362 replies to this topic

[Romeo29]

I've started this thread as i've had a few requests for advice regarding improving fitness.

I'm a qualified Fitness Instructor, so I can provide exercise advice for people who are;

• Wanting to join the Police
  
• Already serving, but due a job related physical assessment
  
• Anyone who wants to improve their fitness for their own reasons

So feel free to post any questions in this thread & i'll reply as quickly as possible.

Hope I can be of help

Romeo29

[MrsSkippy]

Cool...here's one for you....

I hate exercise, gyms and extertion!!! Seriously, I had a sproglet 6 months ago via the sunroof method and am desperate to get my pre rugrat figure back!!!

I gave up smoking 18months ago and since then I have discovered my inner crisp fiend and have put on around 2 stone!!

I really can't stand the thought of running, swimming or going to a gym (self concious and all that)...what I want is some kind of excercise that will burn the calories that doesn't involve me getting self concious or bored (treadmill etc).....

I patiently await your advice....

(p.s...I like gardening and my dogs)

[Romeo29]

Cool...here's one for you....

I hate exercise, gyms and extertion!!! Seriously, I had a sproglet 6 months ago via the sunroof method and am desperate to get my pre rugrat figure back!!!

I gave up smoking 18months ago and since then I have discovered my inner crisp fiend and have put on around 2 stone!!

I really can't stand the thought of running, swimming or going to a gym (self concious and all that)...what I want is some kind of excercise that will burn the calories that doesn't involve me getting self concious or bored (treadmill etc).....

I patiently await your advice....

(p.s...I like gardening and my dogs)

Yep, thats a tricky one!!!

Could you buy an exercise bike & stick it infront of the tv & cycle while you watch Corrie/Eastenders or whatever you Women watch in an evening instead of Top Gear? You would be distracted from the exercise & the exertion by watching the tv. Not a good idea if you're skint though, bikes cost money!!!

Taking the little one out in the pram is a great excuse for exercise, do you have a big local park or a lake you could walk round? Take some bread too, not for you, but for the Ducks .

Housework is good too, hoovering, mowing the lawn; thats all good exercise.

Eating is a major issue though, because however much exercise you do, if you're countering it with naughty foods its a bit pointless. Try replacing crisps with, grapes. Sounds silly I know, but it works for me, if i'm peckish & think about having crisps/chocolate I go for the grapes which fill me up & taste good too


A Wii Fit actually works at toning you up, its all from the comfort of your own home. I've got one & it does work. Again cost could be a problem there.

How does that sound?

[TA-TL-TBreak]

For my question I have a running machine and a cross trainer, what is the best way of spending my time on these machines per week to lose the maximum weight possible safely.

Lets say I have a good diet and am medically fit, what combination of time spent on each machine, pace to go at, days on and off, etc, would be optimum for losing weight?

[Romeo29]

For my question I have a running machine and a cross trainer, what is the best way of spending my time on these machines per week to lose the maximum weight possible safely.

Lets say I have a good diet and am medically fit, what combination of time spent on each machine, pace to go at, days on and off, etc, would be optimum for losing weight?

The standard/recommended amount of exercise is 30mins of Cardiovascular work each day.

As Treadmills & X-trainers do virtually the same thing it doesn't really matter which one you use. The Treadmill is a bit more intense though.

The pace is entirely up to you, based on how you feel while you're exercising. I can't say, for example, "Run at 8mph for half an hour" simply because you might not be able to do that. Just walk/run at a pace that you're comfortable with .

Depending on your current fitness level, decide whether you want to start at 10/15mins a day at a comfortable pace & gradually increase from there.

You can add resistance on the X-trainer or an incline on the Treadmill.

Rest days are, again, entirely up to you, don't do too much, but do as much as you can without going OTT.

Does that help?

[Romeo29]

To burn fat, you need to be exercising at a Fairly/Moderately hard pace, if you thought of it as a series of numbers, based on how you feel;

1- Very Very Light Exercise/ How you feel when you're chilled out, watching a film for example

2- Very Light Exercise/ How you'd feel walking around the house, making a drink for example

3- Moderate Exercise
Here is best for a warm up before exercising. You'd feel a little bit clammy with sweat & a little out of breath
4- Moderate Exercise

5-

6-

7- Fairly Hard

Here is best for Fat Burning. You'd feel, quite sweaty/quite out of breath, but you'd be able to manage at that pace & keep it up.

8- Moderately Hard

9- Hard

10- Very Hard - So out of breath you cannot speak, pouring with sweat.


I hope this makes sense, it is a variation of the RPE (Rate of Percieved Exertion) scale developed by a man called Borg.

