exercise programme design - all aspects of fitness

neandermagnon

I want to be strong, and fit, and just all round fit, tough and strong basically. This means more to me than what I look like, but having a lower body fat percentage would be good too. Goal: 20% or less body fat, 105lb+ lean body mass. I'm sorted for calories (I'm currently eating at what I think it maintenance to see if it really is maintenance, and I'll adjust my calories up or down based on that, or keep them the same. I'm most likely going to do a cut, but keep the deficit conservative for very slow fat loss, while maintaining LBM and (hopefully) increasing my strength.

I'm already doing heavy lifting and bodyweight exercises (different kinds of push-ups and static holds mostly). I want to carry on with this, but also want to add in some kind of cardiovascular conditioning (for more stamina/endurance and just generally being extremely all round fit, not just strong), but I find most kinds of cardio extremely boring. Maybe circuit training or boot camp style workouts would be more interesting? Any recommendations? Also how would this fit in with a heavy lifting programme, in terms of recovery.

I do a 2 day split on the weights (upper body and lower body). plus a bodyweight exercise day (which is whole body) so could I just fit in a circuit training/boot camp day in between? What kinds of exercises would be good to include? Any decent videos on you tube?

Are there any other aspects of fitness and strength that I should include? I work on flexibility too, but only as part of other workouts (e.g. stretching out before/after other workouts).

SideSteel

I want to be strong, and fit, and just all round fit, tough and strong basically. This means more to me than what I look like, but having a lower body fat percentage would be good too. Goal: 20% or less body fat, 105lb+ lean body mass. I'm sorted for calories (I'm currently eating at what I think it maintenance to see if it really is maintenance, and I'll adjust my calories up or down based on that, or keep them the same. I'm most likely going to do a cut, but keep the deficit conservative for very slow fat loss, while maintaining LBM and (hopefully) increasing my strength.

I'm already doing heavy lifting and bodyweight exercises (different kinds of push-ups and static holds mostly). I want to carry on with this, but also want to add in some kind of cardiovascular conditioning (for more stamina/endurance and just generally being extremely all round fit, not just strong), but I find most kinds of cardio extremely boring. Maybe circuit training or boot camp style workouts would be more interesting? Any recommendations? Also how would this fit in with a heavy lifting programme, in terms of recovery.

I do a 2 day split on the weights (upper body and lower body). plus a bodyweight exercise day (which is whole body) so could I just fit in a circuit training/boot camp day in between? What kinds of exercises would be good to include? Any decent videos on you tube?

Are there any other aspects of fitness and strength that I should include? I work on flexibility too, but only as part of other workouts (e.g. stretching out before/after other workouts).

I think you should further define your view of fitness before looking for training specific answers.
I think you should think about activities you enjoy to see if there's anything that could be done in that area.

neandermagnon

Strength and endurance at least. I was kind of trying to ask if there's any other aspects of fitness I should be aiming for as well.

What I enjoy most is ice hockey (including training, not just the games), skating and martial arts... I may be able to do some of those in the future, but it's not currently possible (budget and transport issues, and not sure if there's even an ice rink in Bahrain, never mind a women's ice hockey club, and even if there was, I can't currently travel to get there). At the moment, I'm working out at home and until I have full time access to a car and enough money to join a martial arts club, that's all I can do for now.

SideSteel

Strength and endurance at least. I was kind of trying to ask if there's any other aspects of fitness I should be aiming for as well.

Re: the bold -- that's entirely up to your preferences. I'm trying to ask you specifically what you desire so that you can choose a training mode that supports it.

I'm being silly here but it's for a point --

If I told you that flexibility was a measure of fitness, would you care?
If I told you that lawn mowing velocity was a measure of fitness, would you care?
If I told you that tree climbing was a measure of fitness, would you care?

To be clear, I'm not faulting you for asking about various measures of fitness, I'm just trying to get a clear picture (or give you a clear picture rather) on focusing on aspects of fitness that you value so that you can focus on training those.

neandermagnon

IMO someone who's got good all round fitness/strength would be good at all of those. Not training in them specifically (lol @ lawn mowing... but running while pushing something along maybe), but enough strength and endurance to be able to do those things. Flexibility... maybe not to contortionist level, but for martial arts you need the flexibility to do high kicks, etc.

