Exercise program

[cosine]

A bit of background: I'm 165 pounds, 6'1", and robust and healthy; only problem is that 165 lbs. is mostly blubber and flab. In essence, I'm short on the muscles. 

One of my goals for the next year is to begin exercising/stretching regularly, preferably without needing any special equipment. I'm thinking of just setting up some realistic goals and an outline of the basic exercises such as pushups, sit ups, jogging around the neighborhood, etc. However, I would like to make sure I have a combination of exercises that targets my entire body.

With that in mind, do you have any specific exercises/stretches you'd like to share that I could do without any special equipment? I'm drawing a blank right now for any other exercises besides pushups and sit ups.

Thanks.

[Standing Wolf]

Walk to the refrigerator. Walk back. Drive to the cigarette store. Drive back. Walk to the refrigerator again. Walk back.

Balance, you know?

[cosine]

Walk to the refrigerator. Walk back. Drive to the cigarette store. Drive back. Walk to the refrigerator again. Walk back.

Balance, you know?

Exactly. And that's why I have a body of such finely-toned flab.

[Monkeyleg]

To quote Winston Churchill: "whenever I feel the urge to excercise, I lie down until it passes."

[cosine]

Oh, you guys are providing just tons of help, especially because this is going to take some serious willpower on my part to stay committed and do this.   

[Sindawe]

Off the cuff since I don't have my documents here with me.

Cardio and legs: Running.

Calves: stand on a stair or evaluated platform, raise and lower youself using the ball of your foot as a pivot point, calf muscles doing the work.

Glutes: Get on hands and knees, then slowly extend and hold on leg for about 15-20 seconds, then slowly lower.  Repeat with other leg.

Get a set of dumbells with adjustable weights.  Do arm curls (biceps), arm extentions front to back (triceps), arms out at your sides to overhead, sorla like bench presses (pecs).  Find a chinup bar and do pull-ups so that the bar goes behind the head (works the laterals, the muscles that run from the abdoment to the sholders on the back, gives a V shape to the torso)

Do crunches rather that sit ups. Assume position like situps, but only rais the body a few inches off the floor.  Gets the abs without involving the back.  

Turn over and do a "reverse crunch" raising the body from the floor by arching your back.

Stretch before AND after working out.

Change your diet and eating habits.  Eat six or seven smaller meals spaced about 2.5-3 hours apart, rather than three larger meals.  More fresh fruits, whole grain breads and veggies.  Meats should be lean meats, keeping the tasty marbled steaks for special occasions.

Do cardio work BEFORE breakfast, and have the last meal of the day (bedtime snack) higher in proteins, low on carbs and fats.

Get a scale that measures not just weight, but also body fat.

Buy a composition book and keep a log of your progress.

Make it all part of your daily routine, like shaving and bathing.  I've found that the early morning runs are a great way to catch a buzz to start the day.  Sorta like a "wake and bake" as the stoners in High School used to say.

[cosine]

I shouldn't have to change my diet too much; healthy eating is kind of a hobby of my mother's so I'm already in the habit of eating quite a few fresh vegetables and fruits, and I can't recall the last time I ate Wonderbread.

Thanks for the informative post Sindawe.

[Ron]

6'1 165?

You are a bean pole.

Pump iron, build muscle. Muscle burns calories.

The only downside is when you pass 40 like me the eating habits you developed to fuel the muscle make you gain weight in non optimal places.

Actually a balance between cardio and weights is best. My cardio sucks and my joints don't like lifting weights anymore.

I am going to focus on low impact good cardio stuff now that my body is falling apart.

[280plus]

Why are you waiting for the new year? Start NOW!! 

[Guest]

My biggest problem is that I get bored with exercise..and I need some amount of structure to force myself to do it, so I started Tae Kwon Do. I have to do it at least 3 times a week, there is a set time I have to work into my schedule, and its progressive so I don't get bored.

[280plus]

I'm going to take my new to me old .22/.410 out for the first time today and harass the evil squirrel empire for about 5 hours. I've decided this is my new method of getting out for exercise and recreation during the winter. So,,, see ya later! 

[mtnbkr]

I'm 5'11" and 190lbs. I'm no gym god, but I'm not in terrible shape either.  A year and a half ago, I was 215 and certainly out of shape. First thing I did was get my eating under control.  I quickly lost 35lbs that way.  Last Fall, I got back into the gym.  At first, I was doing a half hour walking on the treadmill and half hour of weights.  Since getting back into biking, I've dropped the treadmill and added more weightlifting.

My routine:
50 crunches
Benchpress 10/8/6 reps
Lat Pulldown 10/8/6 reps
50 crunches
Alternate between Incline bench/decline bench/flys 10/8/6 reps (one lift one day, a different lift the next session, and so on)
Alternate between rows/close hand lat pulldowns, palms facing lat pulldowns 10/8/6 reps (one lift one day, a different lift the next session, and so on)
25 leg lifts
deadlifts 4 sets of 3 reps at near max weight

If time and my energy allows, I add the following:
triceps pushdown (machine based dips) 10/8/6 reps
preacher curls 10/8/6 reps

I use 10/8/6 reps rather than the standard 3x10 because it lets me lift progressively heavier weights.  I've been getting better results and more mass that way (I can especially notice the results in my shoulders and chest).  The entire routine, even with the two extra lifts only takes about 45 min if the gym isn't busy (it normally isn't in the morning).  The chest work also hits my shoulders and triceps.  The back work hits my biceps.  The deadlift takes care of the legs and various core muscle groups not worked by the other lifts.  For cardio, I bike as much as possible.

I need more/better ab work.  That's my most significant weakness.

