I could use some serious beginner help

My advice is to track your diet on www.fitday.com, eat healthy food,
eat until you are not hungry anymore then stop, eat 5 times a day. Do
a Full body workout (weightlifting) Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and do
cardio Teusday, Thursday, and maybe once on the weekend if you feel up
to it.

If you start this all at once at a high intensity it will be sucide, so
start the sessions at 20-30 minutes at light inensity, and increase the
workload slowly week to week.

Also begin training for the pushups and situps right away, before your
cadio session would be a good time.

Don't lift, run, or do anything to failure. Use Free weights, your
workout should look something like this:

Squat
Bench
Row
....
....
....

Spend time reading up on proper form for Squats and all other lifts you
will be doing.

This is a good place to start reading:
http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html
--Falooley
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

>Lance Armstrong posts here. Look for his posts and you can learn a
lot! Perhaps he will post a personal reply to you, too!!>

Lance is a pussy. As we speak he's got a bicycle seat post up his arse,
as he pedals arounf France. I beat him everytime we met. Listen to me,
Lance is a loser.
I am The Bill Rodgers.
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

>I would appreciate ANY useful advice the group can offer.>

See a good shrink.
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

Quoting tried-n-true.TakeThisOut@sbcglobal.net:
>I am facing a pretty daunting task here, and I'm not real clear where
>to start. I'm in my mid-thirties and it's been quite a while since
>I've done any serious exercise. Well, I've decided that I would like
>to try and live out my life long dream of becoming a police officer.

>So my question is, where should I start?
[brev.]

The single most important thing you can do in meeting your goals is to
learn new habits that will help you to consistently eat less over
time. I'd suggest that you buy a digital food scale and start logging
your food intake. Go to Fitday at www.fitday.com for a free and easy
way to do so.

Another thing you may want to look into is a ketogenic (controlled
carb) diet. It can sure help one get started in terms of controlling
appetite.

>I don't need to work around a
>hectic schedule or anything, this is pretty much what I'm doing for the
>next six months, working out and eating healthy.
>
>Where can I get some good advice on what I should be eating?

>Are there any supplements that would help? Protein shakes, vitamins,
>anything else?

Mainly, just eat less. Weekly average calories is generally a good
way to look at it; teaches you how to smooth out intake over time
which is a good skill to learn.

Stick to mostly whole foods as they will generally be the most
filling. Lean protein sources, fibrous vegetables. A little fat here
and there won't hurt.

>How much cardio should I be doing? I plan to do 6 days a week,
>breaking it up between jogging and riding a Schwinn AirDyne I have at
>home. Unless there's a better way to go.

Don't overdo it. Going to 6 days cardio -and- 2-3 days/week lifting
from where you're at now probably isn't a good idea. At your weight,
the jogging is likely to be rather hard on your knees and feet, the
stationary might be a better idea until you get some of that weight
off of you. You'll have to be the judge of that.

For now, full body routine 2-3x a week, with some light cardio 2-3x a
week is probably good enough. In a couple of months, re-evaluate.

>What type of weight workout would be best? My thought was something
>like 2-3 times a week, full body workout at the gym.

Sounds good.
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

Over the last year or so, I've come pretty close to accomplishing what you
hope to accomplish, although I haven't paid particular attention to such
specific goals as yours.

I improved my diet a lot, shooting for 2000 calories/day (I'm 6'1" or so), a
little heavy on protein, multiple small meals/snacks, and avoiding junk like
refined grains and other empty carbs, fatty/greasy foods, sweets, and
alcohol. I'm not perfect about my diet, and I don't try to be. I force
myself to be active even when not exercising; frequent walks, taking the
stairs rather than elevators, &c.

I started by working out a consistent three times a week, each workout
involving some cardio and a full-body weight routine. The cardio progressed
from a stationary recumbent bicycle to a stationary upright bicycle to a
rowing machine to a treadmill. The treadmill was terribly boring, so now I
jog/run outside, which I like much better, roughly four miles at a time,
three times a week. I've also switched to doing cardio and weights on
different days, which gets me to working out six days a week.

For weights, I started with something like squats, deadlift, assisted
pullups, bench, some sort of rows, shoulder presses, crunches, and back
extensions, one set, with the weight and the number of reps changing over
the course of the week. I switched at some point to the intermediate
full-body workout from stumptuous.com, and right now I'm doing five sets of
five, squat, deadlift, bench or incline bench or dip, pullup (I can't manage
five sets of five dips or pullups), and three or four more varying
exercises, varying intensity week by week.

