Exercise Program - Suggestions

[SlyAnimal]

Hi All,

Last year I lost a lot of weight (About 15kg) and kept it off for a while, but then had some changes to my routines and started to put it back on again. I then decided to just "**** it", as I'd rather enjoy the foods etc which I love, and work on my weight once I have the opportunity to get back into a routine. As a result I've now put all of that weight back on, and more.

However I'm preparing to move to Bangkok (1st of June), where I'll be studying Thai for 3h in the mornings and other than some homework (3h-5h) I have the rest of the day free. I've chosen my apartment with my fitness goals in mind (It has a decent gym + pool, although the pool isn't suitable for laps, and is close to a park where I can go running). The university where I'm going to be studying has a 50m pool which I can use, and there's also a professional gym closeby which I can easily pop down to if I want a better gym than what I have in my apartment building.

I know that I can lose weight, that's not a problem, it's simply doing it in the most efficient way.

I also know that provided I have a routine, I can keep it off, as it's only if I get into a bad routine, or if I don't have a routine, that I put on weight.

My goals aren't to be a body builder or to have a 6 pack, well of course I'd like that, but I simply don't have that body type or inclination. I'm not a big one for dieting, I enjoy food and there's no way a strict diet could ever be a lifestyle change for me, so I don't plan on counting carbs etc, rather exercise + cutting out junkfood (Chocolate/soft drinks/chips) + stopping overeating are my weapons of choice. Although there are a few things I'll consider (see below).

My general plan at present, is the following:

6:00am - Self exercises (push ups / sit ups etc) after waking up

6:30am - Running or Swimming

9:00am - University classes

12:00pm - Lunch

1:00pm - Homework + additional classes

6:00pm - Dinner

7:00pm - Weights

10:00pm - Self exercises (push ups / sit ups etc) before bed.

I may also try and fit in some kind of social sport/activity if I can. Although I'll need to see what happens on that front once I start studying.

My general intention is to alternate swimming/running each day, with 1x rest day each week (Or 2 if I travel on the weekend). I'll also likely participate in some longer runs every few weekends, as I'll join some of the fun runs/mini-marathons around Bangkok.

With all of the above in mind, are you guys able to give me a hand with the following:

What type of self exercises would you recommend?

What type of weights exercises should I be doing together? (I think it's best to focus on different areas of the body each day right?)

I assume I should more focus on higher reps, rather than higher weights?
How many sets is a good amount? 3? And how much time should I have between sets?

Diet wise, are 2x meals sufficient? I'm not really much of a breakfast person, but if there are some kind of museli bars or drinks which I could buy that are healthy and help to decrease my body's hunger (Plus provide some of the energy I need for the exercise I'm intending), then that'd be good.

Is bread healthy? Assuming I can find a good brown bread with lots of grains etc. Are there any breads like this available in Thailand? As I was thinking about maybe making my own salad & ham sandwiches, or the equivalent of subway sandwiches, for lunch each day.

Also to assist with my body's metabolism, would it be better to have my meal times earlier/later? For the past 2 years I've been eating dinner around 7 or 8 pm, and been gaining weight, but previously I used to eat earlier (5 or 6pm) and was losing weight, even though I wasn't doing any exercise. These obviously weren't the only contributing factors, but something I've been thinking about which could be easy to change.

[robblok]

IF you want to exercise and got access to a real gym do the 5 x5 full body 3 times a week you will drop fat and get muscles. Sometimes more is less. Just google it its basically deadlifts / squats / benchpresses and other full body exercises. But only 3 times a week. That is my advice for weight training.

Diet/ food program will have more impact on loosing the weight as the exercise. Read up on low carb it does work.

As for the meal timing and how many meals.. as for as i know latest research shown almost no benefits in having many meals.

The breads like you describe.. healthy.. its better as the white bread here and it is certainly good but in moderation. For low carb its not that great, but i have found the breads you talk about in some shops.

[grumpyoldman]

2nding robblok, reduce the carbs, stop drinking beer(!) (the beer here sucks anyway) and increase the cardio i.e. good running habit, swimming just as good.

[SlyAnimal]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

So I can drop fat and gain muscle at the same time? I don't need to shed fat then build muscle afterwards?

As I was thinking I'd need to go for high reps first to lose fat, and that building muscle would come afterwards. But if I can do both at the same time, that'd work in well.

