jones123

Pushups, pullups, and situps (crunches). I used to have my daughter sit on my back while doing pushups. You can do them with a backpack on, too. You're benching a little over half your weight plus any additional you can balance. Raise your feet high for more weight. Put your hands in different positions. You can see how much you're "benching" with a bathroom scale.

If you can't pull up, stand on a chair and put as little weight on your feet as your arms can stand until you don't need the chair any more.

Ab workouts and stretches are the most important ones, like muley69 says.

Write down your program so you do it regularly.

charlie brown

Yeah, about the only things I do right now are basic crunches, and push-ups along with quite a bit of stretching. Never thought about adding weight or the other things you mentioned. I have written down my BP, pulse, weight, and what excercises down in a calendar, though I have not done it for a while as I have not done much for excercising. I already have to keep track of my BP and weight because of my kidney transplant.

That doesn't make any sense for some reason. Can you clarify it a bit. Thanks.

Edit - Never mind the last, it makes sense now. Got it!

jones123

That's my writing for ya!

I am starting to feel my age; I used to be a pull-up fiend, but now I struggle if I get away from them for a few months (or more). I get on a chair and grab the bar so that when I pull up, it's all with my legs, nuthin but pure cheat, basically doing squats while holding the bar. Then each night, put a little less weight on my legs until I'm pulling up entirely with my arms.

The other thing you can do is use a chair to start with your chin at bar level, pick up your feet, and let yourself down as slowly as you can.

Of course, if you can do pullups, you just ignore all this.

If you can only do one or two, do several sets of one or two a night (every other night) and keep increasing.

Type in "workout without weights" in google or yahoo and you can get all kinds of ideas. In college my roommate was a gymnast and he had all sorts of creative ways to use body weight for a natural workout.

You can get pushup bars that elevate your hands about 8 inches to do a deeper pushup. You can also build dip bars - great exercise.

Sorry again if I'm getting too far off hunting.

charlie brown

I could build dip bars too. That is nothing for me to come up with. Thanks for the ideas.

I don't think this is getting too far off hunting. The reason I put this topic in here anyway was because a lot of the game covered in here has to do with hunting in areas that require a person be in at least "good" condition, which requires excercise, which is then linked to this thread.

Hi Ball

Charley Brown I sir will ask you a question before I give you my routine OK. Now what are you getting in shape to do? What are your goals and how old are you etc? Sorry that was more than one question.

However, it is important to set goals for ones self but always be careful not to over due your expectations and get plenty of rest in between workouts.

I am from the old school and had good teachers along the way, who taught me not just how to exercise but what to eat and how many times etc per day.

My work out routine now days consists of lifting "free weights" 3 times a week and doing walking and swiming 3 times a week, alternating the walking and swiming. I lift light, meadium and last workout of the week is heavy, with Saturday and Sunday off, no workouts.

I lift a total of 4 sets during my workout, the starting set is a very light warm up set (dumbells) after I "Stretch My Body" completely. I also strectch in between sets. The other 3 sets are as follows: Medium weight (65lb dumbells bench press) using 10 reps, Medium Heavy*** with Olympic bar at 190lbs doing 8 reps***Heavy bench press with Olympic bar totalling 225lbs at 6 reps. I do this on my last workout of the week.

Now come time for elk hunting I do less lifting and more walking (cardio work for the heart and lungs) up and down hills with a rock sack on my back starting out at 20 pounds and working up to 75 pounds for 3 miles. I do this for 8 weeks before a hunt. I only lift 2 days a week during this time with light weights, no more than 150lbs (15 reps) on the bench and 3/4 squat no more than 2 sets of with last set being 200lbs at 12 reps.

I also make sure I am eating plenty of protein 100 grams a day and drinking lots of good water and juices too. I take 2 naps a day, I can do that being a senior citizen nowdays.

charlie brown

Hi Ball - What am I trying to get in shape for? Well, I am trying to mainly stay in shape for my annual hunting. What are my goals? To be able to hike more comfortably and make it home without suffering a bunch of pain. I am 22, but as I stated in my 1st post, I had a kidney transplant a year ago. I have been doing as much walking as the weather will allow, and have been riding my bike also, as well as push ups and crunches. I started this mainly to find out what everyone else does for excercise to get ready for big game hunting, but have seen some good ideas that will work for someone that has very little chance to even get to a gym.

