Anyone lift weights?

[sinful]

I was a bit put out when I started noticing an alarming amount of "cushion" forming around my rock hard abs... ok ok, they're not really rock hard abs... but you get the point. So I started cutting back on the amount of crap I eat; no more donut snacks, no more king sized candy bars, cut back on my Mt Dew intake. I've dropped from 217 to 196-198 in the first couple days. I'm sure it's the initial shock of a new diet and I'll peek out around 185-190, which isn't far from my target weight of 175-180.

I cut back from a 1 liter and 3-5x 12oz cans of Mt Dew per day to a single 20oz bottle. The increased amount of water I'm drinking is phenomenal. So much so, my boss came over and asked if I was feeling well. When I asked why he was asking, he said he's seen me go to the restroom way more often than I normally do. LOL

Anyhow, I'm slowly getting my diet figured out. I'm eating a cold cut sub and a fruit (apple, banana, or orange) for lunch rather than a McDs cheeseburger and a candy bar. I'm watching my portion sizes when I fix meals. And I'm eating less junk food like chips and pizza.

I also want to start lifting weight to build tone and definition. I am not overly concerned with building huge muscle mass or power lifting. I'm just curious if anyone here lifts and can give some tips to a beginner?

Any entry level equipment I should be looking at? I don't want to spend a fortune, and I only have a 12'x15' area to use for gear. I'm thinking maybe a decent free weight bench and/or a treadmill for cardio.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[axmdr40]

You can do a lot without a lot of fancy equipment. Save yourself on the treadmill, and run outside. (yeah yeah in the winter...well, bundle up?) YMCA memberships aren't too bad last time I checked, and its much easier to ignore the equipment in your house once its there than for-go a trip to the gym. If you are set on having your own equipment at your residence, then I would suggest something like this http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...ductId=2608801 simply because it is compact, multi-functional, and you don't have to worry about dropping free weights when working out alone. The biggest issue people have is actually USING the stuff they buy. Plan your workout cycle and track your workouts to keep yourself honest. Google workout plans, theres lots of different theories out there on workouts. Find one that works for you.

ps my new favorite thing: http://www.power-systems.com/p-3451-kettlebells.aspx

[Agent Smith]

I was a bit put out when I started noticing an alarming amount of "cushion" forming around my rock hard abs... ok ok, they're not really rock hard abs... but you get the point. So I started cutting back on the amount of crap I eat; no more donut snacks, no more king sized candy bars, cut back on my Mt Dew intake. I've dropped from 217 to 196-198 in the first couple days. I'm sure it's the initial shock of a new diet and I'll peek out around 185-190, which isn't far from my target weight of 175-180.

I cut back from a 1 liter and 3-5x 12oz cans of Mt Dew per day to a single 20oz bottle. The increased amount of water I'm drinking is phenomenal. So much so, my boss came over and asked if I was feeling well. When I asked why he was asking, he said he's seen me go to the restroom way more often than I normally do. LOL

Anyhow, I'm slowly getting my diet figured out. I'm eating a cold cut sub and a fruit (apple, banana, or orange) for lunch rather than a McDs cheeseburger and a candy bar. I'm watching my portion sizes when I fix meals. And I'm eating less junk food like chips and pizza.

I also want to start lifting weight to build tone and definition. I am not overly concerned with building huge muscle mass or power lifting. I'm just curious if anyone here lifts and can give some tips to a beginner?

Any entry level equipment I should be looking at? I don't want to spend a fortune, and I only have a 12'x15' area to use for gear. I'm thinking maybe a decent free weight bench and/or a treadmill for cardio.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Good job on losing weight. It's not always an easy thing to do.

The major misconception is that lifting weights, or rather, lifting lighter and doing more reps tones and defines muscles. In reality your muscles can only do 3 things: get bigger, get smaller, or stay the same. You get definition by losing the fat around the muscle.

As for where to start, I would definitely suggest going with free weights. You can do so much more with free weights than you can with machines. You just have to pay close attention that you have correct form and are not lifting more than you can handle. Ideally, you should only be able to do about 10-12 reps per set. If you get to a point where you complete the 10th or 12th rep and you can still do more, you need to add more weight. Do about 4 sets of 12 reps per muscle group, and most importantly, take at least a 48 hour break between muscle groups.

Getting a treadmill would be great for cardio.

I would also like to add, that you should pick up a good protein supplement as well.

[axmdr40]

See....conflicting theories already.

