[EAST] PAX East 2012 Fitness Group! [Meetup Friday 4/6 1PM outside the Wyvern Theater]

BaconSandwich

Meetup info!

We'll have a small meetup right after the Fitocracy panel, 1:00 PM on Friday. This is conveniently 30 minutes after the PA Q&A. Challenge coins will be awarded to our winners there.

I kept meaning to make up some sort of swag, but I'm sorry it didn't happen this year. The only things I'll have to give out are 2 coins. And hugs.



Old stuff is old and being kept here so others can see what I tried (and failed) to do.

Welcome ladies, gentlemen and smizmars to the only thread completely dedicated to making PAX East 2012 the sexiest PAX yet!

We have a Fitocracy group, feel free to join: http://ftcy.co/vbq5sa

EDIT 3/25/2012 Ok, there are just a couple weeks till PAX so I thought I would update with the standings of our weight loss competition. Remember, highest percentage weight lost gets a spiffy PAX East 2012 Challenge Coin for their very own.

The entrants and current percentages are as follows:

Dgeorge318 233.5 - 210.8 (-9.7%)
vttym 234 - 219 (-6.4%)
ishtra 148 - 138.6 (-6.35%)
LexiconGrrl 190 - 179 (-5.8%)
redfield85 243.2 - 231.0 (-5.0%)
Izzie 194 - 187 (-3.6%)
PurpleBek 170 - 164 (-3.5%)
PayneTrayne 258.6 - 250.4 (-3.1%)
browncoatbeth 197 - 192.0 (-2.5%)
TheAsianKnight 210 - 205 (-2.4%)
BaconSandwich 247.8 - 242.4 (-2.2%)
Direwolf 316 - 309 (-2.2%)
Dreamwish 252 - 252 (+/- 0%)
adidas.angel 134 - 134.5 (+0.4%)
SpectacledBear 261 - 262 (+0.4%)


If you are not on this list, you have not logged your weight more than twice. There is still time though! I know people are on different weigh-in schedules, but I would ask that everyone submit their final weigh-in on or before Wednesday, April 4th so I can make final calculations and declare a winner. If you are the winner, you will need to be at the Fitness Group meetup at 1PM outside the Wyvern Theater, directly following the Fitocracy panel.

As far as our Fitocracy Group Challenge is concerned, MWX is currently in the lead, with PayneTrayne and Dgeorge318 hot on his tail. If Dgeorge, who is currently #1 on the weight loss competition, also takes #1, I will have to construct some sort of makeshift obstacle course so #2 on both Fitocracy and on weight loss must compete for the final prized Challenge Coin.


OLD STUFF:

PAX East 2012 Get-In-Shapeathon!

What this is:

Get-In-Shapeathon is a bunch of nerds trying to increase their stats, and helping each other along the way. As opposed to last year, it is not a contest, but there are prizes!

Get-In-Shapeathon will run in two 6-month rounds, 4/6/11-10/5/11 and 10/6/11-4/6/2012. It's okay if you don't start right at the startup date, but your goals will be much easier to attain if you start early

Each entrant should set at least 3 Stat Boost goals and 1 Level Up Challenge per 6 month period. Stat Boosts could include building muscle (STR), honing a physical skill (DEX), endurance (CON), or anything else. I will allow just about anything so long as there is good reasoning behind it. Level Up Challenges should be something you want to attain in 6 months (lose a set amount of weight, run a half-marathon, etc.) Each Stat Boost gets you a +1 button of the appropriate stat, Level Up gets you a Level Up button.

What you need:

I would ask that entrants post an introduction and their list of 1st round Stat Boosts and Level Ups. If you feel like uploading a Before picture of a scale, bodyfat reading, or self photo (SFW obviously), that makes for some excellent motivation.

I would ask that entrants update weekly if possible. Once you have achieved a goal, please let me know so I can update my list.

Interested members:

Oldmangloom315
RedBerries
LollerskateDJ
Korvas
psychopez
RockTheGolem
Razemual
pureval
juju
Durinthal
Holyyakker
feitocomfruta
SirJohnBear
LedaXI
ArmyKnife
Stephidabefida
F1CTIONAL
zeeklumpkins
Korvas
tortured3
zepherin
Soyduck
Bigmike64
Direwolf
spiderz13
BaconSandwich

ORIGINAL POST

This one kind of fizzled out last year, but I'm willing to give it another go. Basically, this is a challenge for all those who maybe feel like they were lugging a few extra pounds around the BCEC and want things to be different next year.

