Wednesday 15 September 2010

Alex begins to get fit

Inspired by my very good friend Christopher "Buentes" Smith I have decided to undergo the idea of blogging about my get fit procedure. I have been doing it casually for a few months anyway but I like the idea of blogging about it to keep myself motivated and on track.

I have decided that I would like to slim down on the stomach and add some lean muscle to up my basal metabolic rate. I am also trying to quit smoking; although this is healthy for me it has ridiculous side effects for weight loss and metabolic rate. If you smoke then apparently your bodies heart rate increases during the time that you smoke. This in turn helps burn calories, possibly as much a 200 calories per day. So, I am planning on doing weights to neutralise this as building muscle raises the metabolic rate in the system.

So my planned exercise tactics are:

1 weights day (3 times a week) and 1 cardio day (3 times a week) and 1 rest day!

Weights days will mainly focus on a circuit that Men Health magazine has provided for me.

- Bench press
- Incline bench press
- Decline bench press
- Squats (using bar bell on shoulders 25kg weight to start with )
- Lunges (using bar bell on shoulders 25kg weight to start with )
- Bicep curls
- Tricep extension
- Dips
- Shoulder extensions
- Shrugs
- Sit ups (to exhaustion)

Cardio days will involve:

- 10 minute interval skipping (30 secs on / 30 secs rest)
- 10 minute sprints (20 secs sprint as fast a possible / 20 sec rest)
- 2500m rowing machine (500m as fast as possible and 30 sec rest)
- Step Machine (to exhaustion)

Also on this day I will do my 100 press up challenge (currently on week three) http://hundredpushups.com/

Food

On the food side of things I need to eat less carbs and more protein but at the moment this is very difficult because I am skint and have no money for chicken, tuna or protein shakes. I hope this can change soon.

I also am tring to drink 2.5 litres of water a day. This will stop water retention and slim me down a bit.