Working Out

[Syk3]

I am going to start the Insanity work out on Monday. Hope I don't die.

haha I'm on my second week doing Insanity with my wife. It can be pretty... well, insane, especially if you're not used to cardio. There's a lot of temptation to skip days or pause the DVD and not come back to it, especially when you see Shaun T. and the professional fitness athletes doing the exercises perfectly and you're thinking, "that's impossible, I can never do that." It's not impossible, but it's not easy either and you'll have to push yourself a lot. I have a coworker who has gone through it 3 times already and has gotten completely ripped each time. The potential benefits are there. My recommendation is to commit to "trying it" for 2 months, set aside time and place IN ADVANCE to do it each day, and maybe find a workout buddy to do it with you.

It's pretty much the same thing I would recommend to anyone with fitness goals just starting out, or hell... to anyone with goals in general. I love working out, exercising, and getting healthy in general. For someone who wants to get in shape, some combination of diet and exercise are going to be necessary. I could go into what type of exercise, how many sets, how many reps, and all that nonsense but in the end you're going to find that everyone has strong opinions of exactly how it should be done, and the sad truth is that no amount of rhetoric is going to accomplish the change.

The important thing when starting out is just to be doing something with either diet OR exercise (depending on what you're more or less comfortable with), and then doing something with the other once you're in the habit of the first. Only after that I'd suggest educating yourself as much as possible on ways of doing it better. :) I recommend reading or listening to the 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. I used his slow-carb diet to lose 22.2 lbs of fat in under 2 months, and his exercise routine to put on muscle and become much stronger.

[John]

just to be doing something with either diet OR exercise (depending on what you're more or less comfortable with)

I am by no means an expert (for evidence, see my post in the I Forgot What You Guys Look Like thread), but I actually disagree with this advice. If weight loss is the goal, diet is way more important than exercise, and for most people, it's way easier to reduce your diet by 500 calories per day than to run off 500 calories per day.

[Syk3]

I am by no means an expert (for evidence, see my post in the I Forgot What You Guys Look Like thread), but I actually disagree with this advice. If weight loss is the goal, diet is way more important than exercise, and for most people, it's way easier to reduce your diet by 500 calories per day than to run off 500 calories per day.

Exactly, that's my point. For most people, it is easier to focus on one's diet in order to lose weight. And for me it was the biggest factor in contributing to my weight loss. However, there are going to be people out there who have a history of enjoying or being disciplined in exercise and find it extremely difficult to limit what they are eating. I have plenty of friends who refuse to eat anything green or touch "healthy" food because they find it disgusting. The first step for people like them will not be to ask them to change their diet. It will be to encourage them to burn more calories through something like exercise that, while perhaps not the most fun in the world, is still more enjoyable than dieting. Once they can get into an exercise routine, it's easier to show how subtle changed in the food they eat will get give them more energy and help them to drop pounds on the scale.

It's one thing to talk about how to ideally lose weight, and quite another to talk about how people are actually going to make those changes.

[Japan]

As one friend put it with any Shaun T regime (I do own hip hop abs) it doesn't matter too much what you eat, however your body will eventually crave the good foods to get the energy to survive his stuff than not. Aka cheeseburger will not give you sufficient energy compared to a steak dinner or something. I sort of had a falling out with hip hop abs because they wanted me to be on a strict food diet. Being poor and as busy as I am it was hard to do. I AM excited for Insanity but the price range did put me off a little. (found the DVDs for cheap at a thrift store)

[SaiyanPrincessX]

I love working out. I was really active as a kid, and thin, but once I hit fifteen I was really lazy. I was on here A LOT those days, lol! I started gaining weight, changing hormones, poor diet, and lack of exercise are a bad combo. My mom was always walking in the park, so she is the one who really got me motivated. I started walking with her, then I'd eventually go to the park on my own. 

I started Taekwondo around that age too, so that influenced me even more to be fit. 

That started over a decade ago, holy crap! 

My working out consists of working out at home, and training in Taekwondo and Muay Thai. Tuesday and Thursday I lift, I'm big on having muscle and strength (I have bigger muscles then my husband, lol), plus run for about 40 mins., or walk at the highest incline for an hour. I started a push up routine recently aswell which consists of 10 normal push ups, 10 wide, 10 w/arms closer to the body, 10 incline and 10 decline. 1 minute rest in between sets, with a total of six sets. 300 to 400 crunches, and the use of a weight machine I have at home. So that is Tuesday and Thursday's. In the evening on those days I train martial arts for two hours.

Mon., Wed., fri., I will generally do cardio of either running, or bike. With 100 lunges, and other leg exercises. Sometimes bag work, since I have a heavy bag set up in my basement.

Saturday I'll usually go to training, but it all depends on my work schedule.

Everyone has a different type of motivation, and everyone is in a different place in their life. I love being strong, martial arts has always been my motivation.