My training log

[martygras19]

I am M, 31, 5' 8". After my wife having our second kid and finishing my PhD, my weight ballooned up to 210. That was the wake up call. I started at the beginning of Lent by cutting out sodas and candy bars (my usual afternoon snack). As of Good Friday, I weighed in at 198. I have been running 2 miles a day on the treadmill almost every day. I took Easter week off due to a case of the mini-flu that is going around. Here is my plan of attack to get down to 180 pounds by August 1st. This is pretty obtainable


Diet: Stricter control of meals. Smaller portions, less sugars and more lean protein

Cardio: Run for approx 30 minutes, 3 + days a week. I am not sure of the calories burned as I do not have Polar

Weight Training: I am going to do all bodyweight exercises and break it down into 2 sessions:

Session 1:

High Rep Deep Squats
Calf Raises
Crunches

Session 2:

Pull-ups
Push-ups (Wide and Narrow Spacing)
Dips


That is what I am going to start with. Any comments and suggestions are appreciated. I will try to post updates at least weekly.

[Marty]

I would run with this for four weeks - any chance of training with some real weights?

[paperboy]

I am M, 31, 5' 8". After my wife having our second kid and finishing my PhD, my weight ballooned up to 210. That was the wake up call. I started at the beginning of Lent by cutting out sodas and candy bars (my usual afternoon snack). As of Good Friday, I weighed in at 198. I have been running 2 miles a day on the treadmill almost every day. I took Easter week off due to a case of the mini-flu that is going around. Here is my plan of attack to get down to 180 pounds by August 1st. This is pretty obtainable


Diet: Stricter control of meals. Smaller portions, less sugars and more lean protein

Cardio: Run for approx 30 minutes, 3 + days a week. I am not sure of the calories burned as I do not have Polar

Weight Training: I am going to do all bodyweight exercises and break it down into 2 sessions:

Session 1:

High Rep Deep Squats
Calf Raises
Crunches

Session 2:

Pull-ups
Push-ups (Wide and Narrow Spacing)
Dips


That is what I am going to start with. Any comments and suggestions are appreciated. I will try to post updates at least weekly.

Great job Martygras19! I'm in the same boat as you--I tend to gain fat each time my wife is pregnant (that's 3 times so far!). I think it's something about being "empathetic" since us guys can't get pregos :wink:

Anyway, keep it up, and I'll be interested to see your progress as we have similar stats.

[martygras19]

Marty and Paperboy,

No chance to do some real weights yet. I just don't have room for weights at home right now and the gym at work is undergoing renovations, so they only have treadmills and bikes available right now. I hope to get to real weights in May. I am looking at getting some dumbells for home though. Any recommendations where I could get a bench that folds up vertically for better storage? I just don't have room for a fixed bench in the house right now or in the garage.

I think we will stop at 2 kids. I don't want to put all that weight back on again for a 3rd kid!!!

Today weighed in at 200. Up a little, but I tend to eat more on the weekends running around with the kids. I am back on the horse this week and hope to be back down to 198 or better by the end of the week. I will post an exercise summary with reps, etc.

Regards,

Marty

[martygras19]

Monday night I ran on the treadmill for 2.5 miles.

Tuesday night I did the following:

Deep Squats (bodyweight only): 2 x 80

Push Ups - Wide spacing: 2 x 30

Push Ups - Narrow spacing: 2 x 10

Crunches - regular: 2 x 50

Cruches - obliques: 2 x 20 on both sides

Calf Raises: 2 x 40

Weight = 200 (I need to do better watching how many calories I am taking in)


Needless to say, my legs felt like jelly this morning getting out of bed. Those deep squats are a real killer. I really am lacking upper body strength right now. I could only do 10 narrow spacing push ups. My pecs feel ripped today though!!!!!!!!!

[gre]

hi there,

I empathize with the PhD experience! I just finished mine last year and soon afterwards I came to realize how out of shape I had become. Very glad Marty got this website up. I'm training with a PT at the gym now but it takes a lot of amount of personal determination to keep it up because of my other responsibilities (a very busy/stressful/long-hours job) and the fact that the gym is not exactly next door. Marty's article on power walking got me going. Marty's latest article on how to keep it up while very busy is --again-- like written for me (thanks Marty)! For the last 2 weeks I've been doing mainly weekends in the gym. Gread to hear a professional justification of the "better something than nothing" rationale.

Keep us posted on how it goes. Good luck!

GRE

[Marty]

actually you can get quite strong training only two days a week - I once won a regional powerlfiting title after 10-straight weeks of weekend only power training - there was no way I was going to get to the gym during the week - I ended up squatting 660 weighing 220 - again - the ability to generate INTENSITY in training is the key - frankly, if you shock blast a body part as throughly and completely as possible (assuming you are an intermediate or advanced trainee) and that muscle is going to need 3-4-5 days to recover from the pounding. Don't think of it as treading water - you can get stronger on 2-day a week training - just don't make a religion out of it!

[gre]

Yes, definitely. I always get the feeling after I'm done that I had a killer workout. Having a PT overlooking the process helps too (I'm a competitive type of person, so I want to show my best!).

Btw, Marty, I finally found a protein powder I can live with (had problems with the taste of most). It's plain whey protein and got plenty of it, to add to my shakes and smoothies. Found it in a central Holland&Barrett here in London (UK) and it was on a 50% discount yesterday (last box). My local health food store doesn't have much by way of sports nutrition, and didn't want to buy online.

Work has been crazy and have been doing most of my exercise walking back and forth while commuting downtown and for weight lifting I have a 20lb mobile workstation to lag around daily (I'm only a petite woman, so that's something).

Back to more systematic training today (Sat) at the gym. Hooray!

GRE