Beginner >_<

T

Takashi

0
Hi guys, I hate to be the newbie that don't use the search button before asking questions, but infact I did and have learned a great deal of infomation here in the pass 5 days and I must say this is a fantastic site.

I have some questions about toning my abs. Anyways, I'm 27 years old, male. I'm 6foot2 tall and I weight about 182. I look skinny on the outside but infact I have not been paying attention to my diet for the past 6 years. And now it's becoming worst and worst.

I'm satisfied with my overall body shape except for my fat abs. I would really love to get rid of my fat on the belly area and those love handles. I look at myself in the mirror before I enter the bath and think to myself... how disgusting...

I recnetly joined Bally fitness and they had all the equipments nessasery. (I think?) And also, a swimming pool.

Like always, the guy who con me into purchasing the yearly subscription is no where to be found. Even promised me a week of personal training. I goto the big buff personal trainer guy and asked him about it, he simply rejected me and said he dunno nothing about that. lol

So basically, looking like an idiot not knowing where to start, I began doing the following exercises:

- Treadmill and ran for about 12min. Max speed.
- Weight machines working Arms and chest (100pds 3 sets of 10 = x30)
- Sit-up/Ab Machine (5 sets of 20 = x100 sit-ups)

I've been doing this for 3 days now and it's extremely boring. So today, I bought my MP3 player and a megazine and started running on the threadmill for 15min instead of 12, and also added another extra 12min on the bike. When you have your mind occupid with something, time really flies.

I've been reading about how carb and protein help fuel workouts, I'll be watching my diet very carefully starting from today.

How am I doing? Or is this totally wrong?

Thanks in advance!
 
Welcome and congratulations on starting a fitness routine!

What do you mean "max speed"?

You should add the rest of your body parts besides just arms and chest. Like legs, back, shoulders, abs, etc. I would also do weights before you do cardio.

I would break it into something like this to start with:
M-chest, shoulders, triceps (cardio if you want)
T-cardio and abs
W-legs, back and biceps
Th-cardio and abs
F-chest, shoulders and triceps

Then take Saturday and Sunday to rest and start on Monday with legs, back, and biceps, etc...

Does that make sense? Your plan is fine but it's really important to do full-body weight training and not just your chest and arms.
 
Good 'ol Bally's :)

I would start with either a full body routine three days per week and then cardio on the other days (1-2 days of no working out per week)

OR

A split routine of something like:

M- Upper Body + Some Cardio (medium intensity)
T- Lower Body/Abs + Some Cardio (medium intensity)
W- Long, Low Intensity Cardio
Th- Upper Body + Some Cardio (medium intensity)
F- Lower Body + Some Cardio (medium intensity)
Sa- 45 minutes Interval Cardio
Su- REST

If you find what you are doing very boring, then try something new. At this point you want to focus on a few things- nutrition, varying cardio session lengths and intensities, and a full body routine (whether done all in one day or split up into Upper Body and Lower Body days).

Just focus on getting into a routine. Once you start seeing gains I think you'll be happy. It's also a great motivator.
 
Takashi said:
Hi guys, I hate to be the newbie that don't use the search button before asking questions, I have some questions about toning my abs.
Click to expand...

If this were true you would know you cant just target fatty abs. Check this website for help on a weight training routine.

Routine
 
First I think you should be concerned about your diet, you said in your post that it has been getting worse and worse for the past 6 years. I assume by this you are reffering to your abs.

No amount of cardio or weight training is going to get you where you want to be body (ab) wise unless your diet is good.

The first thing I think you should is make sure you get rid of all the empty calories inyour diet, like candy, chips, soda.

Depending on how much (if any) of this in your diet, this will save you a ton of calories.

Next you should try to eat many small frequent meals throughout the day, make sure each one contains some form of protein, like chicken or fish and then either include a carb source like fruit or some fat like nuts, seeds, etc.

Now in about the gym, I think the best way for you to do it is to do a full body workout on Monday Wensday Friday and then you can do cardio on your days off, if you want.

I say this because then you wouldn't need to go to the gym more than three days a week if you didn't want to.

To many people go to the gym to run on the treadmill, if you can how about fast walking outside, or biking, running, etc.

I hope this will help you reach your fitness goals.
 
Wow! thanks for all the great replies, much appreciated!

