In my latest escapades as a t-shirt whore, I have to admit that it was rather depressing/humiliating when I tried to squeeze myself into my new t-shirt.
As luck would have it, I then spent my evening watching the UFC Disappointment (aka Bad Blood: White vs. Ortiz) and watched as Dana White hit the training to get himself back into shape. While the show ended in disappointment, I have to admit that it was a motivation for me to see him working so hard for a goal.
In the years that I have been a professional desk jockey, I hate to admit it but I have been packing on the pounds. As foolish as it sounds, I typically try to fool myself that I am just a *bigger* guy by nature and I’m not nearly as big as other guys that I see that weigh about the same amount. Unfortunately, the pictures do not lie and this latest round of pictures I took were embarrassing.
Therefore, I’m going to be making a pledge to myself to get back into gear and dust off the equipment in my basement. I’ve actually got a pretty nice home gym setup, it just hasn’t been used nearly enough. As an overview of my home equipment, I have the following:
- Body Solid Power Rack that includes the lat attachment
- Full Olympic barbell and weights up to a total of 375#
- Dumbbell set in increments of 5#, ranging from 10# up to 50# dumbbells
- Vetical knee-raise, dip and pullup station
- Treadmill
- Heavy bag with training gloves
When I have been following better habits about working out, I typically get derailed by the cardio workouts. I’ve never enjoyed cardio and I doubt that I ever will, but I understand the importance of adding cardio to my lifting. Something I have kicked around is a high-intensity workout on the heavy bag in lieu of the treadmill. Maybe that might keep me more interested.
Even though it’s been awhile since I’ve followed a full routine, I still get down in the basement to try and maintain my bench press. As any guy will likely tell you, there is a real ego issue around the bench press and I’ve been very happy with the results that I have achieved for a complete non-athlete. When I last lifted with my lifting partner, I had a 1-rep max bench press of 335 pounds.
But now I need to focus on a full-body routine to get rid of the excess weight and get myself back into shape. While I might not have a sparring session scheduled with an elite MMA fighter, I do have a loving wife and two fantastic kids to try and set an example for and to keep me active.
If anyone has any full-body routines that they would recommend, I am all ears right now. My only stipulation is that I am going to be working out at home with the equipment mentioned above. I’ve got a routine in mind and am open to sharing that if anyone is interested or would care to provide feedback on that.
So who wants to help this out-of-shape, 30-something desk jockey get lean and ripped? 🙂
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Derek, really great to hear this! 🙂 Gym equipment sounds excellent too!
I recently came acoss a site called theFitMap. They can provide a personalised fitness and exercise regime depending on what your specific needs are. It’s like having an online personal trainer. Only thing is it costs about $12 month. Pretty reasonable, but you may not want to spend anything, I don’t know!!
Anyway, they have a demo video on their site of what they can offer, if you want to have a look at it: http://www.thefitmap.co.uk/exercise/tools/getfit/index.htm
Main things i’d recommend are:
1)Always eat breakfast
2)Healthy diet – including high fibre carbohydrates with each meal, protein food 2-3 times day, fruit 2-3 times day, and vegetables 3-5 servings a day
3)Lots of water – make sure you get 8-10 glasses
4)Exercise – At least 30 minutes day, 5 times week. Remember to build up gradually if you haven’t been keeping fit for a while
Hope this helps!
Melanie, thank you for the great suggestions. I get bad with the breakfast but try to grab something I can eat once I get to work (banana and oatmeal or something).
My weakness is usually my eating habits as I will do well for awhile and then get lazy with preparing healthy meals and start hitting the restaurants too much.
I’ll take a look at that site you mentioned. Something else I’d like to find is a personalized eating plan. I’ve been trying to find just a couple of good meals that I could eat over and over, I don’t mind having the same thing all the time.
I’d be willing to give you some advice on your eating plan if you wanted. You’d be my first online consultation, so there would be no charge!
If I can help, just let me know!
Melanie, that would be fantastic. I’ll get in touch with you so we can discuss. Thanks!
I do agree with Melanie — to have a routine and stick to it. I’m not a morning person but with twin boys, keeping Derrik busy w/ the blogging and such while keeping a full time job in the financial industry, the only time I can workout is early mornings while the family is still snoozing. I’ve made this a daily routine for the past 3 months and it’s working. I know when I do my hour workout in the morning, it’s done. I don’t have to think about it for the rest of the day. So the advice here is not only to have a good routine but stick to a schedule that is most optimal for you.
Derek, I expect you to model that Flipping t-shirt real soon:))
Sunny, you’re right that defining a routine helps a lot. There is not much chance I will do mornings though, as I get up for work at 4am every day and I am not a morning person.
Actually, that reminds me that I really need to be better about sleep. I’m a night owl so I like to stay up until 1am or 2am, but then I have to drag myself out of bed at 4am (or sometimes 5am) to get to work.
I’ll be modeling that shirt in no time (although that might be because Derrik said he would send me a bigger size). 😆
Good stuff. I’ve been cutting back on sugar and salt lately and starting in May, going to start regularly working out again and eating healtier.
Sounds good Ed, best to you with the workout regimen and sticking to a healthy eating plan.
Try Crossfit Derek (www.crossfit.com), it’s working for me!
Soon you’ll be able to eat like me too and not get fat 🙂
When you first mentioned CrossFit on your site, I looked at their site and they do seem to have a trainer near my area. However, I looked at their site and it looks like they are just starting out.
I’m going to be traveling this week and the hotel has an outstanding athletic club that I will be using. Unless of course all those new restaurants call my name. 😉
Wow, quite impressive home equipment.
About that cardio stuff: cardio is way overrated. When talking about weight loss, weight lifting is perfect. Not only will you burn more calories during your workout than in regular cardio sessions, you will also benefit from the so called afterburning, which is even more important.
Cardio won’t be of much benefit physically but it’s a good form of exercise for endurance and the heart itself. But having read that you have quite a complete set of equipments, an intense workout can be done even without the need for bigger utilities.
.-= Sid@Home Gym Fitness Equipment´s last blog ..Stamina SpaceMate Folding Stepper 40-0069 =-.
That is a great point with the cardio overrated comment. If you go get a heart rate monitor for your weightlifting workouts, you will find that you burn so much more calories during a weightlifting workout than with a cardio session if you do exact match timeframes. And the reason you burn more calories at rest is because your muscle mass is much higher and requires more calories burned at rest. Great point.
Thanks Melanie & Derek. It is very helpful for starting a new healthy lifestyle.
Definitely don’t get caught up in the trap of endless, neverending, and flat out boring all cardio routines. It’ll drive you crazy and leave you unmotivated.
Full body workouts are the way to go, focusing on the large muscles of the body like, chest, back, and legs.
You need weights to build calorie burning muscle.
Cardio interval training will rev up your metabolism.
You’ve heard it before, but eating smaller meals several times a day is definitely the way to go if you want results.
Good luck!
Derek, If you really want to get a great full body strength training workout that will also help you tone (i.e. lose bodyfat), you must do high intensity circuit training. Put together about 15 exercises starting off with your legs (prisoner squats, alt. backward lunges etc.) and ending with your abs. The goal is to work the largest muscles to the smallest. Try to stick with a 12-15 reps for each and 25-50 reps for abs. Go from exercise to exercise with no more than 30 sec. between them, so setting your circuit is vital. This format has done wonders for my clients. Oh yeah, don’t be afraid of not using weights other than your body weight. When you have reached your desired goal, then you can go back to the heavy traditional weight training (bench press). You should also look into purchasing the TRX system. I use it with all my clients with great result! If you get a chance you can check out my site to see what I’m talking about. Good luck bro!
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