muley69

CB< don't underestimate the power of pushups, pullups, and weighted dips, these are solid exercises. Two points, however, you simply must give your body time to repair the damage done by a workout, 72 hours is the optimum. Many people feel the more and harder they work their body, the better the results, this simply isn't true. Your muscles grow during your rest period. After about 45-60 minutes of working out, you start to have deminishing returns and focus and intensity are often loss. Point number two, don't allow your body to get acclimated to your exercise regime, you have to change up the order your doing your excercises and the kind that your doing, you need to shock your system and keep it guessing. If you don't have much room, invest in a dumbell weight set up, one for each hand. It is small and you can do many excecises w/o a bench. Bent over rows, dumbell bench, butterflys, delt flyes, kickbacks, hammer and concentration curls, and for the legs, DB squats, lunges, step ups etc. these are just a few of the excercises you can do that are highly effective with just some dumbells and some weights. Keep your diet clean and take it lots of protein, 1 gram for every pound you weigh for good muscle gain.[8D]

BareBack Jack

For me my work out consits of,
I sit at home watching baseball,archers choice,hunting the country and so on,then a little nap,eat as much high calorie food (candy and dougnuts-Love Burger King),and drinking beer.

No not realy,I try and stay as active as I can through the winter 3 nights aweek at the gym,45-60 min work outs,lots of running,weight's and swimming.I alternate days one day work the upper boddy,next day work the legs,abs and swimming.In the spring and summer lots of hiking,and hunting climbing the hills.Then hunting season is here and I bust but from Oct. to the end of Dec.

From Late July to end of August I run 3 miles a day with a light loaded pack frame 30-35lbs,alternating wind sprint in between.
BBJ

ShatoDavis

In my earlier years I didn't have to work out much. I went to the gym and threw around some weights and that was it. I've always been strong. I still enjoy lifting wieghts, but I hate cardio. In high school I was a baseball player and the practices kept me in fairly good shape. After highschool I started riding rodeo. The low pay kept the wieght off because I couldn't afford much food. Now, I sit at a desk and eat way too much. I try to make myself walk daily and watch what I eat ... Its tough. I recently bought a Bowflex, it works good. I miss free weights though. I still have a hard time making myself do cardio though. Every year about this time I start worrying about the upcoming season and I will pick it up a notch. The problem is that every year its harder and harder to get where I need to be. If I where a smart man I would work all year to stay in shape, but then again I've never been accused of being smart.

SpyroAndes

muley69,

I grew up competing in soccer, baseball, football, tennis, swimming and did martial arts.

When push came to shove, in HS, I stuck with football and swam but also started throwing.

I played football in college.

After college, I boxed and fought full-contact martial arts.


It is because of football that I am now in my predicament... I played at 6' 240 lbs and had decent wheels and loved demolishing linebackers. I have always be one of those guys that played through the pain and I played at a high level...

Once my college career was over, I was still in good shape and maintained roughly similar fitness until about 28 years of age. My weight started to slowly creep up but it wasn't that much of an issue.

Then the years of football started to catch up with me... in the period of the last 4 years... I had 2 knees cut... I had a shoulder cut... I had an ankle cut... then I sprained each of my ankles within 6 months of each other... By the time I was done with all of this cutting and spraining, I put on 50 pounds...

I still hunted alot... heck, I did an antelope hunt in a boot and crutches... but it drove me nuts... I was always aching and hurting...

Thankfully, I was in good health when I started. My colesterol was in the 160s and my BP was 110/70 even at my initial 300 pounds. My doctor had me retested and then proclaimed that I was "in the best shape he has ever seen a fat guy" and that I need to be "on-call" to retest to settle any wagers with his dr buddies.

CHARLIE BROWN,

In the last 5 weeks, I have dropped 22 pounds...

The secret for getting in shape and building muscle has never changed... Here are the 2 magic ingredients...

1) Diet
2) Hard work

CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN BEFORE DOING ANY OF THE BELOW because the level of your kidney function will definitely effect what you can do on your diet in terms of supplementation and dietary intake. This is something that you should really determine with a nutrionist.

DIET

You need to monitor your diet and adjust it... be it down in calories... up in protein... eliminating carbs... increasing carbs... cutting fat... etc...

The key is writing your dietary consumption, at the time that you actually consume it, and then calculating your caloric intake... your calories from fat... your fat/carb/protein grams per each meal... the spacing of your meals... and the timing of your intake...

For me it was easy... I reduced my caloric intake and increased my water intake. My issue wasn't what I was eating, it was how much I was eating.

I have spread that over 3 meals and several snacks. The only difference (meals and snacks both include 1 protein severing) between my "meals" and my "snacks" is the inclusion of a fruit, veg and salad to lunch and dinner and the inclusion of a fruit to breakfast.