Right now, I'm just looking for interested people. If we get enough on board, we can set up some Official Rules.

I'm thinking the only way to make this fair, and also the least complicated is weight loss only[EDIT no it's not]. Percentage lost seems to be the best way to keep an even playing field.

Anyway, post if you're interested and we'll build on this as we go! Thank you.

Oldmangloom315

I was one of those that dropped off the face of the planet last year. I'm interested and now that I have a stable living situation again, definitely would want to participate and keep up this year.

RDubb

I was wondering what happened to this.

It's really great idea and you should definitely pursue it again. I'm not sure how many people will stick with it for an entire year if you start now, so perhaps getting serious about it once Fall arrives would yield more participants. Or maybe make Prime 2011 the end date and then restart it for East 2012?

Were you going to have some sort of organized weight loss competition or just make it a support group with a meet-up at PAX to celebrate? On the same note, could people who don't want to lose weight but want to build muscle get involved?

RedBerries

I would totally sign up for this! I was dead on my feet by Sunday! I am doing to Jimmy Fund walk this year too so I can tie it into to my training for that as well

BaconSandwich

RDubb wrote: »

I was wondering what happened to this.

It's really great idea and you should definitely pursue it again. I'm not sure how many people will stick with it for an entire year if you start now, so perhaps getting serious about it once Fall arrives would yield more participants. Or maybe make Prime 2011 the end date and then restart it for East 2012?

Were you going to have some sort of organized weight loss competition or just make it a support group with a meet-up at PAX to celebrate? On the same note, could people who don't want to lose weight but want to build muscle get involved?

Yeah, looking back at the OP I basically put NO real info in there. I will update it later but for now:

Get-In-Shapeathon is a weight loss challenge. As I currently see it, the person to lose the highest percentage of weight gets a free 3 day pass to PAX East. That in mind, I see the contest running until passes go on sale. Like everything else, all suggestions are welcome.

Being a freshman Kinesiology major, the idea of just weight loss kind of rubs me the wrong way. What we really want to find out is fat lost/muscle gained, right? Only trouble is, it's really hard to quantify that unless you have a body fat scale. They are not expensive at all, but I understand a lot of people won't have one. I'm open to suggestions for fixes.

To make things easy, I would ask that you have some sort of digital scale, a camera (timestamp if possible), and the motivation to post an update with a new weigh in every week.

More to come as it comes to mind

LollerskateDJ

I'm down for this. Although I think doing a short-term goal by Prime 2011 and getting to the long-term goal by East 2012 would be awesome, in fact, that's what I'm shooting for! I can't do any meetups since I live in the middle of nowhere(no really, put my location in googlemaps) but let's do this. brb getting a head start, I have a lot to lose ;-;

Korvas

I'm def gonna be a part of this... I don't really have much to loose, but I am def an advocate for healthy living and wouldn't mind helping out whether it be tips, or just motivation. I think this is a great idea!

psychopez

I've been on and off of http://plus5cha.com/, and having a geek community behind you and a goal really helps. I'm up for a Prime 2011 goal as well as an East 2012 goal...

King of Mars

The best part about this is that it's from someone called BaconSandwich. :P I don't need to lose weight, but I'll provide moral support/encouragement to anyone who needs it. Good luck, everyone!

RockTheGolem

RedBerries wrote: »

I would totally sign up for this! I was dead on my feet by Sunday! I am doing to Jimmy Fund walk this year too so I can tie it into to my training for that as well

Red led me here to this thread. I am totally in. I've been dieting and working out for a little while now, and I dread the thought of how rough PAX East would have been this year if I hadn't lost the weight I already have. But one thing I've discovered is that the work is made easier when there are other people suffering through it with you (misery loves company after all). So, lets do this thing!

