Please critique my exercise regimen

[rogue synthetic]

I am presently seeking advice and critique on my current exercise regimen. I am currently working out three times a week and my program involves jogging on the treadmill with an incline, elliptical machine and biking. I jog on the treadmill with an incline for around 2miles and the other 3 miles are on the elliptical machine and bike. My goal is to lower my body fat percentage and stay healthy. Please critique my program and let me know if you need additional details. I am looking forward to your replies!

Much like a map, if I don't know where you are I can't tell you the best way there.

 

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[whiz]

Yeah, upon revisiting this thread - you need some goals

Go look up photos of people at your height at different bodyfat % and pick one and shoot for that

Also define what "staying healthy" is to you

Also I'm totally gonna talk shit on "to shin do" or ninjitsu - save your time and $

Based upon your interest in cardio, sign up for Muay Thai

Then do Jiu Jitsu if you wanna supplement it with grappling

 

[biophase]

Thank you for the helpful replies! I intend to attend a To-Shin-Do school, add the rowing machine, go swimming and have a clean diet.

How important is weight lifting for your health compared to the aforementioned regimen? I used to do the starting strength regimen, however I felt that the pain and soreness was not worth the time and effort.

You are only sore the first week. It's definitely worth the time and effort. You will need to move some weights at some point. The rowing machine is fine, but you will find that you can row with much more power once you get some muscle on you.

 

[whiz]

And p.s. how long did you do starting strength?

If you were having "pain" or intense soreness, you either had bad form, did not eat/hydrate properly, did not take enough time between workout days, or did not sleep enough

Or you have some disease or something (hopefully not)

Or you're sensitive/not hardened yet - a lot of new lifters are sore for a week or two - this is normal

You should not be f'd up to the point that it's debilitating. Just a little soreness at most.

 

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[Kyle T]

No hate intended here, but do you give your clients advice like this without understanding their goal and desires?

Without knowing and understanding the person and their goals, this advice will just result in a ton of wasted time, imo.

It is general guidelines to help people because 90% of individuals are working out to burn some fat and build a little muscle. It's the advice that I give to people as bare minimums to ensure success towards those two goals.

I made an assumption based on my experience... As you noted, I can't give specific recommendations without consulting him but those general recommendations are pretty safe.
-

A little background to break those two down a bit more...

Recommendation #1:

Anyone with a weight loss goal should strive to lose 1 pound per week. To burn that 1-pound of fat, a person needs to burn 3,500 calories.

If you do a moderate to an intense workout, then you can hope to burn 700 calories in a single workout.

5 workouts/week * 700 calories/workout = 3500 calories/week = -1 Pound per week

This recommendation of 5 workouts per week is designed to get you burning 1 pound of fat without making any changes to your diet. Make changes to your diet and the same numbers apply, and the results will compound.

-500 calories/day * 7 days/week= -3500 calories/week = - 1 pound per week
-1000 calories/day * 7/days/week = -7000 calories/week = - 2 pounds per week


Recommendation #2: This rule regarding lifting weights is based on the optimal window for muscle growth.

Over the course of 48-72 hours after a workout, our muscles go through what is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

Following doms, there is a brief window of 1-2 days where our muscles are primed for our next workout. Any longer and our body will start to regress and muscles will start to atrophy.

 

[lowtek]

Thank you for the helpful replies! I intend to attend a To-Shin-Do school, add the rowing machine, go swimming and have a clean diet.

How important is weight lifting for your health compared to the aforementioned regimen? I used to do the starting strength regimen, however I felt that the pain and soreness was not worth the time and effort.

If you're feeling pain and soreness after the first couple weeks, something is wrong with your form. Hire someone to watch you and figure out what you're doing wrong.

As far as health benefits, how does an inverse correlation between muscle mass and mortality sound?

Older adults: Build muscle and you'll live longer

Besides that, strong people are harder to kill, and more useful in general.

 

[The Abundant Man]

\
Based upon your interest in cardio, sign up for Muay Thai

Then do Jiu Jitsu if you wanna supplement it with grappling

Nah, he should be doing some wire-fu:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgL7f5DAcoI

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1PCtIaM_GQ

 

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[Timmy C]

Thank you for the helpful replies! I intend to attend a To-Shin-Do school, add the rowing machine, go swimming and have a clean diet.

How important is weight lifting for your health compared to the aforementioned regimen? I used to do the starting strength regimen, however I felt that the pain and soreness was not worth the time and effort.

Pain and soreness not Werth time and effort?! Don't be a pussy!!!!!! Best decision I ever made was to push through that pain and keep going, your mates straight like there old and on there last breath, here you come along strong as a motherfcker And get shit done.

It's not worth the time and effort now because your a bitch ATM OP. give yourself a message to push past the pain and persevere, you won't only love it, but you'll wonder why you where such a girl in the first place. Plus your life will be on easier mode.... Ever picked up a week's worth of shopping for a family of 8 in one hit and carry it in like a boss? I have makes you feel like a rockstar.

