J_love01 - official Spotlight fitness guy?

[Morbyd]

I hearby nominate J_love01 as our official Spotlight fitness guru. In just this week alone, he's blown me away with insightful fitness information in response to various threads. I think it's because he's a fitness trainer.

J - your challenge: whip these Spotlighters into shape!

Besides my callisthenic beer lifting and point-and-click exercises, what other things can we be doing to boost our dancefloor stamina?

 

[j_love01]

Engineer by weekday, trainer by weekend. Although I just started doing the fitness thing again within the last few months. I studied and practiced it quite a bit in college. Graduation and entering the real world kind of impacted my routines. 1.5 years after graduation...I'm back.

6% body fat by September is my goal...hovering around 11.5%+ now

 

[jjinit]

Engineer by weekday, trainer by weekend. Although I just started doing the fitness thing again within the last few months. I studied and practiced it quite a bit in college. Graduation and entering the real world kind of impacted my routines. 1.5 years after graduation...I'm back.

6% body fat by September is my goal...hovering around 11.5%+ now

ab roll bars...or plain old fashioned crunches??

 

[Drew]

6% body fat by September is my goal...hovering around 11.5%+ now

'bout same as me right now.

Would like to get back to around 8/9% - the only thing stopping me is the wine

Trained really well this week and back into swimming tonight.

 

[kes]

Engineer by weekday, trainer by weekend. Although I just started doing the fitness thing again within the last few months. I studied and practiced it quite a bit in college. Graduation and entering the real world kind of impacted my routines. 1.5 years after graduation...I'm back.

6% body fat by September is my goal...hovering around 11.5%+ now

ab roll bars...or plain old fashioned crunches??

200 ab rollbars = 30 plain old crunches = are for girls

 

[j_love01]

Engineer by weekday, trainer by weekend. Although I just started doing the fitness thing again within the last few months. I studied and practiced it quite a bit in college. Graduation and entering the real world kind of impacted my routines. 1.5 years after graduation...I'm back.

6% body fat by September is my goal...hovering around 11.5%+ now

ab roll bars...or plain old fashioned crunches??

Ab circuit training to blast 'em. Start with weighted swiss ball crunches, move to hanging leg raises, then side crunches, then rest. Repeat for a total of 3 sets at 8-12 reps each.

You could do the same with old fashioned crunches or roll bars..just make sure to hit the upper abs (bring upper body towards mid section), lower abs (bring lower body towards mid section), and obliques (side crunches or twists).

Just so nobody gets confused. There are no separate lower and upper ab muscles, just one set (rectus abdominis). Some people make the mistake of thinking there are two sets of muscles there. Your obliques are separate though.

 

[jjinit]

Engineer by weekday, trainer by weekend. Although I just started doing the fitness thing again within the last few months. I studied and practiced it quite a bit in college. Graduation and entering the real world kind of impacted my routines. 1.5 years after graduation...I'm back.

6% body fat by September is my goal...hovering around 11.5%+ now

ab roll bars...or plain old fashioned crunches??

Ab circuit training to blast 'em. Start with weighted swiss ball crunches, move to hanging leg raises

could you please explain these in a bit more detail?? 2??

 

[Drew]

Engineer by weekday, trainer by weekend. Although I just started doing the fitness thing again within the last few months. I studied and practiced it quite a bit in college. Graduation and entering the real world kind of impacted my routines. 1.5 years after graduation...I'm back.

6% body fat by September is my goal...hovering around 11.5%+ now

ab roll bars...or plain old fashioned crunches??

Ab circuit training to blast 'em. Start with weighted swiss ball crunches, move to hanging leg raises, then side crunches, then rest. Repeat for a total of 3 sets at 8-12 reps each.

You could do the same with old fashioned crunches or roll bars..just make sure to hit the upper abs (bring upper body towards mid section), lower abs (bring lower body towards mid section), and obliques (side crunches or twists).

Just so nobody gets confused. There are no separate lower and upper ab muscles, just one set (rectus abdominis). Some people make the mistake of thinking there are two sets of muscles there. Your obliques are separate though.

Training abs is great for toning the stomach, but bear in mind that abs will GROW as with any other muscle when worked hard.

I've known guys with washboard stomachs who train their abs hard and have gained 2/3 inches on their waist size

All i do is 100 swiss ball crunches and 50 or so leg raises approx. 3 times a week. You're generally training abs as a secondary/third muscle group when training with weights anyhow e.g. lat pulldowns etc.

 

[j_love01]

Engineer by weekday, trainer by weekend. Although I just started doing the fitness thing again within the last few months. I studied and practiced it quite a bit in college. Graduation and entering the real world kind of impacted my routines. 1.5 years after graduation...I'm back.

6% body fat by September is my goal...hovering around 11.5%+ now

ab roll bars...or plain old fashioned crunches??

Ab circuit training to blast 'em. Start with weighted swiss ball crunches, move to hanging leg raises, then side crunches, then rest. Repeat for a total of 3 sets at 8-12 reps each.

You could do the same with old fashioned crunches or roll bars..just make sure to hit the upper abs (bring upper body towards mid section), lower abs (bring lower body towards mid section), and obliques (side crunches or twists).

Just so nobody gets confused. There are no separate lower and upper ab muscles, just one set (rectus abdominis). Some people make the mistake of thinking there are two sets of muscles there. Your obliques are separate though.

You're generally training abs as a secondary/third muscle group when training with weights anyhow e.g. lat pulldowns etc.

