Hi all, I usually post in the weight training forum, but but I wondered what kind of input you guys and girls over here in the weight loss forum could offer. I've been trying to progress in fitness/appearances, you can find pics I've put up of myself over in my other threads.
Since Thanksgiving due to finals, work, papers and college classes, I unfortunately haven't been able to work out as much as I had previously been i.e. weight training 3 times a week because of late night studying and writing taking up my usual later night work-out times. Morning wasn't an option, the gym at school opened at nine and I had classes shortly thereafter until the afternoon with not enough time in between.
I have however gone from doing 70 lb squats on the squat machine/rack thing to about 90 lbs. I had lost the "struggle" going upwards, it was more of a nuisance.
My bench press
has gone up, I can put a total of 50 lb (25 and 25) weights on the bar, which including the bar is what 90 lbs? Someone said that's still pretty weak, I'm not very happy with it..... now that I'm home for holiday break this coming Monday I'm rejoining my local rec center gym for the extent of my break (goes until late Jan!) and am going to be upping the weight on everything that I've been doing.
I'm not very successful with pull ups or chin ups and am only semi-competent with dips all on the rack thing that has supports for all three of those exercises, dunno what it's called . I've been trying to compensate by doing chair dips in addition to trying to do dips on that as well, if only a few. Would just at least trying to do the pulls and chin ups be good practice, because I have tried just kind of hanging there and using momentum to lift myself but I haven't made much outstanding progress using that method. I can feel that I used them afterwords but I don't think I'm going to be suddenly doing them with that method. Are there any good exercises using dumbells or floor exercises that can help strengthen those areas so I can eventually do the actual chin and pull ups?
I've also gone up in leg press, I went from trying just 180 lbs to doing 200 lbs. I enjoy doing that While I've noticed I suddenly have small biceps (really strange sight to see after years of both having sticks for arms and then just flub) I notice my shoulders need some more work. What would you recommend I do for those? I'm trying to have a flexible program, so I'm kind of open to ideas. I'll be going 3-4 times a week now that I'm on break.
I'm kind of distraught though, I've made lots of progress, Jan 08 I couldn't even do a push up and now I can do sets of 15-20, but I just recently used my roommate's body fat scale thing and it said I was about 20% body fat....I'm not very pleased with that either, I don't know what kind of look I really want to end up looking like but perhaps to get down to 15-10% would be really nice. I know muscle weighs more than fat but how much weight should I loose for that to be possible? I'm 6'2, and I think I'm 195 lbs, possibly. I'm not sure I want to do cardio so much while I'm building muscle. I didn't have much strength as I was a string bean before gaining a lot of weight so to loose the fat and see nothing under, it might be rather disappointing. I am going to the gym here near my house since I'm on winter break, and trying to utilize all of it. Just wondering what I could do to get that percentage down besides just keep doing what I'm doing. I make sure I get lots of protein, take protein whey powder often.
Just an update. By the end of Jan I want to put up some pictures, hopefully there could be some differences....
Since Thanksgiving due to finals, work, papers and college classes, I unfortunately haven't been able to work out as much as I had previously been i.e. weight training 3 times a week because of late night studying and writing taking up my usual later night work-out times. Morning wasn't an option, the gym at school opened at nine and I had classes shortly thereafter until the afternoon with not enough time in between.
I have however gone from doing 70 lb squats on the squat machine/rack thing to about 90 lbs. I had lost the "struggle" going upwards, it was more of a nuisance.
My bench press
has gone up, I can put a total of 50 lb (25 and 25) weights on the bar, which including the bar is what 90 lbs? Someone said that's still pretty weak, I'm not very happy with it..... now that I'm home for holiday break this coming Monday I'm rejoining my local rec center gym for the extent of my break (goes until late Jan!) and am going to be upping the weight on everything that I've been doing.
I'm not very successful with pull ups or chin ups and am only semi-competent with dips all on the rack thing that has supports for all three of those exercises, dunno what it's called . I've been trying to compensate by doing chair dips in addition to trying to do dips on that as well, if only a few. Would just at least trying to do the pulls and chin ups be good practice, because I have tried just kind of hanging there and using momentum to lift myself but I haven't made much outstanding progress using that method. I can feel that I used them afterwords but I don't think I'm going to be suddenly doing them with that method. Are there any good exercises using dumbells or floor exercises that can help strengthen those areas so I can eventually do the actual chin and pull ups?
I've also gone up in leg press, I went from trying just 180 lbs to doing 200 lbs. I enjoy doing that While I've noticed I suddenly have small biceps (really strange sight to see after years of both having sticks for arms and then just flub) I notice my shoulders need some more work. What would you recommend I do for those? I'm trying to have a flexible program, so I'm kind of open to ideas. I'll be going 3-4 times a week now that I'm on break.
I'm kind of distraught though, I've made lots of progress, Jan 08 I couldn't even do a push up and now I can do sets of 15-20, but I just recently used my roommate's body fat scale thing and it said I was about 20% body fat....I'm not very pleased with that either, I don't know what kind of look I really want to end up looking like but perhaps to get down to 15-10% would be really nice. I know muscle weighs more than fat but how much weight should I loose for that to be possible? I'm 6'2, and I think I'm 195 lbs, possibly. I'm not sure I want to do cardio so much while I'm building muscle. I didn't have much strength as I was a string bean before gaining a lot of weight so to loose the fat and see nothing under, it might be rather disappointing. I am going to the gym here near my house since I'm on winter break, and trying to utilize all of it. Just wondering what I could do to get that percentage down besides just keep doing what I'm doing. I make sure I get lots of protein, take protein whey powder often.
Just an update. By the end of Jan I want to put up some pictures, hopefully there could be some differences....
