Gym Monkeys - whats a good drink?

NumptyUK · 11 Aug 2007 at 21:53

Ok im need a decent drink, i find im totally out of energy and ready to drop about half way through a session so need an energy booster to keep me going. It has to be something without caffene though.

I was looking at the Nutrisport website and its just a bit confusing how many options they have there.

My routine is 80mins hard cardio, 3 weights circuits of 8 exercises each and then some stretchy stuff on the mats. Im just finding im ready to puke after the 2nd weights circuit

The 3 powders ive narrowed it down to are creatine, energy boost and the muscle fuel one. Just not sure which would be best.

http://www.nutrisport.co.uk/estorepro/product_results.asp?catid=3

Suggestions would be great

DanH84 · 11 Aug 2007 at 21:57

i wouldn't really say it'd be odd to feel like puking if doing 3 sets of full body weight circuit after 80 minutes of hard cardio really.

Chong Warrior · 11 Aug 2007 at 22:01

NumptyUK said:
Suggestions would be great

You don't need an energy drink, you NEED to stop over-training

NumptyUK · 11 Aug 2007 at 22:14

well its something to do isnt it i guess. Easy to say if your nice and slim

But the batteries are defenitly flat at that point and i just need something that gives a better kick than water or the overpriced stuff full of crap you can buy in the shops.

Chong Warrior · 11 Aug 2007 at 22:52

Well you're definately right to stay away from all the crappy energy drinks that are available in the shops. At best they're a rip-off, at worst very unhealthy. I can definately suggest some things that can give you a nice boost and help improve your stamina. First though I think you should sort your training out as otherwise all I'll be doing is helping you to burn yourself out

I take it your goal is to lose weight? Most important thing is your diet, you can lose weight without killing yourself in the gym you know

Let us help you with that, so post it up if you don't mind? Then your routine, then any drinks that might help.

Morba · 11 Aug 2007 at 23:09

are you trying to kill yourself each session or something?
brutal workout!

Skull · 11 Aug 2007 at 23:28

Chong Warrior said:
Well you're definately right to stay away from all the crappy energy drinks that are available in the shops. At best they're a rip-off, at worst very unhealthy. I can definately suggest some things that can give you a nice boost and help improve your stamina. First though I think you should sort your training out as otherwise all I'll be doing is helping you to burn yourself out

I take it your goal is to lose weight? Most important thing is your diet, you can lose weight without killing yourself in the gym you know Let us help you with that, so post it up if you don't mind? Then your routine, then any drinks that might help.

Yeah definitely stop overtraining! When I was about to leave uni, one day at the gym i realised i hadn't planned properly and it was my last session, so I went for an hour and a half. This was on a deadlift day. I drank two lucozades and it did NOTHING!

NumptyUK · 12 Aug 2007 at 00:23

well my diet is ok i guess

Breakfast: a mix of muslei/allbran with skimmed milk
I'll eat 5 or 6 peices of fruit during the day
Lunch: Tuna or chicken salad
evening meal usually a weight watchers thing with a couple of wholemeal rolls.
Now i know all the sins of pre-packed food but im guessing weight watchers has to be ok.
weekends maybe a thin crust chicken and corn pizza (asda style) and a bag of fish and chips on a friday.

If i go out i'll drink vodka and cokes

Workout is:

20 min run
20 min x trainer
2k row (10 mins ish)
20 min cycle

then the weights concentrating on upper body stuff, 3 circuits of 10 reps on each machine, 7 or 8ish machines depending on how i feel at the time.
then the stretchy things and situps on the mats for 20ish mins i guess. 3 or 4 times a week.

Im just fat and spent too long being fat so a little obsessed

I dont think its brutal i just think i havnt stepped things up this hard before, ive only really just run for a little bit, cycled for a little bit and not much else, give it a few weeks and i'll be ok with it.

SK07 · 12 Aug 2007 at 00:41

^Just to add to you. I found out of all the cardio machines the cross trainer was the best. So I'd def keep the cross trainer and running on the treadmill for that matter. They rack up the calories like nothing on earth for me. 20 mins on a high resistance I hit 400-500 calories easy. I don't use the treadmill though. But doing this and having a diet that's good for weight loss has done fine. And imo your diet looks fine for starting out, pretty damn good if you ask me. That's roughly how I started out and it's been going great as I've lost quite a bit of body fat and inches especially around the waist.

Alough im not an expert like the others im just giving a review if you like. Yep your over-doing it completely. I started off the same and it was a mess as you end up gaining nothing out of it. 3 months I did cardio only in a hope to lose a lot of weight/body fat and it did nothing at all in all honesty possibly my diet was to blame but still. Now I have a full weight program, don't just do your upper body do all over pretty much what I have for 4 days per week. And I finish off with the cross trainer for 20 mins on a high resistance. It's been a month and I have lost a lot like I said. I don't really take my weight on scales into consideration as muscle weighs more than fat so since im building muscle at the same time it isn't going to change much.

