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  #1   ^
Old Wed, Sep-13-17, 17:54
TucsonBill's Avatar
TucsonBill TucsonBill is offline
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Posts: 339
 
Plan: ≤ 20 carbs & IF
Stats: 292/235/170 Male 72 Inches
BF:
Progress: 47%
Location: Tucson, AZ
Default Questions about resistance training

Now that I'm coming up on six weeks and I think my body has pretty much adapted to low carb, I am wondering if its time to start resistance training. I already have a low impact cardio workout that does a pretty good job of getting me worked up into a sweat each day and that gets my heart pumping, but I have read that's not enough if I want to preserve muscle mass in the long run.

I've been doing some thinking and I've thought my legs should be OK.. I mean, after all, I am still carrying around nearly 100 lbs extra weight and they get plenty of exercise on my walks right? I'm thinking that for now I just need to focus on upper body... Is my thinking wrong?

Also, I don't want to become a body builder or anything and I have been looking at some of these videos on YouTube that I can just do at home and wont have to go join a fitness club. All I am looking to do is maintain the strength I have.

Any suggestions on this? Does anyone have a link to a decent upper body workout video that covers all the main muscle groups?
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  #2   ^
Old Thu, Sep-14-17, 10:01
TucsonBill's Avatar
TucsonBill TucsonBill is offline
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Posts: 339
 
Plan: ≤ 20 carbs & IF
Stats: 292/235/170 Male 72 Inches
BF:
Progress: 47%
Location: Tucson, AZ
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Well, here is what I came up with. I shared the video I've been using for my low impact cardio workouts in another post. I found out the same gal that created that has a large number of free videos on YouTube including one for upper body. I'm gona go pick up one of those resistance bands today. She has many workouts for many different situations:

https://www.youtube.com/user/femalefitnessaddict/videos
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  #3   ^
Old Thu, Sep-14-17, 13:43
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Mama Sebo Mama Sebo is offline
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Plan: Keto, IF
Stats: 224/136/124 Female 64 inches
BF:44%/23%/20%
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Location: Kenya-teleworking Austria
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Sounds very good. It soooo important to keep moving, keep cardio, and keep weights in action, because otherwise we lose to much muscle etc. in the WOE. I find my daily 30 - 45 minute exercise in the am with weights gives me the kick start I need. Why weight? Wait?
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  #4   ^
Old Sat, Sep-16-17, 05:43
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teaser teaser is offline
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Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
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Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
Default

Those videos look good for conditioning, I don't think they're the best for upper body resistance type training, though. My own experience may bias me a little. I get exercise-induced asthma. Because of this, I do well at the level of a fairly fast walk, but don't progress much with running etc. I also do okay lifting weights, since that's anaerobic exercise, the asthma thing isn't a problem. Sometimes when my breathing hasn't been so good, lifting weights will actually clear up my breathing.

I lift weights at home alone, that means some things I might do safely in a gym with a spotter would be dangerous. I make up for this with increased reps, if I were pinned under hundreds of pounds alone that would be dangerous, a hundred pounds is considerably less dangerous. One problem with this is that it puts me a little more into the aerobic vs. the anaerobic zone--so if I'm in allergy season or something, the limiting factor will sometimes be running out of breath instead of the sort of muscular failure I'm aiming at. I see a lot of combined leg/arm movements in these videos, squatting and over head pressing, that sort of thing. I think they have value for improving conditioning and agility/physical intelligence, but a handful of simple, compound movements is probably more efficient. Some sort of pulling movement, like a chinup or some kind of rows for biceps and back-- with a metal bar or even a two by four between two stable chairs, you could do horizontal pullups on your back, a horizontal pressing exercise like a pushup or benchpress for chest and triceps, and an overhead pressing exercise pretty much covers the upper body.

Weights don't have to be really heavy, there are studies showing a decent training effect even as low as 30 percent of 1 rep max, what really seems to matter is effort, doing enough reps to hit muscular failure--at 30 percent, that's likely to be around 30 sets or so. I see various dumbells/weights/kettle bells at Wal-Mart here at about a buck a pound, higher reps can get your foot in the door a little cheaper if that matters.
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  #5   ^
Old Sat, Sep-16-17, 07:52
TucsonBill's Avatar
TucsonBill TucsonBill is offline
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Posts: 339
 
Plan: ≤ 20 carbs & IF
Stats: 292/235/170 Male 72 Inches
BF:
Progress: 47%
Location: Tucson, AZ
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teaser
Those videos look good for conditioning, I don't think they're the best for upper body resistance type training, though.


What do you think of the one with the resistance bands? The upper body one, also there are other videos using the resistance bands.

I may get some weights too. I was looking and they have some sets that are not too expensive and some on craigs list that are even less.

One other question, how many days per week do you lift? I have read you are supposed to allow time in between for your muscles to recover.
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  #6   ^
Old Sat, Sep-16-17, 08:35
teaser's Avatar
teaser teaser is offline
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Posts: 15,075
 
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
Default

I think the rules with resistant bands are pretty much the same. If you can do more than 30 repetitions without muscle failure, then it's probably not going to be very efficient, things have to be stressful enough to trigger a training effect. So then I'd throw in the same caveat of the possibility of aerobic fitness limiting your ability to train anaerobically.

I'm not sure failure is necessary, even at 30 percent of one rep max. The studies I'm basing the stuff I'm saying about 30 percent max generally have three groups--one at say 80 percent max, that's usually around 8 to 10 reps to failure, one at 30 percent of max but "work equivalent," (weight times total reps=total work) one at 30 percent but to failure. The failure groups get pretty similar result. The non failure group does get a training effect, but it's a bit less than the failure groups. I think it comes down to how what you're doing compares to your usual activities. For somebody usually confined to 24 hour bed rest, there'll be a training effect just from standing up for ten minutes a day. And if you look at runners, running doesn't come anywhere near the repetitions to failure that the weight lifting studies suggest are necessary to promote muscle growth, but their leg muscles can be quite well-developed.

So I'm not saying you won't get a good training effect from those videos, just that there might be more efficient uses of your time for lean mass.

There are good things to be said about exercise that straddles the aerobic/anaerobic line, though. Sprint intervals are supposed to be pretty good vs. insulin resistance, that might look like 20 seconds of some kind of sprint, and then 1 minute of slower-paced movement, then repeated, I think the differences in metabolic demand going from exercise to exercise in those videos probably has some similarity to interval training.

I lift almost daily. I usually do legs one day, upper body the next. But sometimes I've done full body workouts every day, or the same thing three days a week. The more often I'm exercising, the less volume I do per session, if I'm going full body every day, I'll just do about 6 exercises, one set per exercise. One reason I do this has nothing to do with physical fitness. I'm bipolar, and keeping a regular daily schedule is supposed to help keep things level.
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