[LittleRedToyota]

i still lift a bit. i used to be a hardcore lifter back in my football/wrestling days.

you have already done the best thing you can do...stop drinking pop and start drinking lots of water.

I'm just curious if anyone here lifts and can give some tips to a beginner?

some random thoughts...

just start off with very light weights and lots of reps (like 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps). this does a couple of things.

1. it increases the vascularity in your muscles so they can get and use more blood. (helps prevent injury and also makes your muscles capable of doing more work.)

2. it gets your muscles, joints, tendons, etc. slowly used to the idea of lifting. (helps prevent injury.)

as your body becomes more used to lifting you may decide to use heavier weights and less reps. although, if your only real goal is to "tone" you might just want to stick with higher reps.

keep the weight completely under control at all times and perform each exercise correctly--do some research on the web or get a book which shows the proper form for each exercise.

free weights are better than "machines" from the standpoint that it makes your body balance the weight where as machines do not. this helps build more strength and also helps build more control over your muscles. however, some types of exercises are safer to do on machines...especially if you are lifting by yourself and do not have a spotter.

try do vary the exercises you do for each muscle group a bit from time to time. this helps to work the same muscles slightly differently...eventually they kinda stop responding to the exact same movement and you "plateau". also it helps to prevent you from getting bored and stopping your program.

make sure you exercise all of the major muscle groups. a lot of people make the mistake of ignoring certain muscle groups (like back or hamstrings or even their entire legs).

remember that muscles can only exert force by contracting. and, thus, your body is build in pairs of opposing muscles. for example, your biceps "curl" your arm while your triceps straighten it. likewise, your hamstrings "curl" your legs while your quadriceps straigten them. make sure you exercise both sets of opposing muscles equally to maintain balance in your body.

warm up with a short jog or anything that gets a little sweat going before starting to lift. (this helps prevent injury.)

stretch after you are done lifting (helps prevent injury and maintain/increase range of motion to go along with your new strength).

your "core" is the most important thing to maintain from a health perspective. this is your "abs", lower back, etc. an exercise ball and a pilates book are great for this.

make sure you allow a muscle group 48 hours to recover before exercising it again. in other words, don't lift the same muscle groups two days in a row. remember, the actual act of lifting is tearing down your muscles. the benefit comes from your body repairing that damage. it is not the lifting that makes you stronger, it is the recovery...that recovery takes more than 24 hours.

the exception to this is abs/core. you can exercise your abs/core every day.

it is better to spend less time lifting than more. a lot of people spend hours and hours in the weightroom. not only is it an unncessary waste of time, it can actually be counter productive in that you "overtrain" your muscles. and it also becomes too much like work and you might be less inclined to keep up your program.

when i was really into lifting, i lifted 4 times per week (not counting core which i just did every day).

Mon: heavy day (heavy weight, low reps, mostly two handed barbell exercises) for chest, shoulders, and arms

Tues: heavy day for legs and back

Thurs: light day (less weight, higher reps. lots of one-handed dumbell exercises) for chest, shoulders, and arms

Fri: light day for legs and back

i never spent more than an hour and fifteen minutes in the weightroom on any day. (i weighed about 220 back then with very little body fat and could bench press 225lbs 20 times...my program worked.)

i also did 30 minutes of core exercises every day and ran a few miles every other day.

there were certain basic exercises (like flat and inclined bench press for chest and squats for legs) that i always did, but i would vary the other complementary exercises...like sometimes doing "flies" with dumbells vs. sometimes doing "cable crossovers" for extra chest exercises to add variety and keep my program from getting stale.

prolly more info than you wanted, but that's just what comes off the top of my head...

Any entry level equipment I should be looking at?

personally, i would suggest looking at joining a gym instead of buying your own equipment. while i greatly favor free weights when possible, there are a lot of things you just plain need a machine for.

hack squat/leg press machines are an example. leg presses are a great exercise, but you aren't likely to be able to afford to get your own leg press machine. same for "lat pulldowns", etc. etc.

i would look for a gym that focuses on free weights, but also has machines. (leave out the social club "spas").

but, you can still do a lot on your own just with a basic bench press bench and a set of free weights. you'll need a barbell and weights to go on it. you will also want a set of dumbells.

you will also pretty much need to be able to do leg curls as they are the most fundamental hamstring exercise and, while some other exercises hit them a bit, you really need to do leg curls or you will not adequately be working your hamstrings. many home bench press benches have attachments that let you do leg curls, so look for one of those.

i would also say to get a mat and an exercise ball to do stretching and core strengthening (pilates) exercises.

personally, i prefer to run outside rather than on a treadmill. i find running on treadmills to be horribly boring, but running outside to be sort of like an adventure (i like to vary my route). but, to each his own. at any rate, though, if your just run outside instead of on a treadmill, you save the money and space of the treadmill.

