2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

[cima]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Solid thread.

I've been dieting for my wedding for about 2 months now and I'm down 15 lbs which I'm happy about. Started at 250 lbs, now am about 235. I've been slacking the past month though. I absolutely killed it the first month, stuck to my diet 100%. I've been pretty bad this past month though so I'm stagnant with my weight. The worst part too is I'm using a guy and his company to prep all my food so literally all I have to do is microwave and eat it. I don't have to cook anything. My typical day looks like this:

Breakfast: 8 oz steak 6 oz oatmeal
Snack: Protein shake post-workout
Lunch: 8 oz chicken 8 oz broccoli 5 oz rice
Snack: Banana nut protein muffin
Dinner: 8 oz chicken or steak 8 oz broccoli

I still want to lose about another 20 lbs and I've got 2 months to do it (getting married July 20th) so I really need to kick it into gear.

The best news for me though is I've still been killing it in the gym. I actually set a PR on bench this past week of 315 for 9 reps. Now I've introduced pause squats after seeing John Cena do it like a boss. Usually I can squat 405 for about 8 reps but adding the pause I was done after 2 lol.

If anyone ever needs any fitness advice or has questions, let me know. I was an NASM Certified Personal Trainer for 7 years, my B.S. degree from ASU is in Exercise Science, did my internship at EXOS (formerly Athletes Performance where many top guys train for the NFL Combine) and I had a fitness nutrition certification as well. Mostly though I've learned the most through experience in the gym day in and day out for the last 10 years.

Here's two pics of me so you can see my progress over the years. First pic is from 2005, I weighed about 185 lbs. Second pic is from last year, weighed about 240 at the time.

Spoiler

[AUChase]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Just found out I'll be hiking/climbing Mt. Fuji later this year.

I'm excited.

[LingeringRegime]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Last week I finished up with Keith Webers kettlebell DVDs. It was only a six week program but I feel stronger.

This week I started rushfit advanced for the second time and now I can consistently use heavier weights. First time thru 20 lbs was challenging but now I am doing 30-35 lbs. It feels good seeing all the work this year starting to pay off.


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[redsrule]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

That was me. I've been slacking recently but it's perfect for me. Workouts are nice and short but effective. There are some good options for the gym too.

As a beginner it's perfect for me but still super challenging because I am not in good shape. Great videos/workouts for free. They have workouts you can do on the gym as well? That's something I will look at for the future then.

[wwharton]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

As a beginner it's perfect for me but still super challenging because I am not in good shape. Great videos/workouts for free. They have workouts you can do on the gym as well? That's something I will look at for the future then.

Yep, if you go to "Workouts" you'll see different options. Then you can just scroll through to see what you like. I use it to mix up my routine when it starts getting stale.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

That was me. I've been slacking recently but it's perfect for me. Workouts are nice and short but effective. There are some good options for the gym too.

Are you just doing the workouts or the fitness programs?

I checked it out after reading reds post and it looks great. I'm thinking about adding the 30 day ab workout to my Insanity round.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Finally my wrist feels good enough to do push-ups but damn I got weak. I can only do 4 and I used to be able to do at least 50 to 60 at a time before I got arthritis. Just like the athletes say, gotta take it a day at a time. The best thing was getting rid of the pain and got it done naturally. The key thing for me was drinking a green juice twice a day.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Finally my wrist feels good enough to do push-ups but damn I got weak. I can only do 4 and I used to be able to do at least 50 to 60 at a time before I got arthritis. Just like the athletes say, gotta take it a day at a time. The best thing was getting rid of the pain and got it done naturally. The key thing for me was drinking a green juice twice a day.

I could never do 50 at a time so you are a lot more experienced than I am, but do you use push up bars?

[RockinDaMike]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

I could never do 50 at a time so you are a lot more experienced than I am, but do you use push up bars?

No I don't, I think I have the perfect pushup in storage but never thought about it till now. I could use that but I like to stretch out my wrist by doing the normal pushup now that I can. I could barely bend either way for the most part the last year. I think also my weight gain is part of the problem and having not done any workouts using my arms for over a year.