Razemual

I would totally be on board for this. It actually would probably give me pretty good motivation for something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

pureval

I am in. I have been losing weight/working out for a few years now and could use some motivation to keep me going. Give or take 80lbs down so far and more to go. The weigh in picture is the hardest part for me as we do not own a scale.

juju

I'm signing up for this thanks to the people busting my butt over it on Twitter (You know who you are o_O)

I could stand to lose weight but I'm not super-overweight. As I live and work in metro-Boston, I don't have a car so I walk every day anywhere from 10-25 minutes, as well as stand and walk from 8-12 hours a day. I eat a lot of small meals and don't "diet" at all, but I haven't gained weight in a while even though I eat some terrible things, all because of my current activity level

I probably won't give many people a run for their money for the PAX badge as I'll probably circuit train (muscle=weight) but I'm super competitive and my overall goal is to be active - I got a bit of the way into training for a 5k last year but I sustained an ankle injury that got me off-track. So let's give this a whirl, shall we?

LollerskateDJ

You volunteered to join in. PEEEEEEEEEEEEEER PRESSSSUUUURRRREEEE

Durinthal

I'm in too. Now I need to go buy a scale.

Holyyakker

Sadly I did the HUGE bulk of my weight lost prePAX. I've gone from 205 to 175 since December 27th. That said, I'm still about 20 pounds of goal and currently I have the benefit of a trainer so I can share what is working for me and what mistakes I have made if it helps.

juju

We should make a sub-team. Team Twitter Spam [LITE]. See how many full people we can make out of all the weight we lose as a whole. Lollerskate DJ will be our ~thinspiration~. King of Mars will be our team mascot.

LollerskateDJ

Why do I have to be the thinspo....i'm the fattest one *A*

Edit: Ohhh I see why now. I have the most to lose...therefore being the inspiration.

Very well then I accept that title and will lose as much weight as I can.

feitocomfruta

I want to join in this year, since last year I missed the deadline. Let's try to get this all organized so that we can start with the official weigh in on April 6th (or whatever the first day of PAX is in 2012) to give us a full 365 days. Then we can do a final weigh in right before we all show up, and have a meetup to share results!

I think that if we are going to do this right, we need a bit more organization, so we will need a few people to plan things out and keep things running smoothly. I'd be up to helping out.

SirJohnBear

Count this fat slob in.

Moral support ftw.

Twitter: @SirJohnBear

BaconSandwich

Awesome to see so much initial support!

The short-term/long-term thing sounds really good. We can have a mid-term prize of a 3-day pass, and maybe some sort of PAX swag package for the final weigh in? Considering having a scale at PAX for an official weigh in for the end of the contest.

April 6th seems like the perfect deadline for signup right now. It's late, tomorrow evening I'll go over everything a little more and come up with some rules and a good format.

LollerskateDJ

Oh awesome, that means I can have a delicious steak and fried cheesecake one more time for my birthday before the party begins.

LedaXI

Count me in for this. I lost some weight for PAX and it did make all the difference even though it wasn't a hugely significant amount. I'm not near my goal weight, yet. I've got another 40 pounds or so to lose (but I'm short, so it doesn't really look it). I've been overweight for a couple years now and it's time to fix that.

ArmyKnife

Might I recommended rather than pure weight loss (which can be unhealthy), we adopt a goal-and-challenge system? E.g. at my current level of fitness I'd like to have the goal of running a certain amount of distance in a certain amount of time, and not be completely buggered by it. Each person could set five or so achievable goals for themselves, then like two or three challenges that would be great to accomplish but aren't reallt on the fitness horizon (like meeting the GSG-9 physical requirements or something xD ). This would all be based on the individual and where they are fitness-wise. Challenges could be worth more than normal goals. Weight loss could indeed be a goal but I think that having pure wieght loss as the deciding factor could lead to some unhealthy behaviors. This way people of all fitness levels can compete! Goals should be realistic but not easy.

Also sign me up

Stephidabefida

I signed up for this last year and then just kind of disappeared. That might have been because I actually gained weight instead of what I was supposed to do :? This year I am definitely in!

BaconSandwich

ArmyKnife wrote: »

Might I recommended rather than pure weight loss (which can be unhealthy), we adopt a goal-and-challenge system? E.g. at my current level of fitness I'd like to have the goal of running a certain amount of distance in a certain amount of time, and not be completely buggered by it. Each person could set five or so achievable goals for themselves, then like two or three challenges that would be great to accomplish but aren't reallt on the fitness horizon (like meeting the GSG-9 physical requirements or something xD ). This would all be based on the individual and where they are fitness-wise. Challenges could be worth more than normal goals. Weight loss could indeed be a goal but I think that having pure wieght loss as the deciding factor could lead to some unhealthy behaviors. This way people of all fitness levels can compete! Goals should be realistic but not easy.

