Going to the gym

You really need a goal, and an outside motivation. Fear of disease, a trip, whatever.

I booked a hike to Sweden's highest mountain peak (actually not that high) at the end of the summer. There's no climbing or anything hard involved, but it's still a fairly difficult hike, especially for the unexperienced. If I make it there and back, and if I manage to get a good camera and some photography skills, I'll post pictures. But that's another story.

Other than that, the motivation is getting good/better at martial arts, I guess. But another person telling me to go to the gym, wishing me to get in better shape, would help a lot I think.
 
One thing you should learn about the gym is if you are going to take it seriously, make a routine and stick with it. Don' over do it and don't under do it.

Eat good food (gym dudes can advise you)

I mean someone like me just gets lean and I frequent the gym as well as do home excercises but my physology is very different, I am just lean.

So work with it and go up th scale gradually.
 
The Overseer said:
I'd ask the gym to get personal instruction and a basic programme, but any tips would be useful as it's like $20 for a single starter lesson. I might get that after all though, since a lot of the machines are a mystery to me.
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sjeez louise... all included in the initial payment overhere.

what do they want? a bunch of noobs who come in, injure themself & never come back again or people that wont damage any equipment, do the right programs & keep coming back?
 
They're pretty greedy, just like a lot of people seem to be at this university.
 
My "routine" is pretty much running 3 miles (5k) every other day and doing pull-ups and crunches every day for about 30 minutes. I'll crank that shit up throughout the summer, and I hope to be pulling ten mile runs regularly come early August. Running is absoloutely the best way to get yourself thin and pump up your stamina. If you're worried about screwing up your legs or something, biking is good cross-training (and I do that every day too, about ten-twelve miles).

I've never been to the gym, because my objective is to increase stamina, not bulk up.
 
The Overseer said:
They're pretty greedy, just like a lot of people seem to be at this university.
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just ask one of the trainner ot spot you on a dead lift ...they'll know your with the "in" crowd and then they'll do it for free.
 
The best advice I can give in regards to training RE: martial arts is to practice all the time.

I spar with friends, and only the fact that I practice gives me an edge in endurance and skill over them. (I'm bigger and heavier, an automatic (in most cases) disadvantage). I am talking about swordfighting, though.

Other than that, you should try to do the core exercises but going for endurance (repetition). Squats, Bench, Power Clean.
 
In my kind of martial arts being bigger and heavier is definitely an advantage during training. Unless it's just fat.
 
The Overseer said:
I booked a hike to Sweden's highest mountain peak (actually not that high) at the end of the summer. There's no climbing or anything hard involved, but it's still a fairly difficult hike, especially for the unexperienced. If I make it there and back, and if I manage to get a good camera and some photography skills, I'll post pictures. But that's another story.
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Yay! Hiking.
I usually hike in Germanny and Austria. (Not australia mind you)
I remember having a 6½ hour hike a few summers back; and that was only to get to the place we wanted to hike to.

Also, if you want to increase your stamina; do workouts in the mountains, you won't notice a difference while there, but when you're back at sealevel, it's really noticable. (high = less oxygen, low = more oxygen)
 
So I'm living at my parent's for a few weeks while I'm in Stockholm, but I don't have a gym card here. Instead I've taken to jogging daily (not much though, like 3.5 km) since yesterday, to burn fat and build up some muscle mass before starting a gym training program or something like that.
 
My program (overseen by a fitness advisor occasionally) is to do about 20-30 minutes of cardio. After I finish that, I generally alternate days where I do my whole upper body, or else my lower body. Trying to do it every day (though work makes it difficult). The machines here, called Cybex machines, which make it relatively easy for a newer person to the gym to work out. The machines have labels on how precisely to do it: generally reps of 12-10-8, 12 reps and then a 30 sec to a minute break, 10 reps then the break, etc.

I tried going with that every day and it has felt pretty damn good, I must say. Afterwards, a 5-10 minute swim (sometimes I skip that) and then a soak in the hot tub. Whole she-bang ends up being about an hour and a half.

I am trying to get back in shape for martial arts myself, but my main goal is losing weight there. I don't know what your 'main' goal is but so far my program has helped me out. Basically, everything else is diet and calorie deficiency. Just burn less than you take in.
 
A little advice on weightlifting. Go slow on your reps, especially on the return. Don't just let the weights drop, try to keep the return a part of the full exercise.

Also, push it 'till you drop. While you lift, you'll reach the point where you'll feel you can't do anymore. That's not enough. Push it until the next level which is when your muscles completely let out (not just your will). Believe me you'll know when it happens but be careful. You don't want to have a dumbbell fall on your face. Have a spotter.
 
So now I'm mixing jogging and going to the gym (mostly for arms and upper body training), daily.

But I wonder... When jogging, you burn fat, but is that burning distributed evenly over the entire body or just legs and thighs? Should I complement with some other fat burning exercises? Which ones?

What's the best way to burn waist fat?

I suck at pushups, I'm honestly the worst person alive at pushups. I barely remember how to do situps so my abdominal muscles do most of the work.

I have to get better at pushups.

Diet is somewhat of a problem, I try to keep fat to a minimum, and eat food that contain a lot of protein, fibers and carbs. I'm not sure what to eat, honestly, and I'm too cheap to buy a book.
 
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