Very true. Your abs are getting hit constantly throughout a variety of exercises, even walking. I do not recommend 'heavy/intense' training for abs unless you reach a point where the abs are visible (eg: low bf%). Drew makes a very valid point: you can put size around your midsection. This might not be something you want unless you are already pretty lean and want to build visible muscle in the midsection.

 

[Clara]

In that case:

What do you think about not eating carbs after 5pm?

I don't get home from work until at least 6pm and most nights I go to the gym so I'm not home until betwen 7 and 8 and although I don't go to bed until midnight during the week, I'm still probably eating later than a lot would recommend.

 

[Drew]

What do you think about not eating carbs after 5pm?

I don't agree with that at all.

Complex carbs (pasta etc) take a long time to get into your system. Sometimes 2 days or more, which makes it almost impossible the timing of eating carbs.

 

[Clara]

What do you think about not eating carbs after 5pm?

I don't agree with that at all.

Complex carbs (pasta etc) take a long time to get into your system. Sometimes 2 days or more, which makes it almost impossible the timing of eating carbs.

I don't eat much carbs at night anyway, but I think I'll definitely keep it until before 5pm anyway.

Does this count fruit and veg as well?

 

[Drew]

What do you think about not eating carbs after 5pm?

I don't agree with that at all.

Complex carbs (pasta etc) take a long time to get into your system. Sometimes 2 days or more, which makes it almost impossible the timing of eating carbs.

I don't eat much carbs at night anyway, but I think I'll definitely keep it until before 5pm anyway.

Does this count fruit and veg as well?

You can eat fruit/veg at any time. Fruit is ideally for a late snack if you're hungry.

Things to avoid after 5pm are sweets, starchy foods, biscuits etc (oh and alcohol of course )

 

[j_love01]

In that case:

What do you think about not eating carbs after 5pm?

I don't get home from work until at least 6pm and most nights I go to the gym so I'm not home until betwen 7 and 8 and although I don't go to bed until midnight during the week, I'm still probably eating later than a lot would recommend.

This is a highly debated area in the fitness realm. Studies have shown positive and negative results in eating carbs near bedtime. It depends on MANY factors and your individual goals. GENERALLY, "good" carbs 3-4 hours before bed should not impact you negatively. Your activity pre-carb meal also greatly impacts what your body will do to these carbs. You start to look at insulin spikes, hormone release or inhibition thereof, and a few other interesting topics...all of which are way too complicated to discuss unless I understand the person's diet, activity, metabolism, etc.

I have a book I'm reading right now discussing hormone release and its relation to carbohydrates. Interesting stuff...

 

[MyVenture]

It's all about:.......

 

[PachaGirl79]

I think J_love should post a pic....

 

[Conrado]

I used to zero carbs at night for over 1 year and half. It's a good technique to reduce body fat. The important thing is not to have a big gap between meals, one should eat every 2,5 to 4 hours. If you get home late at night and then go to the gym, it's not a problem to eat carbs at night, around 4 to 5 hours before bedtime.

Zeroing carbs at night is just part of a low carb diet and it's the last step on this diet. You should be getting most of your energy supply from proteins if you're willing to follow this recommendation. If you're keeping regular work out sessions with intensive aerobic training, it would be a good idea to have some carb (regardless of the time) after your training to help the body have some energy to use during the diggestion.

Avoid: sugar, alcohol, fat and fried food. Eat every 3 hours. Eat salad and vegetables, red meat every two days (if you're a woman) or every three days (if you're a man). Do your weight training before doing your aerobic training. Work out every three days and rest one (to avoid overtraining).

 

[Clara]

[quote="Conrado"red meat every two days (if you're a woman) or every three days (if you're a man). Do your weight training before doing your aerobic training. Work out every three days and rest one (to avoid overtraining).[/quote]


That's part of the problem - my boyfriend is a veggie and we eat the same dinner, so rarely have meat now.

 

[j_love01]

I used to zero carbs at night for over 1 year and half. It's a good technique to reduce body fat. The important thing is not to have a big gap between meals, one should eat every 2,5 to 4 hours. If you get home late at night and then go to the gym, it's not a problem to eat carbs at night, around 4 to 5 hours before bedtime.

Zeroing carbs at night is just part of a low carb diet and it's the last step on this diet. You should be getting most of your energy supply from proteins if you're willing to follow this recommendation. If you're keeping regular work out sessions with intensive aerobic training, it would be a good idea to have some carb (regardless of the time) after your training to help the body have some energy to use during the diggestion.

Avoid: sugar, alcohol, fat and fried food. Eat every 3 hours. Eat salad and vegetables, red meat every two days (if you're a woman) or every three days (if you're a man). Do your weight training before doing your aerobic training. Work out every three days and rest one (to avoid overtraining).

Nice to see you chime in on here Conrado. (I've seen this guys picture and I would definitely take his advice.) You've definitely worked hard on developing your body. I was about your size in college but have since then lost lots of muscle & gained some fat. I'm working on getting it back though, slowly & surely...the only healthy way. I'm about to start a very rigorous carb cycling diet. I've been reading a great book on how to tweak my diet to help produce the natural fat burning and muscle building hormones. It is called Natural Hormonal Enhancment by Rob Faigin. I strongly recommend picking it up, especially if you are a fitness buff. Great insights...

 

[Morbyd]

Avoid: sugar, alcohol, fat and fried food.

Well, that about rules out most of my daily diet