You can lift weights without becoming a musclebound mess. High rep/low weight workouts do not bulk you up. Even when doing reps of 10-12, you will not get huge, just stronger.

More muscle also equals more calories burned.

- Eat 3-4 smallish meals a day, mostly veg.
- Just because you can gain an equal calorie intake eating just 2 meals of fast food, doesn't mean this is a suitable option
Exercise 10-30 minutes every day, but a few times a week at the minimum.

I don't do this because I'm lazy, but it's amazing how many people complain about gaining weight and DON'T do the basics.

I'm sitting at 5'10"ish and just less than 10.5 stone. I've changed my diet from no breakfast (or occasional bacon and egg sandwich), then at dinner a sandwich with lots of reclaimed meat + mayo with crisps (chips to you lovely yankees) and a chocolate bar, THEN god knows what for tea, usually something frozen ...

TO:

Breakfast = toast or cereal
Dinner = sandwich on granary bread with fruit + fat free yoghurt
Tea = something nice and fresh and cooked by me (tonight is chicken thighs and tomatoes and new potatoes.

Coupled with a desire to get out on my shiny new mountain bike I might actually shift the little paunch I'm getting from too much ale.

Oh, and the beer now == vodka + ice.

So I might start to look like I used too (but with less hair)

Are you doing the milk thing? As gross as it is, it really is SUCH an easy way to get an extra 2400 calories a day for $3...



Don't feel embarassed. Everyone started out there. Once you show that you're dedicated and that you go regularly, I think it's more likely they'll be glad to see you there.



Actually, fail. Doing yoga (or any kind of serious stretching routine) without strength training CAN hurt you.

Flexibility is nothing more than stretching out muscles to allow them to go further. This can be good, but it can also have negative side effects. If all of your shoulder muscles are more flexible, it can destabilize the joint, allowing it to move into positions that could be dangerous.

If you strengthen your muscles as they become more flexible, they will maintain their joint staying-in-place abilities, while also allowing for a greater degree of movement.



and



source: http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rec/stretching/stretching_3.html#SEC26

There easiest way to prevent excess hypertrophy is to stretch after every workout. This elongates the muscle fibers and returns them to their natural lengths. Giant bodybuilder muscles tend to be a result of not stretching and focusing on individual muscles (bicep curls) as opposed to compound lifts (squats).

Look at gymnasts. I would argue that, of all athletes, they are the strongest. Almost all olympic level gymnasts weight train... do you find their bodies gross and unnatural looking?

I've lost about 20lbs since June. (lol mbfat lol)

How? Well mostly I had happydud yelling at me to eat better and things.

I don't drink as much beer, and I definitely eat way better. AKA no more of these: http://flickr.com/photos/dangler/224230448/ (Yes it looks gross but its actually pretty tasty)

The other thing I try to do is 30 minutes of exercise a day. Pullups / Pushups / weights / Planks.


JM - The extremes youre talking about sound more like someone doing too many steroids

I wish I could drink that much milk - I love the stuff! But that's almost 200 grams of sugar per day, from the milk alone. That would murder me. Even though milk has a pretty low GI that is such a large quantity of milk that would definitely lead to an imbalance for me. I drink about one large glass per day and a protein shake.

Dietary restrictions FTL here!

That actually looks tasty MB...

all this week I've been missing out on meals, going around and buying supplies, doing errands, etc etc....

Bah, I should try to do more excersise.

I'd love to do pull ups, but its nearly impossible for me to do it, dunno why...

I can do a good 3-4 sections of 15 push ups with no problem, and can easily do other things etc... but pull ups, nope.

sets of 15 push ups isn't really very many.

It is tasty... kind of. Also really bad for you

Don't miss meals though. They're important!

As for the pull ups - Try getting a pullup bar and hanging it in your doorway. You might not be able to do them at first, but the more you try the easier they'll get!!

It's pretty clear you've never actually done yoga, because you know absolutely nothing about it. It's not just stretching. It builds balance and strength, it stabilizes joints, not destabilize. It works all the little support muscles your weight lifting doesn't, and it can give even the strongest person a hell of a workout, without abusing your muscles or joints the way weight lifting does.

And now that I'm thinking a bit more about it, I'm finding that very few of the poses actually stretch anything! And the ones that do concentrate on the thighs, while you're talking about shoulders.

I took a yoga class...there was some stretching stuff, but really it was a "passive workout", if you will..and you're right- it's a lot of balance work..

depends on how many sets you do, also doing them in smaller sets helps when you want to do a whole bunch at once, it builds endurance or something.

try this for a nice workout.

also this guy has quit a few good workout tips.

This...

i actually used to do those videos.

i even have a buncha the dvds. it's good if you're only focusing on losing weight...not so great on the 'OMG I NO SELF DEFENSE!!!'

Are you familiar with olympic lifts at all? Because that's what I'm talking about. Squats (with correct ***-to-grass form), overhead presses, deadlifts, cleans, jerks, etc. These, more than anything else, work stabalizing and core muscles. I'm not talking about going to the overhead press machine and "overhead pressing" 250#. I'm talking about getting under a 45# bar, putting 100# on it and lifting it over your head, balancing it there, and then bringing it back to your collarbone without you or the weight falling over in any direction.



Don't start the nit-picking crap. You and I have been in enough internet arguments to know bull**** nitpicking when we see it. The shoulder thing was an example. I could have said hips, knees, ankles, wrists, knuckles, anything else.

Hahah! I've trained with him. He used to run a gym about 4 minutes from my house...

Unnecessary stress on your joints, that's all it is.

Or it strengthens your joints.*

You know, which ever.


*Assumes you're doing the lifts properly, which I believe is a fair assumption. Arguing to defend someone who is doing something incorrectly is dumb.

One program:

P90X.

P90X, while I don't have any personal experience with it, is a decent program if you don't really know what you're doing. So if you don't know and you don't really care, go for it. There are better things out there, but it requires more learning and more knowledge.

WINNAR:hist101: