new to the forum and seeking advice

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*Dim*

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hope some may advise

I and my son have both recently joined a gym ... we are both way overweight and out of shape ... we go to gym for 5 consecutive days and have 2 days rest

I am 50 years old and my son is 18 years old ... we have been going to gym for 2 weeks now and have both lost 4kg so far (2kg per week)

I am 50 years old and weigh 100kg (was 104 kg) ... my son is 18 years old and weighs 119 kg (was 123 kg)

we have both started eating healthier and do the following at gym:

11 min on the cycle at level 10 and maintain a speed of 90rpm+ for the full duration

11 min on the ellipytical trainer/step machine on level 10 and average 12km/hr+ for the full duration

11 min on the running machine, but we walk fast at 6 km/hr for the full duration

11 min on the rowing machine at level 6

5 weight training machines using light weights and 20 repetions of each machine (arm and chest muscle building machines)

we will add an additional minute on the 4 cardio machines every week at the current settings till we reach 20 minutes per machine, then will keep on 20 min per machine but increase the hardness level

as for eating, we have a breakfast that either consists of pro nutro (a porrige that is made with milk ... originates from south africa and I buy it at a south african shop in the UK) with a chopped banana .... or a bowl of scottish oats (hot porridge)

1/2 a cup of freshly squuezed fruit juice mixed with vegetable juice (such as spinach with grapefruit and carrot) ... I have a juice extractor machine

lunch consists of 2 bananas and an apple ... or a banana, an apple and a small portion of 0% fat greek yoghurt

supper (which is after gym) consists of steamed fish, steamed veg, wild rice or boiled sweet potato, fresh salads, or lean meat etc (either a portion of fish or meat with veg and rice or sweet potato)

we do not feel hungry, and feel we are on the right path .... half an hour before going to gym, we have a banana and an apple and a fruit/oat bar (found a new one called nakd which is raw fruit, nuts and oats)

we both take 1 vitamin supplement after breakfast (solgar omnia) and have an amino acid tablet straight after gym (amino 1000) .... the bottle for the vitamin says 2 per day, but we only take 1 .... the amino acid bottle says 3 per day, but we only take 1 .... we also both drink more than 2 litres of evian bottled water per day, and a green tea before bed ... we have cut out coffee completely

we both feel good and look forward to going to gym

so ... my questions are as follows:

what is a good snack to have just before going to gym? ... is the banana/apple/fruit bar good, or is there better? (we don't want any protein bars or protein milkshakes)

we do 20 repetions of light weights ... is this fine, or should we do 10, then wait a minute and do 10 more? (we are not bodybuilding but perfer to tone)

is avo good? ... have read that one should avoid that

should we do the wights before the cardio machines or after .... or does it matter?

we take the amino acid tablet straight after gym .... is this the norm?
 
First of all, I want to say congrats on starting on this healthy lifestyle and even more congrats for doing this with your son!

Obviously, I don't know what your diet or activity patterns looked like before, but looking at what you've listed above, I'd say you're off to a pretty good start. You will learn things as you go, but you've got a really good base to start from.

With the exercise, honestly, anything that gets you moving on a regular basis will help you. You have a starting point, and you've got a plan for progression... You're already miles ahead of most people here! Something that I would suggest is that you make sure that the weight training exercises cover your whole body, not just your upper body. If you feel that your lower body is too tired after all that cardio, then do the strength exercises first, then cardio. Or you can split the cardio up and do, say, the cycle and elliptical, then your strength routine, then walking and rowing. In the future, you may want to slowly put more emphasis on the strength training to ensure that you preserve lean mass.

With the meals, the major thing that I would change is the lunch... having only fruit is not a very balanced meal (although there are much worse options out there!). The option with the fruit and the yogurt is the better option because there are both carbs and protein, not just carbs.

The multivitamin is probably a good idea, but I'm not sure that you need the amino acids. If you can incorporate a bit more lean protein into your daily diet, you shouldn't really need them. I'm no expert here, so others are more than welcome to comment on this!

I'll try to answer your questions as best I can:

For a preworkout snack, try to focus on having 'complex' carbs. Do some research into the glycemic index and try to pick things that are LOW glycemic index. Apples are good, bananas are OK, but they are a bit higher on the glycemic scale. I'm not sure about fruit bars, but try to find ones with more fiber and less simple sugars. Most veggies are pretty good!

