exercising, any tips?

I found this video for lower back exercises:


I already do pretty much most of those in my routine, but minus the weights. The rotating and stretch exercises from 2:45 - 4:50 are already covered within my routine. Basically I do the stretches that strain the back, but without any weights.
 
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So you don't work out the way people were implying. You just use what you have.

Building muscle will help lose bodyfat.
 
No thats the thing, I do pure cardio, no weights.

Another one is similar to jogging, but you raise each knee up to the chest, and touch it with the alternate elbow and repeat it for a while.

I also just remembered one of the most strenuous back exercises done in karate, I tried it last week but couldnt do it yet - basically jumping and bringing your knees up as high as you can and back down. I couldnt do them at all yet, but I'm aiming to be able to do those and jump spin kicks again.
 
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Morba said:
You do cardio on the spot for arms, shoulders, chest and legs?
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Yes thats pretty much what karate does. It doesnt build muscle strength, it builds tendon strength and flexibility. I'm not actually wanting to gain muscle.

At 17 I use to be a stone underweight and skinny as a stick with only 14% body fat, but I still had immense strength. I want to get back to that minus the underweight part. The thing is I completely quit all exercise since I started at uni :(
 
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Just what do you do that makes it cardio?
What shoulder or arm exercises do you do that gets your heart rate up in to a cardio zone for a long enough period?
 
Morba said:
Just what do you do that makes it cardio?
What shoulder or arm exercises do you do that gets your heart rate up in to a cardio zone for a long enough period?
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Erm, the actual warm up and cardio exercises are different to the punch and kicks. The actual karate attacks are only like 20% of the routine.

The best way to understand it would be to take up karate lessons. They dont use any weights throughout any of the routines, its all pure body work mostly on one spot (both standing and sitting, and your spot needs enough space to allow you full leg reach and comfortable movement without obstacles).

For the heart rate thing, you simply keep on repeating the exercises or combinations for a good 15-20 minutes while the heart is pumping away.

I cant explain it really, I just do what I learnt in my lessons. After a good year or two of doing it every week, you end up fit as a fiddle.
 
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I've also always heard that 2-3 big meals is better than lots of small meals.

If I eat too many small meals and snacks, my stomach will get really angry at me lol.

In fact, it was due to constantly snacking that I gained 12 kg, I was eating, eating, eating all day long, snacking on too much crap, and hello big belly :(

After dropping down to 2 meals a day, I stopped gaining weight. If I need snacks I have fruit, yoghurt or cheese.
 
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As for the topic of wondering how karate is aerobic, I just remembered body combat :p


I did that when I was at school for 6 months as part of PE during my A Levels (PE was compulsory during my A levels even though I was doing my lessons over the weekend, but we got to pick whatever classes we wanted to do, I took 6 months of body combat, 6 months of the schools karate classes and 1 year of gym).

Body combat was seriously cheesy and rather embarrassing to do in front of people I thought, and it is completely unnecessary after you've already taken normal karate lessons for so long and already know how to do a good exercise routine without the crappy music lol.
 
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Morba said:
No need to eat lots of small meals.
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In fact in my experience it's totally counter productive. Better to eat twice a day, and be reasonably satisfied, than to graze and be constantly reminded of what you can't have.

I am a greedy git (also bread-powered!), and my "reward" for being self indulgent is a period of lean eating once every year or so when I hit the top of my comfort range. Normal (ie sustainable) exercise doesn't burn off much fat (I believe you have to run from London to Birmingham to burn off about 1 lb of fat). It's keeping your body warm, heating up all that water, which fires it off (unless you are a slave chained to an oar on a Roman ship).

Exercise is obviously good though. I prefer walking because (a) it's easy, and therefore easy to motivate yourself to do (b) it's pleasant at this time of year, despite the summer temps already (c) it's free (d) it doesn't ruin your knees and (e) it gets you out of the house for long periods away from the fridge.