Chris

[Iain]

Try front squats Chris, I notice that you're missing a squat and they're a pretty tough ab exercise to boot. Other than that, kneeling cable crunches are pretty good, and if you've got the ab strength already I find that hanging pikes are about the toughest ab exercise I've come across.

[Jamisjockey]

I have back problems so I have a few specific things I do to care for my back
Lie flat on your back, knees bent and raised, feet drawn towards your bum.  Put your hands out towards your sides, and lean your legs over left, center, right, repeat about 20 times. 
Lie flat on back, hug left knee, hug right knee, repeat.
I am getting back in the habit of doing crunches and pushups, too, as my back has been hurting a little bit as of lately.  Always good to strengthen the core.

[mtnbkr]

Try front squats Chris, I notice that you're missing a squat and they're a pretty tough ab exercise to boot. Other than that, kneeling cable crunches are pretty good, and if you've got the ab strength already I find that hanging pikes are about the toughest ab exercise I've come across.

For some reason, I haven't been able to get comfortable doing squats since I started lifting again.  I used to do them frequently though (my max squat was around 300lbs when I weighed roughly 150lbs).  The deadlift works the various muscles of the legs, back, and abs.  My highest deadlift ever was 305lbs (once again, when I was in the 150lb range).  Nowadays, I can squeak out a couple reps at 285, but I weigh 190lbs.

Here's more info on the deadlift if you're not familiar with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlift

Edit to add: What's a "hanging pike"?

Chris

[Iain]

Fairly familar with deadlifts, I'm a sumo puller. Deadlifts are a great exercise, I'd find that if I used them solely I'd not work the quads as much as I'd like. This - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6529481301858251744 - is probably the best seminar/introduction (it's 50mins long btw) to squats. I'd been squatting regularly for a couple of years before I saw this and it really helped me out, Dan John is a great writer, and a well regarded coach.

Hanging pike is where you hang under a pull-up bar and without using momentum you bring your legs up (they don't have to be totally straight) until your ankles or shins touch the bar above your head.

[mtnbkr]

Gotcha.  I get a pretty decent quad workout with my biking.  Mountain biking tends to be more short bursts of higher intensity compared to road biking.  I also run longer cranks than most, which brings my thighs more into play (longer "strokes at a slower speed".  My quads aren't large, but they're well defined.  I'll check out the link, thanks.

Hanging pike sounds painful.  I don't think I can get my ankles that much higher than my head regardless of the position or how they were getting there, much less as an "exercise".

Chris

[Ben]

Make sure to do lots of incline dumbell flys, pushups, and pullups, so when you lose weight you don't get the Man Boobs.   

[280plus]

Watch them deadlifts, effed up my back somewhere around 385, never been the same since. 

[cosine]

6'1 165?

You are a bean pole.

That's right, a beanpole with no muscles.

Plus, I'm thinking of taking some martial arts like Krav Maga and being a bit stronger couldn't hurt.

[Iain]

Watch them deadlifts, effed up my back somewhere around 385, never been the same since. 

It's your weak American spine. No wonder the deadlift SHW world record is held by a Brit.

cosine, I'm reluctant to give you specific advice because newbies can easily get drowned in information, I did and I still am. The only thing I'd say is that you should learn basic free-weight lifts*, accept your present limitations and look to sensibly train beyond them, and stick with it for six months or so. If you make it past the six month point then you've got the staying power and you could really get stuck into specific programmes, training philosophies and the like. Right now though, just go to the gym and lift stuff, it doesn't have to be 3x8, you don't have to try and lift really heavy, at this point if you eat and lift you're going to gain muscle, it's the miracle of being young and untrained.

* - squats, bench, deadlifts, military press, chin-ups, rows and various other basics.

[280plus]

Puny Americans... 

I always liked 10 rep sets. What you do is "supersets" I think we used to call them. You pick several exercises, say a series of 7 basic ones as described above. You do a set of ten at one, then move the the next and do a set of ten and continue so on and so forth untill you've gone through all of them three times. Gives the various muscle groups rest in between sets. Get it? Then if you really want to get crazy you do something aerobic and short in between EACH set. Like 2 minutes of treadmill, or bike or jumprope or my favorite, the speed bag . Try and find one in today's girly gyms though.   

For example: 10 pushups, two minutes jumping jacks, 10 situps, 2 minutes jumping jacks,  so on and so forth. That'll keep you busy for a while.

If you want to build bulk you take the weight up to where you can only do 3 reps per set and do three sets of each, which is what I was doing with the 385, I was working on 405 or 4 big plates on each side but never quite made it.

[cosine]

I think I'll stay away from any serious weightlifting for a while. I think I'll dig out the old set of 10 lb. dumbbells, but forgo anything else for a while. I'll get to it eventually, but I'm going to start with basic exercises like pushups, crunches, chin-ups, jogging, and stretching.

[Ron]

Cosine

Enjoy being thin while you can.

One day you are going to have happen to you what happened to me. Someone referred to me as a "big" guy. I was so used to be a bean pole my whole life I never came to the realization that I at some point became big. At the time I was working out regularly with free weights and was 6'1 220. Not that big in my mind but a fit muscular guy that size is bigger than most.

Then I stopped working out...everything settled around my waist. Have to watch the drinking and eating to keep the weight down. I am now fit but not very muscular compared to years ago.

If you start lifting free weights try and find someone to teach you proper form. Working out correctly will give you better results and keep you from hurting your joints. I hurt a shoulder being stupid and not using proper form when lifting heavy. After hurting it I had no choice but to use proper form because the joint is now damaged.

[280plus]

Incidentally, several squirrels were spotted but remained unharmed as of todays foray, I think the squirrely warning system was working against me today. My feet are killing me so I figure I must have got some walking in. Who was it that asaid all that about walking with your gun?