Also sign me up

While I love the idea of goals and challenges, and I do agree that a focus on extreme weight loss (a la Biggest Loser) is a terrible idea, it's incredibly hard to quantify personally-set goals. I would love to be able to measure things in RPG format - STR, DEX, CON, even CHA to a degree, but I really don't see how I can do that while being fair to everyone. "Realistic but not easy" is a very fine line.

ArmyKnife

Then what if the prize isn't as expensive as a free PAX badge? I understand that it's a fine line but I think if people went to a gym for a free trial day and got a baseline of some basic things (maximum bench press, how far they can run / jog / elliptical in ten minutes, etc.) then we could help as a community to set some goals. It's a bit more legwork (okay, the pun was intended xD) but I think the payoff will be greater.

Holyyakker

I would also recommend that rather than just logging weight loss we use the following metrics:
% of body fat
physical fitness

The reason I'm against using weight or BMI as a benchmark is they are flawed measurements. For example, if I was 180lbs and had 5% body fat I would be perfectly healthy, but my BMI would still calculate to overweight. The only problem is that measuring body fat is not as easy as measuring weight.

ArmyKnife

Skin-pinch test? Honestly though I think general physical fitness is a better goal than simple fat-reduction. You can bear a bit more fat and be a healthier individual than someone with lower body fat and no physical fitness.

LordGimmik

I've been into fitness and healthy living for a while now. I started at 230 and I'm now down to about 180. One thing I know for sure is that there is NO fair way to track fitness on a global level. Fit for me may be obese for you, and underweight for her. It is extremely challenging for the AMA with all their facilities and expensive test equipment (dual x-ray based body-fat analysis) to produce guidelines for what's healthy and what's not. Add to that the differences in the sexes and this becomes a near impossible feat for amateurs.

I would highly recommend that we dispel with the contest portion of this thread and turn it into a support and encourage group for those wishing to get in better shape, both for PAX and for the quality of their lives in general.

I'm always available via PM if anyone has any questions.

F1CTIONAL

I've constantly tried time and time again to get back in shape. I keep giving up because I'm not seeing results fast enough which causes me to get discouraged and get a "To hell with it." kinda feeling. To hell with that.

I'm in. Let's do this.

feitocomfruta

Regarding the "Biggest Loser" style extreme weight loss, you need to remember that they are on the show for multiple weeks with no jobs or responsibilities to anything other than losing weight. They have not only the resources, but the time to lose 100 lbs in 9 weeks. The truth of the matter is, we are saying one YEAR of work total, with other circumstances in our lives continuing going on. It would be physically impossible for us to get the same results as they do on the show, as safely as they do on the show, in the same time period.

I think in one year, it is a reasonable thing to lose 80-100 lbs, because that's roughly losing 2 lbs a week, which is healthy. As for competition stuff, it never hurt anyone to be competitive, but at the same time, that competition should motivate you to work, not motivate you to overwork.

ArmyKnife

That's why I support making this goal-oriented for individuals. Maybe if we had prizes for meeting a certain number of your goals? Nothing too expensive, and maybe everyone who wants to can pitch in to buy said prizes.

BaconSandwich

Wow, thanks so much for the feedback guys. I already had some misgivings about a pure weight loss challenge, I basically picked up someone else's work from last year and am running with it.

Weight loss is not enough of a true indicator of health, and while fat percentage is a better way to go about it, it's still not enough. ArmyKnife, I really like the idea of actual fitness goals and the only reason I dismissed it initially was in the interest of keeping this simple, in order to have a clear goal for a contest.

I think the 'contest' portion of this is actually the impeding thing, as LordGimmik pointed out. I think from now on, this will be a support/peer pressure fitness group. A Twitter list sounds like an excellent addition, also maybe a facebook group. I'm really seeing this culminating in a meetup of sexy in shape people at PAX

RedBerries

I am all for having a support system. Right now Golem and I try to hit up the gym every night but Friday at the Work Out World in Randolph we are also going to try and Hike in Blue Hills. All are welcome to join us, be prepared to talk about D&D game mechanics and weddings planning though.

zeeklumpkins

This would be cool. I have been working fairly well on a diet before PAX E (removed 10lbs!) but a more constant incentive and group to keep it up would be very cool. I also agree that there should be some good measures, such as a min level based on normal age/height goals to avoid problems. We soooo need to honor Jane McGonigal's keynote and make a game out of this! Work up some levels, powers, and end rewards :P

Korvas

this thread is getting good! Would def love to see a game made out of this some how... I agree with LordGimmik as well. and Hiking is a favorite past time of mine!