Unless you're walking past McDonalds of course.

Other assorted tips....

1) Porridge for breakfast/lunch. Tart it up with dried fruit or a posh muesli.
2) Clean your teeth straight away after eating.
3) Avoid fat and sugar. The less you have, the less you miss it and the more you enjoy the natural sweetness of fruit & veg. (Having a little of what you fancy might do you good, but it also reminds you of what you can't have).
4) Eat as much fruit (not bananas!) and veg as you want.

Ok, got to go, but something there might be useful... though if you're cutting down for a long period (rather than the two or three weeks I need every year) it's less sensible to cut out all fat (apart from omega 3 type supplements). It certainly works for me, but that doesn't mean it'll work for everyone.

Andrew McP
 
Andrew_McP said:
In fact in my experience it's totally counter productive. Better to eat twice a day, and be reasonably satisfied, than to graze and be constantly reminded of what you can't have.

I am a greedy git (also bread-powered!), and my "reward" for being self indulgent is a period of lean eating once every year or so when I hit the top of my comfort range. Normal (ie sustainable) exercise doesn't burn off much fat (I believe you have to run from London to Birmingham to burn off about 1 lb of fat). It's keeping your body warm, heating up all that water, which fires it off (unless you are a slave chained to an oar on a Roman ship).

Exercise is obviously good though. I prefer walking because (a) it's easy, and therefore easy to motivate yourself to do (b) it's pleasant at this time of year, despite the summer temps already (c) it's free (d) it doesn't ruin your knees and (e) it gets you out of the house for long periods away from the fridge.

Unless you're walking past McDonalds of course.

Other assorted tips....

1) Porridge for breakfast/lunch. Tart it up with dried fruit or a posh muesli.
2) Clean your teeth straight away after eating.
3) Avoid fat and sugar. The less you have, the less you miss it and the more you enjoy the natural sweetness of fruit & veg. (Having a little of what you fancy might do you good, but it also reminds you of what you can't have).
4) Eat as much fruit (not bananas!) and veg as you want.

Ok, got to go, but something there might be useful... though if you're cutting down for a long period (rather than the two or three weeks I need every year) it's less sensible to cut out all fat (apart from omega 3 type supplements). It certainly works for me, but that doesn't mean it'll work for everyone.

Andrew McP
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I suppose if your only goal is weight loss then yeh the 2 meals is fine, all you need for weight loss is a calorie deficit, but if you want to avoid losing much muscle you need to have more meals with ~30g protein in each if possible. Your body can only process about that amount at each meal and takes about 3 hours to go through it so you need to keep that topped up as opposed to only getting that amount twice a day.

Also I'm just curious but why brush your teeth straight away? is that just a general good idea or is there actually a benefit?
 
FNGsam said:
Also I'm just curious but why brush your teeth straight away? is that just a general good idea or is there actually a benefit?
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Bacteria can start to breed as soon as you have eaten, but sugar free chewing gum is fine to help prevent / slow it down.
 
Philz0r said:
well im getting married in about 6 months and hoping to lose some of this belly.

im currently at 18.5 stone at a height of 6.01. last year i was jogging about 4 times a week and went from 21stone to 17.5 but got lazy to say the least lol.

so i've started jogging again, did my first run 2 days ago. just a local lap which is about 2.5miles and nearly died lol!.
when i was 21stone i used farlek (think thats how its spelt) when i struggled to jog more then 20 meters.

i also go down hill moutain biking which really boosted my fitness, only picked it back up 6 weeks ago since its been soaking wet and cold before that. (riding back up the hill is the hard part)

i have some weights in my bed room, and just do general lifts with them for about 15 minutes a day.


does anyone have any tips or surjestions for me to get into better shape?

im guessing the first one would be "get off the computer and get outside!" followed by "stop eating junk food!"

cheers Phil
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Stop drinking beer and play indoor footie Phil !!

Regs, Phil :)
 
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