So I’ve been exercising lately. The last visit to the Dr. was a wake up call. 300 lb .. WHAT?! So, taking an iterative approach to exercise, I’ve manged to work up to 6-day a week cardio routine and a 3-day a week strength training routine and have gone from just over 300 lb. to 270 lb. in a couple months. Couple friends asked how I started and what I do, so I figure I’d break it down here.
I started by walking. 3 times a week for a couple weeks. Then after reading a Lifehacker post about a morning routine and matabolism, I added my very fast morning routine and actually eating breakfast to my day. Made it a whole week Monday-Friday. Then I bumped up the walking to Monday through Saturday. Did the morning routine and the walking for another week, then I bumped up the walking to targeted cardio 3 out of the 6 days and did that for another week. Added strength training 1 out of the 6 days and did that for another week. Switched from walking to cardio on all 6 days and + 1 more week. Then strength training 3 days out of the week. And slowly over about 3 months, I built up to this routine.
Every morning
I do this right after eating breakfast
2 sets, push-ups, 30 sec OR failure
2 sets, scissor kicks, 1 minute OR failure
Monday through Saturday
2 minute warm up
20 minutes of cardio (140-160 heart rate, check with your Dr.)
2 minute cool down
Strength training
This adds another 20 minutes to my workout, so schedule for that
Monday - Push (chest, triceps)
Wednesday - Pull (bicep, shoulders)
Friday - Legs (legs and stomach)
Now, it is just habit. Also, I am sure there is some study somewhere to prove or disprove this, but I find it makes my mind much sharper. I am more alert through out the day and I sleep much better at night. Not to mention clothes fitting better and just feeling better. My personal goal is 250.
Python tip
Prefer xrange to range when you need an arbitrary number of iterations as range actually generates a list for you, this will consume memory and be more costly than xrange.
jim says:
dude, watch your tags, what this post has to do with python?
Mostly kidding, vnice blog btw!
And an advice If I may:
November 5, 2008, 6:55 pmIt’s more important, at least if you are not a advanced level athlete, to give more priority to the total time you exercise. Is better to do 10 sets of pushups with 2mins breaks than 2-3 with only 30sec breaktime. Again for cardio, it would be much better for you if you do 15min cardio, walk for 5min, and then again another 15min cardio set.
Jon-Pierre Gentil says:
Nice, this sounds like a good idea. I had the same experience last month, the doctor told me I was 240, which is nearly the heaviest I’ve ever been (245). Working off all that Nashville BBQ will make ya feel good. I’m tempted to get a WiiFit, to see if it’s weight management tracking system is worth a damn.
I’ve also made it a point to cut out drinking soda and beer. Tea and scotch for me for here on out.
Also, xrange is great but limited to ints. With the advent of generators though, it’s easy to write your own arbitrary “xrange”. I find it’s best suited for things like for loop counters more than anything else.
November 5, 2008, 10:37 pmKeeping Fit @ Straw Dogs says:
[...] about my new blog here because its on a completely different subject. However, after reading the guy at Piece of Py posted about his fitness programme I thought I may as well [...]
December 22, 2008, 12:39 pmGam says:
IMO for fitness its 80% or more diet and the rest is exercise. Remember its 3500 calories = 1lb of weight gain. Thats not many sodas or beer if you add it up. If you want to make a big difference go and use http://www.fitday.com/ to track your eating for a few weeks and see exactly what you are putting into your gut. Cut the sugar, white flour crap and worthless pasta. There are plenty of tasty alternatives. Try it for a month, it wont kill you.
A balanced diet should be 50-65% carbohydrate (preferably complex/wholegrain), 25-30% fat (mostly unsaturated), 15-20% protein (lean sources). There’s a range to give you some flexibility. Sodium should be less than 2400mg (or 6g salt) per day, fiber over 25g and sugar should come in under 50g.
December 31, 2008, 8:49 pm