Holyyakker

So, since I currently have the benefit of a trainer and I've had a lot of success I thought I'd share my "plan" with the rest of you. If you are about the same place as me weight wise it might be a good place for you to start.

I'm going to break it into diet and exercise. The diet portion is far more important than the exercise.

Diet:

Breakfast: 3 Kashi waffles, or 1 cup oatmeal, or 1 yoplait yogurt, or 1 3/4 cup cheerios or corn flakes with 1 cup of skim milk (I usually use 3/4 cup of 1% milk)

Protien: 14 grams
Carbs: 30 grams
Fat: 3 grams
Calories: 240-260

Snack: Protein Bar or Cookie (Clif has some good ones, I also like this one brand Sam's Club carries.
Protien: 15 grams
Carbs: 25 grams
Fat: 6 grams
Calories: 210-220

Lunch: 1 whole wheat tortilla (6") or light whole grain English muffin, or 1/2 pita OR look for Sandwich thins - they are great.
2oz Turkey or Chicken or 3oz Tuna or Ham or 4oz Shrimp.
3/4 cup of cucumbers or 2-3oz baby carrots.
Protien: 20 grams
Carbs: 40 grams
Fat: 2 grams
Calories: ~230

Snack 2: 1 Yoplait Yogurt or any 170 calorie protein bar or cookie, or 1/4 cup almonds or 1 package of nature valley crunchy granola bars
Protien: 5 grams
Carbs: 8-30 grams
Fat: 2-14 grams
Calories: 170-180

Dinner: 5oz Chicken or Turkey, or 4oz Buffalo (?), or 6oz shrimp, crab, lobster, haddock, or cod.
1 1/4 cup cooked brown rice, couscous or whole wheat pasta, or one small sweet potato.
1 cup of broccoli or any green veggie raw or steamed
*avoid butter and oils, use lots of spices

Protien: 52 grams
Carbs: 45 grams
Fat: 9 grams
Calories: ~500

Snack 3: Final snack can be anything as long as you stick to the calories. I padded a bit and would let myself have 150 and you can actually get some good weight watchers ice cream bars or regular ice cream sandwichs that fit into this limit.

Calories: 100

WATER - It is extremely important you get enough water. The amount in ounces you should be drinking per day is equal to your body weight in pounds divided by two. So if you weight 200 pounds you should be getting around 100 ounces of water each day.

Vitamins - I take a multivitamin as part of my diet. Right now I'm actually taking it twice a day since the one I have is terrible at releasing all the vitamins at once and they often flush from your system. If you can get an extended release vitamin that would help. These will just help ensure you are getting enough vitamins to support both your diet and your increased exercise.

My note on meals and variety: I didn't always stick to the "plan" in terms of what I would eat, but I really tried to follow the nutrient guidelines. So sometimes for dinner I would make a pasta dish with sauce and chicken, but I would make sure that the macro nutrients of what I ate in terms of protien, carbs, and fat were in line.

This meant doing a bit more calculation and research. I, but I used www.loseit.com to help me track stuff and would create custom recipes. That way I was able to avoid the boredom of eating the same thing EVERY day.

Exercise:

In this section I'm going to be a bit more general because it has to vary greatly in terms of your personal goals as well as what you are currently capable of doing. My trainer has put me on a two phase program, we switch back and forth every 3 to 4 weeks. I'll give a basic rundown of both phases and how much "work" I do in each.

Phase 1 - Core Strength/Balance

This phase consists of exercises that build up the core strength of the body as well as the form of motions. Most of these exercises use little to no weight (max I've ever used in an exercise was 15lbs hand weights, and when I started it was with 8lbs). Instead the exercises rely more on isometric resistance and slow smooth motions to generate results.

Here are some examples of exercise I've used:
Plank - rest your forearms on a pad with your elbows bent at 90 degrees. Put your feet out behind you spread shoulder width apart. Your back and ass should be flat. Focus on tightening your abs and glutes (butt). Hold this until you can't, drop to one knee and give yourself 10 seconds recovery, repeat until you've had to take the knee three times.