For me, I may feel that I am between 3-4 when jogging at 6mph, but for someone else the same exercise may by 7-8. It is a self-assessed scale.

Edited by Romeo29, 01 April 2009 - 10:48 PM.

[x024684427]

At the moment, im trying to increase my Fitness and my Muscle Mass / Strength / Power.

I cycle to work, (Which is part time because im a student). Which is helping my heart and lungs.

I go to the gym once every 3 days, but only work on the upper half of my body.

Could you suggest Anything that could help me improve?

Edit: Also, anything that can make me run faster.. Im not too fast, and i'd like to speed up!

Edited by x024684427, 01 April 2009 - 11:07 PM.

[Romeo29]

At the moment, im trying to increase my Fitness and my Muscle Mass / Strength / Power.

I cycle to work, (Which is part time because im a student). Which is helping my heart and lungs.

I go to the gym once every 3 days, but only work on the upper half of my body.

Could you suggest Anything that could help me improve?

Edit: Also, anything that can make me run faster.. Im not too fast, and i'd like to speed up!

Increasing your muscle mass & strength is best achieved through weight training, a good way to do this it by doing what I call "building sets." You select a weight to do 3 sets of 6 reps with; the weight should be heavy enough for you to only just be able to manage the 6 every time. This adds a little overload to your muscles, pushing them that little bit harder, helping them to grow .

Lots of reps with a smaller weight will maintain current strength/muscle mass
Less reps with a higher weight will increase strength/muscle mass

The Cycling you're doing will be going a long way to improving your Cardiovascular fitness. As for running, the best way to improve is to do more- Try setting yourself a goal, for example 1mile in 13mins, work towards that & then gradually increase the distance or decrease the time taken.
Also, try a running partner, perhaps someone who is a little better than you are, that adds some competition & motivates you to improve to beat them.


Remember to take a rest inbetween sets & always warm up & cool down before & after exercise!!!
Always drink plenty of water, before, during & after exercise!!!

[Robochop]

Here's an interesting one for you ....
I currently think I'm a bit of a fitness guru as well, but find myself stuck on this particular quandary :

I go to the gym 4 -6 times a week.
I do 45 - 60 minutes of spinning each night, 1 hour of boxing on Fridays, and 10 minutes of rowing each night (after spinning and boxing). With that, 3 nights a week I have weights - predominantly upper weights, but some lower as well, and stomach exercises every night.

I now would like to start training for my first triathlon - and have NO idea where to start. I bought the Zest book, on training for your first triathlon, but can't be asked to follow any of the instructions - I'd rather hear it from a PT.

I'm not sure which triathlon to do yet, or when I plan on doing it - which poses a question - how long so you need to train for?

So, if you could give me a good place to start - exercises as well as timelines to follow, I would be eternally grateful ...

P.S - nice post, by the way - I'm sure it's going to help a lot of people

[Waddy]

Perhaps I may chip in, as I have previously stated on the site I am a Sport and Exercise Sciences Graduate from Loughborough University (just so I'm not accused of providing advice I am not qualified to give).

With respect of the triathalons; my suggestion would be give yourself 3 - 6 months (based on your apparent fitness already) and pick a triathalon that you intend to enter. Two reasons for this, firstly you will know the distances you are aiming for for each discipline and secondly gives you a timescale to start setting a training schedule.

I would start by training on one discipline each day and training the disciplines seperately intially. E.g. Monday swim 1 mile, and a light weights session targetting shoulders and upper back, Wednesday Run 6 miles and a weights session concentrating on core strength and Friday cycle session, 10 -15 miles and a legs weights session. (All distances dependant on your own fitness and target distances).

I would then work towards doubling up so each one twice a week with one day off before in the month or two before hand work on linking two one after the other so swim then cycle twice a week, cycle then run twice a week and 2 days more generic training on which ever disciplines are causing you more concern / finding harder.

Finally a couple of weeks to a month before hand I would string the whole sequence together in slightly longer than race distances before winding training down to maintenance the week before competition.

With respect of the person asking about losing weight / fat, as already stated you need to work at slightly lower intensity to burn fat however, this can be slightly misleading as if you are working at higher intensity although fat stops being the major fuel burnt you are working so much harder that you can actually end up burning more fat overall, so perhaps vary your intensity. The 30 mins cardio is a reccommended minimum for health a day so don't see that as a max or constrained (although that is cumulative so can be in 3 x 10 mins bites).

Hope that helps.

[Romeo29]

Couldn't have said it better myself

[Basil the Rat]

A quite brilliant thread.

[Romeo29]

A quite brilliant thread.