I try to keep my fat grams at under 25 grams, with no saturated fats being best, and my carbohydrates in the 50-60 gram range. The rest of my diet consists of PROTEIN either in the form of lean meats (fish, chicken & pork loin) or in the form of powders (whey isolate, egg, soy and cesin).

Also, I drink 150 ounces of water spread out through my day. I don't drink alcohol or caffiene so I didn't have to eliminate them. I eliminate all sodas, fruit juices and etc. Water, decaf ice tea and crystal light are it for beverages. However, only water counts towards my minimum intake of 160 ounces.

When you drink that much water, you need to supplement your diet with vitamins. I take 6 multi-vitamins a day and additionally dose C, Potasium, Calcium, B, A and essential fatty acids.

EXCERCISE

Somebody mentioned it earlier but the easiest way to burn fat and get into shape is to increase your lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle mass that you have, the higher your metabolism will be at rest.

I have a friend that is a pro body builder. He is 290lbs of pure muscle. The amount of food that he eats daily just to sustain his muscle mass is frightening.

If you increase your cardio, especially right when you wake up, before you eat/drink anything, you'll raise your metabolism even more.

Personally, I believe in 30 minutes of hell approach to cardio which is the following...

For the first five minutes, use it as a warm up period...

The next 30 minutes, do the maximum effort that you can sustain for 30 minutes be it walking, jogging or stairs...

For the last 5 minutes, do a cool down period. Walk comfortably until the 5 minutes is up.

Here is my day... Monday thru Friday...

6:00am = Wake up

6:10am - 6:15am = stretch

6:15am - 6:55am = cardio

7:15am = Pre-Workout Boost
[ul][*] Drink 8oz Water [*] BCAA Aminos[*] Glutamine (5g)[*] Carnitine (500mg)[/ul]

7:15am - 8:15am = workout @ gym

8:15am = Post-Workout Boost
[ul][*] Drink 8oz Water [*] BCAA Aminos[*] Carnitine (500mg)[/ul]

9:00am = Breakfast
[ul][*] Whey Isolate Protein Shake (100 cal/15 fat cal w/ 20 grams protein)[*] Glutamine (5g)[*] Strawberries, 1 Cup (50 cal/ 5 fat cal)
[*] Multi-vitamin (2)[*] Vitamin C (2000mg)[*] Vitamin E (1000mg)[*] Calcium (1200mg)[*] Essential Fatty Acids (2000mg Flax Oil Cap) [*] Potasium[*] Vitamin B Complex[*] Vitamin A[/ul]

9:00am - 11:00am = Drink 32oz of Water

11:00am = Morning Snack
[ul][*] Whey Isolate & Egg Protein Shake (98 cal/7 fat cal w/ 21 grams protein)[/ul]

11:00am - 1:00pm = Drink 32oz of Water

1:00pm = Lunch
[ul][*] Lean Meat, 4oz[*] Grilled Yellow Squash, 1 Cup[*] Salad, 2 cup[*] Salad Dressing, 2 T of non-fat low carb [*] Natrual Apple Sauce, 4oz[*] Crystal Light, 16oz
[*] Calcium (1200mg)[*] Multi-Vitamin (2)[*] Vitamin C (2000mg)[*] Carnitine (500mg)[*] Essential Fatty Acids (2000mg Flax Oil Cap)[/ul]

1:00pm-3:00pm = Drink 32oz of water

3:00pm = Afternoon Snack
[ul][*] Soy Protein Shake (117 cal/9 fat cal w/ 27 grams protein)[/ul]

3:00pm - 5:00pm = drink 32oz of Water

5:00pm = Early Evening Snack
[ul][*] Cottage Cheese Low Fat, 4oz[/ul]

5:00pm - 7:00pm = Drink 32oz of Water

7:00pm = Dinner
[ul][*] Lean Meat, 4oz[*] Grilled Asparagus, 1 Cup[*] Salad, 2 cups[*] Salad Dressing, 2 T of non-fat low carb [*] Blueberries, 4oz[*] Crystal Light, 16oz
[*] Calcium (1200mg)[*] Multi-Vitamin (2)[*] Carnitine (500mg)[/ul]

7:00pm - 9:00pm = Drink 16oz of Water

9:00pm = Late Evening Snack
[ul][*] Casein Protein Shake (120 cal/10 fat cal w/ 23 grams protein)[/ul]

9:00pm - 11:00pm = Drink 16oz of Water

11:00pm = SLEEP