Modifications -
- Toe taps: Bring one foot out farther away from the body, tap the toe and bring it back in, then repeat on the other side. When using toe taps you can use a rep count (say 15 or 20) rather than the 3 knee benchmark.
- Up/Downs: While in a plank position lift yourself up onto one hand, then both hands, then back down to one elbow then both elbows. These can be combined with toe taps, so you do an up down then a toe tap to each side.

Leaning Tower - knee on a pad or pillow near a wall with you feet resting flat against the wall and your knees bent at a 90 degree angle. Keep your hips in line with your back and slowly lean forward till you feel you are going to fall forward and bring your body back. Try to do this smoothly and in a line. You'll feel it in your calves, hamstrings, quads, and gluts mostly. Do 15 reps.

Modifications -
- Arm position: Instead of having your arms hanging by your side put them in front of you crossed over your chest
- Weight: Hold a weight in front of your chest with both hands or one in each hand.
- Moving Weight: Like holding a weight, but when you lean forward pause at the end, extend the weight out slowly in front of your chest and then bring it back in.

Squat/Curl/Press - Start with a weight in each hand, go into a squat (stick your butt out like you are taking a crap) curl the weight up in a bicep curl (palm facing up) two times. The second time up hold it there, resume standing, extend weights up over your head in a full press, lower them back to your shoulders and then uncurl to your sides. Repeat 15-20 times.

Modifications -
- Lunges: Instead of squatting take a lunge step forward, curl once, bring your other foot forward into a standing position. This requires more room to travel as you do it. The lunges shouldn't focus on length but on getting the back knee low to the ground without touching.
- Kneeling start: Kneel with one knee on a pad, weights by your side. Curl the weights. In a smooth motion move to one legged stand with your left moving from the knee to being held in front of you, press. Uncurl and then lower yourself back down slowly to that same knee. Repeat 10 times for each leg.
- No touch kneeling start: just like above, only lift your toes off the back foot while kneeling so you are doing even more of the work with the front leg to get to standing (not easy and takes lots of balance)

Kneeling Row - Kneel with both arms stretch out in front of you about 45 degrees. Have a weight in each hand. One side at a time pull the weight back toward your shoulder. You should feel your shoulder blade pulling in, if not you are probably rotating your shoulder too much, it should be a straight pull/row back. Repeat 10 times each side.

Modifications -
- Instead of kneeling have your feet flat on the floor as your ass raised in a pike pushup position. Your waist will be be bent at 90+ degree angle.

Skull Crushers - Lay on your back holding weights straight out in front of your chest. Lower the weights toward your head smoothly and slowly, almost as if you were going to touch them to your forehead or top of the skull. Extend back up. A 2 count each way is a good pace, try not to pause at the top. Also be careful your elbows don't cock out to the sides.

Modifications -
(none for this exercise)

Crunches - This is pretty simple. Lay on your back, keep your feet flat in front of you, lift your head toward your knees just a little bit, lower, repeat. Keep your hands by the side of your head, but don't link fingers behind your head, that is just cheating. GO SLOW. Fast crunches are easy to slam out 30. Doing 20 slow ones where you go up and down for a 2 count each is much harder.

Modifications -
- Lift legs: get your legs off the floor and bend them at a 90 degree angle at the waist and knee.
- Added ball weight: If you have a medicine ball, or any ball really, balance it on your calves. After each crunch extend your legs forward and back, don't let the ball fall. This will force you to do it slow and smooth.

A typical workout for me in Phase 1 would consist of 6 sets as follows.
(Plank, Leaning Tower, Row, Crunches) x2
(Squat/Curl/Press, Skull Crushers) x3
(Plank, Leaning Tower, Row, Crunches) x1

I've left out some exercises and modifications that require special equipment that you may not have at home. That way you could do most of these exercises just by picking up one set of hand weights (5-15lbs each - start low!) The other piece you might want for some more advanced modifications is a pilates ball or a small medicine ball.

Phase 2 - Muscle Strength and Endurance

This phase relies more heavily on weight machines or free weights. Great if you have a gym. If you don't then just doing a lot with phase one would help you amazingly. You will see less weight loss in Phase 2 because you are actively building muscle more aggressively which offsets the weight loss but still does oodles for your overall fitness.