I've lost 80+ pounds over the last year or so, I can run five miles or more,
squat 1.25 or 1.5 bodyweight, deadlift 1.5 bodyweight, and bench .75
bodyweight. Not great, but given the abysmal shape I've been in for most of
my adult life, it's a good start.

Good luck.

/s/ Rankin Johnson IV


<tried-n-true.RemoveThis@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:1120836326.815370.35000@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>I am facing a pretty daunting task here, and I'm not real clear where
> to start. I'm in my mid-thirties and it's been quite a while since
> I've done any serious exercise. Well, I've decided that I would like
> to try and live out my life long dream of becoming a police officer.
>
> To give you an idea where I'm starting, I went out and bought one of
> those Tanita scales that estimates your body fat total. I'm 6'5" and
> yesterday I weighed in at 305 pounds and 35% body fat. Bad, I know.
>
> My goals are the following;
>
> Lose weight and body fat. Lose enough weight and get in good enough
> shape that I can start testing for some departments in 3-5 months.
> Eventually I need to get to my ideal weight, I'm guessing about 235 at
> around 15% body fat. Let's say a year from now, before the police
> academy starts.
>
> Be able to meet the PT requirements for the testing and the academy.
> The initial agility test is pretty much an obstacle course, climbing
> fences, dragging a weighted dummy, climbing a ladder while holding a
> shotgun, etc. That would be about 3-5 months out. To be prepared for
> the academy I would need to be able to do 25-30 push-ups, plenty of
> sit-ups, and be able to run 2-3 miles every day. That would be about
> year out.
>
> So my question is, where should I start? I don't need to work around a
> hectic schedule or anything, this is pretty much what I'm doing for the
> next six months, working out and eating healthy.
>
> Where can I get some good advice on what I should be eating?
>
> Are there any supplements that would help? Protein shakes, vitamins,
> anything else?
>
> How much cardio should I be doing? I plan to do 6 days a week,
> breaking it up between jogging and riding a Schwinn AirDyne I have at
> home. Unless there's a better way to go.
>
> What type of weight workout would be best? My thought was something
> like 2-3 times a week, full body workout at the gym. On top of that, I
> probably need to start getting used to doing lots of push-ups and
> sit-ups.
>
> I would appreciate ANY useful advice the group can offer.
>
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

>asswipe>

Abuse report sent.
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

<THETBR.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1120844525.528220.326660@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> >I would appreciate ANY useful advice the group can offer.>
>
> See a good shrink.
>
Obviously the one you have been seeing isnt a good shrink, asswipe
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

tried-n-true@SNIP:

> I weighed in at 305 pounds and 35%
> body fat.
>
> My goals are the following;
>
> Lose weight and body fat. Eventually
> I need to get to my ideal weight, I'm
> guessing about 235 at around 15% body
> fat. Let's say a year

> I would appreciate ANY useful advice
> the group can offer.

I'll echo Falooley and Suze:
http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html
http://www.fitday.com/

And toss in my two cents:
1) Walk/run at the local track. It will get you out of the house and
away from the fridge, computer, chores at home, etc.
2) If your gym doesn't have an assisted-pull up machine, you can do
assisted pull ups by putting a bench behind you, your legs bent, and
feet on chair to remove some bodyweight as you pull yourself up.
3) In addition to your situps, do some crunches or V sit-ups
<http://www.chap.com/aw06.htm> and knee-ins
<http://www.chap.com/aw03.htm> for your abs as well.

Best of luck. And remember (for the future) that when you pull people
over, warnings are always appreciated!

--
Curt
http://curtjames.com/
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

<KingWilliamtheDavidson.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1120858215.901492.203130@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> >asswipe>
>
> Abuse report sent.
>
Abuse report sent to groups-abuse.DeleteThis@google.com
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help 

In article <1120858215.901492.203130 DeleteThis @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
<KingWilliamtheDavidson DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>>asswipe>
>
>Abuse report sent.

Because he called someone an asswipe? That should be funny. Asswipe.

Seth
--
99% of the time, he is rude to the people who do in fact deserve
it. -- Will Brink
 >> Stay informed about: I could use some serious beginner help