Chong Warrior · 12 Aug 2007 at 01:19

NumptyUK said:
well my diet is ok i guess

Breakfast: a mix of muslei/allbran with skimmed milk
I'll eat 5 or 6 peices of fruit during the day
Lunch: Tuna or chicken salad
evening meal usually a weight watchers thing with a couple of wholemeal rolls.
Now i know all the sins of pre-packed food but im guessing weight watchers has to be ok.
weekends maybe a thin crust chicken and corn pizza (asda style) and a bag of fish and chips on a friday.

If i go out i'll drink vodka and cokes

First off how often do you go out drinking? Is this once a month, week? Two or three times a week? Are those diet cokes? Are you getting hammered or just a few social drinks? Alcohol is very calorie dense, carrying almost as many calories as fat per gram, except these are even worse as they're empty.

I think your diet is poor, not the worst I've seen by a long way but still poor. Not enough protein or fat, infact probably not enough of anything to be honest. Cheat meals are ok, infact they're good for a couple of reasons but you mention "weekends" does this mean you have pizza all weekend or just one? Try and keep the cheating down to one day a week. Fish & Chips friday, pizza saturday and sunday is too much mate.

Do you drink fizzy drinks? Or any kind of fruit juice during the days?

Also fruit is good but 5 or 6 servings a day is maybe a little excessive. What kind of fruit?

NumptyUK said:
Workout is:

20 min run
20 min x trainer
2k row (10 mins ish)
20 min cycle

then the weights concentrating on upper body stuff, 3 circuits of 10 reps on each machine, 7 or 8ish machines depending on how i feel at the time.
then the stretchy things and situps on the mats for 20ish mins i guess. 3 or 4 times a week.

Right drop this "how I feel at the time" type of workout. Get a structured routine that has you progressing every week, this is absolutely VITAL.

Hit the weights first. Spend about 40 minutes weight training and then do some cardio afterwards but not the amount you're doing :eek:

You want to do more cardio then do it on another day. So:
Monday - Weights & Cardio
Tuesday - Cardio
Wednesday - Weights & Cardio
Thursday - Cardio
Friday - Weights & Cardio
Weekend - REST

NumptyUK said:
Im just fat and spent too long being fat so a little obsessed I dont think its brutal i just think i havnt stepped things up this hard before, ive only really just run for a little bit, cycled for a little bit and not much else, give it a few weeks and i'll be ok with it.

You say you're fat, what are your stats? How much do you want to lose?

I think that routine is brutal. If it isn't then you aren't training hard enough and with enough intensity

dalin80 · 12 Aug 2007 at 17:12

overdoing it tbh, i was told being knackered is your bodies way of telling you when to stop, the trainer i had after trashing a leg in a car accident gave a lecture about the damage going overboard does.

frankly it isnt worth it short term big muscles long term damage.

NumptyUK · 12 Aug 2007 at 17:20

ok fair do's , drifting off the original question though

So how much cardio would you recommend? Just a half hour run then weights? IM more interested int hecardio side than the weights side anyway, i dont particularly want a six pack (not thats its likely to happen anyway lol) i just want some muscles there to help the metabolism along. I need to lose weight , not add to it with muscles.

SK07 · 12 Aug 2007 at 17:35

NumptyUK said:
ok fair do's , drifting off the original question though

So how much cardio would you recommend? Just a half hour run then weights? IM more interested int hecardio side than the weights side anyway, i dont particularly want a six pack (not thats its likely to happen anyway lol) i just want some muscles there to help the metabolism along. I need to lose weight , not add to it with muscles.

Sounds like you contradicted yourself on that last sentence

. More lean muscle you have the more fat you will effectivly burn (correct me if im wrong experts

). Weight training has so many more benefits imo.

dalin80 · 12 Aug 2007 at 19:47

the best overall exercise i know of for just losing a bit of weight rather then beefing up is swimming.

weights are more of a muscle building thing.

thats not my area tbh, certainly wasn't fun when i last had to get myself sorted.

Chong Warrior · 13 Aug 2007 at 13:01

dalin80 said:
the best overall exercise i know of for just losing a bit of weight rather then beefing up is swimming.

weights are more of a muscle building thing.

thats not my area tbh, certainly wasn't fun when i last had to get myself sorted.

Swimming is a fantastic way to improve your fitness but I certainly wouldn't say it's the best for losing bodyfat, which is what most people's goal is. There's a difference to losing "weight" and losing "bodyfat". In my experience losing weight is the most simple thing in the world, you just don't eat as much as you burn. This usually results in muscle, water and fat loss but at the end of the day the scales say you've lost weight. Much trickier trying to hold onto muscle and just lose fat and this is where weights are invaluable.

Also as I understand it, swimming can make the body try to hang onto fat. I'm not sure exactly how much this effects things but the idea makes sense. Fat is lighter and more buoyant than muscle, so bodyfat helps the body float in water. Fat is also good for insulation against the cold water, so another reason to make the body try and hang onto fat? We've had this discussion before and there was something about comparing two olympic athletes, one a swimmer and one a track runner. The swimmer carried a lot more bodyfat.

Weights will build you a little extra muscle in the first month or two of training but unless you secifically train and eat for strength, power, hypertrophy you won't be building unwanted muscles.