing the 50 pressup challenge tbh as I genuinely don't think 100 is doable for me, will see how it goes, just gonna try my best and keep doing what I'm doing.

[EvilPie]

Kinda good, kinda bad session today. Did all my usual deadlifts, cardio etc.

My old personal trainer suggested to me today that I practice doing pressups holding kettlebells down on the floor, the logic being is not only are they harder but they get you much lower down. That they were, that they did, but I could only manage between 6-10 in a row, and by the time I went back to normal I could barely do 5 normal ones.

I suppose thats a good thing. I'm gonna spend the rest of the week working on my form (getting lower) and start the programme proper on Monday, giving me pretty much bang on 8 weeks.

That's not strictly true.

Yes you can get lower down but they shouldn't be harder. Anything that lifts your upper body higher will make these easier. If you're really struggling for example you could do your push ups on a bench.

To make them harder you'd need to elevate your feet rather than your upper body.

You'll be able to go lower with the kettlebells but what's the point going beyond the point where your chest would touch the floor?

The only reason these feel harder is because of the extra stretch and you don't need that for this challenge. Also because you're having to grip the bells you may get extra forearm tension.

Just stick to normal ones for now mate but try to get your chest progressively closer to the floor until you can actually touch it with every rep.

You're not ready for the more advanced press up movements yet. They're for when you can easily do 30 good standard press ups so you need to make them harder to get your reps back down to the 20 region for doing multiple sets.

[EvilPie]

This morning before hopping in the shower I thought I would do a best effort to see how I have improved... [  ] went well. Managed a whole 14 which is 2 less than my original. Hoping it was either because my arms were a little too narrow which makes it a fair bit harder or just because I am still hurting from my last session. Still taking far too long to recover and I am eating bucket loads of chicken. Obv not KFC buckets..

Probs end up doing the 50 pressup challenge tbh as I genuinely don't think 100 is doable for me, will see how it goes, just gonna try my best and keep doing what I'm doing.

Did you remember to warm up before you did them?

Have you been practising much since your initial effort?

[DaveShoelace]

Kinda good, kinda bad session today. Did all my usual deadlifts, cardio etc.

My old personal trainer suggested to me today that I practice doing pressups holding kettlebells down on the floor, the logic being is not only are they harder but they get you much lower down. That they were, that they did, but I could only manage between 6-10 in a row, and by the time I went back to normal I could barely do 5 normal ones.

I suppose thats a good thing. I'm gonna spend the rest of the week working on my form (getting lower) and start the programme proper on Monday, giving me pretty much bang on 8 weeks.

That's not strictly true.

Yes you can get lower down but they shouldn't be harder. Anything that lifts your upper body higher will make these easier. If you're really struggling for example you could do your push ups on a bench.

To make them harder you'd need to elevate your feet rather than your upper body.

You'll be able to go lower with the kettlebells but what's the point going beyond the point where your chest would touch the floor?

The only reason these feel harder is because of the extra stretch and you don't need that for this challenge. Also because you're having to grip the bells you may get extra forearm tension.

Just stick to normal ones for now mate but try to get your chest progressively closer to the floor until you can actually touch it with every rep.

You're not ready for the more advanced press up movements yet. They're for when you can easily do 30 good standard press ups so you need to make them harder to get your reps back down to the 20 region for doing multiple sets.

The harder part is in the stability side of things not the depth side of things, as kettlebells are not rooted to the floor. For me the benefit is more mental, I want to get into the habit of getting as low as possible until it becomes the norm.

Should your chest actually touch the floor in an ideal world? Because I am basically getting to bake bean tin level atm.

[millidonk]

This morning before hopping in the shower I thought I would do a best effort to see how I have improved... [  ] went well. Managed a whole 14 which is 2 less than my original. Hoping it was either because my arms were a little too narrow which makes it a fair bit harder or just because I am still hurting from my last session. Still taking far too long to recover and I am eating bucket loads of chicken. Obv not KFC buckets..

Probs end up doing the 50 pressup challenge tbh as I genuinely don't think 100 is doable for me, will see how it goes, just gonna try my best and keep doing what I'm doing.

Did you remember to warm up before you did them?

Have you been practising much since your initial effort?

Yea done my routine 3 times which is 1 week's worth as per my programme. Good point ref warmup, didn't warm up this morning and on Friday I just did them as soon as I got in from work, so could explain the pain.

I have been using a tin of tomatoes and been hitting that everytime fwiw.

[EvilPie]

Kinda good, kinda bad session today. Did all my usual deadlifts, cardio etc.

My old personal trainer suggested to me today that I practice doing pressups holding kettlebells down on the floor, the logic being is not only are they harder but they get you much lower down. That they were, that they did, but I could only manage between 6-10 in a row, and by the time I went back to normal I could barely do 5 normal ones.

I suppose thats a good thing. I'm gonna spend the rest of the week working on my form (getting lower) and start the programme proper on Monday, giving me pretty much bang on 8 weeks.

That's not strictly true.

Yes you can get lower down but they shouldn't be harder. Anything that lifts your upper body higher will make these easier. If you're really struggling for example you could do your push ups on a bench.

To make them harder you'd need to elevate your feet rather than your upper body.

You'll be able to go lower with the kettlebells but what's the point going beyond the point where your chest would touch the floor?

The only reason these feel harder is because of the extra stretch and you don't need that for this challenge. Also because you're having to grip the bells you may get extra forearm tension.

Just stick to normal ones for now mate but try to get your chest progressively closer to the floor until you can actually touch it with every rep.

You're not ready for the more advanced press up movements yet. They're for when you can easily do 30 good standard press ups so you need to make them harder to get your reps back down to the 20 region for doing multiple sets.

The harder part is in the stability side of things not the depth side of things, as kettlebells are not rooted to the floor. For me the benefit is more mental, I want to get into the habit of getting as low as possible until it becomes the norm.

Should your chest actually touch the floor in an ideal world? Because I am basically getting to bake bean tin level atm.

I don't think it's essential but personally i always do.

I think you'll find that as you improve you'll naturally start to get lower anyway.

I know what you mean about the stability with the kettlebells but again it's quite an advanced form of press up.

Don't run before you can walk would be my advice. You've got loads of time so just concentrate on improving your quantity for now rather than the more strength oriented movements.

[MrsHopkino]

Will have a go at this also, know I can do fortyish good ones, never tried to push for more so will have a go over the weekend.
What is the time limit to get to a hundred?

I witnessed this in my own living room....... And the attempt was poor. I think in total 17 good ones were completed this is one after the other ;-) keep trying babe xx

[Patonius2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSC2vx7zFQ

Skip to 2.25 for a BOSS pressup variation...

[GreekStein]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSC2vx7zFQ

Skip to 2.25 for a BOSS pressup variation...

make sure u stop before the bicep curls tho