(ETA: regarding running in winter. once you really get into exercising and enjoying the pain of it, you might end up preferring running in winter as it mean extra pain/effort and makes you feel that much more like rocky balboa--and separates you that much more from the pussy couch potatoes that make up the rest of the world. best runs i ever had was when it was below 0 and my face froze about solid by the time i made it back home.

seriously, though, once you really get into it, you kind of start getting off on pushing yourself further and further and harder and harder. running in horrible weather becomes more fun just because nobody else has the dedication to do it. )

this is just sort of a stream of consiousness reply, but if you have any specific questions, let me know, and i will try to help.

[larrymeyer]

Lite wights more reps for tone and definition. 20 to 40 reps about 10 or more times
Heavy wights less reps for bulk and mass. 10 reps about 3 or four times

[andrewjs18]

You can do a lot without a lot of fancy equipment. Save yourself on the treadmill, and run outside. (yeah yeah in the winter...well, bundle up?) YMCA memberships aren't too bad last time I checked, and its much easier to ignore the equipment in your house once its there than for-go a trip to the gym. If you are set on having your own equipment at your residence, then I would suggest something like this http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...ductId=2608801 simply because it is compact, multi-functional, and you don't have to worry about dropping free weights when working out alone. The biggest issue people have is actually USING the stuff they buy. Plan your workout cycle and track your workouts to keep yourself honest. Google workout plans, theres lots of different theories out there on workouts. Find one that works for you.

ps my new favorite thing: http://www.power-systems.com/p-3451-kettlebells.aspx

I agree here...I'm trying to get back into the grok of things, but find its too much of a 'comfort' to be working out from home. I use to do about 45min-1 1/2 hours of exercising atleast 4-5X a week when I was in highschool. Though I was still chubby, I was gaining muscle mass and definition and not putting on any weight. After I had my spinal surgery (I have a spinal disorder), I wasn't able to lift any weights for a year and riding the bike I had in my basement hurt my back too much as it was an upright bike and not a recumbent bikes that has back support....Approx. 250lbs before I had spinal surgery and now I'm about 335lbs...putting on weight ain't any fun, so even if you don't lose much weight and just keep the same, it's always better than no exercise at all. Shame you don't live closer to Philly..I have a ton of old equipment I'd sell you cheap just to get rid of it....can't use it anymore as it hurts my damn back when I lay completely flat on the hard weight benches...

Trying something like boxing...there's a lot of cardio involved in that...you'd be surprised how much weight you could drop by hitting a bag several times a week.... PS-wrap your hands good or you'll bust your knuckles up to shit.

just my 2 cents...good luck with your weight loss and I'm there with you!!!!
=)

[Agent Smith]

Lite wights more reps for tone and definition. 20 to 40 reps about 10 or more times
Heavy wights less reps for bulk and mass. 10 reps about 3 or four times

That's a myth.

http://www.intense-workout.com/tone_definition.html

[Exbiker]

Tone and definition are diet and eliminating subcutaneous fat. How much bulk you can build will depend on age and testosterone production and the biggie....genetics. For the average individual circuit training every other day at maybe an hour at a time will get you great results. Quality machines like Nautilus, Cybex and Streamline will allow you to hit major muscle groups and do it quickly with full range of motion and cut down on injury. Banging out tons of reps is totally unnecessary. Once muscle fiber has broken down it doesn`t continue to break.
If you think old wives tales die hard in the gun world.....welcome to the gym world.

I`ve seen a couple decent home pieces. The upper level total gym isn`t bad and the bowflex isn`t too bad. They can`t compare to commercial equipment but will work.

[LittleRedToyota]

That's a myth.

http://www.intense-workout.com/tone_definition.html

while i would generally agree with what that article says, it is incorrect to the extent it seems to claim lifting cannot get rid of fat.

the more muscle mass you have, the better your metabolism and the more calories your body burns just in everyday life.

thus, you lose fat from lifting because you increase your muscle mass and burn more of your caloric intake rather than storing it as fat.