Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) said:
I'd not even considered bulking up as part of losing fat inches, and aerobic weightlifting (like crossfit) is probably right in line with what I'm trying to do (overall body/cardio health).
Be careful with Crossfit specifically. HIIT lifts - and especially crossfit itself - are notorious for causing injuries. With heavy barbells, you want to focus on proper form, not just getting a bar up for as many reps as fast as possible. If you like the crossfit type cardio, probably better to work on things like obstacle courses, parkour, or interval sprint training. Bodyweight exercise.
If you aren't familiar with following a true training plan, Starting Strength is the best place to begin IMO. Its stupid simple, and you will make big gains during your first round. Even during future rounds it continues to deliver. I ran phase 1 way longer than I should right up to hitting the 1000lb club. (280 bench, 315 squat, 405 DL). I eventually got into a groove where my gym buddies and I did SS one week and a hypertrophy/bodybuilding program the next.
A fun one to try if you want to wreck yourself is German Volume Training. I've done it for a couple weeks at a time before but never had the dedication to maintain it.
In general I am a fan of Crossfit style workouts though. Lots of variety, every movement is a compound movement. If you are doing them on your own, you just need to keep aware of your form (esp. if you are including olympic lifts in your WOD) and be able to push yourself to the limit. I struggle with this - I can push a muscle to failure pretty well, but pushing myself right to the limit of cardio failure requires a special kind of willpower.
Oh and the simplest workout if you don't have equipment and are pressed for time:
Tabata Pushups
Tabata Squats
Tabata Situps
Tabata Pullups
That's 16:00
Tabata Pullups is some next level sounding torture.
The_Jed
PowerDork
2/11/21 11:46 a.m.
Do you happen to have a kettlebell or two laying around?
10,000 kettlebell swing challenge
Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) said:
Tabata Pullups is some next level sounding torture.
Its honestly not bad... unless you are super elite you will fatigue out early on, and the rest of the rounds only get a few reps.
Tabata squats is torture. Your legs strong enough to keep pushing you the whole time, but feel like rubber when you are done.
only because I had to search it, tabata means (20 seconds of work + 10 seconds of rest) x8 right?
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:
only because I had to search it, tabata means (20 seconds of work + 10 seconds of rest) x8 right?
Yeah. Lots of little timer apps out there for it. I use SmartWOD Timer
I have done the squats and pushups before and survived. You do have a point, maybe I can't do enough pullups where it would suck that bad!
One thing that I've noticed over the past few weeks is that doing cardio when you're fasting is probably more important than how long you're fasting (especially when you're trying to lose weight).