Random gym exercise good enough so far?

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by sn11, Nov 22, 2008.

  1. sn11

    sn11 Woosh! Bang! Ow!

    Well, after passing college with pretty good grades and getting into university I must admit my weight has gotten out of hand - since I do computer science I rarely move much during my normal day so I joined my uni gym.

    At the moment I do nothing specific with a friend of mine, we always start with 10 minutes on the bikes at resistance level 4, I manage about 4km before I am too tired so after 3km I up the resistance to level 6 for the last km.

    We then go about the gym randomly doing different weight machines and sometimes a bit of free weights. According to weight charts I should be from 9st - 12.5st as I am 5ft 11". I am currently ballooned at 19st going up and down 5-6 lbs every week or so. So more than getting defined which is what my friends after I'm just after dropping the excess weight.

    Is what I am currently doing okay enough to drop the weight then when I get a good drop start doing something a bit more... structured or should I go for structure now?

    We had planned to start alternate days on halves of the body, so one day upper other day lower. I can get to the gym about 5 days a week which I have been told should be enough as I am suppose to keep two days or so for 'rest time'.

    I have since cut out "fizzy" drinks trying to keep with water but sometimes going for dilute without sugar as this was seemingly my biggest downfall as I don't particularly eat huge sums of rubbish food.
     
  2. Axelator

    Axelator Not called Alex.

  3. sn11

    sn11 Woosh! Bang! Ow!

  4. Custom Volusia

    Custom Volusia Valued Member

    OK.....well.....welcome to the world of fitness!!!

    Since you are currently out of shape, yes...random exercises will help and you will see improvments in your body. HOWEVER...by just adding a plan (structure) to your workout you will see much FASTER results. I'm not talking overnight here, but quicker then random. This is good because when you see results quicker, you won't get frustrated and quite.

    Lifting weights is a great idea to help you lose weight. Many people will say "CARDIO, CARDIO, CARDIO" but these people are WRONG. Simple fact: it takes more calories for the body to run/maintain a pound of muscle then it does a pound of fat. So, when you lift weights, you add muscle and make your body use more calories to keep you going. Thus burning more calories throughout the day.

    If that 10 minute warm up is ALL you are doing for cardio, you need to address that also. You do need to do some cardio. We won't talk about the specifics now since that isn't your question, yet.

    How's your diet? When you say you don't eat a lot of 'rubbish' I assume you eat farily healthy then? How large are your servings at each meal? How many times do you eat throughout the day? Do you eat a healthy breakfast? (PLEASE PLEASE say yes!!) By cutting the soda and upping the water, you are already doing yourself a huge favor.

    As far as the training split that you were talking about: divinding by half can be a good idea for a beginner of for general fitness and works great. However, you don't want to just do it every day. I.E this split would NOT be good

    Monday: Lower body
    Tuesday: Upper Body
    Wednesday: Lower body
    Thursday: Upper Body
    Friday: Lower Body

    While you are allowing a rest period of 24 hours for each half, that really isn't a lot of time. Especailly at first. You will be increadably sore when you really start concentrating on specific exercises. Here's a split that incorporates cardio and gives you a bit more time off between exercises, allowing you to lift heavier:

    Monday: Upper Body
    Tuesday: 30-45 min of Cardio
    Wednesday: Lower Body
    Thursday: 30-45 min of Cardio
    Friday: Upper body

    You might think that this doesn't address your lower body enough, but here's the beauty of it. The next Monday, you start with LOWER instead of UPPER and alternate through the week, then switch the next week.

    Again, this is a great split for a beginner or for someone who just wants to stay physically fit.

    Just one last thing:
    EAT BREAKFAST!!!!!! Diet plays a VERY large role in how much you will lose.
     
  5. Axelator

    Axelator Not called Alex.

    Random exercises is better than nothing (but not alot better in my opinion). I would definitely recomend structuring your workouts and recording your progress (or lack of progress if you fudge it :cool:).
     
  6. JaxMMA

    JaxMMA Feeling lucky, punk?

    Any reason why he shouldn't do the whole body workout 3-times a week and cardio in between?
     
  7. Custom Volusia

    Custom Volusia Valued Member

    Well, it depends on goals and also on available time.

    If the goal is to get in shape and add some muscle, you really should do multiple exercises for each muscle group. I.E. Dumb Bell Bench Press and Butterflys (with DB or Machine, depending). If you do multiple exercises per group for the entire body every other day, it can take you into the two hour range. That's bad because your body has MOST LIKELY depleted it's source of energy at this point. You MIGHT end up having your body begin to just shut down in an effort to save energy. It's very easy to OVERtrain when doing the whole body each time with this goal.

    If the goal is to just maintain a current level of fitness, a total body circuit involving only one exercise per group might be just the ticket. This would keep you in a decent time frame in the gym. That all depends on the person.

    From the OP I got the feeling that not only are they trying to lose weight but maybe gain some muscle mass. I could be wrong.
     
  8. JaxMMA

    JaxMMA Feeling lucky, punk?


    When you do full body workouts of course you're not going to do 3 exercises for each muscle group. For example, you wouldn't go do pull-ups, curls, preacher curl, and then dumbell curl since it would be pointless (although i do see people at my gym do 3-4 different arm exercises). Or do squats, leg press, and lunges. The way I do full body workouts is: start off with an explosive exercises (clean pull for example), then knee-dominant (i.e. squat, deadlift, overhead squat), hip-dominant (i.e. good morning, back extension), horizontal push (bench press), horizontal pull (bent-over row), vertical push (military press), vertical pull (pull ups), rotational core (seated russian twist), and finish off with bridging/core stabilization exercise (such as 4-point plank). This way the workout is more oganized by the motion of the body instead of muscle groups. Biggest reason I'm against isolating muscles on different days is because in real life and every-day activity you don't get to use legs on monday, but skip using your back and shoulders, or vice-versa.
    Also, when you workout bigger muscle groups such as your legs and back it triggers the release of hormones that help build more muscle and burn fat hours after workout.
     

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