Thanks, I hope it helps plenty of people

[Rich9581]

I'm with Romeo29 and his bike/TV idea - I've had my exercise bike in my room for a few weeks - and I will sit on it and play on my Xbox....easily racking up 20 miles per session (haven't lost any weight though as I refuse to change my eating habits!).......luckily Occ Health haven't commented on my weight

[Robochop]

Couldn't have said it better myself

Thanks, I hope it helps plenty of people

Yes, trust me, it helps , and between yourself and Waddy, I reckon you'll be helping quite a few people on here.
Well done on a great post!
And, thanks for the advice about my training for my first triathlon. I will start with this next week ... and maybe keep you updated on my progress

[luke90]

I have a question.

Currently i go to the gym about 3 times a week

Day 1 is upper body muscle strength
Day 2 lower body muscle strength
Day 3 Cardio

Only thing is is that its taking quite a bit away from my monthly wage (im only a student so i dont have masses of money)

So at home i have a weights bench and a cross trainer and a bycycle.

Im mainly going to the gym to build up muscle strength/mass at the moment to bulk up a bit but also for general fitness. So im wondering if with the equipment ive got i could get the same workout/results from home as i could from the gym...

Just to add at the gym i mainly use the machines rather than free weights.
If im best off staying at the gym id rather you say as it would be worth the extra money.


Thanks

[Waddy]

Firstly I am generally a bigger fan of free weights as you can mimick almost all of the exercises done on machines (in fact obviously the machines have been created to mimick free weights exercises). But the machines isolate the muscle groups targetted whilst the free weights require you to use other muscles in support of the exercise which is benefiting them at the same time for little extra effort (e.g. improving core strength).

So my personal opinion would be get a weights bar, get some disc weights and some dumbells in at home and use those, pound the streets and your exercise bike for cardio and you will be just as well off:-

However for SOME people having somewhere away from home to go to to exercise can mean they stick to exercising better so just make sure it doesn't drop off if you cancel the gym.

Romeo may disagree with me on this one though!

[Romeo29]

Firstly I am generally a bigger fan of free weights as you can mimick almost all of the exercises done on machines (in fact obviously the machines have been created to mimick free weights exercises). But the machines isolate the muscle groups targetted whilst the free weights require you to use other muscles in support of the exercise which is benefiting them at the same time for little extra effort (e.g. improving core strength).

So my personal opinion would be get a weights bar, get some disc weights and some dumbells in at home and use those, pound the streets and your exercise bike for cardio and you will be just as well off:-

However for SOME people having somewhere away from home to go to to exercise can mean they stick to exercising better so just make sure it doesn't drop off if you cancel the gym.

Romeo may disagree with me on this one though!

Nope, I don't disagree .
I think free weights are much better than resistance machines, for the reasons above & because there is a lot more scope to do different things with them, whereas a resistance machine usually has only one purpose, e.g Biceps.

I find that I need a change of scenery when exercising, so i'm not a big fan of doing it at home. Although the good thing about having fitness equipment at home is that you can do as little or as much as you want, whenever you want. Local parks are great to run/cycle round & are usually free to enter, take a friend for some extra motivation.

Hows that?

[luke90]

Nope, I don't disagree .
I think free weights are much better than resistance machines, for the reasons above & because there is a lot more scope to do different things with them, whereas a resistance machine usually has only one purpose, e.g Biceps.

I find that I need a change of scenery when exercising, so i'm not a big fan of doing it at home. Although the good thing about having fitness equipment at home is that you can do as little or as much as you want, whenever you want. Local parks are great to run/cycle round & are usually free to enter, take a friend for some extra motivation.

Hows that?

Thats great. Thanks to both of you. I know what you mean about the change of scenary. Can help to motivate. Ill try exercising at home and if it goes well ill be cancelling the gym.
I live right next to a park as well so thats good.

[Lord Vader]

A good thread, which I'll pin... however our standard disclaimer (sort of) applies, along with a note that if you're considering starting a fitness regime from scratch, then the usual advice is to consult with a professional and/or speak to your doctor first.

[Lord Vader]

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[vpc-thc]

Hey, I have a question

I am going to start cycling sometime in the next 2 weeks.

Does anyone have any tips on maximum efficiency in cycling?

21 gears, front suspension only, pad brakes, mountain tyres w/ slime

If you need any other info about my bike, let me know

[Waddy]

Ok, 2 earlies down and I am therefore probably just being a little dumb, but what are you looking for when you say "maximum efficiency"?

[vpc-thc]

Ok, 2 earlies down and I am therefore probably just being a little dumb, but what are you looking for when you say "maximum efficiency"?

Sorry, I should have made it a bit clearer.

By Maximum Efficiency, I mean to travel further and not be out of breath as much.

[Corbs]

if you are trying to exercise maybe inefficency is good.