A beginners guide to Fitness and Nutrition: Part II

[zarg02]

Routine:

There are two components to exercise for our purposes. Cardio, and resistance training. Now, there is a very popular myth floating around that cardio is the way to go for weight loss. This is exactly why your friends and co-workers have been doing Pilates and walking on the treadmill for hours a day for the past year, and they look exactly the same as they did at the last Christmas party, then they got selected to dress up as the jolly big man himself. The religious belief that cardio is king for weight loss is foolish. Resistance training (lifting) is far, far more effective for weight loss. (13) The reasoning behind this is that as you lift, you build muscle mass. An increase in muscle mass leads to and increase of lean body mass. More lean body mass means a higher resting metabolic rate, which means you burn more calories a day. Since you burn more calories resting, you lose weight faster. In addition, since you are constantly using all your muscle groups, your body is encouraged to retain that muscle, (and build upon it) and burn the only other source of fuel it has available to it; fat. No matter how much you run or bike or swim you will continue to have a hard time out-pacing someone with a significantly faster metabolism for calories burned. So, first and foremost, lets look at lifting.

Weight Training

The typically accepted beginner-intermediate lifting program is some version of Bill Starr's 5x5 routine. (14) The 5x5 has been created, evaluated and modified by people with far more knowledge than anyone you or I know, so don?t try and ?customize it? for your self. Its fine the way it is. Leave it alone. If you feel your arms or legs or abs need more work, that?s fine. Add in some curls or leg press or crunches. Just be careful of overtraining, and don?t touch the big stuff. It works the way it is.

The 5X5 requires 3 days of lifting. It gets its name from the fact that it focuses on 5 sets of lifting 5 reps per exercise. The days as I ran them when I started are shown below. I broke them up to explain a few things you might not know as I go.

Day 1
Squat ? 5 sets of 5
Bench ? 5 sets of 5
Bent Over Row ? 5 sets of 5
Weighted Inclined crunch - 2 sets of 10
Close grip Chinups - 3 sets of 5

Check links for form. Be VERY careful when squatting, (and deadlifting) form is key or you will ruin your back. If you don?t feel confident or the lift feels awkward, find someone who looks like they know what they are up to at your gym and ask.

Also, the bent over row is a tricky lift. Make sure you?re pulling the weight towards your stomach with your back parallel to the ground. This will help you use your back, and not your arms. Really focus on the contraction of the muscles around your shoulder blades to pull the weight up, and try and limit the amount of bicep in the lift.

Day 2
DB Military Press ? 5 sets of 5
Squat ? 3 sets of 5 (Warmup for deads)
Deadlift ? 5 sets of 5
Weighted Inclined crunch - 2 sets of 10

Day 3
Squat ? 3 sets of 5, 1 triple, back-off
Bench ? 3 sets of 5, 1 triple, back-off
Bent Over Row ? 3 sets of 5, 1 triple, back-off
Weighted Inclined crunch - 2 sets of 10
Chinups - 3 sets of 5

"Back off" means reduce the weight to what it was the set before, and do another 8 reps. So essentially, repeat your 3rd set again, and add 3 more reps.

Lifting notes:

You can safely expect to be able to increase the weight about 2.5% a week, (or more for your first bit) so do that on Fridays on your set of 3. Also, eating before you lift is vital. It will give you energy to really push yourself throughout, as well as avoiding that shaky, light headed feeling. About an hour before you lift, try and eat some protein, (meat or a shake works) then about 15-30 minutes before hand eat some simple and complex carbs. I find two granola bars and a banana or two works great, but adjust your pre workout meal to your goals. Immediately after you finish, eat something with fast absorbed carbs, (juice, fruit, ect) as well as fast absorbed protein, such as whey or milk. This is to avoid having your body sit in a catabolic state, which essentially means it stops your body from using itself for fuel.

In addition, it may be wise to avoid cardio on lift days. If you have to, wait at least 5 or 6 hours between the two. Stacking work on top of work will cause your body to burn all the food you are very quickly, leaving you catabolic for longer than if you split the two up, so its just a bad idea. Also, stuff like running before a leg workout is going to limit your gains quite a lot due simply to muscle fatigue and a lack of recovery time. It can hurt your body, and limit the effects of your workout.

Lastly, I can not stress this enough, just going through the motions of a lift will not give you optimal gains. The ?mind-muscle connection? is, as lame as it sounds, very important. Make sure when you are exercising your chest and triceps on a bench, you can really feel those muscle groups working, and not other parts of your body. Focus on form and use the muscles each lift targets to complete the lift. Cheating on a lift isn?t getting you anywhere, so make sure to really be conscious of what muscles are moving in your body during each lift.

A word on that ?toned? look you might want

One thing I hear a lot is ?well, I would lift but I really don?t want to get all muscley. I just want to get toned.? Well, I hate to tell you this but getting ?toned? means getting muscley. If you start cutting right away and drop weight for an extended period of time you wont end up toned, you will end up skinny. To get the toned look so many people want you need some serious mass. Most of the people you see with really lean and cut physiques are very heavy, and weight train regularly. They simply cut to a low bodyfat to get that look, and end up looking deceptively light thanks most often to the weight training. For example, Ryan Reynolds in Blade 3, (an example I hear a lot) gained 22 pounds while cutting fat for his roll, thanks to good diet and regular lifting. So, please, stop refusing to lift because you want to be toned and don?t want to get ?huge.? You wont get big without really, really trying to for an extended period of time, so don?t worry. You wont just wake up ?muscle-bound? one day.


Cardio:

Cardio is still very important, and something you should work on if you plan to get serious about getting and staying in shape. I've really like Hight Intensity Interval Training, but this guy explains it much better than I can, so I'll let him do it. It?s a great program for everyone, but if you are either pressed for time or looking to get into an explosive sport like wrestling or rugby its practically made for you.

Notes:

Just remember, there is no ?Three Minute Workout? or ?Miracle diet.? There is no better approach than being informed and working hard. If you aren?t ready to put the effort in to your body that it requires to change then you really have no grounds to expect anything different than exactly what you have always gotten. As we are often told in life, ?accept no substitute.? Work hard, eat right, and results will come with a bit of time. Good luck!

Links

Fitday: A fantastic site for diet and nutrition tracking. I highly recommend beginners use this until they know enough to make informed

Exrx.net: A great site filled with exercises and form instruction, handy calculators, and great articles

Required calories for guys

Required calories for gals

Watch & Weight: The SA fitness subforum. HUGE following of people that know the subject of fitness and nutrition very well. Plus the "Display your physical transformation" thread is inspiring. (And my only goldmined thread!)

[do1more]

and yet another good read. thanks again.