The way I got up to 50 pushups was I did them all day during work. I worked on the phones and instead of sitting all day, me and my team would do push-ups whenever we made a sale.

So I'm just gonna keep doing them throughout the day and just keep getting stronger.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

My short review for the two high end protein powders I've been able to use the past couple months.


BSN SYNTHA-6 - Vanilla Ice Cream - Plain it taste relatively good. Not as good as real ice cream, but I wasn't gagging trying to get it down. Mixed up easily with just a shaker in water and milk. The real plus was when I put a scoop in the blender with fruit. It blended perfectly.

Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard - Vanilla Ice Cream - I didn't like the taste as much. Never blended in a shaker, but in the blender it sucked. It created a large head like on a beer, but it didn't go away. So I had half liquid/blended fruit and half foam. Wouldn't recommend and it's $10 more for a 5 pound bucket.

[wwharton]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Are you just doing the workouts or the fitness programs?

I checked it out after reading reds post and it looks great. I'm thinking about adding the 30 day ab workout to my Insanity round.

I've done the ab workout 3 times now. I'll probably start it up again soon. It's so quick and easy to fit into the day.

I did start one of the full body workouts (have to check to see which one) but I do still go to the gym so it was a bit much for my time. It seems like all the programs have a good combination and pace though, and the app makes them easy to track.

The individual workouts, I just mix in with other stuff I already do at when at the gym. They have some for at home too, but if I were only working out at home I'd do a fitness program (or Insanity like you're already doing) instead.

[Kearnzo]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

No I don't, I think I have the perfect pushup in storage but never thought about it till now. I could use that but I like to stretch out my wrist by doing the normal pushup now that I can. I could barely bend either way for the most part the last year. I think also my weight gain is part of the problem and having not done any workouts using my arms for over a year.

The way I got up to 50 pushups was I did them all day during work. I worked on the phones and instead of sitting all day, me and my team would do push-ups whenever we made a sale.

So I'm just gonna keep doing them throughout the day and just keep getting stronger.

Probably a stupid question, but I have the space and freedom to do pushups at work to. I used to do them when I could, but I could really make myself do it frequently if I wanted to.

If I were to just do them throughout work every day, should I go to failure, or use the "grease the groove" method of doing sub maximal sets?

I've been in good shape for a while now, but I just can't improve my pushups for anything.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Probably a stupid question, but I have the space and freedom to do pushups at work to. I used to do them when I could, but I could really make myself do it frequently if I wanted to.

If I were to just do them throughout work every day, should I go to failure, or use the "grease the groove" method of doing sub maximal sets?

I've been in good shape for a while now, but I just can't improve my pushups for anything.

I had no idea what grease the groove was but just looked it up quickly and it sounds really good to me.

I used to just do 20-30 at a time a couple times an hour and then I'll try to fail once or twice a day before going on break. Then started mixing in clap push ups.

Right now just banging out 5 is tough, my right arm shakes like crazy but I'm just gonna keep doing them every day while I'm not doing anything.

[Kearnzo]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

I had no idea what grease the groove was but just looked it up quickly and it sounds really good to me.

I used to just do 20-30 at a time a couple times an hour and then I'll try to fail once or twice a day before going on break. Then started mixing in clap push ups.

Right now just banging out 5 is tough, my right arm shakes like crazy but I'm just gonna keep doing them every day while I'm not doing anything.

Yeah, pushups have never been my strong suit. I couldn't imagine being able to do 50+. My arms get so damn tired around 20, then I can muscle through about 5 more before I have to stop.

I've always tried to include them in other workouts, but they usually get neglected. Me doing a ton of burpees with pushups each week probably doesn't help either, as pushups as part of burpees usually get sloppy.

[Antec]

Re: 2015 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Doing 50 pushups isn't very effective for anything than being able to say you can do 50 pushups.

You'd be better off making pushups more challenging so that you fail around 10-15 reps. Either using elevation or added weight or some other variation.