Help me figure out how to balance cardio and weight traning

angaustinbrody

angaustinbrody

New member
I had major surgery back at the end of may, was bedbound for a couple of weeks, had a contractor go bad and our house foundation collapsed, and have ate/stressed myself up 40 pounds. I'm 5'8 and 211 lbs.

I own a treadmill, a weider 8630 home gym, some very light dumb bells (1 lb, 3 lb, 5 lb) as well as some heavier interchangable ones, yoga mats, resistance bands and endless dvd's and wii games. 30 day shred, P90X, P90, Beachbody Insanity, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, Biggest Loser wii.......

What would be my best bet in terms of exercise?

For eating, I'm sticking to the Canada Food Guide. Plenty of fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, lean meats, water. It's working well. I get a CSA box every week filled with organic fruits and veggies and we have a freezer full of organic chicken and venison. :)
 
Sounds like you keep the fad fitness industry in business!

:p

In all seriousness... there's no reason to make this more complex than it has to be. Lift some weights using compound exercises 2-3 times per week and fill in cardio where you can using whatever means you enjoy.
 
Steve said:
Sounds like you keep the fad fitness industry in business!

:p

In all seriousness... there's no reason to make this more complex than it has to be. Lift some weights using compound exercises 2-3 times per week and fill in cardio where you can using whatever means you enjoy.
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HA, your telling me. I didn't even tell you the diet books I have. I have them listed on a selling board for some other sucker to buy, then I'm buying myself some books on nutrition. :dupe:

And since I'm fat and have no muscle tone but lots of cushion, should I focus on the number of reps or weight? Today on the home gym I did legs and arms and I did 12 reps of each exercise and 3 circuits.
 
angaustinbrody said:
HA, your telling me. I didn't even tell you the diet books I have. I have them listed on a selling board for some other sucker to buy, then I'm buying myself some books on nutrition. :dupe:
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What nutrition books are you considering? If you'd like some input, I've read pretty much everything under the sun sans bullshit gimmicks.

And since I'm fat and have no muscle tone but lots of cushion, should I focus on the number of reps or weight? Today on the home gym I did legs and arms and I did 12 reps of each exercise and 3 circuits.
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That actually sounds like a fine plan. Truth be told, unless you're doing something silly like lifting 1 lb dumbbells for 100 reps, you're going to get what you're looking for. At this stage in the game, simply working your muscles progressively using compound movements using weights that keep you between 8-15 reps is probably ideal.

Make sense?
 
if I might intrude I'd say that the basic textbooks on clinical nutrition is a good place to start. I'm unsure as to the title depending on where you live, here we're smacked over the head with one called "klinisk ernæring" which basically translates into clinical nutrition and it is a complete sans woo woo book based on actual studies without any magic at all :) Otherwise pubmed is always made of win.
 
If you're looking for regular books you'd find on the shelves of B&N, I'd pick up Volumetrics, Intuitive Eating, and Mindless Eating.

If you're looking for more text book type books... let me know and I'll shoot you over a list. But nutrition text books are heavy reading. At least that's most people's takes.
 
ah..and I'm sure someone will have said this a million times on the board (i should hope so) but in general, anyone that wants to sell you both a book about nutrition and stuff to eat / dietary supplements etc... is less deserving of trust than someone who only sells a book :)
 
Very true. This is how I view books...

There are generally two levels of books in this industry.

Foundational and extrapolative.

Put differently, there's material that provides the basis for what all other books are written about and coaches talk about. The former is the foundational and the latter is the extrapolative.

What you see on the shelves of most book stores and what most people end up reading are of extrapolative nature. They're products of what the author/coach has read on the foundational front. It's their take on the science, if you will.

They're usually a snapshot or a cookie cutter 'take' the author/coach has regarding what he or she has read, how they understand the foundational information and how they have applied the stuff, personally.

As an example, we understand a lot of the sciences dealing with strength development. From the foundational level material you'll have an exercise physiologist/scientist who presents the science of strength from a physiological perspective and then provides you with some applicability. From the extrapolative level material you'll have a trainer, like me, write how he applies said ideas.

On the extrapolative side, you tend to miss the big picture. This is unbeknown to most readers but they never 'really get it.'

But suffice it to say that the real data is provided to us in the foundational products (and research papers). The problem is, said products are a) expensive and b) beyond most peoples comprehension since they don't have the prerequisite knowledge to decipher.

That said, what exactly are you looking to learn about?
 
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