Maybe what I'm thinking of is like army type strength/fitness, i.e. strong enough to do all kinds of physical tasks if need be. Plus the endurance so you don't collapse after 5 mins of something difficult. Or a more fun example, something like on "gladiators" (back in the day, probably I'm showing my age now lol), although with more emphasis on strength. But I think endurance and being able to do stuff like climbing up/over things, lifting and carrying, and being able to fight are important aspects of fitness. It's kind of hard to describe because it's not one specific thing, but includes the ability to adapt and face new challenges.

neandermagnon

bump...

when I said gladiators I didn't mean dressing up in spandex and hitting people with a giant cotton bud....

I value strength, endurance, the ability to do stuff like on assault courses (and even gladiators, but without the spandex and cotton buds) and also to fight if need be. Fit for all purposes kind of fitness I suppose...?

neandermagnon

is this kind of thing any good for what I'm after? it seems to incorporate both strength and endurance (not sure about the first exercise, it's the other ones on the video that I'm talking about). They also look like fun (yeah throwing tires at people that's my idea of fun :devil: ) and also challenging. Not even those things specifically, I don't have tyres to throw around unfortunately. I get bored easily so i like to do different things. But this kind of stuff that combines strength and endurance.

how would you go about designing a workout for this kind of thing, also involving progression? i.e. increasing strength and endurance? Where can I get ideas for these kinds of exercises to do? (I wasn't joking about getting bored easily)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1w61yfhSPU

Additionally, how does stuff like this affect recovery from lifting days?
My schedule for workouts is probably going to look like this:

day 1: lower body weights
day 2: upper body weights
day 3: rest or low intensity cardio
day 4: whole body workout (bodyweight)
day 5: rest or low intensity cardio
day 6: strength and endurance training
day 7: ??? maybe another rest day?

day 4 the intensity/reps to failure is the same as for lifting. I just want variety (I get bored easily). day 3 and day 5 I work in the mornings, hence them being the best days for rest days.

jacksonpt

Piggybacking off what sidesteel said...

It's almost impossible to be good at everything, so you're really going to be better served by picking a few things to work on/towards. A lot of people think they are in really good shape. Right up until they try to do something they aren't used to.

Even the routine you posted ignores many aspect of fitness, which may or may not be OK depending on what exactly you're doing.

neandermagnon

okay, maybe I am trying to be good at everything....

strength and endurance are both important to me. Also, variety is important as I get bored easily.

ETA: endurance can be many different things - I'm more thinking of short term, i.e. not marathon running, but more like how long you can sustain high intensity effort, like for fighting, or for high intensity intervals.

Hendrix7

This is problem you get into when you don't have any specific, quantifiable goals...you end up not getting better at anything.

I can't believe i'm actually writing this but maybe you should look at something like crossfit.

That will at least give you a combination of strength, power and endurance work and at least some structure to what you are doing, these are the benchmark workouts.

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/27_04_new_girls.pdf

Please learn the lifts properly before trying to compete for time.


LOL what just happened

SideSteel

This is problem you get into when you don't have any specific, quantifiable goals...you end up not getting better at anything.

I can't believe i'm actually writing this but maybe you should look at something like crossfit.

That will at least give you a combination of strength, power and endurance work and at least some structure to what you are doing, these are the benchmark workouts.

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/27_04_new_girls.pdf

Please learn the lifts properly before trying to compete for time.


LOL what just happened

Re: Bolded part, Sara and I were just having this conversation in private. And also LOLing.

neandermagnon

that looks good, just had a look on you tube as well, and found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vk9PP-UP8k looks good, I presume you adjust the circuits to your ability. Had a look at the pdf, again I'm assuming those circuits would be adjusted to your ability, and working towards the numbers in the document. I like the variety thing they talk about in the video, i know the science behind "confusing the muscles" is a bit dodgy, but variety for the sake of avoiding boredom is good for me

Is there a difference between crossfit and other circuit training? for all the fancy image it has, it doesn't look *that* much different to some of the stuff I used to do for judo training years ago, it's more intense i.e. more anaerobic for longer intervals, but presumably that's a matter of progression.

