[quote=“Doug McKenzie”] also, it would help to know what is your specific goal? just losing waistline? gain definition? lose weight in general? get big muscles?
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try also to incorporate walking into your daily life. to and from office, restaurant, grocery store etc. with all your amorous activity, you should be expending plenty of calories eh. lol.
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most people don’t really have to change their diet all that much, just eat smaller portions. don’t get stuffed, try finishing meals a little hungry. your stomach should shrink pretty fast. in turn, you may not feel as hungry (unless you eat because youre depressed)
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also don’t forget your flexibility. stretching both to warm up/down as well as maintain flexb. getting older, and it will be harder.
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also don’t eat after 9pm is a good rule of thumb for digestion purposes. I guess unless you don’t keep normal hours. which wouldnt be great in the first place.
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the coke as I’m sure you know is all sugar. can you cut that down maybe 1 can?
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changing your regimen for shock is good, but that shouldnt be needed until months from now.
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try switching up exercises with supersets, dropsets, pyramid sets. or try hitting the muscle from different angles eg working the upper bicep, the middle, and the lower with slightly different exercise or angle.
try also varying between free weights, cable, and machine. each has adv/dis. eg. free weights force you to build the smaller stabilizing muscles cf. cables provide constant force etc.
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some ppl body-build to look good and big, but they neglect to put it all together. I have a friend who looks big and cut, but he can’t throw a softball if his life depended on it. so try to incorporate exercises that work out the entire body together forcing the parts to coordinate. eg like the clean and press (u need correct technique of course).
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if you work out one area, dont forget the counterarea, otherwise you could get injured easier.
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eat something right after workout that has protein like banana or yoghurt and keep hydrated.
good luck and have fun.[/quote]
Excellent advice, Doug!
My flexibility is still good, and I do a lot of stretching before I work out (and a little afterward). I should cut to diet cokes, and will probably do so when I get to the point where I’m making little progress. Same with smoking, though I’m hesitant to do that now as it will probably cause a weight gain, and I enjoy smoking too damned much.
Eating after 9pm is tough to avoid. I teach for three hours each night, which is quite a marathon, given all of the energy I put out. I need a grilled chicken salad, or a tuna sandwich at night our I’ll go to sleep with hunger pangs. Night time is also date or see friends time, and a beer or two puts a nice cap on a long day, though I do generally avoid snacking on junk later in the day. I keep the portions I eat small, and eat five times a day.
My goals are simply less fat, greater endurance, and a leaner overall look. You’ve seen me several times, so you now that I’m never going to be a thin man. My bone structure is just too big for that, and I don’t think I’d look good or feel healthy as a tall, thin man.
My weightlifting regime is designed to hit all of the muscle groups in a week, to acheive balance in my muscularity. I can still shoot a mean game of hoops, and can play softball with no trouble or injury, so I must being doing something right with the weightlifting.
One of the difficulties with all of this is that my body seems to keep changing as I get older. I’ve gotten increasingly more muscular and stronger (sort of like Barry Bonds in baseball–he was thin as a youngster and bulked way up once he hit 30), but I haven’t been able to keep my abdomen from expanding as well. Seems to be a change in metabolism. My body just wants to be bigger than it was when I was 21 and weighed 85kg. I work my stomach all of the time, and am actually very solid there. I just want to cut back the layer of fat between the sixpack and the skin, so that my stomach looks flat like it did a few years ago.
I don’t believe in diets. I think healthy eating combined with good rest and regular exercise is the best way to stay healthy.
I’ll keep you guys posted, and let me know how you’re doing. If you want to hit the gym with me sometime, send me a pm. I go most mornings, and sometimes in the afternoons.
T.