Anyone have any exercise tips and stories?

[EggYeol]

I know that i cannot burn fat in one specific place but I would like to know some easy at home workouts I can do while I'm at home and not at the gym.

I am in desperate need to burn fat but i would also like to have some exercises that work on toning everything (I. e arms, shoulders, stomach, legs and back). I am also dieting.

Unrealistically I would like to lose 20 pounds this month but if I can lose at least ten I'll be happy.

[ak666]

I'd go high-intensity interval training when you want fast results (caveat: requires very high motivation). It's what I do when I'm starting to slack off for a season.

Sprint until your lungs want to explode, then slow down to a walk, then sprint again, and keep repeating this. You'll tend to cover a greater distance in a shorter time-span than light jogging or walking burning more calories in a shorter period of time and pushing your body repeatedly to the bring of failure. The intensity of sprinting will also tend to build up muscles in large areas like your thighs and back which will help to burn calories and fat even when your body is at rest.

Then combine with calisthenics to build up muscle like various types of push-ups and pull-ups (if you can find a bar outside somewhere close or can get one), squat jumps, crunches, etc. You want to do these to a point of muscle failure when you can't do a single additional repetition, and potentially multiple sets to failure.

These all require high motivation because they involve taxing your body and pushing it to the limits repeatedly. The hardest time to do these is when you've just begun. Sprinting to lung exploding levels will make you want to quit, it won't feel good in the beginning. If you make a habit of doing this every other day, it'll actually start to feel good. You'll get a natural high from it. Training to muscle failure will leave your muscles slightly sore every other day. That also won't feel good originally until you get used to it and start to enjoy it.

But they'll tend to give rapid results especially to someone who isn't used to doing these types of strenuous exercises.

[EggYeol]

I ask an OP about this but how do you feel about the military diet? I've watched some people's results and they have averaged from 6-10 pounds (if I were to do it every week I could lose up to 24 pounds in this month) and if I were to do it should I do some light exercises? And how would I stay away from gaining weight the next four days?(many have gained 4-15 pounds back from going back to their old diets).

I am currently around 148-146 and I would like to be 120 by October 11th for my pageant.

[ak666]

That diet looks a little hard to sustain though it's averaging around ~1300 calories a day for those 3 days (not sure what you are supposed to do for the remaining 4).

To me it's easier to go for something you can sustain the whole week but won't feel miserable -- something you can at least enjoy somewhat.

If you go for weight loss you generally want to combine it with rather intense exercise (doesn't have to be for a long duration every day but it should really push your body). You want to burn more calories than you consume for weight loss so exercising is critical since even consuming only 1200 calories isn't going to give you that much weight loss unless you're still moving around actively and burning more than that.

[EggYeol]

Well I feel confident than I can do it (will be a bit hard for lunch on mondays) but will doing intense workouts help out the four days?

[ak666]

Since you're going for the rapid weight loss type of thing I think go with a low-calorie diet (not too low, military diet is not bad) but don't leave yourself hungry all day. For example, if any diet plan leaves you feeling hungry and dissatisfied, it's okay to toss in more fruits and veggies -- low calorie sources to help you feel more satisfied. That's not going to increase calorie consumption that much but at least avoid feeling like you're starving which can do weird things to your mind and even have negative impacts on your body.

Then your main exercise to me is more cardio instead of muscle building so that you're working more on fat loss than muscle mass. But do a bit of intense muscle training (and do it to failure leaving your muscles exhausted) -- it can be "light" but light should still be intense and push your body to the limits (just maybe not as varied or for as long of a duration as an athlete). That's to help get enough muscle to help burn away more fat but not [...]

[ak666]

[...] so much muscle that you're starting to gain weight instead. For muscle growth you do have to work the muscles towards failure (doing exercises to the point where you can't do a single additional rep without rest no matter how hard you try, and do try your best). But a little bit of muscle growth will help burn calories even when you're sleeping and also have your body burning away more fat.

[ak666]

Since you're going for rapid results try to keep your body moving whenever you can. You can even do things like jumping jacks right now, any time, hop around, flex your muscles, punch the air, dance, whatever. That's one of the easiest things to control the whole month is to just keep moving -- keep actively burning calories the whole time you're awake.

[EggYeol]

Wow this is a lot of great info! How were you able to stay motivated? When I get home from school I just want to lay down and do nothing. It's a lot easier when I'm apart of a school sport because I'm active for 3 hours 5 days a week. You know?

[ak666]

For me I'm not a fitness expert by any means but tried to kind of geek out there and look into how muscles form, how to get fast results, read studies on the types of exercises that give the most rapid improvements to more ordinary people (like star athletes or bodybuilders), etc.

The one thing I've done my entire life to kind of help me stay in decent shape is skateboarding vert ramps (half-pipes, big airs, that sort of thing). It's something I've been doing since childhood.

But I work a desk job and there have been seasons where I was getting lazy and started getting some belly fat, especially after marriage (I kind of slacked off more when the incentive to catch girls went away).

Then I started the sprinting regiment and started getting very rapid results. For motivation I like to listen to energetic dance music a lot, it has me even dancing around like an idiot in my room sometimes and burning more calories that way. I'm kind of a big kid so I like to do stupid stuff [...]

[ak666]

[...] ([*not*] like star athletes or bodybuilders) [...]

I'm kind of a big kid so I like to do stupid stuff like dance around all the time, play tag with friends, punch the air a lot, pace around, etc. I have a hard time sitting still for too long and I think that helps.

For motivation it's always hardest to me when I haven't done these things for a while. Then exercising is uncomfortable and I don't want to push myself, but I try to force myself anyway. After a week or so it starts coming naturally.

One thing is that it helps if you don't have a tendency too much that involve lying around on the bed or couch for too long. If you find yourself doing that it's good to get off the bed or couch and hop around a bit, dance, etc.

My last secret for motivation is that my wife is also my fitness partner. We push each other even when we don't want to do anything and feel lazy.

[ak666]

Anyway the sources of motivation vary from individual to individual. Since you're going for a beauty pageant looking at beautiful women who inspire you might do the trick along with periodic pictures of your own progress.

But to me the best motivation is really start to enjoy exercising -- when the activity itself starts to become something you look forward to doing. It might sound impossible in the beginning since it'll feel like torturing yourself, but it doesn't take too long where some kind of pseudo-masochism kicks in where you're starting to enjoy stressing out your body.

[ak666]

My fitness goals are different from yours (going more for strength and mass) but I think this video is a universal motivator no matter what your goals are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjqjeQ0B6WE

[EggYeol]

Wow talk about motivation! I just spoke to my parents about the diet I will be starting it Saturday!

And according to the website I can lose up to 30 lbs in a month. I will work hard to keep off the weight!

[Jxpxtxr]

my home work out usually consists of cardio (which you probably can't do because you might not have the machines) and then body weight exercises, I usually just do jumping jacks (100, but if you're not used to it start at 50), as funny as it may seem these are actually great for toning up or staying toned!, Russian twists *with your legs lifted (two sets, a 25), Push ups (two sets, a 15 - (lmao my arms are weaaaaak)), crunches (two sets, a 20) & doggy lifts, a kind of leg lift, (two sets, a 25). If you're only starting and you feel like you can't do that many yet, just do less per set but make sure you do two sets each.

[EggYeol]

Never would've thought of the jumping jacks! I just did 64 situps (I really want abs haha). I was thinking of doing the military diet once a week. Have you ever done it before?

[Jxpxtxr]

can't do that because it requires you to eat meat and I'm a vegetarian :P
But go with the crunches, sit-ups & russian twists for abs, good luck!