Is this safe/advisable for working out by myself without joining a crossfit gym? Even if there is one in Bahrain (there might be) I can't afford that much money. On the other hand, I can probably emulate quite a lot of it at home. Any good resources for learning the correct form for these kinds of exercises? I'm very strict about form, so won't be attempting anything timed without getting really good form first. I practice all new lifts with light weights before making them heavy enough to go to failure. So it'll be the same for whatever exercises, workouts etc I do.

Sarauk2sf

This is problem you get into when you don't have any specific, quantifiable goals...you end up not getting better at anything.

I can't believe i'm actually writing this but maybe you should look at something like crossfit.

That will at least give you a combination of strength, power and endurance work and at least some structure to what you are doing, these are the benchmark workouts.

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/27_04_new_girls.pdf

Please learn the lifts properly before trying to compete for time.


LOL what just happened

Re: Bolded part, Sara and I were just having this conversation in private. And also LOLing.

Yay - someone else suggested it before we had to! Thanks for taking one for the team Hendrix!

ArroganceInStep

I find it helps me to pick something I'm already reasonably good at, and get that REALLY good, while adding the other stuff in slowly.

I play rugby, so it makes sense to use that as an example. If you're 5' and 120 lbs, it'd be a LONG time before you could get big enough to even attempt to play Prop or one of the other positions that requires you to have a big frame. Likewise if you're 300 lbs and have a 40 clocked in minutes rather than seconds, trying to play wing or one of the other positions requiring speed and agility would also be silly.

Get great at the stuff you're already good at. The tiny guy would focus on speed work and agility and make an awesome wing. The bigger dude would jack his strength through the roof and be an absolute monster in the scrum down.

Build on your weaknesses, but understand that they're going to take more time. The little guy could start bulking. The bigger guy could work on cutting BF% and upping his cardio levels.

Have focus, and then as a secondary build up your weaker points.

neandermagnon

I'm not changing the main part of my workout, I'm still doing the usual heavy lifting, so I guess that's my main focus, this is what I'm looking at for additional workouts, develop some endurance, and be all-round fit, tough, strong, etc. Plus to add variety and avoid boredom. I like the combination of strength and fitness from the crossfit workouts. And the variety.

The main thing I'm good at is ice hockey (although I haven't played for years), but there's no ice rink. And I don't have much money. actually lol @ the rugby analogy, because I'd love to take up rugby... I played a little tiny bit in high school but they were sexist back then and wouldn't let the girls play rugby in normal PE lessons, but did let us play as an extra curricular activity for a while in the 6th form. I was a scrum half, on account of being short and large framed/very strong for my height. Since then another rugby player advised me I'd be good at hooker, apparently being short has an advantage for being a hooker - she was the same height and build as me and played hooker (she played for her university team). And I've never been fast at running (short legs lol) so I wouldn't be much good as a back. However, I'm not sure there's any rugby where Iive, so it's kind of academic at the moment.

if I ever do get to play either ice hockey or rugby again, or martial arts for that matter (more likely where i live, though I need transport and money for it) then the combination of being strong and having good endurance would really help with that. But that's not why I'm doing it, I just want to be all round tough, strong and fit, really. And I'm not going to let things like geographical location, lack of transport or lack of money stand in my way.

IronSmasher

Yeah, CrossFit is just circuits.

It seemed to start off good. It seemed to be an community of sharing and support, of free and adaptable exercise regimes that anyone can take part in (at their level) and post times and share.
Unfortunately it now is elitist, a cult, a religion.
There's so much bad in there with the good, I'd suggest that unless you are an expert you should just stay away. The bad stuff will put you out of action for a very long time.

All-round fitness is my goal too, but I still set smaller goals/challenges so that I'm not just stumbling about without an aim.

Circuits are good.

If you're heavy lifting now but would like to move to more endurance then a linear periodisation program would be good, simple to follow/plan and seem legit.
I'd stay away from terms like muscle confusion, and it's my opinion that maintaining the same approach for a minimum of 3-4 weeks is important so that;
you know what the hell you're doing
you can see progression

I run as well, but I've no interest in being able to run more than 10k. That's pretty much my limit.
I also row. I like rowing. I also really like kettlebells. As SS has said, find something you like.