5x5 looks interesting, and gives me a starting point/theory to work on. I might start with lower than the 65-85% of max lift that they recommend, then just progressively build it up each week and see how things go. Particularly as I haven't done weights in a long time so will need to initially take it easy anyway to avoid injuries.

Edit: Beer wise, I rarely drink these days. When I do I usually prefer to drink whiskey and soda anyway

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[h90]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

So I can drop fat and gain muscle at the same time? I don't need to shed fat then build muscle afterwards?

As I was thinking I'd need to go for high reps first to lose fat, and that building muscle would come afterwards. But if I can do both at the same time, that'd work in well.

5x5 looks interesting, and gives me a starting point/theory to work on. I might start with lower than the 65-85% of max lift that they recommend, then just progressively build it up each week and see how things go. Particularly as I haven't done weights in a long time so will need to initially take it easy anyway to avoid injuries.

Edit: Beer wise, I rarely drink these days. When I do I usually prefer to drink whiskey and soda anyway

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Well if you don't drop weight too fast and when you eat good protein you can build muscle and drop fat at the same time as beginner.

Of course the muscle gain will be slower.

Search internet for beginner exercise.....there is a lot.

I would do full body, brake 2 days, do full body....Never do every day. You can later increase to 1 day exercise 1 day brake.

Later you can split the exercises like 1 day upper body, 1 day lower body 1 day brake......search internet.

I would begin with weight that you could lift 20 times, and do it 10-12 times. Only 1 set.

You should be OK on the next day, if not you have overdone it.

Next time you do it 2 sets. If everything OK, than next time 3 sets.

Than increase weight slowly. Till you have so much that you can just do 8 repetitions.

Always do a good warm up and the complete session should be below 1 hour.

Start slow and light, crazy training on the beginning only cause you accidents and makes the gains slower. After 1-2 month you can train with all your power, but not on the beginning.

Don't use any steroids on the beginning. They are easily available in Thailand, but as beginner your muscles would grow faster than your joints and tendons can handle it and you run into a very high risk of hurting yourself and some problems can persist for years. So don't do it.

[robblok]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

So I can drop fat and gain muscle at the same time? I don't need to shed fat then build muscle afterwards?

As I was thinking I'd need to go for high reps first to lose fat, and that building muscle would come afterwards. But if I can do both at the same time, that'd work in well.

5x5 looks interesting, and gives me a starting point/theory to work on. I might start with lower than the 65-85% of max lift that they recommend, then just progressively build it up each week and see how things go. Particularly as I haven't done weights in a long time so will need to initially take it easy anyway to avoid injuries.

Edit: Beer wise, I rarely drink these days. When I do I usually prefer to drink whiskey and soda anyway

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

As a beginner you can gain muscle and drop fat.. but only if your an absolute beginner.

5 x 5 is a great beginner routine and structured so its easy to follow.

[h90]

to add:

If you try to build muscle, don't do too much swimming or running at the same time.

And don't do your self exercises.

Train hard and heavy and than give the body time to recover.

After every hard training, the body will prepare that it doesn't get overloaded the same and build the muscles, joints tendons stronger, but it needs time.

If you train too much, the body can't recover and you may loose muscle (the muscles burn protein in stress). Google for "overtraining". Everyone who begins things more is better, but it isn't.

[SlyAnimal]

That's all good, I initially just want to lose weight, rather than put on muscle. Putting on muscle is a secondary goal for further down the track. Initially I think I'll keep it relatively relaxed and slowly build up what I do in the gym. As I've never been much of a gym rat, I always preferred playing sports, or going running/swimming if I wanted exercise for the sake of exercise.

If I can find some sports which I can play in Bangkok, then I'll likely include that into my schedule instead of some of the running/swimming/weights.

[h90]

That's all good, I initially just want to lose weight, rather than put on muscle. Putting on muscle is a secondary goal for further down the track. Initially I think I'll keep it relatively relaxed and slowly build up what I do in the gym. As I've never been much of a gym rat, I always preferred playing sports, or going running/swimming if I wanted exercise for the sake of exercise.

If I can find some sports which I can play in Bangkok, then I'll likely include that into my schedule instead of some of the running/swimming/weights.

I think most important is to choose a sport that you like. So you can do it for a long time without getting too bored of it.

While lifting weights was never my thing, I did it first because it helped.

Than I loved it because I saw the muscle grow.

Than I got a bit tired of it.

