Trying to get in shape. Running/push-ups/sit-ups/squats and adding Insanity. ???????

[Memo35]

Great forum guys. Newb here trying to get in shape to be able to join law enforcement.

Here's the deal, I'm 31, 6'1" and weigh ~215lbs. I'd love to get down to about 200 or even 190.

I'm currently jogging about 3-5 times a week. I'm up to 4 miles a jog in roughly 42 minutes. I run around my neighborhood. Sometimes in the morning 6-8 am or at night after 8 pm. I also do push-ups, sit-ups and squats at home about 3-4 times a week. I'm currently using apps on my phone to keep track and also stay on the app's schedule. I'm using Push-up Pro, Sit-up Pro and Squats Pro for Android. Sit-ups and squats don't seem to give me any trouble. I do, however, need to improve my upper body strength. I can do up to 18 push-ups on my knees, but only about 10-12 regular. Any tips or help on this would be greatly appreciated.

I've been exercising since around Thanksgiving. I started with jogging half a mile with some stops to catch my breath. Now I can run 1-1.5 miles before my first stop. Last night I ran 1.5 in 14 minutes. Both are my personal best.

I'm training because I'm in the hiring process for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. My background investigator should be contacting me fairly soon. I've also applied to the California High Patrol yesterday.

I do not have access to a gym or weights at the moment. I do plan on getting a gym membership by February or March.

Eating habits: I haven't really changed my habits aside from eating smaller portions and more salads with less junk food. I do drink on occasion, but I'm willing to give that up for better results.

Now to my question(s): I plan on starting the Insanity workout program on Monday (3 days). I completed 3 weeks back in September so I know what to expect. However, should I continue with my current exercises/workouts, or should I ditch the push/sit/squats because Insanity includes that in the workouts? I also want to continue running, but I'm not sure how much or how often I should continue doing this while doing the Insanity daily.

Any advice, tips, suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

 

[Goldfish]

I could have sworn this exact question was posted just the other day.... Not just a question to the same effect, but this exact post, word for word.

Oh well, I don't know the ins and outs of Insanity, so I didn't know the answer then and I still don't know the answer now. I guess work with Insanity and see if you can still do productive work on push ups, sit ups and squats after each session? Whatever you do, I think you need an upper body pulling movement to balance out all the push ups. Pull ups and inverted rows are good for this.

 

[Memo35]

I could have sworn this exact question was posted just the other day.... Not just a question to the same effect, but this exact post, word for word.

Oh well, I don't know the ins and outs of Insanity, so I didn't know the answer then and I still don't know the answer now. I guess work with Insanity and see if you can still do productive work on push ups, sit ups and squats after each session? Whatever you do, I think you need an upper body pulling movement to balance out all the push ups. Pull ups and inverted rows are good for this.

Ha. That must've been my introduction to the site in the "new members" section. Pretty much the same thing but without the specific questions. Appreciate the advice on the pull ups and rows. I'll look into those. Although, I doubt I can do any pull ups at this moment. Still building my upper body strength.

 

[Albert Smith]

I do not find any thing wrong in your current routine. Just keep it up until you are comfortable with that.
Yes, there are certain ways to push up correctly. I would like to show you stpe by step so that it would help you do that correctly:

• I see this as a common mistake for people who are simply not strong enough to complete a push up (usually weak chest muscles), or simply have poor posture from working on a computer all the time. The head is forced forward and down in an effort to make the push up easier. I would recommend doing knee push ups (you have to start from somewhere, right?) until you can easily keep your head in line with your torso as you do the push up in a slow and controlled motion.

• As some people do push ups they start shrugging their shoulders towards their ears, which forces more pressure on the triceps. Typically this is a result of weak chest muscles, or similar to the neck position, poor posture. Keeping your shoulders down, back, and stable will force your chest to work much harder, which will make the exercise more effective.

• If you have not developed your chest muscles, the chances are you will start your pushup with your hands above the plane of your shoulders. What I mean is that when you get ready to do a pushup, your hands are placed above your shoulders, almost in the same horizontal plane as your head. Keep your hand position slightly wider than shoulder width apart, next to the middle of your chest, which will properly work your chest, shoulders, and triceps pretty equally so they all benefit.

• While push ups are a great exercise, they can easily cause overuse injuries, especially in the wrists. So don’t hurry. Put the pressure of the weight on the outside of your hands, not the bottom of your hand/wrist, which is what I did for years. The outside of your hand is very stable and strong. You can pretend like you are gripping the floor to help keep the pressure off your wrists.

• In an effort to make the push up easier, oftentimes I see people either slouching their hip downward, or pushing their hips upward. By not keeping the hips and torso straight, the abs are almost taken out of the equation. Keep your hips in line with your torso to properly engage your abs and properly recruit the muscles as they were intended (chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs).

• I’ve heard a million times how you should never let your body dip below a 90 degree angle in your elbows. I think this came about because of shoulder concerns. In my opinion, I think you should use a full range of motion (just as with every other exercise) as long as it doesn’t hurt your shoulders. In fact, if I couldn’t get the full range of motion and get that stretch in my pecs and shoulders at the bottom of the rep, I probably would never do push ups. Try to get your chest to slightly graze the ground, or come within an inch of the ground.

• I think this applies to most exercises along with the full range of motion. Control the descent and push up forcefully. It’s cool if the positive phase is very quick in the beginning, but in general, a 1 second up, 2 second down count is ideal. Controlling the tempo dramatically reduces risk of injury and substantially increases muscle stimulation.


Hope so it would help you greatly.