Edit:
I forgot to say (side tracked by CrossFit) I also wanted to have a moan about the term 'functional'.
The term is now broken. I used to do stuff that I concidered functional, you know, movements I might actually need in real life? To fit in with my fit for anything kind of approach. Unfortunately it now seems to also mean wobbling on a machine, ball or at the end of a bit of strapping. Still, I like to do moves that might actually be useful in real life.

ArroganceInStep

if I ever do get to play either ice hockey or rugby again, or martial arts for that matter (more likely where i live, though I need transport and money for it) then the combination of being strong and having good endurance would really help with that. But that's not why I'm doing it, I just want to be all round tough, strong and fit, really. And I'm not going to let things like geographical location, lack of transport or lack of money stand in my way.

No ice makes it tough to practice for hockey, but you can definitely train for rugby and martial arts without a team or dojo. Look up things folks in that space do and start doing it.

Some ideas for things you can do with limited resources that are 'fun' and can be measured:
Weight lifting (track weight and rep PRs)
Car pushing (track distance)
Endurance kicking (track kicks per period of time and also track total time spent kicking)
Boxing round workouts (you can make a faux heavy bag with a burlap sack, some rope, and clothes)
Running (track distance and speed)
Calisthenics (improve the usual, pushups, dips, pullups, etc, and look up fun ones to work on)
Flexibility (look up yoga stuff and do it, track moves/positions successfully completed)

Whenever you do start martial arts or rugby, things like that will help you.

SteveJWatson

One more vote for circuits.

I do my class once a week and I really enjoy it. Its not called 'crossfit' or anything fancy and consists of the old school (skipping, shuttle sprints, pressups, sit-ups, bench-dips, squat jumps, box jumps, burpees etc) and slightly newer-school stuff (kettlebells etc). tends to be 45 secs effort, 15 rest. I know another class on a thursday and its much more running orientated and he varies the intervals (45 secs first 2x round, 20 secs thereafter), and to be honest, I'm thinking of doing that one too.

I like my strength training, but variety is the spice of life and plus I am quite good at running sprints and can kick most peoples *kitten* which gives me a selfish ego boost. Ha.

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

I was actually going to recommend yoga. As someone who used to really poo-poo the idea of yoga, I have recently (last 3-4 weeks) started incorporating various DVD's into my workout and I have found a few things (in addition to the fact that I LOVE it and am now addicted!):

1) It compliments SL5x5 (heavy lifting) fantastically
2) It's great for flexibility and getting a good stretch on
3) It's a wicked body weight workout and
4) It really works on your ability to balance.


IMO it's a really great "all around" workout

ETA: also great for core strengthening!

neandermagnon

Thank you for all the suggestions - all very helpful Circuit training it is then (crossfit looks like circuit training to me, just with a fancy name) maybe I won't start off quite so heavy/extreme, I'll have to develop my level of conditioning from where it is, but can plunder crossfit for ideas (safe ones that is)

lol@cult/religion of crossfit...it does come across that way lol. That said, it's something to plunder for ideas.

re functional fitness - I actually did some functional lifting this morning, i.e. carrying three 19 litre water cannisters into my apartment (that's how drinking water comes in the Gulf region). I also loaded one onto the water cooler, something I couldn't even do in the past and now is quite easy.

re all the exercise/circuit suggestions - love these, car pushing sounds like a lot of fun but not sure that there's anywhere safe to do that lol. I'll probably include all everyone's suggestions at some point, although I have to figure out what's safe to use for box jumps. Maybe my coffee table is sturdy enough. I'll be designing my own workouts for this so I'll include what I can. And match it to my current level.

re yoga - I already do a little of this, mostly to relieve muscular tension (past back problems caused by poor posture, my posture is much better nowadays). I also do general stretching/flexibility as part of my warm up and cool down for lifting workouts and definitely will do flexibility and stretching prior to circuit training. I learned this the hard way, i.e. pulled my hamstring playing ice hockey because I didn't warm up and stretch out properly!! If there are any good websites for beginner yoga routines, I'd be interested.