Today I added in an HIIT workout to my routine & I’m just looking for feedback on my overall plan.
Background:
I’m 39, turn the big four-oh at the end of June. I’ve never been a ‘big’ person – teens through my 20’s, I gradually went from 5’ 9” & 130 on up to 165 or so. In my early 30’s, the metabolism slowed, I moved to someplace I couldn’t surf and by late 2001, I was up to 190 or so.
I started working out a little – nothing that was truly a routine – eating better and cut out my 6 Pepsi’s a day completely. I got back down to 155 or so in late 2003.
I got into a new relationship, moved again, and things kinda slid again. I had a few starts to a workout routine, but didn’t really stick to it well enough to get real results.
In November last year, I decided to really get serious – I weighed in at about 175 and around 23.5% body fat. I made a goal that by my birthday, I’d get to under 15% body fat. I don’t really care what my weight is – higher, lower, whatever – it’s not a concern.
I started off doing regular cardio of about 45 minutes 3-4 days per week with 1-2 strength training sessions per week of about an hour. Also a 25 minute easy yoga routine maybe two mornings per week. The holidays of course caused a slowdown, but with the holidays came a nice Polar watch with the heart rate strap! Since January I’ve been very consistent – always at least 4 sessions of some sort of cardio per week (I play in an indoor soccer league now too & count that 50 minute game as one of my cardio workouts) and sometimes 6 sessions in a week. Per the Polar program I’ve done mostly medium high (140-150 bpm) workouts for about 50 minutes, but some 40 minute higher intensity stuff and generally one 90 minute low intensity workout per week. Mostly StairMaster & elliptical, as shin splints have put real running other than soccer on hold, although I’ve started including a rowing machine the past couple of weeks. I generally do 400 or so crunches before my cardio, plus 1-2 weights sessions per week. I’ve also been going to physical therapy (1 hour sessions) for the past 6 weeks twice a week (I’ve cut back to once a week as of last week) to rehab a torn infraspanatus muscle and my shin splints.
Diet wise, I eat decently, but I’m not willing to do some crazy restrictive diet. My breakfasts are pretty routine – Kashi Go Lean Crunch, Yoplait & a small glass of juice. I usually work out on my official lunch break, so I have a Go Lean bar before the gym, and pick up Subway after the gym. Dinner varies – but very little in the way of fast food, and the only soda I drink now is Coke Zero. I still love my beer, but I only drink a few beers a couple days a week. I also take 1 Centrum, 1 500mg calcium, 1 1500mg Glucosamine & a couple of Hydroxycuts in the morning, two more Hydroxycuts and one more Glucosamine in the evening.
I got down to 168 or so pretty quickly in mid-January, and got my body fat percentage down to about 19% by late February. Then I got on one of those plateaus. My weight didn’t change much for 3 weeks or so and my body fat % also stayed pretty constant, even creeping up a bit to 19.5%.
The past two or three weeks have seen a slight drop in weight – very gradually I slid down to the low 160’s – some days under 162. But my body fat % really hasn’t changed much at all.
I’m definitely happier about the way I’m looking – I’ve lost about 4 inches off my waistline – but I’m not happy with the body fat %, nor the (albeit small) cooler of insulation covering my 6 pack.
So, after reading up on HIIT, I’m thinking I’ll incorporate it on two days a week in place of my full cardio workout. Today’s workout was done on a StairMaster (the full size one) with 4 minutes of warmup at level 7, 1 minute sprint @ level 20 (good for around 165-170 bpm by the end of the minute) then 3 minutes back at level 7. I did 4 sprints today. I’m thinking to do one day per week on the StairMaster and one on the elliptical for HIIT for the time being. I’ll increase the sprint sessions by one per week and after a couple of weeks try going from 1 minute sprints to 1 ½ minute sprints.
Any feedback or suggestions would be great!
Thanks,
PadreX
Background:
I’m 39, turn the big four-oh at the end of June. I’ve never been a ‘big’ person – teens through my 20’s, I gradually went from 5’ 9” & 130 on up to 165 or so. In my early 30’s, the metabolism slowed, I moved to someplace I couldn’t surf and by late 2001, I was up to 190 or so.
I started working out a little – nothing that was truly a routine – eating better and cut out my 6 Pepsi’s a day completely. I got back down to 155 or so in late 2003.
I got into a new relationship, moved again, and things kinda slid again. I had a few starts to a workout routine, but didn’t really stick to it well enough to get real results.
In November last year, I decided to really get serious – I weighed in at about 175 and around 23.5% body fat. I made a goal that by my birthday, I’d get to under 15% body fat. I don’t really care what my weight is – higher, lower, whatever – it’s not a concern.
I started off doing regular cardio of about 45 minutes 3-4 days per week with 1-2 strength training sessions per week of about an hour. Also a 25 minute easy yoga routine maybe two mornings per week. The holidays of course caused a slowdown, but with the holidays came a nice Polar watch with the heart rate strap! Since January I’ve been very consistent – always at least 4 sessions of some sort of cardio per week (I play in an indoor soccer league now too & count that 50 minute game as one of my cardio workouts) and sometimes 6 sessions in a week. Per the Polar program I’ve done mostly medium high (140-150 bpm) workouts for about 50 minutes, but some 40 minute higher intensity stuff and generally one 90 minute low intensity workout per week. Mostly StairMaster & elliptical, as shin splints have put real running other than soccer on hold, although I’ve started including a rowing machine the past couple of weeks. I generally do 400 or so crunches before my cardio, plus 1-2 weights sessions per week. I’ve also been going to physical therapy (1 hour sessions) for the past 6 weeks twice a week (I’ve cut back to once a week as of last week) to rehab a torn infraspanatus muscle and my shin splints.
Diet wise, I eat decently, but I’m not willing to do some crazy restrictive diet. My breakfasts are pretty routine – Kashi Go Lean Crunch, Yoplait & a small glass of juice. I usually work out on my official lunch break, so I have a Go Lean bar before the gym, and pick up Subway after the gym. Dinner varies – but very little in the way of fast food, and the only soda I drink now is Coke Zero. I still love my beer, but I only drink a few beers a couple days a week. I also take 1 Centrum, 1 500mg calcium, 1 1500mg Glucosamine & a couple of Hydroxycuts in the morning, two more Hydroxycuts and one more Glucosamine in the evening.
I got down to 168 or so pretty quickly in mid-January, and got my body fat percentage down to about 19% by late February. Then I got on one of those plateaus. My weight didn’t change much for 3 weeks or so and my body fat % also stayed pretty constant, even creeping up a bit to 19.5%.
The past two or three weeks have seen a slight drop in weight – very gradually I slid down to the low 160’s – some days under 162. But my body fat % really hasn’t changed much at all.
I’m definitely happier about the way I’m looking – I’ve lost about 4 inches off my waistline – but I’m not happy with the body fat %, nor the (albeit small) cooler of insulation covering my 6 pack.
So, after reading up on HIIT, I’m thinking I’ll incorporate it on two days a week in place of my full cardio workout. Today’s workout was done on a StairMaster (the full size one) with 4 minutes of warmup at level 7, 1 minute sprint @ level 20 (good for around 165-170 bpm by the end of the minute) then 3 minutes back at level 7. I did 4 sprints today. I’m thinking to do one day per week on the StairMaster and one on the elliptical for HIIT for the time being. I’ll increase the sprint sessions by one per week and after a couple of weeks try going from 1 minute sprints to 1 ½ minute sprints.
Any feedback or suggestions would be great!
Thanks,
PadreX