20 reps is probably the max you'd ever really want to do. Find a weight that feels like the muscle group is pretty much fatigued at 15 to 20 reps - maybe not absolute failure, but you should be at the point where you feel like you could only do 1 or 2 more reps. I would say change it up and some weeks do higher reps (15-20) and do only one set, and other weeks do 2 sets of moderate reps (8-12). This moderate rep scheme is more in the hypertrophy range, but only doing 2 sets will not be enough volume to bulk. Whatever the number of reps, find a weight that leaves the muscle group fatigued at the end of the set. In terms of general conditioning, this is OK. If your goals change later on, you can always change up your set/rep scheme.

I'm not sure what avo is, so I can't comment on that :)

Doing weights before cardio is generally recommended if you're really focusing on building muscle, as the two can conflict. For general conditioning or weight loss, it isn't as important, so do whatever works best for you.

Again, I'm no supplement expert, but probably the most common is for people to take the amino acids post-workout. However, there is evidence for the benefits of taking them pre-workout as well. It sounded like you have dinner after your workout... my suggestion would be that if you can have dinner within about 30 mins of working out (therefore getting in your post-workout protein), then you'd probably get more benefit from having the amino acid tablet with your pre-workout snack.

Here's an interesting article that I came across if you want to do a bit of reading on it:

http://www.nsca-lift.org/HotTopic/download/Nutrient Timing.pdf

Hope that helps!
 
thanks for the info PLBFitness ... much appreciated!

could not find my thread but have now figured out how this site works

it does make sense to take the amino acid before going to gym, as we have dinner soon after returning

as for the leg workouts, will incorporate that a bit later, as the elliptical cross trainer is the hardest machine for both of us at the moment and really works the legs

I am still studing a bit about nutrition especially the fruits/vegetables .... have found a site that gives more info:



seems like one should lay off dates as they have a energy value of 1275/300, although, have not had any as yet

as for lunch, will see if we can incorporate more protein as at the moment we have mainly fruit .... but saying that, we do not feel hungry

still trying to figure out a quick snack to have just before going to gym .... tonight it will be 1 banana and a Jordan's luxury absolute nut bar (wholegrain oats, almonds, hazelnuts and pecan nuts) ... will try to restrict the banana's to 1 per day

tonights dinner will consist of a portion of fresh salmon fish, steamed and served with boiled mashed sweet potato (nothing added), baby beetroot, and a salad consisting of wild rocket, watercress, baby spinach, green pepper, onion, celery, baby plum tomatoes and basil ... and a portion of steamed broccoli .... I will make a dressing of extra virgin olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon for the steamed fish

I also found an interesting site where a guy survived for 92 days purely on raw food (juice from fruit and vegetables) ... makes for intersting reading ... have tried his spinach and celery juice but tastes like medicine, so included the juice of an apple to sweeten it slightly ... we will not only take raw juice, but will include a cup of juice at breakfast



as for your advice on the weights, we will continue to do 20 reps, but will do 10, then wait for a minute or 2 and do 10 more... we have also started doing the weights before the cardio after reading your advice

as for the amino acids, will take 1 prior to every session at gym instead of after ... am happy with the Solgar Omnium mulivitamin as it also has minerals etc .... it is pretty potent, and when you pee, your pee is flourescent yellow in colour for half a day



avo is avocadopear .... have read that one needs to restrict on these as they are high in fat

once more, thanks for the advice and enjoy reading this forum!
 
Like I said before, it looks like you're off to a good start! Just don't get sucked into the surviving only on juice thing :) There's nothing wrong with making your own juice, just don't get too carried away with it!

As for the avocado... In my opinion, they are a great food! But yes, they should be limited. A serving should be about 1/4 of a medium avocado... I've seen 1/2 as a suggested serving, so staying somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 should be good!

Good luck and can't wait to hear about your progress!
 
Oh I forgot to mention... a good site for looking up nutritional info is nutritiondata.self.com if you're interested
 
Last edited:
PLBFitness said:
Oh I forgot to mention... a good site for looking up nutritional info is nutrition.self.com if you're interested
Click to expand...

thanks! ... will not drink only juice, but will drink the vegetable/fruit juice once a day prior to going to gym

tried the link ... did not work, but found this site
 
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