If you keep going the pain won't be as bad.

Edited as was drunk when typed this.... much alcohol

 

[Timmy C]

Pain and soreness not Werth time and effort?! Don't be a pussy!!!!!! Best decision I ever made was to push through that pain and keep going, your mates straight like there old and on there last breath, here you come along strong as a motherfcker And get sh*t done.

It's not worth the time and effort now because your a bitch ATM OP. give yourself a message to push past the pain and persevere, you won't only love it, but you'll wonder why you where such a girl in the first place. Plus your life will be on easier mode.... Ever picked up a week's worth of shopping for a family of 8 in one hit and carry it in like a boss? I have makes you feel like a rockstar.

If you keep going the pain won't be as bad.

Edited as was drunk when typed this.... much alcohol

Wow drunk tim can be a real dickhead.

 

[MetalGear]

Take action for a week and report back to us with what you felt, what you liked, and what your challenges us.

That is the best way, get some momentum going.

Remember to ramp up - there is a good pain and bad pain, one indicates tissue breakdown and repair, the other is just outright injury.

 

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[luniac]

Thank you for the reply. I am mindful of the foods that I am eating and on a caloric deficit. Furthermore I am following the control command and aware of most of the macros, micros and minerals that I am consuming.

What is your opinion on the exercises? Should I add/subtract anything else for cardiovascular health? I know that swimming is good and looking to add that to my program.

Don't be on a calorie deficit, that only works in the short term.
Practice intermittent fasting instead.

 

[NuclearPuma]

If your diet is in check, keep that priority number one. Choose a physical activity you enjoy and is not overly burdensome on your schedule. The fewer mental and physical barriers the more success you will have.

Also, you are smart enough to figure out what is right for you. Take control, you don't need to defer every life decision to Google. Read a book or two, and do it.

 

[Jon Anthony]

As someone who sells a fitness eBook and has done multiple photoshoots, here are my thoughts:

• If your goal is weight loss, then diet is going to be 80% responsible for that.
• Start lifting weights in addition to doing cardio.

That's it. Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS). Never complicate more than necessary.

I recommend you do a ketosis based diet. Lots of protein and fats, very low carbs.

 

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[Marc RV]

Everybody is different. I think it's useful to experiment, not only with exercise but also with your diet, which I believe is key.
I did long distance running, cycling, MA, weights etc. all will improve your fitness if done regularly. For me, the most effective in terms of time vs effect was interval training. You can check "Burpee Cardio Challenge for Fat Burning" on youtube to see what I mean. This kind of exercise doesn't take much time and gives you full workout.

 

[LuckyPup]

I am presently seeking advice and critique on my current exercise regimen. I am currently working out three times a week and my program involves jogging on the treadmill with an incline, elliptical machine and biking. I jog on the treadmill with an incline for around 2miles and the other 3 miles are on the elliptical machine and bike. My goal is to lower my body fat percentage and stay healthy. Please critique my program and let me know if you need additional details. I am looking forward to your replies!

Do some weight/strength training. The more lean mass you have, the more efficient you are at burning fat.

 

[justacar]

the only thing i would change: exercise every day. the key is consistency. i found that i failed doing any x days / week program completely as some work related thing would throw me off schedule. now i do something every day, first thing in the morning. i think overall it's not what you do, but the consistency & how you do it. you could have a great exercise program, but if you only do it half assed for an hour, it's not going to do a thing

 

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[handog]

There's a series of podcasts that I bought a few years ago if you just search for "adonis index immersion"

The program excels at getting your mindset right with regard to food and working out. I've been working out now 4x a week and maybe have missed 10 days in a year but it has done wonders for me and teaches how most everything in the diet / fitness industry is snake oil.

 

[Byakko]

Well... A lot has been said already and I agree with most of it. I specially agree with the part of a clean diet and strength training.

Together with eating clean, you could try doing intermittent fasting. Might help you with weight loss and with other aspects of your health.

Regarding strength training, I would consider doing it following a methodology called grease the groove. It's a really nice way to get stronger with a really really low risk of injury. You can google it or read the book "The naked warrior" by Pavel Tsatsouline.

Now, just to had something that I feel was barely touched here. Which is mobility. In my opinion if you want to have an healthy body, free of injury and free of pain, you really need to pay attention to your mobility. When you neglect it, what will happen most of the time, is some kind of chronic pain depending on what kind of activity you are doing (or from doing nothing at all). Example: If you run a lot much and are not doing your mobility work, you will have hamstring issues. If you're doing weight lifting you might get shoulder issues. So if I were you I'd be carefull enough to had these to my routines. gymnasticbodies.com have great resources on this.

 

[OlivierMo]

I am presently seeking advice and critique on my current exercise regimen. I am currently working out three times a week and my program involves jogging on the treadmill with an incline, elliptical machine and biking. I jog on the treadmill with an incline for around 2miles and the other 3 miles are on the elliptical machine and bike. My goal is to lower my body fat percentage and stay healthy. Please critique my program and let me know if you need additional details. I am looking forward to your replies!