I'm just going to give an example of the type of routine I'd do as part of this phase. The weights I am giving are the ones I use. What you typically want to do is fine where your upper limit is and then stick there. You want to always do at least 8 reps. But if you find you can easily do more than 12 reps you are using too little weight. So the goal is to find a weight where you can do 8 reps but can't make it to 12. Also, it is better to start too high than too low (within reason) because if you find yourself doing 20 reps then you've just wasted a set.

With all of the weight exercises you also want to go SLOW, at least a 2-2 count without a pause after each push. If you find you can't get 8 reps then next time around lower the weight a bit.

Leg Press - 180lbs
Squats - 15-20 reps while hold 15lbs weights using a 4-2-1 count. So lower into the squat for 4 counts, hold at the lowest point for 2 counts, shoot back to standing in 1 count.
Row - 80lbs
TRX Row - This is a row from hanging handles. If I didn't do this I'd do the row described in the above section. 15reps.
Fast Crunches - 30 quick crunches with feet in the air (this is meant to accomplish something different than the slower crunches used in core/balance)
Plank - Go into a plank as described in the above section immediately from the crunches. Toe taps or up/downs may be used here as well.
Chest Press - 90lbs
Push ups - These can be kneeling, not a problem, you will still work your arms. Use a 4-2-1 count again. Lower for 4, hold for 2, push up quick for 1. Repeat 10-20 times. If kneeling get your legs far behind you, not 90 degrees. But don't let your quads touch the floor.

Repeat this entire group of exercises 3 to 4 times.

As you can see that even in the strength endurance phase there is a mixture of isometric and other exercises, that is because you want to build the muscle strength (the weight with the reps) and by using the other exercises in between it is more of an active recovery, you aren't just letting your body cool down between the work.

Cardio

With both phase one and phase two you want to be doing a good bit of cardio. Typically my cardio is 25 to 35 minutes after the workout. The goal of the cardio is just burn off some additional fat calories and improve endurance. What you do for cardio is up to you, though if you sit all day then try something where you are standing, like eliptical or treadmill instead of a bike.

Resistance isn't Futile - Slow and hard is better than fast and easy. If you can do 5mph jogging on a 0% incline or 3mph walking on a 15% incline you are probably better off doing the second. Same on eliptical machines and bikes. Pump up the resistance rather than go faster on a lower resistance. You will be doing a lot more work and burning a lot more calories.

Stay in the zone - Your ideal zone for burning fat calories is a heartrate between these two numbers:
(220-Age)*.65 and (220-Age)*.85 You should aim to keep your heart rate on the high end. If the machine isn't fancy enough to have a heart meter then take your pulse for 12 seconds and multiply the result by 5.

How often to go to the gym:

I go about five times a week for a little over an hour and a half each time, the workout only lasts about an hour and the other 30 minutes is getting changed to work out and showering and getting dressed after the workout. Typically the workout is split 50/50 between cardio and other exercises.

The one exception is during Phase 2 I have some pure cardio days to allow my body recovery time. So here is how my typical week might look during Phase 1 and Phase 2:

Phase 1:
Monday - Off
Tuesday - Phase 1 Workout and Cardio
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - Phase 1 Workout and Cardio
Friday - Phase 1 Workout and Cardio
Saturday - Phase 1 Workout and Cardio
Sunday - 50 minutes of pure cardio

Phase 2:
Monday - Off
Tuesday - Phase 2 Workout and Cardio
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - Phase 2 Workout and Cardio
Friday - Pure Cardio (50-60 minutes)
Saturday - Phase 2 Workout and Cardio
Sunday - Pure Cardio (50-60 minutes)

So this is what worked for me REALLY well so far. Again, I started out at around 200lbs and 26% body fat. I'm now down to about 175 and 16% body fat. If you are heavier or female you'll need a few calories more than 1500, if you are lighter you will need less. Following this plan I've shaved off many inches and I feel much more physically fit than I have in a long time.

If you have any comments or questions please feel free.

tortured3

i'm in...gives me a reason to jump back on my diet

zepherin

I personally think contests are silly but if anyone is in the norther virginia area and wants to go hiking, swimming, basketball or some physical activity to get in shape I'd be in. I'm also thinking about joining a yoga class.

ArmyKnife

So how should we officially set this up, then? Personally I think we should buy some kind of cheap prizes for each other if we all set some personal goals and manage to achieve them - note, this doesn't mean making it a contest. Just gives us all some extra incentive! I'm sure everyone'll be reasonable about setting their goals and challenges ^_^