Now to be honest, I just got out of a bad relationship, I'm sort of homeless right now. lol I'm currently living in my office and since there's no shower here, I'm have no choice but to goto the gym. And to be honest I'd like to take the chance and really dedicate myself in getting rid of the flabby tummy.

Yes, I use to drink alot of coke but now I totally quit soda, chips and most importantly, Mcdonalds. (Is once a month ok? >< love those fries.)

Basically, I'll take everyone's advice and do a full body workout instead of targetting at a specific area, and since I have to goto the gym anyways (All 7 days of the week), I'll do very light cardio on sat's and sun's.

But is there any way in perticular I can work extra hard on my abs to loose the love handles? I was thinking of doing extra sit-ups, would that help?

And for the question that I keep fighting with my friends about:

When you sit on a bike and cycle like hell, does it also give your abs a work-out? The thing is, me and my friends keep talking about how when you're sitting down on a bike all your doing is working your legs and theighs, what do you guys think?

So I'll be watching my diet like you said, no soda, no junk food. But do you know of another method where I can phisycally burn those fat off my belly?
I'm not lazy, I'll do any excersize needed.


Finally, have you guys heard of an external application call the "Lipo-Derm"?
Supposingly, you can apply it to the targetted area of your body and help suck out the fat... sounds too good to be true.. ^_^;
 
NO ... extra sit-ups or any "extra" ab work is gonna remove the fat of your stomach or your "love handles". The way to remove fat is to weight train, cardio, and consume fewer calories in a day than you are expending. Are you drinking lots of water ?? It seems as though you really need to focus on your diet, because no exercise is gonna melt the fat of your abs, your diet does that. Realistically you would be losing overall bodyfat, you just can't target the abs. In other words you can't "spot reduce." I believe there are lots of people, even on this forum, that do not realize how important their diet is ( I know lots of you do also :) ) . I don't give a hoot what you do in the gym, if your diet isn't up to par, your results will be lacking JMO !!! As far as that Lipo-Derm goes, I really don't know much about it, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is !!
 
Takashi, first off, welcome to the forum. Secondly, I'm sorry to hear you're living in your office and I'm guessing your self esteem has taken a kncok as a result - this could be why you're believing all the hype about spot reduction etc etc. I shall try to address your questions one by one but, before I do, I would just like to say how disgusted I am with Bally fitness (whoever they are!) - to dangle a carrot of personal training and a programme suited to your needs only to take your money and ignore you is disgusting. If I were you, I would keep pushing for what you were promised....until they get so sick of you they give in.

- Okay, first up - is there anything you can do to 'target' those abs? Cardio cardio cardio (and diet of course) along with a sprinkling of weight training for good measure! Truth is, none of us can spot reduce but, if you eat well, train hard and focus on your goals, the abs will appear eventually. You'll find plenty of weight loss advice on this forum.

- the 'bikes only train legs' debate is an easy one to win. Cycling is an aerobic excercise and, as such, burns calories and therefore fat. So, whilst only the legs are being used, the source of energy which makes those legs move is coming from all over the body.

- and finally "Lipo-Derm" ....dude, if it were that easy, none of us would be posting here ;)

Best of luck with everything - be sure to keep posting your progress as I have no doubt you'll be making plenty :)
 
Hey Chris, thank you for the fantastic advices. I think to sum it all up I know what to do. I've been reading other posts about proper diet.

Initially I asked for a trainer @ Bally's because I had no idea where or how to start, but now that I found this site I'm more confident in achieving my goals ahead.

I was reading a post earliar on Swimming, now since I have access to swimming pool, I was wondering if you think this is good:

Weight train. (Full body for 30minutes)
Skip the treadmill and bike cardio, go straight to the pool. Swim intensively for 30min.

Reason for that is I've been reading that swimming is 3 times better/faster than running or biking.

And about Lipo-Derm, I guess I'll forget about that.

Once again thank you for solving that mystery about the Jogging vs Biking. I always thought biking was not much of an excersice since you're sitting on your butt. haha
 
Swimming is certainly good cardio - whether or not it is 3 times as effective as anything else is open for debate. I would say that the most important thing about cardio is variety - if you mix it up then your body will constantly react as it won't get used to one single form of excercise.

The other key element has to be enjoyment. I'm lucky in that I really enjoy pretty much all the cardio I do. If you enjoy swimming, then you should certainly incorporate it into your routine but, I think you would be missing out if you were to cut out all other cardio. Variety is, after all, the spice of life and all that ;)
 
thanks for the advices guys
 
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