Do whatever makes you feel good. Your body and mind should tell you. (There's even a point where exercise can make you depressed.) I hate lifting weights b/c i find it utterly boring. I personally think looking like a gorilla isn't appealing. I'd rather be svelte, agile with some core strength to keep a nice posture. If you like running, run. If you like lifting, lift. Don't listen to what people say aside from diet advise.

 

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[Frank H.]

It all depends upon your goals, age, current fitness level, etc. The above commenters all have good ideas.

I'll just say that your current regimen is more or less three of the same excercise. All cardio, all lower body. Same muscles (more or less), same energy systems. It is like a fitness regimen consisting of 1) barbell bench pressing 2) dumbell bench pressing and 3) incline bench pressing.

Doing three different types of cardio is certainly a lot better than sitting on the couch! So, congrats on that. But I would suggest picking a single cardio exercise and adding in some lifting and some mobility work or practice like yoga.

Cardio is definitely important. But it is a single aspect of health and fitness. So many people think "steady state cardio = healthy" and it simply isn't true.

Thanks for the response. Do you have any advice on another exercise I can add? I was thinking the rowing machine and something else. I am looking forward to your reply.

 

[Frank H.]

I'll wade in here as I'm doing the exact same exercises. I don't think You're in danger of looking scrawny unless you have a marathon runners physique as your legs are getting a good workout especially on an incline.

I'd consider adding 10 minutes of rowing on max resistance for a useful core and arm workout though.

I will switch static cycling with rowing 2-3 times a week.

If you want to really drop the weight quickly consider Intermittent Fasting. Dead easy, loads of health benefits and the weight plummets (not difficult to lose 4-6lbs a week of FAT loss, NOT fat+muscle). Check out 16/8 as a starting point and then you may want to move on to OMAD at a later stage and possibly then adapt to a KETO diet. I'm on OMAD + KETO and its not hard to lose 1lb a day consistently and the health benefits are truly worth the effort (not that much effort is required).

A good overview is this video:

Improvement Pill

Thanks for the helpful reply. Is this the rowing exercise that you were referring to?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc2bVqkkcDE


Also do you have any advice on other exercises you would add? I am looking forward to your reply.

 

[RazorCut]

Thanks for the helpful reply. Is this the rowing exercise that you were referring to?

Yes, that's it though most gyms tend to use a Concept 2 rowing machine. In fact their web site has a good diagram of muscles involved in the exercise.

https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/muscles-used

So you can see it's a good workout for your core and arms and also tones the legs though I find the legs get the easy ride which is why I do rowing after running or hard cross trainer work to give them a bit of a rest.

Also do you have any advice on other exercises you would add? I am looking forward to your reply.

If you are looking at just losing weight 3 cardio exercises are fine. Personally I would use rowing, running and the elliptical machine (cross trainer). That way you tone up pretty much every muscle. I actually do like a stepper machine but my gym doesn't have one and you tend to find it's always in use as women love it for tightening up their glutes. However it's a great exercise for quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles.

Bear in mind that there are many ways to lose weight which is why it is such a contentious subject, and why I am only responding to this thread again because you asked for my opinion.

Some have said standard cardio exercise is a poor way of burning calories. Yes you don't burn a huge volume during the exercise but, just like weight training, your body continues to burn calories for many, many hours afterwards which is the thing most people don't bear in mind.

I totally agree that if you want to lose weight it's 90% diet though. However you can be thin and unfit. Cardio exercise in my mind is very important for health. But again there are many ways to get it.

You can use sprint interval training [SIT]) or high intensity training ( HIIT) to achieve similar results to moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) which is what you are currently doing.

Details on these here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEc7QFc5vIQ


Study results comparing high intensity and moderate-intensity continuous training here:

Be the tortoise or the hare: it doesn’t matter for fat loss

There are also plenty of other options to consider. Pretty much any martial art, wrestling, boxing etc. will give you a great cardiovascular workout. If it increases your heart rate through some form of resistance it is basically doing its job. My gym is closed for a week so I do a 4 mile hike through the forest each day. It takes in a climb of around a 1000 feet and I find that a pretty solid workout.

It seems a lot of the guys on the forum love to lift weights. I do too, and not just to look good. More muscle not only stabilises your core and helps prevent injury it also means you will burn more calories at rest as well so is certainly something you should consider. Yes you will be sore and stiff for a couple of weeks but it settles down (I wouldn't say it goes away) and it does become addictive.

All 3 of my boys still live at home. Two are really into fitness. My middle child just did his first full marathon in Cannes (the French Riviera).

When it comes to weight loss I can't emphasise diet enough, which is why I mentioned it in my first post.

My oldest boy is seriously into his weight training and is a qualified personal trainer. Obviously he knows a lot about nutrition and diet and he will be the first to stress that diet is THE most important aspect of weight loss. Here he is prior to competition.

 

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