Now I do it daily at 11AM. I can't await it till 11 AM comes. More because I want to go out of the office than I like the sport.

Than having some good music it gives me some mental relax and annoyed as I am, I can be aggressive with the iron without making someone upset.

But it doesn't mean that it is right for you...yours might be running, biking, diving, swimming whatever or every day a different sport.....just find something you like, that is much more important than if it is 10 % more or less efficient.

[robblok]

That's all good, I initially just want to lose weight, rather than put on muscle. Putting on muscle is a secondary goal for further down the track. Initially I think I'll keep it relatively relaxed and slowly build up what I do in the gym. As I've never been much of a gym rat, I always preferred playing sports, or going running/swimming if I wanted exercise for the sake of exercise.

If I can find some sports which I can play in Bangkok, then I'll likely include that into my schedule instead of some of the running/swimming/weights.

I think most important is to choose a sport that you like. So you can do it for a long time without getting too bored of it.

While lifting weights was never my thing, I did it first because it helped.

Than I loved it because I saw the muscle grow.

Than I got a bit tired of it.

Now I do it daily at 11AM. I can't await it till 11 AM comes. More because I want to go out of the office than I like the sport.

Than having some good music it gives me some mental relax and annoyed as I am, I can be aggressive with the iron without making someone upset.

But it doesn't mean that it is right for you...yours might be running, biking, diving, swimming whatever or every day a different sport.....just find something you like, that is much more important than if it is 10 % more or less efficient.

100% agree lifting weights is not for everyone, just find something you love doing because its a lifestyle change. If you hate it then you got a problem and won't do it long enough to benefit.

[SlyAnimal]

Yeah, although I've never gone into weights with a high amount of motivation, so might really enjoy it. Can just give it a go and see how things go (Helps too that one of my best mates is really into weights, although from talking to him about it, he's probably a work hard guy, rather than a work smart guy, in regards to his weights routine, so don't want to ask him for advice)

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[robblok]

Yeah, although I've never gone into weights with a high amount of motivation, so might really enjoy it. Can just give it a go and see how things go (Helps too that one of my best mates is really into weights, although from talking to him about it, he's probably a work hard guy, rather than a work smart guy, in regards to his weights routine, so don't want to ask him for advice)

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For weights for a beginner the 5 x 5 program is quite nice and structured. I would use it for sure then you are working out smart.

[JSixpack]

Yeah, although I've never gone into weights with a high amount of motivation, so might really enjoy it. Can just give it a go and see how things go (Helps too that one of my best mates is really into weights, although from talking to him about it, he's probably a work hard guy, rather than a work smart guy, in regards to his weights routine, so don't want to ask him for advice)

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If you don't want to work too hard and risk injury (I don't), look on youtube for bodyweight routines or dumbbell routines. You can get yourself very fit.

A few links of many:

http://mattfurey.com...oning_book.html

http://lifehacker.co...thou-1525971528

A cardio machine of some sort is always nice to have. Exercising at home makes it much less boring because you can watch videos and listen to your own music conveniently.

[Wrong Turn]

IF you want to exercise and got access to a real gym do the 5 x5 full body 3 times a week you will drop fat and get muscles. Sometimes more is less. Just google it its basically deadlifts / squats / benchpresses and other full body exercises. But only 3 times a week. That is my advice for weight training.

Diet/ food program will have more impact on loosing the weight as the exercise. Read up on low carb it does work.

5 X 5 is very effective IMO (at least it was for me) and it's only a 3 day a week weight training (intense).

Add the cardio on some non-lifting days and go low (complex) carb and you shoule see results.

[robblok]

As I recently had some time limitations (my dad is here) I cant train as much or as long as I normally do. So i switched to doing a full body workout.

Deadlifts / squats / bench press and abs. It is shorter and faster and still gets the job done. It might be more intense. It looks a bit like 5 x 5. I am not trying to get bigger. I wont (not without some serious chemical help) So its just maintaining and right now trying to loose a bit of weight again. I decided to go for leaner and see if I could.

I combine this with IF (intermittent fasting) and low carb. Progress is slow (normal if there is almost nothing to loose) but it it steady. Hunger is an issue but it has gotten less..

[h90]

Exercise is important to lose weight quickly. There are many exercises but in my opinion cardio exercises are always best for weight lose. There are many cardio exercises but running,jogging,cycling,swimming and bench press are good cardio